Attendances: The bumper attendances at the weekend's matches again emphasised the surging popularity of the pre-season programmes across the provinces.

Whereas the Leinster Council have become accustomed to big crowds at the O'Byrne Cup final in recent years, frequently drawing well over 10,000 spectators, the turnouts up to and including Sunday's semi-finals have been very impressive.

But it's Ulster that has really grabbed the attention. The McKenna Cup has seen the crowds flocking to Tyrone's matches. Nearly 12,000 were in Ballybofey for last weekend's tilt with Donegal, and on the first day of the new season 8,000 came out to see the All-Ireland champions play Down in Omagh.

Dominic McCaughey, the champions' county secretary, says that the feel-good factor in Tyrone is still palpable.

"It's hard to put a finger on it, but the All-Ireland win is the biggest influence," he says about the big attendances. "The first day versus Down you might have been able to put down to a good day or the big stand in Omagh, but the crowds are keen to get back out.

"People like to come and see new managements and new players, but we have had bigger crowds than ever. Apart from the Down and Donegal games, we played St Mary's in Coalisland, which isn't a massive ground but it was fairly full and must have pulled about 5,000.

"There was a time when you'd have been lucky to have got a couple of hundred.

"I remember the first year the McKenna Cup was changed, we played Antrim in Coalisland in the fog and there were about 300 people at it. Managers are also taking the McKenna Cup more seriously than they did when it was being squeezed in between league fixtures."

The relocation of all the secondary provincial competitions to January looks to have finally created an accepted niche in the calendar for all teams to experiment with new players and prepare for the imminent National League campaign in a meaningful way.

Michael Reynolds, an officer with the Leinster Council, feels that the draw has had an effect, as there isn't the same box-office strength-in-depth within the province as exists in Ulster. Council secretary Michael Delaney also pointed out last year that the province have been very lucky with weather in recent seasons and have had hardly any postponements.

"It's down to pairings. Unlike in Ulster, we don't have so many juicy pairings, but when you do get them along with good weather you get the crowds. Probably the final between Offaly and Meath won't be the biggest we've had, but overall the interest is there."

For Tyrone, 2006 starts with the lessons of the county's first All-Ireland defence two years ago well learned.

"There's probably been less emphasis on players celebrating. Everyone learned a lot from 2003, and while there's a massive demand for the cup around the county players generally only attend at club functions in their locality at weekends.

"I think it's accepted that there would have been a number of players who lost their focus with all the celebrating. But that's been severely reduced this time and the players are a couple of years older and more mature."

Offaly's All Star football defender Cathal Daly has ruled out a return to the intercounty scene this year, but he insists he hasn't retired. There had been speculation that Daly might come back to the fold, and selector Gerry Cooney said after Sunday's win over Laois in the O'Byrne Cup that "We haven't give up hope of getting him back."

But the player put a damper on the speculation: "There has been no falling-out or anything, and I've had a few phone calls from Gerry, but this is a busy year for me on a number of fronts. I haven't retired, and maybe in 2007 I might come back into it. I just don't have the time this year. If you're going to be playing at that level, you need to give it 100 per cent and I can't do that this year."

Daly is a garda based in Castlecomer, Kilkenny.

Conor Evans is also out of contention as he is spending a year in Australia.