The standing playing rules committee have amended three of their five proposed changes to Gaelic football.
As reported by the Irish Examiner last week, the sin bin recommendation has been altered so that the 10-minute dismissal from the field is the penalty for a black card offence. Instead of being automatically substituted, the offending player must sit out the period as in rugby and the maximum number of subs will return to five from six.
It had also been reported last week that the kick-out protocol, which would have restricted the area between the 45m lines to four players until the ball had been kicked, had been scrapped. Instead, all restarts will be taken from the 20m line and have to cross the goalkeeper’s team’s 45m.
The original plans for a limit of three hand-passes remain as does the sideline kick having to be struck forward.
However, the introduction of an offensive mark has changed from being claimed inside the 20m line to inside the 45m.
The caught ball must not have come from a set-piece and travelled a minimum of 20m from on or beyond the opposing team’s 45m. If backed by GAA management committee and Central Council at the end of next week, the changes will be trialled in the forthcoming provincial preseason competitions and league.
On the sin bin, while it was suggested referees took issue with how lenient the original proposal was on cynical play, the committee explained feedback from players last month had helped to convince them to make the change.
“Perhaps why this proposal was widely supported by players surveyed on these experimental rules during October 2018 is that the player who receives a black card is permitted to return to the field of play after 10 minutes. For players who, perhaps upon considered review, may have been harshly awarded a black card in the first instance, this experimental proposal does offer some form of redemption.”
While acknowledging the black is having “a positive impact” upon Gaelic football, the soundings they received stress there is a need for greater consistency.
The group feel the introduction of the sin bin “would assist with further behavioural change and discourage an increase in foul play as its availability as a sanction presents the real possibility of a team being reduced to 14 players on (potentially) a number of occasions during the course of a game”.
Regarding kick-out protocol, the consultation period last month, which including nine trial games, had presented the committee with the reality it was complicated and difficult to police for officials.
They retained a minimum distance on the kick-out “to encourage teams to kick the ball further up the field from the kick out when compared to the current practice employed by many teams whereby kick outs are played the minimum distance of 13 metres, which is affirming the possession style game that is off-putting for some spectators.”
Statistician Rob Carroll found that only 53% of kick-outs in the 2018 Championship crossed the 45m compared to 86% in 2011.
The overuse of the hand-pass is the explanation for the limit on hand-passes and the forward sideline kick is to encourage more offensive play — in a study of 10 SFC matches last year 44% of all sideline kicks went backwards.
The advance mark is simply an extension of the kick-out mark in a bid to reward the catch and kick element of the game.