All-Ireland medal winners James McCarthy, Killian Young and Karl Lacey were on hand to launch Setanta Sports' extensive coverage of Allianz League games, which will throw in with live and exclusive coverage of Dublin v Kerry and Derry v Tyrone on February 1.

The highly anticipated opening weekend clash of Dublin v Kerry is a repeat of last year's thrilling All-Ireland Semi-Final and sees McCarthy and Young face off in what could be seen as the game of the League.

However the Dubs against the Kingdom is not the only heavyweight clash Setanta Sports have to offer on the first weekend with Ulster rivals Derry hosting Tyrone.

Ballymun Kickhams and Dublin defender McCarthy commented: "To start off the year against Kerry live on Setanta Sports is exciting and means we have to be on it from the get go. Having Cork, Mayo and Kildare fixtures ahead of us, we are aware that each team will be determined to beat us as the reigning League champions but we will try to focus on each game as it comes and give our all on the day."

After a season marred by injury last year Kerry's centre back Killian Young is looking forward to getting back on the pitch.

"The Allianz League is a hugely important competition on the run up to the summer and allows players like myself that were injured to get back into competitive action.

"We feel ourselves that our League form last year was not a true representation of where we were at and that come the summer people saw the true Kerry. Now in our second year under Eamon, we feel that we know what he wants from us far better this year and we can't wait to get started."

Donegal were relegated from Division One in 2013 but All-Star defender Karl Lacey is looking forward to the challenge of bouncing back.

"We are eager to start the year as we mean to go on. We were lucky with injuries in 2012 but last year, both personally and collectively, whatever could go wrong did in terms of preparation. 2014 is a chance to put all of that right and we can't wait to start properly against Laois."

Ger Gilroy and Damian Lawlor will be presenting Setanta's live coverage along with regular contributions from Senan Connell, Darragh Ó Sé and Paul Earley.

Setanta Sports Live Coverage of the GAA Allianz Leagues:

1st February
Dublin v Kerry (Setanta Ireland) NFL
Derry v Tyrone (Setanta Sports 1)
 
7th February
Armagh v Down (Setanta Ireland)
 
15th February
Cork v Limerick (Setanta Ireland)
Tipperary v Waterford (Setanta Sports 1)
 
22nd February
Laois v Cork (Setanta Ireland)
 
1st March
Dublin v Cork (Setanta Ireland) NFL
Meath v Armagh (Setanta Sports 1)
 
8th March
Dublin v Kildare (Setanta Ireland) NFL
Armagh v Laois (Setanta Sports 1)
 
15th March
Dublin v Kilkenny (Setanta Ireland) NHL
Armagh v Monaghan (Setanta Sports 1)
 
29th March
Dublin v Mayo (Setanta Ireland) NFL
Meath v Down (Setanta Sports 1)
 
*Please note that fixtures, throw-in times and channels are subject to final confirmation. Tweet

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