1. Busy man Conor Glass
It was by any stretch of the imagination, a fairly hectic week for that old romantic, Conor Glass.
Last Sunday he strapped all of Maghera to his back and carried them to an All-Ireland club title with an insanely dominant performance in the final quarter against St Brigid’s.
On Monday, he appeared round Maghera celebrating the Andy Merrigan Cup success wearing a pristine maillot jaune (yellow jersey) of the Tour De France.
Why?
Because Malachy O’Rourke set the Theme of the Season as the Tour De France. To win Le Tour, you have to win multiple stages, climb huge summits, conquer obstacles and in the end, it all comes down to seconds. Glass had the jersey ordered long before the final.
Not content with that, he went down to Tralee on Saturday night and helped Derry beat Kerry.
And the day after? Proposed to his girlfriend, Niamh O’Donnell of Trillick, a sister of Seanie who was playing for Tyrone around the same time.
It’s enough to make a man feel as if the grass is growing under our feet.
2. Pre-season form is no form
We make an exception for Dr McKenna Cup winners Derry and their outcome in going down to Tralee and beating Kerry in the league opener. You must take into account the Mickey Harte weighing and how he now has 13 titles to his name in that competition.
Elsewhere though, it was a case that you might do yourself more harm than good by winning one of the pre-season competitions.
Might it have been better to have the feet up for the weekend, preparing for the first league game?
It feels that way for Roscommon who won the FBD League by hammering a young Galway select, only to be edged by a transitionary Tyrone in Omagh.
It was a similar fate for Longford who conquered an experimental Dublin in the Dioralyte O’Byrne Cup final, but were edged out by two points away to Laois.
And Cork’s McGrath Cup penalty shootout win over Kerry feels like long eaten and forgotten bread after their miserable showing and defeat away to Donegal in Ballybofey.
3. Ulster dominance
Might be nothing in it, but it certainly piqued the interest of many that sides from a certain province had an encouraging start to the league.
Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Derry, Down, Donegal, Monaghan and Tyrone all enjoyed healthy wins, while Fermanagh confounded the betting odds and drew against Meath in Navan.
Indeed, the Ernemen let a three-point lead with 15 minutes left slip and it could have been a clean sweep.
Of course, it helps that none of them were playing each other. That record will break this weekend coming.
4. Brutal start from Galway
Can it really be the fifth year of Pádraic Joyce in charge of Galway?
Well, it is. And the eight-point loss to Mayo in Salthill wasn’t their worst result on opening day, but rather a continuation of their inconsistency when getting their season up and running.
Last year they drew with their fond neighbours Mayo in Castlebar in the league opener.
In 2022, they had an 11-point win over Meath.
For that strange mid-summer start to the league in 2021, they found themselves in Tralee for a Saturday afternoon throw-in and a terrible hammering, Kerry 4-21 Galway 0-11 on the day of the famous David Clifford drag-back goal.
And the year before that? A one-point win over Monaghan.
Heading to Roscommon for round two on Sunday will make things very interesting, especially given Peter Cooke stepping away and Cillian McDaid’s injury.
5. High press is En Vogue
For a number of years there, it felt as if Gaelic football was just the same old thing played over and over by teams in different colours.
Balls going side to side and backwards was beginning to turn many off the sport, but the two games broadcast on Saturday night left many feeling that the sport is not in such a bad place after all. Derry and Kerry set up and real battle with numerous spills. As the game wore on the action became wide-open.
And Dublin and Monaghan showed that real pace, as applied by the likes of Stephen O’Hanlon, is the kind of thing you cannot defend against.
Donegal showed that a high press on a kickout can lead to a debutant goalkeeper’s worst nightmare, and there were enough flashes of brilliance elsewhere to leave us feeling a strong sense of hope that the game has turned a corner into Positivity Avenue.
