The 2011 championship is over and so too is our prediction mini-league, hosted once again this year by those kind folks at facetheball.com. The excitement levels about the dénouement of this competition may not have reached the heights attained at Croke Park last Sunday but like the battle for Sam Maguire (which turned up at Vinnie’s last night, by the way, with the whole team and management in tow) it went right down to the wire. If Opt 2 Miss Teek had gone for it and plumped for the Dubs then that could have resulted in an even more dramatic outcome. Then again, as that quaint old West of Ireland saying goes, if your aunt had balls she’d be your uncle.

The margin of victory was just six points in the end but Mayo Mick, who was back in sixth when I did the first update in early June but who was soon scrapping furiously for the top spot, is the deserving winner of this year’s competition. The spoils of victory are, on this occasion, a retro-style jersey from the range offered by the lads at retrogaa.com and I’ll be in touch with Mick in due course about the mechanics of getting his prize to him.

Congrats to Mick and thanks to everyone else for taking part in both of this year’s prediction mini-leagues. Before we know it, the 2012 NFL will be on us again and there’ll be another competition to have a tilt at then.