The State Of Gaelic Football

[Jinxy]

But how will you know when it's the last quarter?
We'll need someone to time it accurately, and we'll probably have to get spare watches for all the officials, and then we'll need some sort of alarm to let everyone know it's the final quarter... no, it just won't work.

[BennyHarp]

But how will you know when it's the last quarter?
We'll need someone to time it accurately, and we'll probably have to get spare watches for all the officials, and then we'll need some sort of alarm to let everyone know it's the final quarter... no, it just won't work.

Would it be too hard for a ref to check his watch when giving out the black card, check if there is 15mins or less left in the games (not taking into account injury time) and inform the player that a replacement can or can't be brought on?

[time ticking away]

A rule which makes kickouts go past the 45m line would create a scrum in the middle third as the team defending the kickouts bring three or four (or 5) of their forwards out into that area to contest breaking ball.
Unfortunately most rule changes will lead to a new problem, that's why they need to be carefully thought through

[blewuporstuffed]

A rule which makes kickouts go past the 45m line would create a scrum in the middle third as the team defending the kickouts bring three or four (or 5) of their forwards out into that area to contest breaking ball.
Unfortunately most rule changes will lead to a new problem, that's why they need to be carefully thought through

Yeah i agree, which is why any rule change about the distance the kickout has to travel would also need something that limits the number of players in the MF sector.
There is no one simple solution though and if any rule changes are to be made they need to be trialed extensivly before they are implemented.

[muppet]

I think we should have 15 zones on the pitch.

Each team will have a player nominated to contest each zone. A player must not leave his zone, except midfielders who may travel from zone to zone as they see fit, and forwards may run into the goalkeepers zone once the ball is in there.

Zones shall be lined with ropes to mark the limit of each player's zonal area. Players shall wear gloves, big gloves. To get from one zone to another players will have to jump the ropes. This will go down well, as fans seem to love players jumping.

This will also ensure the game returns to its traditional style of 15 contests.

Finally, Ger Canning will get much more use of the phrase 'he is in the zone'.

[illdecide]

So what happens if a Goal Keeper takes his kick out and makes a mistake and the ball drops a meter or two short of the 45 line what punishment will the ref apply?

[Bingo]

So what happens if a Goal Keeper takes his kick out and makes a mistake and the ball drops a meter or two short of the 45 line what punishment will the ref apply?

Free in where it lands. But in that case I would think a 45 rule is too much. On some days with a strong breeze, this would be very hard everytime and lead to a lot of time wasting.

30m broken line be ideal. Free in where ball lands or throw up where ball lands.

[Hound]

Why on earth would anyone (outside of Ulster) want to penalise the short kickout?

Conceding short kickouts is the one downside to operating the blanket defence, in that it gives the opposition free reign to start an attack with easy possession. Forcing long kickouts would force every team to implement blanket defence as there'd be no reason to leave forwards up top!

I like the idea of a "2 pointer" point for long range efforts. Although small downside would be you'd need to draw a new arc in each half, like the basketball 3 pointer arc.

[Jinxy]

So what happens if a Goal Keeper takes his kick out and makes a mistake and the ball drops a meter or two short of the 45 line what punishment will the ref apply?

Black card.

[thewobbler]

I want to to leave this thread alone as it's clearly full of people who can't count past 10, but I have to do this:

1. There's a 30 mph breeze, and your keeper gets hurt. So a sub corner back gets fired in nets. Are really telling me that as if his day isn't ruined enough, he also has to kick every ball a distance that's beyond him? FFS think about this one you twits.

2. I'm Stephen Cluxton (I'm not really, but let's pretend), and I'm up hitting a free and it drops short. The resultant clearance goes to our centre back who lays it back to me on the halfway line to restart the attack. Foul? f**k off. What about once we start getting even more clever. We are slowing the game down and tossing the ball around our full back line. I step out beyond my full back line, where MDMA fists it back to me. Foul? f**k off. Let's say we all agree that this isn't a foul, but Johnny Cooper the cute wee b**tard decides to step in behind me in nets. I pass it back to him. Foul? f**k off. Seriously, think this one out twits. A goalkeeper is identical in football apart from a couple of rules to allow him to fulfil his job. This is not soccer. Passes to a keeper are not a problem. Not even remotely close.

3. Look, only an idiot shoots from 40m when there's a free man closer to goal. Being able to kick a ball a long way is not as important as being able to play football. If you want to come up with schemes that reward idiocy, go and join Sinn Fein. Leave the GAA alone.

[BennyHarp]

I want to to leave this thread alone as it's clearly full of people who can't count past 10, but I have to do this:

1. There's a 30 mph breeze, and your keeper gets hurt. So a sub corner back gets fired in nets. Are really telling me that as if his day isn't ruined enough, he also has to kick every ball a distance that's beyond him? FFS think about this one you twits.

2. I'm Stephen Cluxton (I'm not really, but let's pretend), and I'm up hitting a free and it drops short. The resultant clearance goes to our centre back who lays it back to me on the halfway line to restart the attack. Foul? f**k off. What about once we start getting even more clever. We are slowing the game down and tossing the ball around our full back line. I step out beyond my full back line, where MDMA fists it back to me. Foul? f**k off. Let's say we all agree that this isn't a foul, but Johnny Cooper the cute wee b**tard decides to step in behind me in nets. I pass it back to him. Foul? f**k off. Seriously, think this one out twits. A goalkeeper is identical in football apart from a couple of rules to allow him to fulfil his job. This is not soccer. Passes to a keeper are not a problem. Not even remotely close.

