What rules would you amend or introduce to sports to make them more exciting and a better contest?
Tennis (Fats’ idea but I’m stealing it):
Do away with the second serve. Straight away you take so much of the power out of the game by removing the safety net for the server. The sport is boring when guys just hammer serves at eachother and nobody can return them.
Athletics
Get rid of the nonsensical rule whereby the second false starter is automatically disqualified irrespective of whether he committed the first offence or not. It’s obviously silly that one guy can leave the blocks early and put everyone else on a warning then when someone else leaves early the second time they’re disqualified straight away.
Gaelic football
Allow only one player from the attacking team in the square at any time. Get rid of the rule about not entering before the ball because it’s too hard to police. Some people have called for a carte blanche but I think that would lead to mayhem and a general tendency towards teams picking 3 or 4 Michael Cussens to hang in there. Still you need some competition in there so one player from the attacking team in there at a time seems fair.
Also I’ll leave this one to the hurling purists but do ye reckon that the natural abilities of some of the modern day hurlers means that they can knock over points from too far out - particularly frees. As an example at the start of the second half in the Kilkenny - Wexford match yesterday there was an innocuous foul from one of the Wexford midfielders on the throw-in. I can’t remember exactly what happened but it was just something small in the battle for possession. So a free to Kilkenny is the result and Shefflin knocks it over - not a bother to him. Obviously part of that reward is due to Shefflin’s excellence but is it fair that transgressions from so far out of a minor nature are punished by frees.
Rugby had similar problems with penalties before but it was changed by two key factors:
[ol]the value of a try was increased to 5 points and [/ol]
[ol]the rules of penalties and lineouts were changed so that a team who won a penalty could kick to touch and retain possession, meaning that it was now an attacking option to retain possession in the opposition half rather than just kick the ball away[/ol]
Shielding the ball out of play should be called as obstruction.
No scrumb caps allowed.
Your tennis one is interesting but knocking a serve out shouldn’t be punishable by a point against imo.
Presumably the hurling one could be counteracted by saying that you could only score within the 45 or something. Personally I wouldn’t really agree with that as it’s punishing skillful fellas.
Shielding the ball out of play should be called as obstruction.
No scrumb caps allowed.
Your tennis one is interesting but knocking a serve out shouldn’t be punishable by a point against imo.
Presumably the hurling one could be counteracted by saying that you could only score within the 45 or something. Personally I wouldn’t really agree with that as it’s punishing skillful fellas.
One of my pet hates is when someone shields the ball out of play and a commentator pops up with the inane comment “that would be a free kick anywhere else on the park.” No it wouldn’t. You can shield the ball all you like as long as you keep it within playing distance. If you start calling that obstruction then anybody who protects the ball from an opponent anywhere on the pitch is commiting obstruction. The only reason it’s more successful at the side or edge of the pitch is because the opponent can only get at the ball from one side. Rule should stand IMO.
Re: tennis maybe you could be allowed one second serve per game. So it protects you from the odd silly error but it forces you to curtail the standard speed of the serve.
Shielding the ball out of play should be called as obstruction.
Agree with that one Clarkey, would make defenders more prone to errors. If you’re letting the ball run out of play you’re not really playing the ball IMHO.
Astro soccer - yellow card for accidental hand ball. We were very harshly punished for a handball last week, the sin-bin for 5 mins is too harsh in Astro I think. Perhaps 2/3 mins would be better.
Yeah I definitley agree with sheilding the ball out of play being obstruction, shielding the ball when its at your feet and trying to make a pass or looking for a gap to get by a player is totally different to barging into a player to let the ball go dead. Sol Campbell would never have got near a football pitch if the rules were different.
Actually when I think about it the only thiing that needs to be done is for the ref to give a free for obstruction when a player shields the ball when he has no intention of actually playing it. Too often forwards are given frees against them when they actually try to get around the opposing player and are pushed off some by lummox. Playing the player rather than the ball, its not on imo.
I’ve never understood why everyone has a problem with the rule as it stands. If you’re saying that you can’t shield the ball without actually playing the ball then a defender won’t be able to hold his ground as a winger goes by him unless he has already touched the ball. Does he just have to get out of the way so?
Sheilding the ball out of play almost always means the defender will be slow up and block the path of the attacker to the ball, now if the defender takes control of the ball and tries to clear, pass or beat the player then guarding the ball is ok. Looking at a ball rolling out of play and manoeuvring yourself into the path of the attacking player and slowing up with no intention of touching the ball isn’t.
So you can shield the ball all you want as long as you touch the ball eventually? Don’t seem the problem with that. Like I said I don’t have a problem with the original rule though - there’s too much physicality removed from soccer these days.
How about reducing the duration of soccer matches to 80 minutes (or less)?
The most obvious benefit would be that you are saved having to watch ten extra minutes of what is usually a complete bore-fest. Soccer is looking ever more like a very tired format…it is becoming less of a sport and more like light entertainment. My thinking is that in an 80-minute match players might start to display a bit more passion, a bit more bejaysus.
Shielding the ball out of play should be called as obstruction.
to hard to police[/quote]
Don’t agree with you Stevie. All it involves is giving an indirect free kick, same as for any other obstruction.
I should perhaps rephrase though and say that a defender can shield the ball out but they have to be in control of the ball i.e. be near enough to it to be able to play it.