Colm Keys: Goalkeepers defy football rules restrictions to create new golden age for No 1s

As much as the 2025 inter-county football season brought some renewal to more attacking football on the back of new rules, those same rules have not let goalkeepers grow obsolete and fall behind in a way that may well have been feared.

When the Football Review Committee (FRC) made a number of changes towards the end of the league last March, the switch from a 3v3 to 4v3 defensive structure, to ensure the defending team had four players inside their own half automatically brought attention to the goalkeeper. For the opening five rounds of the league, teams had the freedom to send 12 players over that same halfway line to effectively create 12v11 situations, assuming the defending goalkeeper did not leave his line.

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