THE issue of fly goalkeepers was the topic of debate on the first instalment of Allianz League Sunday of the new season.
This past weekend’s games saw the debut of a number of changes to how gaelic football will be played going forward.
One that inspired conversation was the 3Up-3Back rule, which stipulates that each team must have at least three outfield players in the opposition half at all times.
The qualification of those players needing to be “outfield” conjured a loophole which many were happy to exploit.
They did so by pushing their goalkeepers forward, creating a 12v11 scenario.
On Allianz League Sunday on RTE, pundits Eamonn Fitzmaurice and Ciaran Whelan debated the potential pitfalls of the rule.
And the former Dublin footballer argued that the ability for teams to push the goalkeeper up meant that the change was not getting the desired outcome.
Whelan said: “There is that risk of bringing your keeper up and I think possibly nearly every keeper at the weekend came up and we got old patterns of play on a smaller scale where there was that dead zone between the midfield and the forward line.
“A lot of that has to do with the teams sit back. Teams don’t push out but even when the game goes on due to fatigue, I think naturally people drop off.
“We had a lot of teams keeping possession, going back and forth. It doesn’t give the defence the opportunity to go man to man which might be one of the objectives we are trying to see.
“Every keeper came up and I know and accept that it is a risk bringing your keeper up but I think there is a lot more of an advantage in coming up because it still takes a bit of work to execute.
“I am not too sure whether it leads to the objective we are trying to get and I think it is a work in progress because it is creating that environment where teams are keeping possession.”
There was one prominent instance of the 12v11 being exploited at the other end.
In the 58th minute of Roscommon‘s win over Down in Division 2, Colm Neary made a block down and prompted a rapid counter-attack.
With Down’s goalkeeper caught up the field, Ciarain Murtagh made them pay with a long range shot that went into the empty net.
Eamonn FItzmaurice is a member of the Jim Gavin-chaired Football Review Committee which came up with the changes.
And asked if the 3Up-3Back rule was one the FRC would have to hang onto, the Kerryman responded: “It’s not a case of hanging on to.
“It is a case of let’s see how it plays out. We saw examples over the first weekend of exactly what Ciaran showed, that dead zone, possession play that no one wants to see.
“It is incentivizing teams to push up on the opposition half. We saw an example where Roscommon did that.
“We saw int he Dublin-Mayo game where both teams went man for man a lot.
“The keepers still did come up but it was more in an attacking sense to try and score rather than possession based game.
“I get the complaints, I get the reasons why people might be dissatisfied with it.
“You are trying to balance the innovations in the game and the traditions that people want to see as well.
“It is only weekend one so let’s see how it plays out.”
