So Micko walks on water. Well we always knew that, or have known that ever since he almost won an All-Ireland with Kildare.

But goddammit, he keeps managing to astound us, even though the stats and numbers should make that impossible.

More than a half a century at the very highest echelons of football, he has won everything there is to win.

Along the way, the media hanging on his every word have progressed from one man and his dog to a scrum. Nowadays it’s the fawning hordes, laughing at the appropriate spot as the old rogue delivers another soliloquy about what a brilliant game of football we’ve seen, even if it’s Wicklow-Westmeath he’s talking about.

The press box groaned in almost perfect unison in Tullamore that day when normal time ended and another 20 minutes were required to separate the teams. But it was “a great game” according to the maestro. No doubt someone wrote that he had a glint or a twinkle in his eye as he said it. Might even have been me.

The match was muck, but maybe they are all great games for Micko. For he truly loves the sport. He has to. No matter how generous his mileage rate, he wouldn’t be going to Wicklow otherwise.

You see him on the line, his head and torso leaning over the sideline, his legs rooted to the spot, clearly trying to stop himself from bounding into the fray.

The rolled-up programme never leaves his hand. One wonders if he ever reads the thing, or it’s just a comfort blanket.

His training methods are from the dark ages but once again in Wicklow they have produced the results. There isn’t a hint of a scientist on the scene when the lads are running their laps but Wicklow are disciplined now, as well as fit. They have respect and they’ll do anything for O’Dwyer.

Micko makes people play for him because he gives them belief that they are as good as anyone. He did it in Kildare, while he remains the only man to have gotten anything out of the Laois legends (in their minds).

The upcoming clash with the Lilies, for whom Micko retains a special place in his heart, is Wicklow’s sixth in this championship season. Sixth! They have won three successive games in the championship for the first time in their history, all against Ulster counties at that. Whatever happens now, the season has been a massive success.

Micko doesn’t just walk on water; he makes it do laps.