Controversial new GAA rule change set to be scrapped following Croke Park trial

Last weekend's interprovincial series left people with mixed feelings regarding the proposed changes.

Jim Gavin's Football Review Committee have reportedly decided to scrap the four-point goal rule after it received some criticism off the back of last weekend's interprovincial series at Croke Park.

According to Maurice Brosnan at the Irish Examiner, the FRC changed their mind on a couple of their new scoring suggestions following Friday and Saturday's action, concluding that a goal will revert to three points, and 45s will now only be worth one point.

Players and managers who took part in the four matches were open and honest with their feedback on the new rules, with some commenting that the game felt quicker and more exciting, while others struggled to keep abreast of the new scoring system.

"There was a lot of space the ball was being kicked in," said Saturday's man of the match Riain O'Neill. "Teams aren’t going to open up that expansively at the end of the day. You’re trying to keep it as close as you can to win the game, and it’s hard to know how it will fit in if it comes in during the league.

"That might tell the tail when it’s windy, sticky conditions, smaller pitches, and bad fields; it might bring teams closer together, but it’s hard to judge it out there in Croke Park. It’s the best surface in Ireland, which results in a fast game.

The Crossmaglen man added: "As far as the scoring goes, my maths wouldn’t be great. I was trying to figure out the score. I was asking Aidan Forker the whole of the second half what the score was."

Mayo's Aidan O'Shea seemed wary of changing the fundamentals of the game too much.

"I don’t want to judge off one game and obviously it was very one-sided as well," he said. "We have to be careful that we don’t change too much.

"Obviously, we want to make sure people are entertained and are enjoying the game but that seemed to be very one-sided and the game ran away from Leinster very quickly."

He continued: "There is a lot of work gone into this from the FRC (Football Review Committee) so we have got to try and embrace it as best we can over the next few days but there is probably a few tweaks that need to be made."

Now, the FRC are likely to sit and study the footage from last weekend's games as they aim to make a final judgement on their seven-core enhancements before Special Congress on November 30. 

Alongside the changes to gameplay, the FRC are expected to provide several recommendations to the Gaelic Athletic Association which will include the enforcement of four steps, the establishment of a Game Intelligence Unit and an inter-change substitution format.