Dick Clerkin feels Jarlath Burns was wrong to refer to Saturday night's Dublin-Derry game as "the death of gaelic football".

The new chairman of the playing rules committee published the comment on Twitter following the Croke Park snoozefest and Clerkin believes the 1999 Ulster SFC-winning captain acted hastily:

"From my point of view, I just felt on something like Twitter or social media outlets where people are prone to off-the-cuff, not-particularly-well-thought-out views it wouldn't be a standard forum for official people or bodies to make those comments," the veteran Monaghan midfielder states in The Irish Examiner.

"Considering Jarlath's new position, the integrity of it and the significance of what he's been tasked to deal with and the complexity of it where there's no silver bullet, the comments he made don't tie in with that. The underlying issues that are contributing to what you might have seen in Croke Park on Saturday night are so vast and so varied it needs a much more holistic, well thought-out approach.

"I would have felt Jarlath's comments were a bit ill-advised. There seems to be a preconceived notion of what they're dealing with before a page is turned, which really isn't the way you need to go into looking at things."

"Things get lost in the mud in the sense that if you comment against the manner in which people are trying to target or criticise the way games are being played you're almost seen to say it's okay, which is not the case.

"I wouldn't see the trends we're recognising in gaelic football as being a good thing, for want of a better term. You'd prefer if it wasn't happening but most people are complicit in it in varying degrees. Going back to the old ways is not going to solve the problem. You have to ask why is it happening as opposed to looking for solutions to counter the symptoms which are mass blanket defences and everything that goes with it."

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