McNally's team continue to prepare

The two-week countdown has begun, the Allianz League throw-in is now moving from amber towards green as teams finalise their preparations – and the same goes for match officials too.

There's set to be one topic dominating discourse in the opening rounds and with that in mind, RTÉ Sport joined the refereeing team, led by referee Martin McNally, to witness how players and officials were dealing with the new rules as Louth hosted Fermanagh in the Jimmy McGeough Cup in Haggardstown on Saturday evening.

Monaghan man McNally is an experienced campaigner at this stage, and he also had the honour back in October of being the referee as the Football Review Committee’s radical changes were beamed out to TV audiences for the first time as Connacht defeated Leinster in the inter-provincial semi-final at Croke Park.

It’s coming up on three months since those games took place and most squads - and most referees - will feel far more comfortable having taken charge of a number of games in the meantime.

LANDSLIDE VOTE MEANS NEW GAA RULES

McNally was hoping that remained the case as the sides met at the Geraldines GAA ground with both management teams insisting that there was a strict application of the changes to replicate their forthcoming league openers against Westmeath and Kildare respectively.

The lights flicker on at 4.17pm and as McNally mills around the dressing room area. He has his ear reddened by more than the usual suspects and they all want to talk about one thing: the rules.

Stewards and supporters catch a quick word on the changes while Erne boss Kieran Donnelly seeks clarification on one or two points also.

Over the weekend, inter-county referees completed fitness tests in Abbotstown before partaking in a range of seminars on the rules with FRC chief Jim Gavin and GAA President Jarlath Burns in attendance.

County boards have been sent new microphone kits to prepare for the new rules

McNally has a notebook full of advice from the latter part of the weekend and it’s with him tonight.

It’s upstairs then to address the two line umpires– the new term for linesmen – David Fedigan and Colm McCullagh and four umpires – Ben Woods, Mark Gilsenan, Pat McNally and Niall Reilly.

Fifteen minutes before throw-in and all seven officials are getting hooked up and testing audio on the new set of microphones that every county had received ahead of what is set to be a new era of communication between officials. All seven can not only hear everything but respond in kind - and they'll be expected to.

McNally reinforces some of the rules he wants help on tonight from his team.

Possession back to the goalkeeper, kick-outs and the two-point scoring arc come up as does the one that will require the most assistance from his comrades – the requirement for teams to leave three players inside their halfway line at all times.

"You don’t need to panic," McNally says. "Be quite clear, take a moment and deliver the instruction."

"There are no grey areas," he adds on the new crackdown on dissent. "Anyone challenging your authority I need to know about it, this is the only way the rules are going to work."

A decent crowd has gathered considering both the weather and the fact that the game comes right bang during the All-Ireland club semi-finals, no doubt intrigued by the potential novelty factor, but it becomes apparent very early on that players are now really tuned into the changes with a few exceptions.

With the line umpires chiefly in charge of potential breaches of the 'three up’ rule, McNally’s officiating requirement in the first half really doesn’t require much change from what he was used to under the older rules.

Seven minutes in and Fermanagh are pinged for not giving the ball back after conceding a free and the hosts end up with an easy tap-over score.

It takes nine minutes for the first tap and go, courtesy of Louth’s Daire Nally, but there would only be three in all across the 70 minutes.

The orange flag for two-pointers is also in operation and Tadhg McDonnell kicks a fine two-pointer for the Wee County 27 minutes in. Kyle McElroy would add a second after the break from the home side but attempts would be minimal.

Martin McNally addresses his team ahead of the throw in

The only times McNally really has to stamp his authority are in the closing stages of the half.

At one end, James Stewart comes perilously close to dissent as Fermanagh get a free after an advantage didn’t lead to anything.

With the new punishments in mind, he pulls back just in time but it doesn't go unnoticed.

From the sideline, McNally can be heard telling him: "remember you’re not the captain, anything like that has to go through the captain."

In for tea at the interval, the conversations continue. The umpires are looking for clarification on one of the rules involving passing to the goalkeeper but overall everyone is pleased.

It’s quite clear that the crackdown on dissent to all officials is warmly welcomed. So far it’s working well, but this is a January challenge match and not the white-hot heat of battle.

There are moments in the second half that would have disappointed both management teams.

Five minutes in and Louth are aggressively set up to attack a Fermanagh kick-out from Ross Bogue.

"How long’s he taking?" screams a Louth player. Peep peep, the Erne County now have a free in midfield. An easy out.

Not handing the ball straight back is still something both sides need to clean up on too.

Recalibration was needed for the officials 10 minutes from time when Louth forward McElroy was black-carded (note: he didn’t open his mouth when the card was flashed).

His temporary dismissal meant a change to the ‘three up’ rule as with just 14 players, they now only needed two players to stay inside the half. It was similar for Fermanagh minutes later when their goalkeeper Bogue was black carded after cynically stopping a Louth attack when he was caught away from home.

In the end, the Jimmy McGeough Cup, the Geraldines former chairman who the grounds are also named after, went to Fermanagh with Conor Love and Luke Flanagan - after a beautiful, dinked finish - goaling in both halves to secure a 2-14 to 0-14 win.

Luke Flanagan sealed victory for Fermanagh with a fine finish

But there would have been relief in both camps too that in the main, the two squads seem to be adapting well to the changes, even if Louth were without a raft of regulars.

Some challenge games, notably Galway’s win over Kildare recently, were reported to really have suffered from the seven new core rules and the 48 knock-on changes that come with them.

This, however, was a cleaner outing, and McNally was in no doubt afterwards that a lot of that owed to the team around him.

"Communication and the collective, that’s going to be key for all this," he said having racked up 10 kilometres over the 70 minutes.

More pressurised situations are just around the corner after a final weekend of challenge games next week, but for any FRC member watching, this was a good evening’s work.

Click here to read article