AS THE FIRST glimpses were taken at the weekend of the new world Gaelic football is moving into, some had better views than others.
For those wearing the number one jersey at county level, there are a raft of new rules that directly impact them.
Cork goalkeeper Michéal Aodh Martin watched Saturday night’s Division 2 clash with Meath unfold, and observed the shift in kickout patterns, the creation of one v one scenarios close to goal, and the pockets of space that opened up on the pitch.
He was happy in his overall summation to give it the green light.
“Definitely more positive than negative. I think you can see the scoreline, definitely you can see there’s more space for forwards, more scores, which is only positive and that’s what we’ve been finding in training as well.”
The kickout requires a change in mindset.
“You could see both keepers, like I think there was three short kickouts in the whole game,” said Martin.
“We had two, they had one. Nearly everything’s going long, a lot of bodies out there. That’s one (rule), I don’t know will they look at it again.
“Personally, I think that because of the other rule changes, that actually the quick kickout isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world, if they brought that back in.
“Because you can’t go back to your goalkeeper, which means it has to go forward.
“So I actually think it’s nearly slowing the game down at the moment, but look that’s just an opinion.
“Some people love the contest. I get that too, like don’t have a problem with it. I don’t mind kicking out long. There’s no point pretending, it is probably going back in time a small bit. There’s not a lot of space out there because the forwards have less space to defend.”
Both Cork and Meath struggled to get a grip on their own kickout with the emphasis on longer restarts and got greater joy in winning possession off their opponent’s kickout.
“We’ve all gotten used to 80-90% retention over the last couple of years and both teams were way below that.
“So yeah, it’s one to keep watching. I’d be interested to see what other teams are doing. We’re all probably learning at the moment. We’re not used to that lack of space. Like the pitch is much more condensed now from the keeper’s point of view, because it has to go outside that 40m arc. So yeah, it’s a big change.”
In an attacking sense the game was a far better spectacle, Martin’s club-mate Mark Cronin and Cork’s full-forward Chris Óg Jones both shone.
“I would have had a fear a couple of months ago maybe goals would be gone, with the difference between a two-pointer and a three-pointer.
“But actually what we’re finding so far is that because it’s much harder to develop a sweeper, that actually it’s quite a lot of goal chances in every game.
“Look, that’s what people like, ultimately pay in for, to see exciting forwards,, get to run at their men, go for goal.
“There’s no fear (of) that fella’s (Mark Cronin) brain, like in terms of reading the pace of the game and what to do, so he made good decisions on it.
“And look, it’s going to be a big part of the game, we all have to get used to it.
“That dead ball two-pointer Brian O’Driscoll got over from the ground as well, they’re huge scores if you can get them.”
The game saw Cork break a cycle of four successive opening round league defeats in the second tier before they head to Newry next Sunday.
“Very important that we that we were able to get the win. It’s such a tight division. In all my years in Division 2, there’s rarely more than a couple of points separating the whole division, so you really have to have a good home record.
“We haven’t had a good enough home record over the last few years, so it’s great to get off to a start with a win.
He says there that the dead ball two pointer off the ground was a huge score to get. Thought I’d read in a match programme the weekend, that the free had to be from the hand to be a 2 pointer? And a 45 is only a one pointer.
The game was ruined over the years trying to make the Assie rules series relevant. That’s a dead duck now and the only way forward is to go back 30 years.