Gavin remained adamant that the seven ‘enhancements’ were “complementary” with the ‘threat’ of two-pointers from outside the 40-metre arc pivotal to unlocking defences.
His point was backed up by fellow FRC member Michael Murphy as they reflected on what they had seen after last night’s semi-finals which Connacht and Ulster won to advance to tonight’s final of the Allianz-sponsored competition.
“We saw what we expected to see from an FRC perspective,” said Gavin. “I’ll always go back to the terms of reference, what we have been asked to do, to make the games more entertaining, more exciting, to play, to coach, to watch.
“The top five things people wanted to see more of, kick passing, long range scores, high fielding, goals and one-to-one contests and creativity, I think we saw that.
“Scoring is up, shots are up, goals are up, ball in possession time is up, kick-outs and one-to-one contests, that’s all in a positive trend. We have to be satisfied with this evening’s work,” he added.
It was clear that teams have yet to adjust to defensive alignment in the context of the two-pointers and Gavin and Murphy are sure that there will be adjustment to that if and when familiarity comes.
But keeping the two-pointer option is an important part of their arsenal, to keep “manners” on a defence as Gavin put it.
“It is complementary because I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that if this does pass, you could see some of the scores there, from Niall Grimley about 50 metres out. If that’s in his locker, bring that in 10 metres and it will be eight out of 10 range.
“Teams are well able to do it and I have no doubt that if they see the reward for it, they will practice it and we’ll see more of them and that will then push defences out which, when you have the likes of Darren McCurry or Mark Bradley inside, they’ll probably profit from that space. They do go hand in hand.”
Murphy said that without the two-pointer threat, teams will revert to a default setting, even with just 11 players defending.
“If you don’t have that scoring zone, those 11 defenders just going to sag in, close up the ‘D’ and shore it up whereas when there is that scoring arc, those 11 defenders have to try and press out. There was definitely an increase in shots taken, not all of them got over the bar, a lot of them dropped short.”
Murphy is sure that in time teams will adapt to better tackling and methods of defence but the secondary rules, designed to be more punitive around tactical fouls and delaying, will be prohibitive.
“Week on week this will get better and for something like tackling I have no doubt they will work that out,” he said.
“They will try to prod and probe and stretch and find the way to push the percentages in their favour but with those secondary rules around bringing the ball forward 50 metres, it’s risky.”
Malachy O’Rourke, the current Tyrone manager and another FRC member, said he wasn’t concerned about an apparent lack of physicality in the games as they moved so fast, diminishing contact, sharing Murphy’s view that there will be improvement in defence.
“We’ll see the intensity with pushing up on kick-outs, a lot more contests from kick-outs so I think there will be a lot of physical challenges.”
O’Rourke feels the ‘three v three structure’ worked well in meeting the committee’s aim of getting games going ‘vertically’ rather than ‘horizontally.’
“Most people felt there were a lot of passages of play when the ball was being passed horizontally and it was slow and it was passive. That is one thing with the structure, that hopefully the ball can be moved up,” he said.
The Munster manager John Cleary welcomed the enhancements but expressed concern about the sustainability of players being able to play at that pace over 70 minutes.
This weekend’s game used rolling substitutes, chiefly because they are playing out on consecutive days. But while the FRC has flagged interchange for the future it is not something that’s urgent, Gavin said.
“It (rolling substitutes) is one of our recommendations to have in the back pocket but we are a long way from that,” he said.
“In the league, I’m sure there will be times when teams will try to control the pace of the game, which is allowed. You can do that and we want that to be allowed within the modern innovations.
“We could look at it but I don’t think it is something to be concerned about and if it is? Benny Hurl, the Tyrone delegate, brought it up at a Central Council meeting four weeks ago and we said ‘wouldn’t that be a great complaint!'”
