New rules mean it's a "scrub" year for league says Derry boss Paddy Tally

Tally was delighted with his team's second half response against last season's All Ireland finalists, a display which nearly brought their first win of the new season, Galway having John Daly's late block on Ethan Doherty to thank for a share of the spoils. Even with being denied at the death for a second home game in succession, there were undoubted signs of progress from the Oak Leafers in an unique season Tally believes has left the league an experiment.

"I do think that anyone who understands football will say this is a 'scrub' year," explained the Oak Leaf boss when asked how the rules have impacted the competition.

"It's a year when we are trying to work things out. You’re throwing so many changes at teams. You’re expecting people to get all this right: it is not going to be right this year no matter what way we want to paint this. It's a year when no one is talking about the great players, all we are talking about are the rules. No one is talking about the great scores, it's 'well he only scored that because it's 12v11'.

"There are a lot of things that aren't really about the game itself, they are about everything only the game so I think if we can get back to the stage where we are actually appreciating players for what they do, I'm looking forward to that starting again because I haven't heard it so far."

The Derry boss has admitted he's no fan of the 'three up' rule but he’s remaining open minded about most of the FRC's changes despite seeing a controversial '50m dissent' call against second half hero Lachlan Murray cost his team a two point free at a critical juncture of the game.

"We are still finding our way a bit, there's now doubt about it," he added, "There is still that wee bit of awareness about what is going on at times but with every game you can see them getting better at it.

"There wasn't as many controversies tonight as such in the game. There was that one time Galway stepped across the line and we got a two point free. There was one at the end when the ball was moved forward for a free when I think the ball was under Lachlan who couldn't get up off the ground.

"That's hard. And it was moved up for two points. That’s a very tough thing on a player. He's on the ground and it looks as if he was fouled himself. He couldn't get off the ball and they move it forward 50m. That's a brutal punishment for a player who didn't really deserve it.

"And it could have lost us the game. A decision like that down the line could cost a serious result in a game and I don't think that seems right. It's not in the spirit of the game."