IN THE MIX

History making Blues go into 2020 in pole position amid an uncertain future for football Championship 1 Dublin (last year 1) 3 Mayo (7) 4 Donegal (6) 2 Kerry (5) 5 Tyrone (3)

THE five-in-a-row glass ceiling was finally shattered in 2019 as Dublin held off Kerry after an absorbing pair of All-ireland finals.

While questions on the advantages Dublin enjoy are valid, it’s still an immense achievement for the players at the coalface.

However, the team has evolved quite significantly over the years –

THE five-in-a-row hasn’t resulted in the mass playing exodus that was anticipated, with only Bernard Brogan and Eoghan O’gara (right) retiring thus far, though Jim Gavin’s belated departure as manager has led to increased speculation that Stephen Cluxton could follow suit.

Losing Gavin and Cluxton in one fell swoop would alter the dynamic considerably in the dressing room and new boss Dessie Farrell will surely be keen period over the course of Jim Gavin’s seven seasons with Dublin.

It felt like the end of the line for that Mayo side, even if front line retirements have been few in the interim.

They may have to go backwards in order to move forward but regaining supremacy in Connacht is attainable and something they must strive towards in 2020.

LEAGUE champions, but

Mayo’s failure to win their own province once again robbed them of the breathing space they needed come the latter stages, even if they did look to have Dublin in a bit of bother at halftime in the semi-final.

Maybe they would have been wiped out in the second half regardless of their lead-in, with that third quarter arguably the most impressive of any there were just seven surviving starters from the 2015 final win to the replay victory over Kerry in September.

Changes are in the offing for Gaelic football in 2020 in terms of playing rules and competition structure.

Already, the inside mark, kickout from the 20-metre line and sin-bin are up and running in the preseason competitions, while there will be a tier two football competition as a result of October’s

Special Congress vote.

It’s a flawed format that is too similar to the failed Tommy Murphy Cup concept to be a success this time around.

Moreover, the folly of the decision to introduce this structure is underlined by the fact that it may be redundant before it even starts with another Special Congress likely in the spring which will vote on alternatives put forward by the Fixture Calendar Review Task Force.

to keep hold of the longserving captain to ease the transition.

The squad that

Farrell inherits still has a nice balance of youth and experience but maintaining the standards of the Gavin years will be a challenge and there’s always the danger that, having won the five-in-a-row, the levels of hunger among might not be as ravenous.

That could be all it takes, with an everimproving Kerry ready to pounce.

HAVING bowed out of the previous two Championship campaigns with a whimper,

2019 was a real statement of intent for Kerry and very nearly delivered an

All-ireland ahead of schedule.

A little more composure in the closing minutes of the drawn final would have delivered arguably the county’s greatest All-ireland of all, though Dublin’s ability to press them as hard as they did with 14 men at that stage of the game was extraordinary.

Kerry’s graph will naturally continue to rise given the team’s age profile and multiple All-irelands are almost an inevitability in the coming years.

They are best placed to topple Dublin but mustn’t lose sight of the obstacles standing between them and the champions next year.

COULD well have reached successive finals for the first time in their history but would they have pushed Dublin as hard as Kerry did? Probably not.

Although Cathal Mcshane (below) emerged as one of the game’s outstanding marksmen in 2019, they still lack the cutting edge to convince that they’re capable of bridging the gap to their last All-ireland in 2008.

The fact they’ve fallen off the pace in their own province of late doesn’t inspire confidence in that regard either. Should still be in the hunt come next August but difficult to see them challenging with any greater conviction than they’ve managed in the last couple of years.

ULSTER champions though pipped in a last day shootout in the ‘Super 8s’, Donegal’s 2019 reads much like their 2018. They were unfortunate in that their home game was against Meath, a fixture they would most likely have won in any ground, which meant they had to travel to Castlebar in the final round of games needing to avoid defeat. They still look like a side on an upward curve, however, and with Tyrone in Ballybofey in next year’s Ulster SFC and Monaghan seemingly on the wane, they look best placed to land the provincial title again, particularly with Michael Murphy (left) showing no signs of erosion.