Mixed views as mark's impact is minimal

PLAYING RULES EXPERIMENT:THE GENERAL consensus may be the experimental playing rules in football and hurling need a little more time to be properly considered, but first impressions would certainly appear to be mixed – ranging from the good, to the bad, to the indifferent.

There wasn’t the widespread sense of disapproval that greeted the experimental disciplinary rules this time last year (the sending off on yellow cards, etc) and it could be several more weeks before a clearer picture emerges on what way Congress will vote on the playing rules experiments, individually, in April.

In the meantime, as the intercounty season finally got under way over the weekend, the new rules were the inevitable talking point, and in most instances focused on the new “mark” rule – whereby a free-kick is awarded to a player who makes a catch between 45-metre lines, directly from a kick-out. The rationale behind this was that “high-fielding”, once one of the most acclaimed skills in the game, needed to be acknowledged and reward.

So far, however, it would appear that acknowledgement will be minimal.

In the Dublin-Wexford game in the O’Byrne Cup, for example, only three such “marks” were recorded throughout the game.

Likewise, in the Galway-Sligo game in the FBD Connacht league, only four “marks” were recorded, the first not coming until two minutes into the second half – promoting Sligo manager Kevin Walsh to question the rule, and suggest instead a better rule would be to allow the player who makes the catch be tackled by only one opponent, rather than a group of opponents, as was usually the case.

Another example of the limitations of the “mark” rule came in the Fermanagh-Monaghan game in the Dr McKenna Cup, when only four such marks were awarded in total, and three of them were kicked straight to the opposition.

And after the Kildare-UCD game in the O’Byrne Cup, Kildare manager Kieran McGeeney questioned why one skill was being rewarded over another – and that if a defender also makes a clean catch, shouldn’t he too be rewarded?

Tipperary football manager John Evans is slightly better qualified to comment than most, given his team were out twice in the McGrath Cup over the weekend – first when beating UL on Saturday, and again on Sunday, when they beat LIT (setting up a semi-final date this Sunday with his native Kerry). Evans also has a keen interest in how the rules are implemented, given his new role as the first full-time director of football in Tipperary.

“First of all I would have to say the referee handled our games very well,” says Evans, “and was very practical in the handling of the rules, so any criticism is nothing to do with the referee.

“There was one situation, however, where we worked the ball the whole way up the field, and at the very last minute, when the player was coming through at goal, he was called back, on the hand pass rule. I just thought here was such a good, well-paced move and yet the foul was being equated with say a high tackle around the neck, or a trip, or any professional foul. I just thought that was wrong, that any game that does this can’t really be making progress.”

Under the experimental rules, the “open-handed” pass has been eliminated, with the only the fist pass being allowed – the rationale there being that the hand pass was being widely abused, and as a consequence, impossible to implement on a consistent basis. Evans questioned whether this was entirely necessary, and wondered if it would, in fact, merely slow the game down.

“I would be concerned about the fist pass, and that we’d be better off trying to enforce the rule as it existed. Mick O’Dwyer has been saying for the past 10 years now that we need to speed up the game, maybe by allowing the pick off the ground. I feel the fist pass does actually slow the game down, because it curtails the whole body movement of the player as he’s trying to go forward.”

As for some of the other rules, including the “mark”, Evans was keeping an open mind – pending a couple more weeks of action: “I’d be positive about the whole thing, and will give it more time. To be honest, I was a bit apprehensive about the mark, and how it would work, but I’m actually sold on it. I’d say between the two games we had about 10 marks, in total. I think it might actually open up play a bit more around the middle of the field, and that can only be a good thing.”

The Dublin-Wexford game illustrated the benefits of the experimental penalty rule, where the ball is now placed 11 metres from the goal line, as opposed to 13 metres, as the two penalties awarded to Dublin were comfortably converted. Evans’ Tipperary team were awarded one penalty over the weekend, but the player opted to send it over the bar: “But there’s no doubt it does increase the chances of scoring quite considering,” says Evans.

“Before, I’d say the player had a five or six chance in 10 in converting the penalty. Now I’d say he has an eight or nine chance in 10.”

Another of the experimental rules, which states that both the half-time and full-time whistles can only be blown after the ball has gone out over a boundary line, was evidently ignored altogether in the Tyrone-St Mary’s game in the Dr McKenna Cup. Still early days then in the GAA’s latest experiment.