No rest for the wicked as duty with club calls

Between the Olympic Games and the All-Ireland senior hurling semi-finals, Gaelic football hasn’t featured prominently on too many radars over the last few weeks.

Likewise, many counties have a fortnight’s break from club action around this time of year to allow for holidays. At the start of July every county team is still in action, yet after the August Bank Holiday Monday, only four teams remain. Twenty-eight teams culled in five weekends of action. Brutal isn’t the word. So, after seven - okay, let’s be honest - nine months of hard training, meetings, video analysis, strict diets, everything grinds to a sudden halt.

So as the title contenders go about their business preparing for their respective semi-final showdowns, the rest of us are busy trying to re-acclimatise to normal life outside the inter-county dressing room.