Playing the new end-to-end Gaelic football presented players with many new challenges this weekend.
Firstly there was a new rule book to make sense of.
Then, as Niall Grimley discussed after Friday's games, the new rules mean the game is played at a breakneck pace that's quite unlike the current game.
🗣️"I suppose the immediate reaction is tiring...very tough and very challenging."
Fans may welcome the new gaelic football rules but the sentiments of Niall Grimley and Rian O'Neill here make it clear it's a huge ask on players.
Will club players cope?pic.twitter.com/xolwu5QN5M— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) October 18, 2024
However for the players involved in this weekend's games, tracking the score of the games was a task in its own right.
In the new rules, there are four point goals plus two point shots. Saturday's final game finished Connacht 4-15 Ulster 2-23. It would have been two point win for Ulster in the old world but that score tonight meant the match finished in a draw.
The Croke Park scoreboard didn't indicate the new scoring system, leaving players to track the score themselves.
Speaking to Damian Lawlor after the game, All-Ireland winner with Armagh Rian O’Neill gave his thoughts on the new rules and what they have learned so far from playing today and yesterday.
The Crossmaglen sharpshooter believes that Jim Gavin's new rules will only be truly tested when the games are played in smaller and rougher conditions.
“We enjoyed it,” he said.
“There was a lot of space the ball was being kicked in. I suppose one thing from last night was we worked the ball a bit more up the field and tried to kick it in from there instead of launching it from 70/80 yards. As much as it is tempting to do that, the closer you work it in, the more shooting opportunities you’re going to get, and the scoring chances were opening up for us.
I suppose it's hard to know if that was an All-Ireland final. Teams aren’t going to open up that expansively at the end of the day. You’re trying to keep it as close as you can to win the game, and it's hard to know how it will fit in if it comes in during the league. That might tell the tail when it's windy, sticky conditions, smaller pitches, and bad fields; it might bring teams closer together, but it's hard to judge it out there in Croke Park. It’s the best surface in Ireland, which results in a fast game.”
Perhaps the best part of the interview was when O’Neill admitted that he was after losing count of the score in the second half and had to ask his Armagh teammate Aidan Folker what the score was.
“As far as the scoring goes, my maths wouldn’t be great. I was trying to figure out the score. I was asking Aidan Forker the whole of the second half what the score was.”
"It lends itself to kicking it in in more often" - Inter-provincial final man of the match Rian O'Neill shares his thoughts after playing a second game under the proposed new rules
📺 Watch on @RTE2 and @RTEPlayer #GAA pic.twitter.com/7vb773hplV— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) October 19, 2024
GAA: Joyce is a fan of some but not all of the rules
Connacht and Galway manager Pádraic Joyce also told Lawlor that a number of rules should be brought in for next season.
“There are some rules that could definitely be taken into the game,” he said.
“I think the three up top is a good one, and the tap and go from the free kick speeds the game up as well, but the kick-out one might need to be looked at because people are just creating an arc outside the 40, but look there's four or five that they can look at and try to get through.”
With the national trials over and the games shown to the public, it's now up to Special Congress to decide the future of Gaelic football.
