GAA PRESIDENT JARLATH Burns says the association is bracing itself for a €1 million hit after restructuring the football championship.

But he has insisted that change is worth it and claimed that the current championship format, as well as accompanying advisory groups, ‘will prevent us ever having to do open-heart surgery on our games again’.

“We might come to the end of this year and see that it has balanced itself out but we’re budgeting on our assumptions that we’ll have a million euros less because there are 16 fewer games,” said Burns, who maintained that they’ve hit on the right format despite the financial blow.

“We don’t want to be carrying out any more structural change to our championship, or to our games anymore. Anything that we do now, we would just be tweaking here and there.

“We now have an expert advisory group in football and hurling, on one side feeding into our games analysis that’s coming from Carlow University, and on the other side feeding into the standing committee on playing rules.

“I know it’s off the point but we feel that model will prevent us ever having to do open-heart surgery on our games again. We’ll just be able to make incremental changes to our games.”

Burns was speaking at the launch of the All-Ireland SFC in Trim, County Meath, and touched on a broad range of issues.

Having spoken earlier in the day about the Ger Brennan ban and the lack of punishment meted out to Jim McGuinness following a similar incident during Donegal’s All-Ireland SFC tie against Kerry, he doubled down on insisting that rules were applied correctly.

But he agreed that no manager should be putting his hands on a rival player or mentor.

“Absolutely, none of this would have happened if managers, mentors and subs had stayed off the field and allowed the referee and the 30 players to do their business,” said the former Armagh player.

“The moment managers incur onto the field, they are entitled to be suspended, to face the sanctions, if the referee views that (behaviour) as being sanctionable. And none of this would have happened if everybody just obeyed the rules in the first place.

“Yes, there are going to be fouls, there will be sendings off but managers should stay on the sideline and that is why we fined both counties (Kerry and Donegal) very heavily for what happened.”

On the possibility of further rule changes in football and hurling, Burns said they are likely to be minimal. But he said the ‘throw ball’ remains an issue in hurling and suggested a new rule for football.

“If you look at the 15 extra songs that didn’t get on the album, if you want to call it that, from the FRC, one of them was a solo-and-go from a line ball,” said Burns. “I would love to see that trialled because remember, if a ball goes out of play for a line ball, it’s a foul, you’ve fouled the ball. A line ball should accrue an advantage for the opposition. If you get a line ball at the moment in defence, around the 20m line, it’s definitely not an advantage because you’re one man down and you’re kicking into a sea of bodies.”

Burns poured cold water on recent reports that the 2027 National Hurling League final might be staged on the Tuesday night of Ryder Cup week in Limerick, as a promotional tool.

“We spoke to the counties involved, they were not that keen on it because they just felt that it’s coming in the middle of their own club championships,” explained Burns. “We consulted firstly with the counties in Division 1A for next year, they are the ones who would be most directly involved. They weren’t all jumping out of their skin at it.”

The Gaelic Players Association have suggested an exhibition game instead, such as an interprovincial match.

“I’m not sure that will run because there isn’t going to be a cup presented and it’s not something that means anything massively,” he said. “We don’t get people out to go to exhibition matches. We do get people out to matches when there’s a cup being presented.”

Burns didn’t agree either with the suggestion that the inter-county hurling season ends too early for counties eliminated from provincial championships in May.

“The championship has to be a blunt instrument,” he said. “The key is in the title, ‘Championship’ – it’s there to find out who the champions are. And if you’re not at the pace or if you’re not good enough in a particular year, keeping you there for another two or three weeks is not going to change things.”

Burns reported positive news regarding integration of the GAA, LGFA and Camogie associations, which is supposed to happen in 2027.

“I feel in the last couple of weeks we’ve taken a couple of big steps forward,” he said. “The LGFA, not the GAA, the LGFA, presented a paper which is very interesting, which we are looking at, which we are negotiating and which at our last meeting had the agreement of all of the people there. However, the people who are in that room, the steering group, are the presidents, the Ard Stiurthór, Mary McAleese. We do not have any implementation power.

“Everything that we do, we’re going to have to put it through our own Ard Chomhairle, our own congresses, and they will be the people who will decide on the shape of integration. But I feel that it did take a bit of a step forward at our last meeting, particularly with that document that the LGFA presented, which is an amended version of what was presented at the roadshows, which got a lukewarm enough response.

“Essentially what it is saying is that it is keeping the brand identity and keeping the integrity of each of those codes intact, because they are very strong identities.”