We may just have seen the future of settling GAA draws with crazy semi-final shootout

Safe to say we haven't seen this before

Darragh Culhane

How’s your free taking?

The GAA is bigger than ever and with Irish people living in all corners of the globe the game is spreading.

As the man says, you can take the boy out of Ireland but you can’t take the Ireland out of the boy.

Well, with a heap of lads over in Canada there is a lot of GAA being played.

Toronto is one of the hot spots and there are five teams that compete in their championship.

The Toronto Championship has five teams with four of them competing in the semi-final and when one of the games went to extra time after drawing there was a bizarre ending.

Toronto Gaels were knocked out of the competition at the hands of St.Vincent’s but after a drawn game after extra time the crunch tie was decided by a free taking shootout from the 45.

We’re not sure exactly what the rule book entails over that side of the Atlantic but there is a little bit of sense in what was decided.

Earlier on in the year, the GAA decided that certain games could be decided by a free taking competition in order to condense the GAA calendar.

Back in Ireland, the format can be used in the hurling league semi-finals, as well as the under 17 and under 20 Championships.

As per the GAA, the rule is as followed.

– Each team will nominate 5 free takers for the competition and indicate to thereferee in which order (1 to 5) the free takers will take the frees

– The 5 players above must be chosen from players who have participated in thegame, either in normal time or in one of the periods of Extra Time.

– Players who receive a red card in Hurling or Football, and players who receive a blackcard in Football, in normal time or any of the four periods of Extra Time are not permitted to participate in the free-taking competition.

– The Referee will toss a coin for choice of ends in the presence of the Team Captains. The Captain who wins the toss will choose which end the free taking competition should be played into and will have the option of his team going 1st or 2nd.

– The Referee will ensure two goal umpires are in place at the end in which the competition is being played into.

– Frees will be taken by each of the five players from a position of their choosing on the 65 (Hurling) or 45 (Football) metre line. Frees in football may be taken from the hands or off the ground.

– In Hurling, frees shall be taken in accordance with the provisions of T.O 2016 Cuid II – Rules of Set Play Riail 2.5 (a) and (b) and Rules of Foul Play 4.24, 4.25 and 4.27. Breaches of these provisions will render frees null and void and they cannot be retaken.

– In football, frees shall be taken in accordance with the provisions of T.O 2016 Cuid II Rules of Set Play – Rule 2.5 and Rules of Foul Play 4.23, 4.24 and 4.26. Breaches of these provisions will render frees null and void and they cannot be retaken.

Frees will be taken for points only, with no goalkeeper / defenders facing the free- takers.
With the exception of the player taking the free, all other players, managers, officials, backroom personnel etc should be at their designated sideline area, and off the field of play when the free-taking competition is taking place.
The game is awarded to whichever team scores more of their 5 frees.
If still level then sudden death frees to be taken using the same 5 players in order(i.e. first sudden death free is taken by the player who took the first free for each side, 2nd sudden death free if required to be taken by the player who took the 2nd free and so on).
If a player scores in sudden death and his direct opponent misses, the game is awarded to the team of the player who has scored.
The sudden death element will continue until such time as there is a definite outcome (i.e. returning to the first player(s) and repeating the sequence again if required)

Well that’s that then, we may be seeing more of this in years to come.

Thanks to Stephen Connolly for sending this in, if you have anything you want to share you can get send it into our Facebook or Twitter pages as well as editorial@sportsjoe.ie