Clare boss Colm Collins believes that the GAA has missed a trick with the proposed football rule changes which go before Special Congress on Saturday.
Delegates will vote on three motions following experimentation in the pre-season competitions and Allianz Football League earlier this year.
One proposes that the kickout be taken from the 20-metre line, another calls for the awarding of an inside mark for a clean catch from a ball delivered from outside the 45-metre line and, thirdly, it is proposed that a black card offence would see a player spend 10 minutes on the sideline rather than being replaced for the rest of the game.
“I think the sin bin is a good idea,” said Collins. “What exists really doesn’t penalise and especially didn’t penalise the stronger teams because invariably the replacement player was just as good as the guy that went off. I think that’s a good thing.
“I think the kickout, I wouldn’t have any strong views on that. If I was asked to think of rules I’d change in the GAA, that wouldn’t be one of them anyway. I wouldn’t be rushing to that one first.
“I suppose it’s to prevent kickouts going to the corners. I honestly think that’s not a good strategy anyway. I don’t think it makes a whole pile of difference.
“Then the other one, the mark, I think that the mark should only be rewarded for a high catch and that a catch on the chest shouldn’t be allowed as a mark.
“I do think that the mark is a good thing in the sense that it protects the high fielders but I don’t think there’s any great skill in catching a ball into your chest from a 40-metre kick. I don’t think that should be rewarded.”
There are concerns that changing the black card rule could be difficult to implement at all levels of the game, though Collins said: “I think referees should be vocal on this one and if it’s not something that’s implementable, they should be talking about it now.”
The long-serving Banner boss feels there are much more pressing rule changes that need to be looked at, however, such as a digital clock and hooter to relieve referees of time-keeping duties, similar to ladies football.
It’s something that was passed at Congress before only for the GAA to delay its introduction before parking it altogether.
“The biggest no-brainer of all time is the clock. It’d be out of the hands of the referee. That’s one straight off anyway.
“Something like so many people allowed in your own defensive half at any given time.
“There are different examples in basketball that you could probably use but, again, you’re back into more work for the referees and at the moment they’ve got a difficult enough job.
“There are lots of stuff in basketball and that but definitely the clock should be out of the hands of the referee, that would be a massive step forward.”
“There are lots of things that we can learn from other sports. We can take the best of them, like the Australian mark for example, take the good part of it which is protecting the high fielder but don’t take on the bad part of it which is rewarding somebody for a relatively simple skill in the same way as you would reward somebody for catching a ball way up in the air.”
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