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TYRONE legend Peter Canavan insists he has no desire to be part of a new rules body – but feels it is “inevitable” that further tweaks will be made to Gaelic football in future.
The GAA is in the process of forming a new group to replace the Jim Gavin-led Football Review Committee (FRC), which disbanded after last year’s Special Congress voted through all of its proposals to permanently write their new rules into the game.
One of the recommendations in the group’s final report was that they should be replaced by a “Gaelic Football Expert Advisory Group, comprising former inter-county and club managers, players, referees and other experienced stakeholders”.
However, Canavan – who sat on the FRC - is happy to leave it to others from here on, but is confident that the game is in good hands, and in good shape.
“No, I wouldn’t have a desire to be part of a new committee,” said the former Red Hand star at the launch of the Sport 4 Peace project in Belfast on Wednesday.
“There’s plenty of experts in the country, so they won’t have to go too far to get experts and people who get the game.
“I was more than happy to oblige and work with some brilliant men on the Football Review Committee. Despite the fact there was a consensus, everybody in that committee had their own views and their own opinions.
“By and large, I think there are bits and pieces about different rules that people might not be happy with, but overall it’s been for the betterment of our game.”
It is expected that the new committee will be in operation soon, though it is unlikely they will be given the same license that the FRC had to make changes to the rules throughout the season.
Canavan, though, feels it would be “foolish” if changes weren’t permitted as Gaelic football continues to evolve.
“Moving forward, it’s inevitable that there’ll be tweaks made to the rules.
“As players and coaches adapt to the current set of rules, the game could go in a different direction. Patterns of play could be established that are not conducive to good football or good viewing, and then something has to be done about it.
“So you’d be foolish if you didn’t have a group in place to monitor how the game is going. We’ll just see how the year progresses, and there could well be changes come next year.”
One contentious issue from the opening weekend of the National League was the hooter.
Last year, a change was made meaning that the sounding of the hooter signalled that the game had entered its final phase, only for the FRC to alter the rule so that the hooter signals the end of the game.
However, if a shot has been taken before the hooter sounds and the ball is in mid-air as the hooter blows, the score is good. This issue came to the fore in Killarney on Sunday when Tomás Kennedy fisted over Kerry’s winner against Roscommon as the hooter sounded.
And Canavan feels that, despite some frustrations with the previous system, it was preferable to the current incarnation.
“I fully understand why it’s there,” he said.
“If done properly, it should work, but you’ve got to have a lot of things in place for that to happen, and clearly at the minute that’s not the case.
“Not all grounds have the required systems. Some teams are playing with the hooter system, some teams aren’t, and that in itself poses problems.
“You could say it’s unfair if teams then have to end up playing with a hooter. I felt there were a few occasions in big games last year where it went on longer than it should have… passages of play when time was up, and you still had play continuing. That frustrated a number of people.
“The idea of kicking the ball out into the crowd was uncommon and appeared somewhat uncouth for a lot of people; they didn’t like that notion. So you could see there were aspects of last year’s rules that weren’t appealing to everybody.
“But, by and large, I felt it worked okay.”
