Rule changes have put us back to year one - McGuinness

Donegal manger Jim McGuinness believes that the introduction of the Football Review Committee rule changes have reset teams back to 'year one' as they struggle to get to grips with the changes.

McGuinness' side went down 0-25 to 0-19 in their Division 1 clash with Tyrone at O'Donnell Park, Letterkenny.

The Donegal team showed 11 changes from the one that defeated Derry last time out, with McGuinness shuffling his deck to give players minutes on the pitch ahead of the start of the Ulster Championship.

The Donegal boss admits that the rule changes have presented him with an extra challenge when it comes to getting players not just fit, but also used to playing under the new rules.

"You’re trying to absorb the rules and get the team ready," he said. "I always say when you're in your first year, it's very chaotic and you're trying to pull a lot of things together.

"This feels like year one again, in many respects, because there's so many on unknowns and new variables coming into the mix.

"Whether we agree with some of the rules or we don't, at least we know what they are and we can go back now and we can actually start to absorb them and embed them into our training more because we haven't really done that to be fair."

While McGuinness has admitted to being frustrated by the uncertainty presented by the FRC changes, it’s the decision to award two points for a 40 metre free that irks him the most.

"We'll coach to the rules. If you're asking me, is there anything that jumps out at you? I don't believe, personally, that you should get two points for a free kick outside the arc," he said.

"You're asking a top level inter county player, who’s 40 meters in front of the goal and he's going to kick that ball over the bar and that equates to 66% of a goal.

"That doesn't make sense to me.

"Maybe I'm from a different era. With Championship football, if you saw your name in the paper and you had a point beside it, it was a thing. I wouldn't say it was a big thing, but it was a thing.

"If we're going to use the 40 metre arc in and it's from play, where you've got to lose somebody to get that bit of space and kick it under pressure and the noise and the temperature and the heat of championship football. OK, maybe two points there.

"But for an inter county player to settle down and tap that over the bar, that doesn't make sense to me that that would equate to 66% of a goal.

"It’s devaluing a goal a bit. You know, two of them is more than a goal. A fella settling down with no pressure.

"We have fellas that can kick the ball over the bar, so it doesn't put us up or down, but I think there's parts like that, that could be drilled down into."

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