It may have escaped your attention, but beyond all the din and distractions, a pretty enjoyable football championship is happening out there with the prospect of a lot more fun to come.

Michael Murphy will lead Donegal into an Ulster senior football championship final for the eighth time on Sunday hoping to get his hands on the Anglo-Celt Cup for the fifth time.

Veteran Cian Mackey emerged as Cavan’s hero as he hit two priceless equalisers to send a thrilling Ulster SFC semi-final to a replay.

Ailing attendances, the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker, the Ulster championship finds itself at a crossroads.

Mickey Harte says he’s hoping the great sleeping giant of Ulster football doesn’t reawaken this weekend.

Donegal waltzed back to the top flight of the Allianz League with a comprehensive 13-point win over a listless Kildare at Fr Tierney Park in Ballyshannon yesterday.

Twenty years after being denied an Ulster championship when Derry’s Joe Brolly snatched an injury time winning goal, yesterday Declan Bonner finally got his hands on the Anglo-Celt Cup.

In his job as a professional diver, Donegal centre-back Paul Brennan has seen the depths but has an opportunity of a career highlight on Sunday.

Monaghan 1-18 Tyrone 1-16: Typical, really. Murphy’s Law.

Cork, Kerry, and Roscommon are the only teams guaranteed to avoid the first round of this year’s All-Ireland senior football championship qualifiers.

Tyrone 2-17; Down 0-15: Tyrone demolished Down’s challenge with a second half power-play to retain their Ulster SFC title at Clones, writes Francis Mooney.

Kieran McGeary’s feet have barely touched the ground in the past two seasons.

The pendulum has swung decisively in Tyrone’s favour in the battle of Ulster’s giants following a runaway win at Clones.

Footballer, teacher, trailblazer - we remember All-Ireland winning captain Joe Lennon

Séamus Mac Géidigh was broadcaster and manager of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta’s northwest service in Donegal

Hey, it’s actually got quite interesting the last few weeks, hasn’t it? In fact, it’s been rather decent, don’t you agree? You weren’t exactly expecting us or anyone else to be saying that about the 2016 football championship, were you?

It’s been six years since the Anglo-Celt Cup last visited Tyrone, and the hurt that drives Mickey Harte’s men has become an obsession.

Tyrone have failed to clear the first hurdle in the ferociously competitive Ulster Football Championship since 2012, but they’re hotly fancied to walk out of Celtic Park with a positive result tomorrow.

On A lonely bench at Belgrave Park in Rathmines he sat one night. All night long.

‘Twice as nice’ was Malachy O’Rourke’s verdict of Monaghan’s second Ulster final win over Donegal in three years.

The night they returned to Donegal Town having reclaimed the Anglo-Celt Cup last July, Eamon McGee was content on the peripheries.

Could your county board do with an extra €5m? Would your county board like this €5m to come in the form of one of those great Fifa loans that don’t actually have to be paid back?

Two minutes before half-time in the 2011 Ulster semi-final, Tyrone ripped through the blanket and Brian McGuigan fed Stephen O’Neill, who cut inside two Donegal defenders.

Tyrone defender Aidan McCrory has posed a question for supporters to ponder as they make their way to Ballybofey for Sunday’s Ulster SFC opener against Donegal.

Tyrone football legend Peter Canavan has dismissed suggestions that the curtain will fall on the Mickey Harte era if Tyrone suffer a fourth consecutive Ulster championship defeat to Donegal on Sunday.

Most championship dreams are beyond reason but success has many forms. It needn’t be a piece of silverware. What exactly what should satisfy county boards from their respective teams this summer?

When Mickey Harte was sympathetically asked whether heavy training was the reason for Tyrone’s 1-13 to 0-6 trouncing by Donegal, his reply was stark and simple: “I don’t even have that straw to clutch.”

Donegal 1-13

Still sporting the bloodstains from battle, Jim McGuinness emerged to the mouth of the tunnel of St Tiernach’s Park with the Anglo-Celt Cup swinging by his side.

Donegal manager Jim McGuinness has insisted that the revenge factor played no part in his approach to the Ulster SFC final clash with Monaghan, a repeat of last year’s decider.

Monaghan 1-18 Armagh 1-13

Super-cool substitute Rory Grugan rescued Armagh with a free deep into stoppage time, earning a replay for his side and another chance to shock Ulster champions Monaghan.

Down the years there was a natural trepidation ingrained in Donegal supporters looking ahead to the next championship fixture.

It may, statistically at least, have tipped back in favour of convention last year with Dublin’s second title in three years but Sean Cavanagh has seen the benefits of the more scenic route to Croke Park in September.

After clocking his fastest ever time at the Isle of Man TT, a BBC reporter conducted an interview with the late Joey Dunlop.

He’ll always be Wee James to us and nearly anyone who saw him play, but when it comes to inter-county management there’s a case a certain Mr McCartan could be termed Old James.

Every year we keep hearing that the national league is the second-most important competition in Gaelic football, but it’s actually not true.

It must be the northern air. It must be something. What else can explain the way successful managers are treated at the tip of the country?

WE’RE at the Subiaco Oval in Perth. It’s the first Test. Sitting in the press box, I can see that Páraic Duffy has stationed himself at the edge of the tunnel where the players will come onto the pitch.