Gaelic football's Expert Advisory Group (EAG) chairman Kevin McStay is hopeful that "five or six" new rules will be officially adopted in time for the 2027 Allianz Football League - but he said that the changes will have to meet "a high threshold" to form part of the official guidelines.
EAG members McStay, Séamus Kenny and Johnny Bradley addressed the media at Croke Park on Wednesday and provided more information on the 11 changes to be trialled in the upcoming Ryan Cup Division 1 campaign. A twelfth change – a return to six substitutes – will not be experimented with as the higher education competition adopts an unlimited substitute policy.
The EAG will assess 15 games from the second round onwards.
Major rule adjustments that will be trialled will include a four-point goal, a ban on fisted points unless the ball is in flight, a limit on consecutive handpasses to three, a backcourt rule while breach infractions will now be able to be taken outside the 40-metre arc for a two-point attempt.
The EAG will assess the data and feedback after the Ryan Cup and former Mayo and Roscommon manager McStay is hopeful that a number of proposals are greenlit in time for next season's league campaign.
"We'd like to see whatever stands up going straight into the league, and then they would be formalised at Congress. I think that's possible."
McStay said that any change brought for ratification will only be approved on the back on rigorous examination from multiple stakeholders, a data perspective and, also, the eye-test.
"The threshold for change would be very high, that's an opening position," he said.
"Any changes that we propose that make it through to Congress and into the rulebook must add value to the game as it's currently constituted.
"We believe the upcoming trials will go a long way to convincing us, or otherwise, of our proposals or adjustments as we call them. I would say also that the group is not wedded to any specific proposal because we want to see them in the trial or in the game scenario.
"Nobody in our group can say how they're going to pan out. These trials haven't taken place previously post-FRC (Football Review Committee). The game has changed dramatically and these trials will take place in that space.
"I'd ask for patience, I suppose, let the trials take place and let's see where we are in the post-trial a week or two weeks, three weeks after it."
Meanwhile, both McStay and Bradley called for greater co-operation from counties in terms of providing GPS data for data gathering.
Both stressed that it is essential in helping to explain the physical reasoning for the push to move back to six substitutes.
For the 2025 study of games by the GAA's games intelligence unit, only four counties provided their numbers, which are kept anonymous from group members who work with Dublin City University's school of health and human performance and the insight centre for data analytics.
That meant only 34 games could be examined for the 2025 report and with the 2026 study still not completed, only one county has committed so far to sharing their data.
The primary objective of the data is to compare the high intensity running demands of different positional lines using different time windows of match play - divided into six periods of 12 minutes.
"It's just one of the disappointing sides of it," McStay continued.
"Like, I was there myself, so, you know, 'who else is sharing, lads? Nobody else? Well, we're not.' I mean, that's the position you take.
"You want the best for your team but what I would say is, now being removed from it, when you look in over the fence and you see a cry for increased substitutions because of the load, but then they won't share the data, it's very hard to make the case.
"But we're confident we will have enough data to make sure it changes from five to six."
Proposed adjustments:
- An extension of the 40-metre arc to the end-line
- Two-points for all scores outside the 40-metre arc, apart from 45s
- Four points for a goal
- No scores by hand - fist or open - other than in-flight scores
- A limit on consecutive hand-passes to three, with a foot motion - apart from a solo - required on the fourth pass
- A backcourt rule where a team cannot play the ball back across the halfway line into their own half
- Substitutes to be increased from five to six (to be excluded from Ryan Cup trial)
- Denial of a goalscoring opportunity inside the 20m line, but not within 25m of each sideline or within the semi-circular arc, will bring a black card or red card
- If a player takes a kick-out mark (claims/does not claim) and is subsequently illegally challenged within his four-metre space, the sanction is a 50m penalty. In both cases the player may choose to take the free-kick from outside the 40m arc
- 13m frees awarded for dissent/abuse from a member of a backroom team, kick-out infractions or a breach sanction. For both the dissent/abuse and breach infractions the player may choose to take the free-kick from outside the 40m arc
- All kick-outs must cross the 13m arc rather than the 40m arc
- Sideline free-kicks will be taken from on or behind the sideline rather than behind it
