Eight counties who will be competing for the Tailteann Cup in the summer, unless they can reach a provincial final.
That seems unlikely so the Allianz Football League will once more act as a massive part of the season for the counties in the bottom tier.
Antrim and Leitrim come down from the third tier after their relegation last year, and they'll naturally fancy their chances of going back up by the end of March.
But there's plenty of competition for those two promotion places amongst the other six sides, with four counties beginning their league campaigns under new management.
That said, there is a certain sense - rightly or wrongly - that some of teams in the bottom tier are on a different level altogether, and not in a positive sense.
Talk of a third tier All-Ireland football competition below the Tailteann Cup dried up slightly in 2025, but it hasn't completely gone away, and for some counties, it could prove to be a more realistic target in future years.
The current situation has the potential of those sides having to face Division 3 or even Division 2 teams in the Tailteann Cup, and that might have come after taking a beating from a Division 1 side in the province.
That might do little to motivate players from counties in the bottom half of Division 4 to remain involved.
Something for another day; for now, we can look forward to competitive fare in the bottom tier.
Antrim
2025 league: Seventh in Division 3
2025 championship: Ulster quarter-final defeat to Armagh, Tailteann Cup preliminary quarter-final defeat to Wexford
Manager: Mark Doran (first year)
Squad news: Conor Stewart has stepped away to go travelling, while Dermot McAleese has retired.
Prospects: Mark Doran brings bags of inter-county experience to the Saffrons, having previously worked in the background with Roscommon, Clare, Wicklow and his native Down. He also worked with Derry club Slaughtneil until recently but he insists he's now fully focused on his current job.
His predecessor Andy McEntee kept Antrim in the third tier for two years before last year's relegation. Their sole championship victory came against London, so there'll be a determination to show that last year was a blip.
Doran recently told the BBC that he has ambitions beyond what the county achieved in recent seasons.
"I know from my time in Clare for two years with Colm Collins, Clare came from the fourth division and end up in the second division and stayed there," he said.
"That is the challenge for us as a management team: getting a squad that will commit to this thing for three or four years and then once you do that, we'll see where it takes us."
Prediction: 2nd
Carlow
2025 league: Fourth in Division 4
2025 championship: Leinster preliminary quarter-final defeat to Meath, Tailteann Cup preliminary quarter-final defeat to Sligo
Manager: Joe Murphy (second* year)
Squad news: Darragh Foley, the county's highest ever scorer, is in for another year in a boost to the county having previously decided to pack it in.
Prospects: Joe Murphy is preparing for his first league campaign as Carlow manager, but he was in charge on an interim basis for the championship last year after Shane Curran stepped away mid-season.
The Barrowsiders earned a first promotion in 33 years in 2018, but they were immediately relegated back down to Division 4 the following season, where they've remained ever since.
The challenge will be to drive on from their top four finish last season, but it'll be a big ask. They did, however, win the O'Byrne Cup Shield to start their year on a positive note.
Prediction: 5th
Leitrim
2025 league: 8th in Division 3
2025 championship: Connacht semi-final defeat to Mayo, failed to get out of their group in the Tailteann Cup
Manager: Steven Poacher (second year)
Squad news: Donal Casey is recovering after breaking a bone in his neck, Radek Oberwan is struggling with a back injury while David Bruen is in Australia.
Steven Poacher told the Leitrim Observer that he tried to convince some younger players to commit to the panel for 2026, but he had no luck.
"They want to go to Uni and have a few pints and enjoy themselves and you can't blame young lads, so let them at it," he said.
Prospects: 2025 was a really disappointing year for Leitrim, with their only victory coming against Tipperary in the Tailteann Cup. It wasn't enough to see them reach the knockout stages, and it followed a league campaign which saw them lose six games, and fail to field a team against Fermanagh.
They never recovered from a large number of panelists walking away ahead of last season, so the challenge is now to try to get the show back on the road.
An opening day trip to favourites Wicklow will give a good sense of where the Connacht out are at.
Prediction: 4th
London
2025 league: 7th in Divison 4
2025 championship: Connacht preliminary quarter-final defeat to Roscommon, finished bottom of their group in the Tailteann Cup
Manager: Michael Maher (seventh year)
Squad news: Nobody knows the London football scene better than Michael Maher. The veteran manager has an established club scene to help bolster against the annual comings and goings across the Irish Sea.
