‘There just isn’t enough data’ – What new Gaelic football rule is under most pressure?

NEW RULES: James Horan on the line during his time in charge of Mayo. Pic: Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE

There will be no changes to the new Gaelic football rules yet after the Football Review Committee held a formal review last Saturday and met with current intercounty referees to assess the opening two rounds of the league.

Speaking on the Irish Examiner’s Gaelic football podcast , former Mayo manager and FRC member James Horan explained how the review went.

“We had a meeting last Saturday morning up in Abbottstown to review the first two rounds of the league, to go through them and see how things are going,” he said.

“Are they on track? Are they as we intended them or is there something catastrophic that we need to change right away? We wrote down every rule and what was the success criteria when we came up with it. 

"We jotted those down and looked at what has happened. How has the rule been implemented?”

There has been a QR code in match programmes to allow supporters can take part in a public survey.

“We fed in all the feedback from the surveys. We had feedback from inter-county managers, players and the general public. We finished off within an hour with all the intercounty refs.

"It was interesting to get their take. Our feedback to them was they have reffed it really well so far. They had to study hard and study quickly.”

Horan was asked what new rule is currently under the most pressure and pointed to the influence of goalkeepers in the opposition’s half.

“The rule most talked about is the 12v11 with the goalkeeper coming up. That is a big one. Kickouts have been a complete change. There is talk that is too chaotic in one way.

"There is a lot of things that it is topical but when we looked at it, looked at the evidence that was there, there just isn’t enough data or enough of a trend to change anything significant in an informed way. "For the next few rounds, there won’t be any changes.”

The FRC have said they plan to circulate a document with GPS and statistical analysis in the coming weeks. So far, some early trends have been noteworthy including a dip in the number of kick-passes.

“The solo and go for example has been a resounding success, but the number of kick-passes are down from last year. Not by much but the point is, no matter how good a rule is there will be an impact on some other part of the game. We need longer to see how it balances out.

“We are getting a lot of data. People think there is loads of high fielding now, you feel there is, but let’s look at the data compared to last year. Are there more frees generated in the middle of the field from kickouts as a result of bunching?

"We need to analyse everything to see if is it the right thing and if is it having the desired effect.”