Enhanced Rules

[Armagh18]

No team is going to start kicking 50 50 balls in or even 60 40. They'll realise that will kill them and they'll look for other solutions around the new rules. And we'll see the 5 foot kick pass being used to get around it rather than the intended impact of long balls.

Exactly.
Just wait then the brains will say the kick must go over 20 metres or something daft. Refs will be out with their tape measures.

[naka]

The end of the handpassed point is a massive positive.

Why?
Actually see the fisted point as a skill .

[marty34]

The end of the handpassed point is a massive positive.

Why?
Actually see the fisted point as a skill .

If it's done away with, a defenders job will be a lot easier.

[Armagh18]

The end of the handpassed point is a massive positive.

Why?
Actually see the fisted point as a skill .

Me too. Some of the best scores you'll see are well worked fisted points. Just thinking of 2 brilliant ones that stick out, Mayo's insurance score in this years final and the one Turbo got at the end of the Armagh Kerry semi in 2024 after Rians brilliant kickpass

Obviously they were both similar in that they were breakaway points when the other team was chasing the game, but Armagh have had plenty this year from memory after well worked attacks.

[RedHand88]

Teams will just sit in around the halfway line now instead of the 45m line. Pass laterally (with a 5m kick pass every 4th pass) back and forward until a gap appears.

What was ever wrong with fisted points?

[Rossfan]

They are mainly hand passed/thrown.
They are disgusting looking.
Such goals were abolished years ago.
At least there was a goalie to be beaten with them.

While I'm at it are the 2 handed push goals legal at all?

[clonian]

They are mainly hand passed/thrown.
They are disgusting looking.
Such goals were abolished years ago.
At least there was a goalie to be beaten with them.

While I'm at it are the 2 handed push goals legal at all?

I don't think the fisted point is that big an issue tbh. The fisted goal back in the 80s looked bad. Similar to hand pass goal in camogie.

There's loads of those goals that are def throws and we never see it given against the attacking team. My argument would be if you're banning fisted points as low skill surely the throw into the net can't be awarded with 4 points. Do you make it one handed only? Closed fist only? I wouldn't ban a goal if it's not kicked though - the flick on from a high ball in is still a good goal to score.

[Rossfan]

It is indeed and that type of deflection is grand.
Easiest way would be one handed deflections only. I'd allow deflected points too.
I know the hand pass/throw points aren't a problem as such,  its just that I can't feckin stand them .

[magpie seanie]

So if I'm attacker and I go up to field a high ball on the edge of the square and it break off (both) my hands and goes into the net you're disallowing it?

Have to think of the unintended consequences of rule changes which the last blunderbuss approach abjectly failed to do and has left us with many flaws. People seem to forget the Jim Gavin FRC failed abysmally in many of their stated goals. As the game has turned out is more entertaining (though not how they envisaged it) all is forgiven and forgotten.

[gallsman]

Fisted points should stay as long as Jarly Óg isn't allowed score them.

[The Boy Wonder]

I would be in favour of not allowing fisted point inside the 13m line.
It would be a real skill to fist a point from outside the 13m line.

Re. deflecting a loose ball to the net or over the bar - I would disallow two-handed parries as many are actually throws.

[tbrick18]

I remember making a comment jokingly when discussing the current new rules that they should ban the hand pass completely as that would cut out a lot of the lateral side to side stuff and negate the need for any of the new rules.
Unfortunately, it might come to pass.

I think some have listed to too much media nonsense about the number of fisted points the likes of Armagh and Donegal score.

There's a real danger that the game is going to be ruined beyond repair if this media driven rule change process continues.

[Rossfan]

Better game now thanks to CHANGES!!!

[Blowitupref]

From RTE

Gaelic football's Expert Advisory Group (EAG) chairman Kevin McStay is hopeful that "five or six" new rules will be officially adopted in time for the 2027 Allianz Football League - but he said that the changes will have to meet "a high threshold" to form part of the official guidelines.

