The State Of Gaelic Football

[blewuporstuffed]

One rule chnage/tweak that may be worth trialling is to enforce teams to line up as per the trow in for every kickout (i.e 6 forwards, 2 midfeilders,6 defenders) and the kickout must at least cross the 45.
This would elininate the short kickout, encourage more high feilding and make it more difficult for a team to set up defensively with extra bodies behind the ball.
Im sure someone might come up witha negative aspect of this i havent thought of, but i think if the game needs changing it should be more a tweak like this rather than just 'ban the handpass' or 'reduce the teams to 13' type thing

[Keyser soze]

13 a side might work and improve things but not on it's own.

Someone mentioned the lesson we got off the aussies last year in kicking. They have the mark that's likely the reason for that.

The mark from kickouts only might be worth considering on a trial basis with perhaps another mark / free kick [taken from the hands] option from the subsequent kick.   

It's a bit of an extreme proposal but no more so than introducing an additional card and a whole set of rules for this new card.

Was this not tried out before at one stage or am I imagining it? Round about the time they experimented with the kickouts from the hand, maybe the late '80's?

[Jinxy]

I'd change the pitch markings by adding a line at 40m.
Any score kicked from outside that is worth 2 points.
Would encourage long-range kicking and force defences to push up.
Plenty of lads out there who can kick scores from that distance as we saw last weekend.

[tonto1888]

lots of people mentioning going to 13 a side. Which 2 positions would drop out?

[AZOffaly]

Full Back, Full Forward I'd imagine. I played in the states and it was 13 a side, without a #3 and #14. It was great for a forward.

[BennyHarp]

Full Back, Full Forward I'd imagine. I played in the states and it was 13 a side, without a #3 and #14. It was great for a forward.

Was this not mainly because the pitches weren't big enough for 15 v 15?. When I played there it was on American football pitches with soccer goals and American football posts. It was 13 a side but you'd hardly notice such was the size of the pitch. I've also played full forward 13 a side on full size pitches in England, it's a killer if you are getting on a bit and not particularly fit.  People are already giving off about the game being made up of athletes, you need to be an athlete in 13 a side in Croke Park. I can't see teams leaving 2 on 2 inside with that kind of space.

[AZOffaly]

It was yeah, but I suppose the same root cause. 15 a side would have meant no space at all, so making it 13 a side made it feel more like home. But most of them played orthodox, so as a corner forward you had loads of space to pull the older, fatter, corner backs into.

I'm sure making it 13 a side here would just mean a different configuration of the blanket. Probably 12 behind the ball and only 1 left up front!

[Rossfan]

....with fly by night rule changes that aren't thought out, trialled or negotiated with those actually playing and managing in the game.

Pity you weren't around in 1974 or so when they brought in the fcukin hand pass without trials or negotiations.

Rossfan, do you really want to go back to a game with NO handpassing?

Yes. Fisted passes ok but not the current half throw. Also ban the half throwing the ball over the bar.

[deiseach]

lots of people mentioning going to 13 a side. Which 2 positions would drop out?

Why would it matter? It's not like rugby where you have a scrum which requires players with specialist skills. The 3-3-2-3-3 formations are purely notional these days anyway. And there's many a game which started with only 13 players on one or both of the teams!

[BennyHarp]

....with fly by night rule changes that aren't thought out, trialled or negotiated with those actually playing and managing in the game.

Pity you weren't around in 1974 or so when they brought in the fcukin hand pass without trials or negotiations.

Rossfan, do you really want to go back to a game with NO handpassing?

Yes. Fisted passes ok but not the current half throw. Also ban the half throwing the ball over the bar.

I agree, we could be more strict on the fisted pass. But we tried it a few years ago and for about 3 weeks the refs blew foul on nearly every hand pass, but after a while they seemed to forget about the rule and it appears to have disappeared again.

[brokencrossbar1]

lots of people mentioning going to 13 a side. Which 2 positions would drop out?

Why would it matter? It's not like rugby where you have a scrum which requires players with specialist skills. The 3-3-2-3-3 formations are purely notional these days anyway. And there's many a game which started with only 13 players on one or both of the teams!

I agree,  both teams should line out inside their own 45 metre lines.  The team that win the toss chose the way they want to play,  the team that loses the toss then start with the ball on their own 45.  They start the game by kicking it to the opposition with the only restriction being that it must pass the other 45 m line.  After that they can play wherever they like.

[seafoid]

I'd change the pitch markings by adding a line at 40m.
Any score kicked from outside that is worth 2 points.
Would encourage long-range kicking and force defences to push up.
Plenty of lads out there who can kick scores from that distance as we saw last weekend.

Very good idea, Jinxy

[BluestackBoy]

I'd change the pitch markings by adding a line at 40m.
Any score kicked from outside that is worth 2 points.
Would encourage long-range kicking and force defences to push up.
Plenty of lads out there who can kick scores from that distance as we saw last weekend.

Very good idea, Jinxy

Whose going to adjudicate whether the player is inside or outside the line? What about the marginal calls where the player stars the kick outside the 40 but finishes the kick on or inside the line?
A recipe for mayhem & more abuse for officials.

[INDIANA]

I'd change the pitch markings by adding a line at 40m.
Any score kicked from outside that is worth 2 points.
Would encourage long-range kicking and force defences to push up.
Plenty of lads out there who can kick scores from that distance as we saw last weekend.

Very good idea, Jinxy

Whose going to adjudicate whether the player is inside or outside the line? What about the marginal calls where the player stars the kick outside the 40 but finishes the kick on or inside the line?
A recipe for mayhem & more abuse for officials.

Are you from the North?

[Asal Mor]

I'd change the pitch markings by adding a line at 40m.
Any score kicked from outside that is worth 2 points.
Would encourage long-range kicking and force defences to push up.
Plenty of lads out there who can kick scores from that distance as we saw last weekend.

Very good idea, Jinxy

Whose going to adjudicate whether the player is inside or outside the line? What about the marginal calls where the player stars the kick outside the 40 but finishes the kick on or inside the line?
A recipe for mayhem & more abuse for officials.

Seems a good idea to me and something that would be easy enough to judge, unlike the tackle which causes most of the officiating problems.