GAA Digest: Eugene McGee urges GAA to change the face of the game

A rundown of the latest GAA news

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Eugene McGee

Photo by Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE

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GAA: Top coach and analyst Eugene McGee has urged the GAA to endorse the recommendations of the Football Review Committee and change the face of the game.

McGee chaired the committee set up to examine all facets of gaelic football ahead of next year’s Congress.

His committee published an extensive review on Monday with 18 proposals to improve the game.

Persistent fouling has been targeted by the group who recommend that any player who picks up three yellow cards in the Championship is automatically banned from his team’s next game.

They also believe that their proposals on fouls and tackling can reduce the number of frees awarded in a game by up to 25pc.

McGee’s group also propose the introduction of an Aussie Rules style mark and a new pick-up law.

An extension of all adult games at club and county level to 70 minutes is also proposed.

Some of their proposals will be out to Congress next March, with the remainder up for approval by 2014.

McGee said: “There are also people who consistently get a yellow card, there are counties nowadays who allow yellow cards to be created and it is done in such a way that none of their people will get two. In other words, yellow cards are not just accidental in some cases, they are deliberate.

“We also proposes to limit the number of hand passes in games, It comes and goes at the behest of good managers who decide that they have the kind of players that suit the hand-pass,” he,” noted McGee.

Over 4,000 people were polled by the review committee in recent months.

The GAA’s Director General Paraic Duffy said: “This is the association speaking and we will listen to what is being said.” GAA president Liam O’Neill added: “This is the most extensive trawl ever done by any organisation.”

GAA: Tyrone boss Mickey Harte has confirmed that Davy Harte has retired from inter-county football through injury but insists that forward Owen Mulligan could return to the squad next season despite indicating that he was going to retire last August.

Harte has also welcomed decision of Dungannon Swifts goalkeeper Niall Morgan to switch codes and join the Tyrone squad for the 2013 campaign.

GAA: Meath forward Alan Forde is to miss the NFL campaign with a groin injury but captain Kevin Reilly should be fit after ankle surgery. The Royals were beaten by three points by Offaly in the Fitzsimons Cup tournament final in Kells on Sunday.

HURLING: Dublin boss Anthony Daly has been suspended for four weeks for his part in a row during the recent Clare minor hurling final. Kerry manager Tom Howard has received an eight game ban for the same incident.

HURLING: Offaly’s Kilcormac-Killoughey shocked the fancied Oulart-the-Ballagh from Wexford with a 1-12 to 0-11 victory in the Leinster club hurling final in Kilkenny’s Nowlan Park on Sunday.

GAA: Donegal boss Jim McGuinness has confirmed that the All-Ireland champions will field a reserve team in the McKenna Cup next month and use the competition to blood new players.

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