NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: SEÁN MORAN on how counties continue to use the league for what they can get out of it, without committing for even as long as two months

THE UNREQUITED affections of the league – like many ultimately unbalanced relationships, the passions of the spring campaign come early and quickly fade into indifference.

There have been certain changes to this year’s Allianz National Football League, but little sign that the prevailing air of exploitation has changed very much. Counties play the competition for what they can get out of it without committing for even as long as two months.

Last year’s congress decision to readmit Division Four counties back into the qualifiers cheapens the relationship further by making no demands of counties at even the lowest level to treat the NFL programme with the respect of full engagement.

This evening, the 2009 season gets under way with Dublin hosting Tyrone before a much-anticipated but controversial fireworks display. (The GAA are exasperated by the accusations of excess concerning the €400,000 bill for the pyrotechnics, arguing that match tickets were priced to include the cost of the display and without it admission would simply have been cheaper rather than a surplus created.)

There was a phase midway through this decade when it appeared as if the league had been dignified with the full attention of the most respectable counties. That turned out to be a coincidence rather than anything more long-term and was based on the specific needs of Tyrone and Kerry at the time.

In 2003, Mickey Harte set out to win the league as a statement of intent in his first year and create momentum, which is what happened. Similarly, a year later, Jack O’Connor in his first season felt that the accumulated reverses suffered by Kerry in the preceding years made winning a trophy desirable and duly the team delivered.

Managers tend, however, to prioritise reaching the play-offs as opposed to winning the competition outright. In 2005, after Kerry had failed by a score or two to qualify from their division, O’Connor was anxious about the early elimination and the impact it might have. It would be hard to gauge the precise impact on the team because their championship unfolded differently to Tyrone’s, but Harte’s team – steeled by three epic matches against Armagh – defeated Kerry in that year’s All-Ireland final and attributed their season’s turning point to a surprise league semi-final exit against Wexford.

It has been interesting this week to listen to the respective views of Harte and O’Connor. Tyrone have completely uncoupled their league and championship performances and last year’s All-Ireland came after a nondescript spring in which, unusually, the team had to scramble a bit to stay out of the relegation zone.

According to Harte, the team would be motivated to win because the county hadn’t won the league in a while, six years.

But equally the brilliant improvisation, which turned a mediocre-looking side into All-Ireland winners in the space of a few weeks halfway through August would appear to indicate there’s no pressing reason to chase the early silverware.

O’Connor, facing into the first year of his second management spell, said on Thursday he didn’t believe the team needed the restorative qualities of winning the league.

Unlike in 2004, the team isn’t on the rebound from three years of individually traumatic defeats and, whereas last year’s failure to close the deal on a three-in-a-row was tantalising and frustrating, the team remains experienced and well-versed in championship combat.

Even if the Kerry manager’s assurance that “the league won’t be a priority for us” is simply blandly non-committal both he and the team know enough about what’s required in the year ahead to pace themselves as they wish and, with a number of players unavailable for the early stages of the competition, outright success won’t be touchstone of a good season.

Just because the top teams in the country have achieved success without building the platform early in the year doesn’t mean the same considerations apply to their rivals.

Dublin will be in the spotlight tonight, taking on the champions and raising the curtain on Pat Gilroy’s term of management. The Leinster champions’ perceived need for a league title is not the figment of commentators’ imaginations.

Since the county last kept the Sam Maguire in the city 14 years ago nearly all of the succeeding champions have been teams which qualified for the knock-out stages of the league.

The most recent two years have been the exception and in the case of both Tyrone and Kerry there was ample experience of the accumulation of All-Irelands.

Dublin’s poor record in national knock-out matches could hardly have been disimproved by acquiring greater experience in the lower-pressure league play-offs. Although the county’s 1995 All-Ireland coincided with the poorest league of the decade up to that point, the years when the team evolved and learned were years when the competition was won twice and the knock-out stages reached every year.

For Dublin to show sufficient form to win the title for the first time in 16 years would be a morale -building start to Gilroy’s management. It would also fire the enthusiasm of the supporters, which for all the dangers of creating a bubble is going to have to happen if the county becomes again successful, and give the team something different from which to launch a more credible championship bid.

It would also for the first time in a couple of years give the league a dashing suitor capable of providing a bit of excitement when the competition climaxes in three month’s time.