Time to get rid of the square ball

[Sportacus]

Football and hurling are now so fast, it's near impossible for officials to make a correct call in real time on square balls.  What is the point of this rule?  Time to get rid of it, and it would be one less thing for refs to worry about.

[Sportacus]

Sure so what if a team puts a big man on the line, wouldn't bother me.  It's impossible to call it right every time, it happens in a flash.  Today's looked just about right, but it took the slow mo to be sure.

[trileacman]

This world is getting more bizarre by the day. After a correct call on a square ball there's a clamber for the rule to be scrapped, used to be something had to go wrong with a rule for it to challenged.

All sports make efforts to prevent goal hanging, the square ball rule is ours and for the few times in a season it goes wrong I'd be in favour of its retention.

[Milltown Row2]

Perfect call on the square ball today, extremely difficult to call but when the lines are clear and you've umpires and other officials to help them use them. He did and job done. I'd say one call he didn't see was the penalty call. Arms clearly around forward not allowing him to play ball.

That's about it, not my fav ref but he was grand today

[omaghjoe]

Should the square stop being a rectangle and become a semi circle?

[Never beat the deeler]

Why isn't it called a square man when the problem is the man in the square, not the ball

[under the bar]

It's time for rule changes to be scrapped, starting with the black card. There was nothing wrong with our game. The only problem was that the rules were not being applied consistently.

[Rossfan]

It's time for rule changes to be scrapped,

What year do you want to go back to?
When they abolished the point posts?
Went from 21 a side to 17 aside?
Changed sideline throws to kicks?

[Esmarelda]

It's time for rule changes to be scrapped, starting with the black card. There was nothing wrong with our game. The only problem was that the rules were not being applied consistently.

The black card was brought in to stop certain cynical fouls. These would've resulted in no more than a yellow previously. So if a yellow was given out for every intentional pull down, trip and body collide then the rules would've been applied correctly. Were you happy for a yellow to be the punishment?

[screenexile]

Perfect call on the square ball today, extremely difficult to call but when the lines are clear and you've umpires and other officials to help them use them. He did and job done. I'd say one call he didn't see was the penalty call. Arms clearly around forward not allowing him to play ball.

That's about it, not my fav ref but he was grand today

Brian Gavin was one of the top officials around at a time and he reckoned Cleere got it wrong. . . worrying!!

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/columnists/brian-gavin/brian-gavin-in-this-ref-storm-cleere-very-much-man-in-the-middle-940018.html

Refereeing was pretty poor yesterday very inconsistent on overcarrying and physicality of tackles and while the hawkeye goal was right it wasn't handled well. Also is there no advantage rule in Hurling? The other disallowed Tipp goal should have stood.

[Hound]

Perfect call on the square ball today, extremely difficult to call but when the lines are clear and you've umpires and other officials to help them use them. He did and job done. I'd say one call he didn't see was the penalty call. Arms clearly around forward not allowing him to play ball.

That's about it, not my fav ref but he was grand today

Brian Gavin was one of the top officials around at a time and he reckoned Cleere got it wrong. . . worrying!!

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/columnists/brian-gavin/brian-gavin-in-this-ref-storm-cleere-very-much-man-in-the-middle-940018.html

Refereeing was pretty poor yesterday very inconsistent on overcarrying and physicality of tackles and while the hawkeye goal was right it wasn't handled well. Also is there no advantage rule in Hurling? The other disallowed Tipp goal should have stood.

Personally thought Gavin was a poor ref, one who wanted to be remembered. Heard him on the radio recently saying what a great common sense ref he was! He said if he was in control of a game, he'd let a lot of things go. But if he felt he wasn't in control he'd blow for frees that he wouldn't blow for otherwise. Just to make sure the players knew who was in charge. Numpty.

For the advantage goal, the Wex defenders had stopped. Hard to say whether the goal would have been scored anyway, but it certainly would have been much harder. Of course, he shouldn't have blown the whistle anyway.

I presume square ball rule is the old square ball rule in football, in which case it was a very tight call. Haven't seen a replay that showed it conclusively, so harsh to complain about the ref in that case. Could be wrong here, but going by body language I felt the ref was inclined to disallow it, but one of his umpires was very clear that it wasn't square ball. So whether right or wrong, it's that umpire, who should get the credit/blame (If it had been based on the new football rules, then it would have been nowhere near square ball).

[BennyCake]

Should the square stop being a rectangle and become a semi circle?

Don't like agreeing with Tyrone men, but, good call.

[Main Street]

Perfect call on the square ball today, extremely difficult to call but when the lines are clear and you've umpires and other officials to help them use them. He did and job done. I'd say one call he didn't see was the penalty call. Arms clearly around forward not allowing him to play ball.

