Kieran McGeeney Contacted Jarlath Burns In Frustration Over One Of The FRC's Main Rule Changes

Jarlath Burns has desrcibed 2025 as a 'guinea-pig' year for Gaelic football after the implementation of the FRC's rule-changes.

Uachtarán Cumann Lúthchleas Gael Burns hailed the FRC as a thorough group, acknowledging their task of reforming the game was always going to be 'controversial' and disruptive, with Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney one of their critics.

Burns was speaking on the GAA+ podcast Ratified, alongside GAA legends Marc Ó Sé and Paddy Andrews and he said he was surprised by the controversy that followed the decision to tweak some of the rules after round five of the league.

McGeeney was in contact with his fellow county-man Burns then, over the change that no longer allowed goalkeepers to create 12 v 11 overlaps in attack.

"Kieran said 'look, we've been practicing for the last three months with let's say Ethan Rafferty coming out and now with the way you've changed that, we're now having to throw that into the bin and start again," Burns revealed.

"They're not really because Ethan was out again (after the changes.)"

Up to round five, Ethan Rafferty had been a key part of Armagh's game-plan as their extra man, but Burns says people shouldn't have been surprised about the tweaks after round five seeing as they were flagged.

"The one thing I would say about this group of people (FRC) is that it is very difficult to argue with them...these guys are watching every game, they have the best people compiling statistics and evidence it's very scientific," he said.

"One thing that did surprise me...we passed an enabling motion at special congress which is a really big things.

"It allowed central council at one point during this year to look at what had happened after the previous five games and make tweaks based on it. That caught a lot of people by surprise even though we made it clear we would do that after the fifth game.

"We had one chance to get it right, 2025.

"If you made a mistake or something isn't working... we all know it's a guinea pig year, but it's one for everybody. We called a special central council meeting to look at it, the guys (FRC) came with the changes they wanted to make.

"I was surprised by the comments from some people saying 'it's change for change's sake.' We did need to make those changes and they have been working well," he stated.

Rafferty still comes out the field as essentially a fly-keeper for Armagh, as do others like Rory Beggan for Monaghan and Niall Morgan for Tyrone. Teams just have to drop another player back into their own half whenever a keeper goes up the field, making it 4v3 on that end so there's no over-load in attack.

"So for example, Kieran McGeeney would be in regular contact with me about it, as you would know I'm sure," Burns said with a laugh.

"We will always listen to coaches but when it comes to rule changes, we have to listen to them...but we have a bigger vision. The coach has to try and make his team win.

"That's what he's there for, in whatever way that happens. That's not to say the coaches don't care about the game or we can't listen to them," he added.