McHugh scored 2-2 when Donegal performed a cross between a hijacking and a kidnapping on Dublin in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final: now, with a second change of management in the three years since, he admits Donegal are still trying to catch up, not match up.

“Dublin don’t look like slowing up anyway,” he says. “But that’s the challenge for everyone else – to try catch up. Dublin definitely are ahead of the pack at the moment, a good bit ahead. Mayo are the one team able to match them.

“But it’s looking harder all the time as they look to be getting stronger and stronger. You can’t blame Dublin, they’re setting the bar at that level. It’s about trying to be the best we can be. It [2014] seems like a long time ago now. But Dublin are a phenomenal team, and in my opinion the best I’ve ever seen, the best team to play football.

“They’ve always had the population. It is getting bigger now, but they have always had the population. I think they have just done huge work with under-age and everything. They went 16 years without winning an All-Ireland so they just did huge work and they are not slowing up.

“It is looking harder. They seem to be getting stronger every year. That is just the way it is, you can’t blame Dublin, they are setting the bar at an extremely high level. And it is up to everyone else to get up to that.”

All-Ireland-winning manager Jim McGuinness stepped down after that 2014 final defeat to Kerry, to be succeeded by his deputy Rory Gallagher. Now Gallagher has stepped aside after three years, moving back to his native Fermanagh, while former Donegal manager Declan Bonner comes back for a second stint in charge.

Huge surprise

McHugh admits he tried to persuade Gallagher to stay on. “You try your best to convince him, to get him back, but his mind was made up, and you have to look forward. Managers come and go.

“There was huge surprise. Rory Gallagher deserves huge credit for the time and commitment he gave to Donegal. Everyone who has worked with him has huge time for him, and what people think outside the group doesn’t matter. I’d like to thank him for the time and effort he gave, and I think Fermanagh have now got a phenomenal manager and coach.”

For now McHugh is putting all club thoughts before county, and for good reason: last Sunday week Kilcar ended a 24-year wait for a Donegal football title (the game itself is one to forget, the 0-7 to 0-4 winning scoreline over Naomh Conaill). That has set up Sunday’s Ulster showdown against Monaghan champions Scotstown.

The last Donegal club to win Ulster was an amalgamation of Ballyshannon and Bundoran, in 1975. “Donegal do have a poor record in Ulster. It was huge for the club to get over the line...Don’t get me wrong, it was a bad match, but we played each other in the semi-final last year and it finished 5-10 to 1-11.

“We can only do our best and try to put that right this weekend. Time will tell. We will know more on Sunday evening. The pressure is off as such. There was a lot of pressure in Kilcar the last number of years; people were saying that we should have been winning the county and we weren’t. But I don’t agree with that, I think you win the county on merit.

“Glenswilly were the best team last year and they won it, and Glenties were the year before that. Kilcar were this year. We’ll go up on Sunday and perform as best we can.”

Mixed blessing

“Only time will tell, it’s hard to know now. The club is great. I do think they need to give more time to it. It’s such a great tournament. The number of club finals on at the moment, you could go to a club game every night nearly, and the crowds that are going to watch matches are phenomenal.

“I was talking to John Small from Dublin earlier, and he told me that the Dublin final is all-ticket. That’s how big the club championships is getting, and I do think they need to be given more time.”

The pull between club and county, he says, is likely to remain an issue – even with April being left “free” for club games, before the Munster and Leinster championships are played off on a five-group, round robin basis.

“I would very much be a club person,” says Dowling, speaking at the launch of 2017/2018 AIB Club Championship. “I think clubs should be allowed play games in the summer months as well, but I’m still not sure if that’s going to happen.

“You could be waiting three months for a club game during the summer, then play two back to back, with a six-day turnaround. So I don’t know.

“They’re giving the month of April off, but intercounty managers are still going to want their players before they get into championship. It depends on county boards too, so no one really knows the answer just yet.

“I’m open for change, but I don’t know will it be for the better or worse. Everyone is open to more games, but the round robin will make it very difficult on the panel, between injuries and fatigue. It’s going to be a lot of pressure on the panel, using so many numbers. But I’ve no problem playing more matches.”

Dreaming

After winning their fourth Limerick county title in seven years, Na Piarsaigh now face into a Munster campaign looking to repeat their All-Ireland run of 2015/2016: Cork’s Blackrock await on Sunday week (Dowling himself hopes to recover from a knee in time), while on the county front Dowling makes no secret of his ambitions for 2018

“Look, I go to bed most night dreaming about winning an All-Ireland,” says Dowling. “And that’s no cliché, that’s the reality. But we have the right people involved now, have players that are good enough.

“That doesn’t mean we’re going to win. The next three or four years will tell a lot. There’s a savage amount of work being put in. I think there is optimism there since 2014, but at the same time last year was disappointing.

“Hopefully we can kick on. But as long as everyone is trying their best, and I believe they are, there’s nothing more we can do. The chasing pack aren’t too far behind. I don’t think Limerick are a million miles away, but time will tell.”

Their 2018 schedule is interesting: Tipperary at home, Cork away, Waterford at home, then Clare away; better than 2017 anyway.

New players

That’s it,” he says. “We trained for God knows how many months to play two championship games. Obviously the league is important, but at the end of the day it comes down to championship. It [the round robin] should be of benefit a county like ourselves trying to bring new players.

“There is something about a Munster semi-final, winner takes all, so it won’t replace that. It will be interesting to see what kind of crowds go to these games, because not everyone can afford to go to games week in, week out.”

Dr Crokes posted back-to-back Kerry SFC titles after an epic battle with South Kerry in a high-quality decider played before a large crowd at Austin Stack Park in Tralee on Sunday.

The Tralee crowd had barely recovered from the shock of Colm Cooper starting the game on the bench because of a hamstring strain for the All-Ireland holdders when South Kerry served notice of their intentions from the throw-in. Paul O’Donoghue played a quick ball inside the defence to midfielder Brendan O’Sullivan who was one-on-one with Crokes goalkeeper Shane Murphy, who made a superb save, turning the ball behind for a 45 which Bryan Sheehan duly converted.

Crokes soon settled with their swift passing and quick movement hurting the South Kerry defence and Kieran O’Leary had them in front by the ninth minute with two beautiful scores while Michael Burns had another after great work by Daithí Casey.

Crokes were winning the battle around the middle but South Kerry was counter-attacking well with Sheehan kicking a fine point. Then Crokes reeled off two quick points from Casey and Tony Brosnan to lead 0-5 to 0-3 at the end of the opening quarter with Brendan O’Sullivan getting South Kerry’s point.

Crokes were kicking points for fun with Casey and Gavin White extending their lead to four points before an 18th-minute disaster for Crokes gave the game the goal it needed.

Brendan O’Sullivan made the run and when his long delivery was collected by Crokes full back Mike Moloney, he slipped and in an effort to find a team-mate, he hand-passed the ball to South Kerry sub Ian Galvin, who buried the ball in the Crokes net.

Crokes don’t do panic and continued to attack in waves with points from Michael Burns (two) and one each from Brosnan and the influential Casey while Kieran O’Leary spurned a great goal chance in the 26th minute.

However, South Kerry remained in the game with Bryan Sugrue, Paul O’Sullivan and midfielders Sheehan and Brian O’Sullivan countering well and they finished the half with points from Conor O’Shea, O’Donoghue and a free from Sheehan as Crokes retired 0-11 to 1-6 in front,.

South Kerry started the second half well with points from O’Donoghue and a Sheehan free but Crokes sprang Cooper and Jordan Kiely off the bench and despite losing Johnny Buckley to a red card they defended well and South Kerry helped them with some wayward shooting.

DR CROKES: S Murphy; J Payne, M Moloney, L Quinn; D O’Leary, F Fitzgerald, G White (0-1); J Buckley, A O’Sullivan; M Burns (0-4) , G O’Shea, B Looney; T Brosnan (0-2), D Casey (capt) (0-5, two frees), K O’Leary (0-4).

Subs: C Cooper for G O’Shea (42 mins), J Kiely (0-1) for T Brosnan (42 mins), S Doolan for D O’Leary (52 mins), P Clarke for M Burns (57 mins), A O’Donovan for M Moloney (B/C, 60 mins), E Brosnan for B Looney (62 mins)

SOUTH KERRY: P O’Sullivan (Skellig Rangers); B Sugrue (Renard), M Griffin (St Michael’s, Foilmore), F Clifford (Waterville); Paul O’Sullivan (Valentia), J Curran (Valentia), R Wharton (Renard); B Sheehan (St Mary’s) (0-7, three frees, one 45), B O’Sullivan (Valentia) (0-1); C O’Shea (St Mary’s) (0-1), P O’Donoghue (St Mary’s) (0-2), G O’Sullivan (Dromid Pearses); N O’Shea (Dromid Pearses), M O’Sullivan (St Michael’s/Foilmore), Daniel Daly (St Mary’s).

Subs: I Galvin (1-0) (Sneem/Derrynane) for D Daly (12 mins), Denis Daly ( St Mary’s) for O’Shea (34 mins), O Clifford ( Waterville) for J Curran ( 36 mins), R Hussey (Sneem/Derrynane) (0-1) for M O’Sullivan (45 mins), C Farley ( Dromid Pearses ) for I Galvin (61 mins).

Referee: Brendan Griffin (Clounmacon).

Nemo Rangers 4-12 St Finbarr’s 3-13

A 12-point lead was reduced down to two in the final quarter but Nemo Rangers were not to be denied a 20th Cork SFC title at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Trailing 1-1 to 0-0 inside three minutes of this replay, Nemo came back well to lead by 2-6 to 1-5 at half-time and goals from Paul Kerrigan and sub Adrian Greaney extended their advantage to 4-11 to 1-8 with 14 minutes of normal time remaining.

From there though, Nemo were restricted to a single Paddy Gumley point as the Barrs threatened to mount a comeback to eclipse that which brought them from eight down in the drawn game a week earlier.

Sub Eoghan Finn netted to get things started and frees from Stephen Sherlock reduced the gap further before the same player fired a close-range free past a cluster of Nemo players on the line. That left four points in it, 4-12 to 3-11, and Enda Dennehy and then Dylan Quinn had further points, the latter unlucky not to get a levelling goal. It was to be the closest they came though as Nemo alleviated the pressure and held possession to see out the game.

The Barrs, whose last title came in 1985, had a rip-roaring start with Robert O’Mahony’s point followed by a Sherlock goal. However, a bad injury to Nemo defender Cian McWhinney necessitated a 10-minute delay and Nemo were able to refocus.

Midfielder Jack Horgan, excellent throughout, got a great goal to kickstart their revival and was also involved in the build-up to points as the most of the remainder of the half was even.

In injury time, Kevin Fulignati levelled at 1-5 each, then Luke Connolly scored a wonderful goal and Paul Kerrigan gave them an interval lead of four. That advantage would extended further and, though the Barrs eroded it, they couldn’t make it disappear.

NEMO RANGERS: M Martin; Aidan O’Reilly (captain), C McWhinney, A Cronin; T Ó Sé (0-1), S Cronin, K Fulignati (0-1); A O’Donovan (0-1), J Horgan (1-1); B O’Driscoll (0-1), P Kerrigan (1-2), C O’Brien; P Gumley (0-2), L Connolly (1-1), C Dalton (0-2).

Subs: K O’Donovan for McWhinney (9 mins, injured), J O’Donovan for Fulignati (30 mins, injured), A Greaney (1-0) for O’Brien (37 mins), M Dorgan for A O’Donovan, Fulignati for A Cronin (both 54 mins). ST FINBARR’S: D Murphy; D Quinn (0-1), J Burns, A McCarthy; A O’Connor, S Ryan, G O’Connor; I Maguire (capt), C Lyons (0-1); D O’Brien (0-1), M Shields, E Dennehy (0-1); R Leahy, R O’Mahony (1-0), S Sherlock (2-7, 1-3 in frees).

Subs: E Finn (1-0) for O’Brien (42 mins), C Myers Murray for Leahy, C Keane for Lyons (both 46 mins), I O’Callaghan for O’Mahony (51 mins), R O’Dwyer for Ryan (57 mins), P Kennedy for O’Connor (59 mins). Referee: J Bermingham (Bride Rovers).

Adare 2-10 Newcastle West 1-10

Adare made history when winning their first Limerick senior title in a superb contest against red hot favourites, Newcastle West, at the Gaelic Grounds.

Newcastle West made a bright start, leading 0-6 to 0-3 after fourteen minutes.

But all changed for Adare four minutes later when Hugh Bourke scored following a defensive error. At the break Adare led 1-6 to 0-6 with all but two of their other points being scored by Robbie Bourke.

Iain Corbett scored a stunning goal for Newcastle West after 44 minutes and the sides were level at 1-9 with four minutes to go.

Then came the drama, with Paul Hannon nudging Newcastle West in front. But then superb play by Hugh Bourke found Jack English, who hit a thunderous shot past Andrew Ruddle to win it for Adare.

Adare: J Hickey; O Collins, A O’Connor, E Costeloe; E Ryan, D Connolly, P Maher; S Doherty, S Keeley; N Mulvihill (0-1), J English (1-0), H Bourke (1-4, 0-2f); M Connolly, R Bourke (0-2), M Lyons (0-2). Subs: S O’Connor for Costelloe (38 mins), A O’Connell for Maher (55 mins ), C McCarthy (0-1) for Lyons (62 mins).

Newcastle West: A Ruddle; M O’Keeffe, B O’Sullivan, S Browne; M O’Leary, S Nix, P Hannon (0-1); M McMahon, I Corbett (1-2); T Quilligan (0-1f), S Kelly (0-1), S Murphy; J Lee (0-5, 2f), J Kelly, C Sheahan. Subs: AJ O’Connor for Quilligan (36mins), D Woods for Murphy (36 mins), E Murphy for O’Sullivan (45 mins), M Quilligan (0-1) for S Kelly (49 mins).

Referee: J Murphy (Ballylanders).

Éire Óg claimed their 27th Carlow senior football championship title and became first holders of the new Nationalist Cup with victory over 13-man Rathvilly in Sundays’s replayed final at Netwatch Cullen Park.

Rathvilly led for the only time when midfielder Ken Doyle kicked the game’s first point. Éire Óg responded and hit the front in the 5th minute.

Rathvilly lost centre back Wayne O’Donoghue to a black card on 21 minutes and trailed 1-4 to 0-5 at half time. Early second half points from Jordan Morrissey and captain Séan Gannon doubled the Éire Óg advantage.

Rathvilly’s Alan Kelly was red carded on 43 minutes and almost immediately Jordan Morrissey found the Rathvilly net to put his side 2-6 to 0-6 ahead and on the way to victory as Rathvilly converted one of two late penalties.

Éire Óg: R Moore; F O’Toole, M Fitzgerald, B Kavanagh; J Lowry, P McElligott, R Dunphy; S Gannon (0-2), K Chatton; S Rea, J Morrissey (1-1), E Ruth (1-0); M Furey, D Hayden (0-1), D O’Brien (0-4, all frees). Subs: E Kelly for O’Toole (35); C Mullins for Dunphy (41); M Ware for Rea (51); C Blake for Morrissey (58); N Quinlan for Hayden (63).

Rathvilly: R Molloy; B J Molloy, C O’Brien, T Bolger; J O’Donoghue, W O’Donoghue, J B Leonard; Brendan Murphy, K Doyle (0-1); A Kelly, E Finnegan, D Molloy (0-1); Brian Murphy, G Dempsey (1-5, 1-0 pen., 0-4 frees), J J Smith (0-1, 45). Subs: J Moore for W O’Donoghue (black card) (23); R Ryan for J B Leonard (54); D Murphy for Doyle (54); C Byrne for D Molloy.

Referee: D Hickey (Fenagh).

The modern day giants of Wexford hurling were dethroned in emphatic fashion, as St Martin’s produced a storming last twenty minutes to win by a comfortable ten point margin in the Wexford senior hurling championship final at Innovate Wexford Park on Sunday.

St Martin’s were out to avenge their final defeat of two years ago but had to survive a tetchy opening fifteen minutes at the end of which they trailed 1-3 to 0-2.

Garrett Sinnott fired Oulart-the-Ballagh in front after just five minutes with a fine goal, capitalising on a breaking ball to the right of goal to fire low into the left hand corner of the net.

Ironically it was the reigning champions who looked the more impressive side through theopening quarter, having put the loss of star forward Dessie Mythen behind them. The experienced attacker was forced off with a knee injury, a huge blow to the attack as they looked to capitalise on hesitancy in the Martin’s defence, with Nicky Kirwan on target with pointed frees.

