The next rule change?

[brokencrossbar1]

Bc, watch Oisin today and you were seeing the all time highest scorer in Ulster Championship football, one of the best ball strikers in the history of the game.

He has a great technique and he practiced like hell, but there is also a rare natural talent in there too. You're of his run, and can no doubt tell of him kicking a ball for hours by himself as child. But so did hundreds and hundreds of fellas of his run across Armagh and Down - yet they all knew Ousin was better than them even at the age of 11.

Of course there is raw talent but I'll tell you now that a lot of work was put into that talent over the years.  The thing is if you take the players of my run as you put it at least half a dozen of the starting team that won the AI in 1997 could accurately and consistently kick points from 40 metres plus, Oisin, the twins, Cunningham, Fitzy and Donal Murtagh if required.  The likes of Colm O Neill and Cathal Short would also be fairly accurate.  This doesn't happen through "god given talent" and despite what you say can be coached.

[thewobbler]

Another way of looking at that BC though is to suggest that even in the best club team of all time, half of them couldn't kick the ball accurately over a distance. Did yis have split training or something?

[brokencrossbar1]

Another way of looking at that BC though is to suggest that even in the best club team of all time, half of them couldn't kick the ball accurately over a distance. Did yis have split training or something?

The rest of us were just crap.  I'm sure the Harps wouldn't mind having half a team who could kick accurately over 40 yards.

[andoireabu]

limited hand passes in a row would be good.

would it be an improvement in having two refs as they wouldn't be wrecked at the end of the game from running up and down or would it be too confusing for the players as no two refs seem to implement the rules the same way?

[muppet]

Minus a point for every wide.

[Rossfan]

limited hand passes in a row would be good.

would it be an improvement in having two refs as they wouldn't be wrecked at the end of the game from running up and down or would it be too confusing for the players as no two refs seem to implement the rules the same way?

It's hard enough to get one ref at times for club games never mind finding 2.
For me it's ban the fcukin handpass

[Leo]

limited hand passes in a row would be good.

would it be an improvement in having two refs as they wouldn't be wrecked at the end of the game from running up and down or would it be too confusing for the players as no two refs seem to implement the rules the same way?

I'm like a cracked record for years saying limit consecutive hand passes to 3 - then coaches have to take seriously the coaching of foot passes.
And suddenly we have invented    ---   FOOTball.

[thewobbler]

For me it's ban the fcukin handpass

why don't you just watch an cic fada?

I really don't understand why the likes of you watch the game at all.

[DUBSFORSAM1]

For me it's ban the fcukin handpass

why don't you just watch an cic fada?

I really don't understand why the likes of you watch the game at all.

What is wrong with actually wanting players to kick the ball more than they handpass???

[mountainboii]

limited hand passes in a row would be good.

would it be an improvement in having two refs as they wouldn't be wrecked at the end of the game from running up and down or would it be too confusing for the players as no two refs seem to implement the rules the same way?

I'm like a cracked record for years saying limit consecutive hand passes to 3 - then coaches have to take seriously the coaching of foot passes.
And suddenly we have invented    ---   FOOTball.

Terrible idea.

[Denn Forever]

So you just want to accept that the skill levels for players are so low that nothing should be done to improve them. People who have been playing the sport for 15/20 years should be able to kick 40 yards accurately.

Reminds me of the story of Mick Holden doing kicking practice.

Heffernan had him kicking balls down the sideline trying to land  them on the line.  Poor Mick was having limited success and said to Heffernan that he'd have more success if he was playing hurling and had a hurl in his hand.

You won't have a hurl in your hand next Sunday.

Don't know if its an Urban Myth but poor kicking has always been there and if you know you're crap at kicking, you give it to someone who can.

[Jinxy]

For me it's ban the fcukin handpass

why don't you just watch an cic fada?

I really don't understand why the likes of you watch the game at all.

What is wrong with actually wanting players to kick the ball more than they handpass???

I was watching Laochra Gael yesterday about Tony Hanahoe.
Showed plenty of footage of those great Dublin & Kerry teams handpassing like crazy and it wasn't even a proper handpass.
It was that daft- looking overhand 'push' pass.

[thewobbler]

The most frustrating thing for me on this thread is the number of people who believe that Gaelic Football could be improved by fundamentally changing how the game works.

Refinements can be made. Every sport in the world fine tunes its rules and regulations, but mostly do so with a purpose of removing grey areas, or clarifying disciplinary matters. They always though leave the core of the game intact.

I love Gaelic Football the way it is. So do hundreds of thousands of others, hence the huge crowds. Can you all not just go and find something else to mess around with? It seems to me that some people won't be happy until a rugby union/league style split happens.

[screenexile]

What are peoples views on the sin bin? I think it would make a massive difference to the way our game is played . . . for the better I might add!

[The Biff]

Apart from supporting a few suggestions already made, here's my own (and don't knock it because it may seem to copying another code; I'm not trying to make Football be more like that code ...)

Advantage Rule - play on possible but call back play for the free if Advantage does not accrue properly.

Similar to the Rugby idea but I would not let play run nearly as long as happens there.  It only needs to go for one successful pass, or the "fouled" player to break free and regain proper control of the ball.  It would also lift some of the pressure on Referees who feel they have blow the whistle instantly as soon as they think they see a foul being committed.  Give the fouled player a chance to see if he can break through the foul and play on.  Surely one of the most frustrating sights in Football is a player on the run who has just managed to break a tackle and then is called back for a free to his own team.  Everyone howls at the ref to let the game go on, but the ref has seen a foul and has just adjudged that no advantage was likely to be gained, then blew the whistle just as the player broke free.  If the ref had two or three seconds extra to assess what he thinks he has seen, then we should have less "bad" decisions, and an extra incentive for players to actually try to break a tackle rather than just fall and hope for a free.