Tommy Sugrue: Gaelic football is 'ruined' and needs to be changed to salvage it

Among the changes Sugrue favours are a rule insisting that kick-outs travel beyond the 45-metre line, that the ball can't be played backwards to inside the 21-metre line and that the advanced mark be scrapped.

CHANGES NEEDED: Referee Tommy Sugrue shares a joke with Paul Curran of Dublin during the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final between Dublin and Down in 1994. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Former All-Ireland final referee Tommy Sugrue fears Gaelic football is 'dying on its feet' and has called on the GAA to implement a series of rule changes in order to resuscitate it.

The Kerry man, who took charge of four All-Ireland senior deciders including the 1992 final between Donegal and Dublin exactly 30 years ago this week, reckons the game has been 'ruined' by short passing, short kick-outs and the advanced mark.