Youth is vital to reeling in champs

HOW the break in momentum caused by the long-term enforced stoppage of Gaelic games by Covid-19 affects our inter-county teams will be fascinating to keep tabs on.

The million dollar question is how it will affect the best team in the country, the Dubs?

Momentum is everything when you’re winning and right now, as All-ireland champions, they are the most vulnerable.

Some people might be surprised by that but there is a strong argument to suggest that this enforced shutdown could bring Dublin back to the rest of the pack – giving their rivals like Kerry, Tyrone, Donegal, Galway and Mayo ample opportunity to really assess where they need to improve.

When Gaelic football returns, the balance at the top of the game could change and we could be looking at a more level playing field between the top five or six teams.

There are a number of reasons why this might happen.

Under new management and having achieved immortality last year, the champions are still good enough to win the All-ireland every year.

Yet it is unrealistic to keep going forever and, when your momentum is broken, it brings you back to square one.

A number of Dublin’s brilliant leaders are getting closer and closer to their last days in the blue jersey. A year out is a long time when you’re the wrong side of 30 – no matter who you are.

The likes of Alan Brogan, Bernard Brogan, Paul Flynn and Denis Bastick have all retired at

Donegal Galway Kerry

ONE of the most important outcomes from this period will be to see which of the counties’ up and coming stars advance to senior status fastest once Gaelic football returns. It will have a significant bearing on which team takes the initiative next year. This time is massively important, especially for a strong young player. In a year he can develop from a boy into a man. Kerry, Dublin, Galway and Tyrone have the most talented bunch of young players. There is serious talent in their ranks. But the Kingdom look best placed of the four, having for the first time in a long time some statuesque players. They are very talented and physically strong, their development key to Kerry’s progress next year. It’s a real possibility they will emerge from the lockdown as a stronger, more potent force than they were at the start of 2020. They desperately need to find half a dozen new players to compete with Dublin. How these young men commit in terms of their own personal development during football’s time out will determine how Kerry go forward. Over the past six or seven years, Dublin’s young talent have worked much harder and been more dedicated - a critical ingredient in the difference in success of both teams. So this lockdown must be the time when the talented young group in Kerry say to themselves “Now is the time we change this”. DOUBT OF THE BLUE Dublin celebrated five All-irelands in a row last year but a sixth could be toughest of all