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Extra.ie
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Extra.ie
Get ready for a glorious summer as revitalised football is box-office again
We knew Jim Gavin was good, but save-the-provincial-football-system good? Easy now. We're coming off the back of a Bank Holiday weekend, the weather has been smashing, and the holiday vibes are starting to thrum, but let's not get crazy here. The work done by Gavin's Football Review Committee gets more impressive by the week, in its thoroughness, its far-sightedness and its thrilling practical application. Even the obvious wrinkles, like the proviso that an opposition touch turns a two-point shot into a one-point score, which caused some controversy in the midst of the barn-burner in Castlebar on Sunday, is the sort of dynamic talking point that couldn't have been imagined a year ago. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile Summer after summer, we bemoaned the lopsided provincial system that saw Dublin and Kerry reduce Leinster and Munster to the status of training pitches, and the 2025 championship has seen that talk squeezed for space. That's largely thanks to Meath stunning Dublin a fortnight ago, but also because of the changes wrought by the FRC. They are what is making football seem vital, though, not any reboot for the provincial format. No, not even Jim Gavin is that good. Because let's get down to brass tacks: if Dublin had done what everyone in the capital and most people in Meath had expected and won that Leinster semi-final, then we would have been left with the usual summer serving of stodgy non-events in Munster and Leinster, loudly championed pyrotechnics in Ulster, and the reliable simmering of the deep-burning Mayo-Galway rivalry in Connacht. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile One shock can't save a system, seismic as Meath's win felt. And for all the novelty of Sunday's Leinster decider between Louth and Meath, few expect the old order to be so decisively overturned that Dublin will struggle to get back to a Leinster final next year. No, all hasn't changed, utterly or otherwise. What has changed is how the game is played, and that was a decisive contributor to the glorious Connacht final, the game of the year so far. The two-point rule, such an issue of contention throughout the league, displeases many coaches and a handful of pundits, but it is an agent of abrupt change that is proving exhilarating. Paul Conroy struck three beauties from distance to wipe out Mayo's fiery start in Castlebar all on his own, before a couple from Mayo on the resumption reeled Galway in. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie And it was Mayo's failure to engineer a clear shooting chance from outside the 40m arc in the end-game that cost them. Few would have faith in any of their shooters beyond Ryan O'Donoghue being able to land a pressure shot like that, and when Matthew Ruane eventually took it on in MacHale Park, he was too wide to the right and he was falling prey to the familiar panic that seizes Mayo attackers in these instances. The county's besetting failure to show composure in clutch moments had struck again. But the drama wouldn't have been possible without the two-point reward for long-distance scoring. That, rather than any miraculous revival of the provincial brand, is what makes the old game feel so vital today. This, remember, is the time of the year when we are all supposed to be clasping hands and looking upwards, offering hosannas for hurling. The May Bank Holiday has become the time of the year when hurling hype hits overdrive, but football is now rivalling it. Again, that is down to how the game is played and not how the competition is formatted. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile That point bears repeating because there has been some very loose talk since Sunday of a provincial revival, as if the years of turkey shoots have somehow, by divine writ, been consigned to the past. But let's not forget that the warm-up action ahead of Sunday's Connacht final was a saunter around Fitzgerald Stadium for Kerry against Clare; it was Kerry's twelfth Munster championship title in 13 years. And remember that a dodgy Dublin still suffered no great difficulty in getting past Wicklow, just as off-colour Mayo were spooked but not stunned by Sligo and then Leitrim. The point is that football has felt revitalised this summer in spite of the system, rather than because of it. And a point Gavin made at his very first address as FRC chairman in April of last year bears remembering, too. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile It was the day after a brilliant league final between Derry and Dublin, which the Ulster team won on penalties. Gavin said the match was a reminder that, when sides are reasonably evenly matched, excitement usually follows. 'I'm involved in underage football in the county (Dublin) and whatever league you are at, teams are playing at a competitive level and the games are exciting and competitive,' he said. 'It's when you get the mismatches that, sometimes from a spectator perspective and indeed from a player experience, that it might not be what we want.' Picture this: football could be even better in a future where the season is so altered that the old, unwieldy and dysfunctional provincial system is removed, and replaced with a more competitive and efficient way. It's eminently doable but the will to make it happen either doesn't exist among the leadership of the GAA, or it pulses so weakly that it can't overcome the significant and understandable provincial resistance. There will be a new All-Ireland series from next year, replacing the round-robin that has pleased practically no one, but fundamental change is being resisted. And as long as that happens, then football won't reach its full potential. Until then, though, there is at least the consolation of matches like the Connacht decider, and Saturday's Ulster final to savour, too. The Leinster decider will have novelty as one selling point, but more fundamentally it will pitch two very evenly matched sides into competition, just the sort of mixture Gavin identified as being ideal for decent football. Maybe it's greedy to want all the change now, but after glimpsing what's possible, it would be mad not to want more. 'How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?' was a popular song in the US after World War One. It spoke to the real fear that soldiers wouldn't want to return to lowly agricultural jobs in America after seeing the delights of Europe while on service. We've had a glimpse of Paree thanks to Jim Gavin and his FRC, and life on the farm doesn't cut it any longer. We can't forget the glamour, the dazzle, the sheer excitement of this world few of us dared to believe possible. And we can't stop thinking about how better it could get, too.
