Last weekend offered a glimpse of what’s to come
Meath raised eyebrows in their Division 2 clash with Cork by cynically fouling to stop a late counter-attack(Image: ©INPHO/Tom Maher)
A top inter-county boss has warned the All-Ireland Championship is heading for a summer of dark arts with teams already finding clever ways to exploit the hooter rule.
The tweak, introduced at Special Congress last year, means the hooter now signals the end of each half and it didn’t take long for counties to start bending it to their advantage.
Last weekend offered a glimpse of what’s to come. Down were booed for keeping the ball for the final 90 seconds against Wexford in the Division 3 final, running down the clock.
Meanwhile, Meath raised eyebrows in their Division 2 clash with Cork by cynically fouling to stop a late counter-attack.
Watching it all unfold was Leitrim boss Stephen Poacher and he doesn’t expect things to get any prettier.
“Teams are so well drilled now,” he said. “Two minutes before halftime or full-time, they’ve a plan ready to go and that’s exactly what you’ll see all through the Championship.”
Poacher believes we could even see teams shutting games down far earlier than expected.
“You could be looking at the last four or five minutes of a half where sides just decide, ‘right, that’s enough, let’s kill this,'” he added.
“That’s the reality with the hooter right now. We saw it with Meath, we saw it the night before with Down and Wexford and it’s only going to become more common.”
While some fans slammed Down’s keep-ball tactics, Poacher insists they were simply playing the system.
“They’re within the rules,” he said. “You can’t blame them for that.”
But that’s exactly where the concern lies. Poacher fears cynicism will ramp up as the summer heats up, with teams increasingly willing to push the boundaries to protect narrow leads.
“Teams will 100 per cent find ways to exploit it,” he admitted.
And in a telling insight, he revealed just how far he’d be willing to go himself.
“If we were a point down late on and worried about the opposition running the clock, I’d consider a deliberate breach,” he said.
“It might give you a chance to win the kick-out, create a two-point opportunity and get level. That’s the gamble you’d take because it’s so hard to win the ball back when a team is keeping it.”