New Season, Same game??

New experimental rules again folks. (time for Wexford to make a national league final we tend to do that when everyone else is confused about what they are doing).
what are peoples views.
Will they get top "mark"s or be so confusing people won't know to punch kick ot palm a ball.
Views and keep them to the 32 never mind your own corner of the world?

Hard to know Jim. I probably won't get to see any McKenna cup games so it'll be the league before I get a good gander at them.

its just from kickouts and the ball must be caught between the two 45's.

our own county manager has came out strongly against these new changes but i would say like last years changes we have the players to adapt.

this rule change now allows teams to carry a big fella with no mobility who can fetch a ball in the middle. he may no do much running but 5-6 big catches will earn him his dues. interestingly will teams defending the mark just crowd the defence even more to deal with clean catches in the middle?

the rule regarding the square ball makes a lot of sense as it is easier to follow. for too long goals have been chalked off or allowed for dubious reasons.

i liked last years rules they would have cut out the messing in the battle of the bogside and tadghs dream would have been over inside a minute of the final starting.

JimWexford wrote:New experimental rules again folks. (time for Wexford to make a national league final we tend to do that when everyone else is confused about what they are doing).
what are peoples views.
Will they get top "mark"s or be so confusing people won't know to punch kick ot palm a ball.
Views and keep them to the 32 never mind your own corner of the world?

Jim - not wanting to break any of the rules that you set out in the original post. But i had a 20 minute conversation with Mickey Harte just before Christmas and he is absolutely livid about these rules. And he is of the opinion that they are designed with one thing in mind, to stop Northern teams.

My biggest problem with the rules is they are effectively handing out more duties to an already over burdened referee, surely the idea should be to reduce the work load of the ref so that he can do his job better. Why they wont take the time keeping duties away from a ref is beyond me.

I also agree with what has already been said - surely the new tactic will be to stop the mark by packing the midfield area even more than before - i can see it all ending up in a mess to be honest.

But unlike Mickey I'd like to see them in action before i make any judgement.

wouldn't limit it to all northern teams kildare (even before geezer) would be a prime example of a team that will suffer another Wexford.
Have to be viewed I think prior to comment.
ref will miss an ass load of them but sur' that's what they are there for someone to blame!!.

Interesting reading Galvins views regarding the man in the middle

bocerty wrote:

I had a 20 minute conversation with Mickey Harte just before Christmas and he is absolutely livid about these rules. And he is of the opinion that they are designed with one thing in mind, to stop Northern teams.

What is he basing this opinion on???

Armagh, Derry, Monaghan, Antrim etc have all had/still have superb fielders of the ball and tall midfield men last year and last decade. Many of whom had the upper hand on Kerry may I add! Niall McKeever took us to the cleaners fielding-wise up in Tullamore last year, until Kerry crowded the midfield and turned to the "dark arts".

And to "stop" Northern teams??? Stop them from what? Is he admiting that Northern teams foul more often or something to that effect? And here was I thinking he was a defender of the style and skill of Ulster football! If someone from "the south" posted something to that effect ye'd be up in arms!

3inarow08 wrote:

bocerty wrote:

I had a 20 minute conversation with Mickey Harte just before Christmas and he is absolutely livid about these rules. And he is of the opinion that they are designed with one thing in mind, to stop Northern teams.

What is he basing this opinion on???

Armagh, Derry, Monaghan, Antrim etc have all had/still have superb fielders of the ball and tall midfield men last year and last decade. Many of whom had the upper hand on Kerry may I add! Niall McKeever took us to the cleaners fielding-wise up in Tullamore last year, until Kerry crowded the midfield and turned to the "dark arts".

And to "stop" Northern teams??? Stop them from what? Is he admiting that Northern teams foul more often or something to that effect? And here was I thinking he was a defender of the style and skill of Ulster football! If someone from "the south" posted something to that effect ye'd be up in arms!

probably basing it on the fact that there have been more attempts to change rules in the last decade than there was in previous years, which some people view as conveniently coinciding with the success of Northern teams. Tyrone and Armagh have long been labelled as the orchestrator's of the 'blanket defence' even though it was about long before then. The difference was Tyrone and Armagh upped the ante with their fitness and were much better at it than others.

It was a highly effective tactic and perfectly within the rules of the game - of course some Kerry folk think we have destroyed our beautiful game, but believe me look back at some old videos/dvds of Kerry teams (and other countys too) from yesteryear and it was anything but beautiful. If was catch and kick more often in hope than anything else. Most teams gave Kerry too much respect and were beat before they left the dressing room including Tyrone in 1986.

Suddenly along comes a few Northern teams with a different approach, a way of actually giving themselves a good chance of beating the likes of Kerry and Dublin. But alas it upsets the apple cart too much and those with influence in and around HQ decide enough is enough and try to negate the effectiveness of teams like Tyrone Armagh Derry etc.

bocerty wrote:

probably basing it on the fact that there have been more attempts to change rules in the last decade than there was in previous years, which some people view as conveniently coinciding with the success of Northern teams. Tyrone and Armagh have long been labelled as the orchestrator's of the 'blanket defence' even though it was about long before then. The difference was Tyrone and Armagh upped the ante with their fitness and were much better at it than others.

It was a highly effective tactic and perfectly within the rules of the game - of course some Kerry folk think we have destroyed our beautiful game, but believe me look back at some old videos/dvds of Kerry teams (and other countys too) from yesteryear and it was anything but beautiful. If was catch and kick more often in hope than anything else. Most teams gave Kerry too much respect and were beat before they left the dressing room including Tyrone in 1986.

Suddenly along comes a few Northern teams with a different approach, a way of actually giving themselves a good chance of beating the likes of Kerry and Dublin. But alas it upsets the apple cart too much and those with influence in and around HQ decide enough is enough and try to negate the effectiveness of teams like Tyrone Armagh Derry etc.

Thanks for the history lesson Boc.

Well if there were more attempts to change the rules in the last decade, and Kerry won more All-Irelands than any other county and/or province (I'd prefer to call ye Ulster rather than Northern counties) then are the rules not being introduced to stop Kerry? Granted Armagh and ye'reselves won 4 All-Irelands and appeared in 5 finals collectively which is a tremendous acheivment, but we won five All-Irelands and appeared in 8 finals!

As for the conspiracy theory of "coincidentally coinciding with the success of Northern Ulster teams", did Ulster as a province not enjoy a similarly successful decade in the 90's with Down, Donegal, Derry, and Down again winning as well as an All Ireland appearance by Tyrone and Cavan very unlucky not to appear in 1997??? Once again 4 wins and 5 appearances, same record as the decade just past. But were rules changed then? No. Were Kerry winning? No, not really. A famine is what it was!

So if you're talking to Mickey again could you please tell him that you were talking to 3inarow08 from away down in County Kerry and that he has two messages for him?

1. The rules are being brought in to put a halt to Kerry's success and to give other teams a chance.
2. Please lose the siege mentality.

Yes the rules changes are solely to give the other counties some hope against Kerry. Mickey is getting like Messrs Ferguson, Wenger etc.