The highly contentious three-handpass rule will not continue for the forthcoming Allianz Football league following a narrow margin decision by the GAA’s Central Council.
A meeting this morning voted 25-23 not to continue with the experiment for the 116 league games.
This comes after trialling during the pre-season competitions in all four provinces triggered strong opposition from managers and players.
Last month, Donegal manager Declan Bonner was critical of the rule, saying the experimental rule was ‘crazy’.
“It’s such a waste of time,” Bonner said.
“It’s crazy. I don’t know how ten men can sit around a table and decide the three handpasses rule.
“There were no goals in the game and I think that’s one of the reasons.
“Normally we’d have men coming off the shoulder to finish it off.
“The new rule makes it very difficult. The boys are very wary and this is doing nothing for the game.
“There was confusion with the mark, too. The first ball that went in, some fella (Queen’s Kieran Hughes) caught the ball around our square, the next thing the referee blew the whistle and, f*** me, where are we going?
“They can’t have much to do.”
The other four experimental rules – the 10-minute sin bin, the 20-metre kick-out, the forward sideline kick and the advanced mark from a 20-metre-plus kick will all continue until the end of the league.
Tonight’s McKenna Cup final between Tyrone and Armagh and tomorrow’s Connacht League final between Galway and Roscommon will be the last games to have the three-handpass restriction in place.
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