A FRESH AND exciting version of Gaelic football that will be so fluid and dynamic that even the fitness of top inter-county players will be tested.
That’s what the Jim Gavin led Football Review Committee, which has published its interim report, is not just expecting but longing for.
The latest development – the FRC has produced a 204 page booklet containing 50 separate motions which will be presented to a Central Council meeting on 26 October and then later a Special Congress in November – represents the half-way point of the committee’s work.
The long-term plan is to have new rules permanently in place for the start of 2026. Between now and then, the various ‘rules enhancements’ need to be firstly showcased to the public, something that will begin with the 18-19 October interprovincial games at Croke Park.
After that, a Special Congress will vote on the proposals and, if accepted in their entirety, as the FRC want them to be as they claim so many are interdependent, they will come into play as temporary rules from 1 January.
🏐Football Review Committee chairman Jim Gavin gives you a brief run through of the proposed new rules
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) October 10, 2024
👇For longer videos and articles on each of the possible changes to Gaelic footballhttps://t.co/5pYnBmmK01 pic.twitter.com/gmTYGGoPVP
It was clarified that competitions like the All-Ireland club series, which spill over into the 2025 calendar year, will continue under the present rules but by 31 March the rules of football at club and county level will all be similarly aligned.
The FRC gathered in full for a Croke Park media briefing this afternoon and ran through the seven ‘core enhancements’ that they are proposing and which will be on display in the interprovincial competition.
These are – one v one throw-ins to start games, kick-outs travelling beyond a new 40m arc, no back-pass to goalkeepers aside from certain situations, the new two and four-point scoring system, three attackers being kept in the opposition half, the solo and go for restarts and the revised advanced mark inside the 20m line.
A further suite of proposals complement these, according to the FRC, including various recommendations around punishments for dissent, a new clock/hooter system and the use of vanishing foam by referees, adding up to 50 separate motions in total.
Former Dublin manager Gavin stated at today’s briefing that players’ GPS readings will inevitably spike under the new rules as the game will be considerably more dynamic and fluid, with less stoppages.
It was also acknowledged that this will place an even greater strain on the fitness and conditioning of players, both club and county.
“If you take the new advantage rule, the new solo and go, I think the ball will be in play more than it is currently,” said committee member and former Mayo manager James Horan. “I think S&C programmes will have to adapt a little bit.”
Former Clare manager Colm Collins agreed that the full suite of proposals, if passed, will lead to greater demands than before on players.
“Definitely it’s going to be faster and it’s going to require a higher level of fitness, no question,” said Collins. “The ball will be constantly moving. We’ve tried to eliminate a lot of the unnecessary stoppages that people get cheesed off about.”
Asked if this could prove troublesome at club level, FRC chairman Gavin accepted it could be.
“We gave a brief to Central Council about six weeks ago and this exact point was brought up that, you know, will we get to a stage where players are cramping up from fatigue?” said Gavin.
“I said, ‘Well, wouldn’t that be a great complaint, that the game has got so fast that we need to look at solutions to this’. One of the solutions we looked at, and it’s in our recommendations, is roll-on, roll-off subs.”
The FRC convened seven ‘sandbox’ trial games in recent months, in Mullingar, Bekan, Abbottstown (twice), Ennis, Inniskeen and Mullahoran.
Committee member Shane Flanagan, the GAA’s Director of Coaching and Games Development said fatigue was noticeable at the end of games.
“The thinking is, probably for a later stage, to look at the interchange (subs), similar to what was used for the Compromise Rules games,” said Flanagan. “Because as the lads have said, high speed running is going to increase, absolutely. I think it adds to the games, certainly in the last two (sandbox) games, we noticed more fatigue towards the end of games which meant there were more mistakes but that also made the game more exciting.
“But definitely that’s something we’re going to have to keep an eye on throughout the league and the Championship next year, in terms of possibly bringing forward a motion around the interchange for next year.”
On the upcoming interprovincial games, which will all be televised, Gavin clarified that none of the managers – Padraic Joyce (Connacht), Dessie Dolan (Leinster), Kieran Donnelly (Ulster) and John Cleary (Munster) – have been given a brief of how to set their teams out.
“No, they have the full independence of the committee to do what they need to do,” said Gavin.
