YES, CLARE CAN

That's an awful mess the GAC got themselves in with the Longford v Donegal (or should we say the Donegal v Longford? ) saga. Brian McIvor's Donegal, quite rightly, are objecting to playing "ve away games, and Longford, quite rightly, to being on the wrong side of the 3-4 split for a fourth consecutive year.

There is a solution. With Cork and Tyrone's game scheduled for today postponed, it got Sideline Cuts thinking of when the two counties nearly didn't play each other in an All Ireland under-21 semi-final because of the foot-andmouth crisis of this time five years ago. But they did play each other, thanks to the bigger-picture mentality of the Cork county board who waited five months to play the eventual Ulster champions.

Could another county be so magnanimous in the current fixture crisis? Well, we've noticed that Clare are due to play both Donegal and Longford at home in the coming month.

We've also noticed that for three of the past four seasons Clare have been awarded four home games, while the one year they were on the wrong side of the 3-4 split was last year, when they were away to pushovers London.

With London also down for being one of their away fixtures this season, meaning they effectively have only two 'serious' away games, could Clare do a 'Cork' and offer the away side in the Longford-Donegal crisis a home game against the Banner?

We doubt it. But five years on, it's time Cork's gesture was truly appreciated. And replicated.

GETTING OUR O'FLYNN FACTS STRAIGHT

Just to make one detail clear following last week's mention of former Kilkenny trainer Mick O'Flynn. After more than a decade of splendid service to the county that encompassed a signi"cant role in "ve All Ireland triumphs, O'Flynn stepped down last November, to be succeeded by . . . rather than replaced by . . . Noel Richardson.