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“Something had to change” - Derry star Shane McGuigan ‘excited’ by new Gaelic football rules
While he hasn’t played football in several weeks owing to the continued success of Slaughtneil’s hurlers, Derry star Shane McGuigan says he is excited by the raft of new rule changes that will be implemented for the 2025 season.
On Saturday, all 49 motions were passed at Special Congress, including the seven ‘core enhancements’ put forward by Jim Gavin’s Football Review Committee.
Teams will now be required to keep at least three players in their attacking half, meaning there will be only 12 players defending at any given time.
Read more: Recap as Slaughtneil regain Ulster Club hurling crown after stunning comeback against Portaferry
As one of the country’s leading forwards, McGuigan views the changes as largely positive and admits that something had to give.
“It is something that does excite me - especially 12 in one half. If you ask any forward, space is the main thing,” said McGuigan.
“It isn’t so much one-on-ones or three versus three - if you have space, that’s all any forward wants.
“I think some of the games, if we are being honest, were not watchable this past while and I think something had to change.
“I always one for keeping an open mind with everything. It will be interesting to see how it works. I haven’t played football for the last five or six weeks so I haven’t given it much thought.”
He added: “I’m sure there will be a lot of mistakes made. The people who came up with the rules, rightly or wrongly, believe it is going to be for the betterment of the game and that’s all we can ask for.”
McGuigan, along with fellow county ace Brendan Rogers, will be hoping to delay their return to the Derry squad under new manager Paddy Tally for another few weeks.
Following their stunning comeback victory over Portaferry in Sunday’s Ulster Club SHC final, Slaughtneil face Sarsfields of Cork in the All-Ireland SHC semi-final on the weekend of December 14/15 with the All-Ireland final scheduled for January 18/19.
The Oak Leafers face Tally’s native Tyrone in their opening Division One game on Sunday, January 26 at O’Neills Healy Park.
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