These are strange sporting times. Here are just a few of the reasons why.
1 Cavan football. Figure this one out if you can. Val Andrews arrives to take on a job most sane men would have run a mile from, namely coaching a collection of players who before his arrival had shown a strong inclination not be managed in any shape or form.
The previous incumbent, Liam Austin, don't forget, had been ousted by the same unhappy bunch. But Andrews stuck doggedly to his task and little by little won the confidence of his team.
Progress was incremental but it was progress nonetheless and the significant thing was that Cavan's backward journey that had started after the departure of Martin McHugh was halted.
An unceremonious trimming last year by Derry aside, Cavan under Andrews had all the appearance of a county going in the right direction. This impression was copper-fastened by a run to this year's Ulster final despite a forward line made up of players who would rather sell their close relatives into slavery than have to pass the ball to a team-mate.
Andrews aged by a couple of decades after watching a summer of this serial profligacy but that was as nothing compared to what the clubs were about to put him through last week. When the issue of reappointment came up for discussion at a meeting last week 24 of them voted against Andrews. Even though he came through with a sizeable majority Andrews then decided to decline the poisoned offer on the basis that such a significant number were opposed to him.
And perfectly right he was too. On this form these delegates would have had a quiet word with Mick O'Dwyer when Kerry were in their pomp asking him if couldn't do a little better or would be likely to take Tiger Woods to one side to tinker with the aspects of his swing they weren't quite happy with.
Val Andrews is a decent man who has been treated shamefully. By walking away he has also made sure his dignity remains intact.
2 Omagh Town. Two words not likely to mean much to all you avaricious consumers of the over-inflated marketing concept that now masquerades as Premiership football but close to the hearts of a small, select band who make fortnightly pilgrimages to Stadio San Juliano or, if you'd rather, St Julians Road.
In recent years the club has flirted alternately with going out of business and relegation from the Irish League Premier Division, all to the general indifference of everyone in the town which gives it its name. But this season something strange and wonderful has happened. Omagh Town have started winning games, not just once a month but with alarming regularity. Just now they share the leadership of the Premier Division. If things keep going like this the crowds at San Juliano will be reaching three figures. It probably won't last and normal, drab service will be resumed shortly but for now we're savouring the moment.
3 Northern Ireland winning a competitive international. The recent thumping of Iceland didn't exactly lead to mass communal dancing on the street but it did come as something of a surprise. All the previous doom and gloom has been turned on its head, of course, and a significant section of the support and an ever-compliant press corps is convinced the 2002 World Cup is there for the taking.
4 Another George Best autobiography. This time, we're told, it's the definitive story but a similar line was being peddled around the time of the last autobiography. Best and the mini industry which surrounds him doesn't seem to have grasped this memoirs concept and clearly regard it was a work in progress rather than the final word.
5 The major retreat from worshipping at the altar of Compromise Rules. When the hybrid game crash-landed here in the mid-1980s the locals couldn't get enough of the physicality. Now they get all of that and more at their county final, the appeal has begun to wane. Peter Canavan's withdrawal this week from the party to tour Australia was perhaps predictable but it robs us of the opportunity of seeing what he had learned from the blocking and dragging tactics used against him to such good effect this year. His nemesis of the last series, Jason Akermanis, can devote himself to what are quite obviously his true vocations - working with under-privileged children and helping old ladies across the road. Peter, however, won't miss his close attention.
6 Saturation rugby. In the old days you knew where you stood if you were dedicating your life to avoiding rugby where possible. All the important games were played on Saturday afternoons in the early spring and you could occupy yourself away from the television by washing the car or the dog. Anything to escape.
Now there's no getting away from it. Is it just my imagination or are Ulster now playing every day of the week and twice on Saturdays? Factor in the 103 upcoming internationals and this is getting close to an epidemic. How is a responsible father supposed to protect his children? And how can same father be expected to field awkward questions from two-year-olds about grown men hunched down and grabbing other grown men around the groin? What was once a trickle is now a torrent of rugby and we can't take it anymore.
7 The alarming prospect of an All-Ireland final being played this year without Tyrone in it. Rumours are spreading of a senior final at Croke Park next Sunday in which the county, bizarrely, is not involved.
Already safely into the minor and under-21 football deciders, this is turning into a year of almost embarrassing domination. So much so that a corporate decision was clearly made that the senior team should take a collective foot off the pedal and give a weaker county like Derry the chance of some big-time experience. They blew their chance against Galway but that wasn't our fault. Come the day of reckoning, we will say we've done our bit to give others less fortunate than ourselves a chance.
