FOOTBALL REVIEW COMMITTEE chief Jim Gavin says the high-powered group has been handed a ‘blank sheet’ to potentially ‘modify, remove or enhance’ any playing rule in the game.

The five-in-a-row All-Ireland winning Dublin manager presided at the official launch of the committee’s work in Croke Park, signposting changes in time for pre-season games in 2025 and which will be in place for next year’s Championship.

It’s hoped that trials of ‘rules enhancements’ will begin as early as this July, in as yet unspecified competitions, with a view to making a presentation to Central Council on 2 November.

Beyond that, a 7 December Special Congress to allow any new or amended rules to be used in next season’s pre-season, National League and Championship games is anticipated.

As 2025 is designated as a year when GAA playing rules can be altered, a second Special Congress at the end of 2025 is envisaged to install any new rules permanently.

Gavin said that the FRC’s ‘audacious’ remit is to make Gaelic Games ‘the most enjoyable amateur games in the world to play and watch’. This principle will be the group’s ‘north star’ throughout their time together.

Gavin is joined on the 12-man committee by his one-time adversaries James Horan, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, Colm Collins and Malachy O’Rourke while former Meath captain Seamus Kenny is the secretary.

FRC members pored over this season’s National League games and attended last weekend’s finals though have gone back decades in terms of their work, reviewing all past reports on the game to inform their discussions.

Gavin declined to offer any personal opinion on what rules may be tweaked, invented or scrapped, saying that it would be unfair to do so given that the Championship is about to get underway under the present rules.

“All I’ll say is that my own county, I really enjoy watching them play,” said the former Dublin half-forward. “I love the way they play football.”

Asked if he was in agreement with Eugene McGee, who chaired a previous football review committee in 2012, and who claimed the game isn’t as bad as people think, Gavin responded: “I am.”

The Clondalkin man, who is coaching underage teams at Ballyboden St Enda’s, noted that claims of the game being in ‘crisis’ are nothing new, saying a national newspaper report over 100 years ago made a similar statement.

Gavin stressed that recommending changes to competition structures isn’t part of the FRC’s remit.

“It’s not our primary focus and we won’t be distracted by that,” he said. “But we will have to acknowledge that if it’s something that the members of the committee, or indeed the stakeholders raise, we’re going to have to report on it.”

Many will hope that the FRC get rid of the Advanced Mark rule though Gavin refused to be drawn on any specifics.

“I’ll just have to reference Eugene (McGee) on this one, whatever my previous thoughts were on rules, I’ll have to park them as he did as the chair,” said Gavin. “I need to park that, whatever my personal view was on a particular rule. Absolutely I did have a perspective on it, but at the time (when managing Dublin). Let me leave it at that.”

It remains to be seen how a December Special Congress gathering will feel about passing rules for use in next year’s league and Championships with relatively little trial time.

Responding to that, GAA President Jarlath Burns said it is important that if rules are going to be put on trial in 2025, it has to be a meaningful experiment.

“One of the things that David Hassan, the former chair of the Standing Committee on Playing Rules, said to me was to make sure that if you bring in trial rules that you bring them in properly and give them a proper trial,” said Burns.

“Because at the beginning of this year we tried out that the kick-out has to go past the 45 and that was only trialled out in Freshers competition.

“At a Central Council meeting before Congress, we got four or five pages of data on it and it disappeared. This has to be done correctly and as you can see Jim has a very reflective and methodical approach. This is our game, this is our native game, and we have to do this correctly.

“We can’t tinker with it. We have to reflect, we have to be methodical and we have to give everything a proper trial.”