'Not In The Spirit Of The Game': McKaigue Concerned By Impact Of Two New Gaelic Football Rules

Chrissy McKaigue is one of the ultimate Gaels, one of those people you can only admire for what they give to the GAA.

McKaigue retired from intercounty action with Derry having won 2 Ulster titles, one Division 1 league medal and an All-Star. For his club Slaughtneil he has won 16 county titles, 11 hurling and 5 football along with 7 provincial honours across both codes.

He works as a coach in St Pats Maghera secondary school in Derry having been a GPO in his home club. He simply exists on a higher plane than the rest of us ordinary GAA people.

Chrissy McKaigue was speaking at the launch of the Electric Ireland All-Ireland Minor Football Championship ahead of this weekend's quarter-final matches.

Despite having spent fifteen years representing Derry, McKaigue has taken to life after inter-county football as well as he expected to.

I'm content, I think that's the best description I could give to you. You're never going to be fully content I was aware of that before I made the decision but I suppose for me my life is still so heavily immersed in the GAA. I work as a GAA coach essentially, I'm still heavily involved playing hurling and football for my club, still heavily involved doing bits and pieces of coaching around my own club and then different bits and pieces in media around the GAA. One chapter is closed but the next chapter I'm opening and the next couple of chapters I'm seeing are still going to be heavily involved around GAA.

It was interesting timing from the Slaughtneil defender. He called time on his inter-county career with Derry during the biggest winter of change the GAA has ever undergone. He insists that the thought of those changes didn't influence his decision.

As a man who spends almost his entire life around Gaelic games Chrissy McKaigue is better placed than most to give his view on the FRC's work and he isn't entirely satisfied.

While he welcomes certain developments, he feels the scale and speed of change may be doing the game more harm than good.

The game is certainly different. I like that it's different in some ways and I don't like that it's different in other ways. Incremental change would have been a much more proactive way of doing things and I think it's been too much change at once and I feel that some of the rule enhancements are too (dependent) on outside factors. Outside factors have too much influence on them. The two point arc and the kickout arc for example like its a different rule on a windy day, in wintertime. The climate that we play our games in its a big deal. If you were playing the current rules in an indoor arena every week it wouldn't be as big of a deal. The reality is the two point arc and the kicking out are massive changes to the game that I feel haven't enhanced the game.

McKaigue sees worrying trends in how certain rules are influencing match outcomes. In particular, he’s uneasy with the way 50-metre penalties and the two-point scoring arc are affecting the scoreboard.

The 50 metre penalties and how they're adjudicated there's still a lot of subjectivity around some of the rules and that is a concern. I think we started to see some of them concerns in the Cork v Kerry game because I don't think that was a tremendous visual for the game. The nature of the number of 50 metre penalties, how they were given and the fact that because there was such a breeze in the game that the 50 metre penalties were turned into 2-pointers. It just put a reflection on the scoreboard and the nature of a two point effort for David Clifford with a gale-force breeze is not a difficult feat and I just don't think it's in the spirit of the game.

Pictured is former Electric Ireland Minor Championship star Chrissy McKaigue of Derry at the 2025 Electric Ireland GAA All-Ireland Minor Championship Launch. This summer, Electric Ireland will use their social channels to spotlight players from across the Championships, in their ‘Parent Point of View’ series highlighting the major impact that playing Minor can have on players and their families #ThisIsMajor