Gaelic football’s Expert Advisory Group are to trial a series of rule tweaks including a ban on fisted points, a limit on consecutive handpasses and a four-point goal in the upcoming third level Division 1 league.
The EAG is chaired by former Roscommon and Mayo manager Kevin McStay and was installed on the recommendation of the Football Review Committee in their final report in 2025, charged with monitoring trends within the game following the sweeping rule changes launched in late 2024.
The EAG have proposed nine changes which will be trialled in the Ryan Cup this year.
The chief ones are:
a ban on fisted points unless the ball is in flight
limiting the number of consecutive handpasses allowable to three
modifying the kickout rule, requiring the ball to travel just 13 metres rather than beyond the 40m arc
a four-point goal
a backcourt rule in which a team cannot play the ball back across their own halfway line.
A number of more minor tweaks include increasing the number of substitutes from five to six, proposing a 50-metre advancement if a mark is impeded, the extention of the 40m arc to the end-line, and the alignement of all 50-metre advanced frees to the 13m line rather than the 20m line.
Speaking today, McStay insisted that their work was concerned with “polishing” and “tweaking” the work undertaken by the Football Review Committee. The other members of the EAG are David Coldrick, John Tobin, Conor McManus, Maurice Fitzgerald, Pat Doherty, Seamus Kenny and Johnny Bradley.