Paul Earley says that the introduction of the mark will reduce the amount of hand-passing in Gaelic football and see the high-fielding midfielder prosper again.

The rule to call a mark upon catching the ball beyond the 45 metre line will be trialled in next year's Sigerson Cup competition and Earley, who managed Ireland in International Rules Series of 2013 and 2014, believes that its introduction would lead the sport to better quality games.

"I can see it eliminate a lot of the hand-passing in the game at the moment and can lead to great high fielding," Earley told the Irish Examiner.

"The art of high-fielding has been in decline and when we (FRC) conducted the public survey it was the thing more than anything people want to see in the game (the majority of respondents chose catching as the skill they most liked about Gaelic football).

"You look at Dublin now and about 90% of their kick-outs are short. The game could theoretically develop into one when you don't need players who are 6ft 3in, 6'4". It's probably a liability to the game that teams are allowed to continue to kick short so much. The public have articulated what they want to see."

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