Will Gavin unleash the ‘whirlwind’ on Red Hands?

Absence makes the heart grow fonder but that doesn’t excuse the hyperbole said and written about Diarmuid Connolly since he pushed Ciarán Branagan 12 weeks ago. 

Paul Curran reckons he is the county’s greatest ever footballer when contemporaries such as Bernard Brogan and Stephen Cluxton and former team-mate Alan Brogan, never mind heroes of the past, would have stronger claims to that title.

Still, tomorrow’s All-Ireland semi-final is one game the 30-year-old is fancied to start. As his 12-week ban elapses at midnight tonight, here are 12 reasons and indications why: