A few weeks ago, we mentioned how we have a theory that the lack of a transfer market in the GAA is one of the things that gives rise to so much discourse around competition structures and rule changes.
Another such perception is that every All-Ireland final has what we might term ‘The Moment That Everyone Remembers’. In a close game, it’s usually the winning score – think Séamus Darby in 1982 or Stephen Cluxton in 2011 – but it might be a miss, like Tipperary’s John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer’s long-range free that Hawkeye adjudicated to be just wide in the drawn 2014 hurling decider.
Last year, it was a curiosity of the football championship that, despite the new rules improving the spectacle immeasurably, once the action reached Croke Park for the latter stages, the tight games all but disappeared.
Of the four quarter-finals, Meath’s one-point win over Galway was the only one decided by less than six points; then Donegal beat Meath by 18 in the semis while Kerry had a half-dozen to spare on Tyrone.
The final itself saw the Kingdom regain what they call ‘the canister’ with a 10-point triumph against Donegal, a game where the outcome was rarely if ever in doubt.
Hooter sound
Coming up to half-time in Croke Park on 27 July, Kerry held a 0-15 to 0-10 advantage when the hooter sounded. With little Donegal pressure on the ball, Jack O’Connor’s side retained possession and, eventually, did what any team with David Clifford in its ranks would do – engineered a shooting opportunity for him.
His walk-off two-pointer gave them a fine cushion – but it raised the hackles of many who were aghast that such a sequence should play out. In the classic GAA tradition of using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut, it was decided that, for 2025, the hooter would halt action unless a shot was in the air.
That stipulation proved troublesome to adjudicate during this year’s Allianz Football League and now, as matters get more serious with the championship commencing this weekend, we are likely to see a growing instance of the law of unintended consequences.
While I don’t get to sit down and watch many Formula 1 races in their entirety, I read a lot about the sport. One prevailing theme from the books and articles is how car designers will acquaint themselves fully with the rulebook (literally ‘the formula’ which provides the name) in order to see what is not allowed – and what they can just about get away with.
If a constructor can find and exploit a loophole better than their rivals, they will have a major competitive advantage in a discipline where tenths of seconds are aeons. Then, the literal chasing pack will lodge appeals – if they are successful, it’s back to square one and if they are not, they will eventually copy what the market leader has been doing.
Then, every few years, the regulations will be rewritten, causing a whole raft of new issues, as with the nascent 2026 season, and the cycle will begin again.
We digress because good coaches will employ the same principle in order to try to win games of football or hurling – what can be done in a given situation that will not generate a debilitating penalty?
In terms of the new hooter mode, it’s the realisation that, when holding a narrow lead, if you can keep the ball out of scoring range, you can kill the game. There may be a black card incurred but, if the foul is on the opponents’ 45 with seconds left and nobody commits dissent, it is as effective as kicking a point. All of this because Donegal stood off Kerry in the All-Ireland final and the rules were exploited in a positive fashion to give the game’s best player a chance to get a score from more than 40 metres out.
David Clifford of Kerry celebrates after kicking the last score of the first-half, a two-pointer, during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship final match between Kerry and Donegal at Croke Park in Dublin, 27 July 2025. / Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Shake-up
Neither Kerry nor Donegal are in action this weekend as the provincial championships commence, but both are likely to be in the late July shake-up again.
Jim McGuinness’s side certainly couldn’t have been accused of standing off their southern rivals in the football league final at Croker last Sunday week – the 3-20 to 2-10 scoreline as bad as the Kingdom have had at headquarters since the 2001 All-Ireland semi-final loss to Meath.
It leaves Donegal well-set but are we really to believe that it was a hammer-blow for the beaten side? After all, it was just the league.
In an autobiography, Roy Keane mentioned how an Alex Ferguson team talk for a Manchester United game against Tottenham Hotspur essentially boiled down to, “Lads, it’s Tottenham” – essentially, the North London side would fail to deliver and United would.
If we can twist the saying 180 degrees, we’ll go with, “Lads, it’s Kerry” – they’ll breeze through Munster again and be primed for the newly-reformatted All-Ireland series.
Some of you may even remember last summer, when they were roundly written off before facing Armagh in the quarter-finals and won by 0-32 to 1-21. They’ll be fine; dare we say it might even suit them to be talked down. This weekend, the Ulster clash between Armagh and Tyrone will be the one to watch – let’s just hope that there are no hooter controversies.
