This short series on RTE is a great piece of TV despite containing many of their usual mistakes. A small set of "celebrities" manage intermediate-level Gaelic Football teams in a playoff.

Myself and RTE have a basic disaggreement on what constitutes a celebrity. e.g. Some ex-Rose of Tralee who sometimes appears on The Panel does not even appear on a Z-list in my book. But to be fair they have created a reasonable mix. Two ex-politicians, two dolly birds, a comedian, some TV himbo, a journalist/famous feminist and a solicitor.

Each is given a middle-of-the-road football team in their home county to manage (Cork, Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Mayo, Westmeath, Derry, Limerick). Simple play-offs are held to get to a final. The show follows them as they try to manage the team (and get advice from legendary local managers).

And ye know what? It bloody works. A simple simple formula with the right combination of humour and deadly seriousness. I think I particularly like it because my GAA knowledge is desperate and it appears the same is true of all the managers. Each got a different welcome and a gave different opening pitch (pun intended). Most teams seemed to want to get "The Eyebrows" as their manager to help with motivation. Lucky Crumlin got her. As at the Golden Spiders, witty comebacks are not the girl's forte but she seems game.

I immediately liked Ivan Yates. An ex-politician who has built up a massive bookie business, he already had the odds ready going in. He told the team that the best intermediate team in Wexford probably wasn't as good as an average Cork one. I think that straight-up attitude is going to do the business for them.

All the others are entertaining in different ways. I think poor Nell has lost most of the wit that made her famous and I find her patter a bit boring and the gender nonsense is exactly that: "I've never worked exclusively with men". Yawn Nell, wrong century. I still have no idea who the Baz character is.

The teams themselves are interesting with Cork and Dublin being the obvious favourites. Both teams from very rough areas of their respective cities and Cork appearing to have more energy/aggression. The  team from Wicklow comes from a tiny village so you have to assume they are up against it.

Despite all the good-natured and fun aspects of the programme, it serves a useful purpose in showing the passion of players and fans for teams that will never make it big. I have so much more time for that than I do for the mindless support of Man U or similar.

Looking forward to the first game!