Mickey Harte has called on the GAA to stop tinkering with the rules of Gaelic football.

The advanced mark, sin bin and 20m kick-out will all come into effect in the 2020 season after receiving the green light at Special Congress in Pairc Ui Chaoimh and, speaking to The Irish News, Harte advised: “I think we have to take stock here and say have we lost sight of what our game is about.

“We’re taking cards from soccer, we’re taking advantage rules from rugby, we’re taking these forward marks from Australian Rules.”

The art of defending is going to suffer because of the introduction of the advanced mark, according to the long-serving Red Hans boss.

“I think the forward mark is going to take away from quality defending, because when a forward makes the mark, the defender may as well sit down. He can’t touch him, he can’t tackle him.

“Then there’s the thing about how he declares for the mark. Does he take the ball with one hand and put up the other, or does the player stop for a second?

“We saw already in the McKenna Cup last year, when Jamie Clarke caught a ball, stopped for a while and then ran on, asked the referee what did I do here, then kicked it over the bar and got it.

“So there’s a lot of added variables that the referees don’t need.”

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