Early evidence suggests new rules cut fouls

GAELIC GAMES:IT'S EARLY days but there are signs the new yellow-card rule in football and hurling is serving its purpose. According to analysis by the GAA's head of games, Pat Daly, the opening two weekends of intercounty action in the various pre-season competitions have witnessed a reduction in fouling, an increase in playing time and, perhaps most importantly, a growing realisation of what the new yellow-card offences are all about.

Last Sunday, 21 football games were played throughout the provinces, with 49 players leaving the field early for one of the new yellow-card offences (for which they can be replaced). The previous Sunday, 20 games were played and produced 70 yellow cards.

In hurling, Sunday’s matches produced 11 yellow cards from nine games. The Sunday before, there were just four games, but again 11 yellow cards. Despite the wintry conditions of last Sunday the scoring averages were similar and Daly believes the effort behind the new yellow-card rule is already paying dividends.

“We would certainly be pretty happy so far,” says Daly. “There has been a lot of work put into this, from this time last year, along with the various consultations with Central Council and congress.

“Essentially what we’ve found over the first two weekends is less fouling, and more scores. The fouling has been the big thing, which from our previous analysis is about half the amount normally experienced this time of year. And on average we’ve seen about 20 per cent more playing time. Of course that varies, to the point that in some games there has been 25 per cent more playing time.”

The new rules identified six “highly disruptive fouls” for which the player is sent off, but replaced by a substitute. There are also two black-book infractions: the first has the player yellow-carded after a repeat infraction, the second has the player yellow-carded for a fourth-repeat infraction.

“We will continue to engage with referees and managers, because what we’re really working towards with this is a sort of inter-active rulebook, where referees and managers can see the specific rules, backed up on video, and thereby help bring about an even greater degree of clarity.

“The other thing we’re working towards is a required level of consistency, to take any ambivalence out of the thing. A lot of the time it is a judgment call, but we are working at getting as much consistency as possible, and make it ongoing.

“It’s not just common sense from the referee,” notes Daly. “It’s about common sense from the players as well. One of the criticisms is that we’re taking the physical element out of the game. If that means the body colliding, the jersey pulling, well that has no part in the game anyway. But it has crept in.

“And there is still some tweaking to be done. Like the hand around the face is a tricky one. The referee has to make a call on that, and anything around the head is a tricky area. There will always be a thin line between a careless tackle in that area and a dangerous one. But these new rules will work, because the game needs them. There was no way we could have persisted the way it was.”

Meanwhile recently-appointed Meath senior football team manager Eamonn O’Brien has been hit by the decision of last year’s captain, goalkeeper Brendan Murphy, to return to soccer with the Trim man signing a one-year contract with Longford Town.

Murphy was the goalkeeper for Meath’s All-Ireland minor success back in 1992 before going abroad to pursue a soccer career. He was with a number of clubs, including Wimbledon when they were in the Premiership, and was capped for the Republic of Ireland at under-21 level.

Since returning to the Royal County, Murphy did well and in 2007 he gained an All Star nomination and last month he travelled to San Francisco as a replacement for the 2007 versus 2008 exhibition games.

However, on the positive side for Meath, David Gallagher, a surprise inclusion on Seán Boylan’s International Rules squad for last autumn’s series against Australia Down Under, has been training with the squad after a three-year absence from the panel.