In particular McGeeney is not keen on the mark for a player that catches high ball between the two 45 metre lines and he cannot fathom why the powers that be want to slow down the game even further. The Kildare boss is also at a loss to understand wh
y one particularly skill of the game gets precedence over another.
"To me the penalty is probably a good thing but I can't understand the mark. I don't even understand their thinking behind it. For a game that they are saying is very stop/start and then they go and introduce something else that is stop/start. They don't leave it up to the player, it's not up to him whether he takes it or not, it's up to the referee and that's a wee bit funny.
"I don't see why one skill is rewarded over another. Why don't they give a player repossession if he blocks a ball?
A high catch is usually done by someone who has all the attributes to do it but there is smarter men up there (Croke Park) making the rules and you just have to stick to them.
"It was specified before the game that you don't have an option. If the referee blows the whistle you have to stop. It would definitely make more sense if it was left up to the player. Everybody is going to have their own opinion about the mark but I still can't understand why one skill is seen as paramount over anything else. I know they are trying to make more people catch it but if they are doing that there is going to be more people trying to stop a player catching it," said McGeeney.
Performance wise McGeeney was both pleased and disappointed with his team. He was pleased at the start they made but not so pleased with how they allowed their opponents back in to the game. However, the work rate of the players was a major positive for the boss.
"It was probably a mixture of the good and bad. We started off very good but we let them back in to it. It was probably very hard for both teams to understand what was going on because it is very difficult with some of the tinkering to the rules.
"There was some great work rate there. Numbers five, seven, ten and twelve worked really hard for us and it was good to see that. There was some good disciplined tackling and we got a lot of repossession stuff so it was good in that regard," he admitted.
The Lilies played almost all of the final half a man down after Dermot Earley was sent off for a second yellow card offense and although the sending off didn't have a huge bearing on the game, the manager wasn't happy with his midfielders discipline.
"I didn't actually see what happened (with Dermot Earley) but he shouldn't have got the yellow card in the first half and he knows that himself," he insisted.
Looking down through McGeeney's starting XV it's quite obvious he means business. He wants to win the O'Byrne Cup, has aspirations to win the league too and he doesn't believe in starting players just because they are new additions to his panel.
"You only really have eleven games before the championship and I'm probably in the minority on this but I can't understand the issue of burn out. Whoever was doing well in training this week played. We have a lot of injuries between Smithy (Alan Smith), Jimmers (James Kavanagh) and Johnny (Doyle) and in fairness to the fellas that started today they still put up 16 scores. They are there to keep their place and when the other fellas get their legs again it is going to be up to them to take it back.
"If you are playing well at training you will get picked. I am not going to pick a player just because he is new to the squad or because he has a reputation.
"I want to win every year. I didn't go out last year to compete in the O'Byrne Cup and lose it. A lot of it will depend on the players attitude to each individual game and I would hope they want to win every game and it's only then that you bring silverware home. If you look at the mentality of other teams, like Tyrone and Kerry, regardless of what they play they are in it to win it. It doesn't necessarily guarantee you things but that's the way we are trying to approach it. That's how we approached it the last two years but we haven't any silverware yet so we'll see what happens this year," he said.
