The last week in February has been a strange one back our way.

The heights by great men reached and kept

Mayo have reasonable grounds for hope without resorting to arguments about entitlement. But they’re likely to come up shy in September again

Kingdom folk surely realise a lot of the arguments for a Kerry win in Croke Park tomorrow belong more to the realm of balladry than to any sober analysis of current form

I left Croke Park on the Sunday of August weekend like so many more, stunned by Mayo’s apparent lust to avenge not just last September’s beating but every other defeat and cursed day they’ve had in the great stadium. It was relentless, it was remorseless and it was a thing of beauty.

THE old chess proverb comes to mind when writing about Cork and Galway today — a player surprised is half beaten.

LEINSTER SFC FINAL:

It’s up to Cork to try and figure Colm Cooper, aka Pythagoras in boots, out. The suspicion is that Kerry’s talisman will keep them guessing long enough tomorrow for Kerry to disappear through the front door.

For those of us sceptical about the stock placed by managers in league performances when championship rolls around, we need only look at Kildare this weekend.

ULSTER SFC SEMI-FINAL: