Yesterday on the Sunday Game, Joe Brolly appeared genuinely confused and taken slightly aback at the prediction confidently made by his fellow pundits Messrs Spillane and O’Rourke that Galway might defeat Mayo in the opening round of the Connacht championship.

Joe may have had a hard day in the saddle on Saturday’s wonderful OptforLife cycle. But common sense made certain there was no question but that he would opt for Mayo yesterday. He just couldn’t see them losing. And, he was right.

In September 2012 the Barley House Wolves won their first North American County Board Junior C Hurling Championship title.

For anyone that doesn’t already know it, the story of the Barley House Wolves Hurling club is a fascinating tale. The team is drawn almost exclusively from the New Hampshire Army National Guard Mountain Infantry unit based in Milford. It is an unlikely place to find a hurling hotbed but for eight years now the caman and sliotar are a common sight in that parish in New Hampshire.

Thus spake RTE commentator Marty Morrissey live on air after his native County of Clare bate Kerry in a Munster Gaelic Football final in 1992.

This one throwaway comment has since passed into Irish sporting folklore, and is trotted out whenever any team of any code causes an upset or records a big win over a traditional rival. The line has surfaced oftentimes in commentary in other sports. It says so much about sport and our attitude to it.

So. Alex Ferguson has retired at Manchester United and is moving upstairs. If you don’t know that, well where have you been all week?

He’s being replaced by David Moyes, a man whose mother came from Portrush in Co Antrim. Safe to say Moyes has been to the Giant’s Causeway but he’s never managed a team in the Champions League. Only if Brian Cody or Mickey Harte stepped down from their positions would we experience anything similar here.