David Byrne eyes perfect autumn after a 'deadly summer' with the Dublin footballers

Pre-2018, last Sunday - barring the need for an All-Ireland final replay - would have been the final day of the inter-county football season.

That third Sunday in September, sometimes the fourth, was always a keynote date in the Irish sporting calendar.

For many, it heralded autumn's beginning, with the spectre of shorter days to come. There are those who still pine for September All-Irelands. What we have for now and will have again next year are July finishes to the football and hurling campaigns, the demarcating line in the GAA's split season.

Somebody who was involved right throughout this year's football championship was Dublin defender David Byrne. At the end of it all, he picked up an eighth All-Ireland medal as Dessie Farrell's side got the better of old foes Kerry in the decider on 30 July.

There is no such longing or nostalgia from Byrne as to the significance of September. July's conclusion is perfect.

At a media event to mark ten years of AIG's sponsorship of Dublin GAA, the Naomh Ólaf clubman said: "I've had a deadly summer, in recent years I would have just completed the All-Ireland, so it's been good. The split season is much fairer on the largest number who play our games.

"From my perspective as an inter-county and club player the fact that inter-county ended in July, and then to play with the club thereafter is certainly the best of both worlds. In previous years when I came back to the club it was winter football and you're training on floodlit pitches in the rain. It was great this year to come back to the club with summer in full flight.

"The gap between inter-county games now is just right. Back in 2013 when I started, we would have been training for four weeks between games, which was completely