DAF wrote:My structure would be to get rid of the league.Start the championship in late April/Early May.Football is a summer game there should be no intercounty football before April and after September.
Have 4 conferences with 8 teams in each play 7 matches.The league of the year before is used to set the seedings for each conference (2 teams from each division).The 4 lowest seeds get the extra home match to balance things out .1 match every second week.On the weeks a county has off club games are played.This means clubs know when matches will be played and these fixtures set for the group stage of the championship are not to be changed.3 teams from each group qualify for the knockout stages.The top teams straight into the conference final and the other 2 play off to see who would meet them in the conference final.The regular season would be finished by the end of July and the knockout matches would played in August and September.
This would sort out the club fixtures issue.Get both club and county season started later in the year(who the fuck really wants to be playing football in Jan,Feb and March and not playing in the summer which happens too much).Make it easier for the GAA to promote the game, provide each county with at least 3 important championship home matches which could be easily promoted.Put much more emphasis on the All Ireland club championship as the GAA's winter competition and this could be promoted better like it is the GAA's version of the European Cup.We would get the vast majority of intercounty football matches played in the summer which is not the case at the moment despite football supposedly being a summer sport.
the survey was not good it was clearly hinting what the wanted you to vote for and also i went into a big description of what I wanted to change in the comments section at the end hit enter and it brought me back to a previous question which I had not answered and deleted what I had written in the comments section.I gave up out of frustration.
Get rid of the league? Isnt that where you blood the youth?
How does this sort out the club fixtures issue? You play intercounty football one week? Club football the next week?...... Thats fair enough, but where does hurling fit in? Just put club hurling on when intercounty football is being played? So remove every dual player from the game?.... Or just have 4 weeks of games? So it take 7 months to play & rounds of a league based championship?
Young players could be blooded in the O'Byrne cup which would be played as it currently is a curtain raiser for the season.How many matches do you need to blood players
Something has to be done about club fixtures across Ireland.Its relatively easy for deal with club fixtures because we get knocked out of the championship early but other countues are postponing their championships for extremely ling periods.Maybe matches affected by dual players who play for a county team could be played midweek but a club fixture list has to be set up and stuck with
DAF wrote:Its relatively easy for deal with club fixtures because we get knocked out of the championship early but other countues are postponing their championships for extremely ling periods.
You would think so but then why was the Junior 'A' football final not played until the 20th of October last year?
DAF wrote:I sent this to Eugene McGee as my rule change suggestions when he looked for them in his column in the indo earlier in the year.By the way I dont think there is a huge amount wrong with the game.I have really enjoyed this years championship but a few tweaks would make it more entertaining.
The biggest whinge by people in relation to the game is that handpassing is ruining it. In my opinion that is nonsense, when handpassing is done properly at pace is it brilliant to watch and most goals are scored as a result of a handpassing moves.Suggestions to limit handpassing would make it much easier for teams to defend as if handpasing was restricted to no more than 2/3 consecutive handpasses It would be extremely easy to defend against and you would end up with a terrible game consisting of hopeful punts forward.Just think about it.Say only 2 handpasses in succession are allowed you could easily put banks of men behind the ball (donegal style) and get a couple of forwards to track the ball carriers (probably from the half back line) until they progress up to midfield have used up their handpassess and are forced to kick into an attack which is being covered by over 10 defenders.
Look at the Dublin Donegal match last year, Dublin played a more traditional kicking game in the first half and it was fairly easily dealt with by Donegal.They won the game in the second half by bringing on Kevin McManamon and running straight at Donegal with good handpassing movements and drawing fouls and a couple of openings.I believe 6 rule changes would cure all of the issues in football at the moment
1. 13 a side:
Due to increased fitness levels space can be closed down easily compared to the past and there is so little space for forwards these days and reducing the number of players on the field would mean more space for forwards and thus more scores and entertaining play .It would indirectly increase the amount of kicked passes as with less players it would take more energy to run the ball all day and thus the value of continuously handpassing the ball would be negated.You only have to look at the numbr of games where a player being sent off has reulted in a more entertaining contest to see that this rule change is a no brainer.Also it woudl reduce intercounty panels by about 4 and thus mean money would be saved across the board.With increased emigration some clubs (in rural areas in particular) struggle to field a 15 a side team 13 a side football would help solve this issue aswell. My only worry with this rule is that the first thing some coaches would do would be to increase fitness training and take even time away from skills training
2. Restrict the number of players in defensive half of the field:
Introduce a rule that says at least 4 of the 13 players must be within 65 yards of the goal a team is attacking.This cuts out the blanket defence and would result in more man to man contest instead of zonal defending which we have alot of now.You could make a tweak and allow one of these 4 to enter the defensive half in order to collect a pass as to act as an outball for an under pressure defence as we dont want to see half forwards standing with their hands on their hips unable to move when they could make themselves available to take a pass.
3. The Mark:
Allow a mark to be taken between both 45s from a kickout (similar to the league a couple of years ago) the tweak I would make is that once a mark is take the ball must be kicked forward at least 20 yards.This would result in more direct football and encourage more emphasis on fielding.
4. Passback Rule:
I am sick of defenders passing the ball back to the goalie.It annoys the hell out of most fans and a simple way to deal with it would be to simply ban it like was done in soccer about 20 years ago.It would also result in more kicked clearance from defence as too often defendersuse the goalie as an out ball when the try to run out of defence and realise they cant do it so the ball is recycled back and worth between defender and goalkeeper.