But once Rory O’Connor proved his fitness, taking his place at full-forward despite a heavily bandaged leg which had him doubtful all week - and when he picked off some splendid points from frees - he kept his side in contention. Further points by Kirwan from frees had Oulart-the-Ballagh leading 1-5 to 0-3 after 22 minutes, but it was two minutes that transformed the game.

St Martin’s badly needed a goal and it arrived in unusual circumstances. Rory O’Connor stepped up to a free 25m in front of goal, played a short ball across to the unmarked Ciaran Lyng who blasted an unstoppable shot to the roof of the net. Substitute Joe Coleman and Jake Firman, with two points, helped their side finish the half strongly and they led 1-7 to 1-5 at the interval.

Nicky Kirwan hit two pointed frees within minutes of the restart to bring the sides level, but ominously for the reigning champions Rory O’Connor was beginning to dominate in midfield. Aided by eventual man of the match Daithi Waters St Martin’s gradually assumed total control, building a 1-12 to 1-8 lead with ten minutes remaining.

Waters scored an inspirational point, and when Joe O’Connor found the net with a splendid finish on sixty minutes they closed out a dramatic and deserved victory.

St Martin’s: L White; W Devereux, P O’Connor, C Firman; D Waters (0-1), A Maddock, P Kelly (0-1); H O’Connor, M Maloney; J Firman (0-2), Joe O’Connor (1-1), Jack O’Connor (0-1); C Lyng (1-2), R O’Connor (0-5, 4frees), D Codd. Subs: J Coleman (0-3) for Codd (18); M Coleman for Maloney (52); B O’Connor for H O’Connor (55); M Codd for J Firman (55); E O’Leary for Joe O’Connor (60).

Oulart-the-Ballagh: C O’Leary; A Roche, K Rositer, B Kehoe; D Morton, S Murphy, K Sheridan (0-1); D Redmond (0-1), E Moore; R Jacob (0-1), M Og Storey, P Murphy; T Storey, G Sinnott (1-0), N Kirwan (0-6 frees). Subs: B Dunne for Storey (37); D Mythen for T Storey (48); P Sutton for P Murphy (49); M Jacob for Roche (58).

Referee: J Owens (Askamore/Kilrush).

Slaughtneil retained their Ulster hurling title victory over Down champions Ballygalget in a rugged affair in Armagh.

A long-range Mark Fisher effort had Ballygalget 0-3 to 0-2 ahead after 10 minutes but they had goalkeeper Jamie Crowe to thank for two saves to keep Slaughtneil at bay.

The pressure eventually told and Brendan Rodgers fed Brian Cassidy for a 13th-minute goal that helped Slaughtneil into a 1-7 to 0-6 lead at the break.

The second half was a free contest between Cormac O’Doherty and Gareth Johnston before a Cormac O’Doherty penalty sealed the game for Slaughtneil.

SLAUGHTNEIL: O O’Doherty; K McKaigue (0-3), Shane McGuigan, P McNeill; M McGrath, C McKenna, C McAllister (0-1); G Bradley (0-1), C McKaigue; M McGuigan, C O’Doherty (1-10, seven frees, two 65s), S Cassidy; Se McGuigan, B Rodgers (0-3), B Cassidy (1-3).

Subs: G O’Kane for S Cassidy (42 mins), B Corbett for C McAllister (61 mins).

BALLYGALGET: J Crowe; B Byers, E Clarke, C Bailie (1-0); E Coulter, B Toner, Peter McManus; D McManus, J Doran; J McManus, G Roddy, M Fisher (0-2); C Coulter, G Johnston (0-8, seven frees), D Toner (0-2).

Subs: C Doran for J Doran (58 mins), J Smyth for D Byers (59 mins), Paul McManus for C Coulter (59 mins)

Referee: C Cunning (Antrim).

Castlebar Mitchels have won three-in-a-row after finally wearing down Ballintubber in a tough Mayo county senior football final at Elverys MacHale Park, Castlebar, on Suday.

An audacious point from Mayo player Diarmuid O’Connor levelled the game on 0-13 apiece with a minute of normal time remaining, but in four minutes of injury-time Ger McDonagh fired Mitchels into the lead with a brilliant point, before David Stenson sealed the win with a free.

Five points - all from frees - from the boot of Cillian O’Connor were crucial in giving Ballintubber a 0-9 to 0-7 lead at the interval. The margin between the sides was never greater than two, Barry Moran landing two big scores in that half, but it was two late frees from Cillian O’Connor that pushed his side two clear at the break.

James Durcan was shown a black card before half-time for a body-check on Cillian O’Connor, but despite this his side did have the assistance of a strong breeze in the second half.

Ballintubber went three clear at one stage in the second half (0-10 to 0-7) - but Castlebar then came with four points without reply, McDonagh putting them into the lead for the first time in the matc.

The lead was to change hands again after Alan Dillon, who took over the freetaking duties following the dismissal of Cillian O’Connor on a second yellow card, nailed a free, but it was the champions who toughed it out to equal the record set by Garrymore in the 70s.

Castlebar Mitchels: R Byrne, J Maughan, G McDonagh (0-2), D Newcombe, R O’Malley, P Durcan, S Irwin, D Kirby (0-1) E O’Reilly (0-1), J Durcan (0-2), B Moran (0-3), C Costello, D Stenson (0-5, 4f), N Douglas (0-1), A Walsh.Subs: C Kyne for J Durcan (BC, 28 mins) N McCarney for Irwin (44 mins).

Ballintubber: B Walsh, G Loftus, B Murphy, M Kelly, D Clarke, M Plunkett (0-1), D Coleman (0-1), J Gibbons (0-1), D Geraghty, P O’Connor, A Plunkett (0-2), A Dillon (0-1, 1f), D O’Connor (0-1), C O’Connor (0-6, 5f), S O’Malley. Subs: S Broderick for O Malley (40 mins), J Geraghty for Loftus (47 mins).

Referee: D Corcoran (Islandeady).

Roscommon club SFC final

St Brigid’s 3-13 Roscommon Gaels 3-7

Two late goals from St. Brigid’s clinched their seventh Roscommon football title in eight years after an exciting final against Roscommon Gaels before acrowd of 1,635 at Hyde Park.

The final began sensationally when Brian Stack scored a Brigid’s goal after just 12 seconds - but the Gaels were level by the ninth minute when Cian Connolly converted a penalty.

While Senan Kilbride, Cathal McHugh and Stack found the range for Brigid’s, a 25th-minute goal by James O’Gara left just two points between the teams at half-time.

Roscommon Gaels then bounced back from the sending-off of David O’Gara in the 41st minute to take the lead with a Richard Hughes point in the 48th minute.

However, the Gaels would score just one more point as Brigid’s produced a barnstorming finish. McHugh equalised quickly and his replacement, 19-year-old Jack McDonnell, edged Frankie Dolan’s team ahead after 55 minutes.

With two minutes left McDonnell set up Conor Murray who slid a low shot into the net. Eddie Lohan slotted their third goal after being set up by the impressive Padraig Kelly, as Brigid’s made full use of the extra man.

The final scoreline was harsh on Roscommon Gaels, who were appearing in their first final since 2004, but Brigid’s were deserving victors.

St Brigid’s: S Mannion; D Sheehy (0-1), P Domican, N McInerney; R Stack, I Kilbride, J Murray; G Dolan, E Nolan (1-0); E Sheehy, D Dolan (0-1), P Kelly (0-1); C McHugh (0-4, 3f), S Kilbride (0-4, 3f), B Stack (1-1). Subs: D Donnelly for J Murray (h-t), D Cunniffe for D Sheehy (48), J McDonnell (0-1) for McHugh (50), C Murray (1-0) for D Dolan (55), N Grehan for E Sheehy (58).

Roscommon Gaels: J Fetherstone; L McNeela, J McManus, R Gleeson (0-1); P Gleeson, D O’Gara, C Dineen; M Healy (1-0), J McDermott; J O’Gara (1-0), S Oates, R Hughes (0-2); C Connolly (1-4, 1-0 pen, 4f), M Nally, K Kilcline. Subs: K O’Gara for Nally (37), R Horan for Gleeson (54), B O’Gara for J O’Gara (48), C Egan for Oates (59).

Referee: B Healy.

Sligo club SFC final

Eastern Harps 1-13 Tourlestrane 1-9

Tourlestrane came from four points down to become the first team to winback-to-back Sligo senior championship titles since 1989 in Markievicz Park on Sunday.

The team managed by Eamonn O’Hara and Gerry McGowan justified their favouritism in the second half, claiming a four-point victory against an impressive Eastern Harps side.

Harps free-taker Shane O’Grady landed six first half points as Shane King’s side deservedly led 1-6 to 0-5 at the break.

Cathal Henry’s goal - finished confidently after a great pass from Liam Gaughan - proved the defining score, despite captain Martin Doherty netting for Harps in the first half.

Tourlestrane: A Bowens; N Gaughan, B Kennedy, B Walsh; S Dunne, A McIntyre, J Leonard; S Henry, J Kelly (0-2); C Henry (1-2, 1f), B Egan (0-3, 2f), G Gaughan (0-1); L Gaughan (0-3, 1f), P Harte (0-1), A Dunne (0-1). Subs: C Neary for Kennedy (29), J Quinn for Henry (29), JF Carr for G Gaughan (52), J Marren for Henry (60).

Eastern Harps: S Heraghty; G Horan, K Cryan, D Madden; M Clarke (0-1), R Donovan (0-1), C Higgins; T Taylor, K Gallagher; C McGill, T Cryan (0-1), D Hannon; E Lavin, S O’Grady (0-6, 6f), M Doherty (1-0). Subs: J O’Hara for Hannon (48), M Lennon for McGill (48), B Cryan for K Cryan (54).

Referee: B Judge.

London club SFC final

Fulham Irish 0-15 Tir Chonaill Gaels 1-11

Former Tyrone star Owen Mulligan kicked the winner as Fulham Irish beat Tir Chonaill Gaels in an enthralling London SFC final by a single point.

London stalwart Mark Gottsche had a final opportunity to tie the game but he pull a long and difficult free wide in the final act after nearly 70-minutes of end-to-end action.

Fulham and Tir Chonaill held nothing back during a contest marked by some absolutely stunning scores from Gael’s forward Killian Butler and Joe Roberts first-half goal looked like proving the difference between the sides until Tir Chonaill’s Kevin Rafferty got sent off for a second high tackle on Mulligan with 10 minutes remaining.

Fulham were trailing by a goal at that point, but they fought their way back into the contest with fine scores from Liam Staunton and substitute Daniel Eastwood, and their relentless pressing set up a grandstand finish that saw Mulligan convert a late free to win the contest.

Fulham Irish: J Tavey; R Morgan, C Hyde, C Murphy; J Gilfedder, H Dockry, A Savage; M Murphy (0-1), D O’Connor; L Turley, O Mulligan (0-3f), L Staunton (0-5, 0-3f); R Turley, M Hughes (0-1), P Friel (0-2f). Subs: D Eastwood (0-2) for Friel (34 mins), B Martin (0-1) for Gilfedder (40 mins), A McArdle for L Turley (48 mins), S Quinn for Staunton (59 mins), S O’Sullivan R Turley.

Tir Chonaill Gaels: G McEvoy; M McWilliams, S Burke, P Butler; M McCoy (0-1), R Breen, G McGee; A McDermott, M Gottsche (0-1, ‘45); K Rafferty, L Gavaghan (0-2), A Askin; J McGrath (0-2f), J Roberts (1-0), K Butler (0-4). Subs: A McGarvey for Askin (26 mins), N Garland for McGrath (40 mins), A Hanlon (0-1) for Roberts (40 mins).

Referee: M Maher

Ballygunner secured their first four-in-a-row of Waterford Senior Hurling titles at Walsh Park as their greater quality ultimately came to bear against a spirited De La Salle.

A brace of Conor Power goals, on top of another commanding free-taking performance from Pauric Mahony and a towering display from brother Philip at half back, ensured the News & Star Cup remains at McGinn Park.

Playing with a slight breeze to their backs, Ballygunner roared out of the blocks in a similar manner to their semi-final display against Lismore the previous Sunday.

After 12 minutes, they led by 1-5 to 0-2 but De La Salle’s doggedness kept them in touch thereafter and by the interval the challengers trailed by 0-9 to 1-10, remaining firmly in touch.

Ballygunner’s David O’Sullivan landed the first point after three minutes, with Pauric Mahony doubling their advantage three minutes later. Jack Fagan opened De La Salle’s account two minutes later before Brian O’Sullivan and Páidí Nevin exchanged points at either end.

Power’s first goal came in the 10th minute as he slid the ball into the net having ducked inside Stephen Dalton following Brian O’Sullivan’s pass. David O’Sullivan added two points in as many minutes to send the holders six points clear after 12 minutes.

But De La Salle dug deep and largely thanks to the free-taking accuracy of Shane Ryan and a sidelined point by Jack Fagan, they went in at the break only four points down.

Before an attendance of 2,709, Ballygunner kept the foot to the floor after the break, with a brace of Mahony frees and a single from co-captain Shane Walsh sending the holders seven points clear.

Shane Ryan added two points to De La Salle’s tally in the 37th and 43rd minutes (with Brian O’Sullivan scoring between those efforts) before Power scooped the ball beyond Shaun O’Brien for the Gunners’ second and decisive goal to settle the contest.

“There’s so much in these lads,” said proud Ballygunner manager Fergal Hartley afterwards. “There’s a lot made about the style they have and the type of hurling they play but the wider world doesn’t always see what’s behind all that. They’re a super bunch.”

Ballygunner will have little time to rest on their laurels as they’ll take on Tipperary champions Thurles Sarsfields in the Munster Club quarter-final at the same venue on Sunday next.

BALLYGUNNER: S O’Keeffe; E Hayden, B Coughlin, I Kenny; Philip Mahony, W Hutchinson, S Walsh (0-1); H Barnes, S O’Sullivan (0-1); P Hogan (0-1), D O’Sullivan (0-3), Pauric Mahony (0-9; seven frees), C Power (2-0), B O’Sullivan (0-2), B O’Keeffe (0-1).

Subs: M Mahony for Hogan (52 mins), JJ Hutchinson for Power (58 mins), B O’Sullivan for B O’Keeffe (59 mins) and T O’Sullivan for D O’Sullivan (63 mins).

DE LA SALLE: S O’Brien; S Dalton, D Greene, M Doherty; S McNulty, K Moran (0-1), T Moran; E Barrett, P Nevin (0-1); A Farrell (0-1), J Dillon, J Fagan (0-3, one sideline); J Mullane (0-1), S Ryan (0-8, eight frees).

Subs used: T Douglas (0-1, free) for Madigan and E Meaney for D Greene (both 52 mins), C McCann for Ryan (57 mins).

Referee: Tommy O’Sullivan (Cappoquin).

Imokilly 3-13 Blackrock 0-18

Imokilly became the first Cork SHC champions in the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh as goals proved crucial against Blackrock on Sunday.

In a game which never really came to life, a greater spread of scorers stood the East Cork division – without a title since 1998 – in good stead as well as the ability to find the net. Cian Fleming’s strike in the 20th minute helped them to lead by 1-7 to 0-8 at half-time, then captain Séamus Harnedy netted immediately after the restart.

While Blackrock managed to stay in contention throughout– frees from Michael O’Halloran key for them – they never drew level and Imokilly sub Brian Mulcahy scored the clinching goal in injury time to spark scenes of celebration.

Imokilly never trailed at any stage and were 0-6 to 0-5 ahead by the 18th minute when the impressive Ger Millerick combined with Ian Cahill to set up Fleming for a great finish from a tight angle.

John Cronin’s point left five in it, but Blackrock responded well, with two O’Halloran frees augmented by one from Alan O’Callaghan.

Within 90 seconds of the restart though, Imokilly had pushed clear again. While William Leahy’s shot was well saved by Gavin Connolly, Harnedy was following up to finish well for a 2-7 to 0-8 lead.

That five-point advantage still pertained in the 40th minute after two Leahy frees, but Blackrock responded well with points from sub Daniel Meaney, O’Callaghan, Cormack and O’Halloran, the latter unlucky to send a shot into the side-netting in the midst of that spell.

However, an equaliser remained elusive and Leahy, Brian Lawton and Harnedy were able to get vital points to keep Imokilly in front.

Another Blackrock sub, Tadhg Deasy, made it 2-13 to 0-17 on 58 and when they won a close-range free in injury time, O’Callaghan went for goal but his shot flew over. There was time for more action, but it was Imokilly who made the most of that, sub Mulcahy following in to dispossess Connolly and fire to the net.

