Jarlath Burns doesn't think that there will be a push to alter Gaelic football's kick-out rules further following the GAA's Special Congress at the weekend.
Burns is chair of Croke Park’s Standing Committee on Playing Rules and their recommendation to force goalkeepers to kick the ball past the 20-metre line on restarts was passed by a large majority.
Some pundits believe that a rule should be passed making it compulsory to kick the ball out past the 45-metre line in order to completely eradicate short kick-outs.
"I was just hoping it would get through" - Burns
But Burns doesn't see that happening and feels that there won’t be any more alterations to this area of the game in the near future.
"If you think about it, there would be no incentive then for the forward facing the goal to stay in his position," said the former Armagh captain and midfielder.
"You have to be very careful that you don’t turn the game into something that is contrived or you don’t end up with unintended consequences.
"It maybe something that could be trialled at a later stage but it’s not something that we have planned. We just thought it was a bridge too far.
"If a forward is facing the goal and he knows that the ball has to cross the ’45’, there’s no incentive for him to be in that area so what they would do is maybe four out of the six would hang around the middle of the field and it would make it even more congested."
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The short kick-out has become a vital part of football team’s tactics in recent times, with successful counties like Dublin and Tyrone amongst the pioneers.
Critics say that this leads to boring, possession football with too much hand-passing.
This year the mark was introduced to encourage longer kicking from the tee, with a team awarded a free kick for a clean catch from a restart that travels beyond the ’45’ without bouncing.
However, Dublin’s Special Congress delegates were upset with the weekend’s rule change, arguing that it punished innovators.
Burns responded by saying: "I understand what they are saying, that you are limiting the space that a goalkeeper has to kick the ball. But what we have found is, if you are reasonable as opposed to radical you will get things through Congress."
Annual Congress in February reduced the majority required to change a rule from two thirds, or 66 per cent, to 60 per cent.
Burns believed this would help the kick-out alteration to pass Special Congress, though in the event it turns out it got an overwhelming majority - the final vote was 82 per cent in favour.
"I was just hoping it would get through," he noted. "Sixty percent took the pressure off a wee bit, the fact that you don’t need the two-thirds anymore. But yeah, I am a wee bit surprised."
