One of the downsides of this fulfilling occupation is the frequency with which your calling is confused with that of Nostradamus. It's not so important at this time of the year but during the high summer of championship action, something within us all in the press box dies when results flow in from around the country and day-old predictions turn to dust.
After repairing to a Tullamore pub after the Offaly All-Ireland media night, one of my best-known colleagues was summoned to the microphone to explain to the inmates his constant dismissal of the county's chances during the summer. "Genuinely I'd like to say . . . . . f*** the lot of ye," he feistily responded.
Essentially I believe that was the correct response. They always remember the wrong calls, never the right ones and so on. In defiance of this well-established rule of punditry, I was gratified by an approach from a senior GAA official at the recent special congress in Rosslare. He told me that I had been right. About what?
Clare. I had said that the siege mentality would come against them. I thanked him for remembering this August observation and remarked that it was more usual for less accurate conjectures to come back at you three months later.
The piece is reproduced along - for the sake of balance - with other occasionally less happy stabs at prophecy that arose during the summer.
August 5th
(Following the decision of the Games Administration Committee to hand a sideline ban to Ger Loughnane after his pitch incursions during the controversial Munster final and replay against Waterford. Under the heading: Siege mentality could cost Clare war).
There is a lesson for Clare in the events of nine years ago. There are those in Galway who freely concede that the obsessive siege mentality of the camp in the lead-up to that semi-final ultimately cost them the All-Ireland. Had they concentrated on hurling and accepted that Keady was unavailable (replacement Sean Treacy went on to have a fine match at centre back) they would surely have been in better shape to overturn what finished as a three-point deficit.
The moral of this story is that bitterness is an unreliable motivator. Sometimes it works, more often it merely serves as a distraction. Handle with care.
(After three matches - including the now infamous `short count' replay - raging favourites Clare lose to Offaly in Thurles).
May 30th
(Preview of hurling year under heading Offaly's turn to step forward.)
As the quarter-final pairings aren't known until July, everything is rather vague in the long term but the hunch bet here is that, fortified by some new acquisitions, the success of Birr and a renewed hunger, Offaly can pick their way through to a repeat of the 1995 final meeting with Clare.
There, with the hierarchies of three years ago swapped, Offaly can win a fourth All-Ireland.
Nonetheless the two above texts must be read in conjunction with the preview of the first Offaly-Clare semi-final in the course of which it becomes clear that neither the virtues of May nor the volcanic controversies in Clare were sufficiently persuasive to advocate an Offaly win. In fact, a certain amount of disillusion with the eventual All-Ireland winners had set in.
August 9th
Offaly who were cited by the Clare manager as "one of our more daunting tasks" are nothing of the sort. Followers of the county are pessimistic and realise that the performances of the team to date have been unremittingly poor, a judgment even players have conceded.
When a team has shown so little during a season as well as suffering the upheaval of losing a manager in a public row, it is impossible to hold out any rational hope that the players will suddenly click on the biggest day of the season. There is an irony in Offaly's presence in this semi-final in that the reformed championship was supposed to weed out underperforming teams by this stage.
(Offaly drew the match and ultimately deposed the champions in the replay refixture).
May 30th
There were other occasions in the hurling championship when momentary enthusiasms proved ill-founded. Home advantage at Parnell Park and the visitors' poor National Hurling League form underpinned the reasoning for backing Dublin to beat Kilkenny for the first time in over 50 years.
Given that it took Kilkenny so long to tweak their selection last summer until it worked to the optimum level, they face quite a task tomorrow. Should they win, the usual evolution will be under way but the fact remains that Dublin won't have a better chance of beating Kilkenny for a long time.
(Kilkenny won by 21 points, 4-23 to 0-14).
July 19th
Whereas no one was quite sure what to make of Waterford's feat in holding Clare to a draw in the Munster final, few thought that the champions wouldn't emerge in the end. Whatever about that, the view here was that Brian Lohan certainly wouldn't find himself in as much difficulty as he had the first day. Given the intensity of Lohan's attitude and the range of his game, it's almost inconceivable that he won't recover and reduce the figures in brackets after Anthony Kirwan's name.
(Yes and no. Lohan was sent off in the fourth minute along with Micheal White for fighting. In Lohan's absence Kirwan's tally of 2-1 from the drawn match was reduced to a point by Brian Quinn).
Football was a less contentious area over the championship but it had its moments. Galway came to the All-Ireland semi-final not having won the Sam Maguire in 32 years. I came to the same stage not having correctly predicted a single All-Ireland match - semi-final, final or indeed replay - since Dublin beat Tyrone three years previously.
August 23rd
This refers to the wild inaccuracy of the Galway forwards. The team hit 20 wides in the Connacht replay against Roscommon.
It is a flaw which more than any other can undermine their efforts tomorrow. The team management has played down the problem but more on the grounds that labouring the point will do no good, rather than because it is expected to go away.
(Galway outplayed Derry, scoring 16 points and kicking only three wides. Their attack went on to underpin the All-Ireland-winning effort a month later).
