There’s something every GAA fan should know. That is, that it’s simply impossible to run at full pace for the full hour and not tear ligaments, hamstrings, and injure the body in a plethora of places, unless you have trained very hard, over a prolonged period, in order to avoid that.

No team could play at anything near full throttle for the total 70 + extra time minutes, without having several players seriously injured during the course of the game. That’s not anything new to anyone, but most ordinary observers of the game might not have that to the forefront of their minds.

So if anyone follows a particular team, without that knowledge, they’d be very disappointed with their teams display, unless the team had broken the law, and had training sessions, or else if the team had individually taken it upon themselves to stay fit.  Residual fitness can quickly vanish if not maintained constantly. This applies to all the top teams.

But the very elite top teams have enough incentive to keep at it, throughout the year, without any pause. Any player who can seriously hope to be in the mix at the end of the season, or end up with a Gold medal, must surely be different from those at the other end of the scale.    There’s a big difference between Kerry and Longford, taken in that prism of thought, and nobody can doubt, or deny that.

There are the real elite teams who train as a matter of course, and won’t allow their bodies be anything except always ready. So the games at the weekend were good at the very top level, but below that, in many cases, teams weren’t prepared for one full tilt match. They couldn’t possibly be, by observing lockdown rules. Or else staying fit themselves.

In every team in every county, there are always some players who train away for their own enjoyment, but the fact is, that for players in weaker counties, something else can quickly elbow the training aside, in favour of other work, which is equally important.  So when Longford met Derry at the weekend, it wasn’t a balanced situation at all. Far from it.

I know, having talked to reliable GAA people off the record, that with exception of Cavan & Down, every single team in the northern province were collectively training away, plus doing their own individual stuff, along with several challenge matches to get them up to speed, so to speak. Yes, that’s several challenge matches. The dogs own the GAA street knew that.....

Kerry, were one team who never broke the lockdown, just for the record. So the only Kerryman who may have travelled during lockdown, or may not, I don’t know, was Kieran Donaghy who is now with Armagh!                                                                                                   Before they ever took the field, I’d wager most Longford players thought the two teams who met in Pearse Park, were in the same boat. Not so. Little wonder they looked bad.