Gavin group to make game ‘more attractive’
FORMER Dublin manager Jim Gavin (below) is to lead a GAA task force that will look to reform
Gaelic football’s rules in an effort to make the game more attractive.
New GAA president Jarlath
Burns confirmed at Congress yesterday that the six-time AllIreland winning boss will head the Football Review Group, with the Armagh native intimating that more highprofile Gaelic football figures will be part of the committee.
Burns has detected a frustration among the Gaelic football fraternity about the direction of the game, insisting 80 per cent of the letters he has received in the past year have focused on the game and how it can be fixed.
He said the group was put together with ‘a view to making Gaelic football a more enjoyable spectacle to watch and play.
‘As a former chair of the Standing Committee on Playing Rules, I do not envy their task, because if I took 20 of you into a room and asked your opinions, there would be 20 different perspectives on what the problem is, never mind the solution,’ said Burns.
‘However, the sight of endless passing across the half-forward line, without any risks being taken, before the ball is channelled back to a midfielder who repeats the process from the other side of the pitch, is not what Gaelic football should be. I think we can all agree on that.’
Meanwhile, the GAA has finally closed the loophole in its rulebook that allowed teams who had a player – or players – sent off in normal time to return to a full complement in extra-time.
All cards picked up by players will now carry into the two additional periods of 10 minutes after 87 per cent of delegates supported the motion put forward by Central Council. Yellow cards also weren’t carried forward as extra-time was bizarrely considered a new game.
But that is no longer the case, which also means that a player who has been black-carded towards the end of normal time will have to serve out the reminder of the time in the sin-bin during extra-time.
Hurlers who remove their helmet or have a team-mate or medic to do so will be ordered to leave the field as the game goes on. The motion, which also received 87 per cent support, was rooted in concerns that players were removing their helmets to waste time.
A Cork motion to allow players to play Under 20 and senior intercounty championship games in the same week was also passed.
Despite opposition from two provincial council secretaries, the motion to introduce the 60-hour window that would provide separation between the games in the same week drew more than 70 per cent support.