THERE WAS A moment last weekend when a reaction encapsulated the sense of the GAA’s sibling sports trading places.
In the aftermath of a pitch opening challenge match that masqueraded as an All-Ireland hurling quarter-final, Antrim hurling legend Neil McManus vented his frustrations at another afternoon when his game was left in the shadow of its sibling
“We watched 10 minutes of the extra time of football rather than coming to the biggest day in hurling for Offaly in 23 years.
“That’s what we did here today. And that’s the respect that we’ve shown hurling. So why should we be in any way surprised when the game isn’t growing,” complained the Antrim legend.
Dublin's Con O'Callaghan and Donegal's Brendan McCole. Laszlo Geczo
Laszlo Geczo
As Dublin and Donegal gripped the nation in an epic battle that twisted and thrilled, had McManus been the Sunday Game producer for a day, the blinds would have come down on the finale to ensure that every second of Cork’s predictable rout of Offaly would have to be endured.
Hurling promotion
The temptation is to suggest, with no disrespect intended, that hurling’s promotion might have been better served had the last 60 minutes of that game not been aired for public consumption as well.
This is not a wearisome exercise – one that has gone in some quarters for too long – of one code putting its boot into the other, but rather a reminder for football that the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
After all, it is not that long ago – just two years before football’s revamp – when hurling was paraded in its Sunday best on a red carpet, while football was ushered in the tradesperson’s entrance – essential to the running of the GAA, but best seen in the accounts ledger rather than on a linked arm.
Brian Hayes celebrates his goal for Cork against Offaly. Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO
Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO
Hurling thrilled and spilled then as it still does – although latterly it seems only when Cork and Limerick get it together – but even at its peak the warning signs were there – spiralling scoring rates, increased emphasis on retaining possession, defensive systems trumping man on man battles – all feeding into a sense of a spectacle losing its shine.
While hurling’s existential crisis is the lack of growth which understandably pains the likes of McManus, had those holes on the roof been repaired when the sun was shining down hard on the game, would it not be in a better place now as a spectacle at least?
Advertisement
A Lesson For Football
There is a lesson in that for football, and not least for the Kevin McStay led Gaelic Football Expert Advisory Group, to take some time out and scan for some loose tiles because a few have been rattling for the past couple of months.
Meath pulled away from Castlebar last Saturday evening with plenty regrets, not least the ceding of a 10-point lead, but it is likely that it was a sense of injustice which sickened them after substitute Ronan Jones was sent off for an off the ball incident with Jack Coyne in the 54th minute, as they still led by four points.
Mayo's Andy Moran and Meath's Robbie Brennan after the game. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Mayo could argue with good reason that they would have won anyway given that they were in the midst of one of those killer momentum swings, but it was not just that Paul Faloon’s decision – after being alerted by a linesperson – was well north of being harsh but the fact that red cards under the new rules are likely to be game finishers.
The stats might not necessarily back that up, Jones was the eighth player to be sent off in this year’s championship, but of the previous seven the team with the numerical disadvantage went on to win on five occasions.
The chasm in class insulated Roscommon (Daire Cregg) against New York, while the dismissal of Dublin’s Liam Smith and Cork’s Brian O’Driscoll against Wicklow and Limerick were too late to have an impact.
Take Advantage
However, the failure of Tyrone and, in particular Meath, to take advantage against Armagh (Darragh McMullan) and Cork (Colm O’Callaghan) were seen as an indictment of game-smarts on and off the field for those teams.
When all other things are equal, a numerical advantage for the remainder of a game should be defining and decisive, with the “four back, three up” facilitating an 11 v 10 mismatch at the other end.
It can be argued that a price should be exacted for serious foul play, but a balance has to be found between a reasonable punishment and an irrational consequence, because when that happens it is the game that takes the hit.
That was never more obvious than the much hyped meeting of Kerry and Donegal where the well merited red card earned by Kerry’s Micheál Burns reduced one of the championship’s most compelling fixtures into a second half procession.
