Leinster football clashes far from forgone conclusion

Up and running - well stumbling anyway. Whatever it is, we are once again talking about championship.

As soon as Rory had completed his 'tradition-like-no-other' rollercoaster, the minds returned to the business at hand and deliberations began.

Were Armagh poor, or have Tyrone rediscovered themselves? Did Cork take the foot off the throttle or does their consistency ghost still haunt them? Just how smooth is Barry McNulty’s play? We talking Galaxy, Lindor or Hotel Chocolat smooth?

Anyway, I digress, overall it was a fairly flat weekend. Paul Flynn and I were with Jacqui on The Sunday Game show last week and suffice to say, even we struggled not to be more intrigued by Rory’s adventures than the version of on-grass entertainment nearer to home.

Tyrone and Armagh was a funny one. Feels like much ado about nothing now. Both teams move on. Plenty to take from it, nothing lost and nothing won.

This week's fixtures don’t have the same headliner tie anywhere but overall there is much to look forward to. This weekend should mark the rising from the dead of the most maligned championship of all.

Leinster. Held in stranglehold for so long that it was presumed dead. If Louth’s win last year marked its first gasp of air, this year sees it almost back to full health.

Without needing to consult any bookies, Meath, Louth, Dublin and Kildare will all be rightly fancied to come through their ties.

But, consider things just a bit longer and the confidence of those opinions start to waver.

Westmeath were in good form in the national league and probably should’ve been promoted but for Wexford's stunning last gasp heroics.

Meath have tended to give teams chances and back themselves to get enough by the time of the long whistle.

The potency of Westmeath’s attacking platform will surely have focused Royal minds. Meath have had many big days out this past year so may not recall it but you can trust that their neighbours won’t have forgotten their meeting in last years league and the disputed last kick winner.

Mark McHugh’s men have more than enough to ruffle the feathers, and we will start to see how easy Meath wear the expectation of provincial champions in waiting.

A few months ago, the Louth-Wexford game would’ve been viewed as a foregone conclusion. The fact it isn’t and the fact Louth are still consistent high-level performers says everything about Wexford’s growing reputation.

Of all teams this spring, Wexford have probably made the biggest progress in playing level. John Hegarty’s team play textbook modern football at times. Good shape and clear understanding of roles and plays.

To do back-to-back promotions is an unreal achievement. They will need their injury concerns to clear up and all to play well but, again, with the pressure on Louth, it’s a free hit for a team that showed in the league final they are more than happy to disregard pre-match scripts.

The Wicklow-Dublin game is perhaps the most challenging to make the argument for an upset. The key difference here is that rather than have pressure on them, there are doubts being widely expressed about Dublin to the extent that, in a snapshot poll of viewers on last weeks' show, less than 25% saw them as likely provincial winners.

I said at the time the result would bring a smile to Ger Brennan's face.

And no matter where the St Vincent’s man finds himself watching the game from, I have a strong suspicion that he and his team will relish getting started in a race where, for the first time in over a decade, there are teams ahead in the pecking order for them to hunt down.

In glimpses, when their energy was on it, they showed a level of game that would test any team in the country and are still dotted with players of serious quality.

So, IF Dublin show up hungry and good to go, I can’t see an upset. IF however, they show up in early league form, they could get into bother.

Wicklow, under Oisín McConville, have, to their huge credit, used the hurt of back-to-back promotion near misses to re-energise themselves. Their performance against Carlow was emphatic, and, if Dublin take them lightly, McConville’s men will relish their chance to stir up the little internal doubts inside those blue jerseys.

Last but by no means least is Kildare v Laois. A Laois win? Surely not?

Kildare are favourites but their relegation from Division 2 is a real sucker punch for a team who, for a long time, would have expected to be the Leinster team most likely to break the Dublin monopoly.

Instead, in the 'most open Leinster championship in 15 years’ they barely make the contenders list in people’s minds.

Kildare forever seem to manage to add up to less than the sum of their parts. The ingredients across players, management and resources are good. The modern game should suit the powerful athletic players they have.

And yet, and yet, it has failed to click. Their greatest opponent this weekend is probably fear of failure, fear of another bad result.

Laois, in their demolition of Offaly, showed a real positivity and flow, which makes a potential loss for the Lilywhites plausible. A good performance can reignite Kildare but they’ve their own internal demons to face down first.

Four ties, of great interest level and hopefully great football. Born and bred on the Ulster Championship, it feels like blasphemy to say it, so I’ll whisper it quietly, the Leinster championship just might be where it’s at this year.

We’ll see!

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