What Football Rule Changes Would you introduce next year?

[pintsofguinness]

Not 4 points for a goal, how about 2 points for a "point" kicked from outside 30 yards or something?

Again, like the idea of so many players remaining in 1 half, this could be a difficult one to call with kicks 'around' the 30 year mark.

no trouble with it in basketball, as Cosmo says get the linesmen and umpires involved.

Problem with some of these rules though is that they'd be very difficult/impossible to implement at club level and I'd be reluctant to have different sets of rules club and county.

[thewobbler]

Leave the rules alone. Yis are like Free Presbyterians and Reformed Presbyterians, tinkering and tweaking without really knowing why.

If referees showed a little more sense and seriously punished serial fouling, and if the DRA simply refused appeals except in cases of mistaken identity, the game would clean itself up within a year. Until this happens, we'll always have Derry vs Monaghans to put up with.

And when it happens, coaches like McEnaney and Cassidy would have no choice but to concentrate on core skills.


The mark my arse. Why not admire the skill in breaking the ball and winning breaking ball instead? Otherwise we'll end up with midfield being dominated by 7 ft tool footballing mungos.

Two points for a score outsiide 30m? yep, why not remove the full-forward from games completely, and play everybody behind the ball. Let's call the action a drop goal, and then rename our sport rugby.

13-a-side? Say goodbye to anyone playing county football again who can't run 100m in 11.5 secs.


Think before you tweak.

[pintsofguinness]

Two points for a score outsiide 30m? yep, why not remove the full-forward from games completely, and play everybody behind the ball. Let's call the action a drop goal, and then rename our sport rugby.

Nonsense, there's 3 points for a goal but does that mean teams go for goals only? Nope.  So what makes you think teams would only go for 2 points? 

[Maguire01]

I would like to see positional restrictions brought in i.e. each team must have at least 5 players in the opposition half at all times, to stop teams playing 13 men behind the ball style blanket defence.

Not a mission - you could never referee that.

It would have to be done by linesmen or umpires. Most of the time the umpires are standing up doing nothing, might as well get them involved.

It could make a big difference.

Linesmen have enough to do - they should be keeping their eye on what's going on with the play, rather than wondering how many men are left standing in the quiet half of the field.

The umpires wouldn't be able to tell where the half-way line was from their position. It would also require the umpires to be wired up to the ref.

Unfeasible proposition.

[Overthebar!]

2 points for scores from the sideline, prob more suited to hurling but could work in the fudball too

[From the Bunker]

Players sent off in normal time should not be allowed to be replaced into extra time.

If the tackle is not defined, then a player should be only be allowed one bounce one solo and have to release the ball.

Bookings for players pretending to be hit (mostly in the face)!

The Advatage rule to be 'part' of the rules.

Players sent off/Red carded to have GAME bans for their club or County only depending in which grade the offence occurred.

Ungentlemanly conduct to be penalised -  abusive remarks, Abusive language, disrespect shown to linesmen, umpires and the referee, disrespect for other players, show boating, impeding players from taking quick frees, .

Independent time keeper from the referee.

[pintsofguinness]

I would like to see positional restrictions brought in i.e. each team must have at least 5 players in the opposition half at all times, to stop teams playing 13 men behind the ball style blanket defence.

Not a mission - you could never referee that.

It would have to be done by linesmen or umpires. Most of the time the umpires are standing up doing nothing, might as well get them involved.

It could make a big difference.

Linesmen have enough to do - they should be keeping their eye on what's going on with the play, rather than wondering how many men are left standing in the quiet half of the field.

The umpires wouldn't be able to tell where the half-way line was from their position. It would also require the umpires to be wired up to the ref.

Unfeasible proposition.

No, but the linesmen and referee would/should know.

[Maguire01]

Not 4 points for a goal, how about 2 points for a "point" kicked from outside 30 yards or something?

Again, like the idea of so many players remaining in 1 half, this could be a difficult one to call with kicks 'around' the 30 year mark.

no trouble with it in basketball, as Cosmo says get the linesmen and umpires involved.

Basketball has a much smaller playing area - it's much easier to see where players are, plus there are less shots taken 'on the run'.
As i've responded to another post, umpires wouldn't be able to see the line from their position - you'd need to either be on the 30 yard mark, or be elevated.
Anyway, half the umpires can't even manage to decide when a ball goes between the posts, nevermind giving them more responsibility!

[thewobbler]

Nonsense, there's 3 points for a goal but does that mean teams go for goals only? Nope.  So what makes you think teams would only go for 2 points?  

About 15 years ago rugby made it 5 pts for a try instead of 4. Seeing as you could get 4 pts for all the exertion of a try, or 3 pts for the relative effortlessness of a drop goal/penalty, teams thought it much more efficient not to pursue tries. Football would end up in a similar quandary.

[Maguire01]

I would like to see positional restrictions brought in i.e. each team must have at least 5 players in the opposition half at all times, to stop teams playing 13 men behind the ball style blanket defence.

Not a mission - you could never referee that.

It would have to be done by linesmen or umpires. Most of the time the umpires are standing up doing nothing, might as well get them involved.

It could make a big difference.

Linesmen have enough to do - they should be keeping their eye on what's going on with the play, rather than wondering how many men are left standing in the quiet half of the field.

