Ulster Championship 2025

[JoG2]

I was just about to say you would need to stop giving your opinion on the rules lads or Rossfan would be in to give out to ya. But he beat me to it. 🤣

The only place there is constant giving out about the new rules is this forum
They were voted in by over 90%.

I think you need to speak to more people. There is a lot of discussion about them. Some positive, some not so much. But your constant attempt to shut down discussion about them is as irritating as f**k.

I've been to good few games this year, Derry, Armagh and Tyrone games. A few club games now too.
The constant discussion in the crowd is, these rules are sh*te.
The media are fawning over the rules - and that's where the perception of them being all positive comes from.
Some rules are good, such as the tap and go, the dissent rule. Lets the game move quicker and cuts out the nonsense.
The rules were brought in to make the game more exciting, encourage kicking and long range scores.
So far, games are not more exciting - for me it's exciting when an underdog has a fighting chance and games are close.  So far there have been no exciting games imo. I was at Tyrone v Cavan - even Tyrone fans were leaving before then end.

Have the new rules encouraged more kicking? Only from kickouts as far as I see.
How many balls are kicked into FF in any game? Has it increased since the new rules came in? I'd love to see the stats - which we were promised when these rules were brought in. We always had some long range scores, we now have some 2 pointers - has the % of long range scores gone up?

Have the new rules stopped the lateral play? Maybe reduced it a bit, but most lateral play now is across the new arc. Still plenty of lateral play.

I just don't get the where the huge improvement is as a spectacle.

There were a lot of good games in the league... rules do need tweaking. Is it really fault of the rules that Derry and Cavan got hammered?... 15 behind the ball and lateral and backward passing all day was a nightmare. Maybe the coaches have destroyed the game and it isn't retrievable.

In the league the rules changed half way through and there were plenty of rubbish games too.
And now we have 12 behind the ball with lateral passing around the arc. So that hasn't changed and there's no massive deluge of goals unless there is a sending off.

And no, the rules were not the reasons Derry and Cavan got beat, but they certainly contributed to the manner of defeat.
Under old rules, if you we losing all the MF battles from a long kickout, you have the option of going short to try to get back into the game, or at least to take pressure off by getting some possession. That's almost impossible now, so you just have to keep with the same long kick and continue to get wiped out. Who does that help? Not the spectator or either of the teams in my view.

From the perspective of the stronger teams, the rules are probably great. Dublin, Kerry, Donegal, Armagh...the underdog is now less likely to catch them. So the status quo remains.
I guarantee if Dublin/Kerry are getting continually beaten by 10 points under the new rules, all of a sudden the rules will change again.

Also in the league, not all the rules were applied to all the games! No hooter in Div 3/4.
No hooter in championship now either unless televised. So it's not an even playing field. Either apply the rules to every game or don't apply them I would have thought.

Where to start there?!
I'm a long time following football and don't think I've ever seen Dublin and Kerry getting continually beaten by 10 points! Like where did you pull that out of? The game has been a mess for years and needed changed nothing to do with Dublin or Kerry. #paranoid

It's when a Kerry or Dublin lose a semi final / final or two in games (when they were in control for large portions) due to the opposition getting a run on them (by winning the lotto on the long kickouts) in the closing 10mins...

I genuinely have absolutely no idea what you're saying here 

Being daft isn't a crime, so no harm done

Going from talking shite to personal insults... well done 👏

Indeed

[Truthsayer]

I was just about to say you would need to stop giving your opinion on the rules lads or Rossfan would be in to give out to ya. But he beat me to it. 🤣

The only place there is constant giving out about the new rules is this forum
They were voted in by over 90%.

I think you need to speak to more people. There is a lot of discussion about them. Some positive, some not so much. But your constant attempt to shut down discussion about them is as irritating as f**k.

I've been to good few games this year, Derry, Armagh and Tyrone games. A few club games now too.
The constant discussion in the crowd is, these rules are sh*te.
The media are fawning over the rules - and that's where the perception of them being all positive comes from.
Some rules are good, such as the tap and go, the dissent rule. Lets the game move quicker and cuts out the nonsense.
The rules were brought in to make the game more exciting, encourage kicking and long range scores.
So far, games are not more exciting - for me it's exciting when an underdog has a fighting chance and games are close.  So far there have been no exciting games imo. I was at Tyrone v Cavan - even Tyrone fans were leaving before then end.

Have the new rules encouraged more kicking? Only from kickouts as far as I see.
How many balls are kicked into FF in any game? Has it increased since the new rules came in? I'd love to see the stats - which we were promised when these rules were brought in. We always had some long range scores, we now have some 2 pointers - has the % of long range scores gone up?

