A great leap into the unknown awaits.
Jim Gavin and the rest of the Football Review Committee have come up with those new playing rules. It's not a case of keyhole surgery to cure the ills that many saw as sucking the life out Gaelic football, but more a case of open surgery.
The code is being drastically reshaped. With the absence of the pre-season games, the public have been denied an opportunity to see at first hand how the rules are affecting the game. Gathering accounts from the few that have witnessed January action at first hand, the reaction would seem to be positive.
While very much admitting that it will take time for the new rules to fully have an affect on the game, Kerry midfielder Diarmuid O'Connor sounded a positive note on his experiences so far, when speaking at the launch of the Lidl Comórtas Peile Páidí Ó Sé 2025.
"We are all excited to get back playing competitive football and these new rules will definitely benefit the game from a spectator point of view," O'Connor said.
"The easiest way for teams to win was to set up defensively but with the new rules you have to be more offensively minded in keeping the three up. That will have benefits in terms of kicking and long kick-outs. Overall, it will makes thing more competitive.
"People say that these changes will particularly benefit the likes of Kerry and Donegal, but I think it will benefit any team with good forwards. It certainly widens the net; I can see a 10-team competition in terms of the All-Ireland and anyone of that 10 could really make a go of it. When I started playing initially, Dublin were top and they were a couple of teams just below them. It's much different now."
So what type of Kerry are we likely to see in the next few months? One, where their sharpshooters are in more advanced positions to cause damage, according to the Na Gaeil clubman.
"In the last couple of years, you would have seen a lot of our forwards doing a lot of their work back the field. We want our forwards to stay up the field and to do what they are best at, which is getting on the scoreboard, creating scores, and hopefully winning games for us."
As for being involved in the thick of the action with a set of different rules dictating things, O'Connor did admit it was "tough" particularly around the middle third, but added that there was a bit more of one element that should please footballing purists.
"It was tough alright so subs and squad depth will have a huge say as the year goes on if teams pick up knocks. There were more contested kick-outs; of course it will depend in what way the opposition set up whether they go with a full press, or whether we can can chip a few short kick-outs out to the side or find pockets, but there was more contested long ones.
"It may not be until the middle stage of the championship that teams really nail down what is going on"
"There are a lot of the elements to the new rules that we have not seen yet and teams may not see for a while yet. It will be a work in progress to get used to them. There is no substitution for competitive football. We will take learnings from next Sunday and then from the following weekend. It may not be until the middle stage of the championship that teams really nail down what is going on."
And that unknown factor that will have a bearing as to whether O'Connor and his colleagues can banish the memory of narrow defeats to Dublin and Armagh in recent seasons.
On bouncing back this year, the 25-year-old added: "It takes a bit of time to get over it particularly when it's back-to-back years and you fail. We had tough defeats in 2020 (Cork, Munster semi-final) and 2021 (Tyrone, All-Ireland semi-final) and we took the learnings from those.
"All we can do is take the learnings from the last two years, knuckle down, work hard and see where you can improve. But things that we might have failed on last year are not as relevant now because of the new rules."
As for one of the changes, O'Connor did voice some concern, similar to what his manager Jack O'Connor referred to in recent days. This is the ruling where a player must respectfully hand the opposition the ball following a foul and punishment for which is the ball being brought forward 50 metres.
O'Connor, speaking at a Kerry press briefing, said: "I can't see how that’s not going to cause trouble down the line. I can’t see, and I said this to Éamonn Fitzmaurice [FRC member], what’s wrong with just dropping the ball?
"Just drop it on the ground where the foul occurred, but I can see a situation where you're handing the ball to a fella, he does a solo and go, runs into you and the referee doesn’t know who fouled who… do you know what I’m saying? I can see that causing fierce bother."
Well, it certainly caused Dublin bother in the 1978 All-Ireland final, when, in a spirit of great charity after a foul was committed, Robbie Kelleher handed the ball to Kerry's Mikey Sheehy, who placed it on the ground, looked up and scored one of the memorable All-Ireland final goals past a bewildered Paddy Cullen.
As for O'Connor, the harshness of the penalty will mean players will just have to adhere.
"It is entirely unnatural. When you're growing up the first thing you are taught is don't hand the ball to the opposition player - roll it along the ground or put it somewhere else where he can't take a quick free.
"It will take a bit of getting used to and the penalty is so severe you are going to have to get used to it - that's unless they change it."
Watch Galway v Armagh in the Allianz Football League on Saturday from 4.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
