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9th December 2018
08:56pm GMT

All in all, the restriction of hand passes to only three creates a game where only the skilful survive. Under the new conditions, a high-press becomes an open goal of a tactic to try and encourage mistakes and as a result, players in possession of the ball come under more pressure than ever before.
If they want to stay going or if they want to find a teammate, they have to be well aware of their surroundings, they have to be good on their feet, they have to be able to create space for themselves and they have to have it in their locker to execute an accurate kick-pass.
Often, there's no get out of jail card of a hand-pass anymore, and unfortunately for the one-dimensional 'athlete' type players, for those who aren't quick on their feet and who don't have the best vision or spacial awareness, they'll be in a bit of bother.
On top of this, Possession is harder won because the forced kick often goes loose and this leads to more one-on-one contests. That can only be considered a good thing, as can these changes on the whole.
There's a bit more uncertainty, there's a bit more entertainment.
We totted up the end of game stats and here's how those rules impacted on the game.
Westmeath sensed the weakness in the Carlow ranks, in their one-dimensional hand-passing approach and Jack Cooney's men were rewarded for pressing high and pressing hard. Carlow coughed up possession and they often kicked laterally and backwards, inviting Westmeath even further forward and putting themselves under more pressure.
Westmeath on the other hand were better able to mix their game up. Their kickpassing was sharper and it was slicker and they were only caught out for overhand-passing on two occasions, one of them a panic decision when a goal was on the cards.
One of their subs, Luke Loughlin, demonstrated the value and the beuaty of a well-performed kick-pass on numerous occasions after his introduction.
"There were a lot of short kick passes, five, six metres. It’s just a matter of trying to think your way through the game, knowing when you are on your limite of hand passes and then just trying to maintain possession and not forcing it."
Carlows Turlough O'Brien:
"I wouldn't be hopeful. I don't think it's a better spectacle when the ball is being kicked away like that. No one wants to see that. "When there is a sweeper in play it's nearly a recipe for a turnover, last line in particular, turnover after turnover and here today that's going to be a problem, a big problem. I don't think it's going to add anything to it, when teams are at full strength and more competitive it will be even worse," he said.
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