Give goalkeeping back to the goalkeepers - Michael Boyle 

Michael Boyle says the role of the goalkeeper is being diluted to the point where the value of the traditional skill set of custodians could soon become completely obsolete. 

The former Donegal stopper says the new FRC rules and, in particular, the 12 versus 11 tweak will mean more and more managers attempt to maximise its potential by placing outfield players between the posts. 

And while many are finding humour in the persistent rumour that Michael Murphy’s return to the Donegal fold is specifically geared towards that very role, Boyle says it’s no laughing matter. 

He references Donegal Legand and ex-teammate Paul Durcan, as well as current No. 1 Shaun Patton, as unique in what they do but that the chaotic middle third, in its present guise, leaves little scope for needle-threaders. 

2012 All-Ireland winning panellist Boyle is currently part of the London GAA coaching set-up and he says the 12 versus 11 scenario is also cannibalising the incentive to kick pass direct to the three attackers stationed up top.  

“My experience at the moment, coaching London, and I think this could become a major problem down the line; but we’ve already had outfield players approach us about playing in goals. 

“We have a goalkeeper, a very good one, for the last three years. He’ll not kick you a point but can go up and join the play. And that’s very valuable in itself. 

“But the likes of Ethan Rafferty, Rory Beggan and Niall Morgan who can get on the end of things and kick points will make a massive difference for their teams. 

“And that’s going to force managers’ hands in other counties. It will get rid of the traditional goalkeeper if we persist with it.” 

Boyle - who was an instrumental coaching cog in Mervyn O’Donnell’s backroom team when Gaoth Dobhair claimed the Ulster Club SFC crown back in 2018 - believes that reverting to 11 versus 11 could present a solution to a number of issues. 

He explains that simple change would not only preserve the integrity of the role of goalkeeper but it might also convince teams to kick pass the ball in transition. 

“It’s an artificial overload, it’s an advantage that hasn’t been earned.  But we’re only two games into the league and already you can see the advantage it gives. 

“I think come summer, if it’s still there, we’ll see that progress to an even greater level. You simply won’t be able to defend it. 

“You won’t be able to get a block on. The attack-to-shot ratio has increased already. But the conversion rate has also spiked as the same pressure isn’t there in the 12 versus 11 situation.

“But it defeats the purpose of this so-called ‘kicking transition’ as well. The 12 against 11 will prevent that from happening as it’s the lessor-risk approach. 

“Kerry might do it to a certain extent, Armagh too.  But it won’t be an awful lot because when it comes right down to it, in the big games, teams will revert to type. 

“The higher scoring possibility will be to run the ball in the 12 versus 11 scenario than to take the chance of kicking long and the likelihood that the ball is turned over. 

The percentages are already showing that the best chance to get on the scoreboard is to move the ball up the pitch, in a structured attack and eventually create that overload or overlap in a a two versus one. 

“And you’ll not only get a shot off but as we’ve seen, you’ll get much more time to do it”. 

He added: “I think if it was actually an 11 versus 11, then teams might be that little more tempted to kick the ball. The keeper being allowed to step out without being tagged isn’t allowing that to happen right now. 

“Passing back to the goalkeeper is still an issue. Like soccer, I think the GAA should just get rid of it”.

In relation to Donegal and if there is indeed a goalkeeping conundrum for Jim McGuinness ahead of championship because of the new rules, Boyle says Shaun Patton’s display in Killarney last weekend again showed why his restarts remain on a pedestal. 

“Shaun is that good, he’s kind of still an exception to the rule, as he again showed his importance as a quality kicker. 

“I didn’t think what he was able to do in Kerry was still possible with the ways teams set up under the new rules around the middle third. 

“But he still found a way to pick holes between lines and get midrange kick-outs away. It was quite amazing really. So that could well prove to be massive for Donegal come summer. 

“But the evidence, the general rule of thumb to what we’re seeing is that it’s becoming more about just a long kickout and it just being this chaotic battle under it in the middle third. 

“So that skill, which Shaun is amazing at, the best around really, will continue to be watered down. And people are laughing and joking about it but there is real temptation there right now for managers to put an outfield player in goals. 

“Because right now all he needs to be able to do is kick the ball long because it’s not making that much of a difference at present”. 

Boyle hopes the FRC acknowledge the issue and revisit it in the near future. However, he doesn’t expect any type of major backtrack on it this term. 

“The likes of Patton and even Paul Durcan, they’ve been so innovative and so enjoyable to watch. But to think that the new rules could phase that sort of goalkeeper out isn’t progressive. 

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So I think the FRC definitely need to look at it but I still expect them to go with it in the championship. 

“There will be some tweaks to some of it but managers, teams and players have already spent so much time coaching towards this. 

“But at some stage, the hope has to be that they see the bigger picture, that they are marginalising the traditional goalkeeper. 

“Now, there will be sides that will be pro this - the likes of Tyrone, Armagh and Monaghan will feel it suits them short to medium term. 

“But the bigger picture is that the goalkeeper has to be a recognised or specialist position in its own right. 

“Armagh visit Ballybofey at the weekend. Blaine Hughes is an All-Ireland winner, could have been an All-Star but it looks like they are going to go the other way, it’s too tempting for them not to. 

“Ethan Rafferty was an inter-county standard outfield player - that’s how comfortable he is. So that’s the decision other managers will also be forced to make”.