It was one of those never-ending bus journeys we had to make on a Sunday evening.

Mile after mile, town after town. The bus; the road. The traffic was slow because of the supporters ahead of us. These were the days before podcasts were a thing; so all we had for company were our thoughts.

And that was fine.

Because unlike other Sunday nights driving back from Croke Park, this journey felt good. We were just after beating Kerry in the 2012 League semi-final, the Kerry of The Gooch, Declan O’Sullivan, Paul Galvin and the O’Se’s.

Read more: Division 1 recap as Kerry and Mayo set up final, and Tyrone are relegated

Read more: Louth beat Meath to stay in Allianz Football League Division 2 and deny rivals promotion

That changed us.

Until then we had very little exposure either to Croke Park or to big games and we didn’t just lack confidence but also experience. The League, this competition that is so often derided, actually made us.

And everything that happened afterwards, all those big days, all those All-Ireland quarter-final and semi-final wins, all those fine performances in All-Ireland finals, stemmed from that 2012 League semi-final win.

I remember it dawning on me what potential we had as we snaked through Edgeworthstown and the road straightened out in front of us. In more ways than one we had turned a corner. “We can do something,” I said to Aidan O’Shea who was sitting near me.

And we did.

We reached the All-Ireland that year. And the next. In 2014 we took Kerry to a semi-final replay. We made it to the All-Ireland final in 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021. People might obsess over the All-Ireland final losses but we always felt it was better to be on the stage than off it.

And that’s what Kevin McStay and his players will be thinking today.

Does the League matter?

Most say no but the truth is it does.

It makes you.

This is where you learn to live with the Kerrys and the Dublins and where you learn to believe you can beat them.

Did Mayo have that belief when this season’s League began?

The answer was no.

Dublin edged past them in round 1. Then in round 2 Galway humiliated them and if anyone had told you then, after leaving McHale Park, that we were on the way to a league final, you’d have said they were daft.

Now look at Mayo.

They beat Tyrone in a low score bore in round 3 but the real turning point for them was in round 4 when they were getting hammered by Armagh but somehow they bounced back to force a draw.

Those moments make you.

Young players, who may wonder if they are cut out for inter county football, learn about themselves on days like that. They board the bus I used to sit on and they make their trek through the provincial towns of Ireland and they think to themselves: ‘we proved a point out there’.

That’s Mayo now after qualifying for the League final.

They are unrecognisable from earlier in the League.

They nearly got relegated yesterday but they held on to beat Donegal and end up in a final. That shows you how tight the margins are in Division 1, how deep the quality is, how hard it is to stay up, never mind get into the top two.

And look at them.

They are learning about themselves, learning how to get over the line, learning how to overcome adversity. You can’t teach these things. You have to live it.

Yet just when we should be celebrating a turning point, our thoughts go back a couple of years when Mayo also reached a league final and then went out a week later and bombed against Roscommon.

That fear will be there again. It is a League final, then Sligo, which will mean they have been on the road for four weeks straight.

Now again, let’s get real here.

These are amateur players.

They don’t have the luxury to rest today and tomorrow.

They have jobs.

And now they have to go on the road for four weeks straight, rounds 6 and 7 of the League, then a final, then a Championship game against Sligo.

That’s nuts. It’s unfair. It’s not well thought out.

And it shows me one thing.

The calendar, we all can see, is congested.

Teams do genuinely want to win a League but they also want time to prepare for Championship.

So why not ditch the League final? Why not turn it into a Super Sunday where the title is on the line and where TV cameras are set up in all the relevant venues and where teams will be going hammer and tongs to end up finishing first?

It would make for great TV, lead to huge attendances, and free up a crucial week in the calendar. We’d all get the best of everything - an exciting end to the League; enough of a break to facilitate those prepping for Championship and also fairness.

The team that gets the most points over seven games should be crowned champions.

That is what happens in every other League in the world.

It’d be a winning move.

****

DONEGAL

Anyone who thinks Donegal have downed tools in the last two rounds of the League should have been in McHale Park yesterday.

For they were brilliant in that second half. Spirited. Organised. Together. Potent.

They also got Michael Langan back after a month-long absence.

He was immense. Heading into the Championship, they are definitely one of the teams to beat.

But I am still going to tip Kerry to end the season as All-Ireland winners because the Cliffords are unreal and their recent scores - 3-24 in Galway, 2-21 against Armagh - is really impressive.

Here are my rankings on who is likeliest to win Sam in 2025.

1: Kerry

2: Donegal

3: Armagh

4: Mayo

5: Galway

6: Dublin

7: Tyrone

8: Monaghan

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