New rules turn Kildare and Galway challenge match into a panto

Keeping count matters more than ever and as we become acquainted with this brave new world of Gaelic football, everyone is going to make mistakes.

FINDING THEIR FEET: Kildare and Galway players after the game. Picture: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

By the end of the first half in Newbridge on Saturday night, this Kildare-Galway challenge game had turned into a Punch and Judy show.

The healthy home crowd had been key to earning their team two of their three close-range frees for Galway failing to keep three players in the Kildare half of the field. Cries of “he’s behind the line” and “two” from the stand alerted referee David Gough and his line umpires, as they’re now titled, to those infringements under the new rules. After all, it is still panto season.