Positives outweigh negatives amid storm of changes

We finally viewed - or at least some of us did - the new rules in competitive action and the initial verdict is more positive than negative.

Storm Eowyn prevented a sizable chunk of Connacht and beyond from witnessing this long-awaited premiere from the comfort of their own home.

Mayo is sadly dome-less for the first time in a few years, though the redoubtable John Prenty is determined to rebuild the facility. Hopefully, it won't be too long before the giant spaceship in Bekan is back to its former glory.

Here in Westport, we were without power for a day or so but fortunately the electricity was restored early on Saturday morning. Other places, we should acknowledge, weren't so lucky.

Watching the first half of the Galway-Armagh game in Salthill made me briefly wonder whether we weren't the unlucky ones.

All these changes to the game that we've introduced in a blaze of hype and publicity - and it's the same stuff we're watching!

It turned out that Gaelic football in 2025 bore an uncanny resemblance to Gaelic football in 2024.

Thankfully, over the course of the weekend, that opening 35 minutes proved an outlier. And there was some mitigation for the two teams involved, with Pearse Stadium a difficult ground to play in even in kinder conditions - as I know too well - and the added factor of Armagh's obvious post-All-Ireland hangover.

Otherwise, we saw promising signs of the impact of the new rules in Croke Park and Kingspan Breffni on Saturday evening, as well as in the Hyde on Sunday.

The Division 2 games, in particular, gave us much higher scorelines than we've usually had the right to expect in January.

The week one assessment of the new rules is that most of them worked well.

The solo-and-go was a total success and players have