We're entering the final straight in the league campaign and teams should be revving through the gears in preparation for championship.
Kerry-Mayo in the televised game on Saturday evening is a particularly enticing encounter.
It might be a touch hasty to declare it a de facto league semi-final, given that Kerry still have to head to Armagh while Mayo have to navigate the challenge of Roscommon in the final round.
But certainly, whoever wins is in pole position. If Mayo get a victory down there, they're nailed on for another league decider, their fourth in five years. We can take it as read that Donegal are already there.
In my career, we always loved going down to Tralee on a Saturday evening. Killarney is a beautiful sight on a sunny Sunday afternoon but there's usually a great buzz around Austin Stack Park under lights and the stand was invariably jammed.
The game is coming at a good time for Kerry and should pique their interest.
Last year, we saw Kerry ratchet up the intensity for the final two rounds of the league, which, thanks to the strange shape of last year's Division 1 table, was enough to carry them from relegation trouble to a league final. The arrival of Mayo this weekend might be their cue to up their levels.
They've been floating along fairly nonchalantly in this year's league, giving their top guys plenty of rest and checking out the wider squad. There's been precious little drama and they're already safe. They got a tad lucky to beat Roscommon the first day out and were hauled back by Galway when they seemed to have the game won. They did beat Dublin and Monaghan with some ease.
It's a good test for Andy Moran's Mayo, who have achieved the primary task of survival and can head south for a free hit. They became the latest team to squeeze out a win against Armagh in this league while scoring far fewer points than them.
I'm wary of fanning the flames of Kobe-mania but what can you do? The lad is making us talk about him. I was more impressed with his impact against Armagh than the previous week in Monaghan, where the game was long over when he was introduced.
It was still in the balance the last day and he manufactured two crucial scores for himself and was involved in the build-up to the goal. Cian McHale, who shone in the Sigerson, scored 1-03 - another boost. Having supposedly had a dearth of forwards and scoring options last year, Mayo suddenly have plenty in 2026.
Further back the field, Sam Callinan has been magnificent this season. The half-back line was a launchpad over the years for Mayo, with the likes of Paddy Durcan and Colm Boyle. Callinan looks to be stamping his authority for this generation.
Relegation battle
There are other permutations but in all likelihood, the Dublin-Armagh game could be decisive in terms of who's going down this season. The form-guide tells us that Galway are likely to win comfortably in Inniskeen so there's no margin for either team in Croke Park this weekend.
It's especially urgent for Kieran McGeeney's team. A loss combined with Galway's expected win in Monaghan and they'll be landed back in Division 2 - which, as Tyrone have found out, is no picnic.
It's hard to credit how Armagh are where they are, given how they've played in several of their games.
Geezer isn't taking kindly to the suggestion that Armagh aren't going for goals and is getting fairly aggravated by that line of questioning.
It's inevitable given the scorelines that are cropping up. They've scored 27 more points than they've conceded in the league and have somehow only won one game from five.
The issue isn't so much that they're not going for goals but that they've had a knack for taking the wrong option when they get through on goal. Against Donegal, they had plenty of pots of goal, a couple of which, ironically, they might have been better tapping over the bar.
Then, the last day Ross McQuillan was through on goal in the second half in Castlebar, with enough room either side of Rob Hennelly, and he opted to stroke it over the bar. It speaks to a strange lack of ruthlessness or efficiency up there. On top of that, they've blown a few sitters as well - which can hardly be pinned on the manager's attitude.
You think they're bound to get a win soon. They're doing too much right in too many areas of the field. Personally, I strongly fancy them to get a result in Croke Park this weekend, despite the Dubs' return to form in the Hyde.
They've had a good record against Dublin and beat them comfortably in both league and championship last year. Last year's league game in the Athletic Grounds was a bit of a massacre and they won well in the round robin game in Croker, albeit helped by the Dubs' inability to wrap their heads around the three-up rule.
Dublin certainly got the hang of the two-pointers the last day. From being the least effective in that area, they were suddenly booming them over from all angles in Roscommon. The first half score was surreal even allowing for the wind.
It probably underlined again the Rossies' discomfort with the favourites tag, which is an old problem. They were rocked back on their heels early on and then when they did get chances, they were blazing them wide or dropping them short. Nothing went right for them and the harder they tried, the worse things got.
It definitely paused the growing narrative around Dublin's imminent decline but I think Armagh have the stronger form and recent body of work behind them. They won't be as spooked by the Dublin name and fancy them to get the job done in HQ.
Watch Kerry v Mayo in the Allianz Football League on Saturday from 3.45pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News app and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
