We're at the penultimate round of the league, the championship is looming and there are doubts about whether teams at the top of Division 1 are going to be trying much of a leg this weekend.
Specifically, Donegal, with Jim McGuinness making painfully clear that the Ulster first round is his priority for now. It's a deeply unsatisfactory situation but then we've seen the last two winners of the league get ambushed in the provincial championship so it can't be that surprising.
Galway, at least, seem to be more open to the idea of winning the league, with a less taxing championship opener, and the chance to bridge a long gap to their last win - back to when Pádraic Joyce's late uncle Billy was playing.
Down at the lower end of the top tier, there's no doubt that teams will be eager for points.
I'll be on TV duty in Tralee for Kerry-Armagh, with neither technically out of relegation trouble yet. And whatever about Armagh, there's nothing technical about Kerry's relegation fears.
Strange to say but Kerry feel like a bit of an unknown quantity at the moment. They've won two from five games and were blessed to get a result in a surreal finish in Celtic Park. Without that late goal salvo, they'd be rooted to the bottom as it stands.
It's early on but there's a slight air of stagnation about them since losing the 2023 All-Ireland final. They never really turned in a convincing performance in the entirety of 2024 and it's hard to detect any improvement this year, at least on the basis of the league so far.
There's always an assumption that there's an All-Ireland in them. The bulk of the team have done it before and they certainly have the raw talent but their performances haven't measured up for the past year and a half.
They've had their injury issues, with Seanie O'Shea and Tom O'Sullivan absent in recent weeks, but outside of them, I'm not sure there's a whole pile to come back. David Clifford was obviously electric away to Tyrone and Paul Geaney, in the twilight of his career at this stage, has had an impressive league campaign on the whole.
Outside of the marquee forwards, they need to see the supporting cast step up. Dylan Geaney has shown something about him in this league but when it comes to it, they're dependent on the Cliffords and O'Shea.
On the plus side, they have scored a truck-load of goals so far and they still play a lovely brand of football when their attack gets rolling. Their direct play in the first half against Dublin was a delight, when they did get their hands on possession. Their downfall was not getting enough of it, as they let Dublin run down the clock and then they failed to manage the game against the wind themselves in the second half.
Against Mayo, they were devoured at midfield in the closing stages and then when they went short, they wound up in worse trouble. Without the back-pass outlet, their defenders weren't able to work it out in the face of the Mayo press.
With Tyrone coming against a Donegal team reportedly intent on avoiding a league final, and a difficult last game in Salthill, Kerry really need a win if they're to stay in the top tier. And if they do fall through the trap-door, the pressure could ratchet up down there.
We know the Kerry support are a restless bunch at the best of times and the management won't be long in feeling their displeasure if results or performances don't pick up soon.
On form, you'd have to fancy Armagh, regardless of their manager's gripes with the new rules and the continuing uncertainty around Rian O'Neill's intentions. They looked so slick against Dublin the last day out, none more than Rory Grugan, who knitted things together beautifully from half-forward.
Whether the influence of Ethan Rafferty will be curtailed by the latest FRC tweaks remains to be seen, though you'd have to assume as much.
The new 'four-v-three' adjustment is a clever enough one in that it doesn't officially bar goalkeepers from roaming into the opposition half, they just can't do so to facilitate the usual ponderous game of piggy-in-the-middle.
The majority of keepers aren't good enough to play outfield at inter-county level, unless given the freedom to play the extra man role. Now that there is no extra man in attack, you'd imagine most teams will figure it's just not worth the risk.
The likes of Rafferty, Niall Morgan and Rory Beggan - who's been landing points for fun for Monaghan this season - might be an exception. But they won't have the same armchair ride when they go forward, with defending teams having the numbers to hassle them in possession. It also increases the risk of them being caught upfield, watching a ball being lobbed into an empty net.
As for the rest of the committee's work, the loophole around red and black cards was closed. A no-brainer really after Round 4 of the league.
I would have preferred had they rowed back on a few more things. The hooter change is an improvement, though I'd have recommended abolishing it altogether and returning to the old dispensation with injury-time.
The insistence that players must hand the ball back in the event of a free also remains.
I still wonder what's wrong with simply putting the ball down. Obviously, there was egregrious instances of time-wasting and play-acting in this area in the past, and I probably have some form in that regard.
Ten years ago, I did succeed in making Damien Comer angrier than anyone has ever been on a football pitch in the dying minutes of the Connacht semi-final.
For those who remember it, Comer spent a good 20 seconds - with a face like thunder - trying to pound the ball free when it was wedged between my stomach and the ground, after I had started an impromptu wrestling match in injury-time.
I was public enemy number one in Salthill for that afternoon and even my wife gave out to me afterwards. ("Just give the ball back, will you?") Probably needless given we were five points up and it was deep in injury-time but I had an impulse to act the maggot and it was Galway so...
Presumably, this is exactly the type of thing the FRC wanted to cut out, and not without reason. However, this hand-the-ball-back business is surely excessive.
It's with us now for the year now. We'll have to wait until the end of the season for any more tweaks, which will surely come.
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