National Forum

New Rules

(Oldest Posts First)

It has to be said that the new rules have seriously levelled the playing field. Division 1 against Div 4 doesn't seem as big (it is still significant ) but not as daunting as before. I love the fact that honest kick out football to the middle is now where the game is at... Cute short kick out strategy seems easy enough now to push up on forcing keeper to go long. Teams with limited midfield strength may be better off letting keeper go short and defend further up the pitch. Any team out muscled in the middle now are pretty sure to lose the game. Midfield wins you the game, the forwards by how much

SligoScot (Sligo) - Posts: 83 - 27/04/2026 11:56:43    2669152

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Replying To SligoScot:  "It has to be said that the new rules have seriously levelled the playing field. Division 1 against Div 4 doesn't seem as big (it is still significant ) but not as daunting as before. I love the fact that honest kick out football to the middle is now where the game is at... Cute short kick out strategy seems easy enough now to push up on forcing keeper to go long. Teams with limited midfield strength may be better off letting keeper go short and defend further up the pitch. Any team out muscled in the middle now are pretty sure to lose the game. Midfield wins you the game, the forwards by how much"
The kick out is now a big factor, just like it used to be 20 years ago.
The problem a lot of counties (Mayo to name just one) is they dumped their big men for fast mobile midfielders at underage and haven't developed enough big men for catching high ball. The short kick out became so dominant that goalkeepers stopped practicing the long kick out.

It will take mayo 3-4 years to start producing Aiden O Sheas/Barry Moran/Liam Mchale/David Brady types again. A similar problem in Dublin and a few other places too.

So any county with a few big catch and kick midfielders will do well.

tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1778 - 28/04/2026 16:54:48    2669591

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