New rules will 'be difficult to officiate' – Westmeath manager
Westmeath manager Dermot McCabe believes the newly introduced Gaelic football rules will be difficult for referees to implement.
Naturally, the new rules emerged as one of the chief talking points for everyone in attendance at last Sunday's challenge match between Westmeath and Clare in Castledaly - see report here.
“The game itself, it’s definitely new. It’s going to be difficult to officiate. I’d pity the referee and along with the other officials, they will have to be clear on the ‘three up’ rule and that type of stuff,” said McCabe afterwards.
“If you’re tagging a guy, you could be asking yourself ‘am I one of the designated three?’. One that was exploited at times today in the second half was the ‘solo and go’. I think people forget about that one, but there are opportunities there,” continued the former Cavan star.
The idea of awarding two points for a free scored outside the new arc is a rule that McCabe feels is open to question. “I’m not too sure on that one,” he said.
Furthermore, the requirement to hand the ball back to an opponent for a free is also likely to cause major controversy.
“Luke (Loughlin) just left the ball on the ground at the feet of the Clare player and that seemed very polite, but all of a sudden it was brought forward and they scored a two-pointer from that situation,” McCabe remarked.
In addition to being new to the Westmeath position, there is the considerable challenge of adapting to all the new rules. Therefore, it was hardly surprising to hear McCabe said that he “definitely” would have preferred if the O’Byrne Cup and other pre-season competitions were held this year.
“I’m not sure who made that decision and I would imagine a lot of players would have liked that opportunity to play (in the O’Byrne Cup),” he said.
“We’ve got a big changeover of players, the players are getting to know each other, we’re getting to know the players and they’re getting to know us and we’re all trying to learn a whole set of new rules. All of those things are challenging, but we’ll try and view them as an opportunity,” McCabe added.