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To Alleviate Referee Problems Could We Leave The Two Pointers To County Games Only

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Tomsmith here ' I see Referees in different Counties come under pressure as regards to where the two point effort was hit from. 'Absolute disgrace' as two wrong two-point calls made in dying minutes of GAA county final The above is the heading from a Newpsper commenting on a Game in Fermanagh . Tomsmith tomsmith (Cavan) - Posts: 4106 - 18/08/2025 13:55:46 2632472 Link
This happened in the Kerry Junior A Championship as well. A team scored a two point free but were only awarded a point. The other team then scored a point to equalise and the game ended in a draw. The referee's report corrected that a 2 pointer had been scored. The team declared to have lost the game would have gone chasing a two pointer instead of a point. They played under protest at the weekend. legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9208 - 18/08/2025 14:34:50 2632484 Link
Interesting discussion. Very difficult for club referees to implement the new roles unless they have umpires and possibly even lines people. There is enough dispute every season in club games without the added headache of trying to work out the exact position a ball was kicked from. The problem then is if the club game has slightly different rules, it becomes a different game from the county one. slayer (Limerick) - Posts: 6598 - 19/08/2025 10:42:49 2632617 Link
Replying To slayer: "Interesting discussion. Very difficult for club referees to implement the new roles unless they have umpires and possibly even lines people. There is enough dispute every season in club games without the added headache of trying to work out the exact position a ball was kicked from. The problem then is if the club game has slightly different rules, it becomes a different game from the county one." So ye want to return to the utterly boring rubbish endured for over a decade.Id hate to be yer partners jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1793 - 19/08/2025 11:28:44 2632633 Link
Replying To jobber: "So ye want to return to the utterly boring rubbish endured for over a decade.Id hate to be yer partners" No, not at all. The new rules have been great. But to have this work effectively at club level you probably need a different solution - it is just very difficult for one person to make calls on where the ball was kicked from, especially if there was a fast break, lines not painted well on the field etc. It would be interesting to hear what club referees think of the rules and how to implement them. slayer (Limerick) - Posts: 6598 - 19/08/2025 12:24:40 2632645 Link
Replying To jobber: "So ye want to return to the utterly boring rubbish endured for over a decade.Id hate to be yer partners" Have attended close to 40 games in Monaghan this year, and have not witnessed any issues. The problem in Fermanagh was down to totally dreadful refereeing. There are much bigger problems with refereeing than the 2 point score. ORIELMAN85 (Monaghan) - Posts: 819 - 19/08/2025 12:26:36 2632647 Link
Ref's make mistakes! OMG - who knew! Seriously? Ref makes mistake in club match - costs a team the win (maybe?) Does that not happen every 5 minutes in every match ever played? As long as humans are doing the reffing, mistakes will happen. That's part of the joy of it. By all accounts - refs are loving the new rules and get little or no abuse now. We might even get some younger refs now tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1620 - 19/08/2025 13:08:31 2632659 Link
Replying To jobber: "So ye want to return to the utterly boring rubbish endured for over a decade.Id hate to be yer partners" Jobber from Westmeath Naw Naw no return to boring football, but what we spectators are looking for is fare play for teams. Its unfair that a team gets beat by what was not a two pointed . I say slayer two Boyous ruined our great game and it took the best brains in Ireland Gaa circles to get it right , but in doing so the two pointer in Club games is a disaster for Referees to decide tomsmith (Cavan) - Posts: 4106 - 19/08/2025 22:36:03 2632759 Link
Tomsmith here I was away before my time in putting down these two pointers as being problematic to Referees. It appears that a reply was allowed in Fermanagh tomsmith (Cavan) - Posts: 4106 - 22/08/2025 02:37:03 2633069 Link
Replying To legendzxix: "This happened in the Kerry Junior A Championship as well. A team scored a two point free but were only awarded a point. The other team then scored a point to equalise and the game ended in a draw. The referee's report corrected that a 2 pointer had been scored. The team declared to have lost the game would have gone chasing a two pointer instead of a point. They played under protest at the weekend." I have felt that a straight line across the pitch would be easier to assess from than the actual curve - but maybe not - what do you think? omahant (USA) - Posts: 3354 - 24/08/2025 11:26:52 2633318 Link
Replying To omahant: "I have felt that a straight line across the pitch would be easier to assess from than the actual curve - but maybe not - what do you think?" Straight line means shooting from near sideline is harder than from middle. I was originally a big fan of the arc, but is still awards the shot from the centre more than the side. No one tries a 2 pointer from the 21 yard. Therefore a "half oval" with 45m infront of goal and 70m wide when it intersects the 21, extended through to the end line. Hard to set out originally, but would be a better solution. At present, half the hand passes around the arc are to get the ball back infront of the goal - a half oval rather than a semi circle would make the handpassing back out less likely tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1620 - 25/08/2025 13:25:41 2633511 Link
