Challenge match: Galway 2-18 Kildare 0-17 (Cedral St Conleth’s Park, Newbridge, Co Kildare)
GALWAY boss Padraic Joyce reckons it’s going to be a season of ‘completely attacking football’ under the new rules.
The 2024 All-Ireland runners-up beat Kildare 2-18 to 0-17 in a high-scoring challenge game on Saturday evening played under the 2025 rules.
It was an eye-opener for everyone in Newbridge as no-nonsense ref David Gough worked to the letter of the new laws.
Gough punished both teams for breaching the new 3/3 rule on four occasions in total.
Galway were caught three times in the first half for failing to keep three players in the opposition half - allowing Kildare to tap over three simple 20m frees.
Gough also applied the new dissent rule and brought the ball up 50 metres on a number of occasions while tap-and-go restarts were also utilised.
The real drama was around the new scoring system with Galway shooting a whopping six two-pointers from outside the 40m arc, four of those from Footballer of the Year Paul Conroy.
There were more opportunities for kicked passes into pockets of space in the danger area generally with teams now unable to drop everyone back to defend.
“It’s nearly gone completely attacking football,” said Joyce.
“It’s become a kick-out game and a possession-based game and if you commit turnovers you’re going to be hammered on the far side so it’s huge not to give the ball away cheaply if you can at all, that’s the big thing.
“Look, it’s a kicking game and it’s great to see. The game is called football and if we’re going to go back to that, we won’t complain.
“When you turn the ball over in your own half-back line and win it back, leaving you to counter-attack up the pitch, you have three up top, maybe a three of yours versus four of theirs situation, so you should be getting the ball up there straight away.
“Our approach is kind of to put it back on the players and get their opinions. It’s not just what I think, or what the coaches think, the players have to understand as well how they want to play and which way they’re going to go about it.
“There’s going to be a huge emphasis on players to give us ideas as well. We don’t claim to know it all.”
A significant aspect of the game was goalkeepers being forced to go long with their kick-outs. Short, clipped kick-outs often aren’t an option now with the ball having to travel from the 20m line to beyond the 40m arc.
Kildare’s very first point was a Ryan Sinkey score that came after a long Galway kick-out to a 50-50 battle went the Lilies' way.
The game was still in the balance and tied at 1-7 to 0-10 when Conroy came on in the 47th minute.
He proceeded to reel off four scores from outside the arc - one more than the three he managed in last July’s All-Ireland final loss to Armagh.
New Kildare manager Brian Flanagan said he’s unsure if the harsh punishment for breaches of the 3/3 rule fits the crime.
Kildare broke the rule themselves in the second half and instead of taking a 20m free, Galway’s Matthew Tierney opted to kick from outside the arc and landed a two-pointer.
“I absolutely get that there needs to be a punishment for that rule if it’s breached, in order for it to be a thing,” said Flanagan.
“But it actually sucks the energy out of the game a bit because the crowd and everybody is looking around, what was that blown for?
“Everyone is a little bit unsure for that 10, 15 seconds. The ball is carried up sometimes from 100 yards back up the field and it’s kicked over from 20 yards and we reset on the kick-out.
“I don’t know is that adding a huge amount to the game. So I think that’s something to look at. Whether the punishment matches the crime at the minute, I’m not quite sure.”
Flanagan said he’s largely in favour of the changes overall.
“All the other ones, I’m in favour of them,” he said. “They’re meant to speed the game up, they’re encouraging attacking play and probably the teams that adjust quickest will prosper.”
