Sports fans are not always imperturbable; things get them going, get them riled.
It makes success, when it does comes along, that bit sweeter. Getting one over the neighbours only adds to the delight. Grudge matches, they are a plenty.
In the GAA world, so acutely defined by county and parish boundaries, that notion of 'them and us' only heightens the motivation for teams to stick it to 'that crowd'.
If anyone then hopped over the border to give 'that crowd' a helping hand, well that wouldn't go down well.
On Monday evening, the news that Mickey Harte was leaving his position as Louth senior manager to take over as Derry boss was certainly a bolt out of the blue.
Okay, if confirmed tonight, Harte will be taking over from a Tyrone man - Ciarán Meenagh - who was interim manager after Rory Gallagher stepped down in the wake of domestic abuse allegations - but Harte represents the Tyrone that gets Derry folk animated.
For too long they watched on as the Red Hand dominated while their own fortunes were at a low ebb. Now, the Oak Leaf county are ruling the roost in Ulster and ran Kerry close in this year's All-Ireland semi-final. They are not far away from getting their hands on the big prize. Will a Tyrone man give them that extra push?
Next spring will see Mickey Harte pit his wits against Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan in the Allianz League. Weeks later, they could collide in the Ulster championship. The plot thickens. More folk through the turnstiles.
Current Mayo manager and former RTÉ pundit Kevin McStay described encountering the Tyrone-Derry rivalry as a pundit in the early noughties as a revelation.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport in 2019, he said: "Of all the rivalries that I've bumped into the the GAA... I don't want to insult anyone, but I'd nearly use the word 'feral' when I walked into Healy Park a few years ago.
"I remember RTÉ sending me to Ulster games in the early noughties as a co-commentator and I remember being at one of those Tyrone-Derry games. I was amazed I hadn't hooked into that level of rivalry.
"I always go back to '06, Derry had Tyrone - the All-Ireland champions - in the early rounds. And Derry had no hope, you couldn't back them. And they won by six points."
With Harte now back in the Ulster bubble, Louth are on the hunt for a replacement, somebody to follow up on Harte's good work, a tenure where the county enjoyed successive promotions to Division 2 and this year reached a Leinster final.
It was a surprise when Louth went for a big name in the autumn of 2020, though it's a much different scenario when such a high-profile manager ends up in a land where, even though he may respected, he's more often viewed as being from behind enemy lines.
Here we look at some other GAA 'defectors' down the years.
West awoken with 'King Henry's' arrival
In looking for the last inter-county appointment that shook the GAA world, you don't have to go back too far: October 2021. On a day when the GAA's top brass came out in favour of 'Proposal B' - a league-based football championship with each team playing seven games (subsequently voted down at a special congress), word came through in the late afternoon that Kilkenny great Henry Shefflin would be the new Galway hurling manager.
Nobody saw that one coming, with the smart money being on Davy Fitzgerald to add to the number of counties he had managed. Shefflin, after guiding his native Ballyhale Shamrock to All-Ireland club titles, was stepping up a level, to take over a county that had become Kilkenny's biggest rivals in Leinster.
"It's a great acquisition," said Galway GAA chairperson Pat Kearney at the time. "It's an outstanding and positive appointment and we're delighted. Henry is up for the challenge.
"He has an unrivalled career in hurling and in management he led Ballyhale to club All-Irelands in 2019 and 2020. He brings enthusiasm, vision and values."
Of course, Shefflin's time on the Tribes sideline did give us that 'handshake' moment with Brian Cody in the 2022 Leinster championship.
Shefflin made light of it, when telling RTÉ Sport: "I didn't notice any tension. I shook hands. For me, I suppose there’s a lot of different emotions. The handshake happened, I didn’t see anything in it."
Two years done and 'King Henry' has still to win silverware with Galway. Losing the Leinster final in such agonising circumstances to his native county and then falling away badly to Limerick in the All-Ireland semi rounded out a disappointing year. A bit more pressure then on hurling's most decorated player to get it right in 2024.
Seismic happenings in Offaly at the expense of a big Cat
In the late 1970s, Kilkenny and Wexford were the dominant pair in Leinster hurling. However, there were signs of life that Offaly could at least rattle the big two. A Leinster U-21 was won in 1978 and St Brendan's in Birr were starting to make an impression. The call went out to Diarmuid Healy, revered in the Marble County after his work with St Kieran's College and the Kilkenny minors.
An open draw for the 1980 Leinster campaign saw Offaly on the opposite side to Kilkenny and Wexford. An opportunity beckoned, with Healy now at the helm to see his vision executed.
Emphasis on ground hurling, yes, but overall improving skills and getting players to believe they were good enough to knock the big guns off their perch, were what the outsider was driving home.
