The First Week of January Thanks to the 'closed season' of November and December never before have we seen the month of January take on such importance for clubs and especially county teams. Not ten days into the month and already many counties and clubs are at it full tilt either through competition, trial testing or just normal pre-season training. Quite a few counties begin the season under new management and have had to wait until now for proper introductions to take place unless they are fortunate enough to have been united before the start of the closed season. Some of the new managers have already voiced their concern at the logic of a closed season especially when a lot of counties will take part in competitions in January and they will not have had a chance to even see his players on the training pitch beforehand. They are all aware of course that player burn-out is the primary reason for introducing this rest period but would argue that many county players throughout the land are not resting but indeed playing club championship games during this time. Their cries of dismay are understandable and it is easy to see just why they can get so frustrated when they are striving to meet the demands now placed on a county manager and his assistants. I do believe however that there should be a closed season for Gaelic footballers/hurlers and it should be implemented with the welfare of the player always in mind. Nowadays when we are being continually compared to professional footballers perhaps we should follow their example and adhere to the closed season system now that it has been introduced. I have no doubt that we would become accustomed to it after it has been in operation for a few years but perhaps the timing could be looked at in tandem with the timing of all the competitions and adjust either, or both, so that the two could dovetail better than present. Further pressure for the man in the county hot seat is the introduction of the new rules that have come into force for the pre-season competitions. As well as familiarise himself with the new rules he must introduce them to his players in a playing scenario (though I doubt if a great part of valuable training time would be set aside for coaching new rules that are at present only experimental). The games played to date under the guidance of the new rules have passed off without much incident or complaint so hopefully their introduction will blend in blissfully. As for the actual rules themselves I think by and large they are good and it is easy to see why most of them have been introduced or refurbished. "To behave in a way that is dangerous to an opponent...To inflict injury recklessly on an opponent....To spit at an opponent..To kick or attempt to kick an opponent.." are all worthy of immediate dismissal and it is good to have them in black and white. Verbal abuse, feigning an injury (diving!), and body checking an opponent who has just made a pass are officially punishable offences, and rightly so. Perhaps the most drastic change comes with the issuing of a yellow card and the dismissal of the offender who will be replaced by a substitute. In theory this is a very good proposal. Firstly, it allows the referee to punish a player who is obviously a troublemaker but who seldom commits a red card offence and, secondly, it puts the onus on team managers and coaches to discipline their players in the art of tackling and general sporting behaviour. There is one major flaw with the proposed implementation of these new rules and that is - they are all up to the interpretation of the referee. Some are pretty straightforward - strike a match official, kick an opponent, strike an opponent with head - but it is the ambiguity of some of the proposals that may lead to confusion. For example, "to contribute to a melee" is a straight red card offence while "to bring the arm round the neck of an opponent" is only a yellow card offence. Rules that depend greatly on the referee's interpretation of events. Allowing a substitute to replace a yellow card offender also presents the referee with the easy option of issuing a yellow card when a red card was more appropriate. I know that this could be seen as nit-picking at the rules or being critical of the referees but it certainly is not. I am in favour of the new proposals - at least I would like to see them get a fair test over a whole season - and I certainly would not be critical of referees who give willingly of their time and who are the unsung heroes within the organisation. It is the fact that a set of new proposals have been introduced and instead of alleviating the referee, who is continually under fire from all sides, they will test further his mental ability and diplomacy skills. I had hoped perhaps to see proposals introduced that would delegate greater responsibility to other match officials such as umpires and the fourth official. I know that recent performances by some umpires would suggest that they have bother enough seeing whether or not the ball went over the bar instead of adding further duties to their list. However, were umpires given the same authority as linesmen it would surely help the referee and would demand better coaching and greater discipline all round. Time-keeping duties could be handed to, perhaps, the fourth official who communicates with the official clock operator at all county grounds. As I have said I am in favour of the proposals getting a good chance and would like to see any rule implemented that would lead to the eradication of violence within the game and that would contribute to a faster, more exciting game. At the end of the day it is the players who can help the referee more than anyone else and if they take to the field in the right spirit the whistler should be seen very little of. I can't remember a year when there was so much movement within managerial circles. There's been quite a bit of turmoil as well! The Cork saga still rages on yet it's amazing how we all seem to have become somehow familiar and detached from events in the Rebel County. Of course this doesn't lessen the severity of the situation nor the pain of those involved but it is a situation in which there seems to be few winners emerging. In Ulster the turmoil came from Donegal but with John Joe Doherty now installed and all appeals heard and answered we can look forward to a substantial challenge from the North West. With new managers installed in Donegal (J.J. Doherty), Derry (Damien Cassidy), Antrim (Liam Bradley) and Cavan (Tommy Carr), and Down, Fermanagh and Armagh no longer under rookies (if ever they were?) and Harte and 'Banty' rarin' to go we are surely in for a hot year in Ulster! New blood certainly adds fire to any team and with Pat Gilroy in Dublin, Glenn Ryan in Longford, Mickey Moran in Leitrim, Jack O'Connor back in Kerry, Eamon O'Brien in Meath, Sean Dempsey in Laois, Kevin Walsh in Sligo we can look forward with interest to the progress of all these teams in the coming season. Tweet

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