IMOKILLY: D Dalton (Fr O’Neills); B Ó Tuama (Castlemartyr), C Barry (Castlelyons), K Histon (Cobh); C O’Brien (St Ita’s), N O’Leary (Castlelyons), J Cronin (Lisgoold) (0-1); M O’Keeffe (Fr O’Neills) (0-2), G Millerick (Fr O’Neills) (0-1); B Lawton (Castlemartyr) (0-2, one s/c), S Harnedy (St Ita’s) (1-1), W Leahy (Aghada) (0-4, four frees); P O’Sullivan (Cloyne) (0-2), I Cahill (Cloyne), C Fleming (Aghada) (1-0).

Subs: D Mangan (St Catherine’s) for Cahill (51), B Mulcahy (St Catherine’s) (1-0)for Fleming (58).

BLACKROCK: G Connolly; G Norberg, D Stokes, J Cashman; N Cashman, E Smith, A Murphy; S Murphy, D O’Farrell (0-1); S O’Keeffe (0-1), A O’Callaghan (0-3, two frees), G Regan (0-1); M O’Halloran (0-8, six frees), C Cormack (0-2), J O’Sullivan.

Subs: D Cashman for O’Sullivan (half-time), D Meaney (0-1) for Smith (35, injured), T Deasy (0-1) for Cormack (47).

Referee: C Lyons (Nemo Rangers).

Sixmilebridge 1-20 Clooney-Quin 1-14

Sixmilebridge won their first Clare Senior hurling title in 1977 and on Sunday – 40 years later – they claimed their 13th at Cusack Park in Ennis after victory over Clooney-Quin at the second time of asking.

Considered by many to have been lucky to have earned a draw a week earlier, the Bridge’s second-half performance ensured that they finished worthy winners.

Sixmilebridge led by two points at half-time (0-9 to 0-7) and Jamie Shanahan put three between them within seconds of the re-start with a pointed free.

The real damage was done on 33 minutes when Bridge corner forward Brian Corry whipped to the net to open up a six-point lead.

Shanahan added another point, this time from play, in a period of dominance from the south-east Clare outfit.

Clooney-Quin, relying on free-taker Peter Duggan, tried to rally but the Sixmilebridge forwards picked off some fine scores.

Shane Golden and Alan Mulready impressed and even though Clooney-Quin did find the net at the end through Michael Corry, the Canon Hamilton Cup was on its way back to Sixmilebridge after a two-year absence.

SIXMILEBRIDGE: D Fahy; N Purcell, P Fitzpatrick (capt), B Fitzpatrick; A Quilligan(0-1), S Morey,C Morey; J Shanahan (0-5, three frees), C Deasy (0-1); C Malone (0-1), N Gilligan (0-2), S Golden (0-5); B Corry (1-1), A Morey, A Mulready (0-3). Subs: C Lynch (0-1) for Gilligan (48 mins), G Whyte for A Morey (52 mins), B Carey for Deasy, K Lynch for C Morey (both 59 mins).

CLOONEY-QUIN: K Hogan; R McNamara, S McNamara, B McInerney; C Duggan C Harrison, P Ward; D Murphy, R Taylor (0-1); P Duggan (0-10, five frees, two 65s, 1 sc), M Corry (1-1), T Shanahan; R O’Donnell, F Lynch (capt) (0-1), J Corry (0-1). Subs: D Hannon for Shanahan (37 mins), D Kennedy for Murphy (59 mins).

Referee: R Hickey (Éire Óg)

Holders Cuala kept their hopes of a third successive county title alive when overcoming St Vincent’s by 4-16 to 2-16 in their Dublin SHC semi-final at Parnell Park on Sunday afternoon.

The underdogs started brightly thanks to three points in as many minutes from Alan Moore, Diarmuid Connolly and John Hetherton but were rocked by the concession of two goals to Cuala’s Colm Cronin in the sixth and ninth minutes.

Hetherton responded when converting a penalty in the 17th minute and a Rian McBride goal six minutes later left the bare minimum between the teams.

Crucially, Cuala finished the half on a high as Jake Malone fired home in injury time to hand his team a narrow 3-8 to 2-7 interval lead.

Vins brought that deficit back to a bare point following two Hetherton scores and a Connolly score but with David Treacy firing six frees upon the restart, Cuala confirmed their win through a Con O’Callaghan goal eight minutes from time.

CUALA: S Brennan; O Gough, Cian O’Callaghan, S Timlin; P Schutte, S Moran, R Tierney; D O’Connell, J Malone (1-1); S Treacy, C Cronin (2-1), D Treacy (0-11, 10 frees); C Sheanon, M Schutte (0-1), Con O’Callaghan (1-1).

Subs: S Stapleton (0-1) for Tierney (35 mins), C Waldron for Sheanon (37 mins), N Carty for M Schutte (60 mins).

ST VINCENT’S: D Russell; M O’Farrell, R Trainor, M O’Keeffe; S McCaw, J Cooke, T Connolly; D Connolly (0-2), R McBride (1-0); G Giblin, A Moore (0-1), C McBride (0-1); C Burke (0-1), J Hetherton 1-9 (1-0 pen, six frees, two 65s, one sideline), K Connolly (0-1).

Subs: R Fallon (0-1) for Giblin (8 mins), F O’Sullivan for Moore (54 mins), C Billings for D Connolly (56 mins), J Walsh for Burke (60 mins).

Referee: Terry Carton (Naomh Fionnbarra).

Kilmacud Crokes 1-13 Lucan Sarsfields 0-13

A 58th-minute goal from Ross O’Carroll helped Kilmacud Crokes to account for Lucan Sarsfields by 1-13 to 0-13 in their Dublin Senior Hurling Championship semi-final at Parnell Park on Sunday afternoon.

Kilmacud played with the benefit of the breeze in the opening half and early scores from Oisín O’Rorke and Barry O’Rorke helped them to settle initially.

However, with Chris Crummey and Barry Aird impressing in the Lucan defence, Sarsfields looked more impressive and scores from Matthew McCaffrey, Tommy Somers and Peter Kelly reduced their deficit to a single point by the 25th minute.

Kilmacud finished the half in the ascendancy however with Caolan Conway, Cían Mac Gabhann and O’Carroll tagging on scores to ensure a 0-9 to 0-5 interval lead.

That lead was almost fully eroded within the first three minutes of the restart as Johnny McCaffrey added an inspirational point to a brace of Somers frees.

Lucan enjoyed the momentum and led through scores by Paul Crummey and Kevin O’Reilly but O’Carroll’s scruffy goal was an apt conclusion to a contest high on energy but lacking in composure.

KILMACUD CROKES: E Dalton; N Corcoran, B O’Carroll, J Clinton; D Kelly, R O’Carroll (1-2), C Mac Gabhann (0-3, three frees); L McMullan, C Conway (0-1); R Hayes, F Whitely (0-1), N Ó Riordáin; S McGrath (0-1), B O’Rorke (0-1), O O’Rorke (0-4, four frees).

Subs: R Murphy for McMullan (40 mins), A Considine for Ó Riordáin and R O’Dwyer for B O’Rorke (both 43 mins), S O’Dwyer for Considine (53 mins).

LUCAN SARSFIELDS: K Roche; P Claffey, B Aird, P Smith; J Bellew, C Crummey, J McCaffrey (0-1); R Smith, C Dowling; P Kelly (0-1), M McCaffrey (0-1), P Crummey (0-2); T Somers (0-4, four frees), K Fitzgerald (0-1), CJ Smith.

Subs: K O’Reilly (0-3, two frees, one ‘65’) for Somers (48 mins), D Quinn for Roche (58 mins).

Referee: Seán Stack (Parnells).

The two-time All-Ireland winner cited work and family commitments as his reasons for departing. The 36 year-old has soldiered for the Premier County for 10 years.

Gleeson was involved in the squad when Tipperary won the All-Ireland in 2010, and got his break following Brendan Cummins’ retirement at the end of the 2013 season, winning an All Star in 2014. Last year he was Tipperary’s No1 when they again claimed Liam MacCarthy. His last game was in this summer’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat against Galway, the eventual champions.

On Saturday he released the following statement;

“After 10 years on the Tipperary senior hurling panel, I have decided that now is the right time to announce my retirement from inter-county hurling. It was a great honour and privilege for me to play with Tipperary and I will greatly miss being involved with the special group of people that make up the Tipperary senior hurling panel, management and backroom team.

“I have many great memories and made many lifelong friendships over the last decade. I was fortunate to enjoy some wonderful moments during my career with the highlights being the All-Ireland wins in 2010 and in particular 2016. I also greatly value the six Munster championships and one National League title we won during that period and the opportunity to represent and win an Inter-Provincial title with Munster. On a personal level, it was a great honour to receive an All Star award in 2014.

“I want to thank all the players sincerely. While we experienced some disappointments, we had so many great times together and we have always been united in our ambition and commitment to bring success to Tipperary.

“I also want to thank the managers and backroom teams who were so very supportive of me as well as Tipperary County Board and Tipperary Supporters Club, both of which have been generous in their support of players and teams. I am particularly grateful to my fellow Portroe clubman, Liam Sheedy, who invited me to join the Tipperary senior hurling panel when he became manager in late 2007. I am also grateful to the GPA for their support and advice over the years.

“It was a great privilege for me to represent the Portroe club when I played with Tipperary. I want to thank everybody there for their unswerving support, loyalty and encouragement and I look forward to continuing to play with Portroe. The demands of playing inter-county hurling are significant on family and personal time. I could not have enjoyed such a long inter-county career without the wonderful support I received from my wife, Naoibh, and I now look forward to spending more time with her and our three children, Caoimhe, Seán and Padraic. My parents, sister and brothers, Naoibh’s parents, and both our families have also been hugely supportive of me and helped me in any way they could - I want to thank them all sincerely.

“Finally, I wish Tipperary well for the future. I have no doubt that they will achieve plenty of success in the years ahead.”

In 2010 when Kildare were edged out by Down in the All-Ireland semi-final, Bolton was named on the GPA Team of the Year and the following year he was nominated for the first GAA GPA All-Star awards. He was also a part of the Ireland team that won the 2011 International Rules Series against Australia that season.

The 31 year-old made three substitute appearances in this summer’s championship, the attack-minded halfback’s last outing was off the bench in the Leinster final defeat against Dublin. Kildare subsequently exited the championship against Armagh in the qualifiers.

The Eadestown clubman posted on social media on Friday night - “Time to call it a day. I have loved every second. Up Kildare.” An attached statement read;

“I am announcing my retirement from intercounty football with Kildare. I would like to thank my wife Leanne, my family, my club Eadestown, current and past management teams and players for all the support they have given me since 2007.

“It has been an honour and childhood dream to wear the Kildare jersey and to go to battle alongside some of the best players in the country. I have loved every second. Best of luck to the current squad and management in the years ahead.

“I have no doubt there is silverware on the horizon an I look to supporting you on the journey.”

Kildare GAA have since added; “Best wishes to Emmet Bolton who after 10 years has announced his retirement from inter county football. Over the last 10 years he has served his county proud. A leader on and off the field he has put in huge commitment and dedication to the team.”

Kildare will face the winner of Louth and Carlow in next season’s Leinster quarter-final.

Dermot Earley, who is one of manager Joe Kernan’s selectors, revealed the prospect at a press conference in DCU on Thursday.

“There haven’t been any (Dublin players) in training. We’ve asked a lot of the Dublin squad to come in but just because of injuries, club commitments, guys just wanting to take a break, I don’t think there will be any Dublin representation on this but again, that’s for Joe to announce.”

Jim Gavin’s panel have been involved in county championship matches since the All-Ireland final in September and although just the Dublin final remains, a number of high-profile players are still involved with their clubs whereas others have work commitments.

Internationals James McCarthy, who travelled in 2014 and ruled himself out last week because of work and Jack McCaffrey, who has already played in two series for Ireland but is out with a cruciate injury, are among the obvious unavailable candidates.

Earley rejected the idea that this devalued the international series, which will be played out over two tests in November.

“Not at all, not at all. I don’t think so. It’s an Irish squad and it should represent the best players in the country and we’ve gone right around all the counties. We spent the summer looking at all games, so we’ve strong representation from the top teams but we’ve good representation from some of the lesser known.”

He also disagreed when asked was it embarrassing in the context of GAA issues in the past with some of Australia’s selections.

“Any time I’ve played, they’ve been highly competitive. I know there was possibly one or two times they may have brought over teams that weren’t their strongest but again there’s issues down there as well in that this is their off season, they have a very, very challenging full season and a very challenging and long pre-season so you have to understand that.”

Earley will be busy in November, as he will have to leave Australia just before the second test in order to attend the Fenway Classic series in Boston, which will be played in the Super 11 hurling format, devised by the GPA in conjunction with the GAA. He pointed out that he had flagged this with Kernan when asked to serve as an international selector.

“I informed him straight away that I wouldn’t be available for the second test as it did conflict with the Super 11s in Boston. He still wanted me to be on board … and he spoke to Páraic Duffy and I spoke to Páraic Duffy as well, just to be sure before I accepted that they were satisfied with that.”

He said that he was aware that the Super 11s was a controversial concept, seen as elitist and not a valid Gaelic game.

“I can understand their scepticism, they might say it’s not hurling but we are confined to stadiums in the States. I mean we can bring hurling to Gaelic Park and other GAA venues, but we want to bring it to the wider audience out there.”

He added: “It was a success two years ago. We had 28,000 people coming into Fenway Park. This year, we are one month out and we are very close to 20,000 tickets already sold.”

“The way I see it and the GPA’s position is that a player can mark his retirement in any way that he sees fit. Whether we can financially support this – that’s something we can’t do.

“We may see more of these happening; the game is at the highest level it’s ever been at and the profile of players is the highest it’s ever been. I think we need to it down and develop some protocols, criteria or rules around this and I think that’s something I’ll be bringing up with the GAA.”

The head of the GPA, who was speaking at the launch of the association’s annual MBA scholarship partnership with DCU in the university’s School of Business, was asked would he like to see testimonials prohibited.

“I wouldn’t say that … but I’d like to see protocols introduced. Once they’re looked at, examined and agreed upon there’ll be a greater appreciation and acceptance. It’s not the first time testimonials have happened. We’ve seen them in the past – in my own county as well. We just need clarity and I’m open to ideas.”

He agreed that such protocols might include reflecting the collective context of the team as well as the individual concerned.

“That’s a fair comment but we also have to acknowledge that the profile of individual players is huge. They do give a lot in order to be successful so you have to look at all aspects of it.”

Cooper’s initiative has been held by Croke Park not to be in contravention of the rules but the GAA has made it clear that it doesn’t support the event.

Recipients of this year’s MBA scholarships are: Barry Moran (Mayo) and Conor Maginn (Down). Other masters scholarships awarded were to Cian Boland (Dublin), Cian Breheny (Sligo), Donal Breathnach (Waterford) and All-Ireland winning Dublin women’s footballer Leah Caffrey.

The strong we know will stay strong, and yet the introduction of three games at the quarter-final stage may stretch and perhaps even weaken the challengers. Smith, however, is all for giving it a go, especially as Roscommon look to build on the quarter-final replay defeat to Mayo this summer. 

“It’s a difficult one,” said Smith, one of the standout players in Roscommon’s Connacht final win over Galway this summer, only their second title since 2001.

 “For the likes of ourselves, we’d like to think we’ll be able to compete at that level, and it’s great to get more games against the top teams, but you mightn’t get those one-off shocks, like Tipperary beating Galway last year. The whole underdog thing will be thrown out the window. 

“On the flip side you will see the four best teams make the semi-final, but this summer, if we had beaten Mayo, we’d still have had a lot of work to make the semi-final. 

‘Stronger counties’

“For stronger counties like Dublin it definitely suits. Smaller counties like ourselves might struggle. But I’d like to see the provincial championship kept on, definitely.” 

Speaking at a promotion for the AIB-produced Behind The Gates, a four-part miniseries about Roscommon’s championship, Smith also outlined his remaining ambition for 2017. Two years ago he was one of the standby players for the International Rules series with Australia, but never got to wear the Irish jersey. He’s the only Roscommon player still part of the current training squad, and hopes to be part of the final 23-man panel to be named by Ireland manager Joe Kernan next Wednesday. 

“I’ve been up the last four weekends at Abbotstown, it’s going okay, but there are a lot of quality players involved, 40 to 45 lads. 

‘Big deal’

“It’s still a big deal, a big honour for a player from any county, and I think especially from Roscommon. And it was disappointing last time not to make the match day squad. My game probably does suit it, the fielding, the marks, but we’ll have to wait and see.” 

