The 2021 Championship is up and running and with the main rivals to Dublin’s crown all in action, Kerry, Donegal and Mayo showed they are all hungry to push on this year.

While there were easy wins for Kerry, Donegal and Mayo, will Dublin’s dominance be affected most of all by their own dressing-room with Cian O’Sullivan announcing his retirement and question marks over Stephen Cluxton’s involvement for another season in doubt.

Ciaran Whelan joined Will Slattery, Michael Verney and Conor McKeon to look back on all the weekend football action and addressing the Cluxton situation, Whelan said he think it’s unlikely Cluxton will be involved next week saying Dublin’s lack of strength in-depth could hurt them.

“One of my concerns going into the Championship is when you look at Dublin's depth that they used to have and the impact of the subs that could come off the bench and how frightening it was for opposition defenders to see a Diarmuid Connolly or a Kevin McManamon coming on in the height of their powers with 15-20 minutes to go. That would be a little bit of concern for Dublin going forwards.”

Meanwhile, in the hurling, Brendan Cummins also joined the panel and he believes that the wins for Dublin, Wexford and Clare have all shown a hunger and desire that has marked the cards of their opponents in next week’s provincial semi-finals.

“You look at Brian Lohan at the end of the third quarter, he was spitting fire about the wides and the expletives were coming out but you could see the passion and the spirit of '95 I think is what was pouring out of him and that's what Clare supporters would have wanted - that ferocious, vicious attitude towards the game, never say die. Yes they made mistakes, but you're going to make that when you're trying as hard as what Clare were trying.”

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