And the second question, of course, was laid at the spectacular, but usually disappointing, left boot of Ciaran McDonald (right). Would he ever put his shoulder to the wheel, and actually do a solid day's work in honour of the Mayo football team before time ran out on his dillying and dallying, and selfish posturing on the field?

The answer to that question too was delivered, in the All Ireland semi-final, in a game of football which was by no means the greatest 70 minutes which have been played in our lifetime . . . despite the 'oohing' and 'aahing' of a great many Gaelic football analysts who should know better . . . and which only looked so damn good because of the summer of mediocrity which preceded it. Boys and girls, this was just a very good and highly memorable game of football, the likes of which is viewed between two clubs in some county in Ireland every single Sunday. And, perhaps, that's why the game looked great.

Moran, and the losing team manager Paul Caffrey, approached and acted out this game as two daring, fearless, slightly naive generals . . . qualities which are commonplace in managers of strong parishes all over the country.

Nevertheless, we were thankful. And I was thankful, because I had stated in this same space seven days ago that it was likely that the All Ireland semi-final between Mayo and Dublin would be the saviour of the entire 2006 Gaelic football year. So it came to pass. I also got the result right . . . there was only one point in it. Though, I had informed you that Dublin would score that winning point.

It was okay being wrong in that, and it was really good to have Moran and Morrison, and McDonald, force me to gobble down the sheet of paper on which my two questions had been written last Sunday. McDonald did only what I told him he needed to do, but which, genuinely, I feared he might never be able to do. He scored the game's winning point. Aced it, with the courage of William Wallace or Alexander The Great. He kept out of the way of his team's gutsy performance for lengthy spells. He was unselfish. He passed the ball off quickly enough. Admittedly, he gave away far too much possession with very poorly delivered passes but, hell, he was one of the lads. For once. He sat at the table like just one member of this Mayo 'family' . . . and Moran and Morrison did luxuriate in the 'family' theme in the hours and days after this great victory. Which, naturally, is balderdash. Family my arse.

Families do not win All Ireland titles.

They sit outside the perimeter of the field and watch football teams do so. And the most worrying aspect of Mayo's greatest victory in over 50 years is that the management is probably holding the team's hand too tightly. McDonald, and Nallen and Heaney don't buy this family mullarkey for one second.

Mayo's family talk is as irrelevant to what's going on, and as unnecessary as the Dublin team's walkies to the foot of Hill 16 throughout the summer. Come on. Grow up, boys. Look at all of the teams before you, over the last 120 years, which have won All Irelands.

Forget the gimmicks. Toss the gadgets out of the pram . . . in fact, get the pram out of the dressing-room. God knows, Kerry may be distinctly average (by their own enormously high standards) and very beatable this year, but if Mayo listen to too much witch doctor babble they may fail to see that another strong 70 minutes of football is necessary if they are to claim this All Ireland title.

That would be a great shame because as of now, Mayo deserve Sam and they are by a small margin a stronger and more formidable team than Jack O'Connor's Kerry.

And that is thanks to Moran and Morrison. This pair are completing a good year's work in Mayo. We acknowledge that, congratulate them, and ask the two of them and the Mayo team to keep their heads for the next two weeks and win this All Ireland senior crown.

The game needs Mayo to win. Over the last 120 years too many average-togood Kerry teams have won too many All Irelands. Nobody watching outside of the Kingdom wants Kerry to win number 34 . . . not until they really, really deserve it, and truly earn it.

We do have the Mayo management to blame for cancelling the first Kerry-Dublin All Ireland final in 21 years. I have to say, I was looking forward to that aswell, journeying back to my youth and early manhood when I thought Kerry were gods and Dublin were gurriers.

During my own playing time, I quickly discovered that Kerry were as sneaky and dirty as they were sweet and gifted as Billy Morgan has been trying to explain over the last couple of weeks, without much success. I also found out that Dublin were the most decent group of footballers in the country . . . that they were always good winners, and nearly always fine losers.

Dublin kept their heads held high last Sunday evening too. Nobody pointed fingers.

Nobody in blue cried aloud in public about anything that had happened.

Though I've no idea why Paul Caffrey proposed that referee Paddy Russell should be canonised after his display.

Of course, and I don't especially like saying this, we also have the Dublin manager to blame for the cancellation of the Kerry-Dublin season finale. Why was his free-taker Mossy Quinn substituted in a nail-biter of a game? And why did Dublin's entire, carefully plotted season come down to Mark Vaughan, who might aswell have spent the last four months on the Hill for all the time he spent on the field in this championship?

This was madness. And, with a specialist man-marker like Stephen O'Shaughnessy on the sideline why was Dublin's newly constructed midfielder, Shane Ryan, left in a position where he was the last defender who failed to snuff out Mayo's match-winning goal from Andy Moran?

Having posed that question, it has to be immediately said that Kevin O'Neill's pass inside was brilliantly delivered.

O'Neill still has amazing gifts.

What a sub to have in your back pocket. And what the Dubs would do to have someone with his old head and youthful promise.

Mayo can win the All Ireland title this month. But, when will Dublin's next All Ireland come? What year? Many of my friends and neighbours in blue asked me over the summer about Dublin. All of them made faces at me when I matter-of-factly informed them that most teams that win All Irelands have two, and sometimes three, forwards who are capable of scoring seven or eight points on a good day. The Meath team I knew had three such forwards.

Kerry, a decade earlier, had five. Dublin in that same decade had three.

Sure, sometimes teams go the whole way in dodgy years without men up front who are capable of this degree of damage on the field. And up to last Sunday afternoon I thought this well-marshalled, brilliantly hard-working Dublin team might be in the right place, in the right summer.

Alas, Alan Brogan was the only Dublin forward who could and should have scored seven or eight points in this last step to the All Ireland final. The rest? Jayo was as good as he could possibly be at his age. The remainder didn't take their points when they presented themselves.

This time 12 months ago we thought Mark Vaughan, a young man with a prodigious talent, might have what it takes to be truly exceptional. But over the last year the Dublin management team turned their backs on Vaughan.

For that act, they paid far too heavy a price last Sunday. But, like Moran and Morrison, we must also say to Caffrey and his many lieutenants . . . well done, gentlemen, and thank you.