Cavanagh and Earley welcome new rule

ON THE first full weekend of championship action, the new “square-ball” rule, enacted at last month’s congress, will make its first appearance in the highest-profile matches of the GAA calendar. Despite some criticism by Tyrone manager Mickey Harte of the rule’s likely impact, two prominent footballers yesterday gave a broad welcome to new provision.

Tyrone’s Seán Cavanagh, the 2008 football of the year, and elder Kildare statesman Dermot Earley, back in action after a couple of injury-destroyed seasons, were at the launch of Newstalk radio’s championship coverage, which is to be sponsored by Skoda, and starts with Sunday’s Leinster meeting of Longford and Laois in Croke Park.

The new rule, trialled during the 2010 league but rejected by that year’s congress, was introduced to help eliminate the controversies of recent championships, which have seen invalid goals awarded and perfectly good scores ruled out.

Now, a player will be allowed into the square once the ball has been kicked in – as opposed to being required to arrive in the area no sooner than the ball.

“I wasn’t a fan of the square-ball rule,” said Cavanagh, not for the first time disagreeing with his manager. “It was often a cop-out clause especially in club football where the ball might have been nowhere near the square when the square ball had been given.

“I don’t think it’ll do football that much harm – it might cause a few more skirmishes in and around the square. Maybe it’ll make the game a bit more exciting and maybe take away that bit of doubt and that frustration among players that was there before whenever a free was given out. I suppose only time will tell but I don’t see it as a bad move.”

Former All Star Earley, who hopes to play a full role in the coming championship, might be expected to welcome the change, as Kildare have been conspicuously wronged by the old rule: conceding a goal in the 2010 All-Ireland semi-final to Down’s Benny Coulter, who had encroached on the square and last year having Tomás O’Connor’s well-judged run and goal incorrectly ruled out.

“I suppose it’s going to get rid of all these decisions – bad decisions. It takes that out of the game,” said the Kildare centrefielder, who has been featuring at full-forward in recent matches and who doesn’t believe that it will lead to players hanging around the goalmouth waiting for dropping ball.

“People are talking about players standing in the square, you know – you want to make a contribution and you can’t really do that standing in the square. I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of problems to it. I think it will be a positive thing, that it will get rid of decisions that have been made over the last couple of years where legit goals have been disallowed.

“I’m sure by the end of the summer we’re all going to have different opinions on it again but until then we’ll get cracking into the championship and see how it works.

“It depends on what kind of way you want to play as a full-forward, do you want to play in on the square? But that’s only a very small area and then you’re relying on defenders kicking in perfect passes as well to be of full benefit.

“If the ball isn’t running correctly, all the defender has to do is box you out. So look, there’s a lot more to it than just standing around the square but it’s going to hopefully bring in better decisions than those that have gone against teams.”

Newstalk pundit and twice Down All-Ireland winner Conor Deegan was also in agreement with the reform, which he doesn’t believe will cause as much difficulty for goalkeepers as has been suggested.

“I think it had to happen. Things had to change. I think the days of players charging in on top of the goalkeeper were long gone and they were over-protected really. It also created huge controversy and Kildare were the biggest recipients in that regard. Hopefully it will remove that as an issue. I’m sure there will be teething problems as there always is but it’s a step in the right direction.”