WOW. W. O. W.
On occasion (truth be told, every other week) I'm sitting on a Monday night wondering WTF HTT is going to be about.
Check notes in various notebooks. Nada.
Check 'Notes' on phone. Nah. Can't really seem to be smug about Liverpool FC's ongoing brilliance again.
Check pockets for crumpled scrap of paper with something indecipherable scribbled on it in faded ink. Maybe next week with that one…
Check various sporting websites.
Check Twitter.
Check eyesight.
Check contents of mug.
Check date.
Check if my calendars haven't updated for 236 days.
Check phone is working properly.
Mickey Harte is the new Louth football manager.
With hindsight, the clues were all there.
He wouldn't want to go up against his beloved Tyrone, so another Ulster county was out of the question.
Red and white are his favourite county colours but Cork is simply too far away from Ballygawley.
Those Louth-Tyrone clashes in the O Fiaich Cup are among Mickey's greatest games.
If he's not going to win a fourth All-Ireland with Tyrone then Louth are a better bet than Offaly. Or Mayo. Obvs.
And, with various Covid-related restrictions still in place, it's a great excuse to go on cross-border shopping trips.
Joking aside, it's a fabulous coup for 'the wee county'.
Division Four next year has just got a whole lot more interesting – especially Louth's meeting with Antrim, now under the new management of Harte's Errigal Ciaran club-mate Enda McGinley, with another former Tyrone star, Stephen O'Neill, alongside him.
Carlow, Leitrim, London, Sligo, Waterford, and Wexford will all be a-buzz about trying to get the better of Mickey Harte – with a much more realistic chance of doing so than when taking on Tyrone.
Who knows, RTE might even side cameras to the lowest tier of League football next year. OK, TG4 might.
This newspaper, of course, has always had a fondness for Louth. When we used to run the 'Around the Counties' weekly notes, that section covered the nine northern counties and the one we called 'the 10th county of Ulster', Louth.
Louth has had a fondness for managers from Ulster too. Most recently another All-Ireland winning managerial legend, Down's Peter McGrath, was in charge for less than a year, in 2018.
And yet another All-Ireland winning managerial legend from Ulster, Donegal's Brian McEniff, was an advisor to Peter Fitzpatrick for a couple of seasons a decade ago, including in 2010 when Louth should have won the Leinster title but were robbed by a late Meath try. Perhaps best not to mention that the referee on that infamous occasion was from Tyrone?
Armagh All-Ireland winning player Aidan O'Rourke had a stint there too, as had Monaghan's Eamonn McEneaney.
Harte going there is huge news, though, continuing the craziness of this extraordinary year.
The expectation will be elevation, not least because Louth bounced straight back up the last time they dropped down into Division Four, getting promoted in 2016.
They were in Division Two as recently as 2018 and in fact have only had two seasons without either promotion or relegation over the past decade (both in the second tier, 2012/13).
There's talent in Louth, and ambition, with a new stadium set to be completed during Harte's three-year term.
It's a big move for 'the wee county', a shaft of light for them at the end of a dark year.
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I'll be honest, I was driving to Armagh on Sunday musing over including the line that 'the 2020 Ulster Final didn't take place in Clones, it was in Ballybofey'.
My expectation was that Donegal would win 'by at least six points'.
Yet Cavan were full value for their four-point victory and might have won by more had it not been for the purple patch of seven scores Donegal reeled off when the Breffni Blues were a man down after the first of two harsh black cards shown to them.
Mickey Graham and his men deserve plaudits for not gloating in the face of media who had almost universally tipped them to lose in three of their four Ulster games, ourselves obviously included.
There was no sneering or snideness, merely pride, when the manager said afterwards about his players: "Credit to them, credit to them. Nobody gave them any credit… everybody wrote them off.
"Not one sinner gave them one piece of hope and they just went out and ripped up the script there. I hope people will now respect what they're after doing, because it's really special."
In a similar vein, Cavan full-back Padraig Faulkner seemed almost to be offering up apologetic excuses for winning, including the absence of a crowd:
"Taking [supporters] away from the game probably suited us. Donegal are used to playing in front of a big audience.
"Last year we played in front of a big audience in Clones and maybe there was nerves there. Playing in front of an empty stand, those nerves aren't there, that's one less thing I feel Cavan had to worry about."
Cavan's honesty, on and off the pitch, brought its reward.
Predictions aren't personal. They really aren't, as shown by reporters tipping against their own county if they think they're going to lose while obviously wanting the opposite outcome.
Once again, everyone, myself included, will say that Dublin are going to beat Cavan.
Yet only those with no heart, no soul would bemoan Donegal's defeat, on the basis that it eases Dublin's path towards yet another All-Ireland, their sixth in a row.
So what?
The Dubs are the best team around, with incredible strength in depth.
At least 2020 has given us incredible but true stories like Cavan's success, Tipperary's triumph in Munster football – after 85 years – and similar tales on the club scenes, including Dungannon in Tyrone, Ederney in Fermanagh, and, in Cavan itself, Crosserlough ending a 48-year wait.
So the Breffnimen won't mind at all when we all back the Dubs as absolute certs.
Only 68 years since Cavan won the All-Ireland, after all…
