DAVID COLDRICK has highlighted one of the gaelic football rule changes that will be ‘difficult to police’ at club level.
A host of new changes devised by Jim Gavin and the Football Review Committee were on display on the opening weekend of the Allianz Leagues.
One such alteration was the 3Up-3Back rule, which stipulates that each time must have three outfield players in the opposition half at all times.
There were a few instances of teams being in breach of the rule, with the consequence being a 20m free.
While the inter-county game sees plenty of sideline officials and umpires to assist referees in enforcing the rules, Coldrick fears for those at club level.
The Meath man was in charge of Tyrone‘s win over Derry in Division 2 at the weekend.
And he told RTE: “I think the 3 v 3 is the big one.
“From a refereeing perspective, you can’t really police it yourself so you are depending on your linesmen and so on greater teamwork.
“At intercounty, that’s fine, we do have a full team. The 3 v 3 at club level is going to be very difficult.”
Another change that came into effect and drew criticism was the new rule concerning dissent.
Under the new guidelines, the player who has committed the foul must hand the ball to an opponent in a “prompt and respectful manner”.
Referees will be able to award a 50m free in the event of a tactical foul that delays or interferes with a free or sideline kick, or dissent over a referee’s decision.
New Derry manager Paddy Tally labelled the rule as “draconian” but Coldrick said it will help to “change the culture” at club level.
He added: “I do think the 50 metres for delaying and for dissent is really, really important, probably more so for underage referees at club level because we’re trying to change a culture there.
“So I’d say just stick with it and as we saw, the rules can bring a lot more excitement to Gaelic Football.
“I think it was a great game of football (Roscommon vs Down), a very open game which is obviously helped by the 3 v 3.
“From an official’s perspective you’ve seen everything here today, all of the various FRC enhancements in practice.
“And for a referee that’s a lot to take in and think about, just being clear as to what the penalties are for various offences because they’re not all the same.
“To be fair to the national panel of referees we have done a lot of homework, a lot of retraining of the rules.
“Even up to last Friday night, we did a session ourselves, the full panel, for an hour and a half, just talking through various scenarios and trying to make sure we were consistent in our interpretation of some of the rules that maybe aren’t fully, fully clear.
“So we were well ready for it but there’s still a long way to go.”
