Donegal manager Jim McGuinness said he was ‘happy enough’ with how his team adapted to the new rules in tonight’s match with Dublin.
McGuinness’s men won by four points with Daire Ó Baoill scoring a brace of two-pointers.
They were fortunate not to concede a two-pointer themselves late on for only leaving two players up the field instead of three.
But all in all, things worked well on the night for Donegal, even if McGuinness feels there is now an even greater load on players than before.
“There was a lot going on.
“In terms of the rules we were happy enough.
“I think we were caught just once with the three up.
“The game is very, very quick and that’s the bottom line.
“I feel for Dublin because they have lost three men tonight with hamstrings.
“Peadar Mogan is one of our fittest players and he was really, really struggling in the last fifteen minutes as well.
“I think that aspect of it will definitely have to be taken into consideration when they review it.
“These boys are putting their lives on hold and the sacrifices are huge and if the demands are just too much then you need to have a release valve.
“I picked up on the very first FRC document that came through that there was talk of six subs and I saw that and I thought well that makes perfect sense because it’s serious going.
“We know from our own training that the metrics are going up and they are the explosive ones, the ones that challenge you the most.
“Dublin have lost them tonight and that could easily have been us.
“When I was managing the last time if you got a hamstring, it was a week or ten days.
“Now it’s a completely different ball game. It’s a month or six weeks because they are doing so much work in the gym.
“They are so finely tuned and they are so strong, and the tears are more aggressive and deeper.
“Asking players to play at that pitch for this period of time – there definitely should be that flexibility for maybe another sub.”
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