Competition aplenty but quality lacking in Leinster

IS Leinster the new Ulster?

Perhaps on the basis that Seamus McEneaney, Justin McNulty and Kieran McGeeney are calling the shots for three of the leading football championship contenders. But no-one is kidding themselves yet that the province could be regarded as a “minefield”. Nor do I expect to hear the term “dogfight” to describe any of the forthcoming action.

The way the provincial draw has fallen this year with Louth, Wexford, Westmeath, Offaly and Carlow on one side and Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Laois on the other, means you will get a lot of close, fairly open, exciting matches between evenly-matched teams that will be difficult to predict. However that doesn’t mean the games will be high quality. And there is the possibility of a one-sided final, especially if Dublin emerge from their side of the draw.