"The fact that first Tyrone and then Derry and Monaghan failed to negotiate their respective quarter- final hurdles is, " says Young, "a statistic that nobody in Ulster wanted recorded as part of the 2007 season."

However, the province's Gaelic games development officer said he was confident the right systems and structures were in place to ensure Ulster football would get back on track.

And he feels a significant part of the strategy of rediscovering the Croke Park winning momentum is dependent on Ulster acknowledging the importance of a siege mentality.

"It was just that kind of "against the rest" mental approach that was so important to both Tyrone and Armagh. It may well have had something to do with the impact of the Troubles in both those counties over the years. However, it cannot be denied Tyrone and Armagh football have had an unrivalled physical and mental intensity and focus. That does not always make you friends.

"The emergence of Monaghan this season showed that they had absorbed a lot of those vitally important intensity traits.

"They have shown the importance of being able to play to your strengths. Success at All Ireland level doesn't come overnight.

Tyrone and Armagh were knocking at the door for a few years before they managed to open it.

"But they kept at it, again and again. Perhaps that sense of determination to keep coming back again and again is something other provinces find hard to comprehend. But a dogged approach is an integral part of Ulster football."

Whether it is justified or not there is a sense in terms of northern football that the rest of the country takes a certain delight in its discomfiture. There was a condescending attitude that was impossible to hide in terms of some of the television coverage of the recent quarter finals.

Some of the comments made about the ability of the Derry forwards to take scores from play against Dublin, allied to the fact that they had the confidence not to crumble in the Croke Park atmosphere, was a source of puzzlement to the pundits.

Eugene Young is far too diplomatic an administrator to make a public comment on the strength of an anti-Ulster bias bubbling close to the surface in certain sectors of the Association.

But he rejects as "total nonsense" claims that Northern teams and supporters approach the opposition with an in-built sense of arrogance. Comments to that effect made by former Kerry manager Jack O'Connor and his personal delight in beating Ulster teams, also got short shrift from Young.

"We are still trying to ensure Monaghan, Antrim and Fermanagh win their first senior All Ireland. It's not as though Ulster football players are able to jingle halfa-dozen gold medals with their back-pocket loose change. Real arrogance is trying to run down a type of football because it is difficult to play against. The emphasis in Ulster has been to develop structures that maximise the potential at our disposal.

"In recent years our target has been to try and get five Ulster sides out of the last eight teams in the All Ireland. This year the figure we got was three out of the quarter finalists. It was more than any other province, but it was short of our target.

Included in that trio were both Monaghan and Derry, two teams that might not have been selected by the majority of commentators or supporters as having the potential to go so very close to securing a semi-final slot.

"It's an indication of the spread of relative football strength in the province that both those counties have, to a certain extent, broken the near monopoly enjoyed by Tyrone and Armagh in Ulster. Any really unbiased analysis of the performances by Monaghan and Derry against Kerry and Dublin would come to the conclusion that the Ulster representatives did have sufficient chances to have won those games.

"The difference, however, in terms of winning or losing was not one of superior physical technique. On the day it was a question of the opposition having a stronger mental attitude at crucial stages of the game.

"Of course, there is always going to be an element of luck involved in terms of escaping injury to important players.

Derry didn't get that luck against Dublin. But they still had the opportunities to win, as did Monaghan."

Ulster football, however, will have to stand back this year and watch as the game, at the very highest level, continues to be dominated by teams from outside the province.

However, there will be increasing pressure placed next season by the rest of the province. It is that commitment to raising standards that Eugene Young welcomes as the indicator of improved standards.