IT has become almost axiomatic that the Cork senior football panel is by far the strongest in the country. We didn’t need them to win the league and championship double last year to inform us of that but there were signs right throughout last season that their cliché strength-in depth was being used to telling and tactical effect to swing matches their way in the last 10 or 15 minutes.

Luck is not chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned.

KERRY football followers aren’t sure what to make of this year’s Allianz Football League.

ONCE more with no feeling for the game! The whole drama of any All Star announcement is often more about who is left out rather than who is left in but with yesterday’s announcement of the 2010 football selection (or football laugh-in depending on your opinion) should generate some high stool debate and a certain amount of trick question specials at table quizzes over the next few days and weeks.

ONE of the first intimations I got of this being a landmark year for Down football was a brief chat I had in Dingle in February with Maurice Hayes, former Down GAA secretary and man of vision when Down made their breakthrough in the 60’s.

THESE are interesting and enlightening times for serious students of modern day midfield play.

THOSE Limerick footballers in whom hope still survives and whose hearts have remained unwarped after a decade of tilting at the windmills are a redoubtable bunch.

RECONCILING the mediocrity of Meath football since 2001 with the fact that they’ve appeared in All-Ireland semi-finals in two of the last three championship seasons makes tomorrow’s joust with the Dubs all the more beguiling.

Munster SFC Semi-Final

ULSTER SFC (Quarter-final): Antrim v Tyrone (Casement Park, tomorrow 4pm)