CAVAN boss Raymond Galligan believes the absence of pre-season competitions next season is unfair on referees trying to grapple with the introduction of a raft of new rules.
Special Congress voted at the weekend to implement each of the seven ‘core enhancements’ proposed by Jim Gavin’s Football Review Committee.
The rules, such as each team needing to keep a minimum of three players in the opposition’s half and banning backpasses to goalkeepers inside their own half, have the potential to be revolutionary.
Galligan says that while it is “exciting to see the rules coming in…personally I didn’t think the game was in that bad a place.”
But his primary concern is that, particularly in Divisions Two and Three where promotion and relegation impact on a team’s championship status, referees will inevitably have to make game-defining calls.
“My only criticism with it all, one of the buzz words last year was ‘jeopardy’ and we’re maybe not being mindful that there are going to be a huge amount of mistakes made by referees.
“That’s part and parcel of it. Missing out on pre-season competitions is unfortunate moreso for referees than anyone.
“We don’t want to be at the end of a two-point free decision and in time, being trialled by social media highlights that it was a mistake, and finish a game with the loss.
“That’s probably the thing, there’s huge jeopardy now in the league, especially if you’re in Division Two where we are.
“For the rules to be deemed trials, I just find we probably are missing out on the pre-season competitions that would be a chance to upskill referees in real time.
“They’re only human and they are gonna make mistakes. Sometimes you’re gonna be on the receiving end of them.”
Cavan’s 2020 Ulster-winning captain played most of his inter-county career in goals but had played outfield before then.
That gives him a unique perspective from which to judge the impact not just positionally, but also from a captain’s perspective given that no-one else will be allowed to communicate directly with a referee.
Niall Morgan’s display in the inter-provincial games led to fears that a 12v11 overload would be available, although the Tyrone goalkeeper has since backed the rules heavily and admitted he would not be able to do that every week.
Galligan also says he does not see it becoming a regular occurrence because of the physical demands on a goalkeeper allied with the risk.
“It depends on the ‘keeper and the team. If you’ve a really high skill level in your defence and you’re comfortable getting out beyond midfield to really unlock the goalkeeper, those teams will be the ones that will thrive because they will have an extra player.
“My experience of being goalkeeper, a lot of the time you are coming out with the ball and the team is in front of you. There’s a big difference in that and coming out the field with the ball behind you.
“You’ve got to put a huge amount of trust in your team that the ball’s gonna get to you. Not only does the conditioning levels go up, but you have to cover 70, 75 metres to become live in play.
“That’s when you only start your work and that means your defence has to be very comfortable on the ball, because if that breaks down, you’re wide open at the back door.
“Teams that are possession focussed will maybe push that but teams that like to move the ball through the foot might not utilise it as much because they’ll be aiming to get the ball from defence to attack as fast as possible. I don’t see it becoming a major factor in the game.
“There’s good explanation and reasoning behind the rules, we’re just trying to get our heads around them to embrace them as best we can when we get back to training.
“We tried to play a fast, aggressive game last year but with injuries and different things, we had a tough championship, we fell pretty short in the end.
“We just have to make sure we stick to what it is we’re trying to achieve by using the rules to the best that we can because they are tilted towards that kind of game by having the three up as well.”
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