This weekend sees the culmination of the GAA’s campaign to improve football. It has been an impressive 20 months’ work by the Football Review Committee, appointed by president Jarlath Burns and chaired by former Dublin manager Jim Gavin – now Fianna Fáil’s candidate for the Áras.
Gavin’s new status is likely to impact on his room for manoeuvre on Saturday. There have been concerns that having a political representative assuming a high-profile role at special congress would be in conflict with Rule 1.9 on party political involvement.
At Central Council, he formally introduced the motions for discussion and left Liam Keane, Standing Committee on Playing Rules chair and the association’s legal factotum, to comb through the details.
At congress, Gavin is likely to take a similar back seat to avoid any unnecessary controversy but he has helmed a seriously impressive project.
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Not another special congress?
This will be the sixth in seven years but some of those were genuine emergencies, such as the 2020 transfer of governance during the Covid public health crisis, rubberstamped by delegates, remotely.
This weekend’s is simply tidying up the recommendations of the Football Review Committee, which were successfully trialled over the summer and confirming them as permanent inclusions in the Official Guide.
The timing is necessary, as the updated rules will come into force from January 1st next although current club competitions will play to their conclusion under the current rules.
So, there are further changes?
The FRC reviewed the data of the season after the All-Ireland final and issued a final report, including tweaks and amendments proposed in light of that review. For instance, a new black card infraction of denying a goal-scoring opportunity by pulling an opponent’s jersey, is proposed in order to address an obvious lacuna in the current rules.
The deletion of the provision on defenders getting a touch on a kick for a two-pointer and thus reducing its value to one is proposed with such devaluing touches now restricted to attackers.
This addresses situations such as arose in last May’s Connacht final when Galway goalkeeper Connor Gleeson got a hand to Ryan O’Donoghue’s long-range point and reduced its value to one.
Overall, there 62 motions on Saturday’s clár, 13 more than the 49 introduced at last November’s special congress, which established the proposed rules on a trial basis for this year’s football season.
You say successfully trialled?
Yes, that verdict has gone beyond mere assertion. Although the concluding stages of the All-Ireland championship were disappointingly one-sided, the early season had produced exceptionally exciting matches with the new two-pointer score facilitating some epic comebacks.
Firstly, the new rules engaged the public to a significantly greater extent this year. According to the final FRC report, 858,459 spectators attended matches during the previous year’s (2024) championship but this number increased to 1,029,63 this year, a 20 per cent increase. League attendances were also up, from 379,177 in 2024 to 510,697.
Testimony from referees and players indicated that the game, as well as being more aesthetically pleasing for spectators, was also more enjoyable to play and officiate.
Innovations such as the “solo and go” reduced opportunities for disrupting play and delaying the free by allowing the fouled team to run immediately with the ball without being challenged for the first four metres.
This focused defenders’ minds and gave them better things to be doing than protesting the free and trying to obstruct opponents taking it.
The stringent new penalties for dissent – 50-metre premium on disputed frees – has had a radical impact, leading referees to report that they were now able to concentrate on making decisions rather than managing bad player behaviour.
This week, the Gaelic Players Association released its findings. In a survey of 1,175 male inter-county footballers, representing 95 per cent of the total, 94 per cent reported their “playing experience has been improved by the new rules.”
The one proposal considered vulnerable is the the clock-hooter, which was the least popular of the experiments, albeit commanding 75 per cent support. Its rollout has been problematic and delegates may go against its permanent acceptance.
Anything else?
The first of the motions relates to a non-football matter, a proposal to amend the rule requiring playing gear to be of Irish manufacture to one stipulating that it must be officially licensed by the GAA. This is to bring the association into line with EU competition law.
An identical motion was withdrawn at last February’s annual congress after protests from the floor despite dire warnings that failure to change the rule could expose the association to significant fines.
So that’s that for the FRC?
Not necessarily. It is the end of the current committee but in its final report, the FRC made some far-reaching recommendations beyond the immediate motions for rule change.
Most significant is the proposal to trial a restriction on the hand pass from the under-15 grade down. The requirement to kick the ball after receiving a hand pass is a radical solution to a growing problem but one that was not on the radar of the FRC.
Distinguished football people such as Dermot Earley and John Tobin have argued that the hand pass is leading to too much possession play and the hand-to-kick pass ratio steepled upwards this year from 3.4:1 to 4.4:1.
It is also proposed that two new bodies be appointed, one the permanent continuation of the Games Intelligence Unit, which has provided excellent insight and quick-turnaround data for the FRC this year and two, an expert football group to advise the Standing Committee on the Playing Rules.
This group would monitor the game and formulate responses to emerging trends, which would be communicated to the SCPR.
