Kieran McGeeney had words with GAA president over big rule change
While the new rule changes to Gaelic football have been an overwhelming success, mid-season tweaks caught some by surprise, according to GAA president Jarlath Burns.
After week five of the National Football League, the new rules were looked at and assessed, and changes made where necessary.
One of the changes made was that a team had to put an outfielder back in their own half if they brought out their keeper, as to not create an overload in attack.
However, Armagh manager, Kieran McGeeney, was not too pleased, and went to Burns to voice his complaints.
Speaking on the GAA+ podcast, Ratified, Burns said: “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.
“They’re not really because Ethan was out again (after the changes.)”
“So for example, Kieran McGeeney would be in regular contact with me about it, as you would know I’m sure.
“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.”
Burns went on to point that managers and players should not have been surprised that tweaks were made by the Football Review Committee, as it had already been flagged.
He added: “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.”
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