He also says the presence of a cameraman throughout the championship was hardly even noticed. “You’d be a bit wary for the first session, maybe, but after that they just become like another member of management. It wasn’t the reason we won the Connacht final, or the reason we lost the quarter-final replay. Kevin [McStay] was 100 per cent behind it, and it didn’t affect the players anyway. We weren’t giving away any secrets. It’s no different than what goes on in any dressing-room.”

For all the talk of championship novelty next year, the provincial football championship draws brought everyone back to earth. With the experimental All-Ireland quarter-finals round-robin format trialling for the next three years, the provinces provided plenty of déjà vu.

The Munster draw threw Clare the prospect of a fourth championship meeting with Kerry in what will be little more than two years – should they defeat Limerick, another pairing up for the third year running. If, as expected, Tipperary get past Waterford then they too will have a third successive encounter, with Cork.

Familiar draw

Connacht did much the same, bringing Galway and Mayo out of the bowl together also for what will be a sixth successive meeting in championship and a third in the early rounds. It adds up to a familiar draw for champions Roscommon who, in a rerun of 2017 and ‘16 will have to beat Leitrim, should they survive the rigours of a trip to New York.

Dublin’s attempt to stretch their new record of seven Leinster titles will begin with a quarter-final against the winners of Offaly and Wicklow, which promises a little novelty as the current All-Ireland champions haven’t played either in a long time. They are on the same side of the draw as Meath with last season’s finalists Kildare in with a good shout of emulating that achievement in the other half.

In Ulster the champions in four of the past five years, Tyrone and Monaghan, have been thrown together in the first round. Tyrone are in pursuit of a third successive title.

On the other side of the draw Down, having laboured through years of having to travel, get another home fixture. New selector Gearóid Adams will be up against his old team, Antrim as manager Eamonn Burns tries to return his team to the provincial final.

Despite the predictability the old system has its advocates. Speaking on Thursday, Sligo’s Cian Breheny had a simple reason for wanting the provincial championships to remain as they are.

“Yeah because that’s our chance of silverware. Connacht is a small province so it’s always realistic. Everyone can have a good game. Even Roscommon were big underdogs this year and you saw what they did to Galway.”

Down’s Conor Maginn, a veteran of the 2010 All-Ireland final, maybe unusually for an Ulster man, wasn’t as convinced.

“An Ulster championship is something that I’d love to win before the end of my career but to be honest I’d be open to seeing what other options are available and I’d be happy to hear about various alternatives.”

He was however looking forward to the new quarter-final format.

“It’s definitely I think a positive thing. It gives us as a county in our situation something to aim for and which we think is attainable, something we look forward to being a part of.”

Hurling championship

Hurling has also taken the plunge with the provincial championships in Munster and the expanded Leinster, now to take place on a round-robin basis for the next three year. The winners of the provincial finals, between the top two counties, will go straight to the All-Ireland semi-finals whereas runners-up will as now go to the quarter-finals.

Thursday saw the announcement of the fixture lists and most attention focused on who got to play what opposition at home. In Munster the 2017 provincial final will be revisited in the first round with Cork hosting Clare, but the defending champions will have to travel to Thurles again next year in the second round.

But both counties will have to travel to beaten All-Ireland finalists Waterford, although indications from the latter county this week have been that they will seek to play their home matches elsewhere due to capacity restrictions in Walsh Park.

Key matches in Leinster include this year’s finalists Wexford having to go to Nowlan Park to face Kilkenny, who they defeated in one of the highlights of the summer in Innovate Wexford Park last June but in a key fixture, All-Ireland and provincial champions Galway will have home advantage against Kilkenny.

Last season’s Leinster final pairing will be played out in Wexford, as the champions have been drawn away. Dublin, under the new management of Pat Gilroy, will have home matches against Kilkenny and Offaly but they must travel to Galway.

Despite these challenges new format has the approval of Dublin hurler Cian Boland.

“It’s definitely a better way to do it because last year, I think after our first match, we were waiting five weeks to play another game. Summer is the time you want to be playing as well so I think it’s a good change. If you have consistent games it helps. It’s tough to keep the motivation going and keep the tempo going when you have gaps of six weeks in the summer.”

2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

Munster

Quarter-finals: Clare play Limerick; Tipperary play Waterford

Semi-finals: Clare/Limerick play Kerry; Tipperary/Waterford play Cork

Connacht

Quarter-finals: Mayo v Galway; New York v Leitrim ; London v Sligo

Semi-finals: New York/Leitrim v Roscommon; Mayo/Galway v London/Sligo

Ulster

Preliminary round: Donegal v Cavan

Quarter-finals: Derry v Donegal/Cavan; Fermanagh v Armagh; Tyrone v Monaghan; Down v Antrim

Semi-finals: Down/Antrim v Derry/Donegal/Cavan; Fermanagh/Armagh v Tyrone/Monaghan

Leinster

First round: Laois v Wexford; Louth v Carlow; Offaly v Wicklow

Quarter-finals: Laois/Wexford v Westmeath; Louth/Carlow v Kildare; Offaly/Wicklow v Dublin; Longford v Meath

Semi-finals: Laois/Wexford/Westmeath v Louth/Carlow/Kildare; Offaly/Wicklow/Dublin v Longford/Meath

2018 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship

Munster round-robin

Round 1: Cork v Clare; Limerick v Tipperary

Round 2 : Tipperary v Cork; Clare v Waterford

Round 3: Waterford v Tipperary; Cork v Limerick

Round 4: Limerick v Waterford; Tipperary v Clare

Round 5: Clare v Limerick; Waterford v Cork

Leinster round-robin

Round 1: Dublin v Kilkenny; Offaly v Galway

Round 2 : Kilkenny v Offaly; Wexford v Dublin

Round 3 : Offaly v Wexford; Galway v Kilkenny

Round 4 : Dublin v Offaly; Wexford v Galway

Round 5: Kilkenny v Wexford; Galway v Dublin

Meyler - father of Irish football international David Meyler - has previously managed Wexford, Kerry and Carlow, and this season served as a senior selector alongside Kingston, while also managing the Cork under-21 hurling team.

The St Finbarr’s club man has also previously served as a selector with Cork in the early 2000s, and more recently guided the Kerry senior hurling team to the Christy Ring Cup in 2011. He also has extensive experience at club level, leading a number of teams to success in both Cork and Kerry.

“Our senior hurlers had a very successful season in 2017, and maintaining continuity and building on that good work is vital,” said Cork chairman Gerard Lane.

“John Meyler brings a wealth of experience to the role, has extensive knowledge of all the young players coming through, and has been part of the outgoing management team. John will now work on appointing his backroom team.We wish him every success in the role.”

A successful dual player at club level, winning an All-Ireland club football medal with St Finbarr’s along with a number of county titles in both codes, Meyler also played minor hurling with Wexford, and was later part of the Cork senior hurling panel that won the All-Ireland in 1986.

Denis Ring of Fermoy has also been appointed under-21 coach for a two-year term, following on from his success this year in guiding the Cork minor hurlers to a first Munster title since, 2008 and also reaching the All-Ireland final, where they lost to Galway.

All-Ireland Under-17 winning coach John Considine of the Sarsfields club will take on the role of minor coach for the next two years. Backroom teams will be announced when finalised.

“The appointments of John Meyler, Denis Ring and John Considine, should ensure that Cork hurling continues to build on the success of 2017 in a consistent and coherent fashion, and I have no doubt that further honours will be achieved in the very near future,” added Lane.

Somewhere along the way, they fell into conversation. Walsh had recently started a role with the Giants’ newly-formed women’s team ahead of the inaugural season of the women’s AFL and their first squad had been put together only a fortnight or so earlier. Out of mischief more than anything, he teased her that they could always do with a handy full-forward should her feet ever got itchy. Staunton laughed it off but kept asking questions about the new league all the same.

Spin the tape on nine months and Walsh was in the office of Giants coaching director Alan McConnell. Their first season had been a washout. They lost their first game by 36 points and never moved off the bottom of the eight-team league for the rest of the competition. They scored the fewest points of all the teams and conceded the most. Looking back on the season, a key weakness had been a lack of leadership and experience. Walsh tossed a coin into the fountain to see what sort of splash it would make.

“I said to him, ‘Look, if you need a leadership figure, there’s a girl in Ireland that may be interested in coming over.’ I hadn’t said anything to her at this stage and hadn’t been in touch with her at all. This was just there in August and it had been maybe the previous November since I’d been talking to her.

“But once the idea was out there, we said we’d try it. And everything gathered momentum from there. All it took was a couple of phonecalls. Alan’s son lives in London and he went over and had a kick with Cora in September or so and that was it really.

“It’s a massive punt from our point of view. I know Cora from a Gaelic games point of view and obviously she’s a big star back home. But she’s coming here as an unknown. The average age here is really very young – you’re talking 21, 22. She’s been involved with Mayo since she was 13. She has leadership skills that we think will be a huge addition.”

Connacht final

And so it came to pass that in the early hours of Wednesday morning Irish time, Cora Staunton was picked 45th out of 46 in the 2018 AFLW draft. She will spend the week in Sydney and be back in Ireland over the weekend. Her plans are to play out the remainder of the club season with Carnacon – they have a Connacht final to play on Sunday week against Leitrim champions Kiltubrid – and head back to Sydney when she’s done.

“Hopefully she goes all the way to the All-Ireland final with that,” says Walsh. “We start back at the end of November and depending on how the club stuff goes with Cora, she will probably miss the first one or two weeks with us. That’s the agreement we have in place. You don’t want to take her away from anything either. And for her, it’s a mental break as well. Her brother is here and they’ve just had a new baby. He lives in Randwick, which is just down the road from where Cora will be staying.

“It’s an ideal opportunity for her, she’s coming towards the latter part of her career and it’s a four-month contract. It’s not like she’s doing a Pearse Hanley and leaving the country for six or seven years. She doesn’t really miss any football at home and that was a big thing for her. She doesn’t want to miss anything for the club of for Mayo. She’ll play her last game at the end of March. She’ll be here for four months, December to March. It’ll be a great experience, she’ll earn a bit of money and that will be that.”

‘A bit of money’ is about the height of it. A small group of top earners in the AFLW are on contracts worth $27,000 – around €18,000. Staunton won’t be on anything like that. Contracts are tiered, from €6,000 in tier three to €12,000 in tier one. Having kicked a sherrin for the first time in her 34 years only on Tuesday, Staunton will have to start at the lower end of the market.

Learning the game will be her first job. Kicking, obviously. But getting used to the right sort of movement is all new and getting rid of the ball in the tackle will take a while to work out as well. The work starts now.

“We spoke about it at length yesterday,” says Walsh. “We took her for a bit of a runaround on the oval. I think anything from 30 metres out, Cora will be fine with. I would imagine we’ll play her mostly close to goal and she’ll be well fit for that. Where she will have to gain the most ground over the coming months is what to do when she drifts out to around the centre-half forward or midfield area and she has to execute a kick-pass. That’s where the difficulty might come in. But Cora being Cora, you wouldn’t rule anything out.

Let’s relax

“I could even see her yesterday, we had to pull her back in terms of what she wanted to do. She got off a flight here at seven o’clock in the morning and she was on the field in the heat of the sun at midday looking to kick the ball around. It was 34 degrees and we had to go to her and say, ‘Cora, let’s relax here a little bit.’

“It will happen in time. It’s not going to be perfect, it’s not going to be pretty. You go back to Pearse Hanley and Tadhg Kennelly – it took them three to five years to perfect their kicking. We’ve got 12 weeks to do that with Cora.

“We want her to drive training standards. From a skill point of view, she won’t be the best yet. But from a leadership point of view, driving standards and communication, she has a career behind here whereas most of the other players are still in their early 20s and need to be guided on it. She has a presence, she carries herself really well and that’s what we’re bringing over.”

With Staunton going and Mayo teammate Sarah Rowe openly considering following her over, the prospect of more women’s football players making the jump over the coming years is suddenly on LGFA’s radar. Walsh insists, however, that this is a one-off as far as he is concerned. A confluence of events as much as anything.

Randomly

“If anyone is going, ‘Oh, this is going to be rampant, the AFL are going to come and take all our players...’ I don’t think that’s going to be the case. I can’t see it, to be honest. This is a unique situation, really. It all came together very randomly.

“It came about because of where the Giants are right now in terms of a lack of experienced players and the fact that I’m working here and a joke I made in Shanghai last year. That’s how it happened. There’s no big recruitment drive or anything. It’s not a case of going to Ireland and hand-picking the best talent or anything like that. This happened with two phonecalls.”

She won’t be the first Irish player in the AFLW – Cavan woman Laura Corrigan-Duryea played for Melbourne last season and will go again in 2018. But she’s been living in Australia for a decade, a back-packer who never came home. Staunton is the first to move specifically to be a player.

Still pushing boundaries, even as the last sands of her career drop through the glass.

It has been the custom in most of the recent Octobers to decry the implausibly early staging of these draws but with the most radical championships in the history of the association looming in 2018, it already feels like a summer that needs a bit of shape put on it. That process starts tonight, live from Studio 5 in RTÉ.

As housekeeping exercises go, there is fair amount to get through. That said, in hurling there actually won’t be a draw at all due to the fact that both the Munster and Leinster championships will be played off in a league format for at least the next three seasons.

The CCCC will meet on Thursday afternoon to organise who plays whom in what order and that schedule will be released during the show. There will be five rounds of fixtures with two games in each round and one team in each province will have a bye each week.

Because the CCCC hasn’t decided yet on how the games will be scheduled, no dates will be released during the show. Everyone is flying blind to a certain extent and no decision has been taken yet on whether to play the games at the same time or to stagger them over Saturdays and Sundays. There will be consultations with TV companies before the dates are decided upon.

On the surface, the football draw will look much the same as it has in recent years, albeit with a few small but significant changes.

In Connacht, the New York fixture has been officially known as the preliminary round for the past two seasons but now it reverts to being one of three quarter-finals. New York v Leitrim will be one, London v Sligo will be another and the third will be an open draw between Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. There will also be an open draw for the semi-finals.

In Munster, this year’s finalists Kerry and Cork go straight into the semi-finals but they can still be drawn together at that stage. They will go into the pot with the two winners of the quarter-finals and any of the four teams can be drawn to face each other. Cork and Kerry last met in a Munster semi-final in 2012.

The Ulster and Leinster championships remain in the same format as before.

For the first time since 2013, the All-Ireland qualifiers will not be split into A and B sides. Initially a measure designed to create more room in the calendar for club matches, it was done away with in among the raft of broader club-friendly changes at the 2017 Congress.

Teams will go into the qualifiers by the same order – teams losing before provincial semi-finals into Round One, etc – but it will be an open draw for each of the four rounds.

For the first time, in the opening three rounds of the qualifiers home advantage will be given to Division Three and Four teams that are drawn against teams from Division One and Two. Otherwise, the games will be hosted by turns in the usual a home and away basis by the various counties.

The qualifiers will feed into the Super Eights – or, as the GAA would prefer them to be called, the quarter-final group stage. The usual annual rotation of which provinces are destined to meet each other in the semi-finals has been kept in place, meaning Group One will be made up of the Munster and Connacht champions, along with the Ulster and Leinster runners-up or the respective teams who beat them in Round Four of the qualifiers.

Group Two, therefore, will be made up of the Ulster and Leinster champions, along with the Connacht and Munster runners-up or the teams who beat them in round four of the qualifiers. There will be two points for a win, one point for a draw. The winners of Group One will play the runners-up from Group Two in the semi-final, and vice-versa.

The abolition of replays will introduce the championship’s most dramatic quirk – the possibility of a free-taking competition to decide matches where the teams can’t be separated, no matter how hard they try (*see panel for details).

This will only happen in the rarest of circumstances, whereby a qualifier game is level after 70 minutes, still level after another two periods of 10 minutes each and then still level after two periods of five minutes each. If anyone has the energy left in their bodies at the point to be still standing, it will come down to a free-taking shoot-out from the 45 in football and the 65 in hurling. We might not get to see it in 2018 but it will be some spectacle when we do.

The draw is live on RTÉ2 from 8.30, presented by Joanne Cantwell, Clare McNamara and Marty Morrissey. A host of players and pundits will be on hand to pore over the outcomes.

*If teams are level after 100 minutes of play, a free-taking competition will be required to separate them. The frees will be taken from the 45-metre line in football and the 65 in hurling.

Each team nominates five players to take them and as long as they have played some part in the game, they don’t have to have been on the pitch at the end. The only exceptions to this are players who have been red-carded or black-carded during the game. They are ruled out of taking part.

