Conor Lane: New football rules will be difficult to police
Conor Lane concedes the new experimental rules will be “difficult to police” if all five are incorporated in next year’s Allianz Football League, but he says referees will “embrace” them.
As the rules get their first trial in college matches in Santry tomorrow evening, the Banteer/Lyre man, who took charge of his second All-Ireland final last month, appreciates there are concerns about how well the new kick-out protocol and the sin bin will work.
Having experienced International Rules, where there is a maximum of six hand-passes, Lane hasn’t as many worries about the limit of three, even if referees will also be counting steps and the five-second advantage rule, but he accepts ensuring that only two players from each team are between the 45-metre lines as a kick-out takes place will be tricky.
It probably would have been easier if the ball had to travel beyond the 45 for a mark. It would have been easy on ourselves. The zonal will be a challenge to make sure there are only four people in that area and everyone else is behind. That would be a challenge if it comes in.
Lane is slightly unsure about the need for the sin bin when he feels referees have got the hang of the black card.
“For myself, personally, and I think for the rest of the referees, I think we have been going well with the black cards. I think the players are getting more of a benefit of the doubt than the first year or two, so there is less talk about them really in 2018.”
Speaking at yesterday’s referees development plan launch, GAA president John Horan questioned the need for a second referee and Lane shares his opinion.
“In football, it’s about possession. They like to work it up and across and, if you’d a referee on one side [of the field] he mightn’t see the ball for five or six minutes, being honest about it, so one is more than enough.”
The clock/hooter is something Lane would back. “Our linesmen come into help and our umpires have an opinion about time. The fourth official has an opinion, so we all gather around the 35th minute and I’d say ‘what did ye’ think?’ It could be four [minutes] or the umpire might say four-and-a-half, but yeah, the hooter would definitely take that onus off us if it came in, but what’s in front of us, we’ll apply and what’s not in front of us, we can’t do anything about.”
Lane wants to see both players and supporters alike adopt a more respectful attitude to referees, as in rugby.
“I think it’s started around Cork. I was talking to a few parents and they went to Páirc Uí Chaoimh lately or Bishopstown and they had to sit in the stand and they weren’t supposed to be vocal towards the sideline, but I think if you can get it into the schools. You have to hit the juveniles, but I think it’s happening and hopefully that generation will come up. We’d like to have the rugby side of it and that’s what I think we should strive for.”
