THE six-month wait to see Mickey Harte and Jim McGuinness up the line from each other again in the 2024 Parallel Universe Ulster Championship feels like five-and-a-half too many.
Andy McEntee, Kieran Donnelly, maybe even Conor Laverty are fortunate that Saturday’s draw fell all lopsided.
If any of those had been in Raymond Galligan’s shoes, are there players sitting back this week thinking it’s as good a year as any to take out?
All nine counties have realistic ambitions.
It is why Ulster survives while others wilt.
There’s no logical reason as to why Fermanagh, without a provincial title in their history, would start every year believing they can win Ulster. You’d think they’d want rid of it. But they don’t.
The nine counties protect it fiercely.
It does not protect them the same way.
Before the introduction of the All-Ireland group stage and the inter-county season being condensed, having lumps cut out of you to get through Ulster felt like more of an advantage than a big issue.
When Derry won their sole All-Ireland in 1993, they played just 13 league and championship games across 10-and-a-half months.
Tyrone’s famous 10-game run to Sam in 2005 was part of an 18-game season that ran for 34 weeks, from February 6 until September 25.
To reach the last four and get out of Division Two this year, Derry played 16 games in 23 weeks.
Monaghan had 15 outings in the same space of time.
The reigning champions have played six games in the province in the last two years and five of them have been against Division One opposition.
That’s a thread that runs through the last decade.
The difference is disguised beneath the bare numbers when you compare Ulster’s best to Dublin and Kerry.
27 of Dublin’s 60 championship games since 2015, almost half, have been against top-flight opposition.
Slightly fewer for Kerry, at 19 out of 46, yet they’ve only played one game against a Division Four side in the last nine seasons.
For the Ulster teams either winning the province or going furthest in the All-Ireland series, just over half of their games have been against Division One teams.
But the make-up of their seasons are very different, and it matters.
Dublin have only played a Division One team in Leinster twice since 2015, both in finals.
Of the champions’ first six games this summer, Roscommon in the group were the only Division One team they met until it was go-time in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
The last time Kerry met a top-tier side in Munster was the 2015 final win over Cork.
Yet almost half of the Ulster sides’ games against Division One opposition are within the Ulster Championship.
Every ounce of the weight for Dublin and Kerry is towards the back end of the season.
The group stages allow them both to get their teeth into the season. Catching either of them cold coming off the province grows less and less likely.
There is so much science behind how teams prepare to be physically and mentally primed at exactly the right time.
It is a very different approach in Ulster, even compared to McGuinness’ first spell in charge of Donegal.
When he came in in late 2010, they hadn’t been up the steps in Clones since 1992. Winning Ulster was the natural first step and they went out hard after it. That stood to them.
A decade on, so much has changed yet everyone in Ulster remains hell-bent on winning the Anglo Celt Cup.
The standard is so high generally that they’re aiming to achieve something very close to a peak by mid-April.
Derry, Tyrone, Monaghan, nobody has the luxury of doing a block of hard training at that point, readying themselves for the All-Ireland series knowing the provincial title will come their way regardless.
Armagh would be in a perfect position to try it if they weren’t in a Catch 22. They still feel like a team that needs to cross the threshold of winning Ulster first.
They should reach another Ulster final next summer and if they could manage to do so playing in Division Two and without going overboard against Fermanagh, Down or Antrim, the golden ticket might be theirs.
On the other side, it will be hard for any of the five teams to get right up for two or three games in Ulster and then repeat it for two or three group games, an All-Ireland quarter-final, a semi and possibly a final.
That’s why winning Sam out of Ulster is such a mental challenge.
While Ulster is carrying on happily with its local squabbles, the rest of the world has moved on.
The terrain beneath their feet has moved so much since Harte and McGuinness last squared off.
It would go against every competitive instinct they have to even consider easing up on the provincial championship.
No matter what we tell ourselves, the cold hard currency of an Ulster title is no longer worth any more than a Leinster or Munster one.
There are too many bridges still to cross when you leave Clones to think that it will sustain a challenge into June and July.
All eyes will be on Mickey and Jim.
If their eyes are glued to the Anglo Celt, it will be hard to move them on to Sam.