Our minors face the toughest possible examination of their All-Ireland credentials tomorrow at HQ when they line out against the latest crop of Kerry starlets. We haven’t a hope, says Paddy Power, quoting our young lads at 13/5 to win over the 60 minutes. And, if you read that article in yesterday’s Indo about the conveyor belt that ensures the production of generation after generation of Kerry thoroughbreds, you’d begin to wonder if it’s worth our while turning up at all, especially with that Barry John (what sort of a name is that to give a child, for the love of God?) Walsh lad ready to repeat that 3-3 he got against Offaly in the last round.

But I kinda like the call to arms that Kevin McStay issued earlier in the week and, in the spirit of same, I’m looking forward to being there tomorrow to see our young lads tearing into those Southern blue-bloods and making a nonsense of those overly generous match odds. As Kev says, what we need to do is take the game to them from the outset and see where it gets us. Hopefully, there’ll be a good few of us there tomorrow to make a bit of noise for the lads from the pews and, with a bit of luck, we might see our U18s book their place in next month’s final before the small Kerry support for the senior match shows up at Croker.