Seamus 'Banty' McEnaney has a proposition which could sound the death knell for free-taking goalkeepers - or at least require them to be Olympic level sprinters.
There is no formal limit on the amount of time players can take over frees.
At present, with regard to time taken over frees, most referees adhere to a rather loose 'ah, you're taking the piss' rule, which is applied with great inconsistency.
Stephen Cluxton has, thus far, stayed on the right side of this rule.
Talking to the Irish Examiner today, Banty proposed a 20-second countdown clock commencing from when the kick is awarded.
He hopes this will discourage the practice of goalkeepers running the length of the field to take free kicks.
That the proposition has arisen following a game involving Stephen Cluxton is not a coincidence. The Dublin goalkeeper's time-wasting last Sunday riled the Kerry supporters in the ground and got up the nose of McEnaney.
If a forward wasted the amount of time standing over a free that Dublin wasted on Sunday in calling up Stephen Cluxton to hit a number of frees, the referee would give a hop-ball.
We should have had several hop-balls on Sunday such was the length of time it took to give the instruction to Cluxton, for him to come up the field, ready himself and then kick the free. It just isn’t on.
Goalkeepers should be given no special leniency and a 20-second limit would make it impossible for goalkeepers to come forward and hit frees.
While 20 seconds sounds a bit severe - even corner forwards take longer than that and allowances would have to be made for defenders acting the maggot while the player is trying to take the free - surely the suggestion is worth looking at?
