What we learned from first game under new football rules as Kildare and Galway faced off

With the pre-season competitions parked for 2025, challenge games offer the only opportunity for players, management, referees and the public to familiarise themselves with the new Gaelic football rules for now.

To that end, Kildare and Galway played out an interesting duel at the revamped Cedral St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge, with the Connacht champions running out 2-18 to 0-17 winners in the end. On the face of things, it was higher-scoring fare than would normally be the case, particularly at this time of year, but there are caveats.

Galway, for example, hit six two-pointers so, in old money, their score would amount to 2-12. Indeed, while all of Kildare’s scores were one-pointers, three of them were handy tap-over frees on the back of Galway being penalised for breaching the new ‘three-up’ rule, so that’s 0-3 they wouldn’t have accrued under the old rules.

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Indeed, one of Galway’s two-pointers came after Kildare were pulled on the ‘three-up’, as Matthew Tierney opted to shoot from outside of the new scoring arc. So the scoreline was certainly bloated significantly by the new rules.

But let’s take a look at some of the new rules individually and how they impacted on the game.

Kickout

With goalkeepers forced to kick beyond the 40m arc from the kickout, safe short options were scarce for Kildare’s Didier Cordonier and Conor Flaherty of Galway, both of whom were replaced during the game by Cormac Barker and Connor Gleeson respectively. It meant that goalkeepers at both ends, and perhaps Kildare particularly, went long more often, meaning more contests for possession in the middle third.

Flaherty was more inclined to try his luck around the fringes of the 40m arc in the first half and paid the price early on when Kildare intercepted and Ryan Sinkey kicked their first point. Against that, Galway picked off plenty of Kildare kickouts that went long and worked their first goal, scored by Tierney, off an opposition restart.

Given that there were some 46 kickouts in total, it could be argued that the new kickout rule was the most impactful on the game over the course of the 70 minutes given that the retention rate for either side would have been significantly below what would be expected in recent seasons.

Interestingly, at no stage did either side employ lurkers around the goal area behind the goalkeeper when the kickout was being taken, as is now permitted under the new rules.

Wandering goalkeepers

Goalkeepers cannot take possession in open play in their own half, unless it is in the penalty area, but they can join the play in the opposition half to create a 12 v 11 scenario.

But while the netminders did aid the attack on occasions, it didn’t appear to have a significant impact on how this particular game played out. But watch this space.

Costly errors on ‘three-up’

Three times in the first half referee David Gough penalised Galway for not leaving three players in the opposition half, resulting in 13-metre frees for Kildare, with the impressive Alex Beirne slotting a simple score on each occasion.

It went the other way in the second half, with Kildare cited once though it cost them two points as Tierney opted to kick from outside the arc and converted. Food for thought for Beirne and Kildare there.

But the likelihood is that players will quickly adapt and offences of this kind will be much more of a rarity as the Allianz League gets underway later this month. It’s a learning curve for Gough too, with the Meath official wrongly calling against Kildare late in the first half before realising his error.

Two-pointers peripheral - until they weren’t

An umpire waves the new orange flag for a two-pointer.
(Image: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane)

Until the introduction of 2024 Footballer of the Year Paul Conroy in the 47th minute, the new two-pointer wasn’t a hugely significant factor in the game.

Galway’s first score came via a Cillian O Curraoin free from outside the arc which earned his side two points. The only other attempted two-pointer in the first half was from Kildare’s Brian McLoughlin, whose effort went wide. Then there was that Tierney free for Galway in the second half which he opted to shoot from outside the arc, while he dropped another short from play and John Daly missed another, shooting wide.

But Conroy effectively put the game out of Kildare’s reach with an exhibition of kicking, converting four two-pointers, three of them in a seven-minute period at the end of the game, while he sent another wide. However, this was a non-competitive runout in the first week of January. Would Conroy and his ilk be as eager to take on these kind of shots in a more competitive environment? Time will tell.

Solo and go

Not a huge feature of this game but was used on a few occasions, with Kildare’s Daniel Flynn appearing to be a keen proponent of it.

Attacking mark advantage

The attacking mark is an irritant to many observers but rather than bin it, Jim Gavin’s Football Review Committee tweaked it such that it can only be awarded for catches from kicks delivered from outside the 45 to inside the 20m line.

There is also an advantage rule element to it now, however, with the attacker allowed to play on and try for a goal while retaining the option of going back for a point if it doesn’t work out. There was one instance of this in the first half, again involving Tierney, who slotted a point from a mark after attempts to work a goal came to nothing.

Dissent rule

There were a number of instances where the ball was moved up 50 metres after the ball was not handed back to the opposition by the offending player. It’s potentially very costly, with Daniel Flaherty kicking a point for Galway early in the second half on the back of Kildare being penalised.

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