Have the new rules stopped the lateral play? Maybe reduced it a bit, but most lateral play now is across the new arc. Still plenty of lateral play.

I just don't get the where the huge improvement is as a spectacle.

There were a lot of good games in the league... rules do need tweaking. Is it really fault of the rules that Derry and Cavan got hammered?... 15 behind the ball and lateral and backward passing all day was a nightmare. Maybe the coaches have destroyed the game and it isn't retrievable.

In the league the rules changed half way through and there were plenty of rubbish games too.
And now we have 12 behind the ball with lateral passing around the arc. So that hasn't changed and there's no massive deluge of goals unless there is a sending off.

And no, the rules were not the reasons Derry and Cavan got beat, but they certainly contributed to the manner of defeat.
Under old rules, if you we losing all the MF battles from a long kickout, you have the option of going short to try to get back into the game, or at least to take pressure off by getting some possession. That's almost impossible now, so you just have to keep with the same long kick and continue to get wiped out. Who does that help? Not the spectator or either of the teams in my view.

From the perspective of the stronger teams, the rules are probably great. Dublin, Kerry, Donegal, Armagh...the underdog is now less likely to catch them. So the status quo remains.
I guarantee if Dublin/Kerry are getting continually beaten by 10 points under the new rules, all of a sudden the rules will change again.

Also in the league, not all the rules were applied to all the games! No hooter in Div 3/4.
No hooter in championship now either unless televised. So it's not an even playing field. Either apply the rules to every game or don't apply them I would have thought.

Where to start there?!
I'm a long time following football and don't think I've ever seen Dublin and Kerry getting continually beaten by 10 points! Like where did you pull that out of? The game has been a mess for years and needed changed nothing to do with Dublin or Kerry. #paranoid

It's when a Kerry or Dublin lose a semi final / final or two in games (when they were in control for large portions) due to the opposition getting a run on them (by winning the lotto on the long kickouts) in the closing 10mins...

I genuinely have absolutely no idea what you're saying here 

Being daft isn't a crime, so no harm done

Going from talking shite to personal insults... well done 👏

Indeed

Just stating I'd no idea what you were on about.. hardly personal insult... am now thinking you have no idea what you're on about either 😂😆

[JoG2]

Wouldn't be new in fairness!

[Armamike]

Seems there are two types of people who follow football.

1. Those who can recall just how awful the game had become, especially in terms of lateral play.

2. Those with goldfish memories.

3. Those who can see the need for change but not via a superimposed controlled experiment.

[tbrick18]

3. Those who enjoy the spectacle within the confine of whatever rules are in place.  There have been matches under the old rules where 1-7 to 0-9 have been as enjoyable if not more than 1-24 to 1-34 under the new rules.

The new rules give no consideration to defenders or defensive play. Everything it to make it easier to score - so much so it devalues the individual score. Some people already saying Goal should be 4 under the new rules.

Rules that say a defender is not allowed to tackle. WTF?

Or rules that say you are allowed to defend, but not too much as we don't want the defender to win out.

Rules that say you're keeper can have the ball passed to him in his own half....even soccer allows that.

Rules that say when you've fallen on he ball with 3 opponents standing over you not allowing you up, if you dont immediately jump to your feet and hand the ball to the oppositions on conceding a free, that a 50m advance is given. Even if from your position you've no idea what way the free has been given.

But but but - lateral play was bad. Has it gone away now? Has it feck.

I remember seeing players score from outside the 45 in the old rules, now if you score from outside a 40m arc you get 2 points! That's not an improvement, that's devaluing what was a hard won score under old rules.

[Truthsayer]

3. Those who enjoy the spectacle within the confine of whatever rules are in place.  There have been matches under the old rules where 1-7 to 0-9 have been as enjoyable if not more than 1-24 to 1-34 under the new rules.

The new rules give no consideration to defenders or defensive play. Everything it to make it easier to score - so much so it devalues the individual score. Some people already saying Goal should be 4 under the new rules.

Rules that say a defender is not allowed to tackle. WTF?

Or rules that say you are allowed to defend, but not too much as we don't want the defender to win out.

Rules that say you're keeper can have the ball passed to him in his own half....even soccer allows that.

Rules that say when you've fallen on he ball with 3 opponents standing over you not allowing you up, if you dont immediately jump to your feet and hand the ball to the oppositions on conceding a free, that a 50m advance is given. Even if from your position you've no idea what way the free has been given.

But but but - lateral play was bad. Has it gone away now? Has it feck.

