The football league is up and running and we had some crackers, helped in no small part by playing them in appropriate venues where thousands fans generated an electric atmosphere, which would almost certainly be lost in Croke Park, but as a fella said to me before "keep your foot on that for now".
The hurlers get their turn to get the ball rolling this weekend. So can we expect anything different this year from the hurling league? Well for me it totally depends on what management teams are looking to get out of it.
At the top table of inter-county hurling we have no fewer than five new managers, who will all be looking to get off to a good start and generate confidence in the group, belief in the style of play and goodwill from the county’s supporters.
No better way to do that than a win in the Allianz League. Or at least that is the traditional way of thinking.
The problem is the league has become a bit pointless really since the introduction of the round robin hurling championship in 2018, which was followed in 2020 by a league restructure that removed all jeopardy for the top teams.
These switches coincided with the arrival of the juggernaut that is this Limerick team, which has dominated pretty much every competition they have put their mind to.
They went all out to win the league and did so with ease in 2019 and 2020 - 2021 not so much so, even less so in 2022, and still timed it to perfection with their championship prep.
The league hasn’t changed itself, rather it has been transformed by the championship and Limerick.
It’s in no way a dig at Limerick, but rather their dominance means teams now approach the league purely as a means to be ready for championship, rather than trying to win the league itself. Crazy, maybe, but Limerick have won four of the last five All-Irelands and they are the bar now.
Teams now are trying more players in the hope of unearthing someone for championship, resting the bigger guns to have them fighting fresh come the heat of weekly championship in April, and as viewers we’re just not happy anymore with the league.
But what do we expect really – go all out here for six or seven weeks in matches while trying to get in a savage base of fitness during the week at training, try and fit in a training camp and then be, as they say in Cork, 'flahed' come championship?
This is the championship we have now, the championship which has brought us some round robin thrillers in recent years so we can’t have it all, all the time. Can we?
Ask the players and they will all say what do you want more of, games or training? No brainer, they will all say games. No longer will we see five weeks between championship games and I’m all for that. The players want to play, we want to see them play but we can’t expect thrillers everyday we see them from February until July.
The NFL season runs from September until February, if you reach the Super Bowl, the same length as the inter-county hurling season, more or less, for these multi-billion dollar franchises stacked with professional sportspeople.
A lot of those games are brutal to watch but then you get to the business end and everything just goes up. Such will be the case come championship too in the hurling, trust me.
Enjoy the league for what it is, the league.
Pub quiz: Name the last 20 winners of the Liam MacCarthy and we’re all getting 19 or 20 here no problem.
Now name the last 20 league winners and the head scratching begins.
Enjoy being able to take your child or juvenile teams to a county ground of a Saturday night when it’s maybe not as packed, to see their heroes up close and personal, enjoy watching the new emerging talent in your county and seeing how they will react to the pressures at this level.
Enjoy watching your county team adapt to a new manager or new style of play knowing that this is the dress rehearsal for the big show in a few months and enjoy watching these top class athletes we have playing our national games.
But a word to the wise, chances are you will be sitting near or in the vicinity of a player's friend, neighbour or family member, just consider that before you say what you were going to say.
There was one hurling league game involving the Tipp group I was part of and Kilkenny, always great games, we just brought the best out of each other every time we met.
Anyway, Player X is warming up for Tipp and a Tipp fan is going, "Oh Jesus look who they’re bringing on, they must really want to lose this today".
Unbeknown to this guy, this player’s parents are sitting right beside him, the mother of the player, as calm as a summer breeze tells the father to relax and leave it be but as a father myself, I know there’s only so much you can let go.
Anyway the game develops, the comments keep coming, on the pitch it’s close, Player X pops up and slots one right between the posts to win the game for us and with that this Tipp 'supporter', sitting on one of the end of row seats in the New Stand in Thurles, is flattened on to his arse on the steps.
The father just says, "What do you think of him now!".
So watch out for those end of row seats if you’re not saying nice things at the weekend.
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