Hurling fans, especially, and more particularly, denizens of the province of Munster look like they may look forward to a classic season. Football, too, will be good this year, but not even the Ulster or Connacht football championships can approach the sheer openness and evenness of standards of Munster hurling at the moment with, of course, the sole exception of the Kingdom of Kerry.

However, before considering where some of these championship paths may lead us to, there is still a small matter of what might be termed GAA housekeeping to be got out of the way on Sunday. That is, of course, the not inconsequential question of who will be the first National Football League champions of the new Millennium - the Oak County of Derry or the Royal County of Meath? An Fear Rua is not unmindful of the legitimate claims to footballing stardom of the likes of Anthony Tohill and His Honour, Mr Joseph Brolly, Barrister-at-Law, Queen's Bench Division. Due to an unfortunate bout of tonsilitis, the Honourable Mr. Brolly BL will not be available on Sunday. But still, Derry have had an excellent unbeaten run in the League, though their semi-final dispatch of Roscommon on what was virtually home ground for them, at Clones in the County of Monaghan, was less than completely impressive.

Any team facing Meath these days has to be wary of the magic of the Dunboyne Alchemist Himself, Seán Boylan. Player-for-player they are a superior outfit and with the likes of Giles, Geraghty, McDermott and Murphy available - and that 'never-say-we're-beaten' attitude of theirs - they will be difficult to overcome. An Fear Rua's belief is that Meath will go on to emulate the achievement of that other great Derry man, John Hume, and win the Freedom of Derry for themselves.

Some purists and pundits may turn up their noses at the preliminary 'Round Robin' games in Leinster this weekend and assert that they are not true 'championship' matches. Try telling that to the hurlers of Laois, Westmeath, Dublin and Carlow or the footballers of Wexford, Wicklow, Carlow or Longford. The fact is that the outcome of these games will be a determining factor in whether or not these counties progress further in the championships. That, in the judgment of An Fear Rua, is quite sufficient to render them championship matches. For the record, AFR's view is that the hurlers of Laois will pull through (though not without difficulty) and he will be surprised if Longford cannot recover some of their earlier League sparkle and dispose of the Model County in football. Dublin should be too strong for Carlow in hurling, while Carlow may do better in their football engagement with Wicklow.

This, of course, is the time of year when 'meeja' scribes and everyone else gets in on the extremely enjoyable game of predicting who will win what matches and end up with provincial or All Ireland titles. Already, young Diarmaid O'Flynn of The Crosbie's Examining Organ has - as he put it himself - 'put his crystal balls on the line' and predicted a Waterford v Galway All Ireland Hurling Final, with the Decies to triumph! While An Fear Rua has a lot of time for the opinions on hurling of his 'Examiner' colleague, Justin McCarthy, young Diarmaid would not be one of AFR's nominees for a Pulitzer Prize for hurling journalism. Nevertheless, he acknowledges his courage in going so definitively at this stage for a very novel prediction. Perhaps he saw aspects in the play of both these counties at Semple Stadium recently that escaped the eagle eyes of An Fear Rua.

Taking hurling first, An Fear Rua's prediction is that Munster will resolve itself into a Tipp v Cork final, with the Premier County justifying their claim to that historic appellation. Their ace-in-the-hole will be Toomevara's Tomás Dunne - in AFR's considered view, currently the country's most stylish and effective hurler, notwithstanding the claims of The Bould DJ Carey. The more An Fear Rua dwells on it, the more he considers that the Tipperary v Waterford clash on May 28 in Páirc Uí Cheacescu, in the 'Dear Old City by the Lee', is this year's real All Ireland final. Whoever wins that game, will go on to win national honours on the first Sunday in September. It is part of the tantalisingly bittersweet aspect of Munster hurling that a team as good as Waterford could go out of the championship completely in their opening game and yet see lesser teams featuring later on in All Ireland semi-finals. But, that is Munster hurling. You either live with the big boys from Day One or you end up as an also ran. An Fear Rua believes this is a good Waterford team and Gerald MacCarthy needs no praise from this quarter. However, the psychological blows of successive defeats by Tipp and Galway in their last two League outings will fatally damage the confidence of some of the more fragile members of the panel - the likes of Paul Flynn - and give the edge to Tipp.

Speaking of the Bould DJ Himself.... Kilkenny to overcome Offaly in the Leinster final. In this province, these are the only two counties worth mentioning. Galway, as usual, will be another semi-finalist, with Cork ousting Offaly for the fourth slot. In what could be a classic encounter, Tipperary should see off Kilkenny in the first semi-final, with Cork to overcome Galway in the other. And - surprise, surprise - the All Ireland final will be a reprise of the Munster final, with Tipp coming out on top again!

In football, let's cut to the chase and get to the bottom line: Meath will retain the Sam Maguire. Sorry folks, but that's how AFR sees it. In Leinster, there is no county near them at the moment, and after much toiling by lesser mortals in earlier rounds, Dublin will emerge to make a desultory challenge in the final. Out of charity, the less said about teams like Kildare, Louth and Offaly, the better.

Before all that, Kerry will come out of Munster again and Derry will carry the proud banner of Ulster. Apart from Munster hurling, possibly the most difficult championship to call this year is Connacht football. Roscommon, in their League form, showed signs of a breakthrough and Galway still retain a powerful panel and their hunger may be back again. Mayo can never be dismissed lightly and that disastrous showing against Clare in Doonbeg should not overshadow consideration of Sligo's earlier League form too much. In the light of AFR's overall prediction for football, to some extent whoever wins Connacht is academic, but - because they seem hungry for a return to success - we give the nod to Roscommon. That leaves Cork and Derry to tussle in a semi-final for the berth against Meath. A wiser man than An Fear Rua might wait until after this weekend to try to separate these two, but gutsy predictions should always be made before the first championship ball is thrown in. On that basis, An Fear Rua's prediction is shaded towards a Derry v Meath final, with - as mentioned above - the Royal County to triumph again.

AFR has never been a great one for the bookies, just the odd annual flutter on an Irish horse in the English Grand National is sufficient contact for him. For what it's worth, though, the bookies are giving Cork as 3/1 favourites to win the hurling and Kerry, no less, as 6/1 favourites in the football. An Fear Rua's prediction would work out as a 65/1 double and a fiver on it in the right place would give his readers just about enough for a nice, celebratory weekend for two in a first class hotel, somewhere in Ireland.

If that happens for you, hopefully you and your companion of choice will raise a wee tin