AND WE’RE BACK.

After what felt like an eternity, competitive action returns to the inter-county scene this weekend. The tightening of the All-Ireland football and hurling championships meant the off-season stretched on for longer than usual this winter.

Galway footballers stand for national anthem. Source: Tommy Dickson/INPHO

The void was filled with plenty of negativity, from media bans (Tipperary and Derry hurlers), hikes in ticket prices and football’s much-maligned experimental rules to player burnout.

Thankfully the return of the Allianz Leagues this weekend means the focus will shift back to on-field matters – for the time being at least. The public appetite for games after the long break was evidenced by eye-catching numbers at the pre-season competitions.

A huge crowd of 11,3180 took in the Tyrone-Armagh McKenna Cup final on Saturday night, while an estimated 6,000 attended the recent O’Byrne Cup semi-final meeting between Dublin and Meath and the Munster hurling league final between Tipperary and Clare drew a respectable 4,531 to a neutral venue, the Gaelic Grounds.

On the back of arguably the greatest season in its history, hurling managed to rumble along quietly and avoid the sort of winter talk that followed football like a bad smell over the last few months.

At least seven counties have a realistic chance of lifting Liam MacCarthy in August, so we look set for another thrilling summer in the small ball code. The league, on the other hand, will be a little less ferocious than it has been in the past due to the upcoming restructures that will take effect from 2020.

Nickie Quaid makes the save of 2018 on Cork's Seamus Harnedy. Source: Tommy Dickson/INPHO

There won’t be any relegation or promotion between the top two tiers at the end of this campaign, as both Division 1A and 1B will be redrawn into two six-team groups of relatively equal strength in time for the following campaign.

There will be more opportunity for experimentation in 1A, something which all six top flight managers will welcome with open arms. The rigours of the new round-robin format in the provincial championships proved that strength in depth is a basic requirement for any side looking to extend their season into the late summer.

A layer of intrigue surrounds the return of the big ball code. In truth, the league is inter-county football’s best competition, where sides of equal ability are pitted against one another. Imagine that.

The handpass rule has been ditched, but four of the experimental rules still remain in place. The most impactful of those is likely to be the offensive mark, which wasn’t quite embraced by teams during the pre-season competitions.

That’s understandable, given the fact that the rule changes won’t apply to this summer’s championship, while the belief that few rules would even be retained for the league meant few teams looked to exploit them.

But for the counties who view the league as their most important competition, they would be well-advised to make the most of a rule that has the potential to dramatically alter the way teams attack.

Take the final few minutes of Tyrone’s McKenna Cup final win over Armagh as an example. The Orchard County are chasing a one-point deficit with 90 seconds of stoppage-time remaining:

Tyrone’s Kyle Coney picks up a ball on the touchline and instead of playing keep-ball, he takes out two defenders with a great delivery directly into the chest of Cathal McShane.

Under the old rules, it was a high-risk pass to play with a big chance of a turnover. Three Armagh defenders would have converged on McShane and looked to surround him and force him into overcarrying the ball.

Instead, he calls his mark and duly sticks the ball between the posts, handing Tyrone a two-point win.

Kieran McGeeney did complain afterwards about the time it took McShane to take his kick.

In the Tyrone forward’s defence, the presence of four orange jerseys in front of him made it difficult to get his shot away inside the 15 seconds allotted for an offensive mark.

The game’s most innovative coaches might not start coming up with ways to take advantage of the rule change until it’s properly written into law.

But if the league is indeed the most important competition for many lower-tier sides, Division 4 could be the place where the offensive mark is taken advantage of the most.

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Aside from the experimental rules, there are plenty of interesting storylines as the leagues return:

1. James Horan’s return to the Mayo hot seat was one of the most fascinating off-season appointments. His pedigree is clear after bringing Mayo to All-Ireland finals in 2012 and 2013, but the major question mark surrounds how he will freshen the ageing squad with young blood.

James Horan is back in inter-county management. Source: James Crombie/INPHO

Rob Hennelly, a regular between the posts during Horan’s previous reign, gets the nod to start in the opener tomorrow night against Roscommon. Diarmuid O’Connor has been named to start at midfield, the position many in the county believe is his best.

There will be much focus on the two exciting debutants in attack – Brian Reape and Conor Diskin. Reape, an All-Ireland U21 winner in 2016, is in good form after scoring 1-4 from play in his two FBD League starts.

Liam Sheedy resigned as Tipp boss after their 2010 All-Ireland win. Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO

2. When Liam Sheedy stepped down as Tipperary manager in 2010, the hurling landscape was an entirely different one. The Premier and Kilkenny were by far and away the two strongest teams in the country and both played a very traditional style of hurling.

