Louth boss Brennan welcomes rule change - but calls for another to be scrapped
Louth boss Ger Brennan has welcomed the rule change around the kickout mark - but he also wants the two-point free binned.
From this weekend's preliminary quarter-finals, including Louth's tie with Donegal, any perceived impediment of a player who has made a clean catch on a kickout will simply result in a free from where the incident occurs.
Previously, it resulted in a 50-metre penalty, which often resulted in teams kicking a two-point free for what was often an unavoidable collision.
'It's the right thing to do,' Brennan told LMFM. 'It's been tough for referees to make a decision there and then the players then themselves - if the ball is thrown up between me and you, you grab a hold of it and I'm landing on the ground, like I can't get out of your way as quickly as the initial rule would like to think a player could do.
'So from that point of view I think it's hugely positive.'
Brennan maintains that the two-point free has to go too, though the counter-argument is that it would incentivise fouling outside of the 40-metre arc when a player is shooting for a two-pointer from play, as kicking the ball over the bar from the subsequent free could only result in a single point being awarded.
Brennan added: 'Two points from a free kick outside the arc is just nonsense for me at inter-county level, it's far too punitive of a punishment for opposing players and I've said that from League game one.
'I've mentioned one of the best free-kick takers in the country in Sam Mulroy and surely he has to be in the conversation for All Star selection this year given how well he's been playing for Louth, so from that point of view I would get rid of the two points from a free and I think everything else has brought a whole freshness to Gaelic football.
'The rules have brought a breath of fresh air and they have the hurling fraternity on their toes now too so that's good as well.'
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