Stepping up: Mayo's Trevor Howley needs to develop this year

Q Mayo – where will the leadership come from?

It's one of the laziest clichés in sport to acclaim some development as the end of an era, but that's genuinely what the retirements of James Nallen and David Heaney represented for Mayo football last week. The last links with '97 are gone, and with them, a leadership deficit arises. Mayo weren't brimming with leaders as it was, which was probably why Nallen was kept on the panel last year. Worse, the leader of their attack, Alan Dillon, will be on sabbatical for another month.

Who takes up the slack in their absence? Aidan O'Shea appears to be one player who thrives under responsibility but he's still only a teenager. His brother Seamus has potential but he'll focus on nailing down a midfield spot first. Mark Ronaldson, who has been burning it up in the FBD league, will similarly be focusing on either playing alongside or replacing Conor Mortimer, not taking Trevor Mortimer's armband.

It's time for the likes of Tom Parsons and Trevor Howley to establish themselves and possibly even become the new Heaney and Nallen.

Q Who'll be number one for Kerry?

For the first time in 15 years, Kerry will enter the championship without either Declan O'Keeffe or Diarmuid Murphy between the goalposts. There's big boots and a big jersey to fill – between them O'Keeffe and Murphy won six All Irelands and five All Stars – and it will take their successor time to radiate the same physical presence, if ever.

The frontrunner at the moment is Castleisland's Ger Reidy, but Jack O'Connor will also be giving game-time to both Kilcummin's Brendan Kealy and An Ghaeltacht's Tomás Mac An tSaoir. Giving them all a chance but giving the main guy enough time will be one of O'Connor's major priorities and his biggest challenges over the coming campaign.

Q Can Kildare or Meath break the glass ceiling?

It's 10 years this season since Kildare picked up a meaningful piece of silverware. It's nine since Meath managed to win anything of note. And it's those very statistics that had Kieran McGeeney so furious after his side's exit to Louth in the O'Byrne Cup semi-final and had Eamonn O'Brien so frustrated after his team fell to DCU at the same stage.

It's not a trophy that would mean anything to supporters of either county, but then the Anglo-Scottish Cup meant little to Nottingham Forest fans in 1977. Two years later Brian Clough talked about it being so important after winning the European Cup. Similarly Tyrone's 2003 thrashing of Laois in the league final seemed facile, but success breeds success and a little under five months later Mickey Harte had masterminded the county's first All Ireland.

For the very same reason, Kildare and Meath could do with something to show for all the progress and a Division Two title would be a good place to start. Because for all the strides both have made, they have won nothing. Last season McGeeney's side could have beaten both Dublin and Tyrone but ended the year as an entertaining hard-luck story. And for Meath's two All Ireland semi-final appearances these past three years, they were unable to take another step when it should have been possible.

Both see themselves as the successor to Dublin's throne in Leinster but both have to get used to winning first and not just coming close.

Q Will the Mark actually improve the game?

Ten years ago when he captained an Irish International Rules team featuring Kieran McGeeney, John McDermott admitted he couldn't think of a good reason why the mark wasn't in Gaelic football. Now, it finally is, for three months at least, and while McGeeney can think of several reasons why it shouldn't be, fearing it will make the game more stop-start and lead to even less high fielding, the next few months should settle the argument. Mickey Harte has pointed out that it demeans the league to use it once more as the laboratory of such experimentation. While he has a point, it's hard to think of another GAA inter-county competition that presents a programme of games which gives players time to adjust to the new variables and the officials time to monitor them.

Kerry and their basketballers could be the gauge of the new rules. Last Sunday Mícheál Quirke claimed six marks in the McGrath Cup final, while in the first round against Waterford it was a Kieran Donaghy goal in the square that clinched Kerry a win over Waterford. We just hope someone is keeping count of all the marks, and comparing them to the number of catches in last year's league. If it does lead to more high fielding, then even Harte might have to cede he got it wrong, just like he has over Rule 42.