Emmet Moloney writes for the 'The Irish Farmers Journal' and is a former sports columnist with 'The Kerryman'.

Emmet Moloney looks ahead to another busy weekend of football action as Micko’s men welcome the mighty Armagh to Aughrim...

Micko is at it again. He couldn’t quietly slip away with a decent performance against an Ulster giant, with a little bit of patronising thrown in for good measure about Wicklow. No chance. This man has too much style and all-round cuteness for that.

Wicklow are still in the championship, the qualifier system is all screwed up and it’s mostly down to a man in his mid-70s who coached a team to an All-Ireland as far back as 1975. A man who has to make his way from one end of the country to the other to manage this team, in a county that has known virtually no footballing success before he arrived. You couldn’t make it up.

With so much happening in the GAA world these past few weeks, we almost lost track of Micko. With 10, 12, 14 matches a weekend, Wicklow are a team that might slip through the cracks for neutrals. Kildare are the television’s chosen qualifier team while London also captured some brief headlines. Micko, meanwhile, was doing his thing, having Wicklow punch above their weight and making anyone who played against them earn it.

Last Saturday night in Armagh they read no pre-match script. Whatever about frightening the men in Orange, they certainly weren’t supposed to be level with them at the end of normal time. In those situations the minnow is usually taken apart in extra time, psychologically happy that they managed to bring the big fish to the pin of their collars. Not Micko’s minnows. It was Armagh who had to twice rescue the game with last-gasp points to secure extra-time and then a replay.

This all means that Armagh must travel to Aughrim this Saturday night and this will be a hot ticket in the Garden County. There will be atmosphere aplenty, colour and an air of an ambush. Fair play to Micko; only he, it seems, can lift counties like that. Would it be too much to hope for that Wicklow carry on? Perhaps.

The TV cameras will follow Meath and Kildare as they meet for the second time in a couple of months in the marquee qualifier. Black mark here for the GAA, though. With seven other teams in the draw, these two should have been kept apart. Kildare should win because they are made for this twisted qualifier route. The Royals are of course a threat at home and usually don’t follow one poor performance with another; they were lucky to get past Galway, but don’t look to have the firepower to deal with the Lilywhites.

Kieran McGeeney’s squad is perfectly suited to this elongated route to the All-Ireland semi-final stage because he has just that: a squad. Their style of football works best when it gets the regular outings the qualifiers operate. Teams that are uber-prepared and have players who know exactly what’s expected of them will always thrive the long way around. It is no coincidence that plenty of back-door All-Irelands have been won in football because matches give momentum and in football that counts for much more than hurling.

Speaking of hurling, we have a weekend off. We probably need it to digest last weekend. There is no point in finding more superlatives for Tipperary, except to remind them that they don’t tend to win All-Irelands after strolling through Munster finals. In 1993 and 2008, for example, they looked imperious in the provincial finals, only to slip up in Croke Park.

Ah, Croke Park. We can’t wait to get back there. Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday was a trip down memory lane. The next time there’s a Munster final there, no women need attend. They’re not welcome. That seems to be the message from the GAA because if you stood in the tunnel under the only stand between the minor and senior games and saw the queues for the ladies’ toilets you’d wonder if females are being given the hint to stop coming to games. The queue went from the halfway line to the 21 yard line and it caused congestion and no little frustration from the fairer sex. Not to mention the fact that the minor teams had to fight their way through this semi-lit corridor under the stand to get back to their dressing rooms.

This stadium is a disgrace for big matches but this is not news to anyone who has attended Munster finals in the ground. If the money isn’t there to fix it up to the basic standards we are entitled to, fair enough, we’ll wait until the funds are available, but in the meantime, let’s stay in Thurles or go to Killarney when the occasion demands. Last Sunday was such an occasion.

We have some homely stadia up and down this country and one thing the qualifiers have given us is a sight of some grounds we wouldn’t normally see. Most have been redeveloped in recent years and places like Pearse Park, O’Moore Park, Páirc Tailteann and the like are getting games perfectly suited to them, with comfortable attendances in the region of 10,000 showing off the grounds to spectators and TV cameras alike. Cork, take note.

Sunday’s Connacht final happens a week after the Leinster final. Thirteen counties play the Leinster championship and only six play in Connacht, yet the Westerners wait till the middle of July to finish theirs. That’s the GAA for you! It will be Mayo’s title of course because this is what Mayo do, start the season abysmally and absolutely kill any expectation before going on a run and building expectation, only to kill it again once they come anywhere near the M50. Some things you can set your clock by.

Up north, Donegal could be about to win their first Ulster title since their wonder year of ’92. Here is a team that could yet have a say in the business end of Sam Maguire. If they deliver on Sunday at Derry’s expense, then Jim McGuinness has a right team on his hands. We need counties like Donegal back in Croke Park in August because, like Micko, they bring something special to the table.

Dublin, Kerry, Cork and Tyrone? They deserve all they get but Donegal, Wicklow, Mayo, Roscommon,Wexford, Kildare and a few more, well, they’re all about the beauty of the GAA. The good news stories, the mood that can lift entire counties. This summer’s fairytale is still out there somewhere. It would be nice to see it materialise in Aughrim on Saturday night. To catch Emmet's latest column, get 'The Irish Farmers' Journal' every Thursday...