A spring for football to emerge from the shadows

Beautifully balanced, Gaelic football’s best structured competition commences tomorrow evening.

The Allianz Football League has proven to be not just a gauge of what’s to come - seven of last year’s Division 1 teams reached the Super 8, six of the last 10 Division 1 winners and two runners-up have gone on to become All-Ireland champions - but routinely the most accurate form of ranking teams since it returned to the four divisional format 11 years ago.

For the second year in a row, it begins at the same time as the hurling league and the competitions will share six weekends - this opening weekend, February 2 and 3, February 23 and 24, March 2 and 3, March 16 and 17 (hurling semi-finals), and March 24 (hurling final/final round of the football league). Hurling electrified the county last summer but if there is an opportunity for football to steal a march on it the time is now.

Sure, it might be subject to four experimental rules whereas hurling won’t be touched (if at all) until this time next year but football, for all its faults, has the greater appeal up until the end of March:

Hurling relegation relegated

After eight years, the GAA is expected to say goodbye to hurling’s Division 1A and 1B format at next month’s Annual Congress in Wexford (it better be the case otherwise some managers are going to look pretty silly taking a more nonchalant approach to the league than previous seasons). The new system will see an even break-up of teams from 1A and 1B, which will thankfully put an end to quarter-finals.

However, the change also means there is no relegation from what has been a dog-eat-dog Division 1A although a relegation play-off remains in the calendar. By surrendering demotion from Division 1A this season, arguably the greatest selling point of top flight hurling is taken away and as a result a more casual attitude to the coming weeks will be taken by participants.

For example, Liam Sheedy has said he is more interested in the latter half of the league. Factor in that effectively the ninth and 10th placed teams in Division 1 are guaranteed quarter-final slots over those who finish fifth and sixth and it’s becomes all so incredibly anti-climatic.

Double-gauge shotgun

We mentioned above just how the football league has been a portent of things to come but its hurling equivalent has not been as reliable.

Yes, Limerick followed up promotion from Division 1B last season with that historic All-Ireland crown but then what does it say about the league when three of the last six Liam MacCarthy Cup winners have come from the inferior group - Limerick, Galway (2017) and Clare (’13).

Four of the last 10 Division 1 winners have done the double but only Galway did it in the past four seasons. For the sake of the hurling league and the need to provide an environment more conducive to developing and trialling players, it was time for change but with that comes a loss and this year’s league is the collateral damage.

Dublin’s ‘Drive for Five’

Much like Kilkenny in 2010, every step they take, from the moment they run out to the St Tiernach’s Park pitch at Sunday lunch-time, will be dissected and analysed.

Jim Gavin might prefer to do things his own way but as a man who would subscribe to due diligence a chat with Brian Cody about the pitfalls that were presented to him as the Cats attempted their drive for five would be advisable.

The genuine candidates for the All-Ireland senior hurling championship are more considerable than those for football but the attraction of Dublin this season is peerless.

Fitzgibbon distraction

As Limerick’s Seamus Flanagan was only too happy to point out earlier this month, the team’s average age is only 23. Compare that to their fellow All-Ireland champions Dublin whose final starting team had an average age of 26.2. Flanagan is one of five of John Kiely’s team involved in the ongoing third level competition; in total, Limerick have 15 involved.

Of their 2018 final team, Dublin have just Con O’Callaghan involved in the Sigerson Cup.

The early scheduling of the Fitzgibbon Cup has already drawn criticism from Cody and Páraic Fanning and it’s not going to get any better. Whereas the Sigerson Cup semi-finals occur on a break weekend for the football league and final is a midweek event, the Fitzgibbon Cup final takes place the same weekend as the fourth round of the hurling league.

When young hurlers’ focus is elsewhere, it doesn’t exactly lend to a good league.

Mayo’s mystique

After hearing all week how much they mean to the GAA’s coffers, Mayo must be getting swelled heads at this stage.

From the GAA’s commercial and marketing department to GAA officials to observers, the county’s early exit has been cited as a primary reason for the drop in interest in attendances and viewing figures.

Outside of Dublin, they are the biggest draw in the game and James Horan’s return has piqued a lot of interest as evidenced by the considerable crowd that turned up to Tuam last week.

Mayo’s recent springs have left a lot to be desired but how Horan injects new blood into an aging group that has had no retirements over the winter will command attention.

Weather warning

At the outset of his first year in charge, Cork manager John Meyler sent out a message that his team weren’t to be judged in late winter or early spring but when the ball was hopping off the sod.

As much as Cork just about survived the drop to Division 1B, he wasn’t getting his excuses in early; he was experimenting with line-ups but essentially the Rebels are a team who thrive on harder ground. In their five round games last year, they scored 4-93. In one game less in the Munster round-robin series, they posted 5-94.

Football is more resilient to the elements but there is so little correlation between how hurling is played now to how it will be in the middle of May when the provincial championships begin.

Let there be (artificial) light

Following on from that point, the fact there are major league games played under lights doesn’t really do the game justice. Across Division 1A and 1B, there will be five Saturday evening matches starting with Clare’s visit to Thurles tomorrow evening.

From Meyler to Martin Fogarty to Michael Ryan, it’s agreed the glare of the lights do not suit the game. As former Tipperary manager Michael Ryan said of floodlights two years ago, “The quality of our hurling and everyone else’s hurling changes dramatically once we can hurl in the evenings without them.”