September road

Compiled by  DAMIAN CULLEN

HAVE YOU ever started a project, realised after 30 seconds it was going to take one hundred times longer than you had anticipated – and, worse, one hundred times longer than it was probably worth – but for some reason just couldn’t abandon it?

Of course you haven’t.

And, up until last week, neither had we.

But then, as we sat in the awkward GAA silence between the end of the leagues and the start of the championship, some questions refused to stop nagging us.

Such as, how many footballers played in the 2011 National Football League (from those that played every game, to the unfortunate fella who didn’t miss a single training session only to see one minute of injury-time action)?

Answer: 1,054.

And, of that number, how many would have seen championship action in 2010?

Answer: 558.

And so, how many could be considered newbies (as, for whatever reason, they didn’t play for their county last summer)?

Answer: 462.

(For the sharpest among you, the reason 558 and 462 doesn’t add up to 1,054 is because of Kilkenny, who had 34 players in this season’s football league but didn’t field a team in last season’s championship.

Anyway, the real reason we embarked on this numbers game was to find out which county football sides were sticking with the players that had struggled/starred in last summer’s championship and which managers had decided to wipe the slate and the county panel clean, and embark on a “rebuilding” phase.

The winner of the “whole new panel” award was, perhaps not surprisingly, London – who are the only county to play less than 10 of last summer’s championship in this season’s league.

While, at the other end of the scale, the counties that appear to be sticking largely with last summer’s players are Waterford, Tyrone, Tipperary, Kildare, Sligo and, not surprisingly, last September’s All-Ireland finalists, Cork and Down.

Now, I wonder how many have played in the National Football League since it began in 1925.

We’ll get back to you on that.

We may be some time.