Evolved thinking: Jim McGuinness and Kieran McGeeney during his playing days.
A history of football
Northern exposure: How the stroke of a pen led to Ulster's tactical dominance
In Part 3 of our series on Gaelic football’s evolution, we learn how unforeseen tactical sophistication came as a result of a half-forgotten educational act.
Welcome the third and final part of our Gaelic football evolution series.
The opening piece on the early days of codifying the games, early rule changes and the figures who pushed teams to success can be found here.
Part 2, on the cult of manager and fitness trends, can be found here.
In this conclusion, we examine how a change to educational philosophy set in chain a series of events that would change how the sport of Gaelic football was played forever.
*****
IF THERE IS an origin story of the 21st century revolution in Gaelic football, it begins with the Education Act (Northern Ireland) of 1947.
This made secondary education until the age of 15 compulsory. Before, children could leave primary school from 13. Now, they could sit a transfer test at age 11 and join three different school types: grammar, technical or intermediate.
For those of little means, free school dinners and milk were provided, and grants were introduced for third-level education to make university education more accessible.
Suddenly, the world opened up to the northern working classes.
At the same time, schools needed to be built to accommodate this change. And these schools were all built with something most children had never seen before in their life: a gymnasium.
A decade later, with the new education system taking root, the Derry midfielder ‘Gentleman’ Jim McKeever had completed his studies in St Malachy’s College and the sports-oriented Loughborough College before accepting the role of head of physical education in St Joseph’s Training College, Belfast (later to become St Mary’s).
With a flood of young male students from GAA backgrounds now able to gain an education and become teachers, they all passed through McKeever and learned his methods, formed on the rugby and soccer training fields of Leicestershire.
The late Tyrone manager Art McRory claimed he had never heard of the word ‘coaching’ in relation to Gaelic football until he met McKeever on his first day as an undergraduate.
He can be said to have intellectualised Gaelic football. As well as writing a column for The Sunday Independent, McKeever would deliver talks on tactics and training methods. He favoured a lot of cutting-edge athletic practice that originated in Russia, including a particular emphasis on single-leg work for balance, along with jumping and landing mechanics, the exact material that those coaching at the top of athletic development are using right now.
Essentially, the ideas that took root among McKeever’s students went on to form a higher state of consciousness among Gaelic football coaches in the north.
Among those to pass through included McRory and Tom McKeagney, who was by his side as they managed the Tyrone team to the 1986 All-Ireland final.
In the first wave, Down man Ray Morgan would establish St Colman’s as a powerhouse in colleges’ football before transforming Burren into two-time All-Ireland club champions. Morgan’s contemporary in the St Colman’s staff room was Pete McGrath who was 36 when he managed Down to the 1991 All-Ireland, later repeating the trick in 1994.
Fast forward to 2016 and an Ulster championship launch event with various team managers and coaches in attendance: Antrim’s Gearoid Adams, Down’s Eamonn Burns, Tyrone’s Mickey Harte, McGrath, who was in charge of Fermanagh by then, Monaghan’s Malachy O’Rourke and Derry’s Damian Barton. All had been taught by McKeever.
- Blanket defence is born -
Less than 10 miles away from McKeever’s homeplace of Ballymaguigan, lay Moortown, the home of Dessie Ryan.
As a very young man, Ryan played for Tyrone and was on the team that won their first Dr McKenna Cup in 1957 before emigrating to New York months later.
There, he played for New York and became enthralled with American sports and the subtleties of movement and athleticism. It was something he would bring back home as coach of the successful Ballinderry Shamrocks, and later, of Queen’s.
The genesis of the blanket defence can be traced back to 1990. Such a radical move was naturally borne out of necessity. Ryan was part of a Queen’s management including Sean O’Neill and Paddy O’Hara, and had suffered an 18-point loss to reigning Sigerson champions St Mary’s.
