Beware, the National League is an unreliable barometer

As has happened in so many Mays before, the same will happen this May: the GAA will be criticised for not organising a grand game to launch the football championship in style. 

Never mind that the draws made in October were open, there will be complaints officials haven’t done enough to start the summer with a bang.

Maybe they are responsible when they hold so dearly on to a provincial system that, as much as it offers tradition, proximity and rivalry, becomes more polarised everywhere but Ulster as the seasons pass by. But aren’t championships supposed to improve the longer they run? Brilliant beginnings can often be deceiving. Donegal and Tyrone’s ding-dong battle in Ballybofey last year served up an epic appetiser that the following courses never matched.