Barry Dillon and Ulster University navigating new rules

​By Paul Keane

University of Ulster manager Barry Dillon is looking forward to poring over the data and crunching the numbers at the end of the Electric Ireland Higher Education senior football league.

The top tier Division 1 of the competition is being used as a vehicle to road test the suite of rules enhancements devised by football's Expert Advisory Group (EAG) and with just three games remaining, opinions and, some trends, are starting to form.

Kicking and kick-passing is up, for starters, with the limit of three consecutive hand-passes prompting more players to deliver the ball by the foot. Exact figures haven't yet been released but the evidence before our eyes for three Division 1 games that we've watched have told us as much.

When high-risk or high-opportunity scenarios present themselves, like working the ball out of a crowded defence, or trying to break through an opposition's defensive screen, then the hand-pass has typically been seen as more of a requirement.

Mind you, Ulster University made plenty of hay with precise kick-passes over the top of the University of Galway defence in Wednesday evening's quarter-final tie, particularly in the first half.

There was also a terrific goal dispatched by Senan Carr following a series of kick-passes, pleasing Dillon and contributing to Ulster University's 3-18 to 1-17 win.

Along with DCU Dóchas Éireann, Maynooth University and UCD, Ulster University are through to the competition's semi-finals which will be played between November 16 and 19.

"I think they're collecting data on all the rules, which is a good thing to do," said Dillon, who guided Ulster University to Sigerson Cup success in 2024.

"I know Johnny Bradley is involved with that for Croke Park and he's a brilliant man for that side of things. They obviously need a certain amount of games and case studies to put something significant together, to see what the real patterns and trends are. I'm really looking forward to seeing what those are."

For one of DCU's group games, the win over ATU Galway, the Dublin based side hand-passed the ball 116 times, compared to 75 kick-passes.

That's a 1.5:1 hand-pass to kick-pass ratio which was significantly down on the figure of between 3.8 and 5.3 hand-passes for every kick-pass that EAG chair Kevin McStay said was previously recorded across various football competitions.

For a little more context, in the 2024 All-Ireland senior football final, Armagh's hand-pass to kick-pass ratio was 6.4:1, with runners-up Galway coming in at 5.9:1.

Rewind 20 years, to the 2004 final, and victors Kerry hand-passed the ball 2.1 times for every kick-pass.

And to show just how much football has changed over the decades, if you go back another 20 years, to the 1984 final, Dublin's figure was 0.32:1, with the Sky Blues choosing to kick the ball 95 times in that year's final against Kerry, compared to just 31 hand-passes.

Spiralling hand-pass figures in more recent times was what the EAG was attempting to address with the three-pass limit.

Referee Anthony Nolan made some significant calls in this regard on Wednesday evening, during Ulster University's quarter-final win.

The very first score of the game was an Ulster University two-pointer from a free which was kicked by Tommy Taggart following a three hand-pass breach by University of Galway.

Later on, in the third quarter, Tyrone man Taggart was left frustrated as his kicked goal was ruled out for four consecutive hand-passes in the buildup from Ulster University.

Dillon's feeling is that the limit is not required and places extra strain on referees to count consecutive passes.

He sees the merit in other trials, like increasing the substitution limit from five to six, and extending the 40m arc all the way back to the end lines. Dillon, who managed Mayobridge in the Down SFC this year, likes the four-point goal experiment too.

That had a significant impact on Wednesday evening's game with Ulster University netting twice in quick succession in the first half and going from five points down, 0-2 to 0-7, to five points up, 2-4 to 0-7, in the space of just six minutes.

"That's one I'd be really interested to see the data on, the four-point goal," said Dillon. "I don't mind it, it's a positive enough thing in my mind because it gives you more incentive to go for the goal.

"Maybe some people don't like the fact that it's going to change the scoring system but I can only speak personally on it and I can see the excitement it brings, I don't really have a problem with that.

"The rule around allowing short kick-outs, again, I'd like to see the data on it and how it went. What I would say is that when things changed around the kick-out at the start of 2025, it was a big thing to change and what came afterwards I thought worked well. So I'm kind of open minded there and interested to see the review on that one as well."