FRC football rules changes designed to make game more attractive - Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy is confident the proposed rule enhancements put forward by the Football Review Committee will be well received by players.

The FRC, of which the Donegal legend is a part of - have organised seven ‘sandbox’ matches to trial their proposals, including most recently an inter-county game between Cavan and Kildare.

And 2012 All-Ireland Murphy is content with the reaction from the players who’ve turned out  those matches.

“The feedback we've gotten from the players is that they're very, very supportive of the rule proposals so far,” says Murphy. 

“So from that point of view I'm excited to see how excited they are.

“I know from playing the game at club level that the key bits of the game you want to do - to kick, to catch - that you trained for when you were a young. 

“You're just not getting much of an opportunity to exhibit those skills as a senior footballer in the modern game as often as you did when you played underage”.

Murphy believes that the proposed new seven-rule enhancements will make Gaelic football more more attractive than the current product. 

“I think that description, 'free-flowing', is what we're after,” he says. “We don’t want a game that's always stopping and starting and transitions from defence to attack are slow and laborious.

“That there's opportunities for teams if they really want to attack that they can go and do it. If they are fouled they can solo and go and get there quickly.

“If they want they can kick it quickly and long up the field because there will always be three players up there. For the team that really wants to play it quick and fast and wants to attack you're hoping that these proposals will allow them to do that.

“In the sandbox games we've watched so far the ball in play time and that quick nature of the game has been seen.”

The GAA Football Review Committee includes: James Horan, Michael Meaney, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, Patrick Doherty, Shane Flanagan, Malachy O'Rourke and Alec McQuillan, Colm Nally, Michael Murphy, Colm Collins, chairperson Jim Gavin, and Seamus Kenny.

The general public will get an opportunity next weekend to see how the FRC’s proposed rule enhancements will impact the game when Croke Park hosts the Allianz interprovincial series.

On Friday October 18, Leinster play Connacht in the first semi-final at 6.0 which is followed by the meeting of Munster and Ulster at 8.0. Both matches will be televised by TG4

The following day will see two more games take place as the two defeated provinces meet at 5.30 and the winning teams compete against each other at 7.30, with both matches televised by RTE.

Tickets for the games are on sale from usual outlets priced at €15 for adults and €5 for children and provide entry to all four games over the two days. All tickets must be purchased in advance from either gaa.ie or Centra and SuperValu outlets.

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“It'll be great for everyone to see the rules in action,” says Murphy. “Anyone who attended our trial games this year, their feedback has always been really strong for us as a committee. So to have a crowd here in Croke Park and seeing how they feel about it and what they like I think will be really, really strong too.

“To have the interprovincials back is a really strong attraction too. It'll be great to see top players from each province playing together and coming to Croke Park. There's a win-win there for everybody.”