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It is not the draw I wanted to be honest, a rusty Cork coming up a potentially dangerous Kildare side coming off a run of games.

Kildare can look one-dimensional at times when they come up against a blanket defense but Cork operate with six defenders which will suit Kildare's running game. It will probably be an open game which will come down to a battle of the forwards and Cork should have the edge here but I expect it to be close and nervy, particularly if Cork are slow to come out of the blocks.

The handicap of 9 points looks about right here. If Clare can win enough ball around the middle then their full-forward line will trouble the Kerry backs. If they were able to grab a goal or two it might make it interesting for a while, but after last week Kerry have too much momentum now to lose focus in this one and allow it to remain competitive beyond 40-45 minutes.

Jack O'Connor wants a win but will also be pleading for no injuries or suspensions.

Couldn't agree more. I watched a Leinster Munster game in Peter Clohessy's Bar a couple of years ago and couldn't believe my ears when the crowd started shushing at free kicks. In a public house! With the match taking place 2km away! My loud guffaws didn't put them off either.

Bizarre behaviour but becoming increasingly common any time the rugby is on in a pub. The mind boggles at the mind-set behind such a practice.

How is it that very few in the media seem prepared to take Kerry to task for their actions?

Kerry have a lot of heads in the media who are only too willing to propagate the 'Kerry are the Brazil of Gaelic Football' mantra.

Billy Keane's misty-eyed homage ("The Emperor wears green and gold") in today's Independent is a classic example of blissfully ignoring some of the darker arts of Kerry's play last Saturday which you highlighted. Then you have Spillane on the Sunday Game and we all know what to expect from Pat at this stage. The sports editor of the Kerry Exami...sorry the Irish Examiner is from Kerry and has a couple of willing foot soldiers on the staff to toe the party line. Look at the reaction of Tony Leen and John Fogarty yesterday on Twitter when Ewan MacKenna dared to highlight some of the systematic fouling Kerry did in the second half.

Over in the Irish Times you have Daragh O'Se and John O'Keeffe as the main football columnists and so it goes. Daragh's column are an enjoyable read for the most part but he tends to be selective of what he wants to highlight. He wrote a lengthy piece last week on Cork's new-found cynical streak but naturally enough would be slow to repeat any similar accusations against his own county. It is all fairly harmless stuff but sure who knows if you throw enough muck out there it may influence a refereeing decision somewhere down the line.

Meanwhile a lot of the other journalists, particularly on RTE who cover the GAA tend to be lazy or just bad at what they do and generally revert to cliched analysis as their default mode. Certain counties are labelled with various characteristics and this line of thinking is rehashed at every opportunity. Kerry play traditional clean football, Cork are big and strong, Kildare are fit but don't have scoring forwards, and so forth. It is an easy way to make a living and fair play to them for getting away with it. There are notable exceptions of course and they are some really good GAA journalists out there but they are in the minority.

The sad part is RTE already did a fantastic job of exactly that type of documentary with Reaching for Glory, which told the story of the Irish rugby team's 2007 season.

Ryle Nugent must have pushed the boat out on that one.

That was a serious statement of intent from Donegal. Granted Down were disappointing and looked like they rolled over a bit before the end but still to shoot 2-18 with 10 or 11 different scorers shows they have a greater range of scoring options that would have been assumed before the Championship.

Before there was maybe a perception that if you contained Murphy you could contain Donegal but he was relatively quite today but others stepped up to lead by example. Two to impress in particular are McHugh and Bradley who are displaying All Star form at the moment. Donegal are flexing their muscles more as an attacking force whilst looking as difficult to break down as ever at the back.

[If Cork can sort out their key defensive positions]

I feel JBM will have that bit extra up his sleeve for that game, and will benefit from an extremely strong bench. If Cork can sort out their key defensive positions then I can see them going on to meet Galway in the semi final.

I don't think we can though. JBM has shuffled the pack in defense but to no avail in terms of generating improvement in finding a dominant full-back or a half-back line that can compete in the air or for broken ball. We have to go with what we have and hope to limit the damage at this end.

I do agree with you that Cork have more options off the bench which may tell late on.

Waterford as a team have more big game experience and I am surprised the bookmakers have made Cork 4/6 favourites. Looks like another 50:50 game to me, will come down to a point or two between them at the end.

Tipp were ravenous for a win in the 1984 Munster Final for obvious reasons - their own famine period, Cork on their home patch and the Centenary Final to be played in Semple Stadium. It was an ordinary enough Tipp team compared to the one that followed but they played above themselves roared on by a passionate home crowd. The atmosphere that day was spell-binding, walls of noise whenever either team scored. The dramatic finish turned what was already a great occasion into one of the all-time great games imo. I was young enough at the time but can remember the Tipp support been totally deflated at the end, many too numb to leave their seats in the stand until the Cork crowd had left first.

When you consider the disappointment of that day, and another close game in 1985 you could understand their outpouring of joy/relief in Killarney in 1987 but they had to wait another couple of years to bring Liam back to Tipp.

