FOR us GAA fans, the split season and condensed nature of the games is fantastic news.
Every weekend we can look forward to a plethora of live action.
Round one certainly didn’t disappoint.
As demonstrated by the amount of drawn games in the top division, the games were certainly hard fought and extremely tight.
It may be January football but in a way it tells a lie with many games played with a ‘Spring’ intensity.
Armagh will take the early plaudits, and rightly so.
On the other side of my family, they had an added spring to their step on Sunday morning. It's funny what one result can do to the psyche.
Suddenly people are talking about Armagh as contenders and Rian O’Neill as the best forward in the country.
Rian has been playing brilliantly for some time now and his performance against Dublin last Saturday night wasn’t anything new.
His brilliant performance was facilitated by players such as Jarly Og Burns and Rory Grugan.
As for the assertion that Armagh are contenders across all competitions, Kieran McGeeney has been howling this into the wind for a few seasons now.
Again from the outside it is easy to pass judgement as none of us know what goes on in training, and with personnel or otherwise.
As fans, observers or outsiders, we can only assess any team on its results and performances. And the danger here is assigning a label through a narrow lens.
‘X’ was beaten so they are useless. The manager has to go.
Dessie Farrell is probably heading into these headwinds now and there was no better example of someone coming out the other side stronger than the man opposite him last weekend in 'Geezer'.
Armagh looked very well organised from a defensive perspective and gave an exhibition in counter-attacking play. The ‘doubling up’ was crucial to Armagh’s win. Allied to this, Dublin looked uncharacteristically nervous and unsure of themselves - and carried the ball into contact.
The Dubs had plenty of possession, however, when they got into shooting positions they were unwilling and uncharacteristically lacking the confidence in taking a shot on.
Instead players opted to take the risk-free option of a lateral hand-pass or kicked the ball back 20 metres instead.
As O’Neill and Armagh’s first goal demonstrated, their defenders are now making school-boy errors.
Their performance was best epitomised in Allstar and All-Ireland medal winner Davy Byrne misjudging a 50-metre kick-pass so badly, it left O’Neill with a one-on-one with Evan Comerford.
These mistakes were simply not tolerated on or off the field by the Dublin players and management in the recent past.
Unfortunately, for Dessie Farrell, he is also being compared to Jim Gavin and that’s not going to work out well for the former GPA chief.
Dessie is a very nice man and a very understanding, calm sort of individual. His nature is to be a friend to his charges and this is no bad thing – it’s just a different approach.
Jim Galvin appeared distant to players but close enough to carry that sort of fear every top manager has. It was ‘Do your job or else’.
I doubt Jim had any friends on the field of play - what he had though was a stubborn respect among his players.
In a way, that ‘fear’ pushed players beyond themselves to hold onto a jersey and as Bernard Brogan and Diarmuid Connolly were testament to, reputations meant very little to him.
There is a more relaxed approach to Dublin’s play now – it doesn’t appear to be on a war footing like previous years.
I compare Dublin now to that of a previously undefeated boxer who loses for the first time.
Suddenly there is a vulnerability and chinks appear – to me, it is obvious that the reverberations from that 2021 defeat to Mayo remain unhealed.
For Armagh, in a positive way, Tyrone’s fantastic title last season has accelerated their own ambitions and perhaps has led them to believe that they too can win the All-Ireland.
However, we forget that Monaghan remain that team the Red Hands always find difficulty in beating. The Tyrone boys must hate the sight of the Farneymen. They never go easy into the night.
Ironically, despite how well Monaghan handle both Armagh and Tyrone, every season we lack appreciation of their merits as All-Ireland contenders.
I am the first to admit that it is probably disrespectful to exclude them from the conversation when considering Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone, Donegal and Mayo for Sam.
If, say, Down went on a run (highly unlikely), there would be more confidence in their ability to win a title than Monaghan, despite the fact that clearly, in silverware terms and personnel, Monaghan have been much more successful in the last decade than we have.
Derry will be smarting too and are much further down the road to ‘success’ having built on successive promotions and a good crop of players coming through.
They did what they had to do last Saturday and will find the remaining fixtures more difficult than the challenge Down brought.
I think Down will struggle to remain in the division and I think most fans are realistic about where the county are.
The job James McCartan and Aiden O’Rourke have on their hands is not envied.
Ironically, as a county we could well become the home of the All-Ireland Senior Club Champions in the next few weeks – with Kilcoo continuing to put opposition away in any way they see fit.
St Finbarr’s put in a very strong and powerful performance and certainly brought a ‘fire’ to last weekend's All-Ireland semi-final.
It continues to be disappointing to see players diving and trying to get opposing players sent off – all I can is that the players themselves should be embarrassed. Where has the manliness gone?
I honestly think these acts should be punished retrospectively as there are enough cameras at games now to eradicate this sort of behaviour.
In the same way as video can be used to punish violent conduct, it should also be used for the opposite.
With Galway rolling into Newry this weekend, the Mournemen need a result, even a draw – which would go a long way to lifting spirits.
Until then, if you want to see a people in good form, you may have to cross the Clanrye River to our neighbours Armagh or take a drive through Kilcoo.
No lack of positivity in their part of the world.
