Something for everyone in football's brave new era - 5 observations

Not spectacular enough to win over the sceptics and not enough of a disaster to dissuade the optimists – the GAA's new rules made a tepid enough full league debut.

Ironically, the most controversial football decision of the weekend came under the old rules as Ballinderry’s All-Ireland Intermediate dreams were ruined by a horrible penalty call at the end – although nobody was begrudging Crossmolina, and Conor Loftus in particular, after recent tragic events.

In the Allianz League, there were certainly moments of confusion, some controversies, but not loud enough to swing the judgement decisively one way or another.

Speaking during RTÉ’s coverage of Galway’s win over Armagh, Éamonn Fitzmaurice confirmed that the Football Review Committee can make changes as they see fit, and they probably already have some issues to ponder. Other areas would have left them very pleased.

Here’s are some key points from round one of new-look football.

Scoring patterns – and why more doesn’t necessarily mean better

In their five previous seasons in Division 2, Down never managed more than the 1-20 they hit against Roscommon on Sunday, matching it once with a 2-17 tally against Westmeath in 2015. In Mullingar, they won by 13 points, yesterday they lost by seven.

If we are to take 20 points as being the very high watermark that teams strived to hit under the old rules, there were further good signs.

Again comparing to last year’s league, the 16 round one games in 2024 saw three teams manage to hit the mark. Over the weekend, the 13 games that beat the weather enabled 11 teams to reach 20 with another seven hitting over 18.

It is a significant rise and a real boon for the committee, although it must be remembered that the addition of two-pointers