GAA gets a shiny, new rule on January 1 but not everyone is convinced it will have the desired effect.
The ‘mark’ will be part of our lives from the start of 2017 and you can bet your bottom Euro that it will be a hot topic all year.
Passed in GAA Congress, back in February, after getting 68% of the vote, the mark aims to reward high fielding and will be familiar to fans of the hybrid GAA-Aussie Rules International Rules Series.
For those only catching up on the news, the introduction of the mark means a player that catches the ball cleanly from a kick-out, on or past the 45-metre line, has two options – calling a mark and taking a free-kick, or immediately playing on.
Upon getting passed, earlier this year, the ‘mark’ attracted criticism from the likes of Alan Brogan, Joe Brolly, Mark Ward and Aidan O’Shea. Our very own Conan Doherty was far from impressed:
OPINION: We've been crying for change and here we have it, stupid change just for the sake of it https://t.co/8ha9OOnJi3
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 29, 2016
The Mayo county secretary appears to be siding with Doherty and O’Shea on this one. In his end-of-year statement, Vincent Neary makes some valid if somewhat depressing comments about the new rule. He writes:
‘This would have been a wonderful idea, some years ago, when goalkeepers drove their kick-outs as far away from the goal as possible, but Gaelic football has changed in recent years and now possession is very important and we all see that in games either at club or county level most kick-outs are not even crossing the 20-metre line.
‘I would love to see that the results of the introduction of the mark would have every kick-out crossing the 45-metre line and being caught cleanly and the catcher being rewarded with a free kick, but I don;t think it will have the desired effect on the modern game.’
Some may call that view pessimistic while others would argue that it is one firmly planted in reality and seeing the way the game has evolved.
Teams will, no doubt, be putting tactics in place over the winter months to both profit from and defend against the ‘mark’.
There is also no doubt that we’ll be crowing, and writing an awful lot about it in 2017. Can’t wait.
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