Ger Brennan: Trial football rules 'scare the crap out of me'

Meanwhile, on plans for 2027, Brennan, who handed competitive game time to 60 different players this year, said he's already identified 50 possible newcomers

Ger Brennan is concerned about new rules that are currently being trialled including the three hand pass rule. Pic: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

Ger Brennan says it's scary to think about some of the mistakes and scenarios that could arise if the rules currently on trial in third-level football games are retained.

The Dublin manager doubles as UCD's GAA Executive so has observed their three games so far in Division 1 of the football league, the most recent being Wednesday's 2-16 to 2-8 win over TUD which secured a home quarter-final tie.

He said that in a couple of situations, teams were wrongly penalised for breaching the three hand-pass limit and that, in another instance around the back-court directive, a referee mistook a 65m line for a half-way line, resulting in UCD losing possession at a crucial stage late in the game and play being restarted with a throw-up.

"Ultimately, from what I've witnessed, we are asking too much of the officials to keep up with the hand-pass and the back-court rule in particular," said Brennan, who was speaking at the launch of Londis' two-year title sponsorship deal with UCD GAA.

"There's going to be a major, major unforced human error in a big game, if the hand-pass and the back-court rules come in. Extending the arc to the end line, and the two-pointer from a sideline, I think that makes common sense. You can bring them in quick enough.

"There's one or two maybe technical changes where, if the ball (is brought up), should the free-kick be taken from the 13-metre line or the 20-metre line? You can fix that quick enough. To extend the number of subs from five to six is a no-brainer as well. But the three hand-pass rule, we're going to cause havoc for the referees and the back-court rule is going to cause havoc."

Londis has officially been announced as the new title sponsor of UCD. Pic: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

Brennan welcomed the experiment, describing it as a 'soft approach to how the rules might look' but outlined major reservations, saying it is 'too much for referees' to handle.

"They scare the crap out of me now, to be honest," said Brennan of the potential issues that could arise. "And if I was a referee, I'd be more frightened!"

On plans for 2027, Brennan, who handed competitive game time to 60 different players this year, said he's already identified 50 possible newcomers.

"We have 42 new players identified from this year's club championship already, along with seven or eight guys from Jonny Cooper's U-20 panel. We're going to be trialling them quietly over the next couple of weeks. We ended up with 39 on last year's Championship panel. Ciarán Kilkenny is obviously gone so we're down to 38."

Brennan isn't expecting any more retirements.

"No, is the answer, I don't expect any more," he said. "Having chatted to a few lads, everyone is gung-ho and ready to rock for next year's campaign."

The Sky Blues boss will miss the first two games of Dublin's NFL Division 2 campaign due to a sideline ban linked to his high-profile suspension at the end of this year's campaign. He has already missed four Championship games as part of that punishment. Asked if there is any chance of mercy, or leniency, regarding the outstanding sanction to be served, Brennan shook his head.

Brennan will miss the first two games of the NFL season. Pic: Tom O’Hanlon/Inpho

"I don't fit the mercy element of it, we have asked," he said. "There's three criteria, I think I meet two of them. I don't meet the third one."

Brennan said not being able to coach an underage team in Portmarnock was the worst part of the saga.

"That was very disappointing," said Brennan, who suggested there was a lot to learn from the episode. "There's a lot of (people), I'm starting with myself first, but there's a lot of people who could have handled themselves better throughout the whole thing. But not being involved with the kids team, that was a kicker."

Dublin exploded into life upon Brennan's return last summer, beating Cavan, Donegal and Galway, and running Kerry close in an All-Ireland semi-final but the St Vincents man said it wasn't redemption, arguing that redemption would only come if his experience led to the 'draconian' rules being altered.

"I think the whole country, or anyone involved in Gaelic games in Ireland and beyond would be in agreement that this eejit here chatting deserved something but the punishment didn't match the crime and I still miss the first two League games of 2027," said Brennan.

"The Association can be slow-moving at times but I think something will need to be done, to look at this part of the rule book to make it less draconian."