You can see the pale blades of remote wind turbines from Gay Sheerin's house. Although he works in Boyle, home is in breathtaking, isolated Ballyferren, heavy on sweeping views, light on infrastructure. The 70-odd miles he eats up for Roscommon training sessions in Ballinasloe are hard work. This time of year is all about laying the humdrum slabs; getting through the groundwork.

"There is definitely an element of that in winter football. I mean, it's something I've always enjoyed, I loved playing it. But the most difficult aspect of it is the travelling. We have seven or eight lads in Dublin, a few in Templemore and the way the traffic situation is now, it is becoming terribly hard.

We have lads leaving work in Dublin at 4 p.m., a fellow on a site in Wicklow who journeys 26 miles to The Foxhunter pub and then sits in a car for an hour and three-quarters to get to training. It's not peculiar to Roscommon only, but it is leading to more players training on their own."

Sheerin is a believer in small groups training locally through the winter months, observing that an athlete will benefit more from a hard concentrated session close to home than from a group run around followed by a late drive back home.

"I really think that's fine until about February, when talk starts to turn to the Championship. You have to get together then."

Kerry come to Dr Hyde Park at the weekend and the bookies will probably take solid money on the home side. Before last year's Championship, such confidence would have been inconceivable. Only a Papal visit can rouse the faith as readily as the harvesting of a few neighbouring reputations.

"Well, people can reflect on our game against Galway in the Connacht final replay and expect us to play like that on Sunday. But the hard reality is, we really only won one game in the Championship and we have only begun training recently. We know our ability but are aware that we have a lot of work to do as well."

That said, he would love to see his lads put one over on the Kingdom.

"Who wouldn't get a buzz out of beating Kerry? It's like beating the factory, they are the county who have produced it all. Yeah, we'll be up for this game, as we will for them all. Ideally, we want to finish the League with top points. You need to secure the highest level of competition to progress."

Unlike many managers, Sheerin is in no way ambivalent in his attitude to the League. It is, he reckons, a good contest at heart.

"Roscommon won the League in 1979, we lost in '80. The record books take note of that. When you aren't winning silverware every season, you have to go for whatever opportunity comes your way. If Roscommon make it to the play-offs, then yes, we will do our utmost to win it."

About the new rules which his players must adapt to if they are to enjoy a successful season, he is equally direct.

"I think they are a bit silly really. If the Fijians came here, would we adopt a rule from one of their games as well? There seems to be a bit of that in it. The rules work for the Championship, so why not for the League? It just seems a bit unnecessary.

But who knows, maybe they will be an overwhelming success, prompting an elimination of the hand-pass from the very vocabulary of gaelic games. If that's the case, Sheerin, like the rest of Irish managers, will just get on with it. Whatever it takes to win the Championship.

"We watched Galway this year and naturally we were rooting for them, particularly after they tipped us out of the Championship. I think a lot of the lads realised then that we could have been there and that has to be a huge incentive. Like a lot of other teams, we like to believe we can win an All-Ireland."

Which is why he will trace his way around the ghostly silhouettes of those wind turbines over many wet nights this winter. It loops around itself, this football life and Gay Sheerin, like the rest, is about to start the walk uphill. You take all small rewards and a win on Sunday would be a nice push forward.