For every county in Ireland bar Kilkenny, the national football league gets underway this weekend and the viewing public are set to get their first snapshot of how various teams are likely to fare in 2010. While many counties will continue to experiment to a certain degree in the league, the difference in intensity between this weekend and the preseason competitions is sure to be noticeable as teams look to get their season off to a decent start and take the pressure off the latter stages of the competition. For now we’re going to look at the games in division one and two, with the lower divisions to follow later.

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We commented in a previous post that there were a couple of the leagues that appeared to offer each way value, but despite our original intention to hold off making any recommendations until the new year in order to see which counties were starting the season at full pace, the recent experimental rule changes has forced our hand somewhat, meaning that it’s well worth taking an early punt just in case the price were to move, which is not unlikely.

Despite the notional ban on intercounty training, one would do well to find an inactive county all across Ireland at the moment, with managers looking to find the extra edge that will propel their sides forward in 2010. The Christmas period in particular is likely to be quite arduous for many players, with the trend of managers using the holidays to suss out how much players are interested in the “sacrifices” currently very prominent.

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