A few weeks ago, we mentioned how we have a theory that the lack of a transfer market in the GAA is one of the things that gives rise to so much discourse around competition structures and rule changes.
Another such perception is that every All-Ireland final has what we might term ‘The Moment That Everyone Remembers’. In a close game, it’s usually the winning score – think Séamus Darby in 1982 or Stephen Cluxton in 2011 – but it might be a miss, like Tipperary’s John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer’s long-range free that Hawkeye adjudicated to be just wide in the drawn 2014 hurling decider.
Last year, it was a curiosity of the football championship that, despite the new rules improving the spectacle immeasurably, once the action reached Croke Park for the latter stages, the tight games all but disappeared.
Of the four quarter-finals, Meath’s one-point win over Galway was the only one decided by less than six points; then Donegal beat Meath by 18 in the semis while Kerry had a half-dozen to spare on Tyrone.
The final itself saw the Kingdom regain what they call ‘the canister’ with a 10-point triumph against Donegal, a game where the outcome was rarely if ever in doubt.
Hooter sound
Coming up to half-time in Croke Park on 27 July, Kerry held a 0-15 to 0-10 advantage when the hooter sounded. With little Donegal pressure on the ball, Jack O’Connor’s side retained possession and, eventually, did what any team with David Clifford in its ranks would do – engineered a shooting opportunity for him.
His walk-off two-pointer gave them a fine cushion – but it raised the hackles of many who were aghast that such a sequence should play out. In the classic GAA tradition of using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut, it was decided that, for 2025, the hooter would halt action unless a shot was in the air.
That stipulation proved troublesome to adjudicate during this year’s Allianz Football League and now, as matters get more serious with the championship commencing this weekend, we are likely to see a growing instance of the law of unintended consequences.
While I don’t get to sit down and watch many Formula 1 races in their entirety, I read a lot about the sport. One prevailing theme from the books and articles is how car designers will acquaint themselves fully with the rulebook (literally ‘the formula’ which provides the name) in order to see what is not allowed – and what they can just about get away with.
If a constructor can find and exploit a loophole better than their rivals, they will have a major competitive advantage in a discipline where tenths of seconds are aeons. Then, the literal chasing pack will lodge appeals – if they are successful, it’s back to square one and if they are not, they will eventually copy what the market leader has been doing.
Then, every few years, the regulations will be rewritten, causing a whole raft of new issues, as with the nascent 2026 season, and the cycle will begin again.
We digress because good coaches will employ the same principle in order to try to win games of football or hurling – what can be done in a given situation that will not generate a debilitating penalty?
In terms of the new hooter mode, it’s the realisation that, when holding a narrow lead, if you can keep the ball out of scoring range, you can kill the game. There may be a black card incurred but, if the foul is on the opponents’ 45 with seconds left and nobody commits dissent, it is as effective as kicking a point. All of this because Donegal stood off Kerry in the All-Ireland final and the rules were exploited in a positive fashion to give the game’s best player a chance to get a score from more than 40 metres out.
David Clifford of Kerry celebrates after kicking the last score of the first-half, a two-pointer, during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship final match between Kerry and Donegal at Croke Park in Dublin, 27 July 2025. / Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Shake-up
Neither Kerry nor Donegal are in action this weekend as the provincial championships commence, but both are likely to be in the late July shake-up again.
Jim McGuinness’s side certainly couldn’t have been accused of standing off their southern rivals in the football league final at Croker last Sunday week – the 3-20 to 2-10 scoreline as bad as the Kingdom have had at headquarters since the 2001 All-Ireland semi-final loss to Meath.
It leaves Donegal well-set but are we really to believe that it was a hammer-blow for the beaten side? After all, it was just the league.
In an autobiography, Roy Keane mentioned how an Alex Ferguson team talk for a Manchester United game against Tottenham Hotspur essentially boiled down to, “Lads, it’s Tottenham” – essentially, the North London side would fail to deliver and United would.
If we can twist the saying 180 degrees, we’ll go with, “Lads, it’s Kerry” – they’ll breeze through Munster again and be primed for the newly-reformatted All-Ireland series.
Some of you may even remember last summer, when they were roundly written off before facing Armagh in the quarter-finals and won by 0-32 to 1-21. They’ll be fine; dare we say it might even suit them to be talked down. This weekend, the Ulster clash between Armagh and Tyrone will be the one to watch – let’s just hope that there are no hooter controversies.
SHARING OPTIONS