GAA president Jarlath Burns believes the Association are very close to “the perfect game” after the rule changes that have been implemented in Gaelic football.

The Armagh native was speaking at the announcement that Dalata Hotel Group are the new sponsors of the All-Ireland U20 Football Championship and lauded FRC Committee chairperson Jim Gavin for the work he has done to enhance the game.

“When I was elected as president-elect last year, I made it clear that it was going to be my No 1 priority. I didn’t want to say fix the game, but enhance the game of football,” he is quoted saying by GAA.ie.

“I had done a lot of thinking before I decided who I wanted to put in charge of that, and I think I definitely hit the jackpot with the man that I got, Jim Gavin. He’s an incredible guy.

“I speak to him maybe three or four times a week, he’s very methodical, very meticulous. The one thing we both decided was we wanted to create a blueprint.

“We weren’t just tinkering with the rules. We weren’t going to do something there that was going to affect something here. We were going to completely reimagine, starting off, what do we want the game to be. We wanted to say we had one of the most exciting games to play and to watch and to participate in.

“That’s quite a big north star as he called it, and I gave him a very short space of time to do it because 2025 is a year when you are allowed to change rules. It has to be in a year that is divisible by five, so the next time we will be able to do that is 2030.

“Hopefully by that stage, like hurling this year, there won’t be any changes needed so I really feel that we are getting very close to what you could call the perfect game.”

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