Jason: Adjusting to new rules is crucial

IT WOULD be reasonable to suggest that no team benefited more from Gaelic Football's changes in 2025 than the All-Ireland winners.

- BY PADDY TIERNEY

Those rules will be in force again next season after the proposals were passed at a special congress last month.

Jack O'Connor's (inset) men hit their stride during the summer months after a setback against Meath in the group stages and subsequently defeated four Ulster teams in the knockout stages - Cavan, the-then champions Armagh, Tyrone and Donegal.

For Kerry coach Jason McGahan the new rules have brought about changes to how strength and conditioning teams manage training loads.

"We are still looking through the data and we are comparing it to different years," said McGahan. "We are back to what we would have seen 10 years ago where it's like a bell curve - the inside lines aren't doing as much as the middle eight.

"Whereas if you looked at data going back to 2020, 2021, '22, '23 and last season, you'd have seen a lot of difference between what a fullback might do, compared to a midfielder because the game was up and down.

"The big difference is the inside lines are doing more accelerations, decelerations and the middle eight are now covering a lot more high-speed running, and a bit more volume.

"The inside line will be stop-start and change of direction. So you'll take that into consideration."

JASON McGahan knew what he was signing up for and he got an early reminder of the standards that those associated with Kerry GAA are held to.