Fogarty Forum: The time for football's hooter may finally have come

All county grounds are fitted with countdown clocks but extending it to the complete club scene may prove difficult logistically.

IT'S TIME: Kieran Treanor, fourth official, tests the GAA's clock/hooter system, during the 2014 Sigerson Cup semi-finals. Picture credit: Oliver McVeigh / SPORTSFILE

At half-time in Sunday’s All-Ireland ladies senior football final, individuals representing milestones in the 50-year history of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association were announced to the crowd.

For the introduction of the clock/hooter in 1998, Kathy Clarke Reynolds, who captained Louth in that year’s junior final, the first game in which the apparatus applied, was cheered. A whole 27 championship seasons on and the countdown clock with the siren marking the end of the first and second halves has served the sport well.