The last time I did an update on the championship prediction mini-league (with thanks, as always, to facetheball.com) prior to Round 4 of the qualifiers I said that I’d be back with another bulletin on how things were faring out on it after the All-Ireland quarter-finals had been played. Now they have so here it is.

As you can see from the table across, long-time leader Luigi is still out in front and with the winning line now clearly in view he has extended his lead over the rest of the field – modesty forbids me to mention who currently stands at the head of this chasing mob – to what I think is probably an uncatchable 37 points.

There are, after all, only three matches left to play (just three inter-county games left to savour, hombres, until the whole show goes back into the deep freeze for several months) so I can’t see the current leader being overhauled at this stage, especially if the trio of climactic contests go the way the bookies think they will. Then again, all three of them could be tricky enough to call so on balance I think it would be prudent to hold off on this particular coronation until the destination of Sam has first been sorted out.