We're in that strange part of the season where the provincials are done and dusted, the trophies have been handed out - and hoisted with varying degrees of enthusiasm - and we're now dipping our toe into the lengthy round-robin phase of the competition.
It all still feels a touch like shadow-boxing due to the insistence on allowing a third team through, though we've probably discussed that wrinkle enough. It's not going to change for 2024 at any rate.
Before assessing the four Sam Maguire games this weekend, we might pause and reflect on a titanic Ulster final last Sunday.
In many ways it was a good couple of weekends for the provincials. The scenes in Clones - and in Salthill the week before - were a fair rebuke to anyone who says they no longer matter to players and supporters. There again, it's two provinces that we're relying on to provide excitement and intrigue, and Connacht often has its down years.
Proof that the Ulster championship is a competition apart: Donegal had a homecoming! I loved that. We certainly never had one after winning Connacht titles.
Watching some of the clips, when Jim McGuinness took the mic, there was dead silence from everyone in the crowd and on the podium. Jim is God in Donegal. They were hooked on his every word. He nearly had me contemplating coming out of retirement, listening to him.
Most striking was him passionately saying that they had gotten promotion, they had won back Ulster - and now there was one more cup on the table that they were going after. It was refreshing to hear a manager say so baldly that they're chasing the All-Ireland, especially from a team who weren't pegged as contenders at the beginning of the year.
What impressed me most about Donegal was their composure and refusal to panic down the stretch, the manner in which they worked the scores to get on even terms both in full-time and in extra-time.
This was contrasted by Armagh, who seemed to seize up in sight of the finish line. Stefan 'Soupy' Campbell lobbed over a point on the 51st minute to put them four up and he punched the air in delight.
From that moment, it was as if someone had fastened a straitjacket on them. You could see them tightening up, trying to manage the game to a conclusion rather than playing the match before them.
We know it could hardly be a question of running out of steam. After all, they were liberated again in extra-time and built up another lead until the closing minutes. That shows it's a psychological and mental thing.
Obviously, their penalty shootout record is a bit of an outlier. We've all seen the stat where's there's only been six penalty shootouts in championship and Armagh have somehow managed to lose four of them.
That suggests bad luck - but their approach in the last 20 minutes of normal time demonstrated that they made a lot of their own bad luck.
Leaving aside the Ulster title, which is reward enough up there, Donegal have managed to avoid Group 1 of the round-robin phase.
That houses the biggest game of this weekend, with Derry coming to Salthill. Mickey Harte's team have gone to ground since the Donegal ambush but they're still enormous contenders this summer.
Soon, the loss in Ulster could be relegated to a footnote. In the long term, it could prove to have done them good.
They've a horrendous record against Galway in the championship, though I expect them to break their duck this Saturday.
Galway's fairly depleted spring XV played reasonably well against Derry in February - it was one of their better performances of the league and they were undone by a couple of dodgy refereeing decisions and one glaring missed goal chance.
They're boosted by the return of their A-list forwards but they're on the comedown from their Connacht final success. It's funny, Galway's Connacht victory last year felt like a tick-box affair and yet this year it was the trigger for a wild celebration.
It all came down to the context of the game and the opposition. Clearly, we know Pádraic Joyce's managerial record against Mayo was bugging him because he kept bringing it up.
Damien Comer's rampant form since his return makes them dangerous opposition to anyone and Derry have especially bitter memories of trying to keep tabs on him. Joyce's team suddenly have a promising summer opening in front of them but are they hitting the kind of groove needed to take down Derry? I'd doubt it.
The post-mortem in Mayo since the Connacht final has not been pretty. Most of the angst and criticism has focused on our conservatism and hesitancy in front of goal. Had Mayo been less cagey in attack, they clearly had enough possession to have won the game. Turning down shots and frittering away chances, especially in the first half, cost us in the finish.
The decision to whip off Aidan O'Shea when he was going well is another common gripe. That was likely a pre-arranged call. As of now, it's unclear whether Paddy Durcan is back and ready to go this weekend.
Most of the chatter has concerned the game against Dublin in a few weeks time, and where it might be held. Which is a bit presumptuous given there's a dangerous Cavan side coming to MacHale Park this weekend.
Raymond Galligan can't be faulted too much in his first season, with a high league finish in Division 2 and a big Ulster win over their neighbours, though they are badly wounded by the injury to Paddy Lynch, who has carried a lot of the scoring burden for them this year.
I've already described Castlebar as more a bouncy castle than a fortress for Mayo, though we should have enough to notch a win on the board on Saturday. If they're serious about making a run at this season, they should be winning well.
Down in Killarney, matters feel pretty clear-cut. Kerry shipped a sucker-punch at this stage of the season last year but I'd expect them to tank Monaghan this weekend.
Jack O'Connor's side have been playing within themselves all season, though they still cut loose in Clones in Round 2 of the league, Seanie O'Shea running riot alongside David Clifford, when the latter came on. For Vinny Corey, it's been a messy season, complicated by distractions and absentees. They managed to eke and scratch their way to a semi-final against the odds last year but it feels like even more of an uphill struggle this summer.
Cork and Clare might be the toughest one of all to call. Cork had a decent showing in the round robin last year and recovered well after finding themselves in a hole in the league.
But Ennis is a notoriously hard place to dig out a result and they were turned over in the Munster championship last year. The Clare team has had a tough overhaul since then, though they'll surely be buoyed by their performance against Kerry. At the risk of being accused of plonking myself on the fence, I think I fancy a draw in this one.
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