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.

When Meath shimmied in from the verges of obscurity and irrelevance with their win over Kildare a few weeks back there was something in their game that felt different.

For the first 42 or so minutes of this game all pre-match talk of a more urgent, more direct game from Kerry seemed liked wishful thinking on the part of the Kingdom faithful who were well represented in Cusack Park yesterday afternoon.

Martin Carney’s contention that last month’s defeat to Cork marked “the day the music died” for a generation of Kerry footballers will be tested for the first time in Mullingar tomorrow.

Clare must limit the Cork forwards to have any hope