Kieran Shannon: Pre-Tactical Age is over, it's time to bring back the maor foirne

What we have at the moment is a farce. To circumvent the current rules and restrictions, some teams employ their team doctors and physios to act as de facto maor foirne

The abolition of the maor foirne rule at Special Congress 2021 upon the recommendation of the GAA’s Playing Rules Committee was a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

For all the current inter-county managers that have spoken out about the issue recently, probably the most telling comment was by a former bainisteoir over the weekend. Reflecting on both the toughest year of his life and the toughest day of his coaching career, Pat Ryan, in an interview with Denis Walsh of the Irish Times, mentioned a thought that occurred to him while the Cork puckout and Cork team in general were undergoing a second-half meltdown. 

“How can I get a message into Patrick Collins?”