Football Expert Advisory Group proposals will require 'very high threshold' for change

By John Harrington

Chairperson of the GAA’s Football Expert Advisory Group, Kevin McStay, says any proposals for further tweaking of Gaelic football’s playing rules would require a 'very high threshold' for change.

The proposals his group will trial in the upcoming Higher Education Division 1 League (Ryan Cup) and pre-sesaon provincial competitions are as follows.

• A limit on consecutive hand-passes to three.
• A ban on fisted or open-handpassed points unless the ball is in flight.
• Increasing the value of a goal to 4 points.
• Kick-outs required to just go 13 metres rather than beyond the 40 metre arc.
• The introduction of an over and back rule whereby once a team moves the ball into the opposition’s half they would be prowhite from playing it back into their own half.
• An extension of the 40-metre arc to the end-line.
• An increase in substitutes allowed from five to six * this won’t be trialled in the Ryan Cup because unlimited substitutes are already allowed that competition.
• A minimum of a black card or a red card where appropriate for ALL aggressive fouls which deny a goal-scoring opportunity in the goal-scoring opportunity zone (inside the 20-metre line but not within 25 metres infield of each sideline or within the semi-circular 20m arc).
• If a player takes a kick-out mark (claims/does NOT claim) and is subsequently illegally challenged within his 4m ‘space’ the sanction is a 50m penalty and in both cases the player taking the free may choose to take the free-kick from outside the 40m arc.
• 13m frees awarded for dissent/abuse from a member of a backroom team and a 4/3 breach sanction can be take back outside the 40m arc to avail of a two-pointer.
• When taking a sideline free kick a player must have at least one foot on or behind the sideline (currently under rule they must be taken from behind the sideline).

McStay insists his group will approach the trialling of these proposals with an open mind, but would require convincing evidence they add value to the game before putting any of them forward as proposed rule changes.

“The guidance and the objective of our group throughout all our deliberations has been very straightforward for us as a group - the threshold for change would be very high,” said McStay a media briefing today.

“Any changes that we propose that make it through to Congress and into the rule book must add value to the game as it's currently constituted. We believe the upcoming trials will go a long way to convincing us, or otherwise, of our proposals or adjustments as we call them. I would say also that the group is not wedded to any specific proposal because we want to see them in the trial or in the game scenario.

“Nobody in our group can say how they're going to pan out because of two things. These trials haven't taken place previously in the post-FRC game. The game has changed dramatically, and these trials will take place in that space.

“I'd ask for patience, I suppose, let the trials take place and let's see where we are post-trial.

“We're attempting these trials now, probably with the game of football at peace. We've had a terrific championship, a new format that's given us top class fixtures in the provinces, and of course in Croke Park as well.

“So, in that space, it's a little bit tricky for me and the EAG to come into the room and say, well, we have a few other things now we'd like to run by.”

As good as this year’s All-Ireland SFC was, McStay doesn’t think the game is now perfect in the post FRC era and pin-pointed what he regards as some obvious areas for further improvement.

“There is far too much hand-passing, and the reduction of hand-passing is a massive challenge,” he said.

“There's not enough kick-passing, and increasing that is another dramatic challenge. No question about that. These are not simple issues to remedy.

“There's too much lateral play, and some of it we're seeing at critical moments in the game. And, again, it can be a frustrating watch. I'm sure it's a frustrating aspect of the game when you're a player as well.

“We're taking the position that essentially we want to do no harm to the game. That will be certainly a motivation. But I think we have to accept also that there are issues around the current game that are unsatisfactory.”

Limiting consecutive handpasses to three is arguably the proposal that would have the biggest impact on the game considering how much the ratio of hand-passes to kick-passes has grown in recent years.

“This is a very significant trial,” said McStay. “No question about it. It's an effort to do something about the ratio (of handpasses to foot-passes).

"So just to give you some numbers on it, it's ranging from 3.8 to 5.3 handpasses to one kick-pass, depending on what competition you're analysing.

“Eugene McGee once said that if it gets to three, we need to do something about it, well, it's gone way beyond that now. So this is an effort (to address that). It’s not without challenges, and I totally understand that, but this is a significant trial.”

The FRC briefly trialled a four-point goal in the 2024 inter-provincials but didn’t proceed with it thereafter.

McStay believes it’s time to have another look at it because the art of scoring goals could be under threat by the focus on engineering two-point opportunities.

“We've seen a significant growth in the two-pointer, and we see that as a hugely positive development,” he says.

“But, on the downside, the significance of the goal, the value of the goal, which I would argue is the most exciting moment in the game of Gaelic football, that seems to be under-threat.

“Because, if you think about it, two converted frees from, say, 40.5 metres at the top of the arc, that's not a massive challenge for an inter-county free-taker these days, or a goalkeeper. And you get the two of them, you've just outflanked the goal value by a point. So these are issues.

“We know that the two-pointer attempts are significantly up, but the accuracy is down. But that means, to our mind, the trend is only headed in one direction. We see the teams, the players, the coaches, all getting better at the decision-making around the 40 metre arc.

“We believe it's only going in one direction, so I think the idea of trying a four-point goal again is having its moment."

If scoring a goal is a football skill to be desired in the game, McStay isn’t so sure the same is true for the hand-palmed or fisted point, which is why his committee is trialling what the game would look like without them.

“The scores by hand – hand passes or fist passes over the bar - is still contributing significantly to the overall score haul,” he says. The accuracy of that play is hugely significant, up around the 85% accuracy.

“There's no other part of the game that has that sort of accuracy levels for a 13 metre free-taker being put to the goal, and even then maybe. So what we're saying is, how do you defend that? It's extremely difficult to defend it. And so we wanted to have a look at that.

“You're not in the gifted category where you hand pass the ball over the bar, I would argue.”

McStay hopes his committee will have finalised any proposed rule enhancements they do decide to make before the start of the 2027 Allianz Football League.

“We’ve identified the 15 games we want to go after in the Ryan Cup and after that period we’ll take a pause and reevaluate," he says.

“We would hope then, following the re-evaluation, to trial again at an inter-county level and there’s little bit of work to do yet with the provincial councils for their Spring Leagues.

“The aspiration then is that we might finalise our proposals and deliberations in early January. Which would mean we wouldn't have to go into the National League.

“That's a serious aspiration we have as a group. It's a big competition, the league, and we'd like to have our work done by then. And that would lead into Congress fairly nicely as well.”

You can view and download the Football Expert Advisory Group's media briefing slides below.