Jarlath Burns: New football rules creating a near-perfect game

Burns is delighted the FRC has created space for the game's stylists to prosper.

Thu, 20 Feb, 2025 - 07:43

Paul Keane

GAA President Jarlath Burns reckons Gaelic football's new rules are 'working' and that we're close to having 'the perfect game'.

The former Armagh captain said he 'hit the jackpot' when he recruited Dublin great Jim Gavin to head up the Football Review Committee and to 'reimagine' how football should be played.

With three rounds of the National League behind us, the general consensus has been that the rules have been positive.

Speaking at the launch of Dalata Hotel Group's five-year sponsorship of the U-20 football championship, Burns said he is delighted that 'we have created space' for the game's stylists to prosper.

"I made it clear that it was going to be my number one priority," said Burns of reforming football. "I didn't want to say fix the game but enhance the game of football.

"I had done a lot of thinking before I decided who I wanted to put in charge of that and I think I definitely hit the jackpot with the man that I got, Jim Gavin. He's an incredible guy.

"I speak to him maybe three or four times a week, he's very methodical, very meticulous. The one thing we both decided was we wanted to create a blueprint. We weren't just tinkering with the rules. We weren't going to do something that was going to affect something here or there - we were going to completely reimagine it.

"So, starting off, what do we want the game to be? We wanted to say we had one of the most exciting games to play and to watch and to participate in. That's quite a big north star, as he called it, and I gave him a very short space of time to do it because 2025 is a year when you are allowed to change rules.

"They (rule changes) have to be every year that you can divide five into, so the next time we will be able to do that is in 2030.

"Hopefully by that stage, like hurling this year, there won't be any changes needed so I really feel that we are getting very close to what you could call the perfect game.

"The biggest thing is, and this is why Michael Murphy and these people have come back, you want to give the people who are creative and who can do things and who can score, a bit of space. That's really it, a bit of space.

"Whenever you can take 15 men behind the ball, you are cutting down on space, and I think that's what we have done. We have created space and we have created fast transitions and I really do think it's working."