NFL Roundup - Week 1

No, not that NFL. This is the Gaelic football National Football League that fills the gap between pre-season and the beginning of the All-Ireland Championship at the start of the summer. The league has taken on greater significance in the last few years as many teams use it to sort out what will be more or less their final squads and to analyse the fitness of their top stars as well to see how youngsters have fitted into the team. Also the teams in Division 4 are forbidden from taking part in the latter stages of the Championship, unless they pull off some spectacular results when those games come around. So there is an emphasis to do well for all the teams involved.

Division 1

• The first game was on Saturday night down in Croke Park where Dublin hosted reigning All-Ireland Champions, Tyrone. This also coincided with the 125th Anniversary of the GAA and there were video packages and fireworks after the game. I caught the second half of the match and it was a really good game. The tempo was of a very high pace as both sides wanted to get off to a good start and perhaps get a mental edge as there is a good chance that these two sides could meet again later on in the year as the Championship draws to a close. Dublin scored a good goal but Owen Mulligan scored an even better one. They were trading scores at one stage before Dublin had a 1-point lead in injury time, however Tyrone knocked over 3 in a row to win. The Tyrone forwards were absolutely sensational which was simply a joy to watch. The whole package of the match and celebrations afterwards were just superb and a fantastic way to kick things off.

• Galway won as expected away at Westmeath.

• As did Kerry, but what a disappointing and long journey home for Donegal as they would have had to travel practically from the bottom to the top of Ireland.

• Derry produced a shock in winning at Mayo. It’ll be interesting to see if they can keep this up, but if they do then Ulster will be all the more competitive later in the year.
  

Division 2

• Cork’s win over Meath was perhaps a bigger win than some may have expected. But Meath are going through a transitional stage and on the basis of this result, they have not settled on a strong enough team yet.

• Monaghan are a team that seem to be improving each year and their win at Fermanagh would be testament to that. It sounded like a great game too.

• Armagh racking up a huge score will probably silence the doubters, at least for a bit, who seem to write that side off as being too old. Wexford only scored 1 point in the second half is simply disgraceful, and they were the home team too. I wouldn’t have liked to have been in the dressing room after that one.

• Laois are a team that seem to have regressed in recent years and their loss at home to Kildare would surely have hurt.
  

Division 3

• Roscommon winning handily enough against Offaly was expected.
  

• Cavan’s loss at Longford was possibly a bit of a surprise. Cavan are a steely enough team who on their day can pose a stern challenge to anyone, but obviously this wasn’t their day.

• Down's victory at Tipperary was a good one and they will probably be up near the top of this division; they are too good for it.

• Limerick had a disaster at Louth, but they are more of a hurling county. And Louth on their day can give a real good account of themselves.
  

Division 4

• The only draw of the day was between Antrim and Wicklow. Antrim though, cannot have been happy with conceding 3 goals at home.

• Clare’s win at Carlow could be considered a shock
  

• London threw away a handy lead to Leitrim which would have given them a rare win
  

• Sligo hammered Kilkenny by 25 points, but expect to see the ‘Cats’ on the end of many heavy defeats as they focus all their attention on hurling and are the best in the country at that sport.
  

• Waterford had the weekend off
  

I’ll leave you with this fact. There were more people inside Croke Park than there were inside the Superbowl. And they probably got a far better match too.