I remember seeing players score from outside the 45 in the old rules, now if you score from outside a 40m arc you get 2 points! That's not an improvement, that's devaluing what was a hard won score under old rules.

The game had become completely unbearable and unwatchable. Many of the players hated it. I do agree is more tweaks needed and I'd say there will be.. you're talking about fixing a car wreck... not that easy to get back to it's prime ..

[thebigfullforward]

Seems there are two types of people who follow football.

1. Those who can recall just how awful the game had become, especially in terms of lateral play.

2. Those with goldfish memories.

3. Those who aren't a fan of seeing teams score 25/30 plus a game like it's an NBA game with minor things being brought up 50m for a handy score

[thebigfullforward]

3. Those who enjoy the spectacle within the confine of whatever rules are in place.  There have been matches under the old rules where 1-7 to 0-9 have been as enjoyable if not more than 1-24 to 1-34 under the new rules.

The new rules give no consideration to defenders or defensive play. Everything it to make it easier to score - so much so it devalues the individual score. Some people already saying Goal should be 4 under the new rules.

Rules that say a defender is not allowed to tackle. WTF?

Or rules that say you are allowed to defend, but not too much as we don't want the defender to win out.

Rules that say you're keeper can have the ball passed to him in his own half....even soccer allows that.

Rules that say when you've fallen on he ball with 3 opponents standing over you not allowing you up, if you dont immediately jump to your feet and hand the ball to the oppositions on conceding a free, that a 50m advance is given. Even if from your position you've no idea what way the free has been given.

But but but - lateral play was bad. Has it gone away now? Has it feck.

I remember seeing players score from outside the 45 in the old rules, now if you score from outside a 40m arc you get 2 points! That's not an improvement, that's devaluing what was a hard won score under old rules.

Agreed. Said it somewhere else but watching McKernan being shoved around by 2 players and dropping the ball only for the ref to bring it forward 50m because he didn't (couldn't) hand the ball back isn't what we want to see. Not the refs fault as he's just following the rules. Stuff like that there and players catching a mark and running into opponents to get the ball brought forward 50m isn't actually good for the game

[tyrone08]

3. Those who enjoy the spectacle within the confine of whatever rules are in place.  There have been matches under the old rules where 1-7 to 0-9 have been as enjoyable if not more than 1-24 to 1-34 under the new rules.

The new rules give no consideration to defenders or defensive play. Everything it to make it easier to score - so much so it devalues the individual score. Some people already saying Goal should be 4 under the new rules.

Rules that say a defender is not allowed to tackle. WTF?

Or rules that say you are allowed to defend, but not too much as we don't want the defender to win out.

Rules that say you're keeper can have the ball passed to him in his own half....even soccer allows that.

Rules that say when you've fallen on he ball with 3 opponents standing over you not allowing you up, if you dont immediately jump to your feet and hand the ball to the oppositions on conceding a free, that a 50m advance is given. Even if from your position you've no idea what way the free has been given.

But but but - lateral play was bad. Has it gone away now? Has it feck.

I remember seeing players score from outside the 45 in the old rules, now if you score from outside a 40m arc you get 2 points! That's not an improvement, that's devaluing what was a hard won score under old rules.

Agreed. Said it somewhere else but watching McKernan being shoved around by 2 players and dropping the ball only for the ref to bring it forward 50m because he didn't (couldn't) hand the ball back isn't what we want to see. Not the refs fault as he's just following the rules. Stuff like that there and players catching a mark and running into opponents to get the ball brought forward 50m isn't actually good for the game

Agree with all this.

Defenders are not allowed to do their job anymore. Give me a hard earned scored or a brilliant diving block over an athletic kicking a ball over a bar unopposed for 2 points any day of the week.

The McKernan one was completely ridiculous, he was being shoved around the place and gets further punished by the ball being brought forward 50m. I disagree that its not the refs fault, of course it was. If a player is get pushed or fouled they cant be expected to hand the ball back.

Wait until fans of the new rules suffer at the hands of them then there will be an uproar. Imagine losing an AI final for the ball being brought 50m forward because of an incident like McKernan's. You would be raging.

[tyrone08]

Point is refs seem to making multi mistakes during matches. A player queries that,  its moved up. Who reviews a poor ref performance. Does somebody ever come out and say. Sorry that mistake cause you a game.

Ref's are assessed every game at that level.

Players managers make more mistakes in a game, period.

You can watch 4 games in a weekend and see the rules being applied differently each game. Has anyone ever seen black cards for a melee given since Gough game them to Tyrone/Armagh. Has anyone seen a black card and a penalty given for denying a clear goal scoring opportunity given since Gough gave one?

