New Gaelic football rules: Stop clock to ensure players serve full 10 minutes in sin bin

The hooter system will be in operation for next Friday’s Munster v Leinster and Connacht v Ulster semi-finals in Croke Park.

ALL PART OF THE MASTERPLAN: The GAA Football Review Committee members, back row, from left, James Horan, Michael Meaney, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, Patrick Doherty, Shane Flanagan, Malachy O'Rourke and Alec McQuillan, front row, from left, Colm Nally, Michael Murphy, Colm Collins, chairperson Jim Gavin, and Seamus Kenny after a briefing of the GAA Football Review Committee at Croke Park in Dublin. PIC: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

The new stop clock will help ensure sin-binned players complete 10 minutes of action off the field, the F ootball Review Committee (FRC) have confirmed.

The clock/hooter will be in operation for next Friday’s Munster v Leinster and Connacht v Ulster semi-finals in Croke Park as well as the interprovincial cup and shield finals there the following day.

The chances of a team attempting to time-waste as a player serves their black card punishment in the sin bin will be diminished as the players’ 10 minutes off the field won’t be a continuous period but factor in stoppages such as injuries, substitutes, the issuing of cards, melees or a deliberate and incidental delay in the running of the game. However, time will tick on during kick-outs, frees and 45s as per the referee’s instruction to the fifth official who starts and stops the clock.

The end of each half will conclude on the sound of the hooter as per the rules currently in operation in New York’s Gaelic Park. The exceptions include when a ball is in flight and it results in a score without any other player touching the ball after it sounds, a free kick has been awarded but not taken at which stage it must be kicked.

It was also announced the FRC’s proposed “three-up” rule will apply to the halfway line, not the 65-metre line. Both teams must keep three outfield players in each half at all times.

FRC chairman Jim Gavin revealed a red flag will be waved for a two-point score kicked on or outside the 40m arc, distinguishing it from the green for four-point goal and white for one point within the new 40m arc.

As reported by the Irish Examiner earlier this week, the early idea of replacing extra-time and penalty shoot-outs with an “overtime showdown” was jettisoned.

Referees will also now use vanishing foam mark spots where free kicks are taken inside the 65m lines.

The FRC are also recommending the four-step rule in carrying the ball be enshrined and the establishment of a game intelligence unit to “analyse all games on a weekly basis during the season to ensure rules are being applied and also identifying new trends in the game that may or may not benefit it as a spectacle”.

The FRC had considered recommending increasing the number of substitutes from five to six but are now proposing teams be allowed to use 21 players with a limit of inter-changes per half and an unlimited number at half-time and full-time.