When they met again, Ryan instructed Colm Hanratty to line out at centre-forward, but to station himself between his own centre-back and midfield to gum up the system.
Now, it wasn’t that all these ideas were being batted around the common rooms by the students and lecturers. These ways of doing things spread throughout the Belfast universities and made their way to county training sessions. They became subsumed by all and everyone. Added on and refined.
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It would be a mistake to think though that the college boys threw their arm over the homework.
There were characters like Eamonn Coleman, who would bring Derry to their sole All-Ireland in 1993, that started laying bricks when he entered his teens.
Eamonn Coleman. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
As the saying goes, he didn’t go to school but he knew the scholars; especially being from the same Ballymaguigan as Gentleman Jim.
He would call into the likes of Brian McIver in Ballinderry and Dessie Ryan in Moortown late in the evenings, and the tea would spoil as anyone assembled would exchange ideas, thoughts and opinions on Gaelic football players, teams, methods and tactics.
- Imitation and flattery -
You could stand accused of a heavy Ulster bias here, especially if you want to play Gaelic football Top Trumps and stack up all the numbers of Sam Maguires and where they went to in this period.
But we make two arguments around the success of market leaders Kerry and Dublin.
Starting with Kerry, the first thing to note is that Gaelic football has been the prevailing culture of the county forever. With mountains of competitions available, they also happen to play far more of it in terms of games. Still, it cannot be said that they have been huge tactical innovators in the second half of Gaelic football’s existence.
When everything is settled, Kerry will win All-Ireland titles. For a team to upset that balance, they need to come with some other weaponry, the proverbial gun to a knife fight.
Kerry’s response to that has always been to conduct an immediate root and branch review, and vow to adopt whatever means necessary to keep winning.
It was there when Jack O’Connor in his first spell went to meet the former Armagh, Derry, Cavan and Antrim coach John Morrison to decipher the Ulster defensive strategies.
It was there when Éamonn Fitzmaurice decided to mirror Donegal’s formation and not commit too many defenders to attack in the 2014 final, mitigating their vulnerability to a counter-attack.
To be caught on the hop, as Joe Kernan, Jim McGuinness and especially Mickey Harte could manage, would force them to change their ways.
As for Dublin, their six-in-a-row team was a mixture of all the best practice and coaching. Often, the football could be robotic and ran off a formula, but they still had unorthodox talents who were allowed the freedom to improvise at times.
Under Gavin, they were able to harness their undoubted natural advantages of the capital city. With Jason Sherlock in a coaching role, they became the best team in the game at executing basketball-style screens for a forward to take a shot unimpeded.
But as for wild innovation, they never required it. When they were caught with Donegal’s counter-attacking game and beaten in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final, Gavin immediately handed a sweeper role to Cian O’Sullivan and the defence would hold their shape.
They were never beaten again.
- Tactical experimentation -
While his role may be different right now as the President of the GAA, Jarlath Burns was once known in the Armagh squad as the ‘Stopman’.
As the deeper-lying midfielder of the centrefield partnership, if an attacker was running the ball into the Armagh defence, Burns’ job was to restrain him by whatever means necessary.
We call that tactical fouling now, something that has been eradicated from the game since Burns appointed Jim Gavin as the Chairman of the Football Review Committee and he brought in the ‘solo and go’ rule.
From the Queen’s team that won the 1993 Sigerson Cup – beating St Mary’s in the final – no fewer than 11 players went on to win an All-Ireland medal.
One of them was Kieran McGeeney who became a centre-back without portfolio as Joe Kernan took over the management of Armagh and played him at centre-back, but bringing Tony McEntee back to fill the actual position.
McGeeney’s role was twofold; to show up wherever he was needed, and to get himself loose to flight diagonal ball towards the Armagh full-forwards Stevie McDonnell and Ronan Clarke.
Kieran McGeeney and Joe Kernan after Armagh's All-Ireland win in 2002. INPHO
INPHO
As the new millennium was ushered in, Gaelic football was about to see an explosion of tactical experimentation.
