GOALKEEPERS will become an endangered species as they roam in the wilds of enemy territory.
That is according to former Armagh keeper Paddy Morrison, who is now a member of the Leitrim coaching ticket under Steven Poacher.
Last weekend’s opening round of National League games put the Football Review Committee’s raft of rule changes to the test in a competitive environment for the first time.
And having been given a licence to offer their teams a numerical advantage in the opposing half, goalkeepers featured prominently in games across all four divisions.
The views of Morrison are validated by the decision of Westmeath boss Dermot McCabe to select Conor McCormack, a forward, in the No 1 shirt for their Division 2 clash with Louth.
Morrison told SunSport: “My biggest fear would be the loss of the position altogether. The goalkeeper could ultimately become extinct.
“Are we going to see the goalkeeper wearing the full-forward’s jersey and the full-forward wearing the goalkeeper’s?
“The small drawback would be that the full-forward has to come back for kick-outs and stand in the small square.
“But we’re going to see the ingenuity of all the coaches coming up with these different ideas.
“More teams will probably look at putting outfield players into goals so the art of goalkeeping, the bread and butter of the position, is slowly being eradicated and lost.
“The more the goalkeeper can offer you going forward, the less concern there will be about him doing the stuff that he was expected to do, like saving and communicating with the defence.”
The inherent danger of using a goalkeeper to create a 12-v-11 advantage in the opposing half were illustrated in Roscommon’s win over Down in Division 2 last Sunday.
When the Mourne men were turned over, Ciarán Murtagh was able to score into an empty net for the Rossies after John O’Hara had ventured forward.
Morrison explained: “We could end up in a situation where the full-back line are being trained once a week or once a fortnight in some basic goalkeeping, just in case the goalkeeper can’t get back.
“It could slowly snowball into coaches feeling they don’t need a goalkeeper at all and playing without one.
“If a manager decides to put an outfielder into goals, he’s going to have to make sure that the player has the basics.
“It might be great that he can join the attack but the need to be able to make a save might be what wins or loses you a game.
“He also has 30 kick-outs to take in a match so that also has to be worked on religiously.
“A key point is also that most goalkeepers do their most important work with their mouth rather than their hands or feet.
“That’s being able to make sure their defence is in position.
“They don’t get any credit for that but it’s a massive part of the role. Recognising an attack, spotting runners and getting a man into position to plug gaps.”
LAOIS CLASH
Following the postponement of last weekend’s Division 3 game against Laois, Morrison’s first official engagement with Leitrim will be Sunday’s clash with Clare at Cusack Park.
When it comes to the FRC’s attempts to improve Gaelic football, the Armagh Harps man warns that there is a risk of triggering unintended consequences.
He said: “Coaches at the moment are seeing how the rules work before they think about how they can use them to their advantage.
“It won’t be until that happens that we’ll see whether the rules are going to be good for the game or not.
“One thing I would say is that when you’re trying to implement a rule to have a positive impact, you have to be careful that it doesn’t have the opposite effect to what the purpose is.
“Only allowing the goalkeeper to have possession in the opposition’s half was meant to be a deterrent. But coupled with the three-up rule, it has put coaches into hyper mode.
“In the past, there were probably eight teams at most who were using an attacking goalkeeper.
“Every team is looking to do it now. Even the whispers of Donegal using Michael Murphy as a goalkeeper give an indication of the thought processes of coaches.”
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