Only the five players who are nominated can take the frees. If the teams are level after five frees each, it goes back to the first player on each list and the competition goes into sudden death. This is to avoid the farcical situation that happened in rugby’s Heineken Cup semi-final in 2009 whereby Leicester flanker Martyn Williams ended up having to take a sudden death penalty. And unlike soccer which has experimented in the recent past with the AB-BA format, the GAA will stick to the more recognisable AB-AB format.

In November 2015, having lost that year’s All-Ireland hurling final to Kilkenny, Coen travelled with the Galway team to play Dublin at the AIG Classic at the famed baseball grounds.

Although essentially an exhibition 11-aside game, Galway fought exceptionally hard (a few punches included) to beat Dublin, and that, says Coen, counted for more than just the end result. 

At the time the Galway team were without a manager, a vote of no confidence in Anthony Cunningham had been announced just a few weeks before. After a cold stand-off Cunningham eventually stepped aside, and was later replaced by Micheál Donoghue. The new manager’s regime this year helped end a 29-year wait in Galway hurling history. 

Coen says he doesn’t harbour any great sense of vindication in the aftermath of that episode, even after Galway beat Waterford in this year’s final. But it did provide some further feeling of unity within the team, and an extra sense of purpose in where they went from there. 

“It’s not as if we’re looking back saying it was a fantastic decision, or anything like that,” says Coen. “It was something nobody wanted to go through. 

“I would have worked with Anthony [Cunningham] since under-21, and he brought us to the All-Ireland and we won it in 2011 against Dublin. He’s given a lot to Galway hurling, a fantastic player as well, so I’d hope there’s no hard feeling. 

“But yeah, it brought us together as a group, it was one-in all-in and we rallied together, obviously. Again nobody really wanted to go through it. But the team felt it was the right thing to do, and I do think that trip to Boston helped bring the team closer together. We came back stronger for sure.” 

Coen will make the same trip next month, Galway again playing Dublin, with Clare playing Tipperary, the winners of meeting in the final. In the meantime the revamped hurling championship structure means there are no draws necessary for 2018, as both the Leinster and Munster championship are played off of a round-robin basis, with five-team groups, each having a guaranteed two home and two away games. 

This will also mean Galway get to play home games at Pearse Stadium for the first time since joining the Leinster championship, and Coen is naturally excited at that prospect – particularly as they look to defend their Leinster title.

Four games 

“With the changes, we’ve four games now, two in Galway, and I know Micheál and the lads are putting pen to paper and putting their own plan together for the year. Everything has to be changed, the early start, and the need for more players as well.” 

Those five-team groups, due to be played off over five successive weekends (one team having a bye each weekend, with two of the four games guaranteed at home venues) are down to start on Sunday May 13th, through to Sunday June 10th. That will also necessitate an earlier start to the league, although Coen rejects the suggestion all this may somehow water down the league status as a whole. 

“I don’t think so,” says Coen, Galway still playing out of 1B next year despite being league champions!

“We won the league this year and really valued it in terms of preparation for the championship. I know we’re in 1B, but we would have aspirations to get into the quarter-finals, and lay down a marker again, not conceding an inch. 

“In some ways, we were very disappointed when we lost to Wexford, felt we put in a good performance for long periods of it, but since then we’ve won every game, after a shaky enough start against Waterford, rallied at the end. So it can be an advantage in trying out new players, and with the minors that won this year, and three years ago, it will be interesting to see who gets the chance. 

“This year we got over the line, it’s hard to win one, never mind two. There’s a serious effort required, hopefully we can replicate what we did this year. The smallest thing could change your season very quickly, the bounce of a ball.” 

And with that he gives an example, Coen being the player to hand-pass the ball to Joe Canning seconds before his sensational winning point in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Tipperary.

“Had Joe not been behind me, I could have taken a shot in anger myself, and it might not have been the right call. These things happen in hurling, sometimes you get the rub of the green and sometimes you don’t.”

The GAA’s selection will take on Scotland in the annual international clash in Bught Park in Inverness.

The Ireland squad is jointly managed by Tipperary All-Ireland minor winning manager Willie Maher and Kilkenny’s Conor Phelan. The 20-man panel draws players from 12 different counties and is captained by Westmeath’s Tommy Doyle, who was one of the Lake County’s key performers this season.

The match will be preceded by an Under-21 international between the two countries. That selection is managed by Willie Cleary and Gavin Keary and is captained by Limerick’s Sean Finn and includes Waterford senior players Shane Bennett and Patrick Curran in its ranks.

Both matches next Saturday will be shown live by TG4. The Under 21 game throws in at 11.50am, with the senior match at 2pm.

Hurling/Shinty International Tour 2017 Senior Panel: Enda Rowland (Laois), James Barry (Tipperary), Chris Bonus (Kildare), Lee Chin (Wexford), Paul Coady (Carlow), Ben Conroy (Laois), Alan Cox (Westmeath), James Doyle (Carlow), Tommy Doyle (Westmeath), Alan Grant (Derry), Damien Healy (Meath), Ross King (Laois), Conor Lehane (Cork), John McGrath (Tipperary), John McManus (Down), Mark Moloney (Kildare), Andy O’Brien (Wicklow), James O’Connor (Kerry), David Reidy (Kildare), Denis Stapleton (Kildare).

She has been drafted with pick 46 and will became the second Irish player involved in the Australian Rules women’s league. The other is Cavan native Laura Corrigan who plays for Melbourne (although unlike Staunton she joined her franchise as a “free pick” rather than through the official draft, after living in Australia for nine years).

The likes of Kerry’s Tadhg Kennelly, the late Jim Stynes or more recently Martin Clarke or Zach Tuohy have enjoyed extremely successful transitions from the men’s game, and Staunton will hope that her skillset and physical strength will allow for another smooth crossover.

“It will be a huge challenge but us Irish love a challenge,” Staunton told the Herald Sun in Australia.

“I’ve never played AFL before and had my first practice at it with Alan and Nick this morning.

“Getting used to the ball will be the biggest thing, along with the rules of the game.”

GWS Giants’ men’s assistant coach is former Cavan footballer Nicholas Walsh, and she initially discussed changing codes with him at the 2016 FEXCO Asian Gaelic Games in Shanghai.

The 35 year-old Mayo fullforward flew out to Australia 48 hours ago to audition in front of Walsh and head coach Alan McConnell.

“Cora Staunton is probably the surprise package of the selections in the draft,” McConnell told the club’s website.

“Cora comes from an elite background in football in Ireland. She recently played in the All Ireland final at Croke Park in front of 46,000 people on the back end of that competition, unfortunately losing. She’s a goalkicking forward so we’re looking for her to bring some goalkicking power to our team as a deep forward.”

Mayo lost this year’s All-Ireland final to Dublin, their first appearance in the decider since 2007, coming 14 years after Staunton won the competition in 2003.

The 10 time All Star scored 0-7 in that final, two points under her scoring average for the season, and bringing her total scoring to 59-483 in her 67 championship games since her debut in 1996.

Staunton also has experience winning an FAI Women’s Cup winner’s medal with the Mayo Ladies League representative soccer team, and has played club rugby union in the Connacht Women’s League.

She flies home again on Saturday to play club championship with her club Carnacon. On Friday last they beat Roscommon champions Kilbride to reach the Connacht club final.

“I think if Dublin were getting the best out of themselves, in the last performance of the year, then we’d be in semi-finals and finals more regularly than we have been,” he says. “1938 is a long time ago.” 

That, lest anyone forget, being the year Dublin last won an All-Ireland senior hurling title.

Gilroy doesn’t openly declare that his outright ambition. But after being ratified last week to take charge of the Dublin hurlers for the next three years, he’s clearly intent on bringing the same enthusiasm and commitment which in 2011 saw him guide Dublin to their first All-Ireland football title in 16 years – having been a substitute himself on that preceding 1995 team. 

Gilroy has no inhibition about accepting the role despite his limited hurling experience.

“A lot of people would argue that I didn’t play football at a top level either,” he quips with perfect self-deprecation. 

That breakthrough win for the Dublin footballers in 2011 has frequently been attributed to the new culture which Gilroy cultivated in the team – yet he insists the players created it themselves – and that there’s no reason the hurlers can’t do the same. 

“There was a dynamic that was created by individuals coming into that squad, maybe because of certain attitudes we were looking for.  

“But they kind of created their own culture, and they still create their own culture. Yeah, you can influence it – but it’s there. I mean, there’s so many of them and there’s so few of you. You have them for a little bit of time but even when they’re in the dressing-room on their own, when they’re changing and all that, the culture is being created there.  

“I suppose having certain types of people, certain characters, that has a big influence on culture. But this team will have a different culture to the football team, and will have a different culture to this current football team. Things just adapt based on the people that are in the group.” 

There were other questions Gilroy asked himself: would he have the time to commit? What exactly did he have to offer? 

Great honour

“It’s always a great honour to be asked to do anything, either in your own club or your own county. I’ve got so much from both, that giving back, it’s very hard to say no to things when you’re asked. 

“Family was the biggest consideration. Obviously, you have to be sure in your own mind that you’re going to add something to do. Otherwise you shouldn’t be doing it. 

“The thing for Dublin is to try and become a top four team consistently. We’ve been in and out of that the last 10 years. There is so much hurling happening in the city that we really should be pushing to be up there on a more consistent basis.

“There are 50 hurlers in Dublin when you’re watching the club championship who are technically very competent. It’s about bringing that on to a different level for sure. But a lot of it is their mindset, their physical conditioning, their diets – all the package.” 

Gilroy is “very close” to confirming his backroom team, which he’ll bring before the Dublin County Board before the end of the week, although it’s still unclear if that will include former Galway manager Anthony as team coach. 

Speaking at the launch of the AIG Fenway Hurling Classic and Irish Festival, to be played in Boston on November 19th, Gilroy also says the dual situation in Dublin shouldn’t be an issue; names like Diarmuid Connolly, Con O’Callaghan, Cormac Costello and Ciarán Kilkenny have been floating around, all players known for their hurling skills. 

“Well, they were,” says Gilroy, putting a gentle accent on the ‘were’. I mean if you watch the club championship, and you see guys like that playing, they’re struggling playing hurling. Like, they don’t stand out necessarily.  

“There might be guys at the end of his panel that he [Jim] is looking to move on and they might be interested in wanting to play hurling. But I only want guys who really, really want to play for Dublin hurling, and they can come from anywhere as far as I’m concerned.”

 Gilroy added that he has no intention to tread on Jim Gavin’s preserve by enticing in some dual players.

“I have a very good relationship with Jim Gavin, a very good relationship with football, I don’t intend to mess up football by doing something like trying to negotiate guys into doing something that maybe they don’t even want to do.”

 As regards former Dublin hurling players who have left the panel in recent times, however, the door is open.

“For me, it’s very simple, if a guy is playing for his club and he’s playing well, it’s a blank sheet of paper for me. I don’t know the history.”

And Gilroy is not surprised at Dublin football’s success under his successor.

“I would have been very surprised if they didn’t have that success, would have been very confident, because I knew Jim, knew what he would do with them, knew what they were like.”  

“That stuff doesn’t help when you are trying to prepare for your season and you have this kind of nonsense going on in the background, and people driving on these rumours,” says Cahill. 

“From that point of view it was a tough year, from a county point of view, and from a panel point of view. That is never going to stand to any team. As much as you put it to the back of your head, some of it could creep in. It doesn’t help that the whole thing gets drummed up then.” 

Similar rumours circulated after Tipperary’s All-Ireland win in 2010, when they again fell short of winning back-to-back titles in 2011.

“I know. Whatever it is about Tipperary, rumours seem to fly, and this and that goes on. Sure all we can do is focus on our own set-up and that’s something we try to do. Sure that’s all we can do for the coming year, try and keep it low-key as possible.” 

Cahill is hopeful Barrett will make his return to the panel for the new season. An All Star defender alongside Cahill on Tipperary’s 2016 All-Ireland-winning team, he wasn’t invited back onto the panel by manager Michael Ryan, before Tipperary later made their championship exit to Galway by a single point in the All-Ireland semi-final. 

“Cathal is probably one of the best corner backs in the country and you always want to see your best hurlers playing,” says Cahill.

“I have no doubt that he will get the chance again and sure it’s up to Cathal then to do whatever he does with the chance. It would be great to see one of our top players back playing.” 

Cahill, who earlier this month won a fourth successive Tipperary hurling title with Thurles Sarsfields – his seventh in all – is now turning his attention to the Munster club championship, the team having fall short of their own expectations in recent years. 

Ground it out

“We’re lucky we’re at a stage where we’ve had a group of players together that just happen to be quite good. On top of that there are top guys involved with us. It stands to you when you get into those dogfights. The three games we played before this year’s final were probably the toughest games we have played, probably should have been beaten by Kilruane but we ground it out. Put it down to experience. 

“Munster hasn’t been good to us over the last couple of years. We’re just finding it hard to get through those games, Ballyea last year they really just caught us at the finish. It just shows they went on to win Munster and on to the All-Ireland final. 

“We took it hard [last year], so we’re just happy to get back and have a chance at it again. It’s hard to take for a couple of months. A couple of months down the road, you start training, you start winning a couple of games and you get that feeling again, all you want to do is push on. Number one was winning the county, extremely happy with that. Four in a row – we’ve haven’t done that for years. Now we’re taking it one step at a time. We can’t take our eye off the ball.” 

Cahill also gives his approval to the new 2018 hurling championship format, which will see both the Munster and Leinster hurling championship played on a round-robin basis, ensuring at least four games for each county, two at home. 

“I suppose from a panel point of view, just talking to someone about it the other day, you are going to really need a strong panel when it comes down to these games now because games are going to be coming fast and furious. 

“If you get one injury it could rule you out for the rest of your campaign. It’s going to be fast and furious but I suppose there will be less training and more games which is ideally what players want to see. Whatever teams comes through it injury-free will really have the upper hand from that point of view. But I suppose it’s all trial and error.”

Speaking for the first time since his appointment last week, Gilroy has outlined his immediate ambitions and it’s clear he intends on bringing the same enthusiasm and commitment which in 2011 saw him guide Dublin to their first All-Ireland football title in 16 years.

“A lot of people would argue that I didn’t play football at a top level either,” said Gilroy, who unexpectedly switches codes after stepping down from the Dublin football job in 2012. “I was on the pitch the odd time, so I wouldn’t worry about that.

“And there’s not an awful lot of technical stuff that we’re going to be adding to these guys. If you look at them playing technically, they are all very, very capable. There are 50 hurlers in Dublin when you’re watching the club championship who are technically very competent. It’s about bringing that on to a different level for sure. But a lot of it is their mindset, their physical conditioning, their diets - all the package.

“If you’re watching the game as well, if I had a choice, and there was a hurling match on and a football match on, I might have watched the hurling match for the excitement of it. So it’s not something I would be overly concerned about.

“And I would have played hurling and football for Vincent’s, all the way up to minor. Then I went straight senior with hurling first. And I played two games then with the senior hurling team. Then I got on then to the Dublin under-21 football panel - and I never played hurling again, from when I was 19. I would have had to put so much effort in to try and stay in a county set-up that I just didn’t have any time for hurling. I would have enjoyed them equally on the way up.”

Speaking at the launch of the AIG Hurling Classic, to be played in Boston next month, Gilroy also indicated that he had lined up a backroom team, to go before the Dublin county board later this week for ratification: former Galway hurler manager Anthony Cunningham had been mooted as his team coach but this is still unconfirmed.

“I have to meet a couple of people this evening to finalise things. I’m going to present a plan to the county board by the weekend. It’s been very quick to try and get everything into place but I think I’m there. As long as they’re happy then. By the weekend then I think we should be able to tell people who we have. If they’re not happy with things, then we’ll have to change it. It’s only a week now. It’s been busy to put that whole structure in place. But we’re nearly there.”

What is certain is that Gilroy intends on giving the hurling position the same level of attention as he did Dublin football, having thought long and hard about taking over when approached by the county board in recent weeks.

“Of course you would, because you needed to make sure that you were, in your own head at least, going to make a contribution. It’s something that you have to consider.

“Family was the biggest consideration. Obviously, you have to be sure in your own mind that you’re going to add something to do. Otherwise you shouldn’t be doing it.”

“I wouldn’t think it’s a brave move. It’s always a great honour to be asked to do anything, either in your own club or your own county. I’ve got so much from both that giving back, it’s very hard to say no to things when you’re asked. I would consider myself to be a GAA man so whether it’s football, hurling, camogie, ladies football, I’m interested in them all. For me, it’s a great challenge.

“The thing for Dublin is to try and become a top four team consistently. We’ve been in and out of that the last 10 years. There is so much hurling happening in the city that we really should be pushing to be up there on a more consistent basis.”

