Marky Mark and the GAA from 1 January

[PAULD123]

As a former midfielder I was a huge fan of the mark and expected it to be successful.  High catching is a feature of the game and should be encouraged.

My other two changes are

1).  2 refs
2). A clock so players know exactly how much time is left.  Why should this be a mystery?

I would say 4 linesmen rather than 2 referees for county matches. So all areas of the pitch are covered

I would agree that a rugby style clock which is specifically stopped for injuries, substitutions, fights... should be implemented for county matches. It measn that there is no need for added-on time as this is automatically incorporated in the clock stopping. Then we don't get the farce like the Down v Armagh match running on for 11 minutes and no one knowing what the hell is going on.

In conjunction with the clock above, we should return the rule that the ball must go dead to end the game and that the next dead ball after the clock hits the defined time will cause this to happen.

I would like to see a citing commission. We more or less have it but it is very arbitrary. A citing officer should sit in the stand and note incidents. EVERY match is reviewed by a panel after and independent of referee action at the time have a right to cite a player for disciplinary action. so every match not just the incidents that Joe Brolly chooses to rant about on the Sunday Game.

[lenny]

As a former midfielder I was a huge fan of the mark and expected it to be successful.  High catching is a feature of the game and should be encouraged.

My other two changes are

1).  2 refs
2). A clock so players know exactly how much time is left.  Why should this be a mystery?

I would say 4 linesmen rather than 2 referees for county matches. So all areas of the pitch are covered

I would agree that a rugby style clock which is specifically stopped for injuries, substitutions, fights... should be implemented for county matches. It measn that there is no need for added-on time as this is automatically incorporated in the clock stopping. Then we don't get the farce like the Down v Armagh match running on for 11 minutes and no one knowing what the hell is going on.

In conjunction with the clock above, we should return the rule that the ball must go dead to end the game and that the next dead ball after the clock hits the defined time will cause this to happen.

I would like to see a citing commission. We more or less have it but it is very arbitrary. A citing officer should sit in the stand and note incidents. EVERY match is reviewed by a panel after and independent of referee action at the time have a right to cite a player for disciplinary action. so every match not just the incidents that Joe Brolly chooses to rant about on the Sunday Game.

The mark has worked brilliantly much to my surprise. It has worked so well that I would extend it to allow a mark for any kick pass of 40m caught cleanly. It would be a way of breaking down the blanket defences ie long passes into the full forward caught cleanly would be rewarded with the opportunity of a shot at goal rather than having 3 or 4 men surrounding the forward immediately.

[Fuzzman]

Obviously I enjoyed the game on Sunday and especially Colm Cavanaghs' excellent catches. He was getting up great heights at some points and I was surprised that Donegal didn't try to keep it away from him more.

It was fascinating though how both teams changed their tactics of pushing up and I got the feeling Tyrone had planned for this more and were even trying to kick it over the midfielders onto a runner in the half forward line.
It meant rather than taking it short and slowly walking it up the pitch having to beat 14 men, they were now by-passing half the Donegal players and were on attack right away.

You could see the whole Donegal forward line sprinting back as fast as they could to get behind the ball again but often it was too late.

I think Mickey is often very shrewd with what he gives away to the media and I would imagine when he first said he didn't like the idea of the mark, he knew find well it would suit Colm and Sean Cavanagh with Morgan able to hit long accurate kickouts towards them making run into space. Sean caught a great one in the first 10 mins out on the left wing and his momentum took him over the sideline. Before the rule change of course that would not have been possible but I can see that happening more and more.
If you have a keeper who can kick it long and accurate and good fielders who can spring into space then I think we will see a hell of a lot more marks this summer.

[Jayop]

The mark has worked brilliantly much to my surprise. It has worked so well that I would extend it to allow a mark for any kick pass of 40m caught cleanly. It would be a way of breaking down the blanket defences ie long passes into the full forward caught cleanly would be rewarded with the opportunity of a shot at goal rather than having 3 or 4 men surrounding the forward immediately.

That is too much of a change to the game for me. I love the mark as it is now, but bringing it in for open play is taking the game too close to Aussie rules and will completely change the game.

The blanket defense is gone already and teams have already sussed how to beat it. Scoring is massively up on games 10 years ago and even further up on games 20 years ago. There's already very effective tactics for beating the blanket and it's being used expertly by the good sides.

[JimStynes]

Another good example of the mark working yesterday in the Down Monaghan game.

[Jinxy]

Plenty of high fielding in Killarney today.
You can't carry an average height 'runner' in midfield anymore.
This is a good thing.

[Taylor]

This has worked really well in fairness.

Now all we need is a rule for the kick out to travel 'x' amount of distance or past a certain line (say a new 30m line)

[screenexile]

Mickey Harte says the mark has nothing to do with the longer kickouts. . . we may delete the thread so!!

I thought it wouldn't improve things unless it was a forced kickout past the 45 but I'm glad to be proved wrong I think it's a great introduction and hasn't slowed the game down in the slightest bit!

[mcklatchee]

Mickey Harte says the mark has nothing to do with the longer kickouts. . . we may delete the thread so!!

I thought it wouldn't improve things unless it was a forced kickout past the 45 but I'm glad to be proved wrong I think it's a great introduction and hasn't slowed the game down in the slightest bit!

Mickey acting the mick there.

Wouldn't want to be giving Jarlath and his cohorts any encouragement to look at any further rule changes

[CJ2017]

Gearoid McKiernan - spectactular catch by the Cavan man which led to a goal.

https://twitter.com/GAA_2018_TG4/status/965623418614935552

https://www.balls.ie/gaa/watch-cavanman-makes-monster-mark-set-beautiful-goal-383599

any other contenders so far?

[Jinxy]

He gets bonus points for bursting one of his teammates in the process.

[omagh_gael]

I was pretty sceptical of this rule before it's introduction but now feel it's been one of the best tweaks to our games in a long time.

[trileacman]

f**king clickbait.

He catches a ball to the chest in a midfield where nobody jumps. Gearoid Mc Kiernans one of the top midfielders in Ireland. I'd say that catch wouldn't even be in his top 50%.

[manfromdelmonte]

next thing is to stop the runners going across the player looking to take a quick free

[rosnarun]

next thing is to stop the runners going across the player looking to take a quick free

that would just involve implementing a rule that has been there forever,
no chance