Let's party like it’s 1999. A National Football Development Committee was recommending sweeping changes to football, a new championship format was proposed to give teams a second chance, inter-provincials were on the calendar and Kieran McGeeney was lifting major silverware with Armagh.
The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same in a supposedly conservative organisation with an addiction to tinkering.
We’ve had the period of the radicals, with their round-robins and fly goalkeepers, and we’re heading back to the golden era, baby.
All we need now is the reviving of the combined universities and cardinals throwing the ball in and we’ll be home.
In the 25 years since ’99, there has been such an addiction to change that the worm has turned and we’re nearly back where we started.
There must be few sporting bodies that experience such drastic change before inevitably reverting back to the mean.
"Back around the end of the noughties, the silver bullet solution was the restoration of league semi-finals to stop teams losing interest. Now the only way forward is the elimination of league semi-finals, to stop teams losing interest."
Irish Examiner writer Larry Ryan may have been talking specifically about hurling, but it’s a nice summation of what tends to happen in football too.
Take formats from 1999 onwards. There has been straight knockout, the 'back door’ qualifiers with various tweaks such as A and B routes, the ‘Super 8s’, straight knockout again, round-robin group stages and now we’re almost certainly heading back to a format not too different from the ‘back door’,
We’ve had games go to replays, extra-time, extra extra-time, penalties, 45s' and now Central Council have brought more replays back on to the agenda from next season with the addition of replayed provincial finals.
There's been Railway Cup games in January and November, in Armagh and Abu Dhabi, played and not played and, with the need for rules testing, a return to the fixture at Croke Park later this year.
Traditionalists rejoice.
All of which seems to fly in the face of the Football Review Committee’s proposals revealed to the media at the start of this week.
While the pendulum inevitably swings back to the middle of the status quo on nearly every issue as time goes on, this particular committee is defying gravity with suggestions like a scoring arc, four-point goals, countdown clocks and 50-metre punishments for dissent.
One final shock to the corpse of football – for those of a dramatic disposition who keep telling us football is dead – should be permitted, but then the madness must stop, and it’s exactly the time to introduce a ‘hands off’ period. The GAA must have confidence in this change and to stick with this change. How else can football be expected to flourish if it can't even settle on an outfit?
The aforementioned McGeeney certainly doesn’t think football is dead – and why would he after what happened this season – but even before that Sam Maguire triumph, he spoke eloquently, as he tends to do, on the negative vibe around the game.
"I think we have a great sport, I genuinely do, but so many people talk it down."
That talk seems to have played a big part in the FRC’s brief, with chair Jim Gavin stating that he wants to help create "the most attractive amateur sport globally to play and watch."
McGeeney’s response would almost certainly be that we already have it, but crucially there is widespread public enthusiasm for the FRC proposals, even if there is blowback to certain suggestions, and hopefully the sandbox trial games will polish those up.
A lot of that is down to the shrewdness of a GAA president with a high approval rating.
Jarlath Burns knows what sells, and nothing riles the paying public more than decisions being made by unrecognisable administrators who haven’t been at the coalface in a long time – no matter how suitable their CV is.
When Gavin tells you that this rule will work, you’ll listen. Michael Murphy, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, Malachy O’Rourke, recognisable, recent faces. Nobody's claiming they're out of touch.
With that significant advantage, the GAA has a golden opportunity from 2026 – when the new Option 1 format is set to be introduced to compliment the likely swathe of playing rules appearing next season – and that opportunity is to let it sit. To decide that whatever moaning and groaning occurs – and there always will be from managers, players, spectators and media contributors – it’s time to stop adding extra bits and pieces to Frankenstein’s monster by bowing to peer pressure.
"Revolution not evolution," as Alan Partridge famously misquoted. Who wants another Chris Evans on their hands anyway?
Paul Earley, perhaps.
He is a man who certainly knows a thing or two about the situation, and he never envisions a time when evolution is off the table albeit for tweaks rather than significant changes.
The former Ireland international rules manager was a member of the Football Review Committee of 2012, chaired by the late Eugene McGee, and some of the proposals that just missed out in their recommendation (the midfield mark lost by 1%) are either in the game since, or likely coming down the tracks.
"Not necessarily," was his response when asked is a 'hands off’ approach crucial moving forward.
"Things are changing so quickly and I have no problem making tweaks, making rule changes in order to preserve the vision of football.
"Sports science is developing at a pace, players are becoming fitter, more agile, more skilled and sometimes things have to change reasonably quickly."
That said, the Roscommon 1985 All-Star does agree that overall, a period of protection on the soon-to-be changed landscape is vital.
"Every GAA supporter has a strong opinion and there will be negative responses," he said.
"Hopefully most of them positive and it gives them a chance to breathe and develop and see where it’s going.
"It’s having those core principles, listening to them and then developing the rules around them. Making sure those principles are front and centre in the process."
It's quite telling that many of the topics for McGee's committee were also on the agenda for Gavin's 12 years later. We can go back further than that too.
Some of the proposals that were discussed by that 1999 NFDC, as reported by the Irish Independent at the time, included the possibility of a round-robin system, linking the league and championship, the creation of a two-tier championship and a definite inter-county football season from April to September.
Sound familiar? Round and round we go, but eventually at some stage we’re going to pump the breaks, deal with the aftershock and just leave football alone.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