Kilcar 0-7 Naomh Conaill 0-4

Kilcar were the winners but football was the loser in MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey as these two teams served up a stinker of a county final.

Kilcar bridged a 24-year gap but as a spectacle this was poor value for the 6,930 crowd. The sides shared two points between them in the second half.

Kilcar won because they had the better forwards. Captain Patrick McBrearty was the man of the match in the first half, firing over half of the Kilcar total of 0-6, while Ryan McHugh hit the point of the game in the second half.

Naomh Conaill, who finished with 13 after losing Dermot Molloy (2nd yellow) and Eoghan McGettigan (straight red) in the final minutes, had plenty of possession in the second half but couldn’t find the target, hitting five wides.

But it was difficult for forwards as both sides employed 15 behind the ball and much of the game was spent passing over and back around the middle third of the field.

Kilcar were the better team overall and dominated possession in the opening half, and should have been further ahead at the break.

As a final, this game will not live long in the memory, but Kilcar will not worry about that. They were raging favourites last year but were undone by Michael Murphy and Glenswilly. This time around they were prepared to win ugly. They will now meet Scotstown in the Ulster Club Championship in two weeks’ time.

Kilcar: Eamonn McGinley; Barry McGinley, Conor McShane, Pauric Carr; Ryan McHugh (0-01), Michael Hegarty (0-01), Barry Shovlin; Ciaran McGinley, Mark McHugh (0-01); Eoin McHugh, Conor Doherty (0-01), Matthew McClean; Stephen McBrearty, Patrick McBrearty (0-03), Andrew McClean. Subs: Mark Sweeney for A McClean 49; Stephen Shovlin for C Doherty 57.

Naomh Conaill: Stephen McGrath; Kevin McGettigan, AJ Gallagher, Jason Campbell; Ultan Doherty, Anthony Thompson, Eoin Waide; Leo McLoone, Ciaran Thompson (0-01); Marty Boyle, Dermot Molloy (0-02), Ethan O’Donnell; Brendan McDyer, Eoghan McGettigan, Eunan Doherty (0-01). Subs: Aaron Thompson for K McGettigan 15; John O’Malley for U Doherty 44; Johnny McLoone for E Doherty 48; Kieran Gallagher for J Campbell 53; Leon Thompson for M Boyle 57.

Referee: Enda McFeely (Convoy).

Tyrone club SFC final

Omagh 0-10 Errigal Ciaran 0-8

Omagh shut the door on Errigal Ciaran in a frantic finish at Healy Park as they held out for a ninth Tyrone SFC title and a second in four seasons.

Peter Harte’s missed penalty came back to haunt his side as they fell just short in a tense decider.

Harte nudged Errigal ahead with a score inside the opening minute, but that was to prove their one and only score of the first half.

Omagh eased a head with scores from Connor O’Donnell, Conan Grugan and Ronan O’Neill, but O’Neill was spared the cost of conceding a penalty when he impeded Mark Kavanagh in the 22nd minute.

Peter Harte, normally lethal from the spot, stepped up, but sent his kick crashing against the butt of a post, and a golden opportunity was lost.

Omagh pressed for the remainder of the half, and while they could only manage one score, a Grugan free, they were gradually taking control, with Conor Meyler and Barry Tierney raiding from deep, comfortable at 0-4 to 0-1 at the break.

O’Neill, Grugan and O’Donnell found the range to keep Errigal at arms length, and Harte, along with sub Peter Og McCartan, were left to carry the fight to the home side, but they went a man down following the second booking of Eoin Quinn, and were unable to recover after Omagh went four clear in the closing stages,

Omagh: N McGinn; G Murray, H Gallagher, S Mullan; C McLaughlin, J McMahon (0-1), B Tierney; C Clarke, M Gallagher; T Gallagher, C Grugan (0-3), R O’Neill (0-3); C O’Neill, C O’Donnell (0-3), C Meyler. Subs: A Grugan for T Gallagher 40, Justin McMahon for Murray 60, J McAnulla for Clarke 62.

Errigal Ciaran: R McAnenly; N Kelly, A McCrory, C Quinn; M Kavanagh, M McRory, C McRory; B McDonnell, E Kelly, P Harte (0-5), E Quinn, R McRory, D Harte, P McGirr. Subs: P Og McCartan (0-1) for E Kelly 17, S McRory for McGirr HT, D Canavan (0-1) for R McRory HT, D McDermott for M McRory HT, R Lynch 0-1 for D Harte 52, P McAnenly for Kavanagh 55.

Referee: S Dorrity (Coalisland).

Antrim club SFC final

Lámh Dhearg (Hannahstown) 0-15 St Johns (Belfast) 0-13

Lámh Dhearg ended a 25-year wait for an Antrim senior football championship title with a nail-biting two-point win over St Johns at Glenavy.

No more than two points separated the sides throughout the 60 minutes during which they were level eight times. The sides were tied at 0-5 each on 24 minutes but with five scores in as many minutes, Lámh Dhearg took a 0-8 to 0-7 lead into the half-time break.

A replay looked on the cards with the score at 0-13 apiece on 61 minutes but Paddy Cunningham lofted over to give Lámh Dhearg the lead.

A number of off the ball scuffles ensured 10 minutes of injury time and three late red cards to Lamh Dhearg’s Terry Óg McCrudden and St Johns’ Adrian Oliver and Pádraig Nugent. St Johns pushed hard for an equaliser but Declan Lynch added on an insurance point for the Hannahstown men.

St John’s: P Nugent; A Douglas, A Oliver, M Dudley; C Garland, M Bradley (0-1), P Donnelly; J Hannigan (0-4), R McNulty (0-1); P McBride (0-5), Conor Johnston (0-1), M Fitzpatrick (0-1); Ciaran Johnston, P McCallin, L Peden. Subs: C McEvoy for L Peden (ht), S Tierney for Ciaran Johnston 50, R Hannigan for P Donnelly 55, C McGlade 59, A Press for J Hannigan 62.

Lámh Dhearg: J Finucane; P Mervyn (0-1), A McAufield, M McGarry; D Lynch (0-1), M Herron, B McComb (0-1); P Fitzsimons, D Nugent; E McKeown, C Flaherty (0-1), C Murray (0-1); P Cunningham (0-8, 5f), R Murray (0-1), K Quinn (0-1). Subs: B Rice for E McKeown 50, G Slane for B Rice 55, T Óg McCrudden for B McComb, P Larkin for P Mervyn 62, E McKeown for R Murray 67.

Referee: E McAuley (Cargin).

Armagh club SFC final

Harps 2-9 Maghery 0-11

Harps staged a dramatic second-half comeback to lift their first Armagh senior football title since 1991 when they overcame holders Maghery in front of 7,061 captivated fans at the Athletic Grounds.

They may have played second fiddle to their lough shore opponents in the first-half but Harps were reinvigorated in the second period.

Maghery enjoyed a 0-5 to 0-2 lead at the interval but that was as good as it was to get for them.

In the opening five minutes of the second half Maghery pounced for two superb goals from Ryan McShane and man of the match Ultan Lennon and from then on Maghery were left floundering in their slipstream.

Maghery responded briefly with a brace of points from Aidan Forker but from the 39th minute until the finish Harps hit seven points, including three from Lennon, against two for Maghery.

It was a dramatic climax to a captivating spectacle as Harps majestically wrote a new chapter in their history.

Lennon perhaps best encapsulated Harps’ ecstacy when he declared: “We got our act together at half-time and we never looked back. Every man played his part and we hope to move on from this and give the Ulster club series a good rattle”

Maghery: J Montgomery; K Nugent, O Lappin, C Higgins; B Haveron, S Cusack, D Lavery; J Lavery (0-1), B Crealey; S Tennyson, C Mackle (0-1), R Lappin (0-1); B Fox (0-1), Stefan Forker (0-3), A Forker (0-3). Subs: P Forker for Tennyson 41, G Campbell for C Higgins 43, Seamus Forker (0-1) for Fox 50, N Forker for Mackle 55.

Harps: P Morrison; S Farry, K Loughran, C Stevenson; R McGrath, D McKenna, M McConville; J Loughran, C White (0-1); R McShane (1-1), J McElroy (0-1), L Oliver; C Vernon, U Lennon (1-5), S McCoy. Subs: T O’Kane for McGrath 33, C Coulter for McCoy 51, C Murphy 0-1 for White (9, C Forker for Fox 63, P Kelly for Oliver 63.

Referee: Kevin Faloon.

Monaghan club SFC final

Scotstown 2-17 Magheracloone 0-13

Reigning champions Scotstown picked up their 18th senior football championship title in all and completed another three in a row in the process, when they proved that much more adept at taking their chances in this fairly low-key final that was played in good conditions in Clones. Goals win championships and two goals played a vital part in Scotstown’s victory, the first a brilliant solo goal by Darren Hughes after just five minutes putting the champions in the lead for the first time and their second goal by Conor McCarthy midway through the second half to put Scotstown in an almost unassailable position.

Scotstown led at half-time by 1-9 to 0-6 and while Magheracloone never gave up the ghost they were always facing superior odds and the goal they needed never came thanks mostly to the excellent display by Scotstown keeper Rory Beggan, who also kicked three points from placed balls for good measure. Conor McCarthy finished top scorer with 1-8 and in contrast Magheracloone had no one to match that level of contribution as the blues ran out deserving winners and now go on to play the Donegal champions, Kilcar, in the Ulster club championship.

Scotstown: R Beggan (0-3), F McPhillips, W Carroll, S Mohan, D Morgan, D McArdle (0-1), E Caulfield, F Caulfield, J Turley, J Hamill (0-1), S Carey (0-1), D McCrudden (0-1), O Heaphey (0-1), D Hughes (1-1), C McCarthy (1-8). Subs: K Hughes for F Caulfield, R McKenna for J Hamill, M McCarville for D McCrudden, P Keenan for D McArdle, D McCague for J Turley, K McMeel for W Carroll.

Magheracloone: D Kirk, P McArdle, P Ward, P McMahon, M Jones, J Ward (0-1), J McMahon, G Doogan (0-2), J Kieran (0-1), P Kirk, M Metzger (0-3), B Kieran, P Finnegan, A Kieran (0-1), T Freeman (0-5). Subs: J Lambe for M Jones, A McCahey for P Finnegan, P Tuite for B Kieran.

Referee: X Coyle (Tyholland).

Na Piarsaigh 1-22 Kilmallock 2-14

The anticipated close final that everybody expected failed to materialise at the Gaelic Grounds as Na Piarsaigh romped to a comfortable win.

The final scoreline flattered Kilmallock, who scored two late goals by Jake and Graeme Mulcahy which put a decent gloss on the scoreboard.

Na Piarsaigh won the title for a fourth time and following their three previous wins they went on to be Munster champions. They will have a home game against Blackrock on November 5th.

Kilmallock disappointed, and six first half wides compared to only one by Na Piarsaigh proved costly.

Na Piarsaigh led by 0-14 to 0-7 at halftime with five of their points coming from frees by Shane Dowling, who had to retire injured after 42 minutes.

Adrian Breen was superb for the winners and he scored six points from play.

Na Piarsaigh: P Kennedy; J Boylan, M Casey, N Buckley; T Grimes, 0-1 C King, A Dempsey 0-1; S Dowling 0-5 (5f), W O’Donoughue; A Breen 0-6, D Breen 0-1, D Dempsey 1-2; R Lynch 0-2 (1f), K Downes 0-3, P Casey 0-1. Subs: G Browne for Dowling injd 42, C Boylan for D Breen (48), M Foley for O’Donoughue (58), J O’Brien for J Boylan (60).

Kilmallock: B Hennessy; L Hurley, M O’Loughlin, A Costelloe; D Joy, Philip O’Loughlin, Paddy O’Loughlin; J Mulcahy 1-1, K O’Donnell 0-3; P O’Brien 0-1, G O’Mahony 0-1, M Houlihan 0-1; G Mulcahy 1-4, R Hanley 0-1, E Ryan 0-2 (1f). Subs: O O’Reilly for Ryan(HT), D Woulfe for Houlihan (52)

Referee: D O’Callaghan, Feohanagh/Castlemahon.

Clare club SHC final

Sixmilebridge 0-19 Clooney-Quin 1-16

Sixmilebridge and Clooney-Quin will have to do it all again after they played out a thrilling draw in front of 5,455 at Cusack Park, Ennis.

Underdogs Clooney-Quin had to come from behind at the death, having led for practically all of the tie, with talisman Peter Duggan pointing a 20m free after captain Fergal Lynch had been fouled.

Aiming for a title last won in 1942, Clooney-Quin lead by 1-9 to 0-9 at the break - Ronan O’Donnell grabbing the goal after 19 minutes.

The teams were level at the end of normal time when Sixmilebridge’s Seadna Morey put his side in front for the very first time, in injury time. But their opponents came back moments later with Duggan’s equaliser.

Sixmilebridge: D Fahy, N Purcell, A Quilligan, B Fitzpatrick, C Morey (0-1), S Morey (0-3), P Fitzpatrick, B Carey, K Lynch, C Malone, J Shanahan (0-9 3f, 2 65), A Morey (0-2, 2fs), B Corry (0-2), S Golden (0-1), A Mulready. Subs: C Deasy for Lynch (H/T), N Gilligan (0-1) for Mulready (H/T), G Whyte for Carey (48).

Clooney-Quin: K Hogan, R McNamara, S McNamara, B McInerney, C Duggan C Harrison, P Ward, D Murphy, R Taylor (0-2), P Duggan (0-10, 7f, 1 65), M Corry (0-2), D Hannon, R O’Donnell (1-1), F Lynch (0-1), J Corry.

Subs: M Daffy for Hannon.

Referee: A Heagney (Corofin)

Carlow club SHC final

Mount Leinster Rangers 3-17 Naomh Eoin (Myshall) 0-17

Mount Leinster Rangers struck three crucial goals as they won their seventh Carlow SHC title at Netwatch Cullen Park on Sunday, reclaiming the Willie O’Connor Cup after a four year absence.

After Naomh Eoin led for the only time at 0-5 to 0-4 after 13 minutes, Rangers hit the next six points to establish a 0-10 to 0-5 lead. On 25 minutes Kevin McDonald goal gave Rangers a 1-12 to 0-7 lead.

Rangers, Leinster Club champions of 2013, killed the game off with goals from midfielder Diarmuid Byrne on 46 minutes and Denis Murphy on 49 - Murphy finished with a personal tally of 1-10, 1-2 from play.

Mount Leinster Rangers: F Foley; W Hickey, R Kelly, M Doyle; E Coady, D Phelan, G Kelly; Diarmuid Byrne (1-1), R Coady; P Coady (0-1), J Murphy (0-1), E Byrne (0-1); D Murphy (1-10, 0-7 frees, 0-1 ‘65), C Nolan (0-3), K McDonald (1-0). Subs: T Joyce for J Murphy (injured) (31); Derek Byrne for McDonald (45); M Malone for E Coady (48); J Kelly for P Coady (52); G Lawlor for G Kelly (55).

Naomh Eoin: B Tracey (0-2); R Nolan, J O’Hara, T Nolan; S Kavanagh, E Nolan, M Mullins (0-1); E Redmond, P Abbey (0-2); J M Nolan (0-1), R Smithers (0-1), C Foley; D Smithers, P Nolan (0-9, 0-8 frees), J Kavanagh. Subs: K Foley (0-1) for J Kavanagh (43).

Referee: P Kehoe (Rathvilly).

London club SHC final

Kilburn Gaels 1-16 Robert Emmetts 0-14

Robert Emmetts’ three-in-a-row hopes were crushed by Kilburn at Ruislip as the Gaels crowned their 20th anniversary in style.

Kilburn never trailed in a stop-start affair in which 18 minutes of added time was played.

Captain Stephen Lambert kept the scoreboard ticking for the North Londoners with six points from placed balls and a spell of Emmetts profligacy was punished in injury time when Sean Conlon cut in from the left wing and finished to the net.

Conlon’s goal gave Kilburn a 1-8 to 0-5 lead at the break but the half-time introduction of Eoin Chawke saw Emmetts drag themselves into the contest.

Limerick native Chawke scored six frees as the Kilburn scores dried up, and Emmetts made it a one-score game in the eighth-minute of added time.

However, Kilburn mustered one last rally and points from Fergal Collins and Adam Murphy secured their third senior title.

Robert Emmetts: E Chawke 0-6 (6f), R Murphy 0-3 (2f, 1 ‘65), G Hill 0-2, D Roberts, C Lordan, F McMahon 0-1 each.

