Eamon Fitzmaurice Baffled That Teams Don't Use GAA Rule Loophole To Avoid Cheap Goals

While Kerry produced a stunning second half performance to overcome Armagh in yesterday's All-Ireland quarter-final, the Munster champions will still be looking to make some improvements ahead of the business end of the GAA season.

Kerry were not at their brilliant best in the first half, missing a number of scoring opportunities in the opening half hour or so.

At the other end of the pitch, they handed Armagh a massive boost by conceding a very cheap goal. It came when goalkeeper Shane Ryan failed to find Dylan Casey with a short kickout, allowing Rory Grugan to score a fairly straightforward goal.

This is the type of situation that has arisen on a number of occasions this season, with some teams struggling to adapt to the current kickout rules in the GAA.

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Under the current laws, a player from the team taking the kickout cannot touch the ball until it goes beyond the 40-metre two-point arc. If they do so, they will concede a free from the spot in which they touched the ball.

Of course, players from the opposing team can touch the ball inside the 40-metre arc, leading to scoring opportunities such as the one we saw yesterday.

Speaking on the RTÉ GAA Podcast, Eamon Fitzmaurice said that he is not sure why more teams have not realised that simply conceding a free is the safest option in scenarios such as this.

I'm still surprised that teams (do it).

Dylan Casey got caught on his heels for the goal. Dylan played very well in fairness, but he got caught on his heels.

As a back in that situation, you're still better off touching it inside the arc. Give away the one-pointer.

If the kickout has gone wrong and it's a kickout malfunction, give away the one-point. Under no circumstances allow someone to get a run on you.

A similar thing happened to Mayo for the Rory Brickenden black card in the Connacht final. He would have been better off just touching the ball, give away the free, and take your beating. It was a double whammy for Mayo that day.

Probably we will see it from now on as teams cotton onto it more and more.

Simply conceding a free from just inside the two-point arc would certainly seem like the safer option in this situation, with goals such as Amragh's yesterday becoming far less common if teams decided to go down that route.

With a number of high profile examples in the GAA already this season, you get the sense that this is something that teams will look at moving forward.