A red card for Kerry's Micheál Burns against Donegal. James Lawlor / INPHO
James Lawlor / INPHO / INPHO
That was in part down to Kerry’s state of body, they appeared to have emptied themselves going after the Donegal kick-out (there was a reason why the footballs were put away for a couple of subsequent training sessions) but also their state of mind, given the futility of trying to press with a man down.
Surely, a more reasonable punishment for a red card is for the three up / four back rule to be applied for a 10-minute window (as with the black card), after which the team numerically disadvantaged are allowed to remove the tactical straitjacket and allow for an 11 v 11 in play.
That would give the team a sustainable period to survive while also being hit by the reality of being a player down, to ensure that games are not decided by a single card.
It is not the only hole that has become visible.
McStay must surely make it a priority to revisit the insistence of the ball being handed back to an opponent when a free is called or face a 50-metre advancement.
Last weekend, Donegal were thrown the most dramatic of lifelines when Dublin’s Ross McGarry was ruled to have touched the ball on the ground.
But given that it happened in a physical scramble for possession, the Dublin player put the ball on the ground uncertain as to which team the free had been called for, with the ball advanced as a result to allow Michael Murphy kick an extra-time earning two-pointer.
Michael Murphy scores his late two-pointer for Donegal against Dublin. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
It was a technically correct decision – and the advancement has put an end to a lot of the shithousery – but allowing players to drop the ball on the ground immediately nourishes ambiguity and confusion when doling out such a severe sanction, one which impacted hugely in last winter’s club championships.
One final one for McStay’s group, especially given the angst in some corners over the increased number of points being scored by hand which has led to some loose talk that they should be abolished, is to take a long hard look at a four-point goal.
Any move to rule out punched scores would serve as a deterrent for teams to break inside the arc and create a chance close to goal given the increased likelihood that by only being able to score with the boot it would invite a greater chance of being turned over.
The conversion rate of two-pointers has slightly dropped this summer – it stands at 252 compared to 271 last year (after provincial championships and 20 games of the All-Ireland series) while goal conversions have rocketed from 106 at this stage last summer to 146 currently.
Even allowing for that there are still two two-point conversions for every goal scored. Increase the value of the goal and you might just find the ambition to go the extra mile to reduce the number of those punched points that some find so aesthetically off putting.
Whatever else, now that the sun is shining it can only be an invitation to get the ladder, and the finger, out.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Red card impact and 50m rule - Gaelic football has dazzled this summer yet some changes needed
THERE WAS A moment last weekend when a reaction encapsulated the sense of the GAA’s sibling sports trading places.
In the aftermath of a pitch opening challenge match that masqueraded as an All-Ireland hurling quarter-final, Antrim hurling legend Neil McManus vented his frustrations at another afternoon when his game was left in the shadow of its sibling
“We watched 10 minutes of the extra time of football rather than coming to the biggest day in hurling for Offaly in 23 years.
“That’s what we did here today. And that’s the respect that we’ve shown hurling. So why should we be in any way surprised when the game isn’t growing,” complained the Antrim legend.
As Dublin and Donegal gripped the nation in an epic battle that twisted and thrilled, had McManus been the Sunday Game producer for a day, the blinds would have come down on the finale to ensure that every second of Cork’s predictable rout of Offaly would have to be endured.
Hurling promotion
The temptation is to suggest, with no disrespect intended, that hurling’s promotion might have been better served had the last 60 minutes of that game not been aired for public consumption as well.
This is not a wearisome exercise – one that has gone in some quarters for too long – of one code putting its boot into the other, but rather a reminder for football that the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
After all, it is not that long ago – just two years before football’s revamp – when hurling was paraded in its Sunday best on a red carpet, while football was ushered in the tradesperson’s entrance – essential to the running of the GAA, but best seen in the accounts ledger rather than on a linked arm.
Hurling thrilled and spilled then as it still does – although latterly it seems only when Cork and Limerick get it together – but even at its peak the warning signs were there – spiralling scoring rates, increased emphasis on retaining possession, defensive systems trumping man on man battles – all feeding into a sense of a spectacle losing its shine.
While hurling’s existential crisis is the lack of growth which understandably pains the likes of McManus, had those holes on the roof been repaired when the sun was shining down hard on the game, would it not be in a better place now as a spectacle at least?
