BRIAN LACEY has called for the duration of inter-county football matches to be cut from 70 to 60 minutes.
The former Kildare and Tipperary star also fears that weaker counties will suffer amid the increased demands on players by the game’s new rules.
Speaking after his side’s National League win over Dublin on Saturday, Donegal boss Jim McGuinness proposed that teams be able to make six substitutions instead of five with the game now more taxing following the introduction of the new rules.
Lacey served as coach and performance analyst when his native Tipp reached the All-Ireland semi-finals in 2016.
He was also part of Glenn Ryan’s backroom team in Kildare for the past three seasons.
But he said: “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’m happy enough for these rules to be implemented.
“But one thing I’m 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.”
During his playing career, Tipp man Lacey claimed two Leinster SFC medals following his move to Kildare.
He later returned to the Premier County set-up and was a member of the side that won the Tommy Murphy Cup in 2005.
He told RTÉ: “You’re going to need a strong panel with great depth, because not only will you need to rotate from game to game, you’ll also need to rotate within matches.
“And it’s going to be so hard for the lower-tier counties to try and keep pace with stronger teams in this regard.
“At least the counties would have a chance playing in 60-minute games — it would be more even.
“I 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.”
