New football rules likely to dominate GAA in 2025

The debate over the series of new playing rules devised by Jim Gavin's Football Review Committee dominated GAA circles in the closing months of 2024.

And with the package of reforms, bar the four-point goal binned following the interpros trial event, waved through enthusiastically on huge majorities at Special Congress 30 November, the new rules will be in operation for the tasty series of opening Allianz Football League fixtures on Saturday, 25 January.

In the first weekend of January, the All-Ireland Club Football semi-finals and final will take place, with Ulster champions Errigal Ciaran facing Dr Crokes of Kerry and Dublin side Cuala up against Coolera/Strandhill of Sligo, but the new rules will not be in operation for those games.

Amid all the debate about the perceived ills of possession-based modern gaelic football, Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney was one of the most prominent voices insisting the sport had never been in better health and that tinkering with the playing rules wasn't necessary.

However, Special Congress delegates begged to differ and with pre-season competitions such as the Dr McKenna Cup mothballed for 2025, McGeeney's Sam Maguire Cup winners and Galway will be the first teams in Division One to road test the new rules in a competitive environment at Salthill in a repeat of last July's All-Ireland Final.

O'Rourke faces Tally in league opener

The first night of Football League action will see two new managers on the sideline in Omagh as Malachy O'Rourke's Tyrone side take on a Derry outfit that has Paddy Tally at the helm after the Oak Leafers' finally ended their four-month search for a successor to Mickey Harte five weeks ago.

You could be forgiven for forgetting that Derry will go into the league as holders (remember the penalty shootout victory over Dublin last March?) and it will be interesting to see what approach Tally takes to their competition in the wake of the championship implosion, which led to Harte's departure after only one season.

The opening night of league games will also see Dublin, minus retired greats Brian Fenton and James McCarthy, renewing their rivalry with Mayo at Croke Park in addition to Cavan hosting a Monaghan side, now managed by Gabriel Bannigan following Viney Corey's departure, in a Division Two Ulster derby.

But while Fenton and McCarthy have seemingly departed the inter-county stage, Donegal fans will joyously welcome back Michael Murphy from his two-year hiatus although they will have to travel all the way down to Killarney to see the Glenswilly man in action on the opening league Sunday.

As the league unfolds, it will be fascinating to see what impact Murphy can make with a Donegal side who probably still feel that it should have been them - and not Galway - who faced Armagh in the All-Ireland decider.

Jim McGuinness' calculation is that Murphy's composure - and indeed free-taking - could have made all the difference in last July's All-Ireland semi-final when Donegal, who had beaten Armagh in an Ulster Final penalty shootout, lost 1-14 to 0-15 against the Tribesmen.

There will be little time to catch breath in the football league with Armagh facing Tyrone in round two on Saturday 1 February at the Athletic Grounds on the same evening that Murphy and his team-mates will be in action against the Dubs in Ballybofey.

Teams will be in action on seven out of nine weekends from late January until the final round of games on the the weekend of 22-23 March with the league finals then taking place a week later.

Will Donegal and particularly Derry, after how 2024 transpired, want to be involved in the Division One Final only a week ahead of their Ulster Championship opener in Ballybofey?

All-Ireland champions Armagh have been drawn to face Antrim away in their provincial opener a week later, with Cavan hosting Tyrone and Down versus Fermanagh on the same weekend.

The winners of the Donegal v Derry clash with face Monaghan on 19-20 April with the victors from the concluding quarter-finals having only a week to prepare for their provincial semi-final with either the Mourne or Erne County.

The other Ulster semi-final between either Antrim or Armagh and Cavan or Tyrone will also take place on the weekend of 26-27 April with the provincial decider scheduled for 11 May.

The group stage of the All-Ireland championship will begin a week later with the format unchanged from the past couple of seasons despite some grumblings.

Knockout football be kicked off by the preliminary quarter-finals on 21-22 June with Sam Maguire action concluding on 27 July - albeit with the possibility of a replay two weeks later if a motion calling for their return is passed at next February's GAA Congress.

Malachy O'Rourke, Paddy Tally and Gabriel Bannigan were not the only inter-county managerial changes in Ulster during the autumn.

Antrim hurlers will be in guided in 2025 by the redoubtable Clare man Davy Fitzgerald, who takes over in the Saffrons post from Darren Gleeson after previous roles with Waterford (twice), his native county and Wexford, which included guiding the Banner men to the 2013 All-Ireland title.

Fitzgerald's Antrim will open their Allianz Hurling League campaign in the rejigged Division One B against Dublin at Croke Park on 25 January, which will be the first of six games in seven weeks for the Saffrons.

Antrim will host Westmeath on 2 February before facing Offaly in Tullamore seven days later and following a weekend off, the Saffrons will welcome Fitzgerald's former Waterford side to Corrigan Park on 23 February before contests with Carlow (Netwatch Cullen Park) and Laois (Ballycastle).

The top two sides after the concluding round of games on 22 March - which Antrim will not be involved in because of the seven-team division - will earn promotion to the newly-beefed up Division One A.

Waterford and Dublin will probably be the two fancied counties but Fitzgerald will surely view both of them as eminently beatable but also knowing full well that Westmeath, Offaly, Carlow and Laois will have to be given full respect.