THE LAST POINT: Appetisers set up the main course

The time for main course has  arrived, now that the appetisers were served last weekend - the ACL Finals were a worthy palate cleanser ahead of an action packed two or three months that will ultimately end with a handful of delighted teams and the rest disappointed in varying degrees.

If the Leagues are intended to set the tone for the championship, they did that and more with last weekend's Men's Finals setting the scene nicely ahead of the start of the Connacht Gold SFC, the Smith Monumentals IFC & Fresh Today Junior A Championships with the Ladies also throwing their hat into the ring as Sunday sees the Sweeney Oil LGFA Club Championship commence.

The weird thing about the Leagues is that they're played at roughly the best time of the year yet in the overall scheme of things, they're not regarded with that much love or affection because the championship is what sucks up all the oxygen in the room - discussion of the Leagues normally a direct reference to how a team is going in relation to the championship.

It is a curious phenomenon in the GAA world - championships have evolved greatly over the last quarter century to involve at least some semblance of a group or league stages but the knockout element of the competition still holds its vice-like grip on the psyche of the GAA going public.

Other than soccer, nearly all other major field sports around the world are League based with a knockout system at the end - or the playoffs as our friends in the US like to call them! Thirty two teams in the NFL play 16 games to determine which 12 make the knockout stages, baseball plays a frankly astonishing 162 games in their regular season before teams see the playoffs while the NBA has an 82 game marathon before they get to the knockout stages.

THE LAST POINT: LEITRIM'S CAPITAL GAINS ON THE RISE

At least the NFL then goes pure knockout in their playoffs but both the MLB and NBA have a 'best of' series to determine who advances. Even our good friends in the AFL in Australia have a 23 game regular season for their 18 teams before they reach the playoffs with their intricate system of elimination, preliminary and playoff finals before the Grand Final in October.

For soccer aficionados, as much as winning a Cup is cherished, the league is where it is at - a test of the best team over a 38 game season in the Premier League with European and domestic Cups thrown in the mix but the League is the one to win. Of course, the GAA world doesn't do that and that's down to its unique selling point - players who sell out Croke Park in the battle for Sam or Liam  are also those who go hunting for local glory with their clubs and, in the GAA world, that means the championship.

Back in the good auld days of one and down knockout championship, County Finals were held on the last Sunday in August in this County, often a triple header as club players got to play, and train, at the time of the year when the days were longer, temperatures usually hotter and pitches harder and more consistent - in other words, the best possible conditions on which to perform your best.

It is no coincidence that as the Club season has been pushed back later and later in the year, playing surfaces have had to be upgraded - the proud boast of a natural playing surface that didn't need any work is long gone with 'all weather' surfaces not a necessity but an imperative as the weather we're talking about is usually crap!

Hopefully, we'll get good weather for the club campaigns but chances are, by the time the finals roll around in late October, we'll all be bundled up in coats and jumpers, praying the rain and wind doesn't make a lottery of the biggest day in the club season - all after we played out a League, that most fans and even clubs don't rate, in the best possible conditions.

Conditions can change how football is played and I'm not sure how likely it is that we'll see the scorelines that were put up in the League Finals this weekend at the end of October - Allen Gaels' staggering 4-25, Kiltubrid's 3-20 or the remarkable 2-17 to 0-21 scoreline, admittedly after extra-time, in the Division 1 Final.

Frankly the heart goes out to Fenagh St Caillins who again came up short against St Mary's - the Carrick men have a knack of winning tight games but they've been caught out a few times as Ballinamore did in last year's Semi-Final. But they look a team designed to perform under all conditions and that might be a factor when we come to October.

Fenagh are caught somewhere between the Mayo team who contested so many All-Ireland Finals over the past 15 years and the Dublin team pre-2011 - like Mayo, they have struggled to get over the line despite their immense talent and physical attributes and the more they don't get over that line, the thicker and wider the line becomes.

But maybe like the Dubs in 2011, all it takes is one breakthrough, one moment that kicks the door open and leads to an incredible future because, age wise, Fenagh are quite a young team, with a few exceptions, and there is no doubting that the raw tools are there to lift the Fenagh Cup.

Right now, we're at the stage where everyone has hope in their heart - some are struggling to find form but believe all they need is one good result to get them going, others have been building steadily and impressively - say hello Leitrim Gaels, Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins and Allen Gaels! But at the moment, everyone is in the same boat, not quite knowing how their season will go or develop.

THE LAST POINT: GREAT EXPECTATION, GREATER HEARTACHE

The uncertainty in the Men's Senior competition isn't reflected in the ladies where Glencar Manorhamilton and St Joseph's look a good step ahead of their rivals, definitely the teams to beat in 2025, as they have been for the last three or four campaigns. But that's the beauty of the championship - as much as one good result can ignite a team's championship ambitions, a bad result can derail the best laid plans.

There are a few new wrinkles this year - the four game group stage format is the same at Senior & Intermediate level but the fact there are only eight teams at Senior and that three teams are being relegated in Intermediate raises the stakes even further. No game is a gimme  and nobody can afford a slip-up with a tougher standard in both competitions and an enormous knock-on effect in the Junior grade too.

Players have been training since January in many cases but the time for prevarication and speculation is over - now is the time to deliver and that brings out the best in some as much as it causes others to buckle and that is what the magic of the championship is. 

We've had the appetisers of the leagues, the main course is about to be served and then, whoever wins, will have the dessert of a Connacht Championship campaign. All we can do is wish everyone the best of luck and maybe pray for a bit of good weather when the Finals eventually come around!