THERE are going to be stumbles along the way. Sometimes it takes that setback to go forward, sometimes that slip is one long slippery slide.

The future All Stars we picked last year haven't made the kind of strides in their first year as our projected '05 stars did in their rookie season of '01, but time and talent is still on their side;

well, for most of them.

Our goalkeeper Kieran Cremin has certainly displayed patience, '06 being his third year watching Diarmuid Murphy from the bench. He got to play in some big league games, like those against Mayo and Tyrone, while he kept a clean sheet in Dr Crokes' Munster club campaign. But Murphy looks to be going nowhere, having waited eight years himself for a crack at the number one spot, and Cremin will have to wait another while if he's to be Kerry's number one some day.

At the other end of the field, his countyman Paddy Curran showed just why we think he and Kerry will hold centre stage by the end of the decade. The Waterville kid was the standout minor forward in the country this year. He was quiet enough for the last 90 minutes of the Roscommon saga, but that was as much due to poor supply as the switches and intensity in the Roscommon defence. In the first 20 minutes of the drawn game, he kicked five points. He has power, pace and can finish with either foot. All he lacks right now is strength and the awareness to sometimes lay off the ball, deficiencies which probably cost him his starting spot for South Kerry in the county final. He'll come on in those departments now that he's been brought onto the senior panel. Next year, expect him to get the kind of playing time that Bryan Sheehan and Darren O'Sullivan have this past two years.

It'll be a job getting more than that though. There isn't a harder forward line to break into than Kerry's. Down there, standards are so high. How high? Well, consider the case of our other 2010 corner forward, Il Gooch. This year he won an All Ireland medal (scoring 1-2 in the final), won a national league medal (after being that competition's leading scorer from play), and won a Munster club and O'Donoghue Cup medal with the Crokes - and yet they say he had a poor enough year. Over the coming years he probably will need the odd break, like the one Declan O'Sullivan will enjoy this spring, to get away from the goldfish bowl that is Killarney but if he does, then he'll still be going strong in '10.

Someone who's moved to Australia altogether is our centre forward, Martin Clarke. For those of you who never got to see him playing Gaelic football, Clarke, formerly of Down, currently of Collingwood, was the whole package, and it's a shame you'll hardly now get to see him playing Gaelic football at the highest level. He'll probably be a star by 2010 alright, just not an All Star, but in case he comes back a l�? Anthony Tohill, we'll hold on to him for another while yet.

Some of our other tips are progressing nicely, if not spectacularly. In his first year out of minor, full-forward Daith�? Carrollwas a fringe player on the Laois under21 team that won Leinster, and in 2007 should be a key man on the under-21 team that aims not just to win Leinster but the All Ireland, the nucleus of the side being made up of the All Ireland winning minor team of '04. Liam Kearns has called him up to the senior training panel and being a forward that big and that good in a county with forwards that are small and only so good, he'll have a breakthrough year some time before 2010.

Dublin's Dermot Connolly picked up a Blue Star in both codes, being a member of the Dublin Colleges' side that beat St Flannan's in the All Ireland colleges final and coming off the bench to score a goal for the under-21 hurlers in their controversial Leinster final defeat to Kilkenny, while in football, he was probably St Vincent's best player on their march to the county final. His confidence and commitment seemed to waver in the final, and the Dublin senior management have reservations about his easy-going manner, but he was on that development team with Eric Millar. He can make and take scores in the style of a Ciaran McDonald, and if he doesn't make it on Pillar's beat, he should make it on someone else's.

Our other wing-forward, Cian Mackey, got some minutes of playing time in Cavan's backdoor run in 2005, but his commitment and condition slacked off in '06 to the point he was cut from the panel in the lead-up to the championship. It might just have been the kick he needed.

At 20 and with that pace and vision, Mackey still has it to be a key player for Cavan for the rest of the decade.

Back to the backs, and Finian Hanley maintained his reputation as one of the country's best young number threes, even if his season was rather mixed. After helping Salthill-Knocknacarra to the All Ireland club, that was him who was judged to have fouled Billy Joe Padden for that dubious free which Conor Mortimer iced to clinch the Connacht final. All he needs to do is get that bit stronger, and hope Galway get a good bit better.

The two corner-backs have each had a difficult year. Brian O'Regan is a tenacious, ball-playing defender who played a key role in Nemo Rangers' county and Munster club championship successes in 2005. Once their All Ireland ambitions were ended by St Gall's in February though, O'Regan played soccer only, knowing he would spend the summer in Australia instead of looking to join up with his huge admirer and influence, Billy Morgan.

The prospect of him making his senior debut with the county became even more unlikely last month when O'Regan was assaulted in Cork city. However, he has been called in to Morgan's squad and should be training with them by February.

Paul Marlowe, meanwhile, would probably settle just to get back playing with the Tyrone under-21s rather than break on to the seniors. The Eskra clubman was a man among boys when the county won the 2004 All Ireland minor final, but at senior level, his strength is the norm, and his pace (all the more because of that cruciate injury) and height are below the level required. His doggedness and leadership cannot be underestimated but neither can the challenge he faces.

Our half-backs had their injury woes too, but our confidence in Kildare's Michael Foley and Armagh's Aaron Kernan remains robust. Now that Glenn Ryan has retired, Foley will finally emerge from the fringes and wings to man the centreback spot.

What we said about Kernan 12 months ago still applies:

"Whether Armagh win another All Ireland in his career we're not so sure but they'll remain a consistent last eight team with a quality player like him on board, and very likely, at least two brothers of his." Only the kind of sly take-out tackles which he shipped in the Ulster club championship and from Paul Galvin in this year's All Ireland quarter-final will stop this man from showing why he's one of the country's elite half-backs. Ger O'Kane, the standout minor player of 2002, though continues to frustrate, and was only an intermittent presence with Derry this past year.

We still believe our two midfielders will clinch at least one All Star each before or in 2010. Raymond Mulgrew had a very difficult first year, but if anything he'll benefit from that experience and lower expectations. In '06, he could have done with bulking up an extra six to nine pounds and having a more experienced, less injury-prone set of teammates to guide him along, but both should be in place in '07. With that vision, comfort on the ball and attitude, he's still a good bet for that All Star in 2010, and a very good one for being the next Young Player of the Year, probably from wing-forward.

This past year was an exceptional one for Se�?n Cavanagh. For the first time since his breakthrough year in 2002, he wasn't an All Star. He's already working on ensuring normal service is resumed, by spending at least four days a week in the gym on building up his leg strength to improve his fielding. "I'm good on the ground, " he says, "but I'm not good enough in the air against the likes of Darragh س Sé and Ciaran Whelan." As much as he likes his mother's home cooking and his uncle's accountancy firm where he works, the real reason Cavanagh turned down the AFL was to win more All Irelands and All Stars.

Himself and Mulgrew will be challenging for them in 2010 - and in 2007.