3. Look, only an idiot shoots from 40m when there's a free man closer to goal. Being able to kick a ball a long way is not as important as being able to play football. If you want to come up with schemes that reward idiocy, go and join Sinn Fein. Leave the GAA alone.

I agree, Colm O'Rourke is a twit.

[time ticking away]

So what happens if a Goal Keeper takes his kick out and makes a mistake and the ball drops a meter or two short of the 45 line what punishment will the ref apply?

Black card.

😃 some brilliant stuff in this thread but jinxy... What a poster
I feel like a stalker following you around the gaaboard having little giggles to myself. I love muppets idea of having to jump over the ropes too, especially with big gloves

[Jinxy]

I want to to leave this thread alone as it's clearly full of people who can't count past 10, but I have to do this:

1. There's a 30 mph breeze, and your keeper gets hurt. So a sub corner back gets fired in nets. Are really telling me that as if his day isn't ruined enough, he also has to kick every ball a distance that's beyond him? FFS think about this one you twits.

2. I'm Stephen Cluxton (I'm not really, but let's pretend), and I'm up hitting a free and it drops short. The resultant clearance goes to our centre back who lays it back to me on the halfway line to restart the attack. Foul? f**k off. What about once we start getting even more clever. We are slowing the game down and tossing the ball around our full back line. I step out beyond my full back line, where MDMA fists it back to me. Foul? f**k off. Let's say we all agree that this isn't a foul, but Johnny Cooper the cute wee b**tard decides to step in behind me in nets. I pass it back to him. Foul? f**k off. Seriously, think this one out twits. A goalkeeper is identical in football apart from a couple of rules to allow him to fulfil his job. This is not soccer. Passes to a keeper are not a problem. Not even remotely close.

3. Look, only an idiot shoots from 40m when there's a free man closer to goal. Being able to kick a ball a long way is not as important as being able to play football. If you want to come up with schemes that reward idiocy, go and join Sinn Fein. Leave the GAA alone.

I liked your first two points.

[Jinxy]

So what happens if a Goal Keeper takes his kick out and makes a mistake and the ball drops a meter or two short of the 45 line what punishment will the ref apply?

Black card.

😃 some brilliant stuff in this thread but jinxy... What a poster
I feel like a stalker following you around the gaaboard having little giggles to myself. I love muppets idea of having to jump over the ropes too, especially with big gloves

As long as it's just around the gaaboard.

[Lone Shark]

I've kept an eye on this thread and I've noted with interest how most of these "remedies" are all being suggested without the slightest bit of thought as to how managers and players will react once they are brought in. And let's not forget, that's a large part of the reason why we've gotten to where we are in the first place. If I recall correctly, Aidan O'Rourke was the only manager who came out and said what I suspected myself a couple of years ago, that if you put in place a rule whereby a defender is going to get black carded every time he pulls down a forward in a one on one situation, his manager is going to make pretty damn sure that he never leave the defender in that situation - he's going to make sure he has at least one and ideally two players covering the backsman, so he's never forced to foul cynically.

So rather than repeat the mistake, how about we think logically about what's going to happen in a lot of these situations? For example the 40m line with points worth two outside of that - well then obviously I'm going to move the ball over and back across that line, looking to draw a free, or to get my long range shooter in place to shoot. If I get a lot of frees, we have more dead time while goalkeepers trek up the field to take six or seven of these kicks per game, killing a minute or more every time. How's that for drama! And what's the opposition going  to do - PULL MORE MEN BACK TO COVER THIS AREA!!! Pretty soon there will be no forwards left.

That's before we consider the fact that for every spectacular point from long range, there will be three wild punts that drift well wide of the target. Again, let's not forget that most people who play football aren't senior intercounty, they're underage or junior.

Three handpasses in a row - so aside from the fact that I'm giving under pressure referees even more stuff to think about (and while the likes of Joe McQuillan and Maurice Deegan will be fine, I'm not sure that you're average Junior B ref will be able for it) I'm also going to lead to a situation where lads kick the ball backwards just to break the run of handpasses, rather than slip the ball to a guy moving at pace and keep forward momentum going. Or possibly more aimless booting down the field, ideally aiming for the corner of your attack, and hoping that the opposition gets there first so that you can smother them, or force a kick off their own goal-line. None of this will be attractive.

Max distance on kickouts - aside from the fact that it's unenforceable (I was at a senior schools game this year where the wind was ferocious - no points against the wind, neither keeper could get the ball beyond his own 45m line) - it also means that every forward will pull back into that area and crowd out the dropping ball. If the backs follow them, they'll have 50 yards of open country. If they don't, they'll be idle spectators. I'll spend the whole game playing to make the opposition kick it out.


Aside from the fact that I don't think the sport is in too much trouble, can we please think before making more rule changes - and I don't mean think about what's the problem now, but think about what the knock on effect of all these changes might be.