Seán Moran takes at look at the current state of health of teams in Division One A and Division One B
Division One A
Cork v Kerry, Satuday, 7.30, Páirc Uí Rinn
Having dominated the close-season headlines for different reasons these teams will feel a sense of relief at refocusing their attentions on the field. This will be the fourth meeting in little over seven months. Whereas Cork won Munster, the All-Ireland defeat in August was a traumatic experience with the team's most effective mechanisms going haywire.
Manager Larry Tompkins used the league most effectively in 1999 by developing the team that was to reach that year's All-Ireland. This season he says will see some changes but within the panel. "A number of guys have been on the panel since last year so we can try out a few fellas and see what they're made of without bringing people in from the cold."
Colin Corkery is minding himself before Nemo's All-Ireland club semi-final whereas John Miskella and Seán Levis, with ankle and hamstring injuries, are longer-term absentees.
Kerry begin the laboratory tests to see if new county captain Barry O'Shea can solve the full- back conundrum and release Séamus Moynihan for more creative work. That has been a pressing concern in recent years but Páidí Ó Sé and his selectors will also be monitoring the fortunes of the half forwards and trying to blood some cover at centrefield.
Roscommon v Tyrone, Sunday, 2.30, Dr Hyde Park
Both teams have in common an encouraging league last year followed by a disastrous championship and management upheaval. Tyrone won't be as motivated to retain the league they won for the first time and in any case new manager Mickey Harte and a number of players are going to be distracted by Errigal Ciarán's club campaign.
If the holders have under-achieved in the past opponents Roscommon have to an extent over-achieved. The 2001 Connacht title was a level from which there was always likely to be a falling off. The hammering by Cavan in last year's league semi-final and the untimely outbreak of buffoonery that followed it helped deflate the championship challenge.
Manager Tom Carr acknowledges that there is rebuilding to be done. "The players were addressed by myself and the county board and I think the mood is settled now. Fergal O'Donnell and Don Connellan have retired and Seamus O'Neill has to have a knee operation, which rules him out for two or three matches. We'll take it, in the words of the cliché, game by game."
This will be difficult for Carr. O'Donnell's leadership qualities were betrayed by his fading prowess on the field but with O'Neill out short-term, new centrefield talent will have to be found.
Dublin v Armagh, Sunday, 2.30, Croke Park
The GAA fixtures computer deserves credit for front-loading some decent fixtures at the start of the league season. Listening to the two managers doing avuncular turns at a press conference during the week, one thing shone through: the desire of both Tommy Lyons and Joe Kernan to discover some new players.
Kernan's need isn't as obvious although in that meticulous way of his, he'll have noted the difficulties defending champions have in keeping themselves fresh and that - as much as positional deficiencies - will encourage new recruitment.
Lyons made no secret of his wish to strengthen the half forwards and defence. The selection of Tomás Quinn is significant in that the St Vincent's player was consistently the best performer in training with a placed ball but was considered too slight to nail down a first-team place. Now, after an All-Ireland campaign with the under-21s, he is given his chance to prove himself in general play.
Galway v Donegal, Sunday, 2.30, Tuam
Matches between this pair have frequently been eventful but each will have separate agendas for the year ahead. Galway performed poorly in losing their All-Ireland title and will feel steep improvement is attainable. Donegal, for their part, know that emulating last season would be an achievement.
Brian McEniff's fifth stint with the county team brings experience to bear on that problem but his luminous track record can cause difficulties if it raises expectation to unreasonable levels. He hasn't lost any players and will hope to find one or two more although he accepts that predecessor Mickey Moran did a good job of selection.
For opposite number John O'Mahony the cupboard is well stocked. Last autumn's under-21 success highlighted the improvement made by Joe Bergin and gave glimpses of some striking new talent, which is coming through in the county in the shape of Micheál Meehan and Michael Comer. Selection will centre on how much more can be mined out of the veteran duo of Tomás Mannion and Kevin Walsh.
Divison One B
Kildare v Cavan, Sunday, 2.30, Newbridge
Padraig Nolan's O'Byrne Cup success landed the county a piece of silverware unseen in Kildare since 1989. As a performance it left plenty of room for improvement but there was a spry quality of early-season optimism in some of the moves and Glenn Ryan's return was timely and encouraging.
Aidan McHugh put in some good work at centrefield where Dermot Earley needs support now that Wille McCreery and Niall Buckley aren't around. But all in all, there shouldn't be too significant a change.
Cavan on the other hand are different. Manager Matt Kerrigan was disappointed that an encouraging run to the league final evaporated from consideration when his team was getting stick for unhappy championship displays.
"There'll be a big change to the panel this year," he says. "We've brought in new players to see if they can put down a marker for the year ahead. We'll also plan a bit differently. The training programme has changed so that we won't be regarding winning every match as the be-all of the league."
Mayo v Sligo, Sunday, 2.30, Castlebar
Familiar faces to each other, these teams are managed by two of Mayo's management team from 1996 and 1997. John Maughan is back with the county after a three-year break whereas Peter Forde faces into another year with Sligo after great championship kudos last summer - giving eventual champions Armagh a hard time in the quarter-finals.
According to Maughan he has better quality players this time around, but that remains to be seen.
Some old faces have faded away, with Colm McManamon, Noel Connelly and David Nestor calling it a day. David Brady and Marty McNicholas are concentrating on rugby so a fair sprinkling of new players have been brought in.
"There are 10 or 12 new guys on the panel," says Maughan.
Although he announced himself with a league run in 1996 Maughan says now he'd "be happier if we come out at the end of it and say that we found three or four new players".
Meath v Laois, Sunday, 2.30, Navan
There's nearly 50 years' intercounty managerial experience between Seán Boylan and Mick O'Dwyer as they line up tomorrow. For both the coming year is a huge challenge. By all accounts O'Dwyer is as enthusiastic as ever in his new posting in Laois and has trialled around 80 players for the panel of 30 he takes into the league. Significantly he has rounded up the prodigal talent of Hughie Emerson and Damien Delaney, as well as Colm Parkinson and Derek Conroy.
Boylan has as big a job as he has ever faced since taking over in Meath. It's all very well to point out that the previous watershed in his career - the whacking by Dublin in 1995 - was followed a year later by an All-Ireland but circumstances are different. This time around the under-age conveyor belt that was rolling in the early 1990s isn't in operation and John McDermott still needs replacing at centrefield whereas the move of Darren Fay to centre back reflects both concerns about the pivotal position as well as unease over the full-back problems of last summer. Trevor Giles will be away for another few weeks.
Fermanagh v Down, Sunday, 2.30, Enniskillen
Down enter a new era of their own with the first competitive match under Paddy O'Rourke's management, after 13 years with Peter McGrath at the helm. Circumstances are superficially similar to back in 1989 with a minor All-Ireland won recently but there is a shortage of the more experienced quality that players like O'Rourke himself, DJ Kane, Greg Blaney et al brought to McGrath's early years.
Fermanagh were crushed by Kerry in last summer's qualifiers, which struck a terrible blow at their self-esteem in contesting the highest level. Dominic Corrigan hopes to put it down to experience and press on but they could really do with a restorative league campaign.
