Pádraic Joyce believes there should be no more changes once the Football Review Committee decides on what rules need to be amended in the coming days.
The FRC has been flagged to meet this Monday night, with a view to finalising any proposed tweaks ahead of next month’s Championship launch.
“That has to be it. We can’t be changing them (after that),” Joyce declared after watching his Galway charges secure a dramatic home draw with Tyrone to stay top of Division One after five rounds.
“They changed the goalkeeping one (punishing 20-second delays over kickouts) and we got an email the week after it was changed, which is ridiculous. So look, again, a small breakdown in communication there.
“Whatever they decide to do, we’ll coach it… but it needs to be whatever is decided. They have two weeks now to look at it and get the information out.
“But all in all, you have to praise the FRC because people were probably doubting at the start, will this work, will it not work? But it seems to have worked a good bit and there’s a bit more excitement in the game, a bit more jeopardy – and a bit more football being played as well, which is no harm,” the Galway manager expanded.
“Give them their pat on the back, they deserve it, but let them do their work now and see what they come back with.”
Malachy O’Rourke – an original member of the FRC before stepping down to take up his new role as Tyrone boss – believes some rules need reviewing.
“The black card one will have to be looked at again after what happened the last couple of weeks,” he said, alluding to the anomaly where teams who lose a player (to a red or black card) only need to keep two players up rather than three.
“I’m not a big fan of the kick-out having to go outside the arc all the time, it’s leading to an awful lot of holding and scraps for possession,” O’Rourke added. “It’d be better if it just went outside the ‘D’ and gave teams the chance to be a wee bit more flexible in their approach. They could go short, they could go long; but because the goalkeeper can’t get the ball back, teams would still push up and you’d get plenty of contests out there.”
Seventh-placed Tyrone are now in a relegation dogfight, with difficult games looming away to Donegal and at home to Dublin, whereas Galway are in the box seat to reach a top-flight Final.
“We know that teams who were top of the League the last two seasons didn’t go so well (in the Championship), so we’ll keep an eye on that,” said Joyce.
“We haven’t won a League in Galway since 1981. My uncle was on the last team that won it and he keeps telling me about it. If we’re there, we’re there. We don’t go out to lose any game, and we’ve two huge games now – in two weeks’ time we’ve Dublin away and then Kerry at home, so they’re going to be great learning curves for us.”