Some of it was around attacking strategy. Kickouts suddenly assumed a greater importance than ever. A great deal of it would centre around defending in the game.
Whether it was creative or destructive was a matter of personal taste. All we know for a fact is by letting the coaching market dictate, Gaelic football ended up in a sorry state after the first quarter-century of the 2000s.
The great pity is just how fresh it all seemed at the start of that period.
The change in the All-Ireland championships and introduction of the qualifiers, therefore providing a host of first-time meetings between counties of different provinces, new rivalries emerging, coincided with the opening of a redeveloped Croke Park.
Laois and Westmeath won unlikely Leinster titles. Wexford emerged as a force once more. Sligo nabbed a Connacht title in 2007. Fermanagh made it to an All-Ireland quarter-final in 2003 and then took a semi-final to a replay the following year.
And the football was frequently fantastic.
- Towers and Sweepers -
People would ask Armagh manager Joe Kernan what his Plan B was. His answer was always that they spent so much time on working on a diagonal delivery that they had no time left over for anything else.
Hanging a ball up in the air for your forwards to attack is one of the most exhilarating sights in Gaelic football, and for a time, every team had one.
Kerry had Johnny Crowley to cause havoc in the air against David Heaney in the 2004 All-Ireland final. Crowley was upgraded two years later to a middling midfielder by the name of Kieran Donaghy who would become one of the greatest.
Most teams had a playmaker at centre-forward and they would have the time and space to decorate a game with foot-passing, such as an Alan Brogan, Ciaran McDonald or Brian McGuigan.
But it wasn’t, and couldn’t, be all about the creative side. Some teams had shortcomings and made plans to overcome them.
The ‘sweeper’ that originated with Colm Hanratty on Queen’s teams and evolved into an auxiliary centre back in Kieran McGeeney went to another place.
Tyrone’s Gavin Devlin was a superb reader of the game, but he was never keen on mindless running.
When he played corner-back for Tyrone underage teams and the opposition might pull out their corner-forward to create a third midfielder, Devlin took it upon himself not to vacate the space that could be used to their benefit.
Instead, he would occupy a position between the full-back and half-back lines, staying there to organise the five defenders and two midfielders within shouting range.
Tyrone underage managers Mickey Harte and Fr Gerard McAleer allowed him the latitude, and immediately saw the worth.
The ‘sweeper’ was born.
- Northern Lights -
By the time Harte became the manager of the senior team, he had figured out a few other concerns.
Mickey Harte. INPHO
INPHO
Armagh’s All-Ireland in 2002 had provoked Tyrone. Every All-Ireland winner is held up as the pinnacle and they were market leaders in physicality and sheer size.
Knowing that they could struggle in the air, Harte insisted on not leaving one player on tackling duties, instead just delaying a ball-carrier until the support tacklers arrived. This attitude, this extreme workrate, came together in the 2003 semi-final win over Kerry in an unforgettable clip.
For a decade, great games would arrive like a comet. The 2013 All-Ireland semi-final between Kerry and Dublin was jaw-dropping.
But for most counties by that stage, pragmatism was becoming the chief concern.
In winning the 2012 All-Ireland, Donegal had looked invincible under manager Jim McGuinness.
They were also like nothing seen before in Gaelic football. When they did not have the ball, 13 players would charge back into pre-determined positions on the pitch and get behind the ball.
When occasion demanded, they would bring one other attacker back, leaving a solitary figure up front.
And when it was required — say when they were defending a lead late on in a game — everyone was back.
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Where this plan originated is disputed. McGuinness won a county championship as coach of his club Naomh Conaill with an early version of this approach.
Around the same time, St Gall’s won the All-Ireland club title in March 2010, with manager Lenny Harbinson happy to allow his full-forward, Rory Gallagher, offer advice on team formation and shape.
