Just prior to the game against Antrim in the semi-final, Raymond had a fitness test and we were worried about his availability. He has been hampered by injury lately and obviously that is a worry for us.

Obviously Chris needs games to get his match fitness level back to scratch.

The fact that they have beaten the reigning All Ireland champions tells you just how big a task we face. We certainly need to get into our stride from the outset - we can't afford to be in a position where we would be playing catch-up.

There have been several factors affecting our performances but we are in an All Ireland semi-final now and it is up to us to do ourselves justice.

In 2003, the South African adopted a regimen of twice-daily workouts to improve his fitness. His game improved significantly ... until he hurt his right wrist walloping a boxing heavy bag. 'I was thinking of taking out a little frustration on the punching bag, but I'm not a pro,' he said.

I started looking into the cost of the equipment because it is a really good fitness program, especially when I only have a PE budget of a couple hundred bucks.