New RTE GAA host Joanne Cantwell challenged longtime pundit Joe Brolly on the first episode of Sunday League last night over the use of the offensive mark.
The offensive mark was one of the four proposed experimental rule changes for Gaelic Football alongside changes to the sideline kick, kick out and the introduction of the sin bin.
Brolly claimed that the offensive mark was proposed by the GAA’S Standing Committee on the Playing Rules to favour big forwards and was quickly pulled up on his assertion by Cantwell.
Joe Brolly and Colm Cooper admire Monaghan's use of the mark in their win over Dublin in Clones pic.twitter.com/XVMZiRvNdC
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) January 27, 2019
GAA President John Horan said that the experimental rules were designed to try and keep Gaelic Football entertaining amid dwindling crowd numbers last year.
“I suppose the new rules are not necessarily a knee-jerk reaction but just the GAA looking at itself as it always does in a way that, you know, ‘can we improve the game?’,” Horan said earlier this month.
“We had a lot of outcry, I suppose, from certain elements of players and managers saying they’re not too much in favour of it.
“But we, as administrators, have a responsibility to make sure that the Games are actually entertaining and that we keep the crowds.”