Between the two, with Gallagher assisting McGuinness in Donegal, they were onto something. Defence fed the attack. As McGuinness repeatedly told his players in training, “Our defensive shape is our platform to attack.”
Rory Gallagher and Jim McGuinness. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
The problem was that in time, practically every team would copy this template. They would pick players who could follow instruction.
In possession, they became more composed, and would not kick the ball into a massed defence.
Hence, the build-up play became lateral and unforced, with players exchanging passes five to 10 yards away from a defensive wall until a runner emerged at a certain angle.
- Space Invaders -
The best managers then devised methods to open up space.
Dublin, perhaps influenced by Sherlock who was also a former Irish basketball international, perfected back-door cuts, where attackers would drift to the ball carrier before slamming on brakes and spinning behind their marker to receive a pass heading for goal.
Loading up the full-forward line with up to five players inside the opposition 20-metre line to create gaps further out.
Doubling up on an opposition defender, to create an overlap.
There was much to admire in all these attacking ploys and the creativity that went into them.
It is also true to say that there was a level of sophistication and subtlety that didn’t get the blood pumping in the average punter.
It led to games such as the 2024 All-Ireland final between Armagh and Galway. With the ball being moved at walking pace and the game strangled by tactical sensibilities, a seagull with an injured right wing parked itself on the Croke Park pitch close to the Cusack Stand sideline and Hill 16, and remained there undisturbed for 24 minutes.
The previous February, GAA President Burns had announced Gavin as the Chairman of a new Football Review Committee, tasked with re-imagining the game.
What followed in 2025 was something vastly different, with flashpoints around frees virtually disappearing with the solo and go rule, the reward of long-range shooting with a two-point arc, and an increase in sportsmanship.
Even at that, most teams were still locked into their programmes of how to attack.
In the first year, a lot of coaches and teams took longer than others to get their heads around the changes. With alterations being made throughout the season, that is understandable.
There is a feeling now among the coaching fraternity that the surface of possibilities with the new game will be significantly scratched in 2026.
The remit that Gavin spoke about was to make Gaelic football “the most exciting amateur game in the world to play and watch”.
The game will always be popular. Thankfully, the possibilities are brimming with optimism.
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Northern exposure: How the stroke of a pen led to Ulster's tactical dominance
Welcome the third and final part of our Gaelic football evolution series.
The opening piece on the early days of codifying the games, early rule changes and the figures who pushed teams to success can be found here.
Part 2, on the cult of manager and fitness trends, can be found here.
In this conclusion, we examine how a change to educational philosophy set in chain a series of events that would change how the sport of Gaelic football was played forever.
*****
IF THERE IS an origin story of the 21st century revolution in Gaelic football, it begins with the Education Act (Northern Ireland) of 1947.
This made secondary education until the age of 15 compulsory. Before, children could leave primary school from 13. Now, they could sit a transfer test at age 11 and join three different school types: grammar, technical or intermediate.
For those of little means, free school dinners and milk were provided, and grants were introduced for third-level education to make university education more accessible.
Suddenly, the world opened up to the northern working classes.
At the same time, schools needed to be built to accommodate this change. And these schools were all built with something most children had never seen before in their life: a gymnasium.
A decade later, with the new education system taking root, the Derry midfielder ‘Gentleman’ Jim McKeever had completed his studies in St Malachy’s College and the sports-oriented Loughborough College before accepting the role of head of physical education in St Joseph’s Training College, Belfast (later to become St Mary’s).
With a flood of young male students from GAA backgrounds now able to gain an education and become teachers, they all passed through McKeever and learned his methods, formed on the rugby and soccer training fields of Leicestershire.
The late Tyrone manager Art McRory claimed he had never heard of the word ‘coaching’ in relation to Gaelic football until he met McKeever on his first day as an undergraduate.
