Thumbs up from Kildare star on new rules - but tweaks needed

Kildare's Kevin Feely says that playing under the new rules is like a throwback - but he has sounded a note of caution too.

Although often employed on the inside line, Feely played in his more familiar midfield position during Saturday’s challenge match against Galway in Newbridge and welcomed the fact that there were far more contests in the middle third, with kickouts having to go beyond the new 40-metre arc. Indeed, if Feely is moved back into the full-forward line at stages, he should benefit from the extra space generated by the ‘three-up’ rule too.

“They’re really enjoyable,” said the Athy man. “To play the game feels much more like it did 10, 15 years ago. The position you’re playing in is a lot more like it was in the traditional sense. Kickouts are going long so there’s a lot more contested ball, a lot more breaking ball. Full-forward lines have to be able to win their own ball, full-back lines have to be able to defend. It’s really enjoyable.”

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However, he cautioned: “There are things that will obviously be tidied up after the League. The dissent, leaving the ball on the ground should be good enough. The ball being brought up 50 metres for not handing over the ball is harsh enough.

“I don’t know if the goalie rule is achieving what they want to achieve. It’s creating a similar pattern in the game to what was saw last year, just with an extra forward so I’m sure that will be looked at. But every other aspect is extremely enjoyable.”

The home supporters in Newbridge on Saturday weren’t slow in alerting referee David Gough to Galway transgressions on the ‘three-up’ rule, with Kildare awarded three 20-metre frees.

“There will probably be a bit of that with home advantage as in it will help teams with more of a crowd. That was a big thing we focused on, ensuring our discipline was absolutely on the money and we couldn’t be penalised for anything silly like that.

“We got caught on another couple of things but that was one thing we can say at least we didn’t get caught on. I’m sure Galway will look at and be disappointed that they gave up three handy points there.”

They more than made amends in other areas, however, outscoring Kildare in two-pointers by six to none, with Paul Conroy kicking four of them.

Feely added: “That’s something we will have to look at. If we have lads who we think are capable of that, we have to look at ways of getting them free to take those kicks but not every team has a Paul Conroy either. He’s ridiculously accurate in that situation.

“I think he is in a very small percentage of people that you could rely on to kick 80% to 90% of them. He’s probably an outlier but it’s something we will look at getting back at over the next few weeks.”

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