Mayo defender Sam Callinan says it's hard to judge the impact the new rules in Gaelic football might have, but the Green and Red have left no stone unturned as they prepare to play under them during the 2025 season.
The new rules were overwhelmingly backed at the end of last year by the GAA's Special Congress and they will see the introduction of two-point scores for shots from distance, kickouts having to go further down the field, and three players having to remain in the opposition half at all times, amongst other changes.
Read: Landslide votes at Special Congress mean Gaelic football to have raft of new rules in 2025
They're designed to prevent teams engaging in defensive, negative tactics which have become commonplace in the game over the last decade. Possession-based football off short kickouts, excessive handpassing and packed defences have led to criticism of the spectacle of Gaelic football.
This has manifested itself in falling attendances at games, up to and including All-Ireland semi-finals, over the last number of years. This is despite the fact that the championship is as open as it has ever been, with four different winners in four seasons for the first time since the 2009-2012 period.
But the hope is that the new rules will lead to much more open football, with space for the game's creative players to express themselves.
And Callinan says that Kevin McStay, and his Mayo management team, have spent plenty of time looking at scenarios since the return of inter-county training last month.
"In fairness to our management, from the day they were ratified we've been implementing those walk throughs and those training sessions," he said at the launch of the Electric Ireland Higher Education Sigerson Cup.
"Sometimes it's at the cost of a hard running session; we do a hard session on the Tuesday and then a tactical workshop at the weekend.
"We're doing a lot of work and a lot of it is player-based. There's a lot better footballing minds than myself among the player base that have really good ideas and are really innovative about how things could play out.
"It's a lot of discussion going back and forth at the moment and it's showing in the training. There's different drills and modifications, and we're seeing what could happen here and there.
"But it is hard... in the heat of the league, we'll see how things really play out then."
Callinan has played in defence for both county and for UCD in the Sigerson Cup over the last few seasons, and he says he expects the changes to help those at the other end of the field.
"From what I'm seeing, the main difference is there is a lot more kick-passing, there's a lot more space to kick-pass. Especially when you're coming out of defence, there's options open in the middle.
"The games played in January have been high-scoring games, which is uncharacteristic for this time of year.
"If nothing else, it is a lot more open and I anticipate it being a lot more fast-paced."
Regardless of what ways the games end up looking, the rules will be the same for everyone.
After a decade in which they went so close to winning the All-Ireland, reaching the final four times between 2012 and 2017, the westerners made it to back to back finals at the start of this decade.
They've only reached the Connacht final once in the last three seasons, while quarter-final appearances in 2022 and 2023 were followed up by a preliminary quarter-final exit - on penalties - to Derry last summer.
"The last two years we've come up a bit short," Callinan acknowledges
"While it is frustrating, this year we're taking a lot of hope and optimism out of the fact that we were right there.
"It was a kick of a ball against Galway, drew with Dublin, if things went our way against Derry, who knows what could have happened.
"While we didn't perform in the last few minutes of those games, we are there or thereabouts and that's where we're drawing a lot of our hope and optimism from this year that we can compete, and maybe with a few tweaks we'll be right there in the mix.
"It's a theme across the country that there's a changing of the guard. Look at Dublin, a lot of the stalwarts are stepping away now.
"With the implementation of the new rules it's as wide open as ever. A few of the new lads that have joined our panel this year are really fantastic players.
"We're looking to build a really good, young core there and make that step up and really compete over the next few years; I don't think there's any reason why we can't.
"There's all the talent there. I think we can make the step and drive it on."
