For the first time since 1908, and the delayed completion of the 1907 Championship, All-Ireland winners were crowned in the month of July this year.
It was an outcome that was all too familiar to history, however, as Kerry won their 38th title, albeit after an uncomfortable eight-year gap to their previous success.
After successive knockout Championships due to the pandemic, the qualifiers returned this year but that’s the last we’ll see of them as a new system, which will see League and provincial Championship performances dictating whether teams enter the All-Ireland race or the second tier competition, both of which will be run on a round robin basis.
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The Tailteann Cup finally got off the ground this year and was reasonably well received, though how sustainable that is after the initial burst of enthusiasm for its first staging inevitably fades remains to be seen.
Giving the winners a way back into the All-Ireland race in the same year would grant the competition far greater credibility.
1 Kerry (2 last year)
Worthy All-Ireland champions as they matched the achievement of Jack O’Connor’s two previous comings as Kerry manager by completing the League and Championship double.
But they weren’t so convincing as to suggest that they can build a dynasty in the coming years. Perhaps breaking their duck will advance the maturing process and allow them to dominate teams more at the back end of the Championship, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one.
They start 2023 as the team to beat and deserved favourites, and with David Clifford anything is possible, but they haven’t yet acquired the aura to really spook the other top teams, all of whom will feel that they’re within reach of Kerry.
2 Galway (8)
Padraic Joyce entered 2022 at a crossroads as another stagnant season would surely have brought his reign to a frustrating end but, instead, they managed to regain the momentum of his early months in charge pre-pandemic in 2020 and then some.
They won immediate promotion in the League and came through a demanding route to reach the All-Ireland final, where they only faltered in the closing minutes.
But taking the next step is the biggest ask. It’s a long way back to being in contention in the last 10 minutes of the All-Ireland final for Galway. And even if they get there, there’s no guarantee that the outcome will be any different.
3 Dublin (4)
It looked like the year was going disastrously after a string of League defeats resulted in relegation from Division One for the first time since 1995, but Dublin reclaimed some of their best form in the Championship and might even have nabbed an All-Ireland which would have been as sweet as any since 2011.
On the other hand, Kerry could and should have been out of sight by the early stages of the second half of the All-Ireland final, which would have rendered any Dublin fightback irrelevant and sparked a fallout of a very different nature in the aftermath.
With the surprise return of Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion, along with Pat Gilroy being added to the management team, Dublin are clearly throwing everything at 2023, which will almost certainly be a last hurrah for several of their long-serving stalwarts. Whether they can turn the clock back far enough remains to be seen.
4 Derry (14)
