Maurice Brosnan: The inside story of the Football Review Committee

If Gaelic football requires another FRC to usher in grand change, it has failed. Saturday is a stepping stone, not the destination.

INSIDE STORY: At the beginning of the Football Review Committee’s project, Jim Gavin asked members to clear their minds of every assumption they held about the game. Imagine starting from scratch: how would you design Gaelic football? There were no limits to the possibilities. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

At the beginning of the Football Review Committee’s project, Jim Gavin asked members to clear their minds of every assumption they held about the game. Imagine starting from scratch: how would you design Gaelic football? There were no limits to the possibilities.

The FRC was walking a path others had trodden; previous committees had exposed the issues and the pitfalls in trying to reshape the game’s very structure. But this was different. They were on the cusp of something larger. What followed were 67 FRC meetings, in-person and online, another 46 sessions with stakeholders, administrators and focus groups. The bill ran to €300,000 and the price in time was a season handed over completely to trial.