In essence, a referee incorrectly deciding that a ball kicked from just inside the arc should be worth two points instead of just one, is not much different from a referee incorrectly deciding to award a point for a closer-in shot that actually went narrowly wide. And that sort of thing is not unknown to happen either. In both cases, the shooting team gets one more point than they're actually entitled to. If you're going to do away with two-pointers in club matches in case a referee makes one sort of mistake, then you may as well do away with one-pointers as well, in case he makes the other kind of mistake. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3155 - 25/08/2025 13:58:13 2633523 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "Straight line means shooting from near sideline is harder than from middle. I was originally a big fan of the arc, but is still awards the shot from the centre more than the side. No one tries a 2 pointer from the 21 yard. Therefore a "half oval" with 45m infront of goal and 70m wide when it intersects the 21, extended through to the end line. Hard to set out originally, but would be a better solution. At present, half the hand passes around the arc are to get the ball back infront of the goal - a half oval rather than a semi circle would make the handpassing back out less likely" You could have other lines outside the centre of the arc, each side score outside the arc worth 3 points, course then you'd need a goal to be worth 5, where does it end? the pitch will end up looking like the gridiron American football pitch. Tirchonaill1 (Donegal) - Posts: 3489 - 25/08/2025 14:34:24 2633532 Link
Replying To Pikeman96: "In essence, a referee incorrectly deciding that a ball kicked from just inside the arc should be worth two points instead of just one, is not much different from a referee incorrectly deciding to award a point for a closer-in shot that actually went narrowly wide. And that sort of thing is not unknown to happen either. In both cases, the shooting team gets one more point than they're actually entitled to. If you're going to do away with two-pointers in club matches in case a referee makes one sort of mistake, then you may as well do away with one-pointers as well, in case he makes the other kind of mistake." Many a goal has been given (or not given) for a dodgy square ball call. bad refereeing is not a good enough reason to change a rule. Might as well have no rules so the ref cant get it wrong at all. tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1620 - 26/08/2025 18:32:57 2633699 Link
It'd be very difficult to expect players to train for 2 pointers for county and not for club Too much confusion for players and referees etc I reckon Dothesimplethingswell (Sligo) - Posts: 25 - 26/08/2025 22:08:13 2633722 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "Straight line means shooting from near sideline is harder than from middle. I was originally a big fan of the arc, but is still awards the shot from the centre more than the side. No one tries a 2 pointer from the 21 yard. Therefore a "half oval" with 45m infront of goal and 70m wide when it intersects the 21, extended through to the end line. Hard to set out originally, but would be a better solution. At present, half the hand passes around the arc are to get the ball back infront of the goal - a half oval rather than a semi circle would make the handpassing back out less likely" That's a fair point for the big inter-county games - but relating to the thread here, would it make ref errors any less at the junior club level? How about a straight at just outside the top of the "old D" 35 metres out - but only allow two-pointers from either angled wing (>35m) - no premium for kicking from the front third (27m span width or so)? omahant (USA) - Posts: 3354 - 27/08/2025 00:13:46 2633739 Link
Replying To Tirchonaill1: "You could have other lines outside the centre of the arc, each side score outside the arc worth 3 points, course then you'd need a goal to be worth 5, where does it end? the pitch will end up looking like the gridiron American football pitch." That could get very complicated - who'd value a 1-pointer? omahant (USA) - Posts: 3354 - 27/08/2025 00:17:49 2633740 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "Many a goal has been given (or not given) for a dodgy square ball call. bad refereeing is not a good enough reason to change a rule. Might as well have no rules so the ref cant get it wrong at all." Or, keep the rules and have no ref - might as well,I suppose. omahant (USA) - Posts: 3354 - 27/08/2025 00:20:37 2633741 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "Straight line means shooting from near sideline is harder than from middle. I was originally a big fan of the arc, but is still awards the shot from the centre more than the side. No one tries a 2 pointer from the 21 yard. Therefore a "half oval" with 45m infront of goal and 70m wide when it intersects the 21, extended through to the end line. Hard to set out originally, but would be a better solution. At present, half the hand passes around the arc are to get the ball back infront of the goal - a half oval rather than a semi circle would make the handpassing back out less likely" Interesting - your point being, while centre of goal to oval/ellipse vertex is 45m, it is only 35m (half of 70m) to the arc on the goal line. So, to score from the arc at the 20m line, it's a kick of between 35m and 45m - about the current 40m. To incentivise an angled kick more, maybe shrink the 70m on the goal line further to 60m or less. This way, when moving goalwards, the kick distance for the 2-pointer along the arc gets progressively "easier, faster", for want of saying it better. I wonder how that might further stretch a defence - if say, a 2-pointer could be scored from a distance of 35m from a certain angle on or beyond the arc. I'd love to see your idea trialled - but too late now for the FRC Report currently being drafted. omahant (USA) - Posts: 3354 - 27/08/2025 01:13:54 2633743 Link
Replying To Dothesimplethingswell: "It'd be very difficult to expect players to train for 2 pointers for county and not for club Too much confusion for players and referees etc I reckon" Its not that difficult. how would it be confusing for players or refs. they just know its 1 point a point for any score over bar in club games. why would it be too confusing for referees? KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3834 - 27/08/2025 10:40:45 2633758 Link