I have a friend from Mayo. Last August, prior to the All-Ireland final, he put €15 on his native county to beat Tyrone with a four-point handicap.

Maybe it was the fact that the 12/5 odds would have given a return of €51 – a nice omen as they sought to end a drought dating back to 1951 – but when I heard about it, it worried me. Without wishing to draw a parallel with the risible and untrue tale of the Mayo ‘curse’, sportspeople and fans tend to be fatalistic and are reluctant to ever allow potential for the gods of athletic pursuit to punish them.

Now, I’m not saying that a €15 bet was the only reason Mayo lost to Tyrone – a missed penalty and some very wayward point attempts were just as important, possibly even more so! – but it’s better not to even entertain the possibility that it might tip the scales.

While I’m not a national league-denier, I’m certainly a sceptic, at least for the early rounds

This background stuff isn’t the precursor to a look back on Mayo’s first competitive game since the All-Ireland, last week’s 0-11:0-11 draw with Donegal. While I’m not a national league-denier, I’m certainly a sceptic, at least for the early rounds.

No, instead it’s a look ahead to the Six Nations Championship and a similar ‘uh-oh’ reaction as I had to my friend’s optimistic/naïve/downright reckless bet.

It was perhaps just a throwaway line, but a piece featuring quotes from Ireland captain Jonathan Sexton noted that as the campaign ends with a clash against Scotland at Aviva Stadium, there was a rare opportunity to win the title on home soil. What made it even more worrying was the fact that this was in The Irish Times, the sober and steady paper of record. So, even if we take Italy in Rome as a given, just a starter against the reigning champions Wales and away games against France and England to get through before Dublin can party like it’s 1985.

Obviously, there is nobody within the Ireland camp thinking in such a way, but if these noises exist at the outset of the fixture programme, they will only intensify if there is a positive start and the glorious ending heaves into view.

Armchair commentators

Supporters tend to have the best of all worlds – we can lambaste a player for dropping concentration for a second but we see no problem in plotting multi-stepped paths to success.

We dream of the ideal outcomes, but then when they don’t materialise, sure where were we going; expecting that lot to not let us down?

Inside in the set-up, things are less dramatic – there are short-, medium- and long-term goals, with ups and downs along the way. Not an approach that will generate too many breathless headlines, but hopefully one better geared to result in a positive outcome.

For Ireland, the longer term involves next year’s World Cup in France, with the next two Six Nations acting as staging posts on the way as well as chances to win silverware.

In some ways, it’s the ideal opener – a toughish but winnable test, backed by a full stadium for the first time in two years

In terms of the latter aspiration, the platform provided by the good results in the autumn is a solid one but at the same time it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that Wales will be easily seen off on Saturday afternoon.

In some ways, it’s the ideal opener – a toughish but winnable test, backed by a full stadium for the first time in two years. Get the result and there is a feelgood factor ahead of the trip to Paris the following week – but then even saying that makes us guilty of looking ahead rather than at the task at hand.

After beating Japan, New Zealand and Argentina so impressively, there is no reason to believe that Ireland will have gone back from those performances

We know that the bookmakers’ rankings aren’t infallible, but they do generally give a reliable insight and, seeing as we started with them, it makes sense to finish with them. Ireland are second favourites for outright glory, at 12/5, behind France, with England third and Wales fourth, at 12/1.

After beating Japan, New Zealand and Argentina so impressively, there is no reason to believe that Ireland will have gone back from those performances but, equally, it’s important to show that they were part of a steady trend rather than a spike in the graph.

Bandon’s Hamilton High School put up a good fight against ever-impressive St Brendan’s

While a neutral façade in the press box is a sign of professional integrity, it is just as much a functional necessity – I have been present for last-minute winners for and against Cork teams, with an impending deadline and hasty rewrite overriding any positive or negative show of emotion.

Every so often, you are betrayed by your reactions and last Saturday evening in Mallow was one such occasion. For the first time, my alma mater, Bandon’s Hamilton High School, were in the semi-finals of Munster’s premier second-level football competition, the TUS Corn Uí Mhuirí. Up against the competition’s most successful outfit, St Brendan’s College of Killarney. “The Hammies” (Hamilton) were underdogs going in and the first three quarters of the game bore out that status. It was 1-9 to 0-3 for Brendan’s at half-time and, though Hamilton scored an early second-half goal, the scoreboard read 1-14 to 1-4 with 44 minutes elapsed.

Then, somehow, a turnaround of immense magnitude. Hammies scored 2-3 without reply to come to within a point in injury time. With the ball being passed around midfield, I feared the final whistle would come before a shot at goal but eventually, corner-back Conor O’Sullivan landed a masterful effort to tie the game, generating the quickest of fist-pumps from your correspondent.

Having gone so long without a score, Brendan’s looked to have stolen it at the death but, when the Hammies were awarded a long-range free in the 64th minute. Captain Richard O’Sullivan had ice in his veins as he slotted over another equaliser.

It sent the game to extra time but, out on their feet after the comeback, Hamilton couldn’t summon the same effort and Brendan’s finished the job at the second time of asking. Defeat for the Hammies but anyone heading back to west Cork that night had pride as their primary emotion, that a school of 300 could put it up to such a footballing behemoth, boasting a population of around 800.

St Brendan’s will face Tralee CBS in another all-Kerry final, but while the Hamilton players won’t be adding themselves to the Corn Uí Mhuirí roll of honour, they left a lasting memory, for themselves, their families and the many pupils past and present who were there to witness the courageous fightback.