That's about it, not my fav ref but he was grand today

Brian Gavin was one of the top officials around at a time and he reckoned Cleere got it wrong. . . worrying!!

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/columnists/brian-gavin/brian-gavin-in-this-ref-storm-cleere-very-much-man-in-the-middle-940018.html

Refereeing was pretty poor yesterday very inconsistent on overcarrying and physicality of tackles and while the hawkeye goal was right it wasn't handled well. Also is there no advantage rule in Hurling? The other disallowed Tipp goal should have stood.

Personally thought Gavin was a poor ref, one who wanted to be remembered. Heard him on the radio recently saying what a great common sense ref he was! He said if he was in control of a game, he'd let a lot of things go. But if he felt he wasn't in control he'd blow for frees that he wouldn't blow for otherwise. Just to make sure the players knew who was in charge. Numpty.

For the advantage goal, the Wex defenders had stopped. Hard to say whether the goal would have been scored anyway, but it certainly would have been much harder. Of course, he shouldn't have blown the whistle anyway.

I presume square ball rule is the old square ball rule in football, in which case it was a very tight call. Haven't seen a replay that showed it conclusively, so harsh to complain about the ref in that case. Could be wrong here, but going by body language I felt the ref was inclined to disallow it, but one of his umpires was very clear that it wasn't square ball. So whether right or wrong, it's that umpire, who should get the credit/blame (If it had been based on the new football rules, then it would have been nowhere near square ball).

Gavin "As far as I'm concerned, it was a square ball for Wexford's third goal - Conor McDonald was in the area when Paul Morris put the ball across."
It's one thing for a ref to make a questionable decisision on the spot in the heat of a game but to make that statement after the benefit of replays is truly bizarre.

[Milltown Row2]

Perfect call on the square ball today, extremely difficult to call but when the lines are clear and you've umpires and other officials to help them use them. He did and job done. I'd say one call he didn't see was the penalty call. Arms clearly around forward not allowing him to play ball.

That's about it, not my fav ref but he was grand today

Brian Gavin was one of the top officials around at a time and he reckoned Cleere got it wrong. . . worrying!!

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/columnists/brian-gavin/brian-gavin-in-this-ref-storm-cleere-very-much-man-in-the-middle-940018.html

Refereeing was pretty poor yesterday very inconsistent on overcarrying and physicality of tackles and while the hawkeye goal was right it wasn't handled well. Also is there no advantage rule in Hurling? The other disallowed Tipp goal should have stood.

Personally thought Gavin was a poor ref, one who wanted to be remembered. Heard him on the radio recently saying what a great common sense ref he was! He said if he was in control of a game, he'd let a lot of things go. But if he felt he wasn't in control he'd blow for frees that he wouldn't blow for otherwise. Just to make sure the players knew who was in charge. Numpty.

For the advantage goal, the Wex defenders had stopped. Hard to say whether the goal would have been scored anyway, but it certainly would have been much harder. Of course, he shouldn't have blown the whistle anyway.

I presume square ball rule is the old square ball rule in football, in which case it was a very tight call. Haven't seen a replay that showed it conclusively, so harsh to complain about the ref in that case. Could be wrong here, but going by body language I felt the ref was inclined to disallow it, but one of his umpires was very clear that it wasn't square ball. So whether right or wrong, it's that umpire, who should get the credit/blame (If it had been based on the new football rules, then it would have been nowhere near square ball).

Gavin "As far as I'm concerned, it was a square ball for Wexford's third goal - Conor McDonald was in the area when Paul Morris put the ball across."
It's one thing for a ref to make a questionable decisision on the spot in the heat of a game but to make that statement after the benefit of replays is truly bizarre.

To stick the knife into a fellow ref is wrong, I have said he's not my best ref but he's more than met the requirements to do the match based on his knowledge and fitness tests, he's built up a lot of years refereeing and doing the line in many a big game. I can agree that temperment and confidence are defo required when handling a white hot match like yesterday..


On the calls, it wasnt a square ball, Brian is wrong there. the noise and time delay from hawkeye wasnt his fault and it was the right call. he should have seen the penalty for one case and should have allowed an advantage for the 'goal', he's rushed the call on that.

again there is pressure on all concerned, he's not a robot. While I liked Brian as ref, he should at the very least be understanding of a referee being put into that game at that level for the first time, he was there himself one day.

[LooseCannon]

Gavin isn't even the best ref in Offaly. I'm actually surprised that the best ref in Offaly isn't refereeing big championship games. He's a great referee, and the fact that I'm saying it is a bloody good sign as to how good he is.