Late in the Mayo v Monaghan challenge game last Saturday, as the snow fell sideways and the collective sanity of all in Castlebar was being tested, the following passage of play unfolded. Pay attention now – there’ll be questions to answer at the end. And there’s a fair chance that your guess will be as good as ours.
So. Seven minutes to go, game tied at 1-14 apiece. Conor McCarthy won a breaking ball under a kickout, right on the halfway line. He burst forward and had his arm pulled back by Mayo’s Ciarán Boland – the foul was enough to slow his progress but not to stop him so referee John Glavey played advantage. McCarthy ran on, with Boland hanging out of him, until Glavey finally blew for a free as the Monaghan player crossed the 45.
McCarthy heard the whistle and stopped running, spilling the ball into the arms of covering Mayo defender Rory Brickenden. Brickenden had the ball in his hands for 1.47 seconds before he put the ball on the ground and retreated. Referee Glavey immediately blew again and brought the ball up for a tap-over free.
Pop quiz, hotshots – what should Brickenden have done to comply with the new rules? Should he have (a) brought the ball back to halfway where the original foul was committed and handed it to a Monaghan player there? Was the right move (b) holding on to the ball until McCarthy or another Monaghan player came over and got it? Or should he have (c) walked over with the ball to McCarthy, who by now had his back turned and was 15m away from where he was when the whistle went and a good 40m away from where the initial foul took place?*
Well?
“The quote from the ref was hilarious,” laughs Kevin McStay. “He said, ‘I’m not sure myself but the best advice is to hand the ball to somebody!’
“These are the scenarios and the anomalies that we’re going to have to get clarity over. The only time you’re going to get real clarity over them is in the competitive moments. There’s going to be a bit of frustration and annoyance while we figure it all out.”
To be clear, McStay isn’t moaning. Nor were any of the other intercounty managers we got on the phone this week. Across the board, the new rules are being generally well received, a badly needed step forward for a game that had gone stale. It’s just that the period we’re in now is the collective fumble for the light switch – even as soon as next month, everyone will feel a lot more illuminated.
First impressions? “Players are enjoying it,” says Gabriel Bannigan, the new Monaghan manager. “It’s more attacking, it encourages more pressing higher up the pitch because it’s easier to get a press in place with the three up. Also, there’s definitely more kicking because you have somebody to aim at.”
“The kickout is the big one,” says Antrim manager Andy McEntee. “There’s a lot more physicality around the kickout because they pretty much all have to go long now. But other than that, I actually think there’s a bit less physicality in other phases of play. A lot of the time, once the kickout is won, whoever has the ball hangs on to it and waits for their goalkeeper to come up and join the play. We’ve found there are fewer contests, funnily enough.”
Every county is time-poor just now. The early months of slog still have to be done – maybe this year more so than ever, if expectations of a rise in the amount of in-game running are borne out. But into the mix now is the demand for a whole new way of thinking about the game. In other years, tactical work would be well down the list at this time of year. Not so in January 2025.
“You have to get out on the pitch and get playing,” says Bannigan. “And even then, in-house training is no substitute for games. We’ve had [referee] Martin McNally in to talk the lads through the rules and how referees are applying them and so on.
“But it’s like anything else – if any of us were sitting in a classroom listening to a presentation, we’d only take in so much. It’s really only through repetition and practice out on the field that lads will fully understand them.”
Between injuries, fitness, colleges and more, Antrim were only able to get enough numbers for their first full pitch session last week. The usual Sigerson strain kicks in through these weeks as well. Meanwhile, the league starts in a fortnight and McEntee’s side have a Division Three quagmire to fight their way through. This will all have to be learned on the hoof.
So far, most people are being patient and accepting that there will be times in the game when they’re a little baffled as to what is going on. Bannigan sees the three players up as being the most important of the changes, as well as the one the players are going to have to get right the quickest.
“We were at the game in Castlebar last week and we were constantly shouting on the line – ‘Three! Three!’ Now that’s alright on a January night when there’s no major crowd in the stands and it’s a challenge match so a few of the selectors can stand out beside me and do the shouting.
“But come the league, they won’t get away with that and the players won’t hear me standing there on my own so they’re going to have to police it themselves. It’s a great move for the game but there’s a huge penalty for breaching it so they’ll have to learn pretty quickly.”
As for what’s likely to last and what might not, everyone is in favour of the dissent rules – up to a point. “I know people are saying the whole thing is going to be very hard on referees,” says McStay, “but I actually think the opposite. I think once the dissent rules have settled in, you’re going to see a gorgeous time for referees.
“I genuinely do. They’ll be able to think without everybody shouting and roaring at them. Players can’t be giving out to them, we can’t be giving out to them on the line – if only there could be a rule that supporters can’t be screaming at them from the stands, it would be no harm! I think you’re going to see, after a while, that their decision-making will improve as a result.”
But. There’s always a but. Of all the cultural changes that are percolating through the new rules, the one that requires players to hand the ball to their opponent already looks like it will be on the thinnest ice. Nobody has any problem with penalising players who are clearly trying to delay the game but as Philly McMahon put it in his column last year, most players would rather eat the ball than hand it to their opponent.
“The thing that you see happening,” says McEntee, “is a player handing the ball over and the guy just straight away running into him and making it look like he’s getting blocked from taking a tap-and-go. That’s a 50m penalty against a player who was trying to do the right thing by the rule. I don’t know if that’s feasible, really.”
“Behaviourally, handing the ball back to your opponent, I think it goes totally against the grain,” says Bannigan. “There’s a difference between obstructing the play and just leaving the ball where it is. I’m not so sure we have to become that nice that we hand the ball to the opponent and by doing so, handing them the advantage, the time and the position.
“I know the spirit behind the rule, which is to stop a player slowing down the taking of a free. I have no issue with that, I totally support that. It needed to be addressed because there was a little bit too much gamesmanship happening.
“But if a player fouls a ball, I think to have to wait or even to have to walk to an opponent to give them the ball, I’m not sure that’s necessary. I think it should be okay to drop the ball and move back. But look, we’ll work with the rule as it is written.”
That’s all any of them can do. As the game changes before our eyes, it makes the weeks and months ahead all the more fascinating to behold.
(* The answer was (c), by the way. So now you know.)
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to the Counter Ruck podcast for the best rugby chat and analysis
