We go again.
Medals have been given out. Team holidays seem a distant memory now as players are flat out in the gym, tearing up the fields and astro pitches of their county, hoping not to puke right in front of the management to show any signs of weakness. All in the hope of being back here next year doing the exact same thing but hopefully with some silverware to look back on from the year's work
We’re still just about in the Happy New Year window and we’re about to start the league. If it is to start any earlier we’ll be back to the glory days of the 80’s and 90’s where we had a few league games played before Santa arrived.
League and championship are starting too early for my liking. I am all for the split season, in theory, but let’s be honest here, the best teams and their players are seeing little if no rest these days.
You could justifiably argue that it’s simply the price of success, but the league does not need to start this early if the championship doesn’t commence until May. Pushing things out even a little would only impact a few counties at the business end of the inter-county season, maybe two teams in each code with a respective All-Ireland finals in August.
The rest of the country can get on with their respective championships. It’s still a workable proposition to start the league in February and championship in May.
Early season rant over, it’s time to focus on the 2025 league.
With two divisions in the Division One, 1A contains the strongest seven teams. We should see competitive fare here, while in 1B I’d expect Dublin and Waterford as the top two with Offaly hoping to make a mark with a promising crop of young hurlers coming through.
People would ask if teams really want to win the league anymore. It did Clare no harm last year, but then again I felt that mentally they were done after losing the Munster final so what do I know?
I feel with the league that the risk nearly outweighs the reward in getting to a final given the provincial championship opener follows within a fortnight.
How the more senior players and their managers are approaching the league these days is also noteworthy. Shane O’Donnell has it down to a tee, but he is so unique in terms of how he can come back looking as fresh and as sharp as a player who hasn’t left the hurley out of his hand at all.
I think we are seeing those players with more miles on the clock and in the legs having far less of an involvement in the early stages. Management teams trust these guys to perform when it matters most and are more comfortable letting them off for a running session the morning of the game rather than being involved in the match-day squad.
It seems to me that management teams will select a couple of fixtures as target games, going all out with personnel and intensity. This may be due to the quality of the team they are playing or the venue in which it is on as it may be a place they will have to return to later.
These target games may not be the last two games pre-championship, but rather a time period where players have had a good bank of physical work done and are in a position to go hard for 50-60 minutes before the GPS blows up.
They may then be rested for the next outing before gearing up to go hard again just in time for championship. It’s not all counties that have this luxury due to the depth of talent in their panel and realistically only having maybe 18 or 20 guys who are actually top-level players. If injury strikes you are snookered with the threat of relegation looming.
We would love to see the very best players playing all the time, but this is just not a realistic proposition in the modern game. Championship is the be-all and end-all and these players need to be humming, not hamstrung for the main event.
That being said, there are some great fixtures and events to look forward to on opening weekend. The new lights in Pearse Stadium, All-Ireland champions Clare welcoming Kilkenny to town and the tradition of the first opponents of the New Year clapping the all-Ireland champions will continue I’m sure.
With each passing day in Wexford we hear of another great stalwart stepping away. Matthew O’Hanlon, Dee O’Keeffe and most recently Liam Óg McGovern have called time on their respective inter-county careers and it’s looking more and more like a rebuild for Keith Rossiter.
He got a great tune out of his charges last year and maybe now those young guns who thought they could do it last year will truly believe it this year with some departing greats opening the door for them to burst through.
The main event in 1B is undoubtedly Davy Fitzgerald bringing his Antrim team to the capital where he will pit his wits against newly crowned All-Ireland club winning manager Niall O’Ceallacháin.
If squad numbers in recent challenge games are anything to go by, Dublin will need at least four dressing rooms to fit them all in.
Should be great talking points from those fixtures over the weekend all while Limerick sit, watch and wait to begin their campaign in a fortnight.
