No pre-season competitions, but plenty of pre-season games – the new football rules got another big road-test at the weekend as counties met up for challenge matches with the Allianz League coming sharply into focus.
Louth met Antrim, Wicklow had a Leinster derby with Dublin, Galway and Kildare faced off in Newbridge and Mayo hosted Monaghan. A number of other matches took place across the country too.
Plenty of confusion for players, no doubt, but spare a thought for those county stars who are also beginning their Sigerson campaigns this week; the old rules will remain in place for the third level competition, meaning for some they will be switching between the two on an almost day-to-day basis.
That extends to referees too. Take Down official Paul Faloon, for example. At the weekend, he was in charge of the clash between Louth and Antrim and working off the new rulebook. On Wednesday, it will be back to the old as Belfast rivals Queen’s and St Mary’s clash in the Sigerson.
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"You’d have to question the sense of having one competition under one set of rules at the same time as another under different," said Saffron boss Andy McEntee, who has a number of players preparing for university duty alongside county commitments.
"I wouldn’t always have been known for my sympathy for referees but I really do feel for them. From what I can gather, they have asked for clarification on a number of rule changes and they’re getting very little response from the FRC (Football Review Committee).
"There are umpteen rules they are looking for clarification on and not getting any."
McEntee’s side have now played two challenge games having also come up against Wexford. His initial scepticism hasn’t disappeared with in-game scenarios causing consternation.
"Talking afterwards, the referees were saying there may be seven (main) amendments but there’s anything up to 48 rule changes via the implication, little bits and pieces here and there.
"There’s going to be mistakes made that will have big implications for every county.
"It could cost league points and that could cost you your championship position if you’re bottom of division 2, top of division 3.
"The 50m rule is extremely penal. Here’s a scenario. You’re playing a club game between two strong rivals and one team is chasing a point in the dying seconds and the other team is defending a one-point lead. All of a sudden somebody shouts that there’s only two up and the referee turns around and goes to award a 21m free in front of the posts at the far end. Imagine the abuse he’d take.
"There’s numerous scenarios and we already have seen that in some of our games."
One of those occurred against the Model County.
At one stage, a high diagonal ball was fired towards the Antrim square and came up just short of the large rectangle. An aerial contest still took place and the Antrim defender did brilliantly to break it away from danger and it was collected by their keeper. But a free-in was awarded as both Antrim players were not inside the large rectangle when the ball was played between the two.
Despite those issues, McEntee has praised his players – and those he has come up against so far – for adapting quickly, with counties doing everything they can to deliver a crash course in the changes.
Wanting to replicate their upcoming Division 3 campaign, Antrim provided six officials to act as mic’d up line umpires – the new term for linesmen – and regular umpires for their game with Louth.
Even with the assistance of six officials, calling some of the rules were difficult – most notably the 3v3 rule with Faloon awarding four 20m frees for instances of it being broken.
The adjudication of the 3v3 rule is the one that keeps coming up though, with a real concern about how club referees will be able to accurately stick to it when the top referees in the county are getting it wrong at times despite the assistance of half a dozen officials.
It should also be noted that another top official stated that the rules were pretty seamless in the games he officiated with players already really tuned in to the new landscape.
So another few weeks of testing behind closed doors to go and then it’s on to the Allianz League and the TV coverage and all the bells and whistles that go with it.
Wary, yes, but McEntee is still hopeful that things will be better down the line.
"A bit of clarification for referees will help them and then the more they play, the better it should get," he said.
"Wexford had played a few more challenge games than us, they were our first, and you could see that with some of the rules and how they were reacting.
"Hopefully it becomes easier for all involved, players and officials."
