Maurice Brosnan: Kerry’s two-pointer strategy shows how new GAA rules are changing the game
Despite the conclusion of the 2025 inter-county season, the new rules remain under review. The latest focus is the impact of the two-pointer. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
DESPITE the conclusion of the 2025 inter-county season, the new rules remain under review. The latest focus is the impact of the two-pointer.
Jim Gavin’s debrief before the All-Ireland included news that they were looking at the four-point goal in “sandbox” trial games.
“These are only things, I don’t want people to be concerned there will be radical change,” he told RTÉ.
“Our job as an FRC is to do as much research as we can in the time that we are given. We have to produce a report before Congress, for Central Council, in early September. We are going to be writing it in a couple weeks’ time. We are at the very final stages now.”
The four-point goal was one of the casualties from the interprovincial last October. It followed predominately player feedback. At the time, Gavin said the feedback they received focused on the issue with competition structures rather than scoring system.
“People felt it would work in competitive games, between teams of equal status, but with the structures in the association, as we know, we get Division 1 teams against Division 4 teams. If a team from a lower division got behind by two goals, eight points, people felt in that scenario it would be quite difficult.”
This prompted fears that the incentive to go for goal would be reduced by the arc. The numbers, however, indicate that there was a slight increase in goals this year. In the 2024 season, there was an average of 2.1 goals per game. That figure rose to 2.3 for 2025.
The most recent GIU report indicated a substantial increase in the number of shots and scores per game. Will that trend continue?
In reality, it will take years for Gaelic football’s relationship with the arc to fully settle. That is why the Games Intelligence Unit, a statistical body tracking games and producing reports across the year, should continue to operate beyond 2025.
On their way to a 24th Allianz Football League title, it was noticeable that Kerry were not pursuing two-pointers. That changed as the season progressed and they kicked five in the All-Ireland final triumph over Donegal.
Manager Jack O’Connor revealed that their training camp to Portugal offered them an opportunity to hone their shooting from distance.
“You’re basically recovering,” he said of their taxing league schedule. “You just have one decent session so you can’t work on everything. And during the league we were getting goals so there wasn’t really that much of a need to go after two-pointers. But since the league, we’ve worked a bit on it and it is a skill.
“It’s a skill getting the right kickers on it and creating the space, so we had a bit more time starting with the training camp to work on stuff like that. That was the real practical reason.”
It was noticeable that the Kingdom were more strategic with how they created two-points shots as well. The most famous example was David Clifford’s phenomenal score just before half-time in the final, but the array of screens and structured attacks they deployed was coaching brilliance. A full off-season for others to study that evolution and surpass it should provide for a remarkably exciting 2026.
The club campaign will further provide a different kind of stress test. Already, Kerry has endured a two-point controversy with Currow lining out under protest last weekend as they proceed with an appeal against the result versus St. Senans in the Premier JFC.
Currow believed they had levelled the game with a late point but a previous free had been a two-pointer, yet signalled as a one. The final scoreline saw them lose out by a point.
The Fermanagh Division 1 Football League final saw Erne Gaels lose out to Derrygonnelly Harps 0-17 to 0-15. Two late two-pointers swung the game, but footage released on social media clearly showed both efforts were well inside the arc.
Errors are inevitable in any sport, but now the consequences are more severe. How much should lawmakers consider the fallout from rules that are wrongly applied? It is certain that club championships will generate controversy, rule-related and otherwise.
Currently, the GIU is in the process of completing its report for October’s Congress. Will trends in the club game follow county? In the Kerry SFC so far, there has been an average of 3.5 two-pointers per game and 1.6 goals per game.
We are still in the foothills of this new terrain. When it comes to definitive takeaways, no one really knows. They tend to change. Kerry were correct to leave the two-pointer alone when they won the league; Donegal were wrong to ignore it when they lost the All-Ireland.
2025 was about testing, a full trial played out at the ultimate level. But it is not finished. The rules could still shift, tactics are only taking shape, the game will continue to teach everyone what matters most. The experiment is far from over. It has only just begun.
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