Kilburn Gaels: J Barron; K Campion, N Coen, C Hickey; W Campion, B Regan, K Kennedy 0-1; A O’Leary, C McAlinden 0-1; F Collins 0-3, S Carey 0-1, S Conlon 1-0; S Lambert 0-6 (6f), J Troy 0-1, D Reale 0-2 (1f). Subs: A Murphy 0-1 for Lambert (45), C Reid for Conlon (60), C Lambert for Carey (11).

Robert Emmetts: S Ryan; M Conroy, S Griffey, C Walsh; P McNaughton, P Horkan, E Kiely; D Roberts 0-1, G Hill 0-2; A O’Leary, R Murphy 0-3 (2f, 1 ‘65), R Costello; J Roberts, M O’Laodha, C Lordan 0-1. Subs: E Chawke E Chawke 0-6 (6f) for Roberts (ht), D O’Regan for O’Laodha (ht), F McMahon 0-1 for Horkan (36), M Dwyer for Costello (41), C O’Brien for Kiely (53).

Referee: E Naughton.

Kerry club SHC final

Ballyduff 4-13 Lixnaw 1-19

A first half hat-trick from Ballyduff full-forward Aidan Boyle laid the foundations for the Duffers drive for 25 being successful at the Austin Stack Park in this high octane and thrilling SHC final replay. As a result they now sit on top of the role of honour by one from Kilmoyley on 25 wins.

Ballyduff’s deep seated confidence that could beat Lixnaw was a result of change of game plan by their manager, Blackrock native Bobby Thornhill and the legacy of a glorious past which has seen never Ballyduff lose to Lixnaw in a final.

But Ballyduff never believe in doing things the easy way they conceded 10 first half frees to Lixnaw’s one but Aidan Boyle took over from his brother Padraig to shred the Lixnaw fullback line, who just could not handle the high ball, which proved a master tactical ploy. Boyle’s goals came in the third minute from a long delivery by brother Liam, a second in the 10th minute after brother Padraig’s assist and the hat-trick was complete in first half injury , this time soaring high to collect from David Goulding.

But Mike Conway who took over the free taking after younger brother Shane missed a few, kept Lixnaw in the game with 0-5, while Ricky Heffernan struck for an 18th minute goal, as Ballyduff only led 3-7 to 1-10 at the interval.

Two early Lixnaw points on the resumption were cancelled out when Aidan Boyle this time turned provider for brother Mikey who rattled the net. Trailing 4-9 to 1-14 midways through the half, Lixnaw looked in trouble but then full-back Padraig O’Grady was red carded and Lixnaw had the momentum.

Mike Conway kept converting frees but Ballyduff captain Mikey Boyle was now playing heroically in defence as Paud Costello and birthday boy Eoin Ross displayed warrior like qualities and Lixnaw just could not get the goal they craved. A Brendan Brosnan ‘65 in the 60th minute after Ross had deflected a Conway free behind reduced the gap to a goal but in the three minutes injury time, it was Daniel O’Carroll who scored the insurance point, as Ballyduff claimed the Neilus Flynn again and the Boyle family bring their SHC medal haul to 41!

Ballyduff: P J O’Gorman; A O’Connor, P O’Grady, C Kearney; D Goulding, P Costello, E Ross; D O’Carroll (0-4), A O’Carroll; L Boyle , A Boyle (3-1), J O’Sullivan (0-1); P Boyle (0-4), M Boyle (1-1), J Goulding (0-1). Subs: J Hussey for L O’Boyle 45, G O’Brien for J O’Sullivan 53, P O’Carroll for A O’Carroll 57, L Boyle (0-1) for P Boyle 62.

Lixnaw: M Stackpoole; D McCarthy, P Corridan, D Shanahan ; B Brosnan (0-3), S Power, C O Keeffe; J McKenna , B McAuliffe; J Buckley (0-2), R Heffernan (1-1), R Galvin; C Sheehy, M Conway (0-10), S Conway (0-2). Subs: J Flaherty (0-1) for C Sheehy h/t, M Corridan for D McCarthy h/t, G Stackpoole for S Power 39, L Mullins for R Galvin 46, E Galvin for J McKenna 54.

Referee: C McAllister (Cork).

Moorefield 0-11 Celbridge 0-9

Moorefield won their eighth Kildare Senior title since the turn of the century, despite playing for over two thirds Sunday’s final with 13 men.

The first quarter of the game passed off without much incident, with Moorefield leading 0-3 to 0-1 ,but the game exploded into life in the 16th minute. Man of the match Kevin Murnaghan was fouled while shooting, winning a penalty.

Adam Tyrrell’s effort was saved by Shane McNamara and before he could slot home the rebound, Mick Konstantin made a superb intervention to put the ball out of play for a 45. Before Moorefield could take that 45, captain Daryl Flynn lashed out at former intercounty team mate Fergal Conway and was shown a red card.

David Whyte suffered the same fate two minutes later after clashing with Paddy Brophy.

Despite losing two such influential players, Moorefield scored the last three points and led 0-7 to 0-2 at half time

The second half brought a wonderful rearguard display by Moorefield and although their lead was cut back to two points on two occasions they always possessed a scoring threat on the counter attack, and the frees of Tyrrell and Eanna O’Connor kept the scoreboard ticking over.

There was no grandstand finish and Celbridge looked liked a team out of ideas long before the end. In the end it was a strangely comfortable win for Moorefield, despite their numerical disadvantage.

Celbridge: S McNamara; M Konstantin, M O’Grady, D McEvoy; O Lyons, H McGrillen, K Flynn 0-1; C Brophy, F Conway; J Costello, T Archbold, P Brophy 0-1; K Murphy, D Hughes 0-3 (2f), S Harte 0-3 (2f). Subs: D Corcoran 0-1 for McEvoy, 20; M O’Sullivan for Murphy, 39; K O’Callaghan for Archbold, 50; P Carty for Harte, 52.

Moorefield: T Kinsella; L Callaghan, M Dempsey, L Healy; K Murnaghan 0-1, J Murray, S Healy; D Flynn, A Masterson; D Whyte, E Heavey 0-2, C O’Connor; A Tyrrell 0-4fs, E O’Connor , N Hurley-Lynch. Subs: R Sweeney for Hurley-Lynch, 20; R Houlihan for S Healy, 40; A Mullins for C O’Connor, 48.

Referee: Noel McKenna

Laois club SFC final

Portlaoise 3-13 Ballylinan 0-10

Portlaoise were crowned Laois senior football champions for the 33rd time thanks to a 12-point win over Ballylinan in O’Moore Park.

Having been denied a 10th title in a row by Stradbally in dramatic circumstances last year, there was to be no upset this time around as Portlaoise recovered from a poor start to run out comfortable winners in the end.

Ballylinan, appearing in their first final since 1987 and looking for a first title, played some fine football in the opening half and were 0-5 to 0-2 up at the end of the first quarter. Laois captain Gary Walsh was on fire early on, scoring their first four points in an impressive showing.

But Portlaoise got a foothold in the game when Scott Lawless got in for their first goal and got ahead when man-of-the-match Paul Cahillane finished brilliantly after a fine pass from Brian McCormack, Portlaoise’s long-serving forward who was claiming his 13th Laois SFC medal.

Ballylinan recovered from that double blow with a couple of nice points but Portlaoise were 2-6 to 0-7 up at the break.

Portlaoise pulled clear in the second half with a string of fine points and sub John Kavanagh put the icing on the cake late on with their third goal.

Portlaoise: G Brody; F Flanagan, K Lillis, D Holland; C Dunphy, B Mulligan, Chris Finn; A Kelly (0-1), C McEvoy (0-1); B Carroll (0-1), C Boyle (0-2), G Dillon; B McCormack (0-1), P Cahillane (1-6, 0-4f), S Lawless (1-1). Subs: D Seale for Dunphy (23), B Smyth for Lawless (45), S Smyth for Kelly (55), D Cullen for McEvoy (58), J Kavanagh (1-0) for McCormack (58), P Downey for Mulligan (58).

Ballylinan: A Walsh; C Leonard, D Leonard, K Byrne; A Farrell (0-1), R Ryan, J Redmond; J Farrell, P McEvoy; S Lacey, C Farrell, L Kealy; C Dunne (0-1), G Walsh (0-7, 5f), A McEvoy (0-1). Subs: R Donoher for Kealy (ht), C Behan for D Leonard (35), E Kenna for Redmond (49), J Kealy for Lacey (53), C Fennessy for A McEvoy (57).

Referee: John Flynn (The Rock).

Offaly club SFC final

Rhode 0-12 Clara 0-9

Rhode won a record 28th Senior Football Championship in Offaly on Sunday, moving ahead of Tullamore by one in the roll of honour, with a hard fought win over Clara.

The reigning champions were made fight all the way by a battling Clara in a very dour and disappointing decider. They deserved their three point win in a game that failed to produce a goal, though both sides had decent chances.

Niall McNamee scored eight of Rhode’s 12 points in a defensive game that produced little in the way of open and free flowing football.

Rhode led by four points to no score after nine minutes but Clara dug deep after this and were still in the hunt when trailing by 0-6 to 0-4 at half time.

Clara got it back to level terms, 0-6 each, 10 minutes into the second half but were outscored by six points to three in the closing 20 minutes.

Rhode: K Garry; J Kavanagh, B Darby, J McPadden; S Hannon (0-1), N Darby, D Kavanagh; A McNamee, D Garry; C McNamee, P Sullivan, R McNamee (0-2); P McPadden (0-1), N McNamee (0-8, 5f and 1 ‘45’), A Sullivan. Subs: C Heavey for D Kavanagh (44m), S Sullivan for D Garry (44m), G McNamee for P McPadden (59m), M Rigney for R McNamee (63m).

Clara: J Deehan; R Slammon, C Stewart, C Doyle; M Mitchell, J Ledwith, L Monaghan; T Deehan (0-3, 2f), R Brady; P Smith (0-2), J O’Hara (0-2), R Mitchell (0-1); L Dignam, G Guilfoyle (0-1), S Brady. Subs: J Fleming for O’Hara (BC, 36m), D Fleming for Smith (52m), D Falsey for M Mitchell (55m), P Deehan for Dignam (58m), A Gavin for Ledwith (63m).

Referee: G Keyes.

Wicklow club SFC final

Rathnew 3-8 Blessington 0-12

Rathnew have reclaimed the Wicklow Senior Football Championship, their three first half goals giving them a cushion against a spirited Blessington side who scored eight unanswered points to reduce a ten point deficit to two by the 55th minute.

Rathnew started the game with two goals inside ten minutes, and when James Stafford scored a third in the 23rd minute their ten point lead looked unassailable. They wouldn’t score for another 33 minutes however, as Blessington produced a wonderful comeback.

Rathnew, who had Leighton Glynn involved in all of their early scores, took their first half chances and it was 3-4 to five points at half time.

Blessington found their range after the break and David Boothman’s point in the 54th minute dragged them within two.

That was as close as they would get, and four late points sealed the county final for Rathnew.

Rathnew: P Dignam; P Merrigan, D Power, J Snell; W Kavanagh, R O’Brien, E Glynn; J Stafford (1-0), T Smith (0-1); E Doyle (2f, 0-3), L Glynn (1-0), G Merrigan (0-1); N Mernagh (0-1), M Doyle (1-1), J Merrigan (1 45, 0-1). Subs: S Byrne for J Merrigan (44), D Jameson for E Glynn (61), C Healy for G Merrigan (61, BC).

Blessington: S Kitt; B Murphy, S Bohan, D Fennessy; C Kenny, P McLoughlin, KJ Rogers; E Keogh (0-2), B Carroll (0-1); M Nugent, A McLoughlin (0-2), M McLoughlin (0-2); P O’Connor (0-2), C Geraghty (1f, 0-2), K Hanlon. Subs: D Boothman (0-1) for M Nugent (27), G Murray for D Fennessy (HT), M O’Connor for M McLoughlin (59), B Finan for B Murphy (63, BC).

Referee: D Peppard

Louth club SFC final

Newtown Blues 2-10 Dundalk Gaels 0-5

Newtown Blues bagged their 21st Louth title with a clinical victory over Dundalk Gaels in Drogheda.

Louth’s most successful club were on top throughout, netting goals before and after the break against a Gaels side largely set up to defend.

Competing in their first final for 25 years, the occasion seemed to get to the Dundalk men as they passed up a number of early chances.

The opening quarter was tight, but the Blues always seemed in control and made a decisive move when Conor Moore netted on 20 minutes.

They led 1-3 to 0-2 at half time and really pressed home their superiority after the break.

Ciaran Downey extended their lead to five before a speculative effort from Ross Nally dropped in over the head of Gaels’ goalkeeper Stephen Faulkner to make it 2-4 to 0-2.

With nothing to lose the Gaels came out of their shell in the final quarter, but the Blues soaked up the pressure quite comfortably and closed it out with some fine scores from Nally and Downey.

Newtown Blues: J Lowney; K Carr (0-1), F Donohoe, E Carolan; P Moore, C Reynolds, S Moonan; A McDonnell, J Kermode; C Branigan, C Judge, R Carr (0-1); C Downey (0-3), R Nally (1-5, four frees), C Moore (1-0). Subs: H McGinn for Branigan (40), R Levins for Judge (BC 53), K Lynch for Kermode (59).

Dundalk Gaels: S Faulkner; D McComish, J Faulkner, P McGinnity; O Murray, J Stewart, D Moloney (0-1); D Crilly (0-1 free), S McCann; E Kenny, S Murray, B Watters; E McArdle (0-2 frees), G McSorley, C Sweeney. Subs: J Clarke (0-1) for McArdle (40), E Boyle for Sweeney (50), S Fee for Kenny (60).

Referee: D Fedigan.

Slaughtneil battled their way past a 13-man Kilcoo to book their place in the quarter-finals of the Ulster club senior football championship.

Patsy Bradley grabbed the all-important goal on 37 minutes in a game that was full of incidents. Kilcoo lost Dylan Ward and Eugene Branagan to red cards whereas Slaughtneil’s Paul McNeill was also forced into an early bath.

The sides were level on four points apiece by the first quarter, with Kilcoo’s Paul Devlin and Celium Doherty finding the target, while Shane McGuigan and Christopher Bradley did the needful for the Derry men and indeed the defending champions finished the half strongly with Brendan Rogers, Christopher Bradley and Cormac O’Doherty giving Slaughtniel a 0-07 to 0-04 lead at the break.

Kilcoo relied on the free-taking of Paul Devlin and Darragh O’Hanlon to stay in the game.

Rodgers’ goal came only minutes after Branagan’s red card, still though Kilcoo created chances but O’Hanlon’s penalty was saved by Slaughtniel keeper Antoin McMullan and he was forced into action again to deny a late, late Magpies rally.

Kilcoo: S Kane, N Branagan, D O’Hanlon (0-4), N McEvoy, E Branagan, Aidan Branagan, D Branagan, F McGreevy, A Morgan, D Ward, P Devlin (0-5), Conor Laverty, J Johnston, C Doherty (0-1), J McClean. Subs: M Devlin (0-1) for McEvoy 30, JJ McLoughlin (0-1) for McGreevy 41, D Kane for Johnston 55. Red cards: D Ward 8, E Branagan 40.

Slaughtneil: A McMullan, P McNeill, B Rodgers (0-1), K McKaigue, F McEldowney, C McKaigue, K Feeney, P Bradley (1-0), P Casey, Shane McGuigan (0-4), R Bradley, M McGrath (0-1), C O’Doherty (0-1), Sé McGuigan (0-1), C Bradley (0-2). Subs used: B Cassidy (0-1) for C Bradley 50, G Bradley for McGrath 54, C McAllister for R Bradley 60 (black card). Red cards: P McNeill 26, B Rodgers 60.

Referee: Niall Cullen (Fermanagh).

Corofin became the third Galway club to claim five senior football titles in a row as Conor Cunningham and Martin Farragher hit two goals in as many second-half minutes to end Mountbellew-Moylough’s hopes of a first crown in 31 years.

The sending off of Corofin’s Cathal Silke in first-half added-time looked to have been crucial as the champions had a four-point lead to protect with 30 minutes into the wind to follow, but instead Mountbellew-Moylough never threatened thereafter.

A couple of frees from the excellent Jason Leonard and Gary Sice pushed Corofin six clear in the early minutes of the second-half, but goals in the 37th and 39th minutes ended any doubt as to the destination of the Frank Fox Cup.

From the start there was plenty of needle in this game. Before the ball was thrown in a fight broke out, and right through the 60 minutes referee Muiris Mac Gearailt had his hands full to keep the peace.

The bright start that Corofin managed was crucial though, and Ronan Steede and Michael Farragher points and a couple of frees from Leonard saw them into an early lead.

