Waiting too long for showtime

Spot the difference: “You only complain about the break if you get beaten in a quarter-final.

You never complain about it if you win. So I think a lot of that is only an excuse” — Donncha O’Connor last month on the four-week break between Cork’s Munster final and this weekend’s All-Ireland quarter-final.

“The stat you hear thrown around is that only one team since the qualifiers came in have won in the circumstances; it’s a readymade excuse for teams to throw in the towel if ever there was one!” — Joe Sheridan before Meath became latest team to suffer six-day turnaround last Sunday.