JOE BROLLY: The giant pendulum

I WAS talking to a barrister from Warrenpoint on Monday morning. He watched the Ulster final in his local. He said the whole place was cheering on Scotstown. “You weren’t supporting Kilcoo?” “F*** them.”

It was a vast relief for Scotstown after nine previous failed Ulster campaigns. The standard of football was middling on an atrocious evening, but as is so often the case since the Gavin revolution, it was decided by a two-point specialist.

I have argued that two-point frees should be abolished because they skew the fairness of the contest. If a team has a two-point specialist they now have an enormous advantage, especially if there is a wind. Scotstown won because they had Rory Beggan. It is no more complicated than that. In the Mayo senior final this year, it was Evan Regan who won it for Ballina. In a very tight draw and replay series, he was the difference.

Last weekend, Dingle were a point behind with 30 seconds to go and got a (scarcely deserved) two-point free with the gale force wind in their favour. One of the Geaneys popped it over to win it. Genuinely, they did not deserve to win the game, even if Finbarr’s manager Jimmy Barry Murphy is too classy to say so in his after match interview. I met the great man a few years ago at a Motor Neurones Benefit in Cork and I was like the young fellow who wept on the Late Late Toy Show when Kingfishr (Why is there no e?) came out.

Me: You look brilliant

Jimmy Barry: I’ve never been sick a day in my life

Me: You’re joking

Jimmy Barry: Not so much as a cold

The great ones are different.

Big Rory scored 0-11 from placed balls on Saturday, including four two-pointers. Scotstown only scored 0-19 and would never have won without him. Kilcoo, who are fighters and give everything, did not have a two-point kicker. So on a night where there was a gale blowing straight down the pitch they were labouring under an enormous handicap. They would play well for a few minutes but just as they were building momentum, Scotstown would get a 55- or 60-metre free. Big Rory would wander up, then swing his leg at it like a giant lead pendulum, sending it gently over the bar. Those orange flags were immensely depressing for Kilcoo, something which could be said about orange flags in general. On the other hand, they were a tremendous lift to the Scotstown boys, banishing their nerves on an occasion when they must have been flooded with them.

Earlier this season, in the Tyrone Senior League, Dungannon beat Trillick 0-25 to 0-17. Trillick lost heavily, despite kicking the ball over the bar more times than Dungannon and playing the better football. They lost because Dungannon had Paul Donaghy, who kicked nine two-pointers. Dungannon’s next highest scorers on the night managed 0-1 apiece. All of Trillick’s scores were one-pointers. Trillick put the ball over the bar 17 times. Dungannon put the ball over the bar just 15 times, yet trounced Trillick by eight points, a humiliation in a game where Trillick were the better team.

If a team is fortunate enough to have a two-point specialist, they now have an enormous advantage. A free 41 metres out is almost as good as a goal and far less bother. A free 41 metres out with a gale at your back is a cinch. If the referee moves the ball forward 50 metres for the ball not being handed back promptly or an exasperated remark by a player, then a two-point specialist can bring it back out to the 40-metre line and exact a scarcely fair punishment (as Finbarr’s discovered last weekend).

It is clear from this first season of the new rules that it is now imperative to find and develop two-point specialists, like the kickers in American football. Teams at all levels that have such a kicker will have a huge advantage. An advantage that they do not have to earn in the traditional way, that is, by playing better football than the opposition. A two-point specialist, regardless of his general ability, is now absolutely worth it. It no longer matters if you are being outplayed. And if you have a gale force breeze blowing, then a single two-point specialist can win the game in a single half. Kilcoo simply could not keep pace with Rory Beggan no matter what they tried. Put it this way, if Beggan were the Kilcoo keeper, they would have won easily.

Jim Gavin’s rationale behind the two point score was that it would draw defences out and force them to defend the 40 metre arc. I agree with this, but that rationale only extends to two point scores from play and not to frees which cannot be justified. Worse again is the option to move the free back out to the 40 metre arc when the referee has advanced the ball 50 metres. The normal principles of any sporting contest are fairness, that the scoring system broadly reflects the balance of the play, and that the scores are created/deserved. This does not apply to two point frees, where a specialist kicker can and often does win the game on those alone.

The new rules have revived the corpse of Gaelic football. But when the scoring system does not broadly reflect the balance of play, when instead of being a fair contest it becomes a skills test for a small number of two point specialists, what exactly is the point?

That said, I am delighted for Scotstown. Truly.