Some more tinkering with rules needed

We’ve proven beyond doubt that tinkering with the rules of the game can bring massive rewards. Let us tinker some more.

First up on the chopping block is the hooter system/rule. What was wrong with its first way of use? Once the hooter sounded, the half would end the next time the ball went out of play. This was fair and prevented teams tactically fouling to slow the opposition down. It led to some fantastic, edge-of-your-seats passages of play, really adding to the drama levels.

Some bemoaned the slowing down of play as the half wore to a close as teams tried to manufacture a final score. David Clifford’s point with the last kick of the first half in last year’s All-Ireland final apparently ushered in a whole wave of criticism of this rule.

Personally, I loved it. Our game doesn’t have to be helter-skelter all the time. Watching a team control the tempo and then pick the right moment to strike can be exhilarating too.

The current iteration of the rule adds nothing to the game and, more often, leads to anti-climactic endings. Either go back to the old way of using it or abolish it altogether.

The games at the weekend highlighted another area for me, which I think we could improve by tweaking the rules. Bring in the “no back-court” rule as it is in basketball. Once a team have possession in the opponent’s half, they shouldn’t be allowed to go back to their own half.

It would lead to even more mayhem and chaotic battles for possession in the middle third. It would also mean the slow attacks wouldn’t be quite as slow. At the weekend, those slow attacks were very frequent.

Now, of course, they’re a world removed from what attacks were like under the old rules, but they’re still a less attractive part of our game.

The “back-court” rule would incentivise defences to squeeze out in a quest to win the ball back. Attacking teams wouldn’t find it quite so easy to play keep-ball anymore.

It wouldn’t stop the slow attacks completely, nor does it have to. It would tip the scales ever so slightly more in favour of the team trying to push up man for man though, and that would be a big positive.

I’ve just one more bit of tinkering and that will be enough for now. Change the value of a goal from three to four points. It was in the original proposals for the new rules but seemingly got dropped as a knee-jerk reaction to some bad early reviews. I think it’s a simple and necessary move to give goals the credit they deserve.

The two-point arc has worked a treat as we’re getting to see some fantastic shooting in nearly every game. While long-range shooting is a great skill, our game should suitably incentivise and reward a team who can completely beat the opposition's defence and hit the onion bag.

Increasing goals from three to four points achieves that.

ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE

Here’s another question that’s on my mind. Are we doing enough to engage young people in our games? Now, I’ve not done any research whatsoever on this, but my hunch is there’s more we could do.

The Premier League in England will be back this weekend after the international break. Those guys in charge of PR over there must be the best in the world at their job. Even in the most dreadful of matches, they’ll find a few short clips of someone doing something mildly skilful and they’ll have them plastered all over the internet, so that you can’t but be met with them any time you pick up your phone.

We are seeing tremendous pieces of skill in each of our games nowadays and we should capitalise on that by putting more resources into this area. There are acres of room for improvement here. Send an extra camera or two to each game and enable us to see multiple angles of the big moments.

It’s not something we should be leaving to a media station like RTÉ or TG4 to do for us. There are already plenty of PR and media officers in place. They should be better-resourced to promote our games in a way young kids and teenagers will engage with.

Chris Óg Jones sold a fantastic dummy to Meath ‘keeper Seán Brennan for his goal in the Division Two final. That should be captured in a three or four-second clip and pushed out into the internet world.

There was another very “clippable” moment in that game in the first half. Seán McDonnell played an outrageous pass to put Jones in on goal. The fact the goal opportunity was missed didn’t help, but it was worthy of watching again and again.

In every game I’ve watched so far this year, there have been many moments of tremendous skill. Look at the Division Four final. That goal by Rathcline’s Oran Kenny was brilliant. Look at Roscommon’s league campaign. Again, mounds of clippable moments. Enda Smith’s solo run and point against Donegal is a prime example.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Seán O’Shea scored an unbelievable point against Mayo in the National League. Everyone in the country should have seen that by now. Have you? My guess is you haven’t. That shouldn’t be the case.

OVERALL LANDSCAPE

With the leagues fully done and dusted, it’s a fair time to assess the overall landscape in terms of the provincial championships and the Sam Maguire race. Has much changed since the start of the league? No.

I’d still have Kerry as strong favourites for Munster and Sam. While Jack O’Connor can often be just playing things down or not giving the full story in his media interviews, I thought his assessment after their defeat to Donegal was right on the money.

Kerry’s energy levels were down. They were flat. And they came up against a Donegal team hitting a mini-peak. Add to it a few fortuitous moments, like Michael Murphy being allowed to stay on the field and their third goal by Caolan McGonagle dropping in when he had been clearly going for a point, and it’s easy to see how it turned into a bit of a hammering.

Donegal come out of the league clearly the main threat to Kerry for All-Ireland honours and favourites to win Ulster. Armagh will run them close though. I’d have them ranked next, along with Galway.

After that, it’s a bit of a bottleneck. There are about eight teams in that third tier of contenders, headed by Mayo and Meath. The funny thing is, despite what was a very good league campaign for Roscommon, we’re still probably in the same place in the overall pecking order.

We’re among the teams who have the potential to make a breakthrough and feature in the latter stages of the All-Ireland Series, but we’ve no right at all to expect to be there. As well as the teams I’ve already mentioned, you’d have to place Cork and Dublin slightly ahead of Roscommon.

The exciting thing for us, in my opionion, is that we’re close, and we have the potential to make a jump up in our championship performances. It has been a good league. Hopefully, it’s a great championship.