YOU'VE just won another All Ireland, another All Star and yet now here you find yourself, just a couple of months later, back at the start of another campaign. If you think it might be difficult for a footballer such as Declan O'Sullivan to come back again focus renewed, hunger intact, then you'd be wrong.

See when it comes to Kerry football there's one game that excites passions like no other. The Dubs. The auld enemy. With the Metropolitans as the Kingdom's first opponents of the new league season getting gee-ed up was never going to be a problem.

"I think from players, management and supporters point of view it's a great game to kick off with. There is always a great buzz and excitement around a KerryDublin fixture. Certainly for the newer players coming in it's a great fixture to start off with and find their feet at inter-county level.

"It's obviously going to be a very tight game because it's the start of the year both teams will be trying to find their feet," the Dromid man said.

"All eyes are on Dublin at this stage. At this time of the year everyone is training hard and I suppose the main thing now is to try and take each game at a time and try and be fresh for that game and stay injury free. We are well used to playing Cork and Dublin in the league so fellas will know that it would be foolish to start looking ahead and only focussing on one game at a time," the Dromid man pointed out.

O'Sullivan is hopeful that home advantage will help swing an opening round victory for Jack O'Connor's charges. "It's going to be tough, obviously we'd hope that home advantage would swing it our way, but again as I say Dublin love coming down to Killarney and they seem to always play well down there as well. So from that point of view it's going to be very exciting."

Of course Kerry are the reigning champions going into this competition. But with somewhat of a new look panel is winning the league high on the priorities list or does O'Sullivan feel that this year's NFL will be about Jack aiming to blood new players at the expense of victories?

"I suppose in an ideal scenario he is trying to do a bit of both. Obviously you want to get into the habit of winning and winning tight games and stuff like that. Also you like to win games while experimenting as well and giving three or four fellas a run in each game as well.

"I think it worked well last year, a lot fellas got game time last year and we've managed to win games. I think Division 1 is a bit stronger this year as well – we have a couple of tricky away ties as well so it is going to be tough.

"However, I think Jack has already said to himself that the emphasis is going to be on trying to find three or four players obviously because we have lost that number from last year as well. I think that's going to be very interesting and exciting from Kerry's point of view as well to see who is going step up to the plate and stake a claim."

And with some of last year's panel hanging up their boots O'Sullivan feels that players in his own age bracket have a duty to show leadership to the Kingdom's young guns. "I think there is a lot of experience still left there. It's just up to the more experienced lads now.

"There's obviously a lot of fresh blood coming in and a lot of young fellas and it is up to us to show them the ropes and give them a bit of the experience that we have built up over the years. Hopefully they will grow and gain in confidence as well during the league.

"I think the McGrath Cup has been great from that point of view also in giving fellas a taste of the Kerry setup as well without having too much pressure on them as well. It's going to be an exciting time I think for Kerry and certainly a very interesting year ahead," he concluded.

- Coilín Duffy