Two things struck me about the recent league. Too much handpassing. Lots of bad refereeing.

I checked the figures. There were well over 200 handpasses in several games - 235 when Kerry played Tyrone, nearly the same between Cork and Tyrone.

The Aussies came here last year and were better kickers with our ball. No wonder. We don't kick any more. It's too easy to coach handpassing rather than the natural skills of the game. You can get any bunch of athletes to develop into a handpassing team just running and handpassing.

One theory is that in winter teams train in grounds where the lights aren't great. And they do lots of training inside grids, handpassing and doing contact stuff. It gets ingrained.

I've said this in the past about Dublin, for example, they pick athletes and hope to make footballers out of them. Great teams get footballers and turn them into athletes.

Coaches take the easy option. Working on kicking or developing the skill isn't done at county level. Kicking is all about trying to get the balance right. You don't want fellas kicking the ball stupidly. The long ball has to land in the scoring zone and you need constructive diagonal footpassing out the field. One or two quick handpasses, a good diagonal ball for half forwards to come on to and then inside the 21 with the ball is the ideal.

We started out last year in Kerry one way and ended up moving back towards a kicking game. We worked hard on constructive diagonal kicking in each side of the field.

My cure is a change in rules. Two consecutive handpasses and then make a team kick it. That rule would transform football. Right now there are so many men behind the ball at any time there is often no point in kicking it, because there is nobody up the field.

The handpass epidemic brings us to referees. The handpass game is almost impossible to referee. Teams charge out with the ball, moving it quickly. We get too much contact in a confined space. Refs can't see. There are bodies and hits everywhere.

The Kildare and Donegal game last week was an example. Players were done one minute for overcarrying, the next minute for the foul. It's grey on the best days. A lottery on bad days. It is easier to referee two men going for a ball than six or seven in a fast moving huddle.

Not that referees are perfect anyway. A share of them don't look up to intercounty fitness. As usual this year they went like lunatics with the cards for the first few games, putting cur isteach on fellas. Frighteners till fellas cop on and it becomes a bit of a farce.

The GAA needs to draw in referees by making it attractive to former players. Too many men who referee big games know everything about refereeing and nothing about football. They can quote rules verbatim but they have no feel for the game.

There are things we have to learn or adopt. An advantage rule. Let the game flow. Come back and book a player when the play is dead.

And what about the amount of time it takes to book a player. A ref is miked up. Just let him say number 11, Kerry or number 11, Armagh down the wire to the fourth official and get on with it.

When referees stop play it takes at least 30 seconds to book fellas. Let the game flow. Let the fourth official keep track. Number 11 for Kerry booked. Recorded and announced.

And wire the umpires! A referee looks silly going from one to the other and then chasing around the field looking for a guy.

There were five minutes wasted in the Kerry-Tyrone game and they still couldn't find Tom O'Sullivan! For Crossmaglen John McEntee got booked twice but stayed on the field. If all information went through the fourth official things would move better and referees would have more authority.

Pat McEneaney has been our best referee for some time. Pat was playing a bit of junior in Monaghan until a year or so ago certainly. He knows his football. He talks to fellas. He understands the game. The GAA will have to seek these guys out.

Make it attractive, you'll get the best applying for it. We should take the time-keeping away too. I saw it work in Gaelic Park, New York, for the three years I played there. A big clock behind the goal. The referee signals to the clock man when play stops. And the clock stops. When time is out and the clock gets to the top a buzzer goes off and when play next goes dead the game is over.

Simple. Yet in my first game as Kerry manager (a league match with Longford) three minutes of injury-time were signalled and eight played. Against Tyrone in the All-Ireland final of 2005 four minutes of injury-time were signalled and only three played. You remember the ones you lose, of course, but such simple things need to be got right.