The New York senior squad will receive training, education and on-field guidance from a leading referee and a member of the Football Review Committee over the weekend as the countdown to the Connacht championship begins.
New York play Galway on Sunday, 6 April at Gaelic Park in the provincial quarter-final and over the next few days they will receive intensive training - alongside the New York junior football squad – towards the application of the new rules.
With New York short on top-tier match practice and Galway already five rounds into the new rules sphere, the rules workshop will be badly needed and greatly heeded by the Exiles.
It's very likely that by the time they play Galway some adjustments will be made to the existing rules.
At the very least it is expected that these adjustments could be in play for the respective league finals.
At that stage any possible changes would have no effect on the integrity of the competition – although the Division 3 final may well have consequences for where teams play their football in the summer, Sam Maguire or the Tailteann Cup.
Bringing the tweaks in at final stage would also provide a window of insight ahead of the forthcoming provincial championships.
The FRC’s proposed adjustments will come before the Standing Committee on Playing Rules.
From there the GAA’s Management Committee will send the recommendations to Central Council on 13 March. Any subsequent changes could be operational from round six of the league.
There is much speculation around what those proposed adjustments will be.
There may not be many, but the role of the goalkeeper could certainly be looked at, with the possibility of the 'keeper still allowed to go past halfway provided his team drop another player back inside their own half, thereby creating an 11v 11 on the attack.
This would allow the likes of Niall Morgan, Rory Beggan and Ethan Rafferty to continue their daring forays, but could also reduce the lateral passing and stagnation that managers have highlighted since round one of the Allianz Football League.
The contest for kick-outs beyond the arc has been intriguing and hugely significant thus far but coaches have also called for possible alternatives to the long kick to also be looked at.
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Addressing the obligation to keep three players in your own half when the opposition picks up a black or red card is another possibility.
There has been lobbying for the ball to be placed on the ground, instead of being handed to the opponent, but it’s believed that this could affect the solo and go and officials also feel that players are becoming more familiar with this guideline every passing week.
Feedback has also been received regarding the hooter system which saw some controversy at the end of last weekend’s Westmeath and Meath finale. Calls for the game to end once the hooter sounds and the ball either goes over the bar, into the net, or over the endline have been made.
Whatever the adjustments are it is not believed that there will be many.
Any tweaks that do make it through will have been part of a lengthy process that will eventually land at final rules proposals being considered by Special Congress in early October for full implementation for the 2026 season.
Aside from the volume of work undertaken by the FRC last year, the committee has increased its engagement and interaction in the early parts of this season.
Last Monday they met for the 50th time and since the start of the year they have had an in-person briefing with the National Referees Panel and support referees with challenge matches and workshops taking place during and after that game.
Following that, they briefed provincial and county development staff on the rollout of the new rules and planned coach education.
On 13 January, the FRC engaged with provincial and county staff in upskilling for the new rules.
Face-to-face workshops were also provided to support inter-county and club teams when requested and the Games Intelligence Unit has collected data to allow an assessment of how the new rule enhancements translate into the new game.
The road hasn’t been entirely straightforward but with the degree of change and the number of stakeholders involved it simply was never going to be.
At various times rules, guides and adjustments have been updated but not every stakeholder received timely communication on such tweaks.
Last weekend saw shrapnel flying from some inter-county managers who had various issues with how their games had unfolded.
There has also been disappointment within the FRC that the committee has not been able to collate data from intercounty teams on the physical demands that the new rules have placed on them with teams not sharing the information - even though it will be anonymised.
The idea was that county teams would feed their player GPS device information to the Games Intelligence Unit who would anonymise the data, with the metrics being available to the public within 72 hours of each weekend of fixtures.
Whilst this has not occurred, the FRC has continued in its quest to glean as much quantitative and qualitative data as possible.
That remains ongoing through insights taken from players, match officials, team officials, county officials, and spectators.
Last year, FRC chair Jim Gavin pointed out that when the work of his committee was complete, the Games Intelligence Unit would continue to exist and analyse games.
He also stated that the rules might need to be modified in some ways over the coming years, possibly if unintended consequences were emerging.
It’s the Games Intelligence Unit that will have the data to measure it and to make further proposals.
For now, the imminent adjustments would appear to be just the latest step in an ongoing process that won’t be fully complete for some time yet.