Healy's Offaly won Leinster in 1980, defeating his native Kilkenny. Just over 9,000 turned up at Croke Park. A year later, the Faithful were All-Ireland champions (champions again in '85). In no time, the county joined the elite. Healy put measures in place to ensure that success followed at underage. It duly did in the shape of All-Ireland minor titles.
As a county, Offaly have done well from outside managers, none more so than in 1998, when the relatively unknown Michael Bond arrived in to replace 'Babs' Keating after the 'sheep in a heap' furore.
Bond had the Faithful much improved from the Leinster final trimming by Kilkenny. The three-game saga against Clare in the All-Ireland semi-final showed Offaly's new-found resilience. The tables were well and truly turned in the re-match with the Kilkenny in the Liam MacCarthy decider. There was no stopping Offaly. An unlikely managerial appointment healed all wounds that were present only a couple of months earlier.
Too proud to have an outsider? Well, no
In the autumn of 2004, Mick O'Dwyer was in the frame to take over as Dublin football manager. After Tommy Lyons' reign came to an end, the Kerryman was approached by then Dubs chairperson John Bailey to take over. A backroom team was put in place but it didn't take long for O'Dwyer to have second thoughts. Former Dublin players and manager were having their say. The prospect of the former manager of their greatest rivals at the helm was too much for them to take.
Micko read the room and informed Bailey "that it wasn't the right time to take over". In saying that, it's hard to envisage Dublin ever going beyond the pale for a manager. Okay, Tommy Lyons was born in Mayo, but long enough domiciled in the capital not to be considered an outsider.
Traditional counties such as Galway, Mayo and Meath have, however, sough assistance from beyond to aid their cause, with mixed outcomes.
After getting his native county to an All-Ireland final and then guiding Leitrim to an historic Connacht success. Mayo's John O'Mahony then answered Galway's call to get the best out of an up and coming crop that included the likes of Michael Donnellan and Padraic Joyce. That he did, with two All-Irelands in four years ('98 and '01) and an appearance in another.
O'Mahony was always going to be hard to follow but Galway again looked over the border and opted for Peter Forde, a Mayo player for over a decade. Forde's stock as a manager was on a high after doing good things with Sligo, taking the Yeats County to an All-Ireland quarter-final in 2002, where they lost in a replay to eventual winners Armagh.
The Ballinrobe native had a good first year at the helm in 2005, guiding Galway to a senior Connacht success and the county's U-21 to All-Ireland glory. That was a good as it got, however, with Forde's three-year tenure ending in '07 after subsequent championship losses to Sligo and Meath.
As for Mayo, well they went for what was then the blockbuster appointment of Jack O'Shea in the autumn of 1992. Was it a successful partnership? No. Winning one of the worst Connacht finals ever played, when beating Roscommon on a scoreline of 1-5 to 0-07 in 1993, was the first part of a horror double-bill that was followed by the 20-point humbling by Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final.
In '94, scoring one point against Leitrim in the second half of the Connacht final, bringing their tally to 2-04, was another low point. That was it for O'Shea. He has not managed since.
The appointment of Seamus McEnaney as Meath manager in 2011 caught many by surprise. He had achieved some good results with his native Monaghan during the previous decade but it was expected that the Royals would eventually settle on one of their own to replace Eamonn O'Brien.
'Banty' got the gig and his two years in charge could best be described as turbulent. He presided over Meath's relegation to Division 3 in the spring of 2012, where up to that point they had just won just six games across league and championship.
There was talk of replacing him there and then, with Seán Boylan's return as manager being touted.
He held on. An appearance in a Leinster final did follow before the curtain came down following the qualifier loss to Laois.
Player on the move... and bring along a hurl
Seanie Johnston was a talented footballer for Cavan but in 2012 opted to make the switch to Kildare. Feeling miffed at being dropped by his native county, Johnston then wanted to continue his inter-county career with Kieran McGeeney's Lilywhites. I took a while for it to happen, but it did.
The Central Competition Controls Committee (CCCC) decided that the inter-county transfer from Johnston's club Cavan Gaels to St Kevin's in Kildare could not go ahead on the grounds of residency and ethos.
However, an appeal to the Central Appeals Committee was upheld, so the move was edging closer.
Johnston would have to play for his new club before lining out for the Kildare county side.
But there were no club games scheduled before the Lilywhites' championship bow against Offaly.
No club football games. So Johnston lined out with the hurlers of Coill Dubh, St Kevin's sister club, in the championship, for less than a minute, and so jumped the last hoop in what was a protracted inter-county switch.
Ironically, Johnston's first match in the Kildare colours was against Cavan in an All-Ireland qualifier. He would again play for the Lilies in 2013, before asking for a transfer back to his native county at the end of that season.
Johnston resumed his Cavan county career in 2016.
Watch the Dublin Football Championship quarter-final, Kilmacud Crokes v Ballymun Kickhams, on Saturday from 4.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
