Everyone’s busy, but February is no time for lines in the sand

Saturday night, the first day of February, an orange weather warning across the country and still 26,000 fans turn out to watch the first game of the National League under lights.

This isn’t exactly a parallel to what attracted H.G. Bissinger to Odessa in the summer of 1988 to study the attraction of high school American football with the Permian Panthers — though it has some accidental associations such as the passion of local people, the greater meaning of shallow victories over your oldest adversary, and maybe the community need to live out a dream though the players.

The majority home support came buoyed by last year’s All-Ireland success and the early opportunities to see how their heroes had wintered. However, Jim Gavin’s present to the fans was to roll out only four of the starting 15 from last year’s All-Ireland final. This is hardly an effort to appease the masses but more of a show of strength to those looking on that the Dublin talent base is not limited to the 2013 panel.