He can be said to have intellectualised Gaelic football. As well as writing a column for The Sunday Independent, McKeever would deliver talks on tactics and training methods. He favoured a lot of cutting-edge athletic practice that originated in Russia, including a particular emphasis on single-leg work for balance, along with jumping and landing mechanics, the exact material that those coaching at the top of athletic development are using right now.
Essentially, the ideas that took root among McKeever’s students went on to form a higher state of consciousness among Gaelic football coaches in the north.
Among those to pass through included McRory and Tom McKeagney, who was by his side as they managed the Tyrone team to the 1986 All-Ireland final.
In the first wave, Down man Ray Morgan would establish St Colman’s as a powerhouse in colleges’ football before transforming Burren into two-time All-Ireland club champions. Morgan’s contemporary in the St Colman’s staff room was Pete McGrath who was 36 when he managed Down to the 1991 All-Ireland, later repeating the trick in 1994.
Fast forward to 2016 and an Ulster championship launch event with various team managers and coaches in attendance: Antrim’s Gearoid Adams, Down’s Eamonn Burns, Tyrone’s Mickey Harte, McGrath, who was in charge of Fermanagh by then, Monaghan’s Malachy O’Rourke and Derry’s Damian Barton. All had been taught by McKeever.
- Blanket defence is born -
Less than 10 miles away from McKeever’s homeplace of Ballymaguigan, lay Moortown, the home of Dessie Ryan.
As a very young man, Ryan played for Tyrone and was on the team that won their first Dr McKenna Cup in 1957 before emigrating to New York months later.
There, he played for New York and became enthralled with American sports and the subtleties of movement and athleticism. It was something he would bring back home as coach of the successful Ballinderry Shamrocks, and later, of Queen’s.
The genesis of the blanket defence can be traced back to 1990. Such a radical move was naturally borne out of necessity. Ryan was part of a Queen’s management including Sean O’Neill and Paddy O’Hara, and had suffered an 18-point loss to reigning Sigerson champions St Mary’s.
When they met again, Ryan instructed Colm Hanratty to line out at centre-forward, but to station himself between his own centre-back and midfield to gum up the system.
Now, it wasn’t that all these ideas were being batted around the common rooms by the students and lecturers. These ways of doing things spread throughout the Belfast universities and made their way to county training sessions. They became subsumed by all and everyone. Added on and refined.
It would be a mistake to think though that the college boys threw their arm over the homework.
There were characters like Eamonn Coleman, who would bring Derry to their sole All-Ireland in 1993, that started laying bricks when he entered his teens.
As the saying goes, he didn’t go to school but he knew the scholars; especially being from the same Ballymaguigan as Gentleman Jim.
He would call into the likes of Brian McIver in Ballinderry and Dessie Ryan in Moortown late in the evenings, and the tea would spoil as anyone assembled would exchange ideas, thoughts and opinions on Gaelic football players, teams, methods and tactics.
- Imitation and flattery -
You could stand accused of a heavy Ulster bias here, especially if you want to play Gaelic football Top Trumps and stack up all the numbers of Sam Maguires and where they went to in this period.
But we make two arguments around the success of market leaders Kerry and Dublin.
Starting with Kerry, the first thing to note is that Gaelic football has been the prevailing culture of the county forever. With mountains of competitions available, they also happen to play far more of it in terms of games. Still, it cannot be said that they have been huge tactical innovators in the second half of Gaelic football’s existence.
When everything is settled, Kerry will win All-Ireland titles. For a team to upset that balance, they need to come with some other weaponry, the proverbial gun to a knife fight.
Kerry’s response to that has always been to conduct an immediate root and branch review, and vow to adopt whatever means necessary to keep winning.
It was there when Jack O’Connor in his first spell went to meet the former Armagh, Derry, Cavan and Antrim coach John Morrison to decipher the Ulster defensive strategies.
It was there when Éamonn Fitzmaurice decided to mirror Donegal’s formation and not commit too many defenders to attack in the 2014 final, mitigating their vulnerability to a counter-attack.
