This season’s best wing men, Kevin McLoughlin and Mark McHugh are crucial to the destination of the All-Ireland 2012, writes Dara Ó Cinnéide

Driving home from work a fortnight ago, I tuned into a discussion on RTÉ Radio One in which Giovanni Trapattoni was being hung, drawn and quartered by a panel of experts.

We’ve seen a few different versions of James Horan’s Mayo this year. During the league we saw the side that lost three successive games in March before thrashing Dublin by 12 points on the last day of the month.

The proverb “ní neart go cur le chéile” – unity is strength, came to mind when watching Donegal warm up before their quarter-final with Kerry.

Where to start with this strangest of days in Croke Park?

Irrespective of what they say about the intensity of training ground exchanges, Cork are at a distinct disadvantage going into tomorrow’s game against Kildare.

Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms

Call it old fashioned honour, naïveté or innocence but the main reason Clare failed to put up a battle in the Munster final earlier this month was their insistence on playing their own game.

The new-fangled GAA slogan “Nothing Beats Being There” got its first proper trial on Saturday evening in Fitzgerald Stadium.

I think it was Heraclitus who first said that no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.