It was a busy weekend in the Allianz Leagues with a full round of both football and hurling being played.

Despite the inclement weather there were some seriously good games of football and hurling that attracted bumper attendances nation-wide.

Here are six of this weekend's Allianz League talking points. 

FOOTBALL

Andy Moran is ageing like a fine wine

Mayo’s appearance record holder, Andy Moran, shows no signs of slowing down.

The 33-year-old was superb on Saturday night as he played a key role in the Connacht side’s Allianz Football League Division 1 victory over Kerry.

He kicked three points, and was the focal point of the Mayo attack as he won hard ball and brought others into the game with his clever distribution.

His continued importance to the cause has been held up by some as a poor reflection on the stock of forwards in Mayo, but it surely doesn’t matter how many times he’s been around the block if he can continue to deliver performances of this calibre.

You can only admire the professionalism and dedication it must take for one of the game’s genuine nice guys to keep extracting the maximum from his body.

Green shoots in Kildare?

Kildare fans have probably seen too many early-season false dawns to get too excited just yet, but the Lilywhites have certainly made an impressive start to their Allianz Football League Division Two campaign.

You might have expected their confidence to have been sapped by defeat to the so-called Dublin third-string selection in the O’Byrne Cup semi-final in January, but instead they’ve put their best foot forward.

They hammered Meath in the first round, and were hugely impressive again on Sunday when they beat Cork by 1-14 to 1-8 to go top of the Division.

Former professional soccer player Kevin Feely is developing into a top-class midfielder, newcomer Ben McCormack looks like a really classy inside-forward, and established footballers like Neil Flynn, Daniel Flynn, Paul Cribbin, Eoin Doyle, and Niall Kelly are all in good form.

Injuries to key players has been a major issue for Kildare in recent years, if they can keep this panel fit they might surprise a few people.

Character is Dublin’s greatest asset

The list of the Dublin football team’s qualities is a long one. An abundance of natural scorers, supreme athleticism, and strength in depth are just some of the boxes they tick.

Perhaps their most valuable commodity is the character of their players though, a quality that was once again on show on Saturday night when they came from five points behind to draw with Tyrone and extend their unbeaten run in the League and Championship to 31 games.

On a freezing cold evening when a mixture of rain and sleet slashed down from the heavens, it would have been easy for a group of players who have already won so much decide it just wasn’t going to be their night.

Instead they gritted their teeth, fought their way back into the contest, and scraped a draw despite not playing at anything like their best.

They have nothing left to prove, but they clearly feel like they do. That’s the mark of a great team.

HURLING

The Cork hurlers are on an upward curve

It’s still early days, but the Cork senior hurlers look like they’re on a very promising upward curve. Saturday night’s convincing Allianz Hurling League Division 1A victory over Clare threw up many positives.

It was a very mature display considering there were five League debutants in the team, and you would imagine they now have the potential to go from strength to strength.

A leaky back-line has been the team’s biggest problem for some time now, but they defended very tenaciously on Saturday. They condensed the space between their half-back and full-back lines, and hit opposition players with the sort of intent that has been marked absent for some time.

The same work ethic was apparent in their forward division when they didn’t have the ball, as they harried and hassled the Clare defence. Shane Kingston looks like a star in the making, and both he and Luke Meade bring the sort of physicality to the contest that Cork have been crying out for.

Goal-shy Kilkenny

Kilkenny are entirely capable of winning the League and All-Ireland this year, but they no longer exude the air of invincibility they once did.

What made them the greatest team in the country for so long was their ruthlessness in front of the posts. At any moment, they had the wherewithal to gut you with a goal thanks to supreme finishers like Eddie Brennan, Henry Shefflin, Richie Power, Martin Comerford, and Aidan Fogarty.

Now, though, they simply aren’t posing the same goal threat that they once did, a fact underlined by their failure to score a goal against Waterford on Sunday.

Their best forwards, TJ Reid and Richie Hogan, are usually found out around the half-forward line or midfield zones where they’re more likely to raise white flags rather than green ones. Colin Fennelly certainly has the potential to become the goal-poacher they need, but he has yet to full deliver on it.

Kilkenny just don’t seem as capable of going for the jugular as routinely as they once did. Waterford taking a win out of Nowlan Park has further eroded the Kilkenny fear-factor that was diminished by the scale of their All-Ireland defeat to Tipperary last year.

Dublin look in trouble

It’s hard to believe it’s only two years since Dublin gave Tipperary a 12-point trimming in the first round of the Allianz Hurling League.

When the two teams met at the same stage of this year’s League campaign on Sunday night in Croke Park, it was Tipperary who stormed to victory by a 16-point winning margin.

Dublin started the game positively, but before long it developed into a men against boys contest as Tipperary overwhelmed Ger Cunningham’s young team with their superior physicality and skill.

It’s already looking like it could be a very difficult League campaign for the Dubs. A combination of retirement, Cuala’s involvement in the club championship, and a refusal to commit to the cause has robbed the team of its experienced core.

Some of the young players that Cunningham has brought through have lots of potential, but they’re simply not ready yet to compete, shoulder to shoulder, with the best teams out there.

Dublin were as good as any team in the country when they won the 2011 Allianz League and the 2013 Leinster Championship, but it may be some time before they get back to that level again.

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