All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....

Dearest reader, it brings me no pleasure to inform you that TSA will be embarking on a ten day pre-season tour of the Baltic regions, during which time I will ruminate on the weighty matters which dominate our sporting universe: do you get your money back on a charred Stevie Gerrard Liverpool shirt?; will the referee bother bringing the ball at all for Sunday's Ulster Final?; will Clive Woodward enjoy making the tea at Southhampton?...

Anyway, this weekend will be a bad one to miss in GAA as I believe the All-Ireland champions will be playing in one of the three provincial finals on Sunday. Now, I'm not tipping Mayo to win the thing- please!- but I like the look of the westerners this year. Last year they played their best football in July, leaving the tank dry in September. This year it's all much quieter, there's been a bit of regeneration squad-wise and they might just time the whole thing better.

While I fear the only thing that'll beat Kerry is attrition, as Limerick valiantly showed, and perhaps therefore the Ulstermen are better suited to that task, like all neutrals it would be wonderful to see Mayo finally win the big one- and in Ciaran McDonald they have one of the few aesthetes in a modern game in which artistry is thin on the ground.

Slan go foill as they probably don't say in Estonia...