Why some GAA games use clock/hooter timing and others don’t in this year’s championship
SAVED BY THE BELL: A hooter for the clock pitchside before the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Kerry and Donegal at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Six senior provincial championship games take place this weekend. Half of them will be played under different rules to the other three.
Two will be shown live on TV – the Ulster quarter-finals Antrim and Armagh in Corrigan Park on BBC and Tyrone against Cavan in O’Neills Healy Park, which BBC will also carry as well as RTÉ. On Saturday evening in Newbridge, the Leinster quarter-final between Kildare and Westmeath will be streamed on GAA+.
All three matches will be subject to the clock/hooter. Each half will conclude when the ball has gone dead after the siren has sounded for the end of 35 minutes, which incorporates stoppages. In Belfast on Sunday, it will be Antrim’s first experience of it.
In the remaining three Leinster quarter-finals, the timing of the game will be continuous and the amount of additional time at the conclusion of each half will be at the discretion of the referees in question.
Because of logistical but really financial issues, the decision was taken for the clock/hooter only to apply to games televised or streamed. "It is unfortunate,” Football Review Committee (FRC) chairman Jim Gavin said last week. “Obviously, from an FRC perspective, we’d like to see it everywhere.
"The harsh reality is that some grounds aren’t ready.”
And yet the clock/hooter will be used in Newbridge’s St Conleth’s Park on Saturday evening but won’t be when Louth and Laois meet at the same venue the following afternoon. What’s more, it was in operation for three of Meath’s home Division 2 games in Páirc Tailteann earlier this year.
Those anomalies aside, money is at the root of this pickle the GAA has put itself in. In February, the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) wrote to Central Council warning that if the clock/hooter was to be rolled out for every football championship game this year “we cannot hold off any longer on making the necessary spend…”
The CCCC estimated each hosting ground would require an immediate spend of between €4,000 and €6,000 to upgrade hardware/software “that ensures the risk of reputational damage/system failure is mitigated.” A total bill of initial costs was estimated to be €250,000 with technicians (€500 per game) required at each fixture. It was recommended that the training of between 40-50 fifth officials begin immediately.
The CCCC sought Central Council’s approval for the expenditure but there was quibbling about who would foot the cost, the GAA or the counties. Three alternatives were listed by the CCCC – to use the clock system for live broadcasted games, to use it for specific games, possibly from the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals onwards, or do away with it altogether and allow Special Congress in October to vote on the system being introduced on a permanent basis. The first option was chosen.
Those who argue it is feasible to apply two different timing systems to one championship will point to HawkEye as the backstop or precedent. Operational in Croke Park and FBD Semple Stadium, there is an understanding that while the score detection technology can’t be used in every county ground, where it’s available it will be put in play. That works out around roughly eight to 10 Sam Maguire Cup games a year, an eighth of the championship. Yet this year a new method of timing (clock/hooter) is set to apply to 33 All-Ireland SFC fixtures while the other 31 are played out under the existing protocols.
After this weekend, the disparity is greatly lessened in the provincial stages. Only one of the 14 remaining games will not be streamed or televised – the Clare-Tipperary Munster semi-final in Ennis on Saturday week.
However, the contrast will return in the Sam Maguire and Tailteann Cup group stages. In the top tier, currently 12 of the 24 group matches are to be televised (three) or streamed (nine). In the second tier, the plan is for three of the 24 fixtures to be shown on GAA+.
Based on the 2024 broadcasting arrangements, 12 of the 16 Sam Maguire Cup teams would play under different timing protocols in the course of their three round matches. Last year, Cork’s first two games were off Broadway before their Round 3 clash with Tyrone was shown on GAAGO. Kerry’s schedule went the other way, their first two fixtures broadcasted and the last against Louth not shown anywhere.
Confusion has already reigned with the clock/hooter. In last month’s final Division 2 game against Cork, Cavan’s Dara McVeety kicked a two-point attempt on the buzzer, which he would have compelled to do before the FRC/Central Council’s amendment from the penultimate round of the league that play could continue after it until the ball went dead.
As the GAA operates its football championship under two time zones, more could follow.
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