There are four seasons in the calendar year and for fans, players and coaches of intercounty gaelic football, there are also four seasons. There's the Championship, which starts in midsummer and runs into September. There's winter, which starts on the last Sunday of September and lasts until the preseason cups are decided. There's the League, which runs from the first week of February until the first week of April and then there's this current 'season' which is harder to name.
You couldn't call it the pre-season because the pre-season has already happened. You couldn't call it the off-season because teams still train and play challenge games. You couldn't call it the between-season because that sounds stupid. Let's call it Limbo. Limbo starts after the end of the League final - when the ground is beginning to harden and interest in gaelic football is starting to peak - and it goes on for a pretty long time. Some counties have a six-week wait, others, like Roscommon, basically have to wait until the Summer Solstice for a match.
For everyone out there waiting for gaelic football to be relevant in their lives again, we present the following table, breaking down how long you'll have to wait until your county plays again, counting forward from today.
Counties with a really, really, really, really long wait
68 days - Roscommon (first Championship game: 18 June!)
61 days - Galway
61 days - Kerry
61 days - Tipperary
61 days - Offaly
61 days - Westmeath
61 days - Cavan
Counties with a really, really, really long wait
54 days - Meath
54 days - Kildare
54 days - Dublin
54 days - Down
54 days - Armagh
Counties with a really, really long wait
47 days - Clare
47 days - Cork
47 days - Derry
47 days - Tyrone
47 days - Leitrim
47 days - Limerick
47 days - London
47 days - Waterford
Counties with a really long wait
41 days - Mayo
41 days - Donegal
41 days - Antrim
41 days - Wexford
41 days - Wicklow
40 days - Monaghan
40 days - Fermanagh
Counties with a long wait
26 days - Sligo
