Peter Canavan previews the 2015 Football Championship

Peter Canavan casts his eye over the All-Ireland contenders and players to watch in his Football Championship preview...

Who will lift the Sam Maguire Cup?

Dublin are the team to beat because they tick all the boxes. They have serious options in terms of the depth of their overall panel. The biggest problem Jim Gavin will have is selecting his best 20 players, never mind his first 15.

I think they have learned from last year where they attempted to win an All-Ireland title by playing a very blasé brand of football and not worrying about defending because they thought they could blow everybody out of the water.

They will offer more protection to their full-back line and they will be harder to break down. If Dublin can display the same hunger and appetite they did two years ago, then it is theirs for the taking.

Dark horses

If I had to pick outside of the top four of Kerry, Dublin, Mayo and Donegal, it would have to be Cork because they are the enigma of the championship.

They have quality forwards at their disposal, some of the finest in the game. In midfield they should have Alan O’Connor back so they will have strength and power there and excellent fielders of the ball.

However, there are question marks over their defence and leadership. Since Graham Canty left, have leaders emerged in the team? The answer is probably no, but I think they have the raw talent to cause upsets and take a few of the big teams out of it.

Provincial predictions

Dublin have dominated Leinster for the last decade, winning nine provincial titles in 10 years, and I think that will continue this season.

I fancy Monaghan in Ulster. The draw is a major advantage. They play Cavan in the quarter-finals and will be hot favourites to win that. They would then play the winners of Antrim and Fermanagh and, once again, you would have to fancy the Farneymen to come through that. They could afford to play poorly early in the championship and still make it to an Ulster final.

In Malachy O’Rourke, Monaghan have an excellent manager and for a number of their players, this is the final hurrah. Vinny Corey and Dick Clerkin have been fantastic servants. This could be their last year and they are putting serious emphasis on it. They’ll be the team to beat in Ulster.

Cork are capable of surprising Kerry in Munster, especially after the way they were annihilated in last year’s final. If there is Cork blood running through their veins, they will be out for revenge and they will want to take the All-Ireland champions out of it.

Likewise, I think there could be a shock in Connacht because Mayo don’t appear to be playing at the same level or with the same confidence as they were. I think the last two or three years may have taken a lot out of them because in my opinion, they were as good as the last two or three All-Ireland champions. Can Mayo regroup again and get back to that level? It will be difficult.

There are two emerging teams in Connacht. Roscommon are on the up and I think Galway are serious threats. They have a number of young players who are emerging as real forces in Gaelic football. On the back of Corofin winning an All-Ireland title, confidence will be high and if I was a betting man, my money would be on Galway.

Young players to watch

In Ulster, it would have to be Cathal McShane of Tyrone. He was one of our most consistent players throughout the Under-21 campaign. He has featured for the seniors in a number of National League games and if he continues working hard at his game and keeps his head down, he will have plenty of good summers ahead of him.

In Connacht, Roscommon are making a serious push under John Evans and a lot of that is stemming from underage success. Their Under-21s have won Connacht again and one of their key players is Diarmuid Murtagh at corner-forward. He has a superb left foot and once he gets the ball he causes havoc for opposing defences.

In Munster, I like Colin O’Riordan from Tipperary. In all the Under-21 games Tyrone played this year, no player came near him. Will he get many games in the Munster Championship? I don’t know, but I know that he will not be found wanting. When the going gets tough he is the type of boy that will come to the fore. He is only 19 years old but he is an exceptional footballer and for a young player he seems very mature.

In Leinster, there is serious competition for places in the Dublin team but Cormac Costello is a sharpshooter who will do something with the ball if he gets it. He has plenty of speed, knows where the goals are and, again, he seems to be very mature and level-headed. If Dublin are to reclaim their All-Ireland crown this year, I think you will see Costello playing a major role in that.

State of football

I think a number of people are getting carried away with the fact that there have been two or three poor games in the National League, and because of that there is a cry for rule changes. It’s sad to see because if you go back through the past 10 or 20 years there have been poor games in both league and championship. The majority of games I witnessed this year – and I witnessed a number of Tyrone’s games at close hand – were enjoyable games of football.

What’s happening now is that the role of the manager in Gaelic football has never been as important, because gone are the days where a manager just motivates his players and says, ‘away you go’.

There are so many things to be taken into account now, from positional switches to setting up to counter certain styles of football. What is happening with regard to the poor games, some teams believe the blanket defence is the way forward, but they don’t know how to play it and so are not playing to their strengths. Again that’s where the role of the manager comes into play.

It is an interesting and challenging time in Gaelic football and what it does set up for is a very intriguing championship. I think there will be plenty of clashes where there will be contrasting styles, but they’ll still be captivatingand will still produce quality football.