No one knows what quite to expect just yet with new rules - Patrick McBrearty 

Donegal ace Patrick McBrearty says it’s going to take all stakeholders some time to find their feet when the new playing rules kick in in the NFL. 

The 2012 All-Ireland winner and his teammates have been busy working away behind closed doors as Jim McGuinness and his staff look to get to grips with the finer details of the changes. 

Donegal’s return to the top flight starts with three huge clashes against the last three All-Ireland winners in Kerry (A), Dublin (H) and Armagh (H). 

The experienced attacker says referees, supporters and players will still be in that same process, learning on the go, when things do get underway in Killarney on Sunday, January 26. 

“It could well take three to four games before we start to know where we’re all at,” he explained. “We’ll have our own interpretation and so too will the sides we just talked about. 

“Teams will look to throw different things at it and you might well go, ‘here, why didn’t we think of that?’ and even vice versa.” 

McBrearty warns that some big games could well be decided on players and teams just not getting to grips or up to speed quick enough with some of the tweaks. 

On keeping three men up and maybe someone accidentally encroaching back inside the halfway line he said: “You’ll concede a 14m free and listen, it’s something a lot of sides are finding difficultly with right now. 

“Every training game and challenge game we’re seeing it. I said to Oisin Gallen there this evening, a big championship game or two is going to be decided on something like that. 

“You could be drawing a game, there’s a turnover and someone instinctively is desperately trying to get back and it’ll be deemed that there’s a numerical advantage. It could well cost you big time. 

“I’ve no doubt there will be big games decided on it. But those are the rules and it’s the same for everyone. 

“There are some grey areas yet and I’ve no doubt supporters and even some of the players, will be scratching their heads early on. 

“We’ve had a referee in here every single night so we’re just trying our best to get as familiar with it all as much as possible. It could well be a long National League with a lot of talking points”.