The proposal to restrict teams to 13 players in the 2003 and 2004 National Football League has been greeted by surprise and opposition, writes Seán Moran.

The experiment hasn't been part of the GAA's games development agenda. "It would have been unexpected," said Tyrone secretary Dominic McCaughey. "I never heard about it being mooted at any level."

The county's stance on the proposal and the Strategic Review Committee (SRC) report in general hasn't been decided, but McCaughey personally admitted to neutral feelings on the matter, a surprise given that Tyrone successfully piloted through the 2000 congress a motion to ban any playing rules changes for 10 years.

"I suppose our position on that was more connected to changes in the playing rules than the number of players on the pitch. We have allowed 13-a-side at underage level in the county. It was things like kicks from the hand and restrictions on the hand-pass that concerned us.

"Our opinion was that there was too much chopping and changing from one year to the next. There were motions being introduced and then tweaked and adapted."

McCaughey said he remained convinced on this issue despite the SRC's recommendation that playing rules be allowed every three years.

Other reaction has been more scathing. One senior coaching figure, who asked not be named, said that the proposal - framed to see whether 13-a-side would improve the quality of the games generally - didn't make sense.

"If the point of this is to combat congestion, the committee is barking up the wrong tree. It's the failure to move the ball quickly that causes congestion, and because guys won't clear ball. This idea will maintain the the onus on fitness, and congestion will continue."

Although the SRC approves regular rule changes, there is a curious recommendation that there be "no experimentation with possible revisions to the rules in official competitions prior to the relevant change in the playing rules being passed by Congress". This is contrary to the traditional use of the National Leagues as a laboratory for suggested changes to playing rules.

There have been reservations about using the GAA's second inter-county competition to tinker with rules in this way but there is also evidence that experimentation needs to take place at a sufficiently advanced level to test any proposals.

One example given was a restriction on the solo in football that was initially tested in a Leinster junior club championship and then at intercounty level.

It was found that whereas the junior footballers tended to kick the ball when the restricted solo ended, at county level the fitness of the players resulted in more hand-passing as team-mates had the fitness to provide support.

As a result the restriction that was intended to encourage more kicking - and had done so at a lower level of the game - ended up having the opposite effect.

The experience of International Rules would tend to support the view that numbers on the field don't always have a direct relevance to the amount of congestion. The international code has 15 players and six constantly moving interchange players, but because it is an offence to be caught in possession, the ball keeps moving quickly.

An area of contention not mentioned in the SRC report is the tackle. Again the international experience suggests that the existence of a tackle facilitates the quicker movement of the ball by encouraging disposal.

One innovation taken directly from the international game is the recommendation that six interchange players be allowed in all intercounty matches. This will virtually eliminate the opportunity to waste time by making substitutions.