Donegal's original 'messiah' Brian McEniff was on Newstalk's Down To Business today and gave a withering assessment of the direction Gaelic football is taking.

The 1992 All-Ireland-winning manager is worried by defensive developments in the big ball, and says he'd push for a two- or three-hand-pass limit, or a rule to keep four players in the attacking half of the field:

He also points the finger at Donegal's latest Sam Maguire-winning boss, Jim McGuinness - now on the staff at Celtic of course following a four-year stint at the helm in the Hills, including an All-Ireland in 2012.

McEniff reckons the Glenties man perfected modern defensive tactics in Gaelic football, and that they are ruining the sport.

"I'm going to write to Jarlath Burns, who's taken over a new sub-committee in Croke Park, about the state of the current game," McEniff told Bobby Kerr. "I'm not very happy about it.

"When I coached teams I always thought that the best means of defence was attack because when you had the ball you could dictate.

"And its twice as hard to defend as it is to attack, so we always played extrovert football here in Donegal."

Brian McEniff as Donegal manager with Sam Maguire back in 1992 (Inpho)

He added: "Now Jim came in with a plan - and he won us an All-Ireland with the plan. It wasn't what I like, as I have often mentioned. I spoke to Jim about it, but it was successful.

"He actually bought an Armagh and Tyrone situation from 2003 and perfected it. Unfortunately it's spoiling the game. There's no doubt about it."