The Dublin football team will play what seems like their 7,000th championship game in a row in Croke Park this month against either Offaly or Longford, the two teams who contested this year's Division 4 final.
The managers of both Dublin's potential opponents have now emerged to say that the practice of Dublin playing every championship game, no matter how early in the summer, in Croker should cease.
Offaly manager Pat Flanagan spoke out on Off The Ball tonight. He outlined his reasons for wanting a change to the status quo. Colm Parkinson agreed with him and agreed with him very forcefully.
That's when the craic started.
They got Leinster council chairman John Horan on the line to explain the Leinster Council's position. Horan, a Dub, was very anxious to stress that the decisions on where to hold games was not the preserve of a powerful Dublin cabal but were taken in an open democratic forum by the delegates at the Leinster Council.
The debate took a rather heated turn. Horan's tone was strikingly defensive throughout and he took issue with a number of Parkinson's assertions, particularly the observation that players' concerns do not appear to be at the centre of the decision making progress and some irrelevant disagreement about Mick O'Dowd's sincerity.
Horan insisted that it was not purely about money. He argued that the smaller capacity in provincial grounds would mean that many supporters would be shut out of the ground. He made this argument in a rather maudlin fashion.
We'd have to tell the old age pensioners, 'you can only stand on the terraces or play the full price to sit in the stand', so immediately we'd be inconveniencing supporters.... What do you say to the man that's been at every match, who is 70 years of age and can't get into the game, or the family with the three kids who can't to the game, or you as a parent explaining to a five year old, 'no, son you can't go to the game'.
Parkinson's essential response to this was the correct one...TOUGH. Not everybody gets to go to every game. Fairness to the players is more important.
The players are training for a fair chance in the Leinster championship. I don't think we should be pandering to Dublin's supporters. It's the nature of sport that every supporter might not get into a game. Have the game on at the fairest venue.... If there is 16,000 Dublin fans that don't make it, then that's tough luck. They'll make it to the semi-final. And if they can't get tickets to the quarter final then they'll be more encouraged to go to a semi-final if a game is close... From the playing point of view it is completely, grossly unfair to make a weaker county travel up to Croke Park to play Dublin which is their home ground. And that's the end of the story as far as I'm concerned.
If Offaly do beat Longford in a couple of weeks then the essential position on where the game is held should be this. (Ironically, if the upcoming argument were applied to a Longford-Dublin fixture, then that game should be in Croke Park).
The last time Dublin met Offaly in the championship was in 2007.
That game, it may not surprise you to learn, was played in Croke Park. Therefore, it is Offaly's turn to have a home game in this fixture. The match should be in Tullamore.
All other arguments - about the smaller attendance in O'Connor Park, about the amount of money the GAA will be forsaking, about Dubs who might not be able to get their hands on a ticket - are irrelevant.
Offaly are due their home game against Dublin.