EAG members McStay, Séamus Kenny and Johnny Bradley addressed the media at Croke Park on Wednesday and provided more information on the 11 changes to be trialled in the upcoming Ryan Cup Division 1 campaign. A twelfth change – a return to six substitutes – will not be experimented with as the higher education competition adopts an unlimited substitute policy.

The EAG will assess 15 games from the second round onwards.
Major rule adjustments that will be trialled will include a four-point goal, a ban on fisted points unless the ball is in flight, a limit on consecutive handpasses to three, a backcourt rule while breach infractions will now be able to be taken outside the 40-metre arc for a two-point attempt.

The EAG will assess the data and feedback after the Ryan Cup and former Mayo and Roscommon manager McStay is hopeful that a number of proposals are greetlit in time for next season's league campaign.

"We'd like to see whatever stands up going straight into the league, and then they would be formalised at Congress. I think that's possible."

McStay said that any change brought for ratification will only be approved on the back on rigorous examination from multiple stakeholders, a data perspective and, also, the eye-test.
"The threshold for change would be very high, that's an opening position," he said.

"Any changes that we propose that make it through to Congress and into the rulebook must add value to the game as it's currently constituted.
"We believe the upcoming trials will go a long way to convincing us, or otherwise, of our proposals or adjustments as we call them. I would say also that the group is not wedded to any specific proposal because we want to see them in the trial or in the game scenario.

"Nobody in our group can say how they're going to pan out. These trials haven't taken place previously post-FRC (Football Review Committee). The game has changed dramatically and these trials will take place in that space.

"I'd ask for patience, I suppose, let the trials take place and let's see where we are in the post-trial a week or two weeks, three weeks after it."
Meanwhile, both McStay and Bradley called for greater co-operation from counties in terms of providing GPS data for data gathering.

Both stressed that it is essential in helping to explain the physical reasoning for the push to move back to six substitutes.

For the 2025 study of games by the GAA's games intelligence unit, only four counties provided their numbers, which are kept anonymous from group members who work with Dublin City University's school of health and human performance and the insight centre for data analytics.

That meant only 34 games could be examined for the 2025 report and with the 2026 study still not completed, only one county has committed so far to sharing their data.

The primary objective of the data is to compare the high intensity running demands of different positional lines using different time windows of match play - divided into six periods of 12 minutes.

"It's just one of the disappointing sides of it," McStay continued.
"Like, I was there myself, so, you know, 'who else is sharing, lads? Nobody else? Well, we're not.' I mean, that's the position you take.

"You want the best for your team but what I would say is, now being removed from it, when you look in over the fence and you see a cry for increased substitutions because of the load, but then they won't share the data, it's very hard to make the case.
"But we're confident we will have enough data to make sure it changes from five to six."


Proposed adjustments:

• An extension of the 40-metre arc to the end-line
• Two-points for all scores outside the 40-metre arc, apart from 45s
• Four points for a goal
• No scores by hand - fist or open - other than in-flight scores
• A limit on consecutive hand-passes to three, with a foot motion - apart from a solo - required on the fourth pass
• A backcourt rule where a team cannot play the ball back across the halfway line into their own half
• Substitutes to be increased from five to six (to be excluded from Ryan Cup trial)
• Denial of a goalscoring opportunity inside the 20m line, but not within 25m of each sideline or within the semi-circular arc, will bring a black card or red card
• If a player takes a kick-out mark (claims/does not claim) and is subsequently illegally challenged within his four-metre space, the sanction is a 50m penalty. In both cases the player may choose to take the free-kick from outside the 40m arc
• 13m frees awarded for dissent/abuse from a member of a backroom team, kick-out infractions or a breach sanction. For both the dissent/abuse and breach infractions the player may choose to take the free-kick from outside the 40m arc
• All kick-outs must cross the 13m arc rather than the 40m arc
• Sideline free-kicks will be taken from on or behind the sideline rather than behind it

[DaleCooper]

Better game now thanks to CHANGES!!!

Have to admit I am less skeptical now having seen the difference at club.
People and players are more keen.

Rewatched the Tyrone final from a few years ago on the Youtube machine and it was mechanical / boring.


Solo & Go maybe my fav rule.