Murphy: 'We're not going to please everyone but these rules are worth a trial'

Former Donegal player Michael Murphy states that last weekend’s inter-provincial games were just an opportunity to sample the new rules and that there will be many more games played before the Football Review Committee fully understands whether they work or not. 

The 2012 All-Ireland winning captain who is a part of the FRC which is chaired by former Dublin manager Jim Gavin, saw at first hand over the weekend the seven new rule enhancements which have been brought in to improve the state of Gaelic football. 

While there still might be mixed views on whether certain enhancements will work at all levels of the game, Murphy clarifies that this is not the finished article and that they won’t have a clear view of whether certain rules work on not until more games are played out starting in 2025. 

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He states that the inter-provincial matches played in Croke Park last Friday and Saturday were about giving the public an opportunity to see the new rules played out.  

Currently, the FRC appears to take great satisfaction from what they’ve seen so far which was expressed by Gavin to the media on Friday night. 

“These games were about getting an opportunity for people to see very small samples of these sandbox games over the last 12 weeks,” the Glenswilly man said. 

“It was about giving an opportunity for the public to see it, for the players to play it, and for the coaches to coach it, but listen, we knew going into it that it wasn’t going to be the be-all and end-all.  

“The main takeaways going into it and coming out of it is that it’s going to take more time for us to see more of it and to know exactly what works. 

“But from what we saw at the weekend, there’s only one or two small little things, but there’s nothing that we’re definitely taking off the table.” 

Moving forward, Murphy brings clarity that all enhancements will be reviewed next spring by the end of the National Football League on whether all seven rules will stay and become part of the game before going to Congress. 

“We are blessed with the structure, the way it’s set up, and the way it’s been proposed, and the way we’ve planned for it is that, whatever does go through next year, we’ll still have an opportunity to review it towards the end of the league next year again,” Murphy said. 

“So, it is there to be reviewed, and we’re not saying we’ll throw everything in or take everything out, but we will whittle it down to what we believe are good enhancements for the game, and whatever doesn’t work, there’s an opportunity towards the end of the league, and then again at the end of the championship where we can row back on anything that isn’t working.” 

The All-Ireland winning captain understands that while it may be hard to please everyone in the game, he sees a real positive from the weekend in how the fundamental skills of the game were displayed on the field. 

“The flow, the quickness, and the speed of the game, there’s so many little pieces that show that the game was definitely quicker at the weekend, but this is always the challenge, it’s hard to please absolutely everyone, but what we’ll continue to see is the skills of the game being executed a lot,” he told Donegal Live. 

“Listen, there’s still handpassing in the game, but there’s long-range scoring, there’s high fielding, high catching, there were ‘marks’, all the basics of the game were there, and we have no doubt as a committee that once the players get their teeth into this then the better they will become. 

“Is it going to be a catch-all, where it hits everybody, all the stack holders in the game, from the armchair supporter, to the underage coach, to the senior coach, to the players, to the media, are they going to love everything? Probably not, but it is worth a trial, and when we have the opportunity to review it after a large number of games, then we can row back if needed.”