To be caught on the hop, as Joe Kernan, Jim McGuinness and especially Mickey Harte could manage, would force them to change their ways.
As for Dublin, their six-in-a-row team was a mixture of all the best practice and coaching. Often, the football could be robotic and ran off a formula, but they still had unorthodox talents who were allowed the freedom to improvise at times.
Under Gavin, they were able to harness their undoubted natural advantages of the capital city. With Jason Sherlock in a coaching role, they became the best team in the game at executing basketball-style screens for a forward to take a shot unimpeded.
But as for wild innovation, they never required it. When they were caught with Donegal’s counter-attacking game and beaten in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final, Gavin immediately handed a sweeper role to Cian O’Sullivan and the defence would hold their shape.
They were never beaten again.
- Tactical experimentation -
While his role may be different right now as the President of the GAA, Jarlath Burns was once known in the Armagh squad as the ‘Stopman’.
As the deeper-lying midfielder of the centrefield partnership, if an attacker was running the ball into the Armagh defence, Burns’ job was to restrain him by whatever means necessary.
We call that tactical fouling now, something that has been eradicated from the game since Burns appointed Jim Gavin as the Chairman of the Football Review Committee and he brought in the ‘solo and go’ rule.
From the Queen’s team that won the 1993 Sigerson Cup – beating St Mary’s in the final – no fewer than 11 players went on to win an All-Ireland medal.
One of them was Kieran McGeeney who became a centre-back without portfolio as Joe Kernan took over the management of Armagh and played him at centre-back, but bringing Tony McEntee back to fill the actual position.
McGeeney’s role was twofold; to show up wherever he was needed, and to get himself loose to flight diagonal ball towards the Armagh full-forwards Stevie McDonnell and Ronan Clarke.
As the new millennium was ushered in, Gaelic football was about to see an explosion of tactical experimentation.
Some of it was around attacking strategy. Kickouts suddenly assumed a greater importance than ever. A great deal of it would centre around defending in the game.
Whether it was creative or destructive was a matter of personal taste. All we know for a fact is by letting the coaching market dictate, Gaelic football ended up in a sorry state after the first quarter-century of the 2000s.
The great pity is just how fresh it all seemed at the start of that period.
The change in the All-Ireland championships and introduction of the qualifiers, therefore providing a host of first-time meetings between counties of different provinces, new rivalries emerging, coincided with the opening of a redeveloped Croke Park.
Laois and Westmeath won unlikely Leinster titles. Wexford emerged as a force once more. Sligo nabbed a Connacht title in 2007. Fermanagh made it to an All-Ireland quarter-final in 2003 and then took a semi-final to a replay the following year.
And the football was frequently fantastic.
- Towers and Sweepers -
People would ask Armagh manager Joe Kernan what his Plan B was. His answer was always that they spent so much time on working on a diagonal delivery that they had no time left over for anything else.
Hanging a ball up in the air for your forwards to attack is one of the most exhilarating sights in Gaelic football, and for a time, every team had one.
Kerry had Johnny Crowley to cause havoc in the air against David Heaney in the 2004 All-Ireland final. Crowley was upgraded two years later to a middling midfielder by the name of Kieran Donaghy who would become one of the greatest.
Most teams had a playmaker at centre-forward and they would have the time and space to decorate a game with foot-passing, such as an Alan Brogan, Ciaran McDonald or Brian McGuigan.
But it wasn’t, and couldn’t, be all about the creative side. Some teams had shortcomings and made plans to overcome them.
The ‘sweeper’ that originated with Colm Hanratty on Queen’s teams and evolved into an auxiliary centre back in Kieran McGeeney went to another place.
Tyrone’s Gavin Devlin was a superb reader of the game, but he was never keen on mindless running.
When he played corner-back for Tyrone underage teams and the opposition might pull out their corner-forward to create a third midfielder, Devlin took it upon himself not to vacate the space that could be used to their benefit.