A poor ref decision can have far more of an impact than a mistake by a player or manager.

Rules need to be made simpler to help refs but lets not kid ourselves that refs are at a high consistent standard.

Before anyone jumps on supporting the ref bandwagon. Players and managers are criticized weekly during and after matches and national programs such as the Sunday Game. Its not much to ask that refs performances are reviewed as well

[Blowitupref]

From Ulster GAA

Venue options for the second Semi-Final of the Ulster SFC were confirmed by Ulster CCC, as follows:

Sunday 27th April, 3.00pm

▪️If Fermanagh v Monaghan at Breffni Park
▪️If Fermanagh v Donegal at Clones
▪️If Down v Monaghan at Athletic Grounds
▪️If Down v Donegal at Clones

[flowerpot]

Point is refs seem to making multi mistakes during matches. A player queries that,  its moved up. Who reviews a poor ref performance. Does somebody ever come out and say. Sorry that mistake cause you a game.

Ref's are assessed every game at that level.

Players managers make more mistakes in a game, period.

You can watch 4 games in a weekend and see the rules being applied differently each game. Has anyone ever seen black cards for a melee given since Gough game them to Tyrone/Armagh. Has anyone seen a black card and a penalty given for denying a clear goal scoring opportunity given since Gough gave one?

A poor ref decision can have far more of an impact than a mistake by a player or manager.

Rules need to be made simpler to help refs but lets not kid ourselves that refs are at a high consistent standard.

Before anyone jumps on supporting the ref bandwagon. Players and managers are criticized weekly during and after matches and national programs such as the Sunday Game. Its not much to ask that refs performances are reviewed as well

Don't mention the refs you will be told to go be a ref yourself and called a dose! 

[Rossfan]

What new rule says a defender can't block a kick (in play)?
All rule changes are "imposed from above" i.e., Congress.
Blocking a free/mark is cynical play and deserves a 50m punishment.
Handing the ball to an opponent for a free is good sportsmanship.
Abusing refs and officials gas to be stopped.

[Armamike]

3. Those who enjoy the spectacle within the confine of whatever rules are in place.  There have been matches under the old rules where 1-7 to 0-9 have been as enjoyable if not more than 1-24 to 1-34 under the new rules.

The new rules give no consideration to defenders or defensive play. Everything it to make it easier to score - so much so it devalues the individual score. Some people already saying Goal should be 4 under the new rules.

Rules that say a defender is not allowed to tackle. WTF?

Or rules that say you are allowed to defend, but not too much as we don't want the defender to win out.

Rules that say you're keeper can have the ball passed to him in his own half....even soccer allows that.

Rules that say when you've fallen on he ball with 3 opponents standing over you not allowing you up, if you dont immediately jump to your feet and hand the ball to the oppositions on conceding a free, that a 50m advance is given. Even if from your position you've no idea what way the free has been given.

But but but - lateral play was bad. Has it gone away now? Has it feck.

I remember seeing players score from outside the 45 in the old rules, now if you score from outside a 40m arc you get 2 points! That's not an improvement, that's devaluing what was a hard won score under old rules.

Agree completely. 

[thebigfullforward]

What new rule says a defender can't block a kick (in play)?
All rule changes are "imposed from above" i.e., Congress.
Blocking a free/mark is cynical play and deserves a 50m punishment.
Handing the ball to an opponent for a free is good sportsmanship.
Abusing refs and officials gas to be stopped.

What new rule says a defender can't block a kick (in play)?
All rule changes are "imposed from above" i.e., Congress.
Blocking a free/mark is cynical play and deserves a 50m punishment.
Handing the ball to an opponent for a free is good sportsmanship.
Abusing refs and officials gas to be stopped.

Said it before but was at a minor game where one of our lads fouled opposition player A. Opposition player B ran up to him to take the ball of our player. Our player threw the ball over players B head back to player A and where the foul was committed. Referee brought it forward 50m. Did our player not practice good sportsmanship there and still punished for it? Funny if our player did give it to player B though I'm sure the ref would send him back to where the foul was committed, slowing the game down.

As Mulligan said on BBC how do players know what refs take as abuse? Someone could say something innocuous enough and the ref could take it the wrong way all of a sudden it's brought up for a either a guaranteed point or a chance for 2.

As MilltownRow constantly says, players and managers make mistakes. But I've heard them get abuse shouted at them if the mistake is bad enough either from teammates or management. If refs make a mistake why would they not get shouted at too? It's unrealistic