Kevin McStay and Andy Moran give their views on Gaelic football’s new rules

IT’S on the tip of everyone’s tongue and it’s been on the mind of every serious coach and manager in the country. 

Mayo and Monaghan were both in a unique position to road test the new rules in public before the real belting starts when the National League throws in a few weeks from now. 

Mayo manager, Kevin McStay, and former Mayo footballer and now Monaghan coach, Andy Moran, gave their thoughts on how the new rules played out on a snowy Saturday night in Castlebar.

KEVIN MCSTAY 

I think we are all just getting used to them. It’s no big deal. My concentration is more on the players and the team and getting them ready for Dublin. The rules will look after themselves, one way or another.

I don’t see a huge difference personally with what the old game was like. There was a few little bits that we have to adjust to because we are not used to. The instincts to hand the ball to your opponent after a foul is simply not there but we have another three weeks yet to play Dublin. We have three weeks to iron out those creases. 

I think if someone gives you the statistics on the two-pointer, I think it’s 0.2 on average per game. It’s kind of negligible. The big one will be 12 on 11 with the keeper; that could be tweaked. It could be gone by the end of the league, who knows, but for now, tonight, I don’t think the rules had any major bearing. 

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ANDY MORAN 

Andrew Woods won great ball for us tonight. Paul Towey did the same, Ryan O’Donoghue did the same. Boys are looking up and it’s bringing it back to the game we used to recognise and we used to love. I have no real problem with the old game but I do think the new rules are going to help as a spectacle and as a supporter. 

It’s no one’s fault, it’s just the way the game is gone, everyone attacked with 15, which meant that you had 28 behind the ball, outfield players behind the ball, so now it’s just a change. You can see that out ball to what we used to recognise. 

We used to see it in the big games, now you can work on first man moving, second man holding, whatever position you want to play them boys. It’s there for them and you see by even the two goals today, two classy players, Ryan O’Donoghue, brilliant finish, then Mick Hamill for us, two lovely finishes taking men on and scoring a goal.