Messages

100% correct call on Conor Daly. Throw ball. There would have been no objection had it happened in the first minute. Rules apply for the 70+ minutes.

No consensus on a slate of winners for this weekend which is a very positive outcome for the extended championship.
Donegal Tyrone will be fascinating this evening, the underlying animosity and stage of championship have converged.

When is the last time they played a knockout game?

Monaghan
Cork
Mayo
Tyrone
Meath
Down
@ 28/1 Kildare most likely to scupper it.

Seen that punch to the head in the Mayo/Cork game, whether he meant it or not doesn't matter. Was a real card all day.

The referee was very poor, penalty was very soft , looked back at it a few times now and cannot see any foul.

ON totally neutral viewing it certainly wasn't a penalty.  Let's say if Mayo hadn't just  scored a goal to go 6 up, but instead the 'foul' happened when teams were level and 6 minutes injury time elapsed, he  probably wouldn't have awarded the penalty.  It was a classic case of refereeing the circumstances not the incident.
McQuillan did the same for the last Galway free. I said it as Grugan lined up to tap over the winner (from was another soft free), 'this ref will definitely engineer another chance for Galway'.

It is a worse problem in the game than biased reffing, and supporters are conditioned to it now, expecting the free when you are a point down late on. Go play by play refs, and stop this craic of influencing the result. 

Joe McQuillan would wear you out. Soft frees given for any tackle, technical calls ignored.

It is a nailed on certainty that Monaghan will be drawn to play Tyrone in Omagh next week.

Monaghan lost because they failed to put any real pressure on the Donegal scire-kickers in the first half,
Centre half back position was wide open all evening.
Separately, the refereeing standard was, let's say, disappointing for this level of football.

There are rules and then common sense.

How so? Just ignore the rule based on the circumstance?

Should a player be penalized for throwing the ball? Should a player be penalized for overcarrying? Or does it depend on other factors?

I made a huge mistake reffing a B league game last night, namely implementing the rules.
Penalized 2 players in the early minutes for clearly throwing the hand-pass, one of which had put a lad through one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Also gave a couple frees out when lads went over on steps, causing a disallowed point in one case. Mayhem ensued. nobody cares about consistent application of the rules at the instant where it costs their team a score.

Whatever made you think the rules were meant  to be applied?

I think it was sunstroke. The expanding bald patch cant take it.

I made a huge mistake reffing a B league game last night, namely implementing the rules.
Penalized 2 players in the early minutes for clearly throwing the hand-pass, one of which had put a lad through one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Also gave a couple frees out when lads went over on steps, causing a disallowed point in one case. Mayhem ensued. nobody cares about consistent application of the rules at the instant where it costs their team a score. 

Derry are the team to beat I think, even against Kerry in a final. Monaghan took them to extra time and penalties but needed goals to do it.  Dublin looked beat at the weekend, only for a dodgy decision or two; expect Derry to turn them over. Monaghan themselves are a credit, playing some serious football with a panel picked from fewer than 20 minor club teams. I hope they make the final.

Not one free given for an overcarrying call in the Clare Monaghan match today, and 7 or 8 points scored from handy 20m frees. No wonder we had a high scoring game in Clones because tackling in all forms was banned.

A sunny June Bank Holiday and a full slate of good fixtures to get through, football is centre stage this weekend. A few cold ones and watch Tyrone Armagh tonight, then make a long trek to Clones tomorrow. How bad?
You need matches to be relevant. So despite a few glitches, the broad concept is an improvement from half the teams in the country with no games after early May.
People say what's the point in these games yet continue to watch Spurs, Villa, Everton et al drudge through 38 games a season.

Why can't people just leave the game alone? Every week something happens then everyone looking the rules changed. Who would patrol a shot clock at a club game for example? Some of these suggestions are ridiculous. Seems like people just want to go back to the 'good old days'  of catch the ball and lump it as far as they can and hope your man gets it. No harm to anyone but i'd much prefer to watch any gaelic game from the 00's onwards than any of the games you see from the 70's or 80's.

I agree with the the sentiment here to a large extent. Bringing in radical changes like a shot clock as a knee jerk reaction is ludicrous.  That would turn football into some sort of poxy turns-based game like rugby league. Not where we need to go.  Learn from the damage done by the inside mark!

However, there is room to look at the details and interpretations of the game we already have.
I've started watching a fair bit of AFL again recently and despite its other flaws, the jeopardy involved in the constant risk of being turned over in possession makes for a compelling contest. We need more of that in football. Figuring out how is the issue. Most of the suggestions I've seen are likely to be counterproductive and full of risk of unintended consequence.

A system of repeated trial games under new rules, not in national competitions, is needed- does that exist?. Trying out a committees deliberations in the league is not satisfactory. 

The fault for Roscommon's protracted spell of passing lies with Dublin, not Roscommon. They didn't engage to try and win the ball back.

Changing any rule for this glitch in the the game has to be designed to create a contest for possession, not to put a time limit on it. It has to be made worth the risk of players coming out of a defensive mass, and to do that there must be a realistic chance of a turnover.  The written rules of rugby for are centred on the premise that control of the ball is contested at all times in open play, and the rules reward execution of superior skill to gain that control.Shot clock is an admission of defeat. 13-a side would make the situation worse because there is even more space and less opportunity to pressure the ball.

How can the same contest, or similar, be achieved in Gaelic football? It comes down to how easy it is for player to escape pressure, or to dispose of the ball under pressure. Steps out the tackle is an endemic problem, most especially if the the ball carrier is shaping to shoot. Defenders have zero chance if an attacking player is given 7 or 8 steps on the loop. Throwing the ball is the other menace. Its done so casually and so often now that refs barely even bother calling the free any more. The skill level needed to retain possession drops as a result.

Some possible solutions (bearing in mind the nightmare workload on officials already;
1) Ban the handpass over the bar as a scoring option, or indeed a ball palmed to the net from a handpass received.
2) 2 points for a point from play outside 45
3) Abolish the offensive/defensive mark
4) A player tackled and going to ground (knees on the ground) in possession of the ball must immediately release. Holding or lying on the ball on the ground = free (it already is but most refs chicken out and throw the ball up)
5) 5 steps maximum and indirect free for the infringement (take the pressure off the ref for calling a defender for over carrying)
6) If the ball is carried back into own 45 when in possession then it must be kick-passed until out of the '45