John Tobin: Hand-pass remains football's 'elephant in the room'

Tobin, the former games manager in Connacht GAA who headed up a review project in 2023, has praised the FRC for their recommended changes to the game
John Tobin: Hand-pass remains football's 'elephant in the room'

RULE CHANGES: Gaelic football still faces existential questions irrespective of Saturday’s vote on rule changes, says John Tobin. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Gaelic football still faces existential questions irrespective of Saturday’s vote on rule changes, says John Tobin.

The former Galway and Roscommon manager was a member of the previous Football Review Committee (FRC) under the chairmanship of the late Eugene McGee, which concluded its work in 2013.

Tobin, the former games manager in Connacht GAA who headed up a review project in 2023, has praised the FRC for their recommended changes to the game and sees the benefits of them. However, the number of hand-passes and ratio of them to kick-passes is something he wished they would have addressed.

This year, the average number of kick-passes per senior championship game dropped to 90 from 131 in 2024 owing somewhat to the tap-and-go, which Tobin supports. Comparing the same season, hand-passes also decreased but not to the same extent, from 421 to 394 and the ratio of hand to kick passes was 4.3:1.

“It is certainly very attractive to watch at the moment so, from that point of view, they have been extremely positive,” says Tobin of the FRC’s rule alterations. “There are a number of changes that I particularly like. The fundamental question I’m asking is 'do we want a possession-based game or not?’” 

In front of Tobin are statistics from his time with McGee’s FRC. “We saw that in 2011, it was 127 foot passes, 251 hand passes. In 2023, 128 hand passes and 412 foot passes. So, the ratio when we started the evidence for 2011 was 1.9:1, and in 2023, it was just over 3:1.” 

The FRC have noted the prevalence of hand-passes continues and suggested that in the future banning scores with the hand might be a consideration. They too mention restricting hand-passes to those completed with the fist while also proposing at grades under U15 a rule be introduced insisting a player who receives a hand-pass must kick the ball on their next play.

A friend of Tobin’s who also attended this year’s All-Ireland SFC final compared the match to “outdoor basketball” and Paudie Clifford playing the role of point guard. Tobin would have preferred to see a limit on the hand-pass brought in immediately.

“The elephant in the room is the hand-pass, which I would have curtailed. I would have said that the maximum number of hand-passes is two before the ball must be released with a kick, which means that the ball is put into contest. And secondly, you can't pass the ball back over the halfway line. If you have only two consecutive hand passes and you can't pass the ball back, the chances are it will become a contest.” 

In this year’s championship, the rules around the kick-out contributed to 63% of all restarts being contested, a jump from 31% in 2024 and just 26% in ’21. Of the contested kick-out total this past SFC season, only half of them were retained.

“The long kick-out has been great, but how many clean catches have we had?” asks five-time Connacht SFC winner and 1974 All Star Tobin. “You can see the way the patterns of the game are developing at the moment. I'm talking to present-day players that say, ‘It's break, break, break in midfield.’ So what are unintended consequences? That’s for debate.

“Do we want to increase the number of contests? Yes, we do. Do we want to encourage and go and protect the primacy of the game, which is kicking and catching? Yes. So is there is evidence that is telling us that is now happening?” 

Tobin sees the additional demands on players over the years from 2011 when the ball was in play for 34 minutes to 45 in 2024. It was slightly down to 44 this year, although the FRC suggest the ’24 figure was “possibly influenced by longer passages of play and a higher volume of passes when teams were in possession”.

Like Wicklow manager Oisín McConville, Tobin would prefer each half conclude with the ball going dead after the hooter as opposed to on the sounding of it. The FRC have asked Central Council to revert its operation to the latter if Special Congress back the technology on Saturday, He is delighted to see the establishment of the games intelligence unit on foot of the FRC’s recommendation. “Compiling information on matches is important because I do think that the association needs to be very conscious of how the game is going to evolve and where it's going to go.”

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