Tyrone legend Peter Canavan has expressed surprise that his own county and Kerry - the last two winners of the Sam Maguire Cup - have been largely overlooked in the All-Ireland conversation.
Canavan himself pointed to Dublin as the most likely winner during a chat yesterday among RTE TV analysts whilst new Division One league champions Mayo have been widely tipped to finally end their Championship famine.
Fellow pundit Lee Keegan played up Division One finalists and 2022 All-Ireland runners-up Galway while, at one stage, Canavan jokingly intervened to remind the other analysts that Tyrone were also involved in the competition.
Speaking afterwards, Canavan said that even with his own Dublin prediction in mind, he can't believe that more people have written off Tyrone and Kerry so early.
"We also had a debate last Sunday night and predictions were made - Kerry weren't really mentioned," said Canavan. "The last two All-Ireland winners, nobody has predicted them to win this year. With Tyrone, I'm not surprised. But with Kerry, I'm very surprised. They have a lot of young and up and coming players and they have the best player in the country playing for them. So it's surprising that they have been under the radar.
"People could be reading too much into Tyrone winning it, celebrating, going on holiday and all the rest of it and not coming back well then. Is that why people are writing Kerry off now? It seems to be because, by and large, they have the same panel of players that they had last year. I certainly wouldn't rule them out. Them and Dublin are still going to have a big say in who wins the All-Ireland."
If Tyrone are to do it again, Canavan's two sons, Darragh and Ruairi, will surely have a significant say in it. Both are prodigious forwards, with Ruairi breaking onto the scene this season and making four National League appearances, scoring two important points in the win over Kerry.
"He was tied up with the U-20s so he didn't actually see that much action," said two-time All-Ireland winner Canavan. "They're going to have to earn their spot on the team. We just hope that we can look forward to a long season."
On how the likes of Tyrone and Kerry may approach the Championship and their quests to regain Sam, Canavan said that is the big unknown in the first season of the new All-Ireland qualifier group.
"It's a complete battle of wits in terms of preparation," he said. "For a team that's in Division One, you're going to be in the round robin no matter what you do, so for a lot of teams I would say their priority would be being in tip-top shape for the round robin rather than being in the tip-top shape for the provincial championships.
"This is the first year of the system and there's going to be a lot of learnings in it. What happens this year will shape next year. For example, Mayo, they went flat out in the league, played great football. If they do the same in Connacht and win it and they go on and win the All-Ireland, then that's the approach that every team will want next year.
"But let's say Kerry come and win it again this year. They've been mediocre in the league, we haven't seen them at their best yet, so they may not set the world alight and they could even struggle through the round robin and then come really strong to win the All-Ireland.
"Then a lot of managers may think, 'We've got to pace this, this is a marathon, this is not a sprint anymore'. That's the learnings that we're going to find out as the season develops. We're going to find out what approach is best."
Meanwhile, Canavan called on the GAA to consider affording National League finalists at least a two-week break before the Championship. Sligo, Mayo and Wicklow all contested finals last weekend yet will return to action within a week.
"The likes of Sligo and Mayo deserve better and the competition deserves better," he said. "You are entitled to enjoy getting to national finals and winning them, so ideally for those teams that competed last weekend, I think it's only fair that they get a two-week break."
Canavan also took a pop at the GAA for not marketing the leagues better.
"If lessons are to be learned in terms of PR, the GAA sell themselves short when it comes to the marketing of the league," said the former Fermanagh manager. "It started probably with a whimper in terms of PR and the final weekend deserved better."
