Spillane highlights shocking stat from All-Ireland final that show rules need tweaking

The GAA are trying out new rules following a year of change

Speaking in his Irish Independent column, Spillane raised the fact there were nearly 500 hand passes, and, stunningly, that five of Kerry’s 15 players did not kick pass the ball at all.

Earlier this month, a ‘sandbox’ match in Dublin saw the GAA trial several new rules, including the four-point goal, the ‘back-forth’ rule and variations of the hooter rule.

With nearly 500 hand passes in the All-Ireland final, the GAA also trialled a new rule to combat excessive use as Fingallians took on Round Towers in Abbotstown.

The new rule would see players penalised for two consecutive hand passes, meaning they must produce a kick pass after every hand pass.

Hand-passes on the increase still

Spillane said in his column something needed to be done to combat the number of hand passes. 

“Three Kerry players never kicked the ball in the All-Ireland final: Jason Foley, Dylan Casey and Mark O’Shea,” he wrote.

“And believe it or not, while Seán O’Brien took one kick at goal and Joe O’Connor took two shots at goal, neither actually kick-passed the ball either. That’s five Kerry players out of 15 who didn’t kick-pass the ball.

“And that brings me probably to the bugbear, or the Achilles heel, of the new rules. We hoped we were going to see a return of catch-and-kick football. And a revival of kick-passing. Unfortunately, the stats from the final say otherwise. This year’s final had 481 hand-passes. That is 31 more than last year’s final.

“The hand- to kick-pass ratio in this year’s championship was 5.5 to one. Last year, it was 3.4 to 4.1. So, in the next couple of months we are going to have to address that elephant in the room – the increase in the overuse of hand-passing.

“Because you can bet your bottom dollar that next year we will have a game with 500-plus hand-passes. That is unacceptable.”

Four-point goal also on the agenda

Spillane also said that new rules introduced last year have not significantly increased goal-scoring, meaning the four-point goal idea might be a positive one.

“With more space, and only three up front, surely we were going to get more goals? The bad news is that across all games in the All-Ireland championship, the provincial championship and the Tailteann Cup, there were 228 goals scored – only seven more than 2024. It should be higher.

“Perhaps we have a case for making goals worth four points. That would encourage more risk-taking and, hopefully, bring more goals.”