Jim McGuinness has described the proximity of the National Football League Division 1 final and Donegal's Ulster SFC opener against Antrim as "not ideal" as they edge closer to booking their spot in the showpiece game.
The Tír Chonaill manager was also critical of the plan to review some of the experimental rules, introduced by the FRC in the middle of this month, due to the lack of time it gives managers and players to get used to them before the start of championship.
Donegal's comeback victory over Derry this afternoon has brought them to eight points, level with Galway and two clear of Dublin.
McGuinness' men face meetings with Tyrone and Mayo in their last two games where a couple of positive results could see them into the Division 1 final.
That game is due to take place on the weekend of 29/30 March, with Donegal then beginning their Ulster Championship journey on 6 April against Derry.
"There's a number of teams that want to stay in the division, but they don't want maybe to play in a league final and put themselves under pressure. It might be different for a few teams that have an easier passage in their provinces that maybe suits them.
"I don't know if that's the way the competition should be set up. I don't think it's fair on the sponsors in particular. I think you should have a competition that everybody wants to be in and everybody wants to win. So even the fact that you're asking me this question obviously means that that conversation is going on around the country.
"We're safe now and that was what we wanted to achieve. In the coming days [we'll] make decisions that are the right thing for ourselves."
The FRC confirmed this week that tweaks are likely to some of the new rules, with the implementation of the changes to take place in the middle of this month.
McGuinness has been critical of some of the new rules, particularly the idea that games have to be restarted within 20 seconds of a score or a wide.
"It almost feels like everything that the FRC are coming up with is to try and create a level of fatigue in the players," he continued.
"That's been reflected, I think, in the number of soft tissue injuries. The fact that the game has gone up a couple of levels, in terms of intensity, but the time to actually recover within games is decreasing.
"Maybe they wanted the fastest paced game in the world, but that's surely going to come at a cost to players, isn't it? It is coming at a cost to players."
McGuinness concluded that he's surprised that there's still so much potential for change in the game with a little over a month to go before most counties will begin their championship season.
" My understanding is now the tweaks are not going to happen until 13 March. That's maybe three weeks before we play [Derry]. Normally if you want to coach anything to a level, you probably need six to eight weeks to try and get some kind of a pattern on it.
"We're going to be playing Derry in the championship and there probably will be a really large element of 'still trying to work it out.' So I don't think that's ideal either. But anyway, the game is quick, teams are putting up high scores. People are enjoying watching it, I would imagine.
"But certainly I would have felt at this stage that it would have settled now, that we would have had the pattern. And rather than that, watching it last night and being involved today, it doesn't feel like that.
"It feels like it's almost like the first round because there's so many things happening and going on within the game."
The calendar is less of an issue for Derry manager Paddy Tally, with their chance of a place in the final long gone.
For him, today's loss will have little bearing on how Derry will fare in the looming Ulster Championship fixture on 6 April.
The new Oak Leaf manager is taking the positives and suggests the match was an opportunity to size each other up.
"What it does mean is we've had a wee look at each other, and we've seen a few of the Donegal players up close and they're about the same at Derry. So no, it'll not mean an awful lot," he said.
Tally feels the bigger challenge for his side is developing their panel and suggests learning may be the more important lesson for this season.
"I suppose the bigger picture this season was to develop a squad," he pointed out.
"We knew this was going to be one of the challenges we had. We're limited starting off, getting back late and we also have to depend on 'blood' players.
"Maybe this is one of those seasons you have to learn and then dealing with the new rules as well. So there's been a lot of things happening at the one time."
