Opening matches in the league rarely become reference points later in the year. It was of historical interest that Kerry have lost all of their opening league fixtures in the season after winning the All- Ireland – all the way back to 1997, which in Kerry means you’re talking about a sample size of six, bigger than most counties’ entire totals.

Not that starting the league in years when they would go on to win the Sam Maguire have been hugely different: two wins out of the past seven. So, as Sunday's defeat by Mayo further underlined, Kerry don't start the league that well, regardless of how the season turns out.

There are, however good reasons for Mayo to be happy with their ultimately comfortable win. Under new management, they’ve given the new regime a good start and restated their credentials at an early stage.

The displays of the players were also encouraging. When Kerry pressed Mayo responded. The defence overcame early disorganisation to get on top with Kevin Keane, who has known unhappy times in the full back line, playing effectively and with authority.

Beside him was the reassuringly familiar figure of Keith Higgins, one of the most coveted defenders in the game. Whereas not pushed to the epic levels of performance that he sustained in last summer's contests with Footballer of the Year James O'Donoghue, who is currently rehabilitating a shoulder injury, he looked sharp and alert.

Short passing

Moreover when the team began to motor, moving the ball quickly in short passing sequences to willing support runners, there were trademark bursts from the back by Higgins to link up with fast breaking counter attacks. He is realistic enough to appreciate all the caveats – Kerry not long returned from their team holiday et cetera – but a win is a win, especially against the All-Ireland champions.

“I suppose it’s just the league but it’s nice to get two points and come down here and get the league up and running. You take into count how long they’re back and how much they’ve done but coming down here we were going to concentrate on ourselves and it was nice to get two points in our first proper game of the year.

“It took us a while to settle, really. We were under pressure for the first 10 or 15 minutes but once we settled down and started moving the ball a bit quicker we got some dividends up front. We got the goal at a difficult time for us. At the start of the second half, they probably got on top of us in midfield for a while but teams are in different places conditioning-wise at this time of year.

Momentum

“You’re not focusing on the fact that Kerry are only back. You’re not focusing on two points there but it is nice to get the win at that stage and maybe get a bit of momentum for next week and then you’ve a couple of weeks’ break where you can get a bit of work done and then you’re right back in March.”

The county is under new management with Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes succeeding James Horan but to a number of players the disruption wouldn't be enormous, as they played under the new regime as under-21s. Higgins, for instance, captained the team that won the 2006 All-Ireland at the grade.

Donie Buckley, the highly regarded coach, is staying with the team – another important element of continuity.

In a very competitive Division One, it's seen as vital to win the home matches. In that respect Mayo have been favoured by a draw that gives them four of the seven fixtures at home and just one trip to Ulster (Cork have four).

Next up is Tyrone in Castlebar, a year to the weekend since the counties met in Omagh and the home side won by five points. Mayo won all three of their home matches last year and hope to be able to maintain that form, although Higgins points out that home advantage hasn’t always worked out in recent times.

“We would have mentioned it a couple of years ago alright and we were trying to win all our home games but obviously that didn’t go to plan a lot of the years! Again, it comes down to the way the league has become so competitive, you can’t rely on your home games.” Still, one away win in the bag and four home matches in the weeks to come is a pleasant situation in the first week of February.