So many questions have arisen from the first weekend of the national leagues, so many statements allegedly made, so many conclusions drawn – so much to be blown out of the water in a few days’ time.

I have to laugh when I heard the mutterings of supporters, even some pundits, talking in absolutes after just 70 minutes of January. The hurlers of Cork, Clare and Wexford are doing everything right while Kilkenny, Waterford and Tipperary are ... wait for it, “a bit behind”.

By next Sunday evening, all will be different, with at least two of those supposedly in trouble back in the winner’s enclosure. Home advantage and necessity should see Kilkenny and Tipperary make Nowlan Park and Semple Stadium count, while Wexford and Cork could be the game of the weekend down Slaneyside. It’s a pretty good bet that the winners of that match will be the only unbeaten side left in the top flight. For a week or two at least.

We are living in an age when we are told we have to watch something because it is amazing and hilarious, when the team that wins something is the greatest ever and so on. This form of absolutism is now creeping into Gaelic games.

Dangerous conclusions

Kilkenny are gone? When will people learn? They’ve lost two games in eight days that didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things: one in extra time, one by a single score. I read in one national paper that Cody had to go? Calm yourselves, lads.

The same is true of Offaly’s hurling renaissance. Much as we’d all like to see it, much as hurling needs it, there was only the one swallow flying over Croke Park on Saturday night.

There will be a couple of takeaways from each weekend in both codes. That’s about the size of it. By the end of the leagues, there will be peaks and troughs that every county enjoys. So hang back from conclusions just yet.

Teething problems

The first thing to catch my eye last weekend was the state of the pitch at the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh. They spent millions building a fantastic stadium and still the field is dodgy under the main stand. Not good enough in this day and age – even if it is the first month of the year.

We had similar problems in Cusack Park in Ennis a few years back but invested, got the job done and now we have a wonderful surface, winter or summer, rain or shine. A brand new stadium always takes a little while to bed in but that must be sorted with such a busy year ahead.

The second item that could be sorted overnight is the decision to charge €15 into national league games. That really is a little steep in January and February. Surely a tenner would be plenty?

On the field, so to speak, Cork had an up and down night. This was, remember, the first time their county sides played in the new facility.

Tipperary put a dampener on the evening and injected a little reality around their footballers. The Rebels travel to Down this weekend and further disappointment lies ahead, the Mourne men having opened their campaign with a win over Louth away from home. It could be a long spring down by the Lee.

The GAA schedulers usually open the football with a couple of juicy encounters that hark back to the recent summer; it would appear that they waited for the second round of matches on this occasion. The Dubs travel to Tyrone for a Saturday night date under lights, while Kerry do the very same thing in Castlebar.

A repeat of both All-Ireland semi-finals, what odds the August results will be overturned? About 6/1 actually and it might be value. The Dubs are always beatable, yet end up hardly ever losing. Funny that.

This weekend though they will really earn it and it might be a little early in the year for them to go to the well. Their hosts need the win after slipping up in Galway in round one and the nature of that loss will have induced a little indignation from the Red Hand camp.

They’re always the more dangerous for that mood. The All-Ireland champions, the team that waltzed through them six months ago, will be the perfect house guests. You know the rest: multiple cards, low scoring, niggly and when the dust settles, a draw or a one-score game.

The opposite should be the case out west. Mayo and Kerry usually entertain and bring out the best in each other. Neither should be unduly worried about league positions or results, as individual performances are the real metric.

Kingdom young guns Sean O’Shea and David Clifford had them nodding knowingly to each other in Fitzgerald Stadium last Sunday. The future, as ever, is secure in Kerry and they could ride that momentum all the way up the M18, a shorter journey now with the new road. They’ll be home in no time!

Donegal’s 3-14 total with 14 men for a lot of the game in Killarney is another takeaway from the weekend. They have Galway in Ballybofey and a week after living with and beating Tyrone, the Tribe could yet be the surprise package of the premier league. It will be a surprise, however, if they are still unbeaten come 4pm Sunday.

The Lilywhites are supposedly all the better for getting Dublin out of the way first but of course it doesn’t work out that way. They have fellow first-round losers Monaghan in Newbridge and this might have the air of one of these relegation four-pointers we will shortly be hearing about!

Every county is out this weekend, almost all more than once.

There are also intermediate and junior finals in Croke Park, a host of Fitzgibbon and Sigerson Cup contests during the week. Yet in April, when the pitch in Cork will be in tip top shape and the weather warmer, county teams go into hibernation? ’Twill be the end of the world, ’twill finish the club game, the county game, the GAA itself. Calm yourselves, lads. CL

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