Instead, he would occupy a position between the full-back and half-back lines, staying there to organise the five defenders and two midfielders within shouting range.
Tyrone underage managers Mickey Harte and Fr Gerard McAleer allowed him the latitude, and immediately saw the worth.
The ‘sweeper’ was born.
- Northern Lights -
By the time Harte became the manager of the senior team, he had figured out a few other concerns.
Armagh’s All-Ireland in 2002 had provoked Tyrone. Every All-Ireland winner is held up as the pinnacle and they were market leaders in physicality and sheer size.
Knowing that they could struggle in the air, Harte insisted on not leaving one player on tackling duties, instead just delaying a ball-carrier until the support tacklers arrived. This attitude, this extreme workrate, came together in the 2003 semi-final win over Kerry in an unforgettable clip.
For a decade, great games would arrive like a comet. The 2013 All-Ireland semi-final between Kerry and Dublin was jaw-dropping.
But for most counties by that stage, pragmatism was becoming the chief concern.
In winning the 2012 All-Ireland, Donegal had looked invincible under manager Jim McGuinness.
They were also like nothing seen before in Gaelic football. When they did not have the ball, 13 players would charge back into pre-determined positions on the pitch and get behind the ball.
When occasion demanded, they would bring one other attacker back, leaving a solitary figure up front.
And when it was required — say when they were defending a lead late on in a game — everyone was back.
Where this plan originated is disputed. McGuinness won a county championship as coach of his club Naomh Conaill with an early version of this approach.
Around the same time, St Gall’s won the All-Ireland club title in March 2010, with manager Lenny Harbinson happy to allow his full-forward, Rory Gallagher, offer advice on team formation and shape.
Between the two, with Gallagher assisting McGuinness in Donegal, they were onto something. Defence fed the attack. As McGuinness repeatedly told his players in training, “Our defensive shape is our platform to attack.”
The problem was that in time, practically every team would copy this template. They would pick players who could follow instruction.
In possession, they became more composed, and would not kick the ball into a massed defence.
Hence, the build-up play became lateral and unforced, with players exchanging passes five to 10 yards away from a defensive wall until a runner emerged at a certain angle.
- Space Invaders -
The best managers then devised methods to open up space.
Dublin, perhaps influenced by Sherlock who was also a former Irish basketball international, perfected back-door cuts, where attackers would drift to the ball carrier before slamming on brakes and spinning behind their marker to receive a pass heading for goal.
Loading up the full-forward line with up to five players inside the opposition 20-metre line to create gaps further out.
Doubling up on an opposition defender, to create an overlap.
There was much to admire in all these attacking ploys and the creativity that went into them.
It is also true to say that there was a level of sophistication and subtlety that didn’t get the blood pumping in the average punter.
It led to games such as the 2024 All-Ireland final between Armagh and Galway. With the ball being moved at walking pace and the game strangled by tactical sensibilities, a seagull with an injured right wing parked itself on the Croke Park pitch close to the Cusack Stand sideline and Hill 16, and remained there undisturbed for 24 minutes.
The previous February, GAA President Burns had announced Gavin as the Chairman of a new Football Review Committee, tasked with re-imagining the game.
What followed in 2025 was something vastly different, with flashpoints around frees virtually disappearing with the solo and go rule, the reward of long-range shooting with a two-point arc, and an increase in sportsmanship.
Even at that, most teams were still locked into their programmes of how to attack.
In the first year, a lot of coaches and teams took longer than others to get their heads around the changes. With alterations being made throughout the season, that is understandable.
There is a feeling now among the coaching fraternity that the surface of possibilities with the new game will be significantly scratched in 2026.
The remit that Gavin spoke about was to make Gaelic football “the most exciting amateur game in the world to play and watch”.
The game will always be popular. Thankfully, the possibilities are brimming with optimism.
Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
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