Alan Foley Just under a year ago Patrick McBrearty trundled out of MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey on crutches after his Donegal team-mates had squandered a four-point lead against Tyrone to miss out on a place in the All-Ireland semi-finals.

You know what? These Super 8s might be something after all.

Here’s John Fogarty’s low-down on the final eight for the Sam Maguire Cup.

There will be a double-header of All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals in Croke Park on Sunday, July 14.

Capacity concerns and Galway and Mayo’s refusal to toss a coin for home advantage meant their All-Ireland SFC Round 4 game was fixed for the LIT Gaelic Grounds this Saturday evening (7pm).

Round 4 of the All-Ireland football qualifiers has pitted Ronan McCarthy's Cork against Laois while Mayo will face Connacht rivals, Galway in the pick of next weekend's clashes .

A look at how the All-Ireland SFC is shaping up.

Hugh McFadden believes the rivalry that has dictated the tone of Ulster football for the last decade is currently being dictated by Tyrone.

Regardless of how the CCCC occasionally surprises us, with Ballybofey or Omagh unlikely to host an All-Ireland semi-final in this or any foreseeable lifetime, this is a big as it gets — or will ever get — in the north-west.

Former Tyrone star Owen Mulligan has suggested the county narrowed their Omagh pitch for the Super 8 clash with Dublin in preparation for this weekend’s showdown with Donegal.

Another three of the Super 8 teams were confirmed yesterday with the remaining four to be revealed the weekend after next.

Although some of the fizz has been taken out of the provincial championships since the introduction of the qualifiers back in 2001, there’s a semblance of a climactic feel to Donegal’s preliminary round opener against Cavan in Ballybofey tomorrow.

All four Allianz Football League divisional finals will go ahead next weekend after yesterday’s results confirmed the Division 2 and 4 finalists, the 1 and 2 deciders on Sunday, and the 3 and 4 games the day before.

When Mayo are in town, there’s usually drama and that was certainly the case in Ballybofey yesterday when a point from Kevin McLoughlin in the fourth minute of injury time preserved the top-flight status of Stephen Rochford’s side at Donegal’s expense.

Eugene Lavin knows relegation, the reality and the fear of it. There was the relegation play-off defeats to Armagh and Kerry 30 years ago. Hazy in his recollection now but it was the loss to Kerry in Ennis that saw them drop from the top flight.

Donegal begin their quest for a seventh successive Ulster SFC final appearance on Sunday when Antrim roll into Ballybofey.

Louth have booked their place in the semi-finals of the O'Byrne Cup after they beat Carlow by 3-14 to 2-12 in Dowdallshill.

Chatter about albatrosses and bogeys won’t be confined to Troon this weekend. In Clones, Tyrone will be aiming to demonstrate Donegal’s Indian sign over them no longer exists.

Donegal 2-12 Fermanagh 0-11: Since emerging as a force five years ago Donegal have often demonstrated the ability to win games in devastating spells, and they did so again yesterday — this time with 14 men — to swat Fermanagh aside in Ballybofey.

To understand this Tyrone team, you must understand the depths from which they came.

Over 200km and a chasm in competitiveness separated Mayo’s defeat of Mayo and Donegal’s destruction of Armagh last Sunday afternoon but in the performances of Aidan O’Shea and Michael Murphy, there was at least one common thread.

Walk into a cobbler’s shop and the fragrance overwhelms your entire being. It’s impossible not to drink it in, and soak it up. Just like the Championship.

When the GAA signed a broadcasting deal with Sky Sports, it was argued that the competition would force RTÉ to improve the standard of their coverage.

Spent five days in Donegal last week. Ahead of covering their clash with Tyrone in Ballybofey, it was an opportune time to take in the so-called Forgotten County although it’s Donegal’s understanding of what a kilometre is that’s just as much in need of refreshing.

Justin McMahon insists that Tyrone have plenty of positives to take into the All-Ireland qualifier series.

Well, did anyone expect anything else?

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.

Much has been made of Tyrone’s inability to match Donegal’s physicality, but Conor Gormley does not expect his former team-mates to be bullied in Ballybofey on Sunday.

With a dismissive “Boys up trees again!”, Karl Lacey greets mention of news that Tyrone have moved their training away from their Garvaghey centre of excellence ahead of facing Donegal on May 17.

And other questions raised by the Allianz NFL semi-finals.

Jim McGuinness has disassociated Donegal’s management team from the man caught observing Kerry’s training session last week but insists similar ‘espionage’ is widespread in the game.

GAA espionage reached a new level in Fitzgerald Stadium on Tuesday evening when a man scarpered having been spotted attempting to watch Kerry’s behind-closed-doors training session — from a tree!

"It’s great to see the county starting to believe 100% in the team," says Frank as he contemplates the buzz since beating Dublin.

There are no lights visible at Donegal County Board offices from the laneway leading into MacCumhaill Park.

The reasons behind last year’s seven missed drugs tests in inter-county Gaelic games should be considered nothing more than logistical, says GPA head of communications Sean Potts.

GAA director general Páraic Duffy has used his annual report to blast Dublin and Donegal, claiming they discredited the organisation last year.

Man of the match Paddy McBrearty admitted the Bitegate controversy that has followed him since the league finale against Dublin was “a bit head-melting”.

The Ulster championship minefield never allows its participants tiptoe into the escalating heat of summer. But even at that, there’s something climatic about the meeting of Donegal and Tyrone in Ballybofey tomorrow.

It may only be late May, but the howls of anguish over the ticket drought in Donegal ahead of Sunday’s Ulster SFC game with Tyrone have decorated the All-Ireland’s earlier stages with a soundtrack that has rarely, if ever, been heard before the kids trudge back to school in September.

Donegal received an unexpected ticket boost with Tyrone returning 1,000 unsold tickets for Sunday’s Ulster SFC quarter-final.

Footballer of Year Karl Lacey drew inspiration from Andy Moran in his own bid to return from serious injury in time for Donegal’s championship opener.