The stats men are back this weekend. Huddled over their Ipads and laptops in the stands, the shadowy figures bearing an uncanny resemblance to members of Kraftwerk.

In recent weeks, a number of senior inter-county officials have met with representatives of Edge 10, a sophisticated predictive performance monitoring and management software system.

AUSSIE RULES attempts to unearth the next Tadhg Kennelly or Martin Clarke are to mushroom in August with plans for a “draft” camp to be set up here that will run the rule over a shortlist of up to 30 young Gaelic footballers.