Seven Key Points: What we took away from Donegal's historic win over Kerry

2. Balancing attack and defence

The new rules have shifted the balance in favor of attacking play, making defensive strategies more challenging.

This was always going to result in a question mark before the new rules were even brought into action, but it was only when they were seen firsthand, that it was clear as day, that the overall advantage was given to a forward over a defender.

The openness could be highlighted in the fact that Donegal chalked off 10 scorers on Saturday, while Kerry had nine.

And this trend was in no way lost on Jim McGuinness. Towards the end of the post-match conversation, he was asked if the balance between attacking and defending had been distorted by the various new rules. 

“I don't think there is a balance there at the moment. I think it is almost impossible to defend. The game is just crazy transitional,” he said. 

“It is one-v-one combat in the attacking half, plus the goalkeeper. So the balance between, it is 65/35pc against defending teams. 

“Finbarr Roarty made a brilliant block, a massively important block in terms of us getting a result down here, but there wasn't much more. We were getting our shots off, they were getting their shots off. Could it get boring is a question. 

“Last weekend, we were watching the scores come in and to my mind, the football scores trumped the hurling scores, so that might answer the question.”