Armagh legend Joe Kernan is hoping that the upcoming Railway Cup games that will trial the new rules, will stick around from next year onwards.
The split season means that the inter-county championships finish in July, and most club championships will finish before or during October, meaning that the only teams left playing football by that stage are those still in the provincial series.
As it stands the competition will be staged on a one-off basis for the first time since 2016 on October 18-19, in order to showcase Jim Gavin's proposed rule changes for the new season.
However, it is the actual return of the competition itself that Kernan is looking forward to seeing.
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As somebody that was involved in it over the years, I was sorry to see it go", Kernan told Belfast Live.
"It was one of those competitions that was easy to run and it didn’t take too long out of the GAA calendar whereas now we see we’re going to have a long break until January.
"A lot of the clubs will be sort of finished now come the next few weeks. We’re at the semi-finals here in Armagh, I don’t know what the rest of the country is like so there’s going to be a lot of space to play football in.
“It was always a great competition for players, not just because they’re from weaker counties, but there’s great players in every county and this was the only way we have of seeing them and the International Rules so it would be great if that was coming back.
"I would certainly go and watch a Railway Cup match tomorrow no matter where it is. Ulster was always great for fielding very strong teams and all the boys wanted to come and enjoyed being part of it.”
Kernan is best known for managing his County Armagh to their first ever All-Ireland title in 2002, but his CV also includes managing his province in the Railway Cup, and his country in the International Rules series.
With pre-season competitions scrapped, and the once scheduled calendar looking more open, the Crossmaglen man believes that there is now room to bring back the International Rules series between Ireland and Australia.
Without a doubt, without a doubt, my God, to represent your country as a player or manage your country was one of the greatest honours I ever had. I was never good enough or lucky enough to play it but certainly I enjoyed my spell as manager.
"It was a great honour and everybody who put on a jersey, it was a great honour for them. I remember when we used to hand the jerseys out to the players on the week of the match, the players were delighted to be part of the set up and delighted to get their hands on an Irish jersey.
“Not everybody can have that and, a bit like the Railway Cup, except even on a higher stage, they’re playing against professional players from a different country and it is a true international game so certainly if you’re asking me would I want it back, 100 per cent.
"It would be easy to fit it into the calendar, it doesn’t take up that much time. Four or five weeks of training together, one day a week or on a Saturday, you can get a team together, boys are in good condition now all the time and barring injuries a lot of boys would be very interested to have a go again.”
With more and more Irish stars like Conor McKenna and Oisin Mullin currently thriving in the AFL, it would be interesting to see how the Irish would compete against the professionalism of Australia.
Derry's Eoin McEvoy is the latest player to eye sought after by the AFL and he is currently in Australia now for trials, and potentially a move to Down Under.
