Well, who’s going to win the All-Ireland?

Go on, tell me. Who’s going to win the All-Ireland?

I’d question anyone who thinks they can answer that with any degree of certainty.

This championship, which is on its way to being the best in living memory, arrives at the last four stage this weekend and one could make an argument in favour of any of the four.

Okay, Meath are the obvious outliers, but it would be naive to think they’re incapable of continuing their run of upsetting the favourites. Do you know what they do? They battle for everything. They turn all kickouts into ferocious battles. Winning possession off kickouts is the most precious currency in the game right now.

Of course, you need the forwards to then get a return for your buck. With that in mind, Jordan Morris’s performance in the quarter-final is up there with anything we’ve seen this year. Matthew Costello is a classy forward too. Their man-markers have been performing superbly as well, the likes of Sean Rafferty and Donal Keogan.

They’ve shown great resilience. I was very impressed by the way they responded to Galway’s second-half purple patch which saw them fall behind having led by 5. To bounce back again and get the scores to edge them over the line showed a great belief amongst the team.

So, while they’re outsiders in the betting for Sam Maguire, it’s possible to make an argument in their favour. Just like it is with the other three teams.

Donegal look like they’re primed to hit top gear now. They were slow to get going in the quarter final, but once they did, Monaghan had no answer to their powerful running game.

Their graph is definitely on the way up while there’s a worry that Meath have had to peak too often already – they've caused three big upsets in beating Dublin, Kerry and Galway so far. There’s also the fact that Donegal have the experience of being at this stage last year.

So, it’s mainly down to a few of those intangible advantages that Donegal have that I’d put them as narrow favourites for the game. Man for man, I think they have a slight upper-hand, particularly in their full-forward line and amongst the subs bench. Daire Ó’Baoill is a serious operator to be bringing into the game with 20 minutes to go.

Then there’s the Tyrone and Kerry game. The football world has been entranced by the Kingdom’s 15 minute second half spell which torpedoed Armagh’s All-Ireland defence. Rightly so. It was sensational football. The efficiency of their attacks in that period was top-class.

But I’m not fully convinced yet. I’ve had an inkling towards Tyrone since the end of the league. That has certainly wavered a bit throughout the championship. I’m not quite sure they’re firing on all cylinders, but if they are, then they definitely have the tools to take down Kerry.

Fitzpatrick and Kennedy in midfield for Tyrone can be the best partnership in the country. They are well supported in the half-lines by top players like Mattie Donnelly and Kieran McGeary. If those guys can hit top form, then I don’t see Kerry enjoying any period of dominance like they did in that second half against Armagh.

Admittedly, there are probably more ‘ifs’ about Tyrone’s prospects than Kerry’s. There’s an ‘if’ about the midfield getting up to the levels we know they’re capable of, and then there’s ‘if’ about their inside forward line. McCurry and Darragh Canavan need to really catch fire to push Tyrone over the line here.

There are no ‘ifs’ about the Kerry forward line. The most remarkable thing about David Clifford for me is that you just know he’s going to show up and do the business. Even if he has a poor game by his standards in this semi-final, I’d still expect him to come away with five points or so.

The repeatability of his high-performance level is unlike anything I’ve ever seen and is the single biggest reason I can see for Kerry being favourites here. The return to form in a major way of Sean O’Shea along with the likelihood of a full 70 minutes from Paudie Clifford leaves you with the distinct impression that Kerry will score heavily once they have possession.

I’m just not ready to fully jump on that bandwagon yet though, as good as they were in their destruction of Armagh. In fact, I wonder were Armagh a bit off it on the day? Up to then, they had been the form team in the country and were doing a fine job in their quest to retain Sam. But there were a couple of things about them which seemed off to me.

The biggest one was how on earth were they so slow to rush out to O’Shea as he stroked over doubles for fun? I can see an argument for the first one. They had decided to set their zonal defence at the edge of the arc and didn’t think Kerry would try shooting from further out.

They would also have been wary of pushing out too much and leaving space for a pop-pass to Clifford inside. That’s all very understandable, but after O’Shea struck that first one so comfortably, there had to be a realisation that he had to be tagged tightly once he approached the 45.

It was very un-Armagh like of them, the way they lacked the urgency in squeezing up on him once he got possession. That was the same with the way their kickout came under huge pressure in the second half. Time and again, Armagh lads were outjumped on their own restarts.

In that 15 minute spell where I think they were simply outfought by Kerry, they had a chance to squeeze up on Kerry’s kickout twice but instead let them get a handy short one away. On top of that, on another attack, they got penalised for not leaving three men in defence.

All that adds up to Armagh not fully being at it for me. Against that, there’s no denying Kerry were excellent. Ó’Beaglaíoch and Gavin White had big games for them in the middle third, but Joe O’Connor was the biggest driving force here. Is that middle third good enough to dominate if Tyrone are at their best? We’ll see.

So, there you have it. I think I’ve managed to make an argument in favour of each of the semi-finalists in one way or another. Do I know who’s going to win? No, I don’t have the foggiest.

Isn’t that what’s great about this championship? The unpredictability continues. With a gun to my head, I’d bet on Donegal and Tyrone to emerge.

Regardless of who comes out on top, I’m just looking forward to watching more great football. After years in the doldrums of lateral passing and blanket defences, the excitement of looking forward to honest man-on-man battles for possession and forwards pinging beautiful points is fantastic.

Can anyone confidently predict who’ll be the All-Ireland champs? No. But, more and more, we can confidently predict that the games will be great to watch. That’s a huge victory for all who love the game. I can’t wait for this weekend.