Clearing up the GAA kick-out conundrum

Tony Leen
FILE this one under ‘learn something new every day’.
Last Sunday, not only I, but a man with a few All-Ireland medals in his pocket, Trevor Giles, wondered how Munster final referee Dave Coldrick (not to mention his linesman and umpires) were ignoring the fact that the Cork kick-outs from Alan Quirke were not travelling outside the mandatory 20m line before they were considered live and legal.
Turns out we know next to nothing, or in my case, nothing at all. Munster PRO Ed Donnelly has been on to clarify the (presumably updated) rule with regard to such practices.
Says Donnelly: “Referee David Coldrick was correct in not awarding a free for any short kick-outs on Sunday which may not have made it outside of the 20 metre line. There are two rules which cover this - Rule 4.28 and 4.29 of the Official Guide
4.28  To be inside own 20m line when one’s team is taking a kick-out, except as provided in Rule 2.7.
4.29  For another player on the team taking a kickout to play the ball before it has travelled 13m.
So in the case of the kickouts in question, so long as the players are outside of the 20 metre when the ball is kicked AND the ball travels 13 metres, then a defender can collect possession. With the ball placed usually pretty central and on the 13 metre line, a kick out that goes towards the sideline easily travels the 13 metres and the defender is quite entitled to gain possession accordingly.
“The key part people are sometimes not familiar with is the “travels 13 metres” bit. There is no rule in the GAA which says the ball can't be touched inside the 20 metre line by a defender so as such the exclusion zone is only for when the kick is being taken and while the ball is travelling the first 13 metres - whether the kick is straight, backwards, sideways etc. doesn't matter.”
In fairness to Donnelly - who’s making a fine fist of the onerous task of replacing Jim Forbes - he wasn’t correcting in a slap-you-down type of way that some GAA officials are partial to.
“I don’t proclaim to be a rules expert but I know this rule from a previous life as a Club Secretary a few years ago where I was of the same opinion as you but when I checked it out, the rule is quite clear.”
So now you know.

 

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/ISp4SI6NZVk/post.aspx

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