Ciarán Murphy: New proposed GAA rules should have trod the path laid by the FRC
Every time I’ve heard someone talking about the proposed hurling and football rule changes for this winter, I’ve had to pause and ask myself a question. The Ryan Cup is a third-level tournament in ... hurling, right? So why are we talking about the Ryan Cup in football? As it turns out, there’s a Ryan Cup in both codes. I’d love to be able to tell you that the Ryan in question was the greatest dual-player in the history of third-level Gaelic games and that this was a co-ordinated plan to memorialise him. This would have a degree of intellectual rigour. But no, it appears as if there is no connection between the two. The Ryan Cup is the second tier of third-level championship hurling (which has at least merited brief coverage in the past, given the final has been part of the Fitzgibbon final weekend), and the Ryan Cup is also the pre-Christmas football league competition for Division One (Sigerson Cup) teams. I presume that clears it up. Kevin McStay is the chair of Gaelic football’s Expert Advisory Group, and they will be hoping over the coming weeks that their Ryan Cup will give them an indication of what works and what doesn’t. They are absolutely correct to challenge the accepted wisdom that the 2026 championship was perfect and beyond improvement. There’s nothing as bewitching and attractive as a shock final victory for a universally lauded underdog (even one powered in large part by innovations made possible by the new rules brought into being in early 2025, it should be noted). But the most important thing for a successful sporting event is competitive uncertainty. Every bit as important as the new rules was the fact that there was drama pretty much everywhere you looked. The only thing shocking about Armagh winning the Ulster championship was the length of time since the last time they’d won it, but it was a culmination of a long-held desire for that group of players. Placed alongside the provincial victories of Roscommon and Westmeath against more vaunted opponents, it was a thrilling roster of winners. If you have that, the entertainment will often take care of itself. And without it, as we were for much of the last decade due to Dublin’s continued excellence, no amount of rule changes would be able to give us jeopardy, the lifeblood of any contest. So we shouldn’t get too comfortable just because the championship this summer gave us so much. The waiting is over as GAA’s experimental rules go on trial in college matches The proposed changes to both games are not insignificant. The football ‘enhancements’ this winter will ban fisted points, limit the number of consecutive handpasses to three, give us a four-point goal and a backcourt rule, which basically means a team can’t play the ball back across their own halfway line once they’ve crossed into the opponent’s half. John Meyler, meanwhile, has been in charge of a hurling Expert Advisory Group, and his committee’s suggestions include puck-outs which must go beyond the 45 with three forwards remaining between the 20-metre and 45-metre lines. Consecutive handpasses are no longer allowed, and a clear and definite striking action of the hand is now required for a handpass to be legal. Throw-ins to begin the half will be contested between one player from each team, the number of steps allowed is increased to six, and sideline cuts will be worth two points. These will all be on show in third-level league games from next week. Both Meyler and McStay are operating in rather strange circumstances. Unlike Jim Gavin and the Football Review Committee, neither Meyler nor McStay can be sure their respective constituencies are crying out for change. Meyler was speaking to Colm Parkinson on the Smaller Fish podcast last month and his rather blase attitude towards the final adoption of these rules was striking. If one or two proposals make it to Congress, then that’s great, but – ‘we’re just spitballin’ here’, basically. He’s going to have to sell them to us a bit more forcefully than that. These competitions are too small a sample size. And while they are played off without most people noticing every year, it doesn’t mean that the teams involved don’t care about it. Teams are using the Ryan Cup as preparation for the Sigerson Cup, which they care about a great deal. If you were a manager in that competition, would you really spend much time coaching these new rules if the trophy you’re actually trying to win will be played under different ones? There’s no earthly reason why you’d do that. And the Sigerson Cup will definitely be played under the current (Jim Gavin) rules. Gavin’s sandbox games existed in their own ecosystem. They meant nothing, which meant they were being played purely to road-test the FRC rules. That, perhaps counter-intuitively, gave them more coherence as a testing ground than what we’re about to watch over the next few weeks. The ratio of handpassing to kickpassing in Gaelic football is an issue (4.22 handpasses for every kickpass in the 2026 championship), and I like the four-point goal. I think further definition of the hurling handpass is positive, and the throw-in change could be enjoyable to watch. But we all watched the FRC and we all saw how best to trial these things. I’m not sure why we’re not following that template again. Kevin McStay urges patience surrounding further football rule changes to be trialled from next month