And that's how it is. I'll have no argument or discussion about this, thank you very much, apart from one question.

How many is a great many defenders . . . three or four out of the six starting on every county team?

Oh, I don't know. Some teams, yeah, there's possibly three or four of them hanging about the place. And on some other teams there might be two, or there might only be one of them. Though there's seldom only one per team, to be honest, because uncivilised and unacceptable behaviour is always fairly contagious.

This has to be a morning for 'home truths', entirely because of the massive overreaction to last Sunday's individual displays of jeering and goading, as performed by Dublin's 'three little maids from school' Mark Vaughan, Kevin Bonner and Alan Brogan, with a solo act in Clones from Monaghan's Tommy Freeman. This country-wide reaction was as unnecessary as the few seconds of ugly theatrics by the four young men themselves.

It was quite amusing, actually, to witness so much screeching and wailing in the 24 hours after the Leinster and Ulster finals from so many older and wiser men and women throughout the association. Jeez Louise!

Lads, lassies, cherry-picking trucks would have been needed to help some of you down from dangerously high moral places.

Of course, a quiet word in the ears of Messrs Vaughan, Bonner, Brogan and Freeman was definitely necessary after the two games.

But that's all. Why ask Paul Caffrey and Seamus McEneaney to do more than that when nobody ever requests defenders to be given a 'talking to' for 70 minutes of 'verbals' and 'general mischief '?

I'm not suggesting for one minute here this morning that Darren Rooney or Ciaran Gourley or any other defender in last Sunday's two games deserves to have an ASBO thrown in their direction. I've no evidence to suggest that the 24 of them who started in Clones and Croker acted anything less than perfect gentlemen from the very first minutes of the two games.

But I do believe . . . verbally speaking . . . that defenders who live by the sword often die by the sword. And the reasons Rooney and Gourley, in particular, were caught on the receiving end of more than a mouthful from their opponents was because they had an awful lot to say for themselves prior to the two goals in each ground from Vaughan and Freeman.

Could be wrong, but I don't think so, do you?

Paul Caffrey and his gang of team minders should be concerned, however, that three of their lads lost their focus and discipline in this manner. Three was two young men too many, in my estimation, and if I was in Caffrey's very big circle I'd be deeply worried that too many Dublin footballers do not have a great idea of exactly where, and how far away still, the 2007 finish line is.

But, then, it's hard to expect clear heads and cold blood from Dublin lads on the field when there's all sorts of funny stuff happening by Dublin lads on the sideline. And the Dublin team boss himself, is the central character in this funny stuff.

Hugging and high-fiving is unnecessary, and is also a dangerously disarming business in the month of July.

Compare Mickey Harte and Paul Caffrey and how they presented themselves in the last quarter of last Sunday's two games . . . and then consider the face of the country's greatest team boss, Eddie O'Sullivan, who has told us more than once that it is not part of his job description to become excited or animated, or in any way emotional, until the game is done, and it has been confirmed to Eddie by medical personnel that the stake in the game's chest is irremovable.

Three Leinster final wins on the trot is not something to be taken lightly. It's a fair achievement alright, even if Leinster has only looked marginally more important than a complete waste of space these last two summers. Paul Caffrey and his lads have not achieved all that much in the last two months, but they have celebrated a little too much.

I worry about Caffrey. I do. He's so serious and so well organised, and yet he's bringing one of his kids down from the Hogan Stand before the end of games. What on earth's going through the man's head? What on earth goes through the heads of the 14 members of Caffrey's management team when they see him enjoying his little family moment? Don't tell me those 14 men think the Caffrey family deserve that moment over everything else which is still going on?

INCOMING
SATURDAY 28 JULY
All Ireland SHC quarter-finals Wexford v Tipperary, Croke Park, 2.00 TV Kilkenny v Galway, Croke Park, 4.00 TV All Ireland MHC quarter-final Antrim v Kilkenny, Croke Park, 12.15 All Ireland SFC Round 3 qualifiers Donegal v Monaghan, Omagh, 7.00; Derry v Laois, Cavan, 7.00 TV
SUNDAY 29 JULY All Ireland SHC quarter-finals Limerick v Clare, Croke Park, 2.00 TV Waterford v Cork, Croke Park, 4.00 TV All Ireland MHC quarter-final Cork v Galway, Croke Park, 12.15