UNLIKE some other GAA-oriented productions RTE have been making in recent times, The Road To Croker is being universally and rightly praised for how surprisingly pleasant and fun and interesting it's been.

Every item so far has worked, including the celebrity forecast segment. Just one thing though.

Someone needs to point out to Ken Doherty that Dublin and Kerry can't actually now meet in the All Ireland final; if they do play this year, it'll be in the semi-"nal.

Mention of who can play who at what stage in the football championship, now is a good time to clarify what can and can't happen; Ken is in the majority in not knowing the total ins and outs.

If all four provincial finalists win their All Ireland quarter-finals, then we will have a Dublin-Kerry semifinal and a Tyrone-Sligo semi-final.

Tyrone cannot meet Dublin or Kerry until the final.

As for the quarter-finals, there will be some, but not total, protection for sides playing sides they've already met in the championship. Basically, a provincial champion cannot meet the side they beat in the provincial final, thus cutting out the possibility that Kerry's last two games of 2007 were both against Cork.

A provincial champion can, however, meet a side they met and beat in the provincial quarter-final or semi-final. In other words Tyrone can meet Donegal again should Brian McIver's men beat Monaghan on Saturday, but Tyrone cannot meet Monaghan again in the All Ireland quarter-final should Banty McEnaney's side beat Donegal next Saturday.

YOU TALKIN' TO ME. . .ABOUT CORK HURLING?

"Do you know who I had in the back of my taxi recently. . ?" One Dublin cabbie didn't.

The recent Saturday that Cork graced Parnell Park in the All Ireland hurling qualifiers recently, the taxi driver in question picked up two gentlemen in town and drove them to the Donnycarney venue.

Along the way they got chatting, as you do. (As, let's face it, you can't but do with Dublin taxi drivers. ) It turned out that yer man was a big soccer head and was all excited about the impending visit of his beloved team, the mighty Tottenham Hotspur, to Richmond Park . . . sorry, the Estadio da Luz . . .to take on St Patrick's Athletic in a pre-season friendly.

On discovering that his passengers hailed from Leeside, the best he could manage was, "Oh, haven't Cork a good hurling team at the moment?"

The man in the back seat suppressed a smile, albeit with some difficulty.

His name? Newspaper columnist, traveller, zen Buddhist and former Cork hurling manager, John Allen.