Peter Canavan: Football no longer blighted by the spoilers
After the second series of matches in the Allianz Football League, Peter Canavan is now more of the view that the new playing rules are resulting in a better game to watch and that the days of negative coaching are at an end.
The two-time All-Ireland winner, now a member of the Football Review Committee, has kept a close eye on the action so far. After the opening weekend, he told RTÉ Sport that some of the games were of a "mediocre" standard, but this was more down to heavy pitches and rustiness rather than the rules, while adding that there were "many more positives than negatives".
A week on and Canavan, speaking on 2fm's Game On, believes the the thrust of what the FRC had in mind in making "Gaelic football the most enjoyable amateur game in the world to watch and play" is having the desired effect.
"The new rules are a dream for innovative coaches and a nightmare for those coaches on trying to spoil a game," he said.
"In previous years it was easy for the spoilers, easy for a manger to set a team up whereby you spoil the game, you give up kickouts, and it's a dreadful game to watch.
"Now it's impossible to do that; it's very hard to try and slow the game up. When you commit a foul you can't stand in front of the ball, the tap and go has things moving much quicker. The net result has been a much better game to watch."
The former Tyrone star pointed to a passage of play in Sunday's Derry-Kerry Division 1 clash, a high-scoring contest with the Kingdom winning late on, as an example of a team taking a positive route up the field.
"There was a spell in the Derry-Kerry game whereby Kerry had possession in their full-back line and Derry had pushed up. Kerry could not give the ball to the goalkeeper and so were put under serious