COLUMN: 'Jim Gavin and his committee made a cod of game with this stupid change'

THE GAA Championship Senior football season got underway over the weekend and the ‘new rules’ look set to become a dominant part of the discussion over the next three months.

The initial euphoria about the rules has, to a large degree, worn thin and many followers of the game are beginning to ask serious questions at this stage.

From a personal point of view, I feel the two point free is absolutely ridiculous. There is no great skill involved in kicking the ball over the bar from a free around 40 yards from goal.

The idea of being presented with a chance to take a free from near the posts and bringing it back out for an effort at a ‘two-pointer’ is beyond belief.

Another ‘looney’ introduction is the countdown clock that now sees players, passing the ball back and over like children in a school yard, and big games ending in virtual silence instead of the drama we associated with so many of the Mayo v Dublin and Mayo v Kerry games over the last decade or so.

With a point separating Armagh and Tyrone with around nine minutes left and before a capacity crowd in Armagh on Sunday, the silence was nearly akin to a retreat in Lough Derg.

Cynical play in the closing stages is being rewarded and making games virtually unwatchable.

This is the greatest insult to the game that we cherished and was at the very heart of the tradition handed down to us over the decades.

In recent days I spoke to a referee from Roscommon who said that some of the new rules are crazy such as expecting a player to hand the ball to an opponent for a free.

“I know many referees feel like fools when running up the field for 50 or 60 yards knowing in their heart and soul that this is not the game that we grew up with and loved over the years.

"The discretion in relation to the final whistle must be handed back to the referee,” he told me.

Former Garrymore legend, Mattie Joe Connolly, one of only four players to win six Mayo senior medals with Garrymore, was responsible for Croke Park invoking a special rule back in the late 1970s that made it an offense for a goalie to “pull the posts”!

“I had a habit of pulling the posts so that they would sway when the ball was coming in and it was responsible on a few occasions for points being disallowed as they went outside the posts as a result!

"PJ McGrath from Kilmaine brought it to the attention of Croke Park and a rule was put in place that no goalie could in future interfere with the posts.

“Of course, I knew PJ well and it later became a source of great amusement between us, so much so that RTE came down to MacHale Park for me to give an exhibition of pulling the posts and PJ there looking on after Croke Park brought in the new ruling!”

At a ‘rambling house’ gathering in Garrymore last week with four of us chatting late into the night, Mattie Joe came up with a very simple solution to what has become a major source of consternation and frustration for GAA followers in the last year or so.

He says the GAA Rules Revision Committee, under the guidance of former Dublin boss, Jim Gavin, lost the run of themselves.

“A few of the changes were needed but the hooter and the clock are absolutely destroying the closing stages of big games. I was in Roscommon last year for the Mayo v Donegal game.

“When Fergal Boland landed a brilliant equaliser that would have seen Mayo progress to the next round, the Donegal goalie, Sean Patton, looked around and spotted the countdown clock.

"He raced out to get the kick-out away with seven seconds on the clock. Ciaran Moore subsequently raced through for the point that knocked Mayo out of the 2025 championship.

“The clock showing the seconds should be immediately banned from all grounds and the determination of time added-on restored to the fourth official with the referee having the final discretion.

"People have been reduced to watching the clock more than the play in the closing minutes. What an insult to our beloved game.”

Mattie Joe hit the nail on the head. For the second time in his career, the Garrymore man may well be about to be the cause of another major change in Gaelic football ... ban the clock and restore the discretion to the referee.

Billy Fitzpatrick, another one of the famous Garrymore quarter, has also expressed disillusionment with some of the changes to Gaelic football in the last year or so. “My generation loved this game and it has been so much part of my life.

"It was a privilege to kick points and goals and I can say without fear of contradiction that no free is worth two points. Jim Gavin and his committee have made a cod of the game with this stupid change to the game.

“I was watching the Limerick and Cork hurling league final last week and what a second half we were privileged to enjoy. There was no time for standing with the ball like in football, the players were on you within a second and the game progressed at such pace.

"That’s how our games should be. Get rid of all the two pointers, stick with the ‘kick and go’ and the curb on the return pass to the goal-keeper and we will again begin to enjoy our wonderful game that has served us so well for over a century,” says Billy.

Let us return to the core issue of the hooter for a moment. Why was the hooter brought in? When people were giving out about Gaelic football in recent years, time-keeping did not even come into it.

The hooter is used in only a handful of games across the Gaelic Football calendar. In essence, taking club and other games into account, it is used in less than one per cent of games, yet it is the cause of untold aggravation and annoyance.

It is not used in Division Three and Division Four league games. It was not even used in non-televised games in the championship last year.

The club game manages just fine without it. Take Ruaidhri Fallon's fantastic equaliser for St Brigid’s of Roscommon against Dingle in the All Ireland Club Final.

That score probably does not happen if the hooter was in play.It is only used in Division One and Division Two, along with televised senior championship matches. It is like saying we will only have the two pointers in the televised games! It makes no sense whatsoever.

There are inconsistencies when it comes to referees signaling to stop the clock and restart it. Mere seconds make a big difference as Roscommon found out in Killarney in Round One of the league earlier this year.

A delay in the restart of the clock gave Kerry just enough time to get the winner but it was the wrong call.

Playing down the clock was an issue before the hooter but it is even worse now as players can see exactly how much time is left.

The sight of a player walking with the ball and soloing on the spot does not go well with the FRC's ambition to make Gaelic football the most exciting amateur game in the world.

Coaches and players are also to blame here but the hooter and clock on display encourage these sleep inducing phases even more.

Why has the hooter system never been introduced in professional soccer? The reason is because it is not needed.

Hurling does have a hooter system. I hope this magical game will never adopt this nonsense or interfere with the ‘value’ of a point and a goal. Hurlers will never have the chance to reduce the game to walking pace.

It is a passionate game, no time for stupid dithering ‘back and over outside the arc’.

This coming weekend, we can watch some real Irish culture when Galway take on Kilkenny in the Leinster hurling championship on Saturday evening and again for the gigantic clashes between Tipperary and Cork and Clare and Waterford in the Munster championship.

This is the game we love, unadulterated with some bogus new rules.

Give the discretion back to the referee in Gaelic football and the excitement that goes with not knowing exactly what time is left.

The time is here to launch a nationwide discussion in relation to the revision and change of some of the ‘new’ rules and return Gaelic football to its pedestal in Irish society and culture.