ROSCOMMON manager John Evans made an interesting point that the fourth round of the league, coming up this weekend, is usually pivotal. It seems a good time, then, to take stock of what the first three rounds of action has taught us.
1. Cork will be stronger in the long run after the spate of retirements
Cork are such an interesting football team at the moment that you could fill this column agonising over the best 15 available to Brian Cuthbert.
But perhaps the best way to capture the freshness is to write about their half-back line. Watching 19-year-old Kevin Crowley crown a fine display with a brilliant dispossession of Jack McCaffrey after coming on as a sub on Saturday night, you knew you were witnessing a footballer of substance.
Tomas Clancy and the ever-ready James Loughrey completed the line on Cork’s 45 and gave assured, energetic performances.
But the first battle for all three will be to make their own team, for Conor Dorman, Brian O’Driscoll, Damien Cahalane and Tom Clancy mark two are all promising footballers who can contend for a spot; and this in a line where Cork lost Noel O’Leary, Graham Canty and Paudie Kissane pre-season.
Talk of Sam Maguire might be stretching it. Cork still have to find a reliable partner for Aidan Walsh.
Deal with Walsh and Eoin Cadogan’s dual status, and worry that a fine attack might be a little poorer if, football Gods forbid, anything should go wrong with Paddy Kelly and Colm O’Neill’s comebacks.
Talk of going for another league title and re-establishing one of their rare periods of dominance in Munster is far from premature, however.
James O'Donoghue is now Kerry's main threat up front2. Kerry are in big bother
They say you can’t write Kerry off, and in the sense that the Kingdom start the Championship at worst one qualifier win away from the quarter-finals, they’re right.
And green-and-gold optimists will point out that they are in the same position they were in this time last year, when they ended up so close to the big September show.
But the cruel twist of Colm Cooper’s knee exposes Kerry’s threadbare resources to the extent that James O’Donoghue is now perhaps their biggest weapon up front.
Much as O’Donoghue has improved, that leaves Kerry short of All-Ireland quality. Perhaps their best hope is an SOS to Sydney for the answer they crave.
3. Kildare aren’t that bad after all
Easily the most surprising performance of the weekend, at least to our simple minds, was the Lilies playing Tyrone “off the pitch”, in the words of Mickey Harte.
Down seven defenders, and attackers such as Niall Kelly, Eamonn Callaghan, John Doyle and Alan Smith, racking up 1-21 against Ireland’s in-form team was something to be proud of.
It’s risky praising Kildare days before a trip to Croke Park, given their two nightmarish visits to their rivals last season.
Their production line might not quite match Cork, Dublin or Tyrone’s, but with Paul Cribbin, Sean Hurley, Tommy Moolick and Paddy Brophy playing so well, with players such as David Hyland and Kelly possessing so much ability, and with Daniel Flynn back in harness, the future is brighter for the Lilies than for most counties, regardless of what happens this weekend.
Derry's Sean Leo McGoldrick4. Sean Leo McGoldrick embodies new Derry
We’ve only caught highlights of Derry’s games so far, but even there, wing-back McGoldrick has seemed the weird sort of perpetual motion, possession-craving running machine that the match reports rave about.
In that sense, he is the standard bearer for a team that are putting in the hard work off the pitch. Derry are unlikely to win any silverware this summer, but they are getting the best out of themselves, which is nothing to be sniffed at given the uncertainty created by Eoin Bradley’s absence.
5. Dublin’s football factory has slowed down ever so slightly
Had the players Dublin have introduced in this league campaign made the same sort of impact as last year’s rookies, the other 31 teams might have been forgiven for throwing their hat at it.
But apart from Cormac Costello, none of the newcomers yet looks likes challenging strongly for a championship jersey. Jim Gavin might have to pick his team from the same pool of talent he had last year.
6. Alan Mulholland is doing a terrible job
The Galway boss seems a ferociously nice man. He has a ferociously impressive track record. And his team are playing ferociously bad football.
They want for work ethic, not footballers, and for a team with that amount of potential to lose by that much in Portlaoise is unacceptable.
After chopping and changing managers so much in recent times, Galway crave stability, which is just as well for Mulholland, because he is not producing the goods.
Success enjoyed by Cavan underage is starting to pay dividends7. Roscommon and Cavan are on the way to fulfilling their potential
It’s good to see counties with such modest resources and such rich traditions producing a string of fine underage teams. Cavan served notice last year that they are starting to reap what they have sown, so it’s no surprise to find them in such good form.
Roscommon seem to have turned the corner, too, for regardless of the quality of the opposition, 1-14 in one half of football speaks of growing levels of self-belief.
8. Leinster still has no strength in depth
Dublin, Kildare and Laois may have made acceptable starts, but the rest of the eastern counties are languishing. Westmeath and Paul Bealin seem an uneasy fit.
Louth were humiliated by Down at the weekend. Meath have one win and that is unlikely to change this weekend when they visit Donegal. Longford, Wexford and Offaly prop up Division Three.
The good was taken out of Wicklow’s bright start to the campaign by their capitulation against Clare, and Carlow have been beyond woeful.
The fixtures list may have had an influence on Mayo's fortunes in the league so far9. Luck of the list can shape a league campaign
Consider this: Mayo were in the pits until Sunday, Cork riding high. But if Mayo had started with home games against Westmeath and Kildare, and the Rebels had had to visit Newbridge and Omagh, might not their positions have been reversed?
10. Just when you though it was safe to go back into Ulster...
You know who is winning you know whats: Donegal are starting to look ominous.
