Burns: We must punish foul play

PLAYING rules committee member Jarlath Burns has admitted something has to be done to stop making fouling profitable in Gaelic football.

Although the parameters of the committee are not yet set, the former Armagh captain believes Donegal’s style in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final highlighted the issues facing the game.

“Changing the square ball or bringing in the mark is one thing but to change the flow of the game would require radical surgery and three or four attempts at it,” said the Armagh Central Council delegate.

“But the fact is Gaelic football is the only sport where it is profitable to foul. You look at Usain Bolt at the weekend. One false start in the World Championships and he was disqualified. In Gaelic football, you gain an advantage by fouling, especially in the forwards. You stop the start of an attack and it allows you to get men back.

“In Donegal training, Jimmy McGuinness makes defenders do 30 press-ups if they foul but if any of the forwards foul they don’t have to do anything. Stopping a back coming out with the ball is the best foul to make because it isn’t picked up as much as a foul made by a defender. If every forward is allowed to give away two fouls before being yellow-carded that’s 12 or more fouls that go unpunished. We need to be considering something like giving a 45 to a team if the opposition’s forwards have fouled three times.”

Burns understands McGuinness’ plan this year but now feels he will face pressure to change it.

“The first thing is you can’t blame Jimmy. He saw Joe Kernan and Mickey Harte win something in their first year and realised this was his the best chance of doing the same.

“As a second tier team, they had to play an ultra-defensive game to get to the next level. It’s not comparable to the high intensity game of Tyrone or Armagh. Both of those teams were able to get a lot of scores and win games.”