A Lesson For Football
There is a lesson in that for football, and not least for the Kevin McStay led Gaelic Football Expert Advisory Group, to take some time out and scan for some loose tiles because a few have been rattling for the past couple of months.
Meath pulled away from Castlebar last Saturday evening with plenty regrets, not least the ceding of a 10-point lead, but it is likely that it was a sense of injustice which sickened them after substitute Ronan Jones was sent off for an off the ball incident with Jack Coyne in the 54th minute, as they still led by four points.
Mayo could argue with good reason that they would have won anyway given that they were in the midst of one of those killer momentum swings, but it was not just that Paul Faloon’s decision – after being alerted by a linesperson – was well north of being harsh but the fact that red cards under the new rules are likely to be game finishers.
The stats might not necessarily back that up, Jones was the eighth player to be sent off in this year’s championship, but of the previous seven the team with the numerical disadvantage went on to win on five occasions.
The chasm in class insulated Roscommon (Daire Cregg) against New York, while the dismissal of Dublin’s Liam Smith and Cork’s Brian O’Driscoll against Wicklow and Limerick were too late to have an impact.
Take Advantage
However, the failure of Tyrone and, in particular Meath, to take advantage against Armagh (Darragh McMullan) and Cork (Colm O’Callaghan) were seen as an indictment of game-smarts on and off the field for those teams.
When all other things are equal, a numerical advantage for the remainder of a game should be defining and decisive, with the “four back, three up” facilitating an 11 v 10 mismatch at the other end.
It can be argued that a price should be exacted for serious foul play, but a balance has to be found between a reasonable punishment and an irrational consequence, because when that happens it is the game that takes the hit.
That was never more obvious than the much hyped meeting of Kerry and Donegal where the well merited red card earned by Kerry’s Micheál Burns reduced one of the championship’s most compelling fixtures into a second half procession.
That was in part down to Kerry’s state of body, they appeared to have emptied themselves going after the Donegal kick-out (there was a reason why the footballs were put away for a couple of subsequent training sessions) but also their state of mind, given the futility of trying to press with a man down.
Surely, a more reasonable punishment for a red card is for the three up / four back rule to be applied for a 10-minute window (as with the black card), after which the team numerically disadvantaged are allowed to remove the tactical straitjacket and allow for an 11 v 11 in play.
That would give the team a sustainable period to survive while also being hit by the reality of being a player down, to ensure that games are not decided by a single card.
It is not the only hole that has become visible.
McStay must surely make it a priority to revisit the insistence of the ball being handed back to an opponent when a free is called or face a 50-metre advancement.
Last weekend, Donegal were thrown the most dramatic of lifelines when Dublin’s Ross McGarry was ruled to have touched the ball on the ground.
But given that it happened in a physical scramble for possession, the Dublin player put the ball on the ground uncertain as to which team the free had been called for, with the ball advanced as a result to allow Michael Murphy kick an extra-time earning two-pointer.
It was a technically correct decision – and the advancement has put an end to a lot of the shithousery – but allowing players to drop the ball on the ground immediately nourishes ambiguity and confusion when doling out such a severe sanction, one which impacted hugely in last winter’s club championships.
One final one for McStay’s group, especially given the angst in some corners over the increased number of points being scored by hand which has led to some loose talk that they should be abolished, is to take a long hard look at a four-point goal.
Any move to rule out punched scores would serve as a deterrent for teams to break inside the arc and create a chance close to goal given the increased likelihood that by only being able to score with the boot it would invite a greater chance of being turned over.
The conversion rate of two-pointers has slightly dropped this summer – it stands at 252 compared to 271 last year (after provincial championships and 20 games of the All-Ireland series) while goal conversions have rocketed from 106 at this stage last summer to 146 currently.
Even allowing for that there are still two two-point conversions for every goal scored. Increase the value of the goal and you might just find the ambition to go the extra mile to reduce the number of those punched points that some find so aesthetically off putting.
Whatever else, now that the sun is shining it can only be an invitation to get the ladder, and the finger, out.
*****
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
column Gaelic Football Kevin McStay