Football League is 'extremely serious' and set to get more so

You can picture the scene. Two men of a certain vintage playing down the importance of the National Football League.

Individuals probably known to Liam Horan's wonderful creation 'Championship Man'.

The pair, more likely than not on opposite sides when it came to civil war politics, with barbs such as "when your crowd were in power" often uttered in defence of those occupying the high office. Harmony, however, is the order of the day when it came to where the league stood - championship was where it was at. If the hay was saved before the Munster final, then all the better!

You only have to go back to the 1990s to see marked contrasts between spring and summer fare. Dublin suffered relegation from the top tier in advance of them finally getting over the line to lift the 1995 All-Ireland. A year later, Mayo, from the depths of Division 3, contested the decider, losing narrowly to Meath after a replay. And in 1997, Tommy Lyons' Offaly belied their Division 4 status to lead Meath a merry dance in the Leinster final.

Evidence then to support the aforementioned duo's assertion of summer prominence.

In 2002, the then Allianz Football League was run off in a single calendar year for the first time. Things were about to change. A good spring campaign was now becoming the precursor to a productive summer. In time commentators would agree that only a team in Division 1 had a real chance of claiming Sam.

In advance of this year's football league, which starts this weekend, our 'two gentlemen", we hope, have moved with the times. They have already been knocked off kilter by the decision to move the All-Ireland final to July; no harvest air then to greet the victors. Word has it they are adjusting. It's also hoped they will find favour