Oisín McConville: It’s the guts of 15 years since we had this build up to a game in Armagh

The new intercounty calendar couple with the return of crowds to matches make this Allianz League campaign one of the most anticipated in living memory 

Rian O'Neill of Armagh celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Ulster SFC clash with Antrim. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

With the GAA calendar getting more truncated year on year, you can see the shifting in approach from the pre-season competitions. These days, you notice a lot more of the regular faces going through the muck and gutter of January football.

For the managers, whether it was blooding or taking a punt, the respective curtain-raisers in each province are not what they were. Nowadays, panels already have put in decent winter shifts on the training fields and in the gyms, so it’s all about getting first-teamers those minutes under their belt. And you know if you don’t, your opponents in the coming weeks and months sure as well have.

Conditioning is at such an advanced stage, come early January the players are champing at the bit to get into some sort of competitive matches. It’s tough on youngsters but with the season coming quickly — a season that will be thick and fast — you need things to gel as swiftly as possible. You never see an unknown in Gaelic football bolt from the blue any more, at best you just see someone who you’ve heard about.

Martin McHugh spoke this week and said the modern-day footballers spend more time in the gym than practising with a ball and I agree with a lot of what he said. On the flipside, if you’re that youngster, sometimes you’re measured firstly on where you’re at in terms of conditioning and only then does your footballing ability come into it.

Take the rakey corner-forward, 19 years of age, who can kick points for fun. Is he, or even his county manager, going to have the patience to put him through a programme that, while on the periphery, could last two or three years to take him to the necessary level of physicality? Doubtful.

Watching the final last Saturday night from Omagh was interesting. The fanciful approaches and best-laid plans went out the window once there was a scent of silverware and it went right down to the wire. There were lots of experienced players coming off both benches.

McKenna Cup or not, winning it will be of no harm to Monaghan’s young players, especially as it developed into such a tight game. People might say it doesn’t really matter, although for Monaghan it does.

The closeness of the McKenna Cup in Ulster, was, considering the time of year, useful to all. Tyrone can be given a pass on this, losing 1-17 to 0-5 with a much-changed team against a Cavan side who didn’t even make the last four. All of the other matches were reasonably close affairs.

It was the same in Munster, where Kerry were winners of the McGrath Cup and in Leinster, Dublin were victors in the O’Byrne Cup. Connacht saw Galway overcome Roscommon in the decider. Winning, no matter who you are, isn’t a bad habit to get into.

Panels these days contain maybe 35 or 36 players, sometimes even more and with an injury now likely to impact a series of games for any given county, they look to have at least two capable players for every position. It’s thick, it’s fast, and for the county manager, it can be nightmarish. Certain players who mightn’t have been to the forefront of their manager’s plans are suddenly a protagonist. Managers, in turn, must be pragmatic.

It used to be common for players of a certain status to take the first four or even five league games off before gently reintroducing themselves for the latter stages prior to the championship. That, too, is a trend that’s not so frequent anymore, barring of course those who had extended seasons with their clubs.

There’s going to be Allianz League now for seven out of the next nine weekends, with plenty of players involved in Third Level competitions. The scope of those leagues are pretty unforgiving and teams can be on the backfoot from the first weekend. January is becoming the most important month of the year.

Division 1 is always enjoyable to watch. Kerry, I believe, are the team to beat in the league this year, although that may not take them to an All-Ireland title. More about that in the months ahead but for the foreseeable, I can’t see too many teams stopping them in springtime.

None of the other teams are safe and that might surprise you. Dublin, of course, tend to get what they need from the league, although having tried so many players in the O’Byrne Cup they’re still looking for that extra something. There’s great excitement in Armagh this week with the fact our opening fixture is Dublin, at Croke Park on a Saturday night.

It’s the talk of the county — I’ve yet to meet someone who isn’t making the trip. The Celtic Tiger is hardly back?

There’s chat about a 55,000 attendance, which is brilliant, as I’m afraid, it’s been too long for the people of Armagh. If I was to hazard a guess — and I take no pride in saying this — it’s the guts of 15 years since we had such excitement building up to a game of football here.

Armagh were promoted two years ago, with last year’s league basically a mini-Ulster Championship with the northern section also including Monaghan, Tyrone, and Donegal.

It was fine in the circumstances, though this year is what it’s really all about and will give a young panel a great experience and for Kieran McGeeney, a chance to let his team compete at the stage they worked so hard to get to. As for the game, this would’ve filled me with trepidation a few years back, but I am of the opinion that Armagh can certainly give Dublin a game of it.

The teams in Division 1 that I would worry about are Tyrone, Mayo, and Kildare. Tyrone, as I said, are probably a little bit behind the other teams and it’ll be interesting to see how they fare against a Monaghan team this weekend who’ve worked things well. Like Tyrone, Mayo will make a significant imprint in the Championship, only now I feel they might have a fight on their hands. ‘Susceptible’ is the word I would use to describe them.

Playing outside of Castlebar will give their opponents a chance, like for example Donegal are the visitors to Markievicz Park on Sunday and the Sligo venue evens things a lot. Like Monaghan, Donegal have plenty under their belt already in 2022, whereas Mayo played one fixture in the FBD League, a four-point loss to Galway in the Air Dome.

I’ve no doubt they’ve trained well and have contested some decent challenge matches. However, it’s not the same and Mayo will always have bother with the geographical location of their players and have involvement in a lot of third level panels. But they’ll play it as it lies and get on with it. After all, they were All-Ireland finalists in 2020 having been relegated from Division 1.

For Kildare, it’s a tough step-up, taking on a number of teams who are a bit more experienced at this level. Donegal are one of them and they’ve not lost a league match in Ballybofey since 2010 and aside from their ‘away’ fixture against Mayo,only have trips to Dublin and Kerry, whilst their other four fixtures take place on home ground. Monaghan, at Healy Park then home to Mayo, can get off to a good start.

Each division starts with matches that could set the tone for the Ulster counties involved, with Derry welcoming Down to Owenbeg in Division 2 and in Division 3, Fermanagh playing host to Antrim.

Under Rory Gallagher, Derry have shown incremental improvement and are the team to beat in Division 2. From the others, Roscommon are hardened and seeing they’re the yo-yo team and are accustomed to that tag, can fight it out at the top. Galway can be unconvincing and Meath have a chance. Down and Cork are the teams who might struggle.

With a Tailteann Cup on the horizon, the battle at the bottom of Division 2 and the top of Division 3 will be very interesting and leave plenty to play for. Limerick could be the surprise package in Division 3 and Laois look like they’re getting their act together. Antrim and Louth are the newly-promoted teams and 90% of the time they’d be fancied to go straight back down, but maybe not this time. Wicklow, you’d have to say, might be in trouble.

The leagues are as they are, with only Cavan the anomaly, somehow in Division 4, so I’d expect them to win it, possibly unbeaten, and to join them and I admit this is a big call, Tony McEntee’s Sligo.

Glancing at the fixtures, there might be a few —although not that many — hammerings. The Allianz League makes for great entertainment and it’s interesting. As the saying goes, it does exactly as it says on the tin.