'Not as much piggery': Support for kickout and four-point goal trial, handpass remains contentious

Referee Christopher Ryan said policing the three consecutive handpass limit will put officials under a 'massive overload'

University of Galway beat ATU Galway 4-12 to 2-15 in the Division 1 Higher Education League.

Let’s get the enormous caveat out of the way first. A brisk night in west Galway’s Dangan, featuring a host of talented prospects playing under rules they are scarcely familiar with, is far from an ideal testing ground. Take that as read.

That said, the opening game of the Division 1 Higher Education League between University of Galway and ATU Galway did produce some fascinating glimpses of the rule trials. It finished 4-12 to 2-15 in favour of University of Galway.

“It was some experience,” said referee Christopher Ryan, a Galway man who officiated in National League fixtures this year.

“First and foremost, the handpass is the most noticeable. There were four offences exceeding the handpass. It was one that, going forward for players, they will have to be sharp on. For people watching, there was a lot more kick passing compared to what we are used to in the present game. I’ll take that from tonight. It was very quick as well.” 

Of the nine core proposals from the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) chaired by Kevin McStay, you wouldn’t have noticed several of them. The extension of the 40m arc to the endline was not a factor, nor was the ban on fisted points. Rolling substitutions are permitted in the college competition, so the increase from five to six was not on display, and there were no black card/penalty decisions.

The most divisive rule of all is that no more than three consecutive handpasses are allowed. In the dying moments, talented Mayo forward Dara Hurley executed a terrific backdoor cut towards goal, but the ball carrier could not handpass to him, so he recycled possession back out with a kick-pass. There were still lengthy, slow 11v11 attacks, with players opting to kick along the outside instead.

At University of Galway vs ATU Galway to see the new rule trials. I’ll do a full video report later, but there is still plenty of slow attacks. They just kick around on the outside now. pic.twitter.com/E27pp5e0fU

— Maurice Brosnan (@m_brosnan) October 15, 2026

This was a contest with several Galway seniors on display, including Shay McGlinchey, Ryan Roche and Ciarán Mulhern. There were nine goal shots and six were scored.

Members of the EAG were present at various games during the week and will begin to analyse data from them with the help of the Games Intelligence Unit. A notable issue is that they will be comparing the college games with metrics from senior inter-county football.

A promising aspect was the requirement that kick-outs must cross the 20m arc (the ‘D’) rather than the 40m arc. While there wasn’t a noticeable increase in short kick-outs, it certainly stretched the pitch and allowed for one-on-one contests further out the field. There were 30 kick-outs in the game and 15 of them ended in breaking ball.

“Bringing it back to the old D, it definitely stretched out the field,” said Ryan. “When you are out there, you can see more flow in it. It does reward fielders as well. It is probably not as much piggery as it was in the last two years!” 

A limit on handpasses was previously trialled in 2019 before being discarded ahead of the league. Already, its advocates have backed away from the possibility of it fully eradicating the 11v11s and lateral play. Is it better that players kick the ball short distances to each other to retain it rather than handpass it? The next few weeks will provide more opportunity to explore that question.

A further challenge for the likes of Ryan is policing it.

Video report from Dangan to see the new Gaelic football rule trials, including match footage, Uni of Galway manager Maurice Sheridan and referee Christopher Ryan.

Tried my best to give a full sense of what the game was actually like. @ExaminerSport pic.twitter.com/I1UNA7Hfhn

— Maurice Brosnan (@m_brosnan) October 15, 2026

“Put it this way, 90% of our games will be officiated by one referee including for myself doing games. It is going to be a massive overload in my view anyway in regard to taking in every new rule, but also watching for the general play we have always been used to anyway. Tonight I had two linesmen; they were radioing in on offences. That is not going to happen for every game. That is the reality of it.” 

University of Galway are managed by former Mayo footballer Maurice Sheridan. He was keen to stress that his squad had limited time to become familiar with the new rules, and that this should colour any takeaways.

“We didn’t have them for very long, to be honest. We have a lot of lads who are involved with clubs so we only done it twice in in-house games really. We got a referee in to do it. He was very good, he did his best, but it is not the same obviously if you play an opposition like that who are very good.” 

He continued: “Look, the rules committee are doing their best obviously. I am not sure why they want to change the game because it was so good last year. I think everyone enjoyed it; I personally enjoyed it as a Mayo man obviously. The game was in great shape. I don’t think there is a lot of tweaking, to be honest. There is a set attack now and you have a few kick passes that only go four or five yards; that takes away the instinct of a forward or a move with a two-on-one or three-on-one.

“I think the jury is out on that one, for sure.”