Players can benefit from rulebook study, says referee Cormac Dineen

There is of no doubt that the implementation and application of the new rules have made Gaelic football a better game to play and watch.

While there was a sense of trial and error and learning on the job in 2025, the year of exposure for players and officials should make for an even better spectacle this time around – though referee Cormac Dineen believes there is still room for improvement.

While it might not jump to mind as ideal bedtime reading, Douglas clubman Dineen feels that the GAA’s Official Guide, which contains all of the playing rules, can be a valuable document.

“They've had an extra 12 months or 24 months to get used to them,” he says of the new rules, “but there's still room for improvement on everybody's side, refs and players.

“I think it's important for players and management to know the rule to the exact, the most that they can get to know it, because that helps us, it helps them.

“There's still a lot of learning to do on both sides but I think the game is a better game. I think any team that moves the ball quicker than the other team is benefiting from the rules, that's what I see.

“I think every player, and I've said this in a few seminars, every player should take out the rulebook and have a look at it. There are some rules that apply to more than others, but especially with the new rules, they've got to know them.”

To that end, what is the rule most understood by the average player?

“The kick-outs, every player has to be 13 metres away from the ball,” Dineen says.

“That means they can stay inside the goalmouth but if a defending player on his own kick-out is inside the small D, it's a free in, if he's within 13 metres, a lot of people don't know that.

“So those are the small things that I think are very important for management and players to sit down and have a look at the rulebook.

“They train so hard and spend so much time during the week perfecting skills, I think a half-hour each week, just to sit down and have a look at the rules – and even the old rules as well. “A lot of the old rules are not known very well by a lot of players, and, look, that's normal and there's refs out there that don't know the full rules either.

“But if I had my time back as a player, I would sit down with the rulebook every week and have a look at it and you'd pick up something from it every week.”

A better game to play and watch makes for a more straightforward game on which to administrate, Dineen agrees – helped by being in the second year and with the targeted crackdown on cynical play.

“It is a little bit easier,” he says.

“The rules are more defined and the dissent rules are more defined, so if someone steps out of line, you can deal with it because abuse is still there in the game, but it has got a lot better with the new rules because the punishments are harsher on teams.”

A powerful tool in that regard is the sideline dissent call – and even the threat of it.

“I haven't given a sideline dissent yet, but it's possible,” Dineen says.

“I remember a referee recently did a league final and he gave a yellow card for sideline dissent in the first minute or two – ball in front of the goal and it was all over the bar, so they stayed quiet after that.

“You have to enforce it early. There's no point in enforcing it in the last minute of a match, when all the damage is done.”