As we hit March, the GAA season is picking up pace and thank God for that I say.

This weekend the footballers take centre stage (although there will be a decent hurling gathering in Belfast for the Fitzgibbon hurling extravaganza).

If you are a decent hurler or footballer these days, then the coming months are your busiest. Strange as it sounds though, January, February and March mean your hardest training sessions, the tough physical work and the most matches. Come June, July and August, counties will only play a handful of games, if that, while their clubs sally on without them.

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None of that will bother Colm Cooper this GAA year, although you can bet he wishes it did. The best footballer that Kerry has produced in a generation (and that is saying something) will miss this season because of injury, and his loss is still reverberating around the Kingdom.

The Gooch was in my daughter’s school in Tralee the week before his All-Ireland club semi-final, and in a question and answer session he told the primary school students of Balloonagh that he had been relatively lucky with injuries. His luck ran out, as did Crokes and Kerry when he went over on his left knee. The spring and summer will be poorer without him.

This weekend Kerry travel to Castlebar to face Mayo in the marquee of the football match-ups. On the same day, Kildare tangle with Tyrone, while Cork and Dublin go under lights on Saturday night. Apart from possibly Donegal, these are the teams that will ultimately decide Sam Maguire this year and, apart from the loss of the Gooch, they all look decidedly healthy at this early stage.

This usually isn’t the case. This time last year, Kerry couldn’t score in the double figures and people were wondering if they would even reach the Munster final. Naturally, they were a kick of a ball away from an All-Ireland final.

This summer will test them, but the conveyor belt still churns them out in Kerry and, thanks to the anomaly that is the football championship, they are literally guaranteed a place in the last 12, possibly the last eight. They have Cooper, Paul Galvin and Tomas O’Se to replace, and few counties could cope with those losses, but don’t be surprised if Kerry manage it. Never a spring team, they will still have a say down the road.

We’d love to be able to say that about Mayo but, really, we don’t know where to start. Like their opponents on Sunday, they have lost both of their opening league contests, both shame-free defeats, but with the Green and Red, we don’t know how they are. The best team in Ireland last year, despite the paucity of their All-Ireland final performance, Mayo ‘just keep doing a Mayo’ on it. They’ll beat Kerry on Sunday and probably look good doing it, but their issues won’t really surface until late August/September.

Cork and Dublin go under lights in Croker and this is a genuine top of the table clash. Both have won their first two games and the Dubs, thanks to the GAA’s fondness for giving them home advantage, nearly can’t help landing in a league semi-final or final these days. They should beat the new-look Cork and they will certainly look good doing it because, in fairness to the Dubs, they play the most attractive brand of football out there. While us culchies like to see the cup going down the country, no one can deny that this Dublin team are great for football.

Which is a neat segway into Tyrone and Kildare. Neither team play for the purists but they can play fairly effective football in terms of results, with Tyrone being the best example of a team that knows how to win. It mightn’t have been pretty, but there is no room for explanations on the roll of honour silver that’s hammered onto the Sam Maguire Cup, the bit that reads Tir Eoghain for 2003, 2005 and 2008.

The Lillywhites are devoid of silverware in recent times, but they are never far away. All they are lacking is a bit of luck and composure at the vital times (see Mayo) and, shorn of Kieran McGeeney, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they made a burst this summer under Jason Ryan. First-year managers can often build on what was left to them with their own spark of momentum, and Kildare could take down a Dublin this year – they are capable. A win against Mickey Harte’s latest incarnation on Sunday would stand to them.

Westmeath and Derry round out Division One and both of these were probably considered relegation candidates at the start of the competition, although Derry are one win away from safety and they should manage that at home in Celtic Park this Sunday.

Westmeath almost overachieved in reaching Division One and are finding life difficult there. That’s often the way for a team who aren’t used to playing the top teams every week. But the bigger picture here is what counts, and by the league’s end they will have found their feet and that will stand to them more than they suspect come championship.

They have Louth first, with the winners playing Kildare. If Pat Flanagan’s team hold their nerve come June and beat Louth, they can rattle the Lillywhites. That’s what they are building towards.

The game that catches the eye in Division Two is the rematch of the Ulster final between Donegal and Monaghan. There will be a decent crowd in Letterkenny to see the home side inflict a small form of revenge. Jim McGuinness has been quiet, but his team have done some early talking on the pitch and after two wins out of two, Donegal have a plus 20 points in the scoring column.

The Ulster champions haven’t been too shabby either, winning one and drawing one, but beating Meath by 12 points in Clones last time out. So this could be the game that has the most bite and intensity of the weekend.

My money is on Donegal and a host of black cards. The winners should have a clear road back to the top division and a small marker laid down for the days ahead.

And that’s what these weekends are about – the days ahead. We’re into March now, can Cheltenham, April, May and championship be far behind? CL