When Seán Boylan starts talking about the need to bring some physicality back into Gaelic football, then someone should probably be listening. During his 23 years as Meath manager, the one thing his teams never lacked was physicality.

Turns out people are listening. As a member of the GAA’s standing committee on playing rules, Boylan has helped draft three motions for next month’s Congress: the introduction of the ‘mark’ as used in AFL and the International Rules, the ‘tap-and-go’ free, and more appropriate stoppages for substitutions.

“The one thing I would have felt more than anything else is the game is riddled with rules,” says Boylan. “It has 83 or 84 rules and if you ask most players, they only know the ones that count. There can be great confusion and if we can do anything, it’s get rid of that confusion.

“The idea with the mark is not to lose the art of high fielding because it’s part of why you go to the matches. I miss the physical contact in the air. It’s such a huge part of the culture of the game and it is a physical sport and that’s why people go, to see that.

Having a go

“I hate to see the adventure taken out of it or the risk taken out of it because that’s what the sport is about. Having a go at it and having a cut at it. Yeah, there’ll be mistakes. But I’d never take a player off for having a go. You’d take him off for not having a go.”

Boylan was a speaking in Croke Park at the announcement that Allianz has renewed its sponsorship of the football and hurling leagues for another five years. Boylan guided Meath to the football league title in 1993/94 in what was the first season of the Allianz sponsorship, and while the game has changed since then, Boylan believes certain changes are still essential.

The black card, he suggests, hasn’t fully addressed the problem of cynical and foul play. “It has helped an awful lot but hasn’t gone far enough. Why bring it in if it’s not going to have meaning?

“When somebody pulls somebody down, they can say they’re doing that for the team; but let’s start rewarding the good things. Put it this way: say somebody pulls a player down and there’s a minute to go. For doing that, instead of a black card or a yellow card there’s a penalty down at the far end. And that penalty would be four points and not three points. Those are things I would love to see happening.

“And also that you would be taking more decisions on the field of play and not in a boardroom. When you see lots of things being sorted out in a boardroom that’s not the spirit of where we come from or what it’s about. That’s no disrespect to the people involved in that profession but this is a game.

“To have the rewards for doing the good things. You might give two points for doing something. It’s about opening up the door because we’ve had rules and games committees before.”

Human nature

Boylan believes the benefits of introducing a tap-and-go free and appropriate stoppages for substitutions (such as 30 seconds added for each substitution) are self-explanatory.

“With the tap-and-go free, it’s about trying to break the defensive thing. And same with the substitutions. Human nature is human nature, and we think ‘oh, get a sub in there, it will stop the game.’ So it’s worth a try. These things are discussed an awful lot, yet nothing seems to get done about it.”

Boylan suggested further changes he would like to see in football, including the rule whereby all kick-outs must go beyond the 45-metre line, again as used in International Rules: “Yeah, I’d love to see it go beyond the 45 or whatever it is, that the kickout has to go beyond a certain point.

“There are a lot of things that are important enough for the game – like kicking the ball back down the field. I just love when it gets as far as the halfway line, that it has to go on, that it can’t be going back – I’d love to see that happening . . . Keep the game going.”

None of this, he also suggests, has anything to do with the fact Dublin have now taken complete control in Leinster. Indeed, Boylan believes that Meath can still challenge for provincial honours this season.

“You have to believe you can do it because there are still only 15 playing. And they are not eating any more spuds than everybody else. If you start to believe Dublin are invincible then sure look, you don’t get involved in sport. You always have to feel you have that chance.”