Paul Rouse: The inventor of modern football achieved what Jim Gavin is setting out to do

Dick Blake from Meath tackled the poor spectacle 19th century Gaelic had become and developed new rules.

Depiction of an old Gaelic football match (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

What the Football Review Committee led by Jim Gavin is trying to do to improve Gaelic football has been done before.

A series of disastrous All-Ireland football championships in the middle of the 1890s saw the GAA forced to act to save the game – and even the very existence of the Association.