I was talking to a man from Galway at the weekend who had predicted with some conviction that Mayo would get beaten in the all-Ireland football final. "I told you so," he said. "There is just something missing in Mayo men. They just don't have it."
My friend was being perfectly serious.
I reminded him that we in Derry used to adopt the same sniffy attitude towards our neighbours in Tyrone. well, we did for those 10 glorious years between 1993 and 2003.
In today's educated society, you'd think such antiquated thinking would no longer hold much traction.
Following the horrors of the 20th century, the belief that one group of people can somehow be inherently superior to another has been totally discredited. Of course the one notable exception to that rule of thought is the Gaa.
In Ireland, many of us live in parishes that are divided by a ditch.
Yet, there are many among us who remain convinced the people born on the other side of a sheough are essentially weaker and lesser human beings. (The fact everyone in the parish is related is seen to be missing the point).
This doctrine of parochial superiority also extends to county boundaries.
In the same way as my Galway friend reckons there is a fundamental chink in the DNa of Mayo men, nearly everyone in Ulster (including Fermanagh) thinks the same way about antrim.
In public, the saffrons are patronised. 'what's wrong with antrim?' is the perennial lament. In private, the answer is: 'they just don't have it.'
The real tragedy of antrim Gaa is that many people in the county have started to believe this nonsense as well.
If you told the typical saffron fan there is no reason why his county couldn't replicate Clare's all-Ireland success, he would probably laugh in your face.
But it's not a joke. antrim could follow Clare's lead.
Clare's hurlers are the living and breathing embodiment of the virtues of good coaching. In many ways, their success makes no sense.
There are 161 clubs in Cork. There are 40 in Clare.
In terms of manpower and resources, Clare shouldn't be able to compete with the Rebels.
It also needs to be remembered that, unlike Kilkenny, Clare is a dual county. Football dominates in the west. so antrim really have no excuse.
Yes, it's a dual county, but antrim have nearly 50 clubs and a much bigger population than Clare, which has been decimated by emigration.
The main difference between Clare and antrim is that when the Banner was floundering, they decided to do something about it. apart from a few wins over Kerry, Clare didn't win a Championship game at minor or U21 from 2000 to 2007. alarmed at his county's culture of defeat at underage level, Clare's Bord na nOg chairman seán O'Halloran decided to take action. O'Halloran travelled to Kilkenny and conducted an investigation. O'Halloran then joined forces with Jamesie O'Connor, seánie McMahon, Jim McInerney and Brian Quinn.
The four all-Ireland medallists shared O'Halloran's vision.
From the end of 2009, the four ex-players had been meeting at McMahon's house in spancilhill. after drawing advice from delegations from both Kilkenny
and Tipperary, the think-tank drew up a coaching model for development squads which has been in place since 2010.
One of the failures of the previous system was that when a new manager took over a squad, he imposed his own regime.
This meant there was no conformity or consistency.
Under the new regime, the only thing that changes is the coach. at every age group, key drills form the bedrock of every session. while development squads are important, it still all comes back to the club. any boy who hasn't grasped the basic skills by the time he's 11 years old has no chance of becoming an elite hurler.
That's not my opinion.
It's the considered view of Joey Carton, the Munster Council's hugely respected Games Promotion Manager.
Carton once described the committee that oversees the teams from U6 to U10 as the "most important people in the club".
Carton preaches the gospel of good technique.
To perform at the highest level, players must be able to execute the skills at 100 miles per hour. To do that, they must be technically excellent.
Unless a player receives that core grounding in the skills, it doesn't matter what coaching he receives in development squads. "Hurling is such a technical game that it's almost impossible to eradicate bad habits in players who are 14 years old," said Carton.
It's probably no coincidence that when Limerick footballer Paul Kinnerk joined the Clare minor set-up, he also preached the mantra of perfect form.
During Kinnerk's sessions, players worked under intense pressure. Players had to make quick decisions and execute skills in tight, confined spaces. Tackling and contact were the common denominator that ran through Kinnerk sessions.
There is no doubt that Kinnerk played a huge role in Clare's underage success, but clearly the system supersedes any individual. when Kinnerk was recruited by Davy Fitzgerald, the joint-management team of Gerry O'Connor and Donal Moloney was still able to guide Clare to this year's U21 title. after failing to beat anyone other than Kerry between 2000 and 2007, Clare have now won two Munster minor Championships (2010 and 2011), three provincial U21 crowns (2009, 2012 and 2013) and three all-Ireland titles (2009, 2012, 2013). albert Einstein is often credited with defining insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.". after watching their county fail to win a underage game for seven years, some people in Clare realised that they needed to change what they were doing. But in antrim, the insanity continues.
It's a terrible shame because it doesn't need to be like that.
One of the biggest problems in antrim is that they keep looking at the symptom of their problems rather than the root cause.
No messiah manager can fix antrim.
Brian Cody wouldn't do any better than Kevin Ryan. The senior manager can only work with the players that are produced by the clubs.
If antrim's cycle of failure is to change, then it must start with the clubs.
The priority must be the U6s, the U8s and the U10s. That's just the starting point.
Ultimately, a revolution needs to take place. and no revolution was ever won by one man.
There must be good generals and willing foot soldiers. It requires a collective effort.
In Clare, they sat late into the night in spancilhill and talked about how they could overthrow their Munster rivals.
They sought advice. They recruited help. They did what they had to do. are those conversations taking place in antrim?
Loughgiel's all-Ireland title at club level is definitive proof that there is nothing amiss with the morale or physical fibre of an antrim hurler.
But there is something missing in antrim Gaa. There is no vision, no leadership, and no willingness to change. and it's not all the county board's fault. Everyone must bear their share of the blame.
Because until such times as antrim are prepared to try something different, the rest of the country will continue t o believe that the men from Belfast and the Glens 'just don't have it'.
n THE WAY FORWARD: Clare U21s beat their Antrim counterparts by 22 points in last month's All-Ireland U21 Hurling Championship final at Semple Stadium, while a squad that included a host of those players lifted the county's first senior All-Ireland title in 16 years on Sunday past. Antrim have the potential to replicate such success if they adopt an underage template similar to that which has provided the foundations for such Banner success Picture: Seamus Loughran