Today my admiration for Anthony has scaled a new peak simply because he is proving himself a wonderful ambassador for Ulster.

In an era when television pundits - myself included, perhaps! - are thought to have somewhat controversial views, Anthony tends to have his feet very much on the ground.

Ulster certainly had reason to be grateful for this at the weekend when RTE's analysis of the Armagh v Down contest was precipitated following the suggestion that it was "a shambles of a match." It was nothing of the sort, of course.

And Anthony's assertion that the aspersions currently being cast on Ulster football have their roots in the fear "that a hugely competitive Ulster side might launch a real bid for the All Ireland title" certainly struck a chord on RTE on Sunday night.

He made the point that, while Ulster has been out of the All Ireland frame since 2005, there are still teams here well capable of challenging for 'Sam'.

And his robust defence of the playing standards in Ulster and the vibrancy of the current campaign certainly helped to balance the equation, as it were.

It is abundantly clear that both in terms of the intensity of games and the numbers flocking to them, the Ulster Championship retains its intrinsic appeal for players, officials and supporters alike. For any pundit - indeed any person - to disparage the current Ulster Championship would be nothing short of, at best, intemperate and, at worst, malicious.

People are entitled to their views but they must be based on fact. There may be aspects of the Ulster competition that are not quite perfect - the booing to which free-kickers from both teams were subjected to at Clones last Sunday was reprehensible, for instance - but overall, the Championship is proving an enthralling feast of action.

Last Sunday there were 31,064 fans in St Tiernach's Park - surely that speaks for itself. And you can be sure that every space will be taken when Fermanagh meet Armagh in the final on July 20.

This penchant for 'having a pop' at Ulster football annoys and frustrates me - and to think that it emanates at times from people whose loyalties lie with counties who have been involved in the last two All Ireland football finals, arguably the poorest spectacles we have seen at this level for quite some time.

The manner in which Kerry breezed past Mayo in the 2006 decider and then overturned Cork last year in a similarly one-sided non-event obviously delighted the Kingdom fans but did little for the image of the All Ireland final as one of the truly great occasions in the Irish sporting calendar.

I honestly believe that the presence of an Ulster side would have done nothing to detract from the glamour of the All Ireland but, in fairness, all the teams from the province had got their chance earlier in each of the two years but were unable to take it.

Now the hope is that we can perhaps represented once again at Croke Park on the third Sunday in September. Just who will that be? If I knew that, I could give up working tomorrow!