Despite being willing to give the advanced mark a chance, Jack McCaffrey still believes the rule change will have a negative impact on Gaelic football.
The Dublin and All-Star footballer was on Off The Ball and explained why he felt the advanced rule is a significant and potentially damaging change to the sport he loves.
“I do think it’s terrible but I probably resolved that I should at least see it before I continue to [criticise it]. Since I’ve been involved in inter-county football there have been a number of rule changes.
“Like where the kick-out is taken from, the black card, there has been the midfield mark - but I don’t think any of them intrinsically changed the way football is played, to be honest. I think this has the potential to, a little bit.
“Again, I have decided I will sit on my hands a bit until it either works or it doesn’t. Because I’m sure people laboured over it long and hard and lost sleep over whether it was a good idea and I’m just coming in with my instincts.
“I presume it’s been brought in to counter very defensive football, which I don’t think we’re seeing as much of anymore,” McCaffrey said.
'We're stuck with it so we'll give it a go'
While the advanced mark may have been envisioned to discourage defensive football, the five-time All-Ireland champion believes it could actually make teams double up on attacking players.
“I think if you logically work through this it could actually have the exact opposite effect.
“In that, you now have to mark a forward in a way that he cannot catch the ball clean but you cannot over-commit because he’ll turn you and score a goal.
“Probably the logical thing to do is to put someone in front of him and someone behind him. We’ll see what happens but we’re stuck with it for a little while so we’ll give it a go,” McCaffrey commented.
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