A brief exchange between Peter Canavan and Joe Brolly in Croke Park last Sunday left Darragh O Se scratching his head.

Writing in his weekly column in today's Irish Times, Sky Sports GAA pundit O Se revealed: "Sometimes you've got to just keep your mouth shut and see what you can learn from what's going on around you. I thought I knew about Ulster football and Ulster football men but I found out I didn't know the half of it.

"The Sky Sports studio and the RTÉ studio are side by side down where the Hogan Stand meets the Davin so there'd always be a certain amount of intermingling before the games.

"I was chatting away to Peter Canavan and Jim McGuinness on Sunday when Joe Brolly landed in.

"What about ya?" he said to Canavan, the way Ulster people say hello. Canavan gave him a very short answer (second word, "off") and walked away. I always thought the two boys got on well enough so didn't know what to think.

"I was surprised at two things - one, that anyone would take Brolly enough to heart to get that annoyed at him in the first place. And two, that as war was breaking out in Ulster, a Kerryman like me was in the middle like Switzerland.

"I spent my career wanting to beat the feckers and now they were all my friends and couldn't stand the sight of each other. In a situation like that, how would you know what end of you was up?"

As regards, this Sunday's second semi-final between Dublin and Mayo, the former Kerry midfield maestro believes Stephen Cluxton's kick-outs will be key.

"The simple fact of this game is that if they get enough possession, Dublin will score more than Mayo. They have the greater spread of scores and more players that you would bet your house on when the game gets tight.

"Dublin by three."

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