At the recent GAA congress, hurling’s hand pass was added to the list of things that will be “fine if we just enforce the rules that are there”. There’s no need to itemise what referees think of that solution but given how detailed and persistent Conor O’Donovan’s campaign on the issue has been, it was surprising that the matter wasn’t further referred.
There is sufficient disquiet for a Football Review Committee (FRC) equivalent – maybe, who knows, a HRC – to be allowed look at the hand pass.
O’Donovan hadn’t the bells and whistles of an official committee presentation but he established a prima facie case. Allowing that forensic analysis may have concluded differently, the idea deserved better scrutiny.
You can understand why the majority clings to a rule that facilitates invalid actions out of fear for the game as a spectacle. In hurling the hand pass speeds up play and helps players escape being murdered in possession. Thus, it remains.
All of which is a long-winded introduction into the finalised FRC proposals which will regulate what is going to be the most altered championship’s football in at least 35 years, arguably more. The current rule changes are more wide-ranging than those in 1990, which allowed free kicks and line balls to be taken out of the hand even if this was optional for frees.
Whatever the relative impacts of the two programmes of change, the game’s evolution since then has been in one direction: greater control of and fewer contests for possession. The reason for taking the hurling hand pass as a starting point is that it has been little short of remarkable what a charmed existence the hand pass has had in football.
At least it speeds up hurling, whereas it slows down football.
Jim Gavin’s committee made an early decision not to intervene on that topic, citing its usefulness in retaining possession in attacking zones and hopeful that their proposals’ general orientation from horizontal play to vertical would reduce the inclination to hand pass and encourage quick ball.
If the FRC have glimpsed Banquo’s ghost at the banquet, it was probably wearing a Games Intelligence Unit T-shirt. The unit has been one of the season’s great blessings, providing regular updates on football data, covering all aspects of the game in detail.
Through the unit’s good offices, there has been analytical feedback on the impact of the FRC experiments. It shows that over the five rounds of the league to date, hand passing remains resolutely close to the 400 mark, albeit on average slightly under at 395 but just 6 per cent down compared to last year’s league, not quite the significant reduction that would have been hoped.
The hand pass-to-kick-pass ratio is even more dispiriting. The most recent rounds of the league have shown it coming in at 3.5:1, as high as it has ever been.
The late Eugene McGee’s FRC in 2012 provided detailed argument as to why they hadn’t considered curbing the hand pass, describing it as “a trend”.
“It is not a core part of the game,” said McGee at the launch of the report in December 2012. “That is why we are leaving it as it is but we are also putting in a strong recommendation that this be monitored on an annual basis. It can be clinically monitored. If that ratio were to go back to three or four or five to one then definitely the GAA would have to move.”
Recent figures have been in the foothills of that range. The most recent leagues have ratios of 3.1 and 3.2 to one. So far, this year’s average is showing 3.4:1. If McGee’s reassurance that tactical trends would make the hand pass transitory proved optimistic, at least the intelligence unit is now giving the GAA the tools to monitor and assess continuously.
Paul Early, who was a prominent member of that 2012 FRC, wrote on these pages last December about Gavin’s successor committee’s report and upcoming trials. He was positive about the prospects for reducing the ratio.
“The area between the goalkeeper and the opposition 45m line is where the bulk of the hand passing takes place, those elaborate necklaces of hand passes. This new rule book should result in fewer hand passes.”
In fact, the new rules simply shifted that theatre of operation to the attacking zone, which has been a large contributor to the ratio remaining stubbornly high.
If the FRC’s key original proposal was the 3v3, the amended 4v3 is even more important. With the advancing goalkeeper no longer unbalancing the attack by creating a 12v11 overload, there will be less opportunity for lengthy phases of keep-ball as each forward player can be pressed.
Managers may even ask what is the point of sending up a goalkeeper to join the forwards as opposed to a more practised outfield player. Obviously, there are exceptions like Niall Morgan, Ethan Rafferty and Rory Beggan, who can at times look like their team’s best forward but not all ‘keepers tick that box.
There is every reason to be optimistic for the championship. Better conditions and faster play will showcase the FRC’s project more clearly. Central council also ruled that fastidious regulation should take second place to practical considerations when agreeing that the updated changes should kick in for this weekend’s league.
Managers will welcome the two weeks of practice before the start of the championship, which for some is just over three weeks away.
There’s a lot at stake. Asked last year, what if even with the experimental rule changes, the hand pass to kick-pass ratio didn’t drop, Paul Early replied: “If it doesn’t, the changes will have failed.”
The summer awaits – from this weekend.
