IF football’s two-point scoring system had existed last year, Galway would have won the All-Ireland and Paul Conroy would have a medal to go with his Footballer of the Year award.
The veteran midfielder kicked three scores in last year’s final loss to Armagh which would be considered two-pointers this year.
Armagh, in turn, appeared to kick just a single two-pointer in last July’s final, from Niall Grimley, with Rian O’Neill and Oisin O’Neill just inside the 40m zone for their second-half scores.
What’s certain is that Galway were well set up to take full advantage of the new scoring arc and in two Division One games so far in 2025, have shot eight two-pointers, amounting to 16 points. Conroy scored one of those as well as four more in a challenge game against Kildare.
“At the moment now you almost get, I wouldn’t say a licence to shoot all the time, but you have to look at the risk/reward in it,” said Conroy, who was speaking at the announcement that Solgar is an official partner of the GAA Museum and the new vitamin partner of the GAA/GPA.
“If you can put over a two-pointer it is a big reward. Before, it was all about percentages and working it into zones and where you’d kick from whereas now, if you take a couple of two-pointers and they don’t go over, well, if you do get one or two of them you’re still coming up with maybe four points from five shots.”
But while Conroy said football is more enjoyable under the new rules, pointing to how ‘boring’ things had become for armchair viewers with all the ‘lateral stuff’ going on, he predicted one tweak to the two-point scoring system as it stands.
“I think that could be one that if there was one to change, I don’t know will that stay,” he said of teams being awarded two-points for frees kicked outside the arc.
“For example, the infringement where you don’t keep your three players in the half, the referee brings the ball in for a 21-yard free that you can then bring back out (of the arc). I’d say that could be one that might change.”
Within the rules as they stand, Conroy has predicted more innovation around long kicking. Galway’s kick-pass to hand-pass ratio in last year’s All-Ireland final was just one to six.
“I think more kicking will become more evident as the months go on,” he said. “As players get more used to it and as the weather dries up, you will have to use the foot a bit more.”
Another stat from last year’s All-Ireland final is that Galway hand-passed the ball 347 times. At one stage, they hand-passed the ball 22 times in a row. Some commentators have suggested a restriction on hand-passing should have been included in the new suite of rules.
“I don’t have a massive issue with it at the moment, maybe it’s something that will appear more as the league goes on but it doesn’t strike me as something I’d say has to be changed instantly,” said Conroy.
On the personnel front, a fully fit squad has allowed Division 1 leaders Galway to hit the ground running in 2025. Damien Comer is the only high profile absentee as things stand.
“He is back doing a bit of running and stuff,” said Conroy of the powerful full-forward. “Hopefully he will be back later in the league.”