Former All-Ireland final referee Pat McEnaney has voiced his opposition to the sin-bin which will be one of a number of new rules on show when the Allianz League kicks off this weekend.

In an interview with the Irish News, the Monaghan man laments the GAA's decision to ditch the black card rule in favour of 10 minutes in the sin-bin.

"The sin-bin I'm not a fan of, I was never a fan of it. We tried it a number of years ago and it didn't work," he said.

"It will encourage time-wasting and negative football. We looked at that when we took in the black card, and that's why we went with a replacement player. If I was managing a team and they went down to 14 players, I'd be saying, 'right boys, next 10 minutes, try and waste as much time as possible'.

"Referees need to be aware of time-wasting tactics because you might have a player going down holding his head when he might have damaged his knee. You'll have all that kind of stuff going on.

"If a player is down injured, that is included in the man's time out. If a player is substituted, that's time off. I'd have kept it as it was, but we'll give it a chance and see how it goes."

The Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues are back this weekend and so is the Hogan Stand Match Tracker. Join us on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon for live score and updates from the opening rounds.

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