Irish Examiner
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
TV clock accuracy questioned following freezes during Connacht and Munster football finals
The use of the public clock in televised inter-county Gaelic football matches has been called into question following several freezes during the live broadcasts of Sunday's Connacht and Munster football finals. Several inaccuracies were provided to RTÉ viewers from both Mayo-Galway and Kerry-Clare games in Hastings Insurance McHale Park and Fitzgerald Stadium. In Castlebar, the clock was stopped on at least three occasions while action continued. Including one stoppage that lasted one minute and 39 seconds towards the end of the first half and two further halts in the second half the second of which was 1:23 in duration, the clock froze for three minutes and 33 seconds. The incidents in the transmission of the game in Killarney weren't as significant, although there were at least two periods when the clock didn't move as the ball was in play. The clocks used at the venues and by the broadcasters are not synchronised and it is understood a lack of clarity around referees's communications of 'time off' and 'time on' to the clock official who controls the stop clock have created difficulties for the likes of RTÉ, TG4 and even the GAA's own streaming service GAA+. Their respective on-site production teams have to interpret such signals and in some of their broadcasts the clock as shown in the top left corner is stopped to allow it to sync up with the one in the grounds. In March, the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) advised Central Council that updates were urgently required to avoid discrepancies between the clocks. 'We feel it is also essential that modifications are made to existing clocks to allow for TV Broadcast synchronisation (i.e. to ensure the same time is being displayed on the clock in the grounds as on TV).' The use of the public clock and hooter had been a major concern for the GAA's media broadcasters. In January, Nemeton's head of sport Maidchí Ó Súilleabháin warned of the challenges of synchronising the two timekeeping systems. 'The referee will stop the clock for injuries, substitutions, and other stoppages, but the broadcast team will rely on a visual cue from the referee to manually stop or restart their clock,' he said. 'Any delay or miscommunication could lead to a mismatch between the TV and on-field clocks, causing confusion for viewers. This dependence on physical signals from the referee highlights a potential flaw in the system, making accurate synchronisation a logistical hurdle for broadcasters.' The inaccuracy of what was presented on TV on Sunday was in contrast to an Armagh-Tyrone Division 1 football game in Box-It Athletic Grounds in February when the scoreboard lost power and players, management and those in attendance were not aware of what time was remaining. However, those at home had no issue. The clock/hooter is set to apply to this weekend's Leinster and Ulster SFC finals but will feature in only one of the eight Tailteann Cup games, the Westmeath-Antrim Group 3 game in Mullingar. The timing of the other seven will be controlled by the referee in question. The following week, two of the four Group 1 games as chosen for streaming by GAA+ will be subject to the public clock and the other two under the remit of the referee. The Galway v Dublin Group 4 and Kerry v Roscommon Group 2 matches are expected to be selected, the other two games being Mayo v Cavan (Group 1) and Clare v Down (Group 3). That distinction between televised/streamed games and those not shown live follows a Central Council decision on foot of a recommendation by the CCCC that the clock/hooter only be used for televised or streamed games. The rationale behind the call was a financial and logistical one as the CCCC estimated an initial cost of €250,000 to fit the required technology in each championship venue so as to ensure 'the risk of reputational damage/system failure is mitigated. 'It is unfortunate,' said Football Review Committee (FRC) chairman Jim Gavin, whose body recommended the technology be introduced to Gaelic football this year and claimed in March that it was having an 'overwhelmingly positive impact'. He continued: 'Obviously, from an FRC perspective, we'd like to see it everywhere.' Last month, the Kildare-Westmeath Leinster quarter-final in Newbridge was subject to the stop clock as it was streamed on GAA+. The following day's provincial clash between Louth and Laois at the same venue wasn't as it wasn't being screened. The clock/hooter has been a headache for the CCCC, who in March convinced Central Council to allow play to continue following the sounding of the hooter until the ball goes dead. Also backed by the FRC, the amendment came into force into Division 1 and 2 for the final two rounds of the Allianz League, but it has led to confusing situations for some players, the most high profile incidents involving Cavan's Dara McVeety and Louth's Craig Lennon.
Irish Daily Mirror
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
GAA officials told to tweak two point rule or else face 'significant challenges'
Dubs legend Ciaran Whelan has called on the GAA's top brass to tweak one of their new rules and avert Championship chaos. Speaking on The Sunday Game, Whelo praised the new rules for enhancing the quality of Championship matches, saying: 'The quality of the Mayo-Galway game is a credit to the new rules.' But one of those new rules caused controversy yesterday. With the score at 1-13 apiece, Ryan O'Donoghue's effort for Mayo cleared the crossbar before being touched by Galway keeper, Connor Gleeson. Read more: Colm Boyle column: Ref decision to deny Mayo a two-pointer was the wrong call - it cost us It should have been a two-pointer but because the officials considered Gleeson's intervention to have occurred before it cleared the crossbar, it was ruled as one point, denying Mayo the lead for the first time in the game. They ended up losing by two points. Afterwards Whelan said: 'That two point call was hugely important. 'This could be a significant issue with the new rules down the line. 'Games could be decided by one point and they could be won and lost with a call like this, where the shot is from over the line, or when a player gets a finger tip to it. 'It is a delicate one and it could lead to significant challenges down the line. 'There are pros and cons to the two pointer and that is one of the weaknesses.' Mayo legend Cora Staunton added: 'You don't want an All-Ireland semi-final or final to be decided on a call like that where they are unsure if the goalie touched the ball (after) it went over the bar.'
