Marc ó Se Kingdom coming but Dublin still top of summer charts
League setback leaves Blues perfectly poised but Kerry are narrowing the gap
Dublin are lighter in mind and spirit and get to start all over again
Kerry are in a good place even without winning the League title
TICK tock, tick tock, for the first time in my football life waiting for the summer to start is like watching a kettle come to the boil.
The wait is interminable and it feels like it is never going to happen and that is all the more frustrating because the League has teed up this summer like no other.
There was part of me curious when I quit as to how engaged I would be with the inter-county game, but, and even despite the commitment of co-managing my club, I find that I am as hooked on it now as when I was star-struck kid in my early teens.
In a way, when you are playing, you miss out on that intrigue in the sense that you are not really exercised about how it will unfold, because you are just trying to make sure that you are the one at the end holding the canister.
While my blood still pumps green and gold, looking on from the outside I find I am quite giddy at what lies ahead.
And I can put a tape on that giddiness now because you can tell when you are excited about something, you can become so consumed by it that you start making mental lists.
I have not done that for an age, but I found myself this spring compilat ing one and now that the League is over I have noticed how that chart has changed.
I am not suggesting yet who will win the All-Ireland, but for my money there is now a clearly defined top four.
At the top of the Ard a’ Bhóthair charts, it is still Dublin for me.
It might sound like a contradiction to acknowledge that the gap between the champions and the rest has narrowed and still declare that Dublin are in a better place after relinquishing their League title.
Yet that is just how it is. I was reading Cian O’Sullivan this week suggesting that their mental load has been lightened a little by shedding that unbeaten record and I can see where he is coming from.
Records like the one Dublin set can steal up on you and drain your energy. For starters, there is no player out there who dreams of being part of a team that sets a new unbeaten record; it is all about winning silver.
You could sense that pressure build on Dublin this spring; it felt like there was a bonus point on offer for every team that played them which might explain why everyone, apart from Mayo and Roscommon, chased them so hard.
Protecting something intangible like that can be a heavy load, which is why Dublin are lighter in mind and spirit now that they get to start all over again.
Jim Gavin comes across like a manager who hates losing and I honestly don’t believe that any manager will knock as much value out of losing a League final as he will in the months ahead.
And with Dublin, the real and only challenge is getting their attitude right because there really is not much to tweak elsewhere.
They possess a ridiculous amount of proven talent – Jonny Cooper and Jack McCaffrey coming back into their defence will be transformative; the development of players such as Eric Lowndes, Niall Scully and Conor McHugh has embellished their wealth of options, while who knows what Dessie Farrell’s Under 21s will bring, most likely Con O’Callaghan.
But under-pinning all that will be the hurt – not least simmering in the likes of Bernard Brogan, Paul Flynn and Diarmuid Connolly after underwhelming performances in the League final – which will be driving them. In many ways, this was their perfect spring.
Still at number two is Kerry even though I know at the start of the year a lot of people had Mayo ahead of us, but I have felt for the last 12 months we have closed the ground on Dublin.
True, there were some mixed performances but Kerry would still be in a very good place even without winning the League – the unveiling of talent such as Ronan Shanahan, Kevin McCarthy and Jack Barry ensured that alone.
I believe that Barry has been the find of the football year so far, and his rise is all the more remarkable given that he was playing his football in San Francisco last year.
I was told they were stunned out there at how good he was, with an astute observer of that scene telling me that he was the best seen in the city in the last 25 years.
I know there is a standards issue play there, but his athleticism has transformed our middle sector and afforded David Moran the licence to play.
Above all, though, is the change of emphasis in the game-plan and it had become increasingly evident that defenders have now been given a licence to bomb up the field, which is something I loved to do but which was restricted in latter years. I think Kerry is a more dangerous team because of that.
Mayo move up a place to number three. At the start of the year, I had Tyrone sitting above them and rising hard but they have gone off the radar for me.
I know many observers will argue that Stephen Rochford’s men didn’t do a whole pile this spring, but the
thing is they didn’t have to.
I never brought this line that Mayo have to win the League – in terms of experience, there is not a more hard-nosed team out there right now.
They know exactly what they have to do – and winning the League was not going to show them – which is front up and go hard again.
True, there has been no evidence of any significant fresh talent this year, but they are a powerful ball-carrying team with a pronounced physical edge.
Those who believe that edge has been blunted might find out the hard way that the Connacht side still possess plenty of cut.
They need their half-back trio of Lee Keegan, Colm Boyle and Paddy Durcan to set the tempo again and, above all, they need to define Aidan O’Shea’s role.
If they do that, then they will be good to go again.
Finally, a brand new chart entry at number four is Monaghan; Donegal really surprised me with how they rallied and they are in a good place with their U21 talent, but they lack experience, while Tyrone have simply gone flat.
That makes Monaghan the best team in Ulster right now, although a critical question has now been asked in the aftermath to the injury sustained by Darren Hughes which could rule him out for the Championship.
He would represent a serious miss, but this is one of the best balanced teams out there. They possess a phenomenal defence – Drew Wylie is the best full-back out there – and an attack which now flies on two wings, with the excellent Jack McCarron providing Conor McManus with some badly needed back-up.
They have emerged as the best of the chasing pack.