Jim McGuinness says new rules make it 'almost impossible to defend' 

Kerry manager Jack O'Connor thought in defeat to Donegal, his side played better than they did in the victory over Derry. 

QUESTIONS: Jim McGuinness suggested that if Gaelic football's new rules favour the attacking side of the game too much, it could get boring. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

The first meeting between the Football Review Committee and inter-county managers lasted three hours. Jim McGuinness didn’t once open his mouth. Jim felt it wasn’t his place to speak or proffer opinion.

Close to an hour after Saturday’s League win over Kerry, Jim showed no such reluctance to proffer his opinion on the various enhancements cooked up by the FRC.

Towards the end of the post-match conversation, he was asked if the balance between attacking and defending has been distorted by the various new rules.

“I don't think there is a balance there at the moment. I think it is almost impossible to defend. The game is just crazy transitional,” replied the Donegal manager.

“It is one-v-one combat in the attacking half, plus the goalkeeper. So the balance between, it is 65/35 [against defending teams] that teams can get you stopped, can get you slowed, and can get contact.

“Finbarr Roarty made a brilliant block today, a massively important block in terms of us getting a result down here, but there wasn't much more. We were getting our shots off, they were getting their shots off. Could it get boring, is a question.

“Last weekend, we were watching the scores come in and to my mind the football scores trumped the hurling scores, so that might answer the question.” 

While Jim does agree with the principle of handing the ball back to a fouled opponent, far more practical, he said, would be to put the ball on the ground and walk away.

“Handing the ball back, it is very difficult to do in the context of tackles and everything. There is nothing disrespectful about grabbing the ball and pushing it into the ground and saying, ‘right, that's where it happened, there's your free’. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. That is what people used to do years ago.

“But I do agree with it. I do agree with the fact that if you want to play fast, and somebody is holding onto the ball, or they are sitting on you with their knees and not letting you get up, then that is fair enough.

“But if somebody puts the ball down and says, 'that's your ball, go on ahead', I don't see why you should be punished for that. I don't think that's fair.” 

Among the points made by McGuinness following their opening round win over Dublin was the requirement for six substitutes. Another was that the on-field challenges facing players are now multiples of three, four, and five of what they had to contend with last year. Jim didn’t like how those comments were perceived.

“I mentioned that last weekend and a lot of people jumped on that negatively, I thought, that we were playing games, that we were trying to feather our own nest to an extent.

“When the FRC had their first call with county managers, it lasted three hours and I never spoke. I never spoke on the call because it is not my place to speak on the call.

“It is the FRC to decide what the rules are, and we'll coach to those rules. But I think if you're asked your opinion and you give an opinion, it should stand as your opinion, not that it is some type of spin.” 

Elsewhere during the chat, McGuinness confirmed that midfielder Michael Langan pulled his hamstring during the opening minutes of the win over Kerry.

Jack O’Connor, meanwhile, conceded that their guests to Killarney had an edge on them throughout.

“It was obvious that Donegal were a fair bit ahead of us, sharpness-wise and maybe fitness-wise and, you know, there were times when it looked like they had a run on us, but in fairness to our fellas we battled well in the game. Possibly could have got something out of it.

“I would say in many ways we played better than we did last Sunday, without getting anything out of the game.

“A lot of positives, we fought back well, some great individual performances, the likes of Jason Foley, Diarmuid O’Connor, Mike Breen when he came in was really good, Seánie [O’Shea] obviously covered a huge amount of ground, Graham O’Sullivan, those fellas, had massive games. We just need to get more fellas playing well. Sometimes, it’s as simple as that.”