Club ref on the new rules: Dissent nearly gone, three-up tough, and we're running twice as far

TOUGH TRACKING: Tadhg O Corcora, Cill na Martra tracks Stephen Sherlock of St. Finbarrs in the McCarthy Insurance Division 1 Football League at Cill na Martra. Pic: Jim Coughlan.

There was no hooter, but there was plenty of hooting from the stand in Cill na Martra as the home side took on St Finbarr’s in the opening round in Division 1 of the McCarthy Insurance CFL on Sunday morning.

The Barrs were 2-15 to 2-10 to the good, there were 15 minutes to go, the ball was deep in the Barrs’ half but the Cill na Martra faithful noticed that their visitors from the city had committed the cardinal sin of leaving only two players in their own half. A cacophony of hooting and hollering brought the indiscretion to the referee’s attention and Jason MacCárthaigh duly nailed the free from outside the arc to make it a three-point game. The following kickout didn’t go beyond the arc, MacCárthaigh was on target again and the lead was back to two. Perhaps one of the biggest impacts of the FRC’s new template will be wild swings in momentum.

One of the problems with implementing any rule change in the GAA is how that rule will be applied from Croke Park to, well, Cill na Martra. We often malign the man in the middle on the big days for not utilising his team of officials more, but on the big days, at least he has them. A lot of the time they rely on the goodwill of the teams involved to help them out. Policing something like the three-man-up rule is hard when you don’t have eyes at the back of your head.

Macroom’s John Ryan was in the middle on Sunday, and afterwards he made reference to that very fact. “If you’re on your own, the three-v-three is the hardest one from a refereeing point of view. But look, you just have to work with it.” 

The officials have put a lot of work in, they’ve had to. “The first job we had was, through Jim McEvoy, the county administrator, getting all the referees up to scratch and we did that over six nights with myself, Dave Murnane and Conor Lane. And in fairness, the referees are really taking it on board. But the coaches are as well. A lot of clubs have been onto referees looking to get up to date. So, we’ve done a few presentations with various clubs, and in fairness, it’s working well so far. 

"It’s a big culture change for everyone. A lot of referees would have been struggling with dissent, a lot of talking back to the referees. That’s nearly gone now at this stage.” 

There was only one incident of dissent here. It came in the sixth minute, Mac Cárthaigh punished it with two points. Those type of lessons tend to resonate with players.

Meath’s Robbie Brennan voiced his dissatisfaction with the rules on Sunday evening, the kick-out in particular. There were approximately 54 kickouts in Cill na Martra. All but six of them went long. For a neutral watching a game that was of no massive importance, but this was wildly entertaining. Though Ethan Rafferty’s comments about how the skill of accurate kicking was being diluted tempered that feeling of excitement

Another comment heard over the weekend was that the pressure on the kickouts gave games an underage feel as teams can just get pinned in. Still though, there’s space for the quick one and the only short kick-out of the opening period ended up with Adam Lyne scoring the Barrs’ opening goal.

When Cill na Martra did get close, it was Steven Sherlock who pulled the Barrs away again as they won by 2-20 to 2-15. These new rules seem made for a player of his calibre. It took him less than 30 seconds to kick a two-pointer, and he added three more of them as he ended up with 0-15. He was positive about the new rules after.

“It’s very evident that something had to be done with football. You’re now spending most of your time in the forward line instead of the half-back line so that’s definitely a positive! John helped us a lot, he spoke to us through the game about the decisions," he said afterwards.

"I think it’s great for the referees, they’re not getting as much dissent as they had before. That part of it coming out is important too. Whatever help they can get, they deserve, to be honest, and I thought John helped us big time today."

On a final note, it was striking during the trial games before Christmas how players commented on the amount of running the new rules required. That’s not only in relation to the players. After the game John Ryan revealed that for a normal league game he’d usually cover between four and five kilometres. On Sunday he hit nine.

Perhaps we all need to catch our breath before we come to any long-term conclusions.