Even if it isn't killed off this weekend, this outstanding bit of GAA trivia isn't long for the world. Not the way the Dubs are set up for the next few years.
As things stand, only three non-Kerry footballers have won more than three All-Ireland senior football titles since independence.
We say "since independence" because Wexford won four All-Irelands in row back during the First World War (1915-18). Paul Rouse assures us that there were a core of players who were part of all four victories.
Brendan Furlong in the Wexford People name-checked Jim Byrne, Aidan Doyle, Rich Reynolds, Gus O'Kennedy, Tom Doyle, Tom Murphy and Paddy Mackey as being part of all four successes.
But post-independence, only three non-Kerrymen have managed four senior football titles. Who are the three?
The first person to achieve it since 1918 is the only Connacht man, Mattie McDonagh.
McDonagh won an All-Ireland title in 1956, a victory primarily associated with the Terrible Twins of Frank Stockwell and Sean Purcell. He was the only survivor from that team to play a full part in the three in a row era from 1964-66. McDonagh it was who struck the only goal that was scored by either team in any of Galway's three in a row finals, against Meath early in the '66 final.
The other two come from Dublin's (previous) greatest era.
Of the Dublin team that stunned themselves and the country in winning the 1974 All-Ireland title, only two players were still around when the Dubs beat Galway (again) in much less heartwarming fashion nine years later.
Brian Mullins and Anton 'the Blue Panther' O'Toole were the only two. Mullins was still an U21 in '74 and playing in his first season at senior. By '83, he had no longer had much hair and like two of his teammates failed to finish the match (Brian Mullins got his fist to that, and Brian Mullins got his fist to that too...)
David Hickey told the Star a few years ago that, having returned from from the south of France where he'd been playing rugby union with Ollie Campbell, he began training with the Dublin seniors at the start of the 1983 season.
He suffered a cruciate ligament injury in an early season challenge match in Parnell Park relinquishing his place to Anton O'Toole. Cruciate ligament injuries were career-enders in those days and the surgeon in Jervis Street made no effort to repair the knee, telling Hickey that his football career was behind him.
"And that guy went onto win his fourth All-Ireland medal," Hickey said of O'Toole.
As far as we're aware, no other non-Kerry player has won four All-Ireland senior titles since indepedence. No other county won enough All-Ireland titles in such a cluster to allow for it.
Meath won four All-Ireland titles between 1987 and 1999 but surprisingly the only constant in all four victories was Sean Boylan.
All barring a handful of the late 80s winning team had moved on shortly after the 1991 final loss to Down. That was the natural end of their era as Dublin retook the baton in Leinster for a few years.
Martin O'Connell did win his third title in 1996 and was so outstanding en route he was given the Texaco version of the Footballer of the Year award (Giles won the All-Stars one). But he retired following Meath's defeat to Offaly in the 1997 Leinster final and wasn't around for the '99 triumph. Colm Coyle also picked up a third medal that year even if he spent most of the final replay watching from the naughty step.
The only other county which could conceivably house a player with four All-Ireland medals in the post-independence period is Cavan. Even then, the chances were remote. Cavan's five All-Ireland titles arrived between 1933 and 1952. But they were broken into two different eras. There were no survivors from the team who won in 1933 and 1935 in the side who collected three between 1947 and 1952.
This Sunday, there's a mini-bus load of Dubs who can join Mullins and O'Toole on four All-Ireland senior titles.
Stephen Cluxton, Diarmuid Connolly, Bernard Brogan, Michael Dara Macauley, Paul Flynn, Cian O'Sullivan, Kevin McManamon, Philly McMahon, and Denis Bastick all have a chance to pick up a fourth.
Of course, it's eminently possible, as we implied at the outset, that Mayo could preserve this statistic for at least one more year.
But just in case.
