YOU CAN get cynical in this game pretty easily. You meet idols with feet of clay, the clay ending somewhere in the mid-thigh region.

AT SOME point this morning a middle-aged man in Northern Ireland will look in his wardrobe for a particular item of clothing, one that’s kept for specific occasions.

ON THE surface, Saturday in Temple Hill was business as usual in the All-Ireland League.

THE Guardian’s elegant columnist Frank Keating had a typically sharp piece in his newspaper last week, a simple concept butexecuted with precision and wit.

YOU can call off the search.

ON ONE hand, writing about Munster playing at home in the Heineken Cup is the simplest assignment in the world.

YOUR columnist has been colder than he was yesterday in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, but not often. Thurles Sars and De La Salle played in what Sylvia Plath called the light of the mind: cold and planetary.

AFROS and handlebars on Tuesday, side-creases and smooth chins on Sunday.

THE eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that Tipperary outfit Aherlow collected a second Tipperary SFC title last weekend.