Jim Gavin: 'We’ve danced around' respect problem on pitch for long time

The legendary former Dublin boss has been encouraged by the quality of his Football Review Committee's trial games.

Jim Gavin was speaking after the latest “sandbox” games between Cavan and Kildare in Mullahoran this past weekend. Pic Maxwell's

Football Review Committee (FRC) chairman Jim Gavin believes the GAA have been “dancing around” their initiative of showing respect to officials and players.

Dublin’s six-time All-Ireland SFC winning manager Gavin has been greatly encouraged by the quality of the FRC trial games as players have had to hand the ball to a fouled opponent. Failing to do so results in a free being brought forward 50m.

Speaking after the latest “sandbox” games between Cavan and Kildare in Mullahoran this past weekend, Gavin believes the “solo and go” option for an offended player and dissent punishment are contributing to quicker games.

“Players were either putting the ball on the ground, giving it to the referee, throwing it in the air or rolling it to the side and the purpose of that is to delay the play,” he told “Shannonside FM”. “When you hand the ball to the player, the player can immediately take a solo and go or a free.

“It speeds the game and if you don’t do it, it’s a halfway line penalty. We have these new rules, very subtle ones but (aimed) to deincentivise delayed ball. Deincentivise players speaking, dissent – there wasn’t a peep out of anyone there today.

“That ‘give respect, get respect’, we’ve danced around it for a long time. We say the standard you walk by is the standard you expect and we’ve walking around dissent a long time. We have an opportunity now to tidy it up.” Ahead of Thursday’s finalised rules launch and next week’s interprovincial games in Croke Park that will be played under them, Gavin reiterated his hope that the “rule enchancements” are adopted in full by Central Council later this month. They will then go forward to be voted on at Special Congress on November 30.

Mentioning the rule change that three outfield players from each team must remain behind the halfway line at all times, Gavin acknowledged it will be difficult to implement at club level initially but insisted: “If it doesn’t (pass), there are interdependencies. If those three players don’t need to be up, that kicking pass game that you saw today won’t be there because there is nobody up there to kick it to.

“We believe it’s a fundamental part of the game and it speaks to the tradition when we look back at games of the past. We’re not saying you need to keep a bit of structure in terms of three players being up.”