THE FOOTBALL REVIEW Committee is considering scrapping penalty shootouts and replacing them with ‘overtime showdowns’ to find a winner for games that finish level.
FRC chief Jim Gavin briefed the media today on the progress of his high-profile 12-man committee which has been tasked with devising a series of ‘rules enhancements’ for Gaelic football.
Gavin talked through over 20 different tweaks and amendments which are currently under consideration, all of which could potentially make it into a list of recommendations in a report to Central Council next month.
The proposals will then get their first public outing in a series of games at Croke Park on 18 and 19 October between the four provincial teams.
After that, Special Congress will vote on the recommendations on 30 November and, if passed, they will come into play from 1 January.
Gavin declined to do any interviews and said he’d prefer to remain ‘silent’ when asked if Central Council’s decision to park January’s pre-season competitions has robbed teams of an obvious opportunity to practice any new rules before the league.
But he was happy to shed light on the large number of proposals that the FRC is currently mulling over, insisting that they are simply ‘considerations’ at this stage and not certain to be included in next month’s report to Central Council.
However, they have taken plenty of time to come up with the current proposals with five separate trial — or ‘sandbox’ — games used to inform their decisions as well as 7,300 separate responses from a public survey. More recently, the FRC, who have met 31 times collectively since starting their work in spring, held a three-hour meeting last Thursday evening with inter-county managers.
Many of the FRC’s trials, like one-v-one throw-ups to start games, keeping three players in attack at all times, awarding four points for a goal and two for a long-range point kicked outside a new 40-metre arc, have been well flagged.
But a new development is the idea of scrapping penalty shoot-outs and ending games with what have been termed ‘overtime showdowns’.
It has not been decided if these would kick in immediately after tied games, or after extra-time, but they would do away with heartbreaking penalty kicks.
Instead, play would restart and if a team scores – a point, a two-pointer or a goal – the opposing team would be given one more play from the resulting kick-out to cancel out that score, or move ahead. If they couldn’t score themselves before the ball goes out of play again, then they would lose.
If they do score, then there would be one more opportunity, with play starting from a throw-up, for either side to score a winner.
It’s a clear effort to ensure that games are decided not by penalty lotteries but by mini-games that contain all the elements of a regular game.
All-Ireland holders Armagh have been the biggest losers when it comes to penalty shoot-outs with four high profile defeats, including two in Ulster finals, in the last three seasons.
Gavin is joined on the FRC by top football figures Eamonn Fitzmaurice, James Horan, Michael Murphy, Colm Collins and Malachy O’Rourke.
Their five ‘sandbox’ games took place in Mullingar, Mayo, Clare and twice at Abbottstown and were used to rule in or out potential proposals.
As things stand, the FRC has around 25 significant recommendations, one of which is limiting goalkeepers to only receiving a pass back inside their own rectangle, or beyond the 65-metre mark.
A ‘solo and go’ rule for restarting games after frees have been awarded could make the cut too while clamp downs on cynical play and dissent are also under consideration.
For example, deliberately delaying a player, or wrapping him up to stop him running forward, would be a black card offence.
And if a player loses his cool and argues the toss over a free, the ball will be brought up 50 metres. Likewise, the ref can bring the ball up to the 13-metre line for a tap over point if he is abused by ‘an identifiable team official(s) or non playing sub(s)’.
Another option being explored is a black card for ‘contributing to a melee’ while refs appear to favour vanishing foam for marking out where frees should be taken from.
There has been support for the introduction of a hooter system, as used in ladies football. The finer details of whether play would stop immediately upon the hooter sounding, or at the end of that phase of play, have yet to be thrashed out.
Gavin was at pains to clarify that all of the above are ‘considerations’ and may or may not make it into their list of recommendations for Central Council.
