I had thought my days spent in inter-county training camps were done and dusted.
But on holiday in Fota Island last week, who did your columnist happen upon only the Kildare squad being put through their paces as they seek to put that blasted league behind them.
I've written some trenchant stuff on Kildare in the last year or so - no more than everyone else, in fairness - though I would like to confirm here that they're 'FLYING IN TRAINING' (I don't have enough evidence for this, really).
I got no scoop off the manager but was chatting to Eoin Doyle while there, a player who I faced off against plenty of times over my career. They seem happy enough with their camp and are focused on righting the ship this summer.
They may have perked up after the events of last Sunday.
It'd be a stretch to say the inter-county championship began with a bang given the paltriness of the crowds but it did provide us with some invigorating shocks all the same.
Waterford and Wicklow enjoyed a day of days, especially the former for whom wins in championship are very rare altogether. It was very refreshing to hear the players and their manager Paul Shankey say they were intent on going out and enjoying the victory for the day that was in it. They can have a crack off Clare now, knowing their year is made.
On the other hand, it did underline how far Tipperary have fallen this year. It hits home for us in Mayo in particular, given we played them in two All-Ireland semi-finals in 2016 and 2020. It's a long way from there now.
It's reflective of the fact that a generation of players have moved on, Michael Quinlivan, Steven O'Brien, Bill Maher. Colin O'Riordan was forced into retirement and was down in Australia in any case. Though he came on, Conor Sweeney's involvement has been minimal.
Then again, even in the heady days, they were a flighty, inconsistent bunch. A year would often be lost to travelling or other pursuits. Ultimately, football isn't central in the county and consistent success wasn't really expected or demanded.
There was an even bigger shock in Portlaoise, where Wicklow turned over Westmeath. Here you probably have to factor in our old irritant, the calendar, with another league finalist being sickened the weekend after a day out in Croker.
Some people wonder why playing in successive weeks is such an issue. But in this case, it's not the week-on-week schedule, it's the adjustment from league to championship.
Teams who miss a league final are already preparing for championship, assessing their performances, where they need to improve and prime themselves for a championship opener.
The timeframe for this isn't huge but it's a significant advantage when your opponent spends the previous weekend preoccupied with trying to win a league final.
For players, there is still a big difference between league mentality and championship mentality and teams who are playing a league decider so soon before a championship opener can't adjust in time.
The same theme cropped up in Carrick-on-Shannon, even if Sligo's victory wasn't quite a surprise.
We don't have a Mayo old boys' Whatsapp yet - there was talk a while ago of a retirees group being established - but there'd have tension on there this week, with Andy Moran lashing out at Tom Parsons and the GPA, among others.
It speaks to Andy's frustration because him and Tom are very close. Between everything, the short gap between league and championship, the crazy embargo on Under-20s playing, they had just a 22-man squad for the Sligo game. Their performance was laboured and they were easily beaten. I didn't think they'd win anyway but circumstances hobbled them before the start.
The ineligibility of the U20s might be a bigger issue from Leitrim's perspective. They clearly have a promising group there, and turned over Mayo (there were a few Westport lads on the team, I was going to slag them for being on the first U20/21 Mayo team to lose to Leitrim).
That game was on Wednesday, the senior match was on Sunday. They had four days to recover. These are young guys, they'd have been well able. For a county with Leitrim's resources, it's a major loss and needless in my view.
Big response needed from Armagh
Armagh begin their quest for a long-awaited Ulster title up in Fermanagh this weekend.
I was puzzled and disappointed by their performance in the league final, losing another game in Croke Park to a Donegal team that was missing a few big players.
I know their mitigation in terms of the supposed difficulty finding playable training pitches that week and the Division 2 final is a game of questionable importance anyway.
But their old habit of slipping into a cagey, defensive shape for big matches was in evidence again. It strikes me as very self-defeating given the type of players they have available to them.
They played some brilliant football in the league itself, playing a more direct style, kick-passing quick and long into Rory Grugan, etc. They have players inside that can do damage.
I heard some of Aidan Forker's interviews during the week and he spoke about the players' love of Kieran McGeeney, though it feels like it's time for them to start giving their manager some silverware.
The draw is relatively friendly so they should be ending up in an Ulster final again, which is a mammoth game for that team.
They didn't exactly devour Fermanagh earlier this year - aside from that bizarre match in Louth, Fermanagh were a fairly stubborn proposition in Division 2 most of the time. But I'd expect McGeeney's team to get over this challenge on the weekend.
I'll be on duty in Croker for the latest Dublin-Meath instalment. The game is no longer the glamour game from yesteryear and Dean Rock dropped the pretence in the Irish Times last week, essentially saying they don't care about the Leinster championship any more and he has no idea how many provincial medals he has.
Based on the result in Longford, Meath can rack up the scores but are dangerously porous in defence. If Longford can hit 3-12 against them, it doesn't bode well for Croke Park on Sunday.
Elsewhere, I'd anticipate that Down will recover from the disappointment of the league final and beat Antrim, who they disposed fairly handily away in Division 3.
And, based on my close analysis (again, not really) of their training camp, I expect Kildare to deliver their first win of the year against Wicklow. The Lillies remain the funniest of beasts.
Someone pointed out this week that they lost all their league games in 2018 and they wound up knocking us out of the championship that year - it must be acknowledged that they were in Division 1 that year.
Now that Westmeath are knocked out, their path to a Leinster final has probably been made easier. If things go to form, we'll have a shootout between them and Louth in the semi-final.
If Glenn Ryan's side can catch form at all, the horrible campaign could be relegated to a distant memory.
Watch Dublin v Meath in the Leinster Football Championship quarter-finals on Sunday from 4pm, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to updates on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
