1. Kerry start out
They’d never admit it or anything, but the football cognoscenti of Kerry will have had a right little chuckle to themselves over the opening weeks of the provincial series watching the likes of Roscommon and Mayo, Tyrone and Monaghan cutting lumps out of each other.
Sure, they might on some level prefer these kind of local skirmishes and would love to test themselves in a more competitive province, but as they can rightly point to the last century or so of tradition and say it’s hardly their problem to solve.
They get things up and running in Fitzgerald Stadium on Saturday, with a limber up against Tipperary. With only a point gleaned from their seven games in Division 3 – a draw against fellow relegation candidates Longford – mood and morale is suffering.
And yet it is Kerry who are onto a hiding to nothing. Win by a big margin and they stand accused of peaking too early. Scrape by and all of a sudden their game is being picked apart by Punditry World.
Tough gig.
2. Start spreading the news
No sense in pretending, there will have been some involved in the Connacht Council who would have had a grimace once they learned that New York beat Leitrim.
Last year’s census delivered the unsurprising news that Leitrim is still by some distance the least populated county in Ireland with just over 35,000 souls residing there. But they still might have brought a healthy crowd to this weekend’s semi-final against Sligo.
Instead, that honour falls to New York and their manager Johnny McGeeney.
There could be a sense that they have already played their All-Ireland final in the Bronx, and there is a general optimism in Sligo football right now.
But New York have been pulling out the stops according to chairperson Joan Henchy to cobble up some Big Apple Ultras.
“All of the parents that had young men on that panel, are going to be travelling,” she said.
“We have girlfriends and wives who are going to be travelling. We have supporters who booked flights on Saturday night after the game.
“Not only that, but former Exiles who have moved home, are all looking to know how they can get tickets for this game.
“We are expecting a lot of our former players, lads that wore that jersey back in the day, to get to that game. There will be a big call out for people to come and support us.”
Be great to see it.
3. Second best in Leinster?
A few weeks back on the League Sunday programme, host Joanne Cantwell put Colm Cooper on the spot about who he felt had legitimate claim to being the ‘second-best team in Leinster’.
She was asking in the context of Westmeath’s performances after five games but the view may have been slightly jaundiced with recency-bias and their 31-point win over Antrim that Sunday.
It also ignored the steady and sustainable progress achieved by Louth under Mickey Harte and Gavin Devlin.
In finishing third in Division 2, the Wee County lost three games, two of them against Derry and Dublin who were streets ahead of most of the rest in the second tier.
On Sunday in Navan, we get to see the ‘second-best in Leinster’ debate settled (and yeah, the nation holds its’ breath and all that) once and for all when Westmeath and Louth meet.
4. Nine year itch for Armagh
Since Armagh last won the Ulster championship in 2008, every other Ulster county have contested a provincial final.
After making Clones their second home and swelling their fanbase to become a moveable jamboree that took over the old market town in the 2000s, the last 15 years have been a wilderness in terms of the Anglo-Celt Cup.
Which made it doubly strange at the recent Ulster championship launch when selector Ciaran McKeever – such a prominent figure on that 2008 team – stated: “The way the whole season is crammed in now it looks like this is the beginning of the end of the Ulster championship the way it’s all going.
“We will be going out to try and compete to win every match but we are under no illusion – our main priority is the super 16s. That’s when the real football starts.”
You have to respect the man for speaking his mind. But others might see it as a means of side-stepping an ugly statistic.
Either way, for nine of those 15 seasons, Kieran McGeeney has been in charge of Armagh. Lose to Cavan this Saturday evening and the patience Orchard fans have granted them could start to unravel.
5. Guess who’s back?
A rare trip out of Croke Park to the confines of O’Moore Park in Portlaoise is ahead for Dublin footballers on Sunday.
The attention tends to follow Dublin anyway, but the greatest fascination for this game is just how and when the returning old guard get back into competitive action.
Naming the team on Friday morning is one thing. We have spotted numerous changes prior to throw-in for the games so far. A bold prediction here: Stephen Cluxton will start.
You hardly thought he came back to ride the pine?
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