The long-awaited verdict from Junior B football is in. These new rules are ... pretty bloody good. I’ve played two league games in this new dawn in the last three weeks, and the game is slightly better, slightly faster, slightly more vertical, and slightly more fun to play. And all those minor improvements add up to a major impact.
Our game last Sunday morning was on grass after our previous league game, and our only challenge game before the start of the season had been played on AstroTurf. So this felt like the first “real” game of football we’d played. The weather was fine, there wasn’t much of a wind, the pitch was decent. It was as good a circumstance as you could hope for as we tiptoed into March.
The first question you’re still inclined to ask before the game was – have they marked out the arc? And they had, of course. We should probably take that as read now.
We told our fullback lines and full-forward lines that they were in charge of the 3-up, 3-back breaches – basically if you crossed the line you’d better make bloody sure someone else is replacing you in your half of the field. This seemed like more hassle than it was worth, so I decided (for the good of the team, obviously) that I wasn’t venturing anywhere near the halfway line from my spot at full forward. This, it should be noted, did not represent a major sea-change in my thinking.
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The solo-and-go was also encouraged, but with caveats. Don’t do it anywhere near the opposition goals (let the freetaker take care of those), and maybe lift your head for a second before you set off soloing at what will be, let’s face it, a sedate pace.
The new throw-in, with one midfielder jumping and the other midfielder standing on one sideline, caused us some minor confusion as our starting midfielder hadn’t actually arrived yet (according to the WhatsApp group he was doing “a run to the airport” ... even though he’s not a taxi driver), but we found a victim for that; a sub took off his bib and wandered into our half-forward line to replace him, and we were away.
The solo and go was immediately in use, and at this level it appears it is most often used in the half-back line or at midfield, the caveat being that every player has to be told by four different team-mates and two selectors to “solo and f**kin’ go, will ye.” These verbal cues are constant.
The solo-and-go is intimately linked to the rules over dissent. Previously every free, anywhere on the pitch, was an immediate invitation for everyone within 20 yards to offer their tuppence to the referee, to their team-mates and to their opponents. The mere fact that someone can set off running straight away after the whistle just cuts all that nonsense out. Even setting aside the 50-metre punishment for dissent to the referee the game was immediately far more enjoyable to play in.
Our referee on Sunday morning was absolutely on top of the rules, talked the players through his decisions, regardless of whether they were the captain or not, and punished dissent whenever he felt that interaction crossed the line. That is absolutely as it should be.
It has already fundamentally changed the way players talk to the referee. Players are at a loss on occasion to know what a free was given for, they need the referee to explain it, and they appreciate the communication. The referee has the power to punish anything that oversteps the mark, and a player doesn’t have the time to argue over a ref’s decision in any case, unless he wants to be left floundering by a solo-and-go.
Our opponents hit one exceptional two-pointer, we turned around a five-point deficit without the help of any shots from outside the arc to win by three in the end. There were no advanced marks, but as the ground firms up and players get a little fitter and sharper they may well have an impact all the way down the grades.
There was one 3-up, 3-back breach spotted by the referee, but as you play the games you become aware of what the story is with this rule, and how it is possible to police it at club level. The referee isn’t expected to call each minor breach of that rule – he can’t. If you’re making no material impact on the game the ref probably isn’t going to see you. But if you are making a material impact then you deserve to be punished, and you will be.
I spoke briefly to the referee afterwards, thanking him for talking us through the game to the extent that he had, and it was clear he had enjoyed himself as well. An end to the constant relitigation of every decision they make must be such a joy.
I wouldn’t want to overstate it – many of the rule changes were aimed at changing the intercounty game and the top end of the club game. As you went down the grades the impact of massed defences and four-minute spells of possession was obviously going to be less pronounced. But the problem of indiscipline, the casual abuse of referees – those can get more pronounced the lower down you go, not less. That revolution may not be televised but it is nevertheless revolutionary.