The umpires wouldn't be able to tell where the half-way line was from their position. It would also require the umpires to be wired up to the ref.

Unfeasible proposition.

No, but the linesmen and referee would/should know.

As i've said above, the linesmen and the ref should be up with the play, not spending time counting the number of men in the quiet end of the field.

[thewobbler]

2 points for scores from the sideline, prob more suited to hurling but could work in the fudball too

So winning a sideline becomes a tactic then? Should teams then have a specialist sideline kicker in their team regardless of ability?

Sidelines are a means of restarting play. Trying to make them a deciding factor in a game is madness. Fookin madness.

If the tackle is not defined, then a player should be only be allowed one bounce one solo and have to release the ball.

Because the tackle is not defined, that's pretty much the way the game has become anyway. Apart from corner-forwards when one on one, anyone eating the ball up these days tends to regret it.

[Cosmo Kramer]

I would like to see positional restrictions brought in i.e. each team must have at least 5 players in the opposition half at all times, to stop teams playing 13 men behind the ball style blanket defence.

Not a mission - you could never referee that.

It would have to be done by linesmen or umpires. Most of the time the umpires are standing up doing nothing, might as well get them involved.

It could make a big difference.

Linesmen have enough to do - they should be keeping their eye on what's going on with the play, rather than wondering how many men are left standing in the quiet half of the field.

The umpires wouldn't be able to tell where the half-way line was from their position. It would also require the umpires to be wired up to the ref.

Unfeasible proposition.

No, but the linesmen and referee would/should know.

As i've said above, the linesmen and the ref should be up with the play, not spending time counting the number of men in the quiet end of the field.

Linesmen manage it fine in soccer though (they do the offside rule, sometimes from 50 yards away when teams are hoofing it long) and a soccer pitch isn't that much smaller. Either way, something has to be done about blanket defense, its the worst looking tactic I've ever seen and as we saw last night, it's not going away, so something needs to be done.

[thewobbler]

Linesmen manage it fine in soccer though

.
1. According to match reports every week, they don't.
2. Linesmen in socccer only look after 50m of pitch. GAA linesmen do 140m.
3. If you've ever been to a local soccer match, when it's clubmen doing the line, you'll realise that referees never pay heed to a thing these linesmen do, because if they do, matches tend to get abandoned. Which we don't need in GAA.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Something needs to be done to prevent football decend further into the depths. What rules would you introduce to improve the game. For me the most simple and effective would be...

1) Mark for clean catch to prevent all this crowding around a fallen midfielder whos just made a great catch.
2) Similar to rugby a 10 minute sin bin stint for a yellow card. Unlike the experimental rules that does not mean that a punch in the gob is a yellow now, it is still a red. Refs have to be forced to give the correct card.
3) Would definetly look at a 13 a side experiment to see would it create any more space for forwards.

Edit - Maybe 4pts for a goal would be worth a go?

I like the first 2, particularly the second. I think that persistent fouling could be better addressed by ruthlessly enforcing a 10 minute sinbin for 3 personal fouls. use the 4th official to help keep track of the number of fouls of each player and to monitor the sin binnings.

Players sent off in normal time should not be allowed to be replaced into extra time.

If the tackle is not defined, then a player should be only be allowed one bounce one solo and have to release the ball.

Bookings for players pretending to be hit (mostly in the face)!

The Advatage rule to be 'part' of the rules.

Players sent off/Red carded to have GAME bans for their club or County only depending in which grade the offence occurred.

Ungentlemanly conduct to be penalised -  abusive remarks, Abusive language, disrespect shown to linesmen, umpires and the referee, disrespect for other players, show boating, impeding players from taking quick frees, .

Independent time keeper from the referee.

Advantage is already part of the rules. Agree on the games, not time, principle for sendings off. Stevie McDonnell would have missed rounds 2,3 and 4 of the qualifiers had Armagh progressed after last night while Fergal Doherty will only miss 1 match for the same ban.

[Maguire01]

I would like to see positional restrictions brought in i.e. each team must have at least 5 players in the opposition half at all times, to stop teams playing 13 men behind the ball style blanket defence.

Not a mission - you could never referee that.

It would have to be done by linesmen or umpires. Most of the time the umpires are standing up doing nothing, might as well get them involved.

It could make a big difference.

Linesmen have enough to do - they should be keeping their eye on what's going on with the play, rather than wondering how many men are left standing in the quiet half of the field.

The umpires wouldn't be able to tell where the half-way line was from their position. It would also require the umpires to be wired up to the ref.

Unfeasible proposition.

No, but the linesmen and referee would/should know.

As i've said above, the linesmen and the ref should be up with the play, not spending time counting the number of men in the quiet end of the field.

Linesmen manage it fine in soccer though (they do the offside rule, sometimes from 50 yards away when teams are hoofing it long) and a soccer pitch isn't that much smaller. Either way, something has to be done about blanket defense, its the worst looking tactic I've ever seen and as we saw last night, it's not going away, so something needs to be done.

Rubbish. For the offside rule, the linesman has to look for one player who is generally close to the area of play. That's a big difference to having to figure out where the halfway line is exactly (when you're not close to it) and then count 5 or more players - all the time not concentrating on what's actually happening where the ball is!