The GAA congress is always an eventful one.
Every year there’s always a different narrative, a different rule that needs to be changed.
This year it was all about hurling and we’re expecting a big shakeup.
2018 will see a round-robin style format introduced in Munster and Leinster, an interesting prospect that received 62% favouring it.
But there was one rule that was carried, the ‘Cluxton-Rule’.
The newest rule to come into football is a simple one, kick outs must travel past the 20-metre line and is dubbed the ‘Cluxton rule’ for obvious reasons, Dublin’s Stephen Cluxton is fond of a long kick out, as too is Mayo’s David Clarke.
The rule was brought in to make it riskier for goalkeepers to take short kick outs and is another step taken to encourage the long kick out to the midfield on the back of the introduction of the mark.
No doubt there will be more rule changes to come but what ones do we want to see?
Here are four rule changes we want to see brought in:
No fist passing over the bar
This is a simple yet effective one, the kick is a skill but handpassing isn’t really.
It happens too often that a player is through on goal, will he go for it? Nope, he pops it over the bar. An anticlimax.
Nobody is arguing that a player shouldn’t do the sensible thing, if it makes sense at that point of the game, by all means, pop it over the bar but a player shouldn’t be let handpass it. Make it difficult, let the little seeds of doubt settle in and have the player pop the score.
Plus a kicked point looks nicer.
Abolish the black card
In theory, the black card is a great idea. Its main aim is to stop cynical play yet the black card has just been a bit of a mess.
All you have to do is listen to how Darran O’Sullivan was treated when he received his black card in the All-Ireland semi-final replay:
“I kept getting asked what it was for and I couldn’t answer so there was a bit of frustration on my part so I was sick of that question because I didn’t know the answer,” said the Glenbeigh-Glencar man.
“I think people saw it then and were kind of going it’s a joke of a call, it’s the joys of Gaelic football, you don’t get an answer on the field.
“If you saw my reaction it was the first time I ever reacted like that and that was all from not getting an answer why I got a black card, I was frustrated.
“After coming straight back after the club scene my form wasn’t where I wanted it and then I started playing up to myself really only the three, four or five weeks beforehand so I was just only starting to feel good again and start playing well and I thought ‘I can make an impact here’, that was taken away from me with no explanation so that’s why I got so pissed off with it.
“I did (ask the referee at the time), I said ‘What’s that for?’ and I got blanked, the rest is history and I got a suspension then on top of it,” O’Sullivan concluded.
Or look at Kieran Hughes‘ black card or Michael Murphy’s or Niall Sludden’s.
Not too many people will argue if the black card is abolished.
The Sin Bin
Now we’re talking, the black card will hopefully be gone but in its place bring in the sin bin.
Yes, we know it was trialled back in 2005 and it didn’t go too well but this time we stamp it down with authority.
Back then a player went off for 10 minutes and a substitute came on, punishing the player but not the team. That’s not really a disincentive.
Punish the team, do it. That’ll teach them.
For cynical play put the player in the sin bin for 10 minutes or even five minutes if we want to be nice but it’ll be much better than the silly black card.
A limit on handpasses
We’re not going to pick out any teams here (we’re looking at you Ulster) but jaysus it’s called football not handball.
The kick pass is a rare sight these days by the looks of it, credit to Dublin and Mayo they aren’t afraid to use it either are Kerry but too often are games turning out to be short kick-outs followed by handpass after handpass after handpass, make the game more direct and more exciting, after four or five handpasses the player has to kick it.