Prospects: London picked up a couple of wins in the league last spring, before losing their four championship games. Often in the bottom two in the league, they got as high as fifth place in 2022.
Maher, who is the joint second longest serving current manager - alongside Pádraic Joyce but behind Kieran McGeeney - will hopr to move his side out of the bottom two and try to pick up some more victories.
It's 13 years since they heroically reached their only Connacht final but the Exiles are a good example of a side that might stand to gain from the introduction of another tier in the football championship.
They did manage to win the FBD Connacht Shield this month, a fillip for the squad.
Prediction: 8th
Longford
2025 league: 6th in Division 4
2025 championship: Leinster preliminary quarter-final defeat to Wicklow, finished bottom of their group in the Tailteann Cup
Manager: Mike Solan (second year)
Squad news: Goalkeeper Paddy Collum retired from inter-county football after Longford's final game of 2025, a Tailteann Cup victory over Carlow, bringing to an end a 14-year career with the county.
Prospects: Longford spent eight years in Division 3, a period which included their first Leinster semi-final outing in 30 years, until their relegation at the end of the 2023 campaign.
From fourth in 2024 to six last year, their trajectory is not a good one. Mike Solan will want to stop the rot and move the midlanders away from the bottom half of the bottom tier.
The won a Leinster minor title in 2024 but it'll take a few years to bring the cream of that crop into the senior fold.
Their O'Byrne Cup defence was ended by the toss of a coin against Westmeath, which was hardly the ideal preparation for their new season.
Prediction: 6th
Tipperary
2025 league: 5th in Division 4
2025 championship: Munster semi-final defeat to Clare, finished bottom of their group in the Tailteann Cup
Manager: Niall Fitzgerald (first year)
Squad news: The circumstances for Niall Fitzgerald taking over were tragic following the untimely death of Philly Ryan. He steps up to the senior role after three seasons looking after the county's U20 team.
Prospects: The 2020 Munster champions have twice been relegated to the bottom tier since that historic provincial success at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
The most recent of those was 2023 - alongside Longford - and they've been in the bottom half of Division 4 since.
Can the squad regroup and take themselves out of the conversations around a third tier championship competition?
Prediction: 3rd
Waterford
2025 league: 8th in Division 4
2025 championship: Munster quarter-final to defeat Tipperary, finished bottom of their group in the Tailteann Cup
Manager: Ephie Fitzgerald (first year)
Squad news: Ephie Fitzgerald is back for a second spell in charge of the Déise, having managed the county in 2022 and 2023, before electing not to fulfil the third year of the contract that he had been offered.
He has guided his club Nemo Rangers to Cork and Munster success, while he was also at the helm when the Rebel women landed the Brendan Martin Cup in 2016.
Prospects: The Déise picked up a first Munster win in 14 years in 2024.
Their solitary win last year across league and championship was against London, two points which were still not enough to lift them above the Exiles in the battle for second-to-last in the bottom tier.
That's realistically their big target this time around once more in an area of the country where hurling is the king. Unlike neighbours Kilkenny though, Waterford will continue to enter a team into the league and championship.
Prediction: 7th
Wicklow
2025 league: 3rd in Division 4
2025 championship: Leinster quarter-final defeat to Dublin, Tailteann Cup semi-final defeat to Limerick
Manager: Oisín McConville (fourth year)
Squad news: Oisín McConville took his time before confirming that he would stay on with Garden County in 2026. His decision to stay will be a welcome one on the east coast.
Andy Maher and regular Patrick O'Keane are out for 2026, but the experienced Dean Healy's decision to stay on is a boost for the manager.
Prospects: Wicklow were the Division 4 county that did best in the Tailteann Cup last year, reaching the semi-final. They lost to Limerick that day in a game which they led by seven points.
But there was enough there, and in the performance they put in against an admittedly poor Dublin side, to suggest that they are good enough to gain promotion before the end of March.
There might be questions around whether McConville stayed on because there was no better offer, but all evidence suggests that it was the potential his players showed in 2025 that convinced him to give it another go.
Prediction: 1st
