It’s a shame..but winning the Division One title has never been so irrelevant

TWENTY-SEVEN weeks after we were mesmerised by Shane Walsh and David Clifford in the All-ireland final, the Allianz League

returns this weekend.

The split season isn’t perfect by any means, but it is the way forward. The club season needs its window from August onwards but, I must admit, that there were a couple of weekends in late summer when I was craving a big All-ireland semi-final or final rather than an early round game from a random county championship.

The split season and new Championship format also has huge ramifications for the League, with 17 of the 32 teams in Championship action a week after the League finals.

Connacht secretary John Prenty made a proposal last year that League finals be scrapped and, having attended the

Division One and

Two final double header at Croke

Park last April, I fully agree with him.

League finals just aren’t a priority. It’s a widely held opinion that the Leagues are the best structured competition in the GAA in terms of competitiveness and equality but for the eight teams in Division One it’s all about survival. Winning a

Division One title has never been more irrelevant, which is a real shame.

That logic even applies to reigning League and All-ireland Champions Kerry. The long season that several of their key players have endured, along with injuries to Gavin White, Paul Geaney, Shane Ryan and the recent retirement of Davis Moran, suggests it will be a very much weakened Kerry for the early stages of the League. The hammering they took from Cork in the Mcgrath Cup tells me that they are well behind in terms of their workload from this time last year.

Kevin Mcstay, on the other hand, will be very happy with his pre-season and will have a lot of his big guns available to him early on.

The opening fixture against Galway is certainly a game both teams will target.

Galway are now deemed as the top team in Connacht and so Mcstay will want to land an early blow on Padraic Joyce’s men. Taking a wider view, his priority outside of avoiding relegation will be to develop replacements in the full-back line for Oisin Mullin and Lee Keegan.

Jack Coyne and David Mcbrien are two likely candidates, and he will need them to have good League campaigns. The return of Tommy Conroy and Ryan O’donoghue to full fitness will be a timely boost to a forward line that misfired last year.

Can Roscommon stay up this time or will they remain the West Brom of inter-county football? This year might be as good as a chance as they have had to say up as Donegal and Monaghan look like two counties that are on the slide.

If there is to be a first Ulster winner of Division One since Derry in 2008 it is more than likely going to come from Tyrone or Armagh.

I think Tyrone may find their mojo again this year and, in a League where it’s nearly impossible to call a winner, it might even propel them to the title.

Winners – Tyrone; Relegation, Donegal,

Monaghan.

17 of 32 teams play in SFC a week after League finals..