QUESTION: WILL SPILLANE SLIP SEAMLESSLY BACK INTO THE ROLE OF ANALYST?

DON’T you know well he will. This is 1986 all over again, his chance to prove himself, all over again. Con Houlihan said ‘for the last time’ are the four saddest words in the English language. To his fellow countyman, ‘all over again’ are the sweetest.

You can almost see him now, driving the never-ending road from Templenoe, tapping the steering-wheel, muttering “I’ll show them I’m not gone soft.” Judging by his comments in last weekend’s Sunday Tribune, we can expect some artistic tension too. He more or less said the quality on the other side of the low table suffered due to his not being there: even if you hate him, you’ve got to love the depth of his self-belief.

We need a rogue in there. We also need a few more straight-talkers. After 2008, the Summer of the Studio Sidestep, the slate is wiped clean again.

This time, perhaps, sectoral interests will be parked at the door. This time, all, not just some, analysts will call it like it is – they are not required to take anyone’s character, or call for a return of the birch, but a simple “now, that was wrong, and it can’t be tolerated” satisfies the public’s hunger for analysis that is as independent as it can be given the strongly-held allegiances of all involved.

At least with Spillane, we will be spared the “he’ll be the first one to admit himself that what he did was wrong” nonsense. When it’s rubbish football, he’ll tell us it’s rubbish football.

He has been through it all before. He’s been kicked so often, the kicks have stopped hurting. He has done the ‘spirited away in the back of Ger Canning’s car’ routine. He has survived the puke football fall-out. He has lampooned all and sundry, and still he’s standing.

There will still be the occasional county board going through the motions of condemning what he says.

Of course, we need more than a rogue in there. We need informed analysis. Spillane does know his stuff, not just because he was one of the greatest players of all time, but mainly because he still is so fascinated by the game.

In fairness, the football analysts on The Sunday Game tend to up to speed on their brief – unlike a number of their hurling counterparts who can still be spotted flashing a down-the-nose look at the match programme to identify a player.

To the question, we say yes. To the likelihood of it all resulting in a better Sunday Game, we also say yes.