SIDELINE VIEW: We need to kick the handpass rule into touch

“If you want entertainment, go to the cinema.”  The words a club player uttered to me when I suggested that watching some football games had become mundane.

But it has.  Players who constantly play pass the parcel, never wanting to make the slip that would cost the game.  It wouldn’t inspire you.

There can be an appreciation for a tactical duel, where the intelligent player knows when to kick or when to recycle laterally.

The new, proposed, restricted handpass rule takes that out of the equation.

With the level of preparation going through the roof and the sacrifices being made by players, it doesn’t matter how dull the system is, so long as it is effective.  Winning is the only currency.

But limited systems only take you so far.  Corofin are in their pomp because of their array of attacking riches and ability to mix their long and short game.

Their two goals against Ballintubber came from threading kick passes through the eye of a needle.  One from Michael Farragher’s defence–splitting pass, the other from goalkeeper Bernard Power kicking over the top of Ballintubber’s high press.

Teams have to cut their cloth according to the players at their disposal, but all too often there is an absence of adventure or panache.

The GAA had to do something to spice up their product.  Appointing David Hassan as Chairman of their rules committee was a smart piece of business.

But I feel it is too drastic, too soon.

Initially the new rules were going to be rolled out for the McKenna Cup type pre-season tournaments and the league.

Thankfully the powers that be slammed on the brakes and will wait until January to ‘review’ their proposals ahead of the league.

An eight team league, like the one Derry are battling to get out of next season, isn’t the place for such a volume of experimentation.

Just think of the poor souls going out to referee under them or the teams that have their entire season hinging on one game.

Officials will have to count hand-passes, ascertain the direction of a sideline kick, remember the precise origin of every attacking kick pass to judge the eligibility of a mark, remember to start your sin bin clock and work out if anyone else is inside the 20 metre line for a kick-out.

All on top of a game that has become almost impossible to referee and in a climate where every single decision is questioned.

In the McKenna Cup, there will be a fourth official and radio communication with his team of officials.

But when the NFL starts and the water in the pan surges to boiling point, I just feel rolling out five new rules, at once, is a non-runner.

And what if they reach club level.  The referee who lands for a mid-week league game, under lights in the lashing rain – when the only other neutral in the ground will be a manager scouting out his championship opponents – won’t have a chance.

Here is my take on the new rules.  I would bring four of them in, but not all at once.

Handpass

I predict this one just won’t work.  I can see the rationale behind it and trying to promote a kicking game.  Rob Carroll’s stats, used by the committee when researching the proposals, outline that in a sample of 322 county games since 2011 there has been an average increase of 108 hand-passes per game. But it’s something else to count for referees on pressure cooker championship days.  I tried to do it during the Ulster Club Final.  It’s impossible. There is also the variable of playing against a strong breeze, or a packed defence, with hand-passing the only means to work your way out of trouble. And it will in turn encourage teams to play mass defences, knowing that teams will be forced to kick the ball away or kick backwards to a colleague. Verdict: Fail

Sideline kick

All sideline kicks, apart from ones inside the 20 metre line in the attacking half must be played in a forward direction.  This one has a chance of getting through. In a survey of 10 inter-county championship games this year, 45 per cent of sideline kicks were played backwards. It came in as a tactic when teams had a spare man back, where they would work the ball to the goalkeeper and take the return. Whereas under the new proposals, it will force coaches to earn their corn.  They will need to ensure all their players can accurately kick the ball over 20 metres, so that the nearest player can take the kick, before their opponents have all funnelled back.  It promotes making decoy runs to create space.  Progressive coaches should come up with a set piece. It also brings back the nearly extinct specimen – the half forward.  If he can improve his movement, he now has a more attractive and rewarding role. Verdict: Pass

Advanced mark

The rule that could leave Kieran Donaghy regretting his retirement.  Where a player is rewarded for winning the ball clean inside the attacking ‘45’, if the ball is played from beyond the 45 metre line and travels at least 20 metres. In AFL, they call the area in front of goal POMO – position of most opportunity – where a team can work a score.  They also keep the ‘inside 50’ stats of players, highlighting those who can win the ball in the scoring zone. With bunched defences in GAA, I cannot see there being many of these, but at least it gives coaches – those with a team for the long haul - an incentive to earn themselves an advantage. Club underage coaches could devise a strategy to work on movement, angled runs and reward the player with the perfect hang time to win primary ball in the air. Like the sideline rule, this could see wing half forwards return to their spot as primary ball winners. Verdict: Pass

Sin-bin

Rather than pick up a black card, the offending player will be sent the sin bin for 10 minutes. As long as it is administrated by the sideline official in all games, including club championship games, this is should be immediately introduced. Castlebar’s Richie Feeney needlessly but correctly picked up a black card, from a late tackle, in the fifth minute of an All-Ireland Club Final and his day was over.  Cynical play needs to be cut out, but I feel the sin bin is a sterner punishment. The team is reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes.  Also, if the referee makes an error and black cards somebody in the wrong, they have a chance to take part in the game again or in Feeney’s case a rush of blood to the head. I would take this rule a step further though.  The sideline official should be instructed to put up the board with exactly two minutes remaining or normal time remaining.  Once this happens, there should be a new black card punishment invoked, with 13 metre free awarded at the other end. I am thinking about Scotstown fouling Coleraine when they won possession from the kick-out following Rory Beggan’s winning point.  Coleraine were hauled down.  A 13 metre free deterrent would ensure that Scotstown needed to be squeaky clean in the tackle.  Or at least not openly cynical.  Like Dublin’s man handling of all six Mayo defenders at the end of the 2017 All-Ireland Final on their last kick-out. Verdict: Pass

Kick out

Rather than the kick-out coming from the 13 metre line, it will now be kicked from 20 metres out. Even though it is effective, the short kick-out, one that goes 13 metres to a corner back does nothing for the game.  If anything teams, are hamstringing themselves if they don’t push up to prevent it happening. Thankfully this rule was doctored to remove the need for kick-outs to clear the 45 metre line. It’s not feasible.  I am back to the scenario of the windy day.  Or even at underage where it is hard enough to recruit goalkeepers, never mind getting one who can kick it that far. And anyway, there is a refined skill to hitting a kick-out into a pocket of space inside the 45metre line. The movement from wing to wing from the outfield players and the skill (and nerve) of a goalkeeper to find the target. It is something that can be coached and rewards the management team who can put in the preparation to perfect.  Likewise, the opponents who can study the trends and put a stop to them. Verdict: Pass

Sideline View’s bonus rules

One player tackle

If I had my way, it should be forbidden for more than one player to tackle at one time. It leaves the game impossible to referee.  Bring back the old fashioned McKeever versus Canavan and Lockhart versus Tony Boyle tussles.  If the defenders are well coached, they will not foul.  If they constantly do they won’t be selected.

Keep your trap shut

Only the captain is allowed to speak to the referee and if anyone else does, he is put straight into the sin bin.  Players should also be put in the sin bin if they say or gesture anything to a supporter outside the fence.

Under captain’s orders

If any member of the management team is abusive towards an official, a member of the opposition team or management, their team captain is put in the sin bin for 10 minutes.  People would soon learn to behave themselves.  Or clubs would soon take action against their managers.

Accountability

To balance it out, if a referee gets a game changing decision wrong – one in injury time that leads to a winning score or a scoreable free not being awarded – they have it shown to them via video by their assessor.  For repeated errors, referees should be moved down the pecking order for championship games.