The landscape of modern GAA commentary, tends to hover around the dirty subject of fixture schedules and structures.
Opinions are proffered and full conviction is invested in the writing of each individual's solution to the ongoing problem. And the rejection is barked with equal emphasis.
That's not to say that Tomás Ó Sé doesn't touch on this issue in his Saturday Independent column today, but he does cushion the blow with a nostalgic anecdote that brings us all back to those balmy summer days of 1998.
Underdogs Galway navigated a way to the All-Ireland final and after an upset in the other semi-final, John O'Mahony's side were paired with Kildare in the final - a major departure from the Kerry assignment they were expecting.
Just a single point tipped the scale in Kildare's favour that day and the Kerry contingent were understandably incandescent with fury, that their time as reigning champions was over.
But according to Tomás Ó Sé, there was a moment of light relief awaiting them as they careered towards Heuston Station for the long journey home as defeated semi-finalists.
He begins:
"Páidí at the front with a face that could stop clocks, me not far behind him, practically growling. I'd got a bit of a hosing down in Cork earlier that year and never made it back on the team. Ended up feeling about as useful as a square football. Anyway, we've no garda escort here for company when, suddenly, a big Merc stops us in our tracks."
"And out jumps this lunatic from the driver's seat to do a little victory jig in front of the bus."
"Now it wouldn't take much for the bulls to charge here, except some of us recognise the lunatic's face. "For f**k sake, look who it is!" It's Dermot Cox, known to many of us as an absolute gent, a successful businessman and a mad Kildare supporter who had a house in Dingle."
"So here he is in a Dublin street now, doing this Cherokee war dance in front of us."
"And whatever it is about the way he does it, don't we take a fit of giggling in the bus. Because there's nothing nasty intended here. Dermot's just beyond himself with happiness at the thought of Kildare playing in an All-Ireland final."
"When I think now of the fanaticism of Kildare's supporters, I automatically have Dermot Cox's smiling face in my head. Anyone who was there in '98 will remember the colour (blizzard white) they brought to that summer."
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