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 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 manager 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 pressure and it looked as if they were going to turn the ball over on two or three occasions.
"They eventually managed to get out to the middle of the pitch, were able to look up and kick it in. There was space in there, because there was a 3 v 3. Killian Spillane ended getting the ball in, was one-on-one with his defender, managed to get past him and just kicked the ball wide.
"That passage of play to me summed up the way the game is going to go. It is going to be high pressure, action-packed, and there is going to be an opportunity for inside forwards to shine."
Canavan also spoke about the pressure that goalkeepers are now under, with the option of going short from the restart now longer an option.
"I think it is very severe on goalkeepers that they have to kick it beyond the 40-metre arc," he remarked.
"Even if you take that rule out of it, it is still a high risk hitting the ball short because the goalkeeper can't receive the ball back in his own half. That is the reason why so many kickouts are being lumped out.
"It's virtually impossible if teams push up for the goalkeeper to find any pocket of space, to risky to hit it short.
"You play safe and you belt it out the middle and from there it's 50-50."
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
