Last weekend's football action has seen loud calls for six substitutes to be allowed in Gaelic football.
But former All-Star and accredited GAA performance analyst Brian Lacey also feels that the duration of an inter-county game should move from 70 to 60 minutes.
On Saturday night, Donegal boss Jim McGuinness highlighted the rigour placed on players as a result of the new football rules and called for the amount of substitutes to be increased from five to six.
This came as Dublin saw three players forced off by hamstring injuries in Saturday's Allianz League Division 1 contest at Ballybofey, whilst McGuinness also highlighted the plight of Peadar Mogan, one of Donegal’s most agile players, who was struggling at the end of the game but could not be replaced as Donegal already had their five subs on.
His comments found favour from other managers – and also from within the RTÉ Studios with former Dublin star Paul Flynn backing it up on Allianz League Sunday last night.
Flynn pointed out that those managers in charge of Division 1 or 2 teams would also most likely back McGuinness’ call with the strong squad depths that they can call upon.
But former Kildare and Tipperary senior footballer and coach Lacey says that the plight of the weaker counties also needs to be considered as the new rules roll out.
Throughout his career he won two Leinster medals with the Lilywhites, an All-Star in 1998 and a Tommy Murphy Cup medal with Tipperary.
At club level he is a two-time championship medallist with Round Towers and served as coach and analyst with his native and adopted counties for most of the past decade.
Lacey is a big fan of the work the Football Review Committee has undertaken, which include the one versus one throw-in, the solo and go, the ban on back-passing to goalkeepers, the two-pointers and attacking mark directives.
He is eagerly awaiting the publishing of data from the opening two rounds of the Allianz League and has identified one area that he feels needs further examination – the duration of inter-county games.
"In general, the seven enhancements and add-ons are definitely going to help the game," Lacey told RTÉ Sport.
"And in general, there has been a positive reaction to the work that the FRC has completed to this point.
"I would be in touch with Colm Nally a lot and any time I spoke to Colm over the last few months, the FRC were holding a meeting, going to a sandbox game or making a presentation to a county board. There has been a tremendous amount of work done so far.
"Overall, their objective is to make Gaelic football the greatest amateur field game in the world and I believe these rules will make the game better to watch and play. From a macro point of view I would have one issue, however, the rules are also making it more professional."
It is in the context of this view that Lacey feels the weaker counties could struggle as the season unfolds.
"My one concern about the work surrounds the weaker counties. I think the stronger counties will get stronger on the back of these rules and, look, I am happy enough for these rules to be implemented.
"But one thing I am very strong about is to bring the inter-county game back from 70 minutes to 60.
"If you look at the Railway Cup games last October and you chat to guys on GPS monitoring, the number of kilometres covered, the amount of time the ball was in play, and the high intensity running over 60 minutes was already equivalent to 70 minutes of the old rules.
"Factor in more speed and explosiveness of runs with the tap and go, and more time on the field because of stoppages and you can now be around 85 minutes on the field."
Having coached inter-county senior teams across all divisions, and being part of a set-up that reached the last four of the championship, Lacey feels that squad depth is more important than ever before under the new system, particularly with the new rules and the split-season format.
"I go back to when I was with Liam Kearns and the Tipperary footballers for a number of years and especially look at when we got to the All-Ireland semi-final in 2016.
"Also look at the great runs that Wexford (2008) and Fermanagh (2004) enjoyed in the past.
"All of those teams had a very strong first 15 of players who stayed injury free. In Tipp, we didn’t rotate much in ’16 as our players largely stayed fit.
"You are going to need a strong panel with great depth, because not only will you need to rotate from game to game, you will also need to rotate within matches.
"And it’s going to be so hard for the lower tier counties to try and keep apace with stronger teams in this regard."
This is where Lacey feels a shorter duration could help such teams.
"At least the counties would have a chance playing in 60-minute games, it would be more even.
"Even under that time frame, games will still reach 70 minutes on the field, but as it stands players are now on the pitches 85 minutes and I just feel that weaker counties will be badly affected, especially with the nature of running now involved, and with having to get ready to do it all again the next week.
"If the game goes to 60 minutes, it could be separated into four quarters and you will still end up with 70 minutes-plus on the field anyway.
"That is more than enough time for any player on the pitch.
"Just to repeat, I feel the work done has been incredible. Now, we just have to look at the data that will unfold and pay attention to it."
Watch Allianz League Sunday from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on all matches on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to updates from around the country on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
