Debate continues but slides to one side

When, on the first Sunday of the new season, there were 25 players sin-binned across five O'Byrne Cup matches, it was immediately clear that the GAA had another major debate on their hands which - no less than the opening of Croke Park to other sports - would divide opinions within the association.

Just two weekends later, though, those opinions had gradually veered towards one side. The 10-minute sentence on the sideline for every yellow card offence was the cause of much confusion and angst, and wasn't necessarily serving its purpose.

Addressing cynical, deliberate fouling was one thing, but destroying the flow and very essence of a football match something entirely different, and not nearly so desirable.

While it remains to be seen what exactly the football task force have to say about future of the sin bin, it appears that the current format is simply too radical a measure. According to Louth football manager Val Andrews, one of the few supporters of the experimental rule, any decision to abandon its use would perhaps be a little premature.

"It would have been interesting to see what happens over the league," says Andrews. "I don't think three weekends was enough, and there's never any gain without some pain. I suppose I'm not too surprised, but maybe we should have got the opinion of more of the players.

"Still, it's not a lost cause if we're at least acknowledging we have a problem with the frequency of frees. So we have to come up with some sort of alternative. But this has created a debate, and an awareness, even if the experiment was too short."

Andrews witnessed his Louth team play three matches under the experimental rules - against DIT, Dublin and then Westmeath. Supporters of the sin bin pointed to their gradual adaptation to the new rule.

"We lost three the first day, none the second day, and three again last Sunday," agrees Andrews. "When that happened we had a certain formation to go for, and I didn't think the game suffered. But our players went off on 33 minutes, 53 minutes and 63 minutes, so we only had the one player off at a time. It would be different if we had three off at the same time."

Yet, Andrews believes there was still a certain amount of confusion over what fouls deserved the 10-minutes in the sin bin. "Does pulling a jersey warrant 10 minutes in the bin? That is a yellow card offence. But if you read the rules the way they're written then it practically is a non-contact game, but it's just evolved differently."

Although hurling has yet to properly try out the sin bin, Leinster council chairman Nicky Brennan, who also chaired the hurling task force, believes the problems with the sin bin in its current format wouldn't be easily rectified for the future.

"I wouldn't disagree with some of the points being made during the football competitions, because there was certainly some element of confusion. But clearly if the sin bin is dropped for now, well then that's probably the end of it. It's back to where we were."

Brennan also believes that it would be largely pointless for the hurling task force to seek any separate trial of the sin bin. "Look, to put it bluntly, if the football task force are proposing the changes then that pre-empts anything we would have to meet for."