We should have known, when GAA Congress decided not to define the melee, that this would become The Year of the Melee.

We have been here before in this country, says Larry Ryan.

It has been a landmark week for the Big Man, ushered in from the cold as Gaelic football’s saviour.

Is the match on the telly? It was once the kind of question that could at least bring some sort of certainty to your day.

Maybe this is the kind of thing Serena Williams was getting at.

If you remember, it was Muhammad Ali started it, not Mick McCarthy or Ian Evans or even Tom Humphries’ interview.

By now it’s among the reliable All-Ireland final traditions that somehow never die. Camogie’s answer to Up for the Match — the annual audit of how things stand with coverage of women’s sport.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference — since Malcolm Gladwell’s seminal book was published in 2000, we have watched for and puzzled over those pivotal moments. Mysterious thresholds when products or messages or behaviours ‘go viral’. When ideas catch on.

It is an audacious switcharoo that John Kiely has attempted. In an experiment rarely attempted in these fraught circumstances, the Limerick boss has turned all known precedent on its head, writes Larry Ryan.

This week was all about Éamonn Fitzmaurice, a man of considerable dignity and wisdom, pointing out some uncomfortable truths about the way we support the games we love.