Great games, great memories of Cork and Tipp between 1984 and 1992. The 1984 Munster Final would be my personal favourite hurling game but even in defeat you could still marvel at the games you lost - 1987 replay and the 1991 replay. The Cork and Tipp rivalry is a friendly one with a lot of mutual respect for the other county.

Something about Kerry this year just doesn't add up.

They were great in the first half against Cork in the league as well. Good long diagonal balls into the corners, lots of pace and movement. But then in the Championship, for whatever reason they were holding on possession more around the middle of the field and their build-up play was a lot slower and laboured-looking as a result.

Not sure why they would go with that approach. If they had gone more direct in the last 10 minutes of last year's Final they would have won because Donaghy and Cooper had the beating of their men but were starved of possession late on as Kerry preferred to try and hold on to what they had.

Maybe O'Connor doesn't trust his back-line enough to play an open, expansive game anymore and wants to retain and dominate possession as much as possible? Maybe he thinks the direct game is doomed to flounder against the modern blanket defensive approach and it is more practical to retain possession to entice the opposition out?

The paranoid side of me thinks that this is all part of an elaborate 'Long Con' where Kerry have been holding back their A game until they really needed it. But instead of an All Ireland Semi-final or Final they will now have to reveal it much sooner than expected?

Good players more often than not will still beat good systems. Galway just do not have enough quality players at the moment, either in terms of players being strong enough to win their own ball and skillful enough to use it effectively when they have it.

I think Mulholland will use this year's learning curve to good effect and and should be given every chance to unlock the potential of last year's Under 21s at senior level but it is going to take time.

I won't lie. I am happy to have avoided Kilkenny. They would have done a demolition job on a lightweight, inexperienced Cork team. Limerick are inexperienced as well but at least have a bit more physicality to do a Galway and get stuck into the Cats. Limerick will battle hard and can score goals but you can only see a Kilkenny win in that one I 'm afraid.

Cork and Waterford is always close. Waterford have had the upper hand now since 2006 and should be favourites. Cork will see it as a winnable game late in July and we would have settled for that at the start of the year.

Haven't seen Limerick play this year but in the past they were always an extremely difficult side to play against when they have their system up and running effectively.

Looking at their team sheet at the weekend they do have a strong central spine to their team (McCarthy, Lucey, Donavan, Kelly) and dangerous corner-forwards. Ryan is top class while Collins can blow hot and cold.

They are the kind of side that could put it up to Kildare for long stages, particularly if Kildare fail to score a goal and have to rely on points. But playing at home you would fancy Kildare to come through by 5 or 6 points in the end. If Kildare get to play at home that is?

Well this draw has set the cat among the pigeons. Kerry will be under huge pressure going into this one, but maybe pressure could be just that they need at this stage. You look at their team, and although not as talented as the 2009 version there is some huge potential there.

Kerry have struggled for form against so-called 'lesser' opposition in the qualifiers, not least yesterday but they have stumbled through, partly due to experience and their fabled winning mentality. Tyrone are one of the very few teams that can match them in this department. So it becomes a game where form and tactics will decide it. Tactically Tyrone have won these battles in the past, although Jack O'Connor was only in charge for one of these games (2005) but O'Connor is coming under a fair amount of criticism himself at present.

Kerry's issue at the moment is a number of key players are badly out of form - Young, Declan O'Sullivan, Galvin (although he played better yesterday apparently), Donaghy and even Cooper to a lesser extent. You know these players have the ability, it is whether they can re-discover their best form when they need it. And now they suddenly need to find it much sooner in the summer than they would have wanted.

Kerry are vulnerable enough at the back but whether Tyrone have the ammunition to punish them is the question. It will be interesting to see if Stephen O'Neill is available for this one. You would imagine they will keep McCurry in reserve to start off with.

Hard to say more until the teams are revealed. Kerry would be a lot stronger themselves if they had Darren O'Sullivan fit and raring to go.

Mayo were poor enough but they did what they had to do. A provincial title in the bag and safe passage through to an All Ireland Quarter Final which is the defining stage of the season for all of the major counties.

They still look short of a couple of game-breaking forwards to me. The option of playing O'Connor and Moran at 11 and 14 isn't maximising the ability of both players. I'd nearly play both in the full forward line where they both look more dangerous. Getting Aidan O'Shea back will help their cause and they should be strong at midfield if he can develop a partnership there with B Moran.

Mayo were fairly cynical at the end in closing out the game but like all the successful teams they did what they have to do to close out games. The days of Mayo being all sweetness and light are long gone under James Horan and they will be all the stronger as a team as a result of this pragmatic approach. At this stage Mayo shouldn't fear anyone in the Quarter-Finals.

Sligo were competitive throughout and have 3 or 4 scoring forwards which will make them dangerous opposition for whoever they meet in Round 4. Once they get over the disappointment of this one as they should they have a real chance of joining Mayo in the last eight.

any live stream??

Sent you a PM there Gold.

Don't know if we are allowed to put the links up on here?