PERHAPS, it's no great surprise that the three teams sharing top spot following the opening two rounds in the National Football League are Cork, Dublin and Mayo. In terms of rebuilding morale, they are the sides that arguably had most to gain by making a positive start to the new season after the disappointment endured in last year's championship.

All three claimed provincial titles in 2009, only to falter in games they were fancied to win in the All-Ireland series.

Dublin's quarter-final implosion against Kerry was particularly traumatic, but Mayo's elimination by a moderate Meath side at the same stage was a very bitter blow as well. Both Dublin and Mayo have come to be regarded as major under-achievers in recent years, and it will be no easy task for Pat Gilroy and John O'Mahony to get the best out of them in the season ahead.

But a good run in the league would obviously be a step in the right direction, and Gilroy and O'Mahony are bound to be pleased with the progress made so far. In contrast to Dublin and Mayo, Cork continued on their winning way after emerging from Munster last year, and their decisive victories over Donegal and Tyrone meant they very much the form team heading into the All-Ireland final against Kerry.

Overall, they performed better than any other team in last year's championship, but it all counted for very little after they came unstuck against Kerry in the showpiece. The fact that they got off to a great start in the final, building up a five-point lead early on, made their failure to land the big prize especially deflating, and their early season form in 2010 was always likely to be closely scrutinised as a consequence.

Successive victories over wasteful Monaghan and a depleted Kerry side might be nothing to write home about, but they will have gone a little way towards healing the wounds resulting from developments in Croke Park last September, and their importance shouldn't be understated. After the win over Kerry in Pairc Uí Rinn two weeks ago, Conor Counihan said that what happened last year was irrelevant and it was all about looking forward for the Cork team.

Coinihan expressed similar comments after he took on the job in the wake of Cork's humiliation by Kerry in the 2007 AllIreland final.

It was regarded as an unenviable task at the time, not least because the players had been involved in a dispute with County Board over the winter and Cork had been unable to fulfil their opening two league fixtures in the league. But Counihan steered the clear of relegation from Division 2, and to a Munster title in his first season in charge.

Last year Cork gained promotion to Division 1, and, with the Division 2 league title and another Munster championship triumph in the bag, it was shaping up into a vintage season for the Rebels until they came a cropper against Kerry on the third Sunday in September.

Counihan has certainly achieved a lot since assuming the reins of control, and who's to say that Cork won't reach the championship summit under his stewardship in the year ahead?

As has been the case for the past two years, he will be doing everything he can to strengthen the squad this season, and competition for places is likely to intensify as the league progresses. Such as Ballyclough's Colm O'Neill, Nemo's Paul Kerrigan, Clyda Rovers' Ray Carey and Ballincollig's Paddy Kelly broke into the championship team last year, and already newcomers Noel Galvin of Ballincollig, Aidan Walsh of Kanturk and Conor O'Driscoll of Ilen Rovers have been given gametime in the league this season.

Fringe players such as Paudie Kissane of Clyda Rovers and Paul O'Flynn of Ballyclough have also featured, along with Eoin Cadogan of Douglas, who is bucking current trends by filling the role of a dual inter-county player at the moment.

That could cause complications further down the line, and Cadogan, who starred with the hurlers at full back last year, may yet, for practical reasons, be deemed to be surplus to requirements as far as the footballers are concerned. From last year's championship team Alan Quirke, Anthony Lynch, Graham Canty, Noel O'Leary, John Miskella and Kieran O'Connor didn't figure in the league games against Monaghan and Kerry.

Neither did gifted underage star Ciaran Sheehan of Eire Og, who will be expected to get a run in attack before the conclusion of the league campaign.

It's very early days yet, but Cork have made an encouraging start and the attitude shown by the players in the opening two league games suggests that last year's All-Ireland final defeat hasn't impacted adversely on their selfbelief.

They could achieve their first goal of the season by beating Galway and securing their Division1 status at Pairc Ui Rinn on Saturday night week.