{"id":71940,"date":"2025-08-16T05:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T05:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/71940\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T05:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T05:04:10","slug":"gaa-referees-signal-approval-for-football-review-committee-rule-changes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/71940\/","title":{"rendered":"GAA referees signal approval for Football Review Committee rule changes \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In October, the GAA <\/a>will meet in special congress to deliberate on the final acceptance of the Football Review Committee<\/a>\u2019s (FRC) \u201cenhanced\u201d rules. When these were being accepted for trialling last November, the process became a procession as all of the FRC proposals were overwhelmingly supported.<\/p>\n

It was a measure of how desperate the association had become to remedy the acknowledged ills of the game. This summer\u2019s championship was the best in years, by consensus, greatly improved by the new provisions, which are expected to secure GAA endorsement in little more than a month.<\/p>\n

For those at the centre of the project \u2013 the administrators and referees <\/a>\u2013 there is relief that it all played out so well and a certain circumspection that even after such a successful introduction, a watching brief will be necessary, as the rules move into club competitions, especially knockout, and in a few months, their second season.<\/p>\n

GAA national match officials manager Donal Smyth <\/a>is positive but cautious.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose we haven\u2019t really done a debrief yet, so we\u2019ll be bringing them in now in the next couple of weeks and will sit down and go through the season. But overall, the one rule that\u2019s been really good for us has been the \u201csolo and go\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the one thing that has really helped the game and helped the whole discipline side because people have no time any more to get involved in narky stuff and that kind of stuff, so it just kind of moves the game on really quickly. Which has been really positive for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be really interested to see how does the discipline follow through to next year. We are looking at things in a six-month period that has gone well, so it\u2019s on now, to what the second year will look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe solo-and-go rule has contributed greatly to better behaviour around the awarding of frees. Photograph: Inpho <\/p>\n

The solo and go provides for a free to be taken quickly within four metres of its occurrence and for the player taking it not to be challenged for another four metres. It has contributed greatly to better behaviour around the awarding of frees, which under the old rules have been flashpoints.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, the FRC has been trialling further changes, recently covered in The Irish Times, including restrictions on back passes and hand passes, but it is not yet clear which, if any, of these will go to the special congress.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Changing minds in the post-puke football era: Playing in the FRC sandboxOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

From Smyth\u2019s perspective, it\u2019s time to bank the gains from the rules that have been successfully applied.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be ideal if there were no additional rules and then, if something\u2019s not working, go and change it at the end of the league or whenever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyrone referee Se\u00e1n Hurson is one of the most experienced and highly regarded officials in the game. He took charge of two All-Ireland finals in 2022 and last year.<\/p>\n

He echoes Smyth\u2019s point that the solo and go has been transformative. \u201cThe awarding of a free was a constant challenge. Players would race 20m to argue the award with the referee, partly to delay the play and partly to put doubt in the ref\u2019s head. That\u2019s all impossible once the ball is back in play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he had been pessimistic about how the changes would work when the big interprovincial trials took place last October, experience changed Hurson\u2019s view.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think it was going to work as well because there was no intensity in those games, there was no jeopardy. But when there is jeopardy and there is intensity, players still were disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes this has come about because of the collaborative approach that was taken to the formulation of the changes and their implementation. Change was broken down, sector by sector and a range of seminars, both in person and online, were organised.<\/p>\n

\"SeánSe\u00e1n Hurson: ‘We felt as referees that we were being listened to.’ <\/p>\n

It has been remarked on that all big stakeholders, players, managers, referees, and administrators enthusiastically bought into the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen changes in the past,\u201d says Hurson, \u201cwhere there was no consultation with officials and then, rules were maybe not implemented the way that some people thought they should have been implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this time, both FRC and the officials seem to be happy, based on our last meeting there a few weeks ago. They also took to heart different recommendations through the season, which was probably a direct result of some of the meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we felt as referees that we were being listened to, and issues that we were having were being addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Gavin\u2019s committee left no stone unturned in relation to consultation and getting feedback, as the trial proceeded. Hurson acknowledges that \u201cthe referee was probably thought about through the whole enhancement [process], about how it could be made easier for the referee and ensure more respect for the referee in implementing these rules\u201d.<\/p>\n

As a referee, he wasn\u2019t initially sure about the restriction to the team captain, on players\u2019 right of audience with a referee. Any other verbal contact would be penalised by a 50m advancement of the free. <\/p>\n

\u201cA big part of my refereeing \u2018game management\u2019 is to communicate with players, and I felt that rule would be a detriment to my style of refereeing if I wasn\u2019t able to do that any more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat concerned me at the start, but we sought clarification from Jim Gavin and his team. They felt that communication was still okay. We all know the difference between somebody challenging your authority and someone with a genuine query.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GAAGAA Football Review Committee trial game,
\nRound Towers Clondalkin vs Fingallians.
\nJim Gavin speaks to both sides after the match. Photograph: Inpho <\/p>\n

There are concerns that with the focus moving to club activity and county championships that the burden on referees without the comparative luxury of a six-strong crew of independent officials may struggle to implement the new rules in pressurised situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the rules, there will be mistakes,\u201d according to Smyth. \u201cEducation has been ongoing with club referees and there have been the Give Respect, Get Respect campaign and then, the RefWell online performance psychology and mental health training programme, launched this summer.\u201d <\/p>\n

He also reports that referee recruitment is well on target to meet last year\u2019s figure of 600. There had been concerns that with all the focus on an expanding burden of new rules, new recruits would be put off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe danger would have been that numbers would drop because referees were being asked to do too much but the positive coverage of the rules\u2019 effect on indiscipline has helped to counterbalance that.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Hurson, the game is now more enjoyable both to play and referee. In a club context, he advises any official on their own just to focus on what\u2019s in front of and not to be agonising over 4v3 breaches behind the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the only neutral official. The 4v3 is a huge challenge, but I think from a referee\u2019s point of view, we have all the rules to implement, not just the new rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, we do miss double hops, we miss touching the ground. That\u2019s just human. You\u2019re going to miss some things and if you miss a 4v3, so be it but if you miss a red card, that\u2019s more serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smyth says that the success of this year\u2019s championship owes a great deal to all the stakeholders who made it work but singles out the officials, thrown into a new and little understood world last January, who kept the show on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cReal kudos to the referees and the officials but also to players and managers and teams and they bought into it as well. You would have to be reticent about saying that it\u2019s all solved, but it has started well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In October, the GAA will meet in special congress to deliberate on the final acceptance of the Football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,26435,56323,26434,56324,85],"class_list":["post-71940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-football-championship","tag-football-review-committee-frc","tag-gaa","tag-jim-gavin","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}