Only 23.5 percent feel that ‘small tweaks are needed’

Inter-county footballers have pleaded with the GAA to leave well enough alone and to restrict rules changes to ‘small tweaks’ in future.

More than three quarters of male county players have stated that they feel ‘no further change is needed’ following the introduction of the new rules at the beginning of 2025.

Considerable change, of course, could be on the way again this winter with a suite of new rules enhancements currently on trial in the third level leagues.

These include a restriction on consecutive hand-passing, a ban on fisted points, the four-point goal, the return of short kick-outs and a backcourt directive that players can’t return to their own half with the ball.

Contributing to the Gaelic Players Association’s Annual Membership Survey 2026, 76 percent of players said the game is fine as it is with just 0.5 percent saying that ‘significant rule changes are needed’.

Interestingly, the most feedback received by the GPA around rule changes that players would like to see, centred on handing the ball over to an opposition player after a free has been conceded.

The player feedback was that handing the ball back ‘creates ambiguity and overly severe 50m penalties. (The) Recurring suggestion is to allow the player to place the ball on the ground at the point of the foul’.

Despite this, the rule wasn’t tweaked or included in the current trials which were devised by the Football Expert Advisory Group.

“The new trial rules came before we had this data from players, so we didn’t get an opportunity to lobby for it to be included,” explained Parsons.

“So now that we have this data, we’d be advocating to include that and we’ll be investigating that more. Does it have to be handed back?

“There’s two interactions that take place - there’s the person giving and the person receiving the ball, who has to actually be honest and receive the ball and take the ball, and not just let it fall and shout at the ref, ‘He didn’t hand it back to me’. There’s this disingenuous kind of exchange.”

Asked if the GPA will now advocate for change around the existing rule, Parsons indicated they would.

“Off the back of this, I think we have enough evidence,” he said.

But players generally are happy enough to leave the game as it is with the report noting that only 23.5 percent feel that ‘small tweaks are needed’.

Over 3,500 players, male and female, were polled on a wide range of issues with Parsons pointing to five key themes that emerged from the data gathering exercise.

Firstly, players said they support the use of their personal data for injury prevention initiatives or for commercial opportunities.

They underlined the requirement for a proper off season, ideally six weeks, and noted how improvements are needed when it comes to reimbursing female players for expenses.

The plea to avoid sweeping rule changes was another theme, along with a headline response that county players are having positive experiences generally.

This was determined by responses to a new Team Scorecard which was filled in by individual players who rated aspects of their county setup, from player welfare, to coaching to facilities and logistics.

On the need for a defined off season, Parsons reiterated that six weeks is the ideal break. But half of players said they get two weeks or less between the end of the club season and the resumption of inter-county training.

Just a quarter of players said they ‘always’ get enough recovery time between games.

“It’s raising awareness of player load and it’s great that we’re getting data and we’re putting it out there in the report,” said former Mayo midfielder Pa