Speaking to Kieran Donaghy during the week, Sideline Cuts was taken by a parallel there is with today and one of his earliest sporting memories. It was in his beloved basketball, back in 1989, when a six-year-old Donaghy and the half of Tralee made the trip to Cork's Neptune Stadium to see their hometown Tigers play in the national cup semi-final. And just like today, their opponents were from Dublin. With five seconds left, Tralee drew level only for Roadspeed to hit a three-pointer on the buzzer.

Donaghy can still remember who hit that shot . . . "Simon Kennedy" . . . and Tralee's point guard and director of operations crumbling to the floor as the Roadspeed coach rushed onto it in jubilation.

That Tralee director of operations? One Pat O'Shea.

And the Roadspeed coach?

Gerry Caffrey, brother of one Pillar Caffrey.

The following day Roadspeed won the final too. Against Blue Demons. From Cork.

So, a national semi-final.

Dublin v Kerry. A Caffrey trying to outwit and mastermind a victory over Pat O'Shea, with a Cork side waiting in the final.

Interesting.

This year, mind, Tralee won the cup, with Donaghy on the court.

And their vanquished semi-final opponents? St Vincent's, Jason Sherlock's . . . and the Caffreys' . . .

old club, from Dublin. And in the final, they too beat Demons.

From Cork.

History could repeat itself today and this month. But will Donaghy and O'Shea or the Caffreys be the ones laughing at the end?

A CLASSIC SEMI-FINAL?

FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF With all the talk there's been about it over the past few weeks, you're probably itching to see if Dublin-Kerry in '77 was all it's cracked up to be.

Well to see for yourself, the DVD of the game is out now in association with RTE and Sideline Productions.