'Catastrophic' rule has a new sibling as Kerry teenager Kennedy pinches both points
CRUNCH: Kerry's Dylan Casey feels the full force of Paul Carey's challenge late in Sunday's Allianz Football League Division 1 tie at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney. Pic: Laszlo Geczo, Inpho
THEY haven’t gone away, you know. Gaelic football’s new rules have been enthusiastically embraced but one still caught in the throat has been joined by a new menace that has all the same infuriating attributes.
The latter rule, the immediate end of game with the hooter, had an early audition in Killarney, Kerry teenager Tomas Kennedy fisting a dramatic winner literally on the foghorn. Did the point or the din come first? Dead heat, I’d say.
It showed Kerry aren’t gone anywhere either, their ability to excavate the win from a precarious situation, and down up to ten potential starters, more impressive than their often sloppy display against Roscommon.
But that 50m advance rule for not ‘handing’ the ball back? ‘Catastrophic’ according to five-time All-Ireland winning manager Jack O’Connor – and he’s been saying that for over a year, and in some instances directly to FRC movers and shapers, Jim Gavin and Eamonn Fitzmaurice.
Sixty six minutes into the Division One opener and Kerry’s Mike Breen attempts to hand the ball back to the Roscommon player fouled is, shall we say, declined. Referee Brendan Cawley’s interpretation of the moment was quite different, and Diarmuid Murtagh’s two-point free from outside the arc puts the visitors, remarkably, two points in front, 1-20 to 2-15 - remarkably for the fact that Kerry were twice six points in front and, on 52 minutes, seven ahead when Armin Heinrich pointed (2-14 to 1-10).
Ultimately David Clifford kicked a superb two-point equaliser, and Kennedy got the Kingdom, somewhat fortuitously, out the gap, but manager Jack O’Connor had plenty of residual frustrations in its wake.
“At least I was consistent anyway when I said that this (rule) could cause consternation. Mike Breen holds the ball out, some fella slaps the ball out of his hand and it’s brought forward for a two-pointer. I mean, that is a catastrophic rule. Because it just allows abuse of the rule. I don't want to be giving about Brendan Cawley, he is a top referee, one of the best in the country, but, the rule is the issue.
“I said from day one, why can't the player just leave the ball down on the ground, where the foul occurs, and back off. Even the very fact of holding the ball out to a fella, he can run into you and, what are you supposed to do? Hand him the ball and disappear at the same time? I can't understand how intelligent men allow that rule to go through. And I said this to them from the very beginning, that this rule would cause desperate trouble.
“It’s deciding too many big games now. I'm not saying today was a huge game but I'm just saying in the course of the season it has decided a lot of big games.”
The noise around the tweaked hooter rule is just getting started, and the issue is obvious. Similarities have been made to basketball’s 24-second shot clock, but the environment and circumstance are so different. For starters, every offence in basketball is subject to a shot clock, and it’s a defined 24 seconds, not the climax to 35 minutes. Basketball also operates with one eye on the shot clock at all times. If David Clifford’s two pointer in the All-Ireland is the best reason to change the rule on the end of a half, it may end up be the kango hammer that cracked a nut.
Rules aside, this League bow was every bit as problematic as Kerry’s management suspected it might be. Mark Dowd had no St Brigid’s players in his traveling group, but he had admirable grit and grunt, and a stunning body of work throughout from full forward Daire Cregg, who finished with 0-9. They also looked two or three weeks fitter than their hosts.
Kerry bounced out into a 0-8 to 0-2 lead, with Micheal Burns impressing, but their lead was as much about Roscommon’s initial timidity as any fluency from the Kingdom. Kerry were turned over and failed to put the ball dead with a couple of first half attacks and paid a heavy price. On 26 minutes Darragh Heneghan showed a clean pair of heels to Kerry after Senan Lambe forced a turnover. Result? A Murtagh goal, despite the initial save from Shane Murphy, the Kerry keeper.
Ahead of the break, Tomas Kennedy soared to claim a Brosnan diagonal and goaled from a ridiculous angle. On another day it would have been the game’s talking points, but this one had too many others.
Kerry went six in front again on 46 minutes when David Clifford clinically converted a penalty – he is showing ridiculously early levels of leadership and finished with 1-8 - but Roscommon had legs and went on a stunning eight-point run while keeping the All-Ireland champions scoreless for 13 minutes. Sub Jack Duggan slalomed through for a 63rd minute point to give Dowd’s men their first lead of the day on 63 minutes, 1-18 to 2-14.
That Murtagh two point free made the win more probable than possible but again Clifford two-pointed from somewhere to level it up. Frustrated feelings for the new Rossies boss?
“Not really, we showed immense courage and pride in that jersey to keep going. At different stages in that game, we were down five or six points, maybe more, and got ourselves back into it again.
“It was there in the last few minutes where you saw lads putting bodies on the line, and fighting for the ball. It was right at the death, in the last second or two, that was the defining moment in it. The ref is the man who knows those answers.”
Does he though?
D Clifford 1-8 (1-0 pen, 1 2pt, 1m, 1f), T Kennedy (1-3, 1m), M Burns (0-2), T Morley, A Heinrich, J O’Connor, T Brosnan, S O’Shea (mark) (0-1 each).
D Cregg (0-9, 1 2pt, 3f), D Murtagh 1-6 (2 2pt, 1f) J Duggan (0-2), K Doyle, E Smith, E Colleran (0-1 each).
: S Murphy; E Looney, J Foley, D Casey; A Heinrich, M Breen, T Morley; S O’Brien, L Smith; J O’Connor, S. O’Shea, M Burns; D Clifford, T Kennedy, T Brosnan.
for D Roche for Morley (temp 20-22), C Trant for Smith (48), K Spillane for Brosnan (56), R Murphy for Burns (61), D O’Sullivan for O’Brien (66), E Heealy for Morley (69).
: A Brady; P Galvin, C Keogh, E McComack; E Ward, R Daly, S Lambe; K Doyle, C Ryan; D Ruane, E Smith, D Heneghan; D Murtagh, D Cregg, E Colleran.
J Tumulty for Colleran (46), P Carey for Ruane (54), J Duggan for Doyle (56), C Lennon for Smith (61), R Hughes for D Heneghan (63).
: B Cawley (Kildare)
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