Okay?

Question One Mayo manager, Mickey Moran and his friendly side-kick, John Morrison have been on the road together for the guts of a decade managing different counties without ever being within an ass's roar of winning anything but a solitary Connacht title. How good are they at this job? And, are they getting any better?

Question TwoWith Mayo still handing over too much possession to Ciaran McDonald (right), is the team still betrothed to a footballer who has never got within an ass's roar (pardon me for that phrase again, but it's important to get the distance exactly right) of going beyond the hype with regular match-winning performances?

As we ponder these two questions, let's admit also that nobody at this point in time knows for sure how good this Dublin team is, or knows how good they can still become over the course of possibly two more games in this championship. I've said, from the very start, that Dublin will win the All Ireland title in 2006. I was guessing back in January, of course, but it looks to have been a good guess.

Right now Dublin are solid as a rock.

On the sideline Paul Caffrey and his army of lieutenants appear to have their fingers on all of the right buttons and switches. And on the field the team is doing exactly what they are being told to try to do.

It all looks very professional, though I wish they would stop their little 'walkabout' before the game has even started. That's the sort of antic which you imagine an under-18 team incorporate as part of their battle plan. When elderly gentlemen like Ciaran Whelan and the lads engage in this form of psychological pantomime, well, to be honest, if you're a Dublin supporter you've got to wonder if this team is still in danger of, one day, peeing in its pants. I hope not, genuinely. That's the last thing this disappointing summer of football needs.

Getting back to Mayo, what exactly has changed since Moran and Morrison arrived? Beats me!

If they had thought of keeping McDonald on the bench . . . and if they could have talked the greatest football genius in the west of Ireland to sit himself on the bench . . . then, you know what, I might have taken my hat off to the 'Moran and Morrison Show'. That might still be an idea, Mickey? John?

And it might not be too late . . . what you think?

It could be Mayo's own version of Peter Canavan appearing and disappearing in Croke Park. Mickey Harte had this particular gameplan carefully crafted to suit Canavan's level of fitness and it was brilliantly understood by Peter and the entire team. In the end, Canavan never, ever, got in the way of Tyrone winning an All Ireland title. Peter's shoulder was also to the wheel, all the time.

That, precisely, seems to be Mayo's greatest problem . . . McDonald is in the way. Too much ball goes through him.

He slows everything up. He dillies and dallies and, it seems to me, likes to make sure that everyone is getting a good look at him . . . which has not been an unusual trait amongst high-quality Mayo footballers in my lifetime.

Mickey Moran says he is building a 'family' in the Mayo dressing room. So what, exactly, has he changed? Morrison and himself are looking at every second or third Mayo movement cow-tailing to McDonald's desperate need for self-expression.

It's not good. But McDonald given 10 minutes early on, and another 20 minutes closer to the end with which to commit himself to actually getting big scores and working within the team's overall gameplan? That might be wiser, and that might suit a Mayo team which has many things going for it besides Ciaran's left foot.

The Mayo defence is very good. It looks 10 per cent, 15 per cent stronger that the Offaly rearguard, and they made life tough enough for this Dublin attacking unit in the Leinster final.

David Heaney and James Nallen are still strong and reliable, and they both offer true leadership material in their half of the field. It will be a travesty if neither player has an All Ireland medal on his chest when he retires from this game.

The two Higgins, Keith and Aidan, are hard tacklers and impressive on the ball and in their use of the ball. Peadar Gardiner looks fantastic and, with his speed, and the bolting runs of Alan Dillon, Mayo have lads who can turn a game on its head or, just as importantly, stop the rot in a game. In the middle of the field, Ronan McGarrity was phenomenal last Sunday, and not just in his fielding. His workrate was as impressive as it had been throughout 2004.

Up front, Conor Mortimer never gives the impression that he will die for the cause any day soon, but he can finish.

He's plucky when he gets the ball too, and if McDonald started to play and serve the team like Peter Canavan did, then Mortimer could thrive . . . a bit like the way Owen Mulligan doubled his impact on a game in the company of 'Peter the Great'.

Mayo still have a decent chance of winning this afternoon and, if they do that, they would have no reason to fear a Kerry team which has not left the fairly shambolic first half of the year too far behind them. This Kerry team is no rock. Dublin are the only truly solid group of footballers we have seen in this country over the full course of the summer.

Mayo, with their obvious questionable characteristics, dealt smartly with a star-studded, if lacklustre, Galway forward unit and after that experience nobody in Mickey's dressing room will have a fear of Mossy or Jayo, or anyone else in blue this afternoon.

We should expect a tight, very physical, low-scoring game in which two excellent defences seldom lessen their grip on things. Midfield might swing it either way. McGarrity seems the right man in the right place to trouble what has been an excellent championship performance from Ciaran Whelan.

Shane Ryan, however, can still give Dublin the vital edge in this battle . . . if he keeps his head. He got a little bit overexcited during the stroll in the park against Westmeath two weeks ago.

If Dublin do get on top of things in the middle third of the field for longish enough periods, then Mayo will have to play extra conservatively in defence.

Heaney and Nallen will need to avoid any 'Save the Planet' missions by racing blindly forward if the game is swinging against them.

Mayo will need to be calm and measured, and wait to win this game . . . even if it's late in the day. They have the ability to stay close. After that, they need to wait, and wait. Mayo do have a chance, definitely, and the Dublin manager and his many minders on the sideline will hardly have had their most rewarding of shut-eyes last night. This is going to be one long dangerous afternoon for Caffrey.

This is a game which has little room for error.

To win, for sure, Dublin have to be bigger and stronger, and even more confident in everything they do, than they have been in any game to date this summer.

That means, for starters, that Cahill and Cullen have to give virtually unblemished displays at number three and number six, and at the other end, there's Alan Brogan.

For the last three or four years, I have been saying that Alan Brogan has what it takes to lead Dublin the last 10 yards to the All Ireland title. This is still the case, and for all the chatter about Mossy Quinn and Conal Keaney, and the reborn Jayo and Ray Cosgrove, only Brogan had the capability of doing the unimaginable for Dublin when they most need it. This might be the best game of football all season. It should certainly be the most exciting, and memorable . . . for all the right and wrong reasons . . . because it's going to be rough. You can almost smell it.

A rip-roaring, absorbing game might even save this summer of football. And the team which keeps its head and finishes with 15 men, or at least a superior number of players on the field, should prevail. That team will be Dublin.

Caffrey's men by a single point . . . and their pants will stay dry.