New GAA president Jarlath Burns says Gaelic football evolving into a more attractive code to watch and slimming down the inter-county game are among his priorities as he begins his three-year term.
The former Armagh captain, elected last year to succeed the outgoing Larry McCarthy, becomes the 41st president of the GAA after being ratified at Congress.
With a busy in-tray covering the next 36 months amid integration plans and rising inter-county costs, Burns spoke in depth to RTÉ Sport's Marty Morrissey about what he hopes to see happen during the span of his presidency and one area was football and finding a means of encouraging more attacking play.
"If you look at the things that people are talking about that need changed, outside of the normal strategic plan that the GAA has - obviously the strategic plan and making sure that's at the forefront will be one of my top priorities - but Gaelic football, if you talk to a lot of people, they will say at the moment it is too easy to block good players from playing and it needs a lot of work done on it. Of course, coming from that background, it is inevitable that is going to be a priority for me," he said.
"I am from the sporting background of the GAA. I care deeply about the games and obviously I want to see a game of Gaelic football that is attractive to watch and where yes, we do allow defenders to do what they do best because that's a skill and that can be an attractive skill as well.
"But that we want to see forwards and the people who can play football being allowed to play football without being choked out.
"I think it's too easy now with the fitness of players that players can filter right back into the half-forward line and really choke out the threat from the opposition."
He added that an evolution that could see teams "break at speed and space and score" more regularly would be desirable.
However, he said he was keen not to pre-empt the research and potential findings of the new football review group.
"I think that what will emerge from this, nothing might emerge from it. They might decide (to) allow the game to change organically and it will come back to what it is," Burns continued.
"But there are many things that people disagree with. I personally like the idea of bringing the goalkeeper into the play and one of the dividends of that has been whenever you're picking a team now at under-10, young players want to play nets now because they see a role for themselves, a more creative role than standing freezing in the rain under the posts and I think that people like Ethan Rafferty and Niall Morgan have helped that.
"But on David Clifford, it's no coincidence that our biggest star at the moment in the game is six foot three, very, very strong, able to break through two or three tackles and he's also quick.
"I suppose that's almost a warning for us. That type of a player able to play in the corner or full-forward is not really prevalent in the game and we need to find space for the small, nippy, skinny corner forward who can get in around a man, find a bit of space for himself and put the ball over the bar."
In regard to hurling, growing the game beyond it's traditional confines and empowering clubs is at the forefront of Burns' thoughts.
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"The bottom line is despite the fact that hurling is in a better position than it's ever been in regard to the number of people who can play it, the number of counties involved in meaningful games day-in-day-out, there aren't enough clubs playing hurling to make it a situation where more teams can really compete competitively for the Liam MacCarthy Cup and even for the Joe McDonagh," he said.
"And I think that's a very, very long-term process. That's not going to be the prairie fire that Michael Cusack talked about.
"That's a long methodical process that I want to begin. I want to make it easy for those within areas to set up clubs or clubs that are considering developing a hurling wing, because probably the biggest barrier to the development of hurling within the football areas is Gaelic football itself and the amount of effort that is made to try and be competitive in Gaelic football.
"I suppose one of the things to try to do is to reassure clubs that are football only, if you have the population and you have enough, why not try hurling and very quickly you will see the dividends."
The rising inter-county costs is also an issue Burns is hoping to address especially in light of the GAA, Camogie Association and LGFA planning for full integration in 2027.
"€40m is really not sustainable, particularly given the fact that we are moving towards a situation of integration," he said.
"We really have to slim down. And it's not appropriate to blame any one for that. We are all to blame. We and the officials are to blame for putting these expectations on our county managers."
While emphasising that "county managers are not the problem" within that issue, he acknowledged the growing pressure on players' shoulders and added that all stakeholders are "victims of the juggernaut" despite ostensibly operating within an amateur setting.
"I think it will be a major test of my own leadership if I can achieve this, if I can achieve the slimming down of the county game to a level that is commensurate with an amateur status in a country the size of ours, running two national games with the definite scenario that we'll have two more that we'll be managing in the next three years."
While Burns is taking personal pride in taking the presidential mantle, he feels it is even more so an honour for his club Silverbridge Harps who play in Armagh's Senior Championship.
"For me, it's really a dream come true leading the association that I've been such a part of all my life," he said.
"My earliest memories of life are being involved in the GAA with my own club Silverbridge. I know that they are very proud of me and I'm equally proud of them because we've never won an Armagh Championship and we've never been in the news, never done all of the things that other clubs in Armagh have done.
"For them to get this pinnacle for one of their members is almost as good and for me, I join in that success."
Meanwhile, in his outgoing address, former President Larry McCarthy, following the lead of Tom Ryan in his recent annual address to Congress, took aim at the Gaelic Players Association for their actions during last year's protests relating to charters for LGFA and Camogie Association players.
The 'United For Equality' protests included a banner held by players ahead of the Kerry-Derry men's All-Ireland semi-final, and McCarthy described that as "inappropriate."
"Our day-to-day relationship is for the most part cordial and professional," McCarthy said of their dealings with the GPA.
"But there are times when it is not, and the latter stages of last year's championship was one of those occasions.
"While nobody has any doubt about the sincerity of the desire to see the status of female players in our sister organisations elevated, the efforts of the GPA to have banners displayed prior to very significant GAA games last summer was inappropriate.
"Asking players who were going to play in the most important games of the year, indeed for some of the players, the most important of their lives, was distracting and unnecessary, no matter how good the cause.
"I have frequently made the point that words matter, that what we say matters, what we write matters, and we should always be cognisant of the impact of those words.
"The GPA did not choose their words wisely, when after their AGM phrases such as 'We will be organised and we will be ready to mobilise’. '...We are preparing ourselves to be organised for any eventuality’, were widely reported. Foreboding language such as this is not only inappropriate, it can have the effect of hardening attitudes against one’s cause, no matter how good it is."
The first overseas President also spoke at the pride he felt in taking on the role.
"It has been privilege and an honour to serve in what I have always described as the 'best gig I ever had'. I was criticised by the partner of a GAA official for referring to the role as a gig. But a gig is a short-term engagement, and this role certainly was this because it flew by.
"I find it hard to believe that it is four years since I addressed you as Uachtarán Tofa in 2020. That it has passed so quickly is surely a function of how much I have enjoyed the role."
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