In 2019, it wouldn’t be a great surprise to see any of the top nine could beat one another in the championship. A round-robin format adds an extra layer to the provincial championships and stylistically, the game has become far more tactically nuanced.

Wexford and Waterford employed sweepers frequently over the last few years. Even Brian Cody has come around to the benefits of short puck-outs and working the ball out of defence through the lines.

How Sheedy adapts his tactical approach to the modern game will be worth watching, particularly when it comes to the Tipp side who looked devoid of ideas at stages in Michael Ryan’s final year. Sheedy’s decision to name Seamus Callanan as captain is a deliberate ploy to get the best out of the 30-year-old, who badly struggled with injury in 2018 and will be looking to hit the ground running tonight.

David Clifford is aiming for a return near the end of the league. Source: James Crombie/INPHO

3. The fascination in Kerry surrounds Peter Keane’s debut campaign in charge, and the number of minor graduates he’ll introduce to the team. The Kingdom are second favourites to lift the Division 1 title, a competition they last won in 2017.

Keane is currently working without at least 10 members of his panel, including Jason Foley, Kevin McCarthy, Peter Crowley, Mark Griffin and superstar David Clifford, who is likely to miss a sizeable chunk of the league after undergoing shoulder surgery.

The five players involved with Dr Crokes will be unavailable until after their interests in the All-Ireland club series is over. Three games over 13 days against Tyrone, Cavan, and Dublin will seriously test Kerry’s strength in depth. Remaining in the top flight will be their number one priority.

Brian Fenton is expected to be part of the Dublin squad to face Monaghan on Sunday. Source: Oisin Keniry/INPHO

4. A legacy-defining season for Dublin begins with a trip to face Monaghan in Clones on Sunday. Jim Gavin’s players have been conspicuous in their absence from media events so far in 2019, which suggests they’ll be looking to keep a low profile for the season. There’s a danger of Dublin overthinking things, but nobody knows better than Gavin what it takes to keep his players primed to ascent the summit.

Dublin will be without James McCarthy (recovering from knee surgery) for the early rounds of the league while Cian O’Sullivan and Paul Mannion (resting after Kilmacud’s run to the Leinster final) are expected to be eased back into action over the coming weeks.

Gavin traditionally starts the league with a strong team. After the 2015 All-Ireland final that started their current run of four-in-a-row, he began the 2016 league against Kerry with nine starters from the previous September. Nine survivors from the 2016 All-Ireland final lined out in the 2017 league opener against Cavan, with eight members of the 2017 All-Ireland final team making the cut for the start of last year’s league against Kildare.

Their record in the first round of the league under Gavin stands at seven wins and one defeat, with Cork’s Pairc Ui Rinn victory in 2015 Dublin’s standalone loss.

Dublin in round 1 of the league under Jim Gavin:

2013 – Dublin 1-18 Cork 2-9, Croke Park

2014 – Dublin 2-8 Kerry 1-10, Croke Park

2015 – Cork 1-15 Dublin 0-16, Pairc Ui Rinn

2016 – Dublin 2-14 Kerry 0-14, Croke Park

2017 – Cavan 0-11 Dublin 0-18, Kingspan Breffni Park

2018 – Dublin 2-17 Kildare 2-10, Croke Park

Limerick’s Cian Lynch takes a selfie with a fan after the Munster hurling league game against Tipperary. Source: Oisin Keniry/INPHO

5. How will Limerick react to being defending All-Ireland champions for the first time since 1974?

They’re back in the top flight of the league after an eight-year wait with the added bonus that there’s no relegation from Division 1A to worry about this year.

John Kiely and his players made all the right noises over the winter. ”For us, 2019 is a new season,” Kiely stressed ahead of the league. Traditionally in sport, when a team ends a long wait for glory, they often struggle in the subsequent campaign.

Despite winning possibly the toughest championship there has ever been, Limerick are currently joint-third favourites to repeat the trick in 2019.

All-Ireland hurling betting:

11/4 – Galway (favourites)

9/2 – Tipperary

5/1 – Cork

5/1 – Limerick

6/1 – Kilkenny

8/1 – Clare

The challenge for Kiely is to revitalize his starting team with some new faces to fit around the All-Ireland-winning team. Having their eight Na Piarsaigh players available from the beginning of the year is an added boost.

Kiely has sounded a strong statement of intent for the coming weeks, naming a side with 11 players that started last August’s win over Galway. Davy Fitzgerald’s Wexford should have more physical work under their belts at this stage, but Kiely said recently he’s pleased his players came back from their Liam MacCarthy celebrations “in pretty decent shape”.

Just over a week out from the 2019 Six Nations openers, Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey are joined by Bernard Jackman to look at Ireland’s bid for another Grand Slam:

Source: The42 Rugby Weekly/SoundCloud