A rest weekend in the Allianz Football League and all went quiet on the Gaelic football front.
Well, not entirely quiet. An expenses row flared up in Armagh to keep the controversy mill churning.
Expenses have often been a thorny subject in the GAA and the process has never run smoothly at the best of times.
But it was disappointing to learn that players had gone four months without receiving so much as a penny in reimbursement.
Aidan Nugent was very forthright on Twitter on Monday afternoon, pointing out that he and his teammates hadn't received anything since returning to training in November. We saw Aidan Forker row in behind him in the thread below.
He rightly pointed out that it was an especially pressing matter in the context of a cost of living crisis.
Tom Parsons - head of the GPA - did step forward and explain that there were some gremlins in the expenses portal on the web, particularly for players who need to be paid in sterling.
It was a relief to learn on Wednesday that the issue had been cleared up, with the Irish News reporting that the system had been altered to facilitate sterling payments.
I know Aidan had even tossed out the notion of players striking. I'm sure it won't get to that. But the GAA make enough money from players so I'd imagine if they went off doing their own thing on Sundays, the delays in paying out expenses would be sorted fairly quickly.
From travelling to training, to taking time off work, maybe dealing with injuries, there's the nutrition element, the S&C side, there's a lot of forces pressing down on players and they can't end up out of pocket. Some guys could have mortgages, others could be facing college bills.
We've all gone through our own issues with expenses down the years. It was always a fairly uneven process. There are invariably teething issues or snags of one kind or another. Whether it was a portal issue or a county board issue or a GPA issue, there were always minor discrepancies cropping up.
I was quite local always, in comparison to our Dublin based players. When training was in Castlebar, I was just 20 minutes away. My biggest annoyance was filling out excel spreadsheets and pages of stuff!
It was quite time consuming. It was always in the back of your head and then you were wondering was there going to be a reminder or whether it would be just be ignored, although Mayo county board were always clear in imposing a deadline.
In the grand scheme of things, I always tried to focus on performance and not get sucked into that external stuff.
There's a couple of elements to the Armagh stand. No doubt, it's very disappointing from both the GAA and GPA's point of view that players have been training for four months and haven't received a cent. Everyone knew that teams were coming back in November. The two boys were very strong and forthright on social media and have their teammates behind them.
On the other hand, the timing wasn't ideal given they're facing into a fairly big league game. Armagh are sitting on three points. We're getting into what I'd consider 'the moving phase' of the league. The next couple of games will dictate whether you're safe or whether you're going to get sucked into a relegation battle. The mantra at this point in the season really has to be no distractions.
One team who are certainly skirting with danger are Monaghan - although they're well used to it. They spent eight successive years in the top tier of football and they're very proud of that. You saw that last year when they celebrated survival after pipping Dublin by a point in the final game.
You can take nothing away from the Monaghan group of the past decade - two Ulster medals, an All-Ireland semi-final appearance, a few quarter-finals. They've really maximised the potential of that crop they have over the past nine or ten years.
And I wouldn't like to write them off. But the second half in Killarney was very unlike Monaghan. In the past, under Malachy O'Rourke, they always prided themselves on their structure and their solidity.
But you take the Paudie Clifford goal. He ran nearly 70 or 80 metres without anyone laying a finger on him. You couldn't imagine that goal being scored against Monaghan in their prime. They'd smash you, they'd make sure you worked for it.
They have a lot of work to do. I'm sure Vinny Corey knows that and will be hammering that message. They've Donegal looming down the tracks in Clones. Even leaving aside the result, they need a performance. Because they looked very flat, almost dead on their feet in the second half the last day.
Kerry are landing in Castlebar for the game of the weekend. It appears that Seanie O'Shea could be set to make his opening bow in 2023. I heard talk of David Clifford being involved.
I'm still laughing at Jack O'Connor pointing out that none of the six All-Ireland starting forwards have started any of the league games. That'll really cause their rivals to shudder. Kerry looked to be motoring nicely against Monaghan even without their front rank forwards.
The cavalry may be on the way back and their trip to Castlebar will have a huge championship feel, like it did when Galway arrived on the opening weekend.
It'll be a huge test for Mayo and we'll get a strong indicator of how their system under Kevin McStay is evolving. I'm really looking forward to that game and seeing how both teams go at it. I'm expecting a humdinger.
