Between them, Billy Sheehan and Paraic Duffy have come up with a great way of stopping managers from naming dummy teams.

At present, managers have to stick to the matchday panel they name on the Thursday before a big game but most of them avail of the luxury of making some tweaks to their starting XV shortly before throw-in.

"Changes of status from starting player to substitute and vice versa within the 26 are now the norm and it is not unusual to see two or three alterations in personnel to the starting line-out," Duffy writes in his final annual report as GAA director general.

"I received one excellent suggestion during the year from the former Laois player Billy Sheehan as to how this problem can be addressed. If a change is made to the starting 15 after the Thursday morning deadline, that change should be made to count as one of the six substitutions that a team may make during the game.

"Team managers would think twice before knowingly naming an incorrect starting 15 if it reduced their options for substitution during the game."

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