At the other end Barry McHugh was Mountbellew-Moylough’s real danger man and he kicked a couple of quick points in reply, but Steede, Leonard and Dylan Wall all added good scores to help their side into a 0-8 to 0-4 half-time lead.

Silke’s sending off was fully deserved as he kicked out at Barry McHugh straight in front of the referee, but instead of pushing hard at the start of the half, Mountbellew-Moylough fell back in their shells, which allowed Corofin to tag on two quick frees.

But the key score came in the 37th minute when Leonard’s hand pass over the top sent Cunningham in on goal and he finished smartly past Brian Donnellan, who had earlier denied Sice with a good save.

Bergin tagged on a point for Mountbellew-Moylough as they sought to launch comeback, but moments later Martin Farragher hit Corofin’s second goal to totally take the steam out of Mountbellew-Moylough’s challenge.

Bergin then became the second player to see red when he clashed with Sice, and with a significant lead to defend Corofin’s possession football easily saw them over the line and to a 19th Galway title.

Corofin: B Power; C McGrath, K Fitzgerald, C Silke; D Wall (0-1), K Molloy, L Silke; Michael Farragher (0-1), R Steede (0-2); C Cunningham (1-0), J Leonard (0-6, 0-4f), G Sice (0-2, 0-1f); Martin Farragher (1-1), I Burke (0-1), M Lundy. Subs: D McHugh for Cunningham (41 mins), D Burke for Molloy (47 mins), J Burke for L Silke (50 mins), C Brady for McGrath (57 mins), B O Donovan for Wall (62 mins), K Murphy for Leonard (63 mins).

Mountbellow-Moylough: B Donnellan; A McHugh, S Moran, M Mannion; C Kenny, J Daly, C Murray; E Finnerty (0-1), J Bergin (0-1); S Boyle, M Daly, P Donnellan (0-2); C Mannion, B McHugh (0-6, 0-4f), N McDonagh. Subs: G Donaghue for S Boyle (34 mins), M Barrett for McDonagh (41 mins), A Sweeney for J Daly (52 mins), C Duffy for Murray (62 mins), J Meehan for C Mannion (62 mins).

Referee: Muiris Mac Gearailt (Micheal Breathnach).

Nemo Rangers 0-14 St Finbarr’s 0-14

St Finbarr’s staged a courageous second-half comeback to force a replay with arch city rivals, Nemo Rangers, in an exciting Cork county football final at Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Sunday.

Nemo took a firm grip from the start and registered eight points without response as the ‘Barr’s struggled to settle.

Nemo oozed class as they built with purpose, allowing Luke Connolly, Paddy Gumley, Paul Kerrigan, Barry O’Driscoll and Jack Horgan establish a commanding lead after 18 minutes.

Finbarr’s, eventually, found their rhythm and responded with three points inside a couple of minutes, including one from captain Ian Maguire.

Connolly picked out Gumley with a super pass for Nemo’s ninth point as they turned around fully in control, leading by 0-10 to 0-4 at the break.

And while Nemo stretched their advantage to seven points on the resumption, Finbarr’s took over around the middle, where Maguire was an inspiration.

They hit five points without reply to trail 0-12 to 0-10 after 47 minutes, with wing-back Colin Lyons claiming two crucial scores. Colin O’Brien made it a three-point game with six left before Sherlock kicked the closing three points to ensure another day out.

Nemo Rangers: M Martin; C McWhinney, A O’Reilly (c), A Cronin; T O Se, S Cronin, K Fulignati; A O’Donovan (0-1), J Horgan (0-1); B O’Driscoll (0-2), P Kerrigan (0-1), C O’Brien (0-2); L Connolly (0-4, two frees), P Gumley (0-2), C Dalton (0-1). Subs: J O’Donovan for Fulignati and M Dorgan for Horgan 52 mins, C Keane for O’Brien 52 mins, C Horgan for O’Driscoll 58 mins.

St Finbarr’s: D Murphy; D Quinn, G O’Connor, A McCarthy; J Burns, S Ryan, C Lyons (0-2); I Maguire (0-1), captain, E Comyns; D O’Brien (0-2), M Shields, E Dennehy; C Myers-Murray (0-1), R O’Mahony, S Sherlock (0-8, six frees). Subs: R Leahy for O’Mahony injured 47 mins, A O’Connor for Lyons 59.

Referee: C Lane (Cork)

Tipperary club SFC final

Clonmel Commercials 2-9 Killenaule 0-8

Clonmel Commercials required late goals from Richie Gunne and Jamie Peters to clinch a 17th Tipperary SFC crown.

Gunne netted with seven minutes left and Peters struck in a stoppage time as Commercials regained the title they last won in 2015.

Commercials went on to win Munster two years ago but they face formidable opponents in the provincial series in a fortnight, as All-Ireland kingpins Dr. Crokes lie in wait.

But for now, Commercials can celebrate their return to the top of the tree in Tipperary, even if a seven-point winning margin slightly flattered them in front of 2,451 spectators at Semple Stadium.

First-time finalists Killenaule finished with 11 wides but they were level at 0-8 each when county hurling star John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer pointed ten minutes from time.

But after Jason Lonergan edged Commercials back in front, Gunne seized on a poor restart to land the game’s opening goal with seven minutes left.

Peters hooked an effort into the net to seal the deal late on - as Killenaule’s big day ended in disappointment.

But the Robins started like a train, going 0-4 to 0-0 clear within 12 minutes, before Commercials reeled them in.

At half-time Commercials were 0-7 to 0-4 clear, with All-Star Michael Quinlivan in good form.

They were three ahead again early in the second half - 0-8 to 0-5 - but Killenaule rallied to level.

That was as good as it got for them, however, as Commercials showed composure in the closing minutes to land the silverware in greasy conditions.

Commercials: M O’Reilly; J Peters (1-0), L Ryan, D Lynch; K Fahey, D Madigan, K Harney; S Kennedy, J Kennedy (0-1f); P Looram, R Peters, J Lonergan (0-3, 2f); E Fitzgerald (0-1), M Quinlivan (0-4), R Carroll. Subs: I Fahey for Carroll (h.t.), R Gunne (1-0) for Fitzgerald (45), R Lambe for Looram (59).

Killenaule: M O’Donnell (0-1 45); S Browne, J Feehan, G O’Rourke; K O’Dwyer, Joe O’Dwyer, L Meagher; K Bergin (0-3, 2f), P Codd (0-1); John O’Dwyer (0-2), T Doyle (0-1f), P Feehan; M Doyle, D Fanning, E O’Connell. Subs: E Barry for O’Connell (38), E O’Brien for T Doyle (45), D Guinan for Fanning (58), D O’Connor for K O’Dwyer (58).

Referee: D O’Mahoney (Ardfinnan)

Clooney-Quin v Sixmilebridge (Cusack Park, 3.30)

Huge day for Clooney-Quin, who are in their first county final in 73 years. Sixmilebridge are heavy favourites, stacked with Clare senior stars like Seadna Morey, Shane Golden and even 41-year-old Niall Gilligan still doing a bit. They should have plenty in hand.

Limerick SHC final

Na Piarsaigh v Kilmallock (Gaelic Grounds, 4.0, Live on TG4)

Probably the game of the day in either code, between two teams who have won four of the last six Munster club titles between them. Kilmallock are unbeaten in this championship but all the same, Shane Dowling and Kevin Downes look a fearsome prospect for Na Piarsaigh.

Ulster club SFC first round

Kilcoo (Down) v Slaughtneil (Derry) (Páirc Esler, 2.30)

A lip-smacking fixture, a repeat of last year’s Ulster final. Kilcoo have won the last six Down titles in a row but are still waiting on their first Ulster title, albeit that it has taken the champions to beat them in four of the past five years. Without Ryan Johnston here, it’s hard to make a case for them dethroning the Derry champions.

Cork SFC final

Nemo Rangers v St Finbarrs (Páirc Uí Chaoimh, 4.0)

About as blue-blooded a final as you could ask for. The Barrs have been waiting 32 years for a Cork title – and may have to wait a while longer yet. The Nemo full-forward line scored 5-5 between them in the semi-final and look to have too many guns for St Finbarrs.

Antrim SFC final

Lámh Dhearg v St John’s (Glenavy, 3.15) A west Belfast famine is going to end one way or the other here - neither of these sides has won a county title since the 1990s. Having overcome St Gall’s after an epic replay, St John’s young side look to be maturing at just the right time.

Armagh SFC final

Armagh Harps v Maghery (Athletic Grounds, 5.0) The Harps have a poor recent record in finals – this is their fourth in eight years and they’ve been well beaten in the other three. Maghery are going for back-to-back titles and having dealt with Crossmaglen earlier in the competition, look well set to double up.

Donegal SFC final

Kilcar v Naomh Conaill (MacCumhaill Park, 4.0) Kilcar are heavy favourites, just like they were last year against Glenswilly. But they made a hames of that game, by their own admission. They won’t forgive themselves for a repeat performance here against Glenties.

Louth SFC final

Dundalk Gaels v Newtown Blues (Gaelic Grounds, 3.30) Dundalk Gaels haven’t won a Louth title since 1952 but they’ve been coming for a couple of years and beat the Blues in last year’s quarter-final. They could easily cause an upset.

Galway SFC final

Corofin v Mountbellew-Moylough (Tuam Stadium, 4.0) It’s five years since anyone beat Corofin in Galway and 32 years since Mountbellew-Moylough’s last title. Michael Daly will lead the line for the latter but a change to the status quo looks unlikely.

Kildare SFC final

Celbridge v Moorefield (Newbridge, 3.30) Moorefield were mighty impressive putting away a decent Athy side in the semi-final and look marginally stronger here, although Paddy Brophy is liable to win the game on his own for Celbridge.

Laois SFC final

Ballylinan v Portlaoise (O’Moore Park, 3.45) Portlaoise’s 11th final in a row, where they’ll be out to prove that last year’s defeat to Stradbally was an aberration. Ballylinan have never won a Laois title – it would be the shock of the winter if they started here.

Monaghan SFC final

Magheracloone v Scotstown (Clones, 3.30) Both these teams needed madcap, goal-filled endings to their semi-finals to stay alive but now that Scotstown have made it, they look an obvious shout to make it four titles in five years.

Offaly SFC final

Clara v Rhode (O’Connor Park, 3.30) Rhode are unbeaten in this year’s Offaly championship, Clara have lost three times and still made the final. With Niall McNamee still on song, it’s hard to look past the holders.

Tipperary SFC final

Clonmel Commercials v Killenaule (Semple Stadium, 3.30) A first ever Tipp football final for Killenaule, who will have Bubbles O’Dwyer, Kieran Bergin and, most importantly, Jimmy Feehan in the side. Clonmel should have more than enough for them though.

Tyrone SFC final

Omagh v Errigal Ciarán (Healy Park, 4.0) The last three Tyrone finals have either been drawn or won by a point so it’s hard to plump for either side here with any confidence. Ronan O’Neill could be the difference for Omagh.

Three second-half goals from Tomás Quinn, Shane Carthy and Brendan Egan helped holders St Vincent’s overcome 13-man St Jude’s by 4-12 to 1-12 in their Dublin Senior Football championship semi-final at Parnell Park on Saturday evening.

In doing so, the Marino outfit advanced to their fifth successive decider and while they struggled for fluency in the opening half, they availed of some poor discipline on Jude’s behalf that saw Mark Sweeney and goalkeeper Paul Copeland dismissed after the break.

In a tight, turgid opening half-hour, St Jude’s played with greater control and took an early two-point lead through Ross O’Brien and Kevin McManamon.

Sweeney marshalled Diarmuid Connolly to great effect initially but was powerless to prevent Nathan Mullins for piercing the Jude’s defence for a well-taken goal in the 20th minute.

However, two fine scores from Kieran Doherty and four McManamon points ensured a 1-4 to 0-7 stalemate by the break.

Sweeney’s second booking arrived in the 38th minute with Connolly immediately benefiting with a trademark score from distance and Copeland’s rash challenge on Carthy led to a straight red card at the end of the third quarter.

Quinn’s goal arrived in the 55th minute with Carthy and Egan following suit soon after while Diarmuid McLoughlin netted a consolation goal deep into injury time for St Jude’s.

ST VINCENT’S: M Savage; M Concarr, J Curley, C Wilson; Cameron Diamond, G Brennan, B Egan (1-0); L Galvin, N Mullins (1-0); G Burke, D Connolly (0-1), Cormac Diamond (0-2); E Varley (0-3, one free), S Carthy (1-1), T Quinn (1-3, three frees).

Subs: R Trainor (0-2) for Cormac Diamond (37 mins), D Murphy for Galvin (49 mins), L Sheehy for Cameron Diamond (52 mins), T Diamond for Burke (56 mins), E Fennell for Varley (58 mins), J McCusker for Wilson (60 mins).

ST JUDE’S: P Copeland; C Fitzpatrick, P Cunningham, R Martina; C Guckian, M Sweeney, N O’Shea; P Courtney, C Murphy; R O’Brien (0-1), R Joyce, K Doherty (0-2); D Donnelly, N Coakley (0-4, one free), K McManamon (0-4, three frees).

Subs: D McLoughlin (1-1) for O’Brien (43 mins), JB Carty for Murphy (47 mins), E McLoughlin for Joyce (50 mins), S King for Courtney (51 mins).

Referee: Gary McCormack (Naomh Barróg)

A 28th-minute goal from Jason Whelan proved pivotal as Ballymun Kickhams defeated Kilmacud Crokes by 2-15 to 1-10 in their Dublin SFC semi-final at Parnell Park on Saturday afternoon.

Whelan’s strike was a further body blow for a Crokes team that had seen Ross O’Carroll dismissed for a lunge on James McCarthy eight minutes previously, a decision from which Kilmacud never truly recovered.

Ballymun opened up brightly through early scores from Davy Byrne and Carl Keeley with Crokes opening up their account through a seventh-minute score from Callum Pearson that whistled over Evan Comerford’s crossbar.

Paddy Small and McCarthy stretched the Ballymun lead and three points on the bounce from Dean Rock, Whelan and Small edged Kickhams further clear prior to O’Carroll’s sending-off.

Leading by 1-8 to 0-3 at the break, the Kickhams attack impressed with Kevin Leahy chipping in with three excellent points from wing forward while Small took his personal tally to five points and Rock converted a penalty in the 49th minute after David Nestor had impeded James Burke to effectively settle the contest.

Crokes battled gamely until the final whistle and were rewarded for their efforts as Mark Vaughan scrambled home a consolation goal eight minutes from time.

BALLYMUN KICKHAMS: E Comerford; P McMahon, E Dolan, A Hubbard; C Keeley (0-1), J Small, J Burke; A Elliot, J McCarthy (0-1); J Whelan (1-2), D Rock (1-2, 1-0 penalty), K Leahy (0-3); E O’Neill, P Small (0-5), D Byrne (0-1).

Subs: C Hulton for Byrne (47 mins), D Keating for O’Neill (52 mins), K Connolly for J Small (55 mins), C Moore for Leahy (60 mins), C Kavanagh for P Small (61 mins).

KILMACUD CROKES: D Nestor; A McGowan, C O’Shea, R O’Carroll; C O’Sullivan, R McGowan, C Dias; C Casey, P Duggan; S Horan (0-1), P Mannion (0-3, two frees), D O’Brien; C Pearson (0-2), M Vaughan (1-1), P Burke (0-1).

Subs: J Murphy for O’Brien (half-time), K Dyas for Horan (half-time), C O’Connor (0-1) for Burke (35 mins), S Cunningham for Duggan (40 mins), A Jones (0-1) for Dyas (45 mins), B Shovlin for Dias (57 mins).

Referee: Dave Feeney (Parnells).

The 30-year-old played for Dublin in hurling at underage level all the way up until under-21 when he was a part of a Leinster championship winning team at that grade.

He also still lines out for St. Vincent’s in the Dublin Senior Hurling Championship – the club which links him to Gilroy and gave more fire to the rumours that he may switch.

But, speaking to eirSport ahead of Vincent’s Dublin football championship semi-final against St Jude’s, Connolly well and truly quashed those rumours.

“I’m 30 this year...in my mind’s eye I probably would have been able to do it if I went and picked hurling at 20 or 21 years of age but I went the other way and picked football so I think that ship has sailed,” he said.

Earlier in the week, Dublin footballer James McCarthy had spoken about how he hoped Connolly would stick to the bigger ball as the Dubs go in search of a fourth All-Ireland in a row.

“I certainly hope not but you never know in life,” MaCarthy said. “He’s obviously playing well for St Vincent’s now as well but I’d be hoping he’d definitely continue with us next year. I suppose you don’t really know.

“I’ve seen clips of him