Is it rules or tactics that need to change?

It looked like it was going to be an anti-climactic weekend.

Around tea-time on Friday, Mayo football fans got the news they feared when a social media post revealed that the county senior final had fallen foul to Storm Ashley. As deflating as it was for supporters, one can only imagine how disheartening it must have been for the Ballina and Knockmore players whose minds would have been laser-focused on peaking for Sunday afternoon. Perhaps not all players would have been sickened, though. I’m sure Kevin McLoughlin and Padraig O’Hora will be thankful for another week to get their bodies right for the titanic battle that awaits.

After the postponement disappointment, the deflated feeling wasn’t lifted by watching the Connacht versus Leinster Railway Cup game. Friday night’s games were soulless enough occasions as the players tried to grapple with the “rule enhancements” in an empty Croke Park. It had an exhibition match vibe and bore many resemblances to a Covid match in an echoey Croker. I didn’t enjoy Friday’s fare at all and wondered if we were making a huge mistake with all these changes.

But the weekend was saved by the Interpros Final on Saturday night. That was a cracking game and provided a vision of what Gaelic football’s brave new world may look like. I wouldn’t be a fan of all of the proposed rule changes but I can definitely get behind some of them. My favourite would be the kick-out having to travel beyond the 40-metre mark. As crafty and well-executed as they have been, short kick-outs have been a blight on our game and have hugely contributed to the laboured build-up that has infected many football fields. Niall Morgan adapted well to the changing role of the keeper, while Stephen Cluxton will need a few more games to get up to speed. It’s a funny thing to say that a 43-year-old multiple All-Ireland winner needs more practice!

I played a championship match last year against a team whose goalkeeper had no kick-out strategy and just thumped it long for every single restart. It was a throwback to when I started playing and the most enjoyable game I’ve played in yonks. The ball was launched to the middle where midfielders vied to catch it cleanly or groundhog-like half backs and forwards fought to win the breaks. Once possession was gained in the middle-third, a platform was set high up the field to get the ball inside quickly. Simple football but a lot more attractive than over and back ball. Forcing goalies longer will make the play more vertical rather than the horizontal tripe which has become commonplace recently.

As a corner-forward, I also like the “three-up” rule. This will create more space for inside forwards, leading to one-on-one duels and will hopefully revive the dying art of attackers taking on their defenders. Without a buffer of bodies protecting them, defenders are going to have to get used to mano a mano defending again which is no harm either. A ding-dong duel between a corner-forward and corner-back going at it hammer and tongs is a sight to behold. Think back to Keith Higgins and James O’Donoghue in 2014 or Chris Barrett and Paddy Andrews in 2017.

While defenders will need to sharpen up their defensive skills, attackers will also need to get out to a local field with the bag of O’Neills to practise their long range kicking. It was noticeable how poor most forwards were at nailing the shots from outside the 40-metre arc. That is a symptom of the safe, measured, risk-averse football that has been promulgated nationwide recently. Apart from Rían O’Neill, I cannot think of too many who looked overly confident taking on those shots.

Having said that, I wouldn’t be an advocate of introducing the two-point score or the four-point goal. Three points for a goal and one for a point is such a staple of Gaelic games going back over a hundred years that I would be loath to fiddle with that. We don’t want our game to become totally unrecognisable either.

Connacht and Ulster’s dominance in the Interpros accurately reflects the state of the championships in those respective provinces. Munster and Leinster’s underpar showings speaks to Dublin and Kerry’s dominance and the lack of quality teams in those regions. From a Mayo perspective, I thought Aidan O’Shea, Jack Carney and Eoghan McLaughlin all showed well.

Exhibition matches at the end of a long season are probably not the acid test these rule changes need, however. In the Irish Times at the weekend, Malachy Clerkin referred to the rules as “fun… but badly in need of cynical teams to stress test them”. That test will likely come in next spring’s NFL. In the meantime, we should approach them with an open mind but reserve judgement until results matter and managers’ and players’ reputations are on the line next season.

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Although the weekend's entertainment was up and down, I watched the most exhilarating game of football in years last Wednesday. Oranmore-Maree beat Dunmore MacHales in the Galway Under-19 ‘A’ Final on a scoreline of 2-18 to 2-14. It was a magical night under the lights and a hazy fog in Duggan Park, Ballinasloe. Dunmore, one of the most storied clubs in Galway football, lost nothing in defeat after a super performance.

In Colm Costello, they have yet another wizard of a forward, fresh off the North Galway Forward Football Factory production line. He kicked 1-10 but was pipped to the man-of-the-match by Oranmore’s Harry Keady, son of the late great Galway hurling legend, Tony Keady. Keady must have caught at least six midfield marks in an awesome aerial display and between his fetching and Costello’s kicking, all the elements of the beautiful game were on show.

Neither team took a backward step and just went for it and all of us in attendance were the richer for having been treated to such a thrilling match. Such a display of positive, adventurous football made me wonder if it is tactics, not rules, that are the issue in Gaelic football. Maybe the problem is with the managers, not the rule-makers.

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I was delighted to see my old teammate, Austin O’Malley, lead Cuala to their first Dublin SFC crown. It is a serious achievement for the Louisburgh man, especially considering that the Dalkey area isn’t traditionally known as a Gaelic football hotbed. Cuala, like their opponents Kilmacud Crokes, would be one of the more affleunt and leafier suburbs of South Dublin. Well–heeled or not, Austy had his men tackling like savages and working maniacally to win the day. Mick Fitzsimons was peerless as his club overcame the fancied, star-studded Kilmacud in the SoCoDu Salted Caramel Macchiato with Oat Milk derby. He has won everything there is to win but the fire still burns brightly and he is still some warrior.

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Elsewhere, a past pupil of mine, Eoin Colleran, won the Man-the-Match as Pádraig Pearses won the Roscommon Senior title. You know you're getting old when your former pupils are starring in senior county finals! Following a stunning quarter-final victory against Brigid’s a month ago, Pearses haven’t looked back. Having lost so narrowly to Kilmacud in the All-Ireland Semi-Final in 2022, they will look to go even deeper in the club championship this time round. Indeed, with Brigid’s and Kilmacud both gone, and Corofin nowhere near their former levels, Pearses, Ballina and Knockmore will all be sensing an opportunity.

I was disappointed that last weekend’s senior final didn’t happen as planned, but the silver lining is a bumper weekend of football ahead. It doesn’t get much better than having the junior and senior Finals on Saturday, followed by a potential classic in the intermediate on Sunday – one do-or-die match after another.

‘Tis the season for club finals, the best time of the year. Let’s just hope the weather obliges.