Éamonn Fitzmaurice says the Football Review Committee still want to see successful motions at Saturday’s Special Congress introduced as new rules at both club and county level.
New rules arising from Saturday’s meeting of Special Congress at Croke Park would become operational on January 1st 2025 – though there is an optional grace period for counties until March 31st to implement the rules at club level, should they wish to defer their introduction.
However, several counties have sought for any potential new rules to be held off for clubs until 2026 – allowing them a year to come to terms with the changes.
Members of the FRC have been questioned on that possible deferment during visits to county board meetings in recent weeks, but the committee’s position has not changed on the issue and apart from the discretionary three-month window the aim remains to have the rules in place at club and county level in 2025.
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“We had a lot of discussions as a committee on that and what we came to at the end is that we want them to come in for the club game,” explains FRC member Fitzmaurice.
“Hopefully a lot of them [new rules] will be adopted this weekend and if so we want the club players to experience them, because I think it is going to lead to a very exciting game to play and watch.
“One of the big games for Kerry in the National League next year will be Armagh coming down in March to play on a Saturday night.
“You’ll have a lot of club players attending that game. But then the next day you could have a scenario where those same lads are going out playing a club game and they are encountering 15 players behind the ball and so they are not getting a chance to experience what they watched the night before.
“Obviously we understand there are going to be challenges around refereeing, in particular where a referee is on their own. But I actually think if the dissent rule comes in that a referee’s life will become easier.
“They might have new rules to be refereeing but they’ll be focused on the footballing side of things rather than battling with people contesting every decision they make.
“Around 96 per cent of players are club players so it is important they get the chance to try them out and not just the four of five per cent who also play at intercounty level.”
The former Kerry player and manager also hopes the experimental nature of the rules will reassure the doubters.
New rules introduced will be operational only on a one-year trial basis – for any of them to be permanently added to the rule book would require another Congress vote in 12 months. There will also be a mechanism within the regulations allowing changes and adaptations to any new rules during the season, if such were deemed necessary.
“Central Council shall be entitled to rescind or amend any Rule changes made by this Special Congress upon a Motion submitted by the Management Committee at the request of the Standing Committee on Playing Rules or the Rules Advisory Committee,” states the enabling motion on Saturday’s clár.
There is also the option to modify any new rules for underage grades.
“They are experimental and there would be the capacity to change during the National League if something emerged that we hadn’t thought of, or something wasn’t working out,” adds Fitzmaurice.
“They can’t come in permanently until they are voted on again next year, so that safety net is there. It’s an experiment and if it doesn’t work we definitely are open-minded enough to say, ‘look, all we want is the game to improve,’ so there are no hidden agendas there.
“There is a need for change and there are conditions built in to allow us adapt during the course of the season if things aren’t working out.”
