Football Review Committee chairman Jim Gavin explains the new 3v3 structure, which will see teams keeping at least three players in the opposition half at all times.
Why are you bringing in 3v3 and what is it?
"What we've been asked in our change of reference again is to consider that balance between traditional play and modern innovations.
"This speaks to traditional structures on the pitch. We're not going to full six up. What we're proposing is that there'll be three players in each half of the field, which means when the team is attacking, they'll have to leave three players behind in their defensive half of the field, which would be 11 attackers.
"And the team defending will have to have 11 players defending because three players will be up in the opposition half of the field.
Can you show some examples?
"What the three structure allows, as I mentioned, you have to keep three players in the opposition half of the field.
"It'll reduce to 11 the number in defence, which will create more space. It's more to do with structure. That's from a coaching point, but it will create more space because what we've seen on the survey is that people want to see the game, some people, down to 13 aside.
"We're not going to propose that, but this will allow, we believe, more space for teams to attack into. And then on the opposite end, when the ball is turned over, it'll be more of a kick-passing game because there'll be outlets or people, players up the field for that link area."
How quickly did players adapt in trial games?
"Yeah, thankfully no drama. And that's one of the reasons from, I suppose, our strategy was to get these games out to the wider GAA public and to coaches and administrators so they could see it working.
"And it works really well. There's a nice natural flow to the game. It does encourage kick passing.
"It does encourage one-to-one contests that people want to see. But it does allow in the modern game where you can still withdraw your players inside your defensive half of the field."
What about punishments or penalties for breaking the rule? Are they straightforward?
"Well, they are, yeah. So what we need to do is discourage teams from not keeping three players up the pitch.
"So the first one is that if you try to assist the attack or you don't keep three players up, essentially, you're going to concede a free-kick on the 20-metre line.
"So this is that a team have 11 outfield players attacking, you don't want to have 12 outfield players attacking. And similarly, on the defensive side, if you try to withdraw a player to have 12 defenders, you're conceding a free-kick on the 20-metre line.
"It's so punitive that teams won't do it. You need to discourage that particular tactic.
"However, if you're in possession of the ball or you cross the halfway line trying to receive a ball, it's a bit like the sideline rule that there'll be a free-kick from where you cross the halfway line with the ball.
"So if two players happened to cross the line in the attempt to win a ball and they just lose their position on the pitch, the referee will simply throw in the ball."
How will this be implemented at all levels. How would Junior C cope with this for example?
"We've met with provincial councils. We've met with the third level education Cumann na mBunscol.
"We've spoken to players and spoken to referees, got the survey results in. Yes, people see this as a challenge. What we believe is that when you see it in action in the interpro games, when people see it in the national league, that you can say, this can actually work.
"And it's our thought and our belief that once we begin to train and coach our underage from 18 and below, from under-10s, under-14s, all the way up, that this becomes part of the game. But we do hear people. So what we are looking at is to cascade certain rules that might not apply at, say, underage level in comparison to inter-county level.
"So an example of that might be the 40-metre arc. So if you're under-14s, the 40-metre arc might not apply because it's just too great a distance for them to kick the score."
So 3x3 might not go to all levels?
"Yes, that is the potential. That is something that we're looking at that might happen.
"So our default position for 1 January, all of our rule proposals that are passed by Special Congress are in for inter-county championship. Then it'd be up to Special Congress to decide which one of those are Central Council, which one of those might be cascaded, which rules might not apply to club activity or to underage games."
