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James McCarthy and Jack McCaffrey compete with Jack Barry for a high ball during the All-Ireland final replay. Tommy Dickson/INPHO
Bad Move

McCaffrey concerned 'awful' advanced mark will move football closer to Aussie Rules

“I do think it’s a little step towards a much more stop-start game,” says the Dublin star.

DUBLIN WING-BACK Jack McCaffrey fears the introduction of the “awful” advanced mark rule will bring the Gaelic football closer to Australia Rules and “a little step towards a much more stop-start game.”

The new rule was trialled earlier this year in the Allianz Football League and was formally voted in at last weekend’s Special Congress in Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

While the Footballer of the Year nominee supported the “excellent” sin bin rule, he was vehemently opposed to the advanced mark.

“I think the attacking mark is awful and I think that’s probably a bit selfish personally from me in that it’ll make my job significantly more difficult as a defender,” said McCaffrey.

“But I do think it’s a little step towards a much more stop-start game.

“One of my favourite players to watch at the moment is Con O’Callaghan, every time he gets the ball, he just turns and goes straight at you and it would be a travesty if he was to turn into a player who just catches the ball and kicks over the bar, which he can do and will do because it’s a no-brainer.”

While McCaffrey feels that referees will cope adequately with judging the distances of kicks inside, he’s concerned with the direction the game is headed.

“Kick the ball from outside the ’45, 20 metres, catch, I think they’ll be okay. Referees are by and large good, it’s certainly not an issue with officiating I think, it’s just the stop-start nature of it.

“I remember when Ciaran Kilkenny signed for an Aussie Rules club, I’d only ever watched highlights of Aussie Rules games.

I actually sat down in the library in UCD and watched the Grand Final from the year before in its entirety and was blown away with how slow it was and stop-start and scrappy.

“Obviously we’re not at that point at all but it does seem a little step in that direction.”

jack-mccaffrey Jack McCaffrey was speaking at the launch of the Asian Gaelic Games. Oisin Keniry / INPHO Oisin Keniry / INPHO / INPHO

He feels football is moving away from the defensive style that the mark has supposedly been introduced to counter-act.

“I think the game kind of comes a little bit cyclical. The blanket defence as it is called came in and was very difficult to break down and then a couple of teams figured it out and I think it was on its way out but there was still a bit of hysteria around it and things were brought in to hasten its demise.

“Does the attacking mark break down a blanket defence? My instinct would be not particularly.

“Even if it, did I think that system is kind of going out of fashion a little bit anyway. I think the attacking mark was probably brought in to increase the scoring or, I don’t know actually. I’m sure the people that voted for it had good reason to do so.

“I’m sure we’ll see some spectacular instances of high fielding on the edge of the square, but I don’t really want to go back to a time when the GAA is just cross the half-way line and kick the ball as hard as you can.

“I think there’s a bit of romantic retrospective view on things that it was glorious to see all this, but it’s a bit old fashioned and I don’t think there’s anything that’s not aesthetically pleasing to see teams attack quickly and fluidly through the hands or with shorter kick-passes and as a unit and break down defences.

“I think people are just yearning for the day of putting a big man in on the edge of the square and hoof it in. That player still has a role, but it’s certainly not at the expense of everything else.”

On a more positive note, McCaffrey is enthused by the new sin bin ruling, adding: “I think the sin bin is an excellent rule. I think it’s a much more fair punishment, to go down to 14 men for 10 minutes is an appropriately harsh punishment for the offence.” 

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