Whatever you think about the Football Review Committee, the game has got itself into a state and it finally feels like someone is taking the problem seriously
You can say this much for the Football Review Committee – it is making sure the whole thing is being given proper attention. You put Jim Gavin in charge of something and straight away, everybody sits up straight in their seats. There’s no sniggering down the back of the class. We’re doing this and we’re doing it right.
That has changed a good bit over the years. On any team I was ever on, as soon as a new rule came in the smart boys in the room would start looking at it for loopholes. How can we get around this one? What have they not thought of? The other shower up the road will be thinking of ways around it so we better come up with something.
Frank Murphy was on that committee and he told us a story one night about a delegate who was speaking in favour of a rule change. The delegate was doing okay but he made a joke at one stage and stuttered over it, which caused a few giggles and sniggers around the room. This was when you needed a 66 per cent majority to get anything done, and by interrupting his own momentum, the delegate gradually lost the room. The proposed rule change failed by a couple of votes.
As for what that will be, there’s plenty to like in the initial suggestions. More kicking is good – extending the forward mark to kicks that land inside the 20-metre line would be a step forward. Same with the idea of two points for a kick outside a 40-metre arc – although you might have to include geometry lessons for fellas who line a few of the club pitches I’ve been to.
If you leave one player from each team in there, both of them will only have eyes for the ball. You’re leaving them vulnerable to everybody coming bombing in at full pelt from all angles. When the blood is up at the start of a game, that could backfire very easily.
Gaa Jarlath-Burns Gaa-Congress
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