Ironically, after a week in which travelling across the country became considerably more arduous, the greatly maligned 'outside manager' emerged as the big winner of the opening weekend of the football championship.
Late last year, the talk was that the National Games Development Committee were considering reforms that would render the outside manager extinct at both club and county level.
However, the proposals never made it to the Congress floor and so, like Bob Dylan, the outside manager keeps travelling on, albeit at a slower pace last week than before.
In Leinster, Oisín McConville's Wicklow side brought an abrupt halt to Carlow's gallop with a comfortable victory in Netwatch Cullen Park. Justin McNulty's Laois buried three goals past Offaly in a surprise win the evening before.
Mark McHugh's Westmeath were very easy winners over promoted Longford - admittedly, also under outside management - at Glennon Brothers' Pearse Park.
Meanwhile, over in Connacht, Steven Poacher - one of the most maligned of all travelling outside gaffers - oversaw Leitrim's first win in the Connacht championship over Connacht-based opposition in 15 years, as they pipped Sligo in a madcap endgame in Markievicz Park.
The 'outside manager' dimension to this weekend might have gone unnoticed had McConville not publicly taken umbrage at his opposite number Joe Murphy's comments a fortnight ago following Carlow's Division 4 title victory.
After Carlow won their first trophy in Croke Park in 82 years, Murphy was quick to highlight the entirely homegrown nature of his management and backroom team, observing that "we didn't need any outside influence to do this."
The comments can probably be understood in the context of Carlow's experience last year, when Shane Curran resigned two weeks before the Leinster championship opener, citing "player-related issues", which drew a formal response from the team. Murphy, who himself had previously managed Naas to Kildare SFC titles, was parachuted into the role just before the provincial championship.
The Carlow manager was also keen to insist he was "not knocking anyone."
Nonetheless, McConville, whose side were in the horrors after blowing promotion on the last day, took the Michael Jordan tack and insisted on taking the comments personally - for motivational purposes, at any rate.
Speaking to reporters, he eschewed the usual 'we expected a tough game coming up here, today' platitudes.
"I was probably taken aback by it," McConville said of Murphy's comments. "Maybe I took it personally, maybe I thought it was directed at me. Maybe I'm paranoid at this stage. And coming off the [Longford] defeat the last day, I suppose you pick on everything [for motivation].
"But no, I wouldn't be happy with that [opinion], we all have to go and find opportunities in other places. I've been lucky, I've been here for four years.
"This means as much to me as if Armagh beat Tyrone later on," he added.
Meanwhile, in Sligo, a former Carlow coach was engineering a rare coup for Leitrim in championship football.
Poacher had ignited a storm of controversy last year when his team opted to forfeit their Division 3 game against Fermanagh.
It was regarded as a humiliating nadir for the county, a historic low-point.
The vials of wrath were poured over Poacher's head from both inside and outside Leitrim, with many demanding to know how this interloper could take such a dramatic step on behalf of the county.
The Leitrim men who were peering over the veranda of heaven in 1994 were by now turning in their grave.
The Down man cited the effects of a major injury crisis, plus the unusually large contingent of Under-20 players in the senior squad. With Leitrim already destined for relegation from Division 3 and the Under-20 Connacht championship opener a few days away, Poacher decided to forfeit the league match on player welfare grounds but it was a public relations debacle at the time.
Thirteen months on and they've achieved a rare success. It's only Leitrim's fourth Connacht SFC victory over a team other than London or New York since the glorious year of '94.
Three of those have come against Sligo - 2005, 2011 and yesterday - with another against Roscommon in 2000, when Seamus Quinn's winner in Hyde Park brought them to their last Connacht final.
It was achieved in suitably dramatic fashion too. They momentarily looked like they might run away with it when Ryan O'Rourke fired a goal to put them 10 points up just before the 50th minute. But it's never that easy.
Pat Spillane hit back immediately with a goal for Sligo and the final quarter was unsurprisingly agonising. With the backing of the wind, Sligo started to whittle down the lead and it seemed inevitable that Leitrim would be hauled in before the final whistle.
On Ocean FM, which serves most of Sligo but also north Leitrim, former Leitrim selector Martin McGowan was getting increasingly aggravated with the referee Fergal Kelly as the final whistle grew nearer (the FRC rules haven't gone so far as to try and muzzle local commentators).
But Leitrim survived, in large part thanks to Sligo's mismanagement of the endgame. After Lee Deignan missed a two-point free to put the hosts ahead with just over a minute left, Sligo won the kickout and earned another free just outside the arc.
However, in the wake of the previous missed attempt, and to the local commentary team's disbelief, they opted to work it short and then missed the equaliser attempt inside the arc with only seconds remaining until the hooter.
Their reward is a home semi-final against Galway, which is hardly winnable but they're already kicking their heels in bonus territory. On Ocean FM after the game, McGowan was promising a 'Galatasaray' style welcome for Galway selector Mickey Graham.
The former Ulster-winning Cavan manager, you might recall, resigned from the Leitrim job before managing them in a single game in late 2024, citing "unforeseen circumstances." These were no impediment to him taking on his role with Leitrim's more glamorous provincial 'rivals'.
Leitrim could have been forgiven for swearing off outside managers after that. But the success of PJ Carroll and the late John O'Mahony means there's no taboo around outsiders in the county.
One picture afterwards showed Poacher almost in tears at the final whistle - a sign that this most well-travelled of outside managers has almost gone native.