5. Freekicks:
I think a rule should be brought in like in basketball where the player who is fouled is the only person allowed to take a free kick.This will stop forwards deliberately looking for frees as they may not want to con the ref and throw themselves to the ground if they know the pressure of kicking the score will be on them.Also it would improve kicking all round as all players would realise they would not be able to rely on just one man to kick all the free and they would have to start improving their own kicking which would benefit the game as a whole
6. Sin Bin:
There is too much cynical fouling in the game.A yellow card for a cynical foul meand ten minutes in the sinbin with no sub to replace the player this would reduce cynical fouling drastically like it did when it was brought in for the lage a few years ago.Obviously refereeing standards would have to improve as most refs dont seem to realise when a player is making a proper attempt to win the ball or making a fair shoulder charge.
13 a side, you eluded to that yourself, it would only put more emphasis on fitness..... removing the need of brilliance of a great full forward (teh ability to find space regardless of the number of players around)..... It would also remove the full back form the game. I for one love watching a great full back in action.
Pass back to the keeper..... This only works against a team who plays an extra man in defense.... If you have a free, why should you have to kick it long into a space where your opponent is negatively placing an extra defender (Im a firm believer in keeping the ball with simple passes in your own defense. If you can explain to me hpow this is negaitvely affecting football id like to hear it). Also, I dont know if you have watched soccer since 20 years ago, but they just removed the keeprs abilty to pick up the ball, they actually still pass it back to the keeps a lot!!!!
The mark is a good idea, however, it promotes the use of tall players because they are tall, (Its already a big issue in football without adding to it, and I am not lacking in height).
Freekicks, now that is a good idea in my opionion. However, are we talking these rule changes across the board or just in inter county football? As I think a lot of club games would be very very low scoring affairs in this case. However paired alongside better refereeing and a sin bin rule, maybe like a powerplay in icehockey, where a player gets 5 mins in the bin for a professional foul and the player in the bin can come back in after a score is taken.....
I dont think the standard of refereeing is anywhere near good enough for changes like these. its poor at inter county level, nevermind at county or underage..... in my opionion this all breeds from lack of accountability for referees.....
The big problem with every rules change is the standard of refereeing so I would expect nothing to change after this rules committee finishes up as the refs wont be able to cope with much change.
The full back would still exist most teams play a 2 man full forward line these days anyway so not much will change in the fullback line just less bunching in the middle of the field with 13 a side and if coaches had a positive attitude it would help the game.
I hate the hand pass to the goalie pisses me off alot when Cork really to the piss with it.Its a personal bugbear but it isnt the biggest issue I'm not really bothered either way.Also it would be easier for the defenders to drive out the field and easier for a good pass to be given out of defence if the game is 13 a side.
I think 13 a side would improve the standard of football all round, games tend to improve when a player per side is sent off and I think that is a good indication that 13 a side would work, the players are so fit these days that the game is effectively 17 a side compared to the 90's.Also it would make it more rewarding to give a good footpass as barring a footpass is pinpoint accurate these days it gets intercepted which is frustrating
If nothing changes after this rules committee finishes I wont mind too much as I enjoy the game as it is.Cynical fouling is the biggest issue and has been highlighted in recent weeks.The sin bin worked the last time it was brought in and if that alone was introduced I think most people would be happy.I think some of those other rule changes might help make the game more enjoyable and open.
Last edited by DAF on Sun Aug 12, 2012 5:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
DAF wrote:Its relatively easy for deal with club fixtures because we get knocked out of the championship early but other countues are postponing their championships for extremely ling periods.
You would think so but then why was the Junior 'A' football final not played until the 20th of October last year?
It should be relatively easy is what I should have said.I think K/K in the hurling championship may have had a bearing on the Junior A fixtures last year.junior A groups stages are nearly over now so the finals should be played a bit earlier this year.
With regards to the Championship Structure, I think that the GAA should take a close look at the NFL (American Football) which I feel is an excellent structure. Each franchise (county) there will play each other at least once every 4 years and it still incorporates a divisional structure (provincial championship).
For those of you who are not NFL fans it works on the following basis:
There are 2 conferences - AFC & NFC;
Each Conference has 4 divisions - North, South, East & West;
There are 4 teams in each division (32 in total);
There are 16 regular season games each year before the play-offs;
Each Team plays the other 3 teams in it's division both home & away (6 Games);
Each Division will play games against another division in its conference (4 Games). This revolves every 3 years e.g Year 1 - AFC North Teams play AFC South Teams; Year 2 - AFC North Teams play AFC East Teams etc.
Each Division will play games against another division in the other conference (4 Games). This revolves every 4 years e.g Year 1 - AFC North Teams play NFC South Teams; Year 2 - AFC North Teams play NFC East Teams etc.
Based on the standings on the prior year, a team will meet the team on the same standings in it's own conference (2 games). If the AFC North is due to play the AFC South in a year, then the winner of AFC North in the Prior Year will also play the winners of the AFC East & West in the prior years.
With regards to the play-offs the 4 division winners and the best 2 losers will play off in each conference to get the conference winners. The 2 conference winners will then meet in the super bowl.
It may seem complicated with the way that I have described it but it is an excellent system which would ensure variety of games (it is ridiculous that we still have teams that have never met in championship football) while still ensuring a provincial system. I know that it would have to be tailored as we have an uneven amount of teams in our provincial championships but I'm sure that it could be done.