THE 12v11 situations created by goalkeepers and the requirement for players to hand the ball back to the opposition on a free have been the issues creeping up most regularly for the Football Review Committee from the opening two rounds of the league.
It’s still expected there will be no tweaks to the new rules until after round five in early March.
That includes the possible introduction of a sixth sub, something that was called for by a number of managers including Kieran McGeeney, Jim McGuinness and Dessie Farrell at the weekend past.
The Football Review Committee (FRC)’s initial plans had referenced six subs but after feedback, a number of lower-ranked teams felt it was punitive towards them and an advantage to the stronger teams.
That will be one of a number of areas of focus for the committee in the coming weeks.
There was widespread debate after the opening round of games around the role of the goalkeeper, particularly in light of the impact that both Niall Morgan and Rory Beggan had on the game they were involved in.
Armagh brought Ethan Rafferty on late in Salthill and then started him against Tyrone to great effect as he kicked three scores, including two two-pointers.
Down also made a change during the second half of their loss to Roscommon in round one, putting outfield player Danny Magill into nets and taking off goalkeeper John O’Hare.
Offaly goalkeeper Paddy Dunican also came up to rifle a brilliant goal in their win over Laois.
Although the same number of goalkeepers scored from play in the first two rounds in Division One last year as did this year, their freedom to create a spare man in attack has been the focus of debate.
The potential pitfalls of allowing the goalkeeper to join attacks in the opposition half had been discussed at length by the FRC before their proposals were originally made public.
It was felt that to impose a complete ban on the goalkeeper receiving possession in open play would be too restrictive on the position and turn players off from wanting to play there.
Paddy Tally said after Derry’s opening round defeat, a game in which Niall Morgan’s influence was notable, that the “twelfth man is killing the game”.
The alternative to banning the goalkeeper’s involvement in open play is if the ‘keeper does cross halfway, one of the three forwards designated to stay up would be allowed to track back.
That would be seen as potentially undermining the 3v3 rule but the bigger concern is the difficulty in policing it.
There are no immediate plans to make changes to any of it but anything that shows up repeatedly as a major concern by the end of round five could be tweaked for the last couple of rounds of the league.
The ending to the Armagh-Tyrone game, where Tyrone had a score disallowed on the hooter because Armagh goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty touched the ball before it cleared the crossbar, was not of any particular concern.
How to end games under the hooter system had been the focus of intense discussions during the original process, when it was decided that if a score was kicked right on the hooter, it would have to travel directly over the bar or into the net without a touch from anyone else in order to count.
There was a school of thought that a rugby system would be better, where the ball must go out of play for the game to end. That may yet be revisited.
Plans to extend the use of the hooter itself, which is currently only in play for Division One games, will involve a wider discussion with Central Council around the cost of its use.
There are concerns in some quarters that the benefit does not justify the cost of rolling out new scoreboard systems in every ground, while also paying for software that would allow broadcasters to link in and match to the stadium clock.
The power cut in the Athletic Grounds on Saturday evening meant that there was no visible public clock during the first half, but time was being kept by the fifth official.
The Games Intelligence Unit, set up by the FRC to track and collect data, are not expected to report any of their findings until at least another two rounds of games have been played.
Originally the intention was to publish the data earlier but it’s now felt that in order to get an accurate reading on the impact of the new rules, a bigger sample size of data is needed.
It’s likely that their first publication will be towards the end of February, after round four of the league.
Referees, who will meet with the review committee again this weekend, have noted more positive interactions with players.