It’s the elephant in the GAA rulebook.
When the phrase ‘grey area’ was invented it was surely something to do with the attitude to the steps rule in the GAA.
They say you’re allowed four maximum, and any more will lead to a free. These days it seems you can take the ball for a trip into town and all the way back home before you solo the ball and just then, then the referee might pick his whistle from his pocket. It’ll take a few more steps before he actually goes to blow it though.
The rule book states players are allowed a maximum of four steps, but there’s no doubting that it’s a rule very much open to a referee’s interpretation.
Where a push in the back, a pulled stroke is black and white, the number of steps a player takes is impossible to count on the spot given the speed players travel at.
As a result referees are penalising players at their own discretion and it really does depend on their mood at that given moment as to whether they’ll blow for it, or not.
Each incident takes on a life of its own. Take for example, Ger Aylward’s goal for Kilkenny on Sunday. The nippy Glenmore attacker got away with taking 15/17 steps because he was being borderline fouled at the same time.
In fairness to Aylward, he had dropped his hurl and therefore had no option to solo the ball. In instances like these, when a player makes it look like it’s impossible for him to throw the sliotar onto their hurl, the referee will regularly give the man in possession the benefit of the doubt.
A goal for @KilkennyCLG from Ger Aylward pic.twitter.com/F5Z24xazhq
— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 8, 2018
It is always said that the best way for a player to get away with steps is by doing so with conviction. By looking convincing. So if you put the head down, run fast and run with purpose, the likelihood is that you’ll get away with it. In fairness, if you are cutting through the heart of the opposition defence, they more than likely won’t take the risk in stopping to complain to the ref about your crime.
When you dawdle, when you idle, when you look a bit unsure of yourself, that’s when the opposition and the crowd will have time to roar at the referee and that’s when he’ll finally go for a whistle.
However, it seems nowadays that the instances of a ref pulling players up for steps are as rare as hens’ teeth.
Tipperary man Sean Flynn compiled the stats on it over two games of inter-county this year, and they really highlight the inconsistencies that exist.
In those two given games, hurlers over-carried the ball a whopping 84 times, only for three of them to be penalised.
https://twitter.com/Flynner2011/status/1016212286074163201
The graph shows the number of steps taken, and the number of occasions the given amount occurred. The stats really speak of an outrageous ignorance of the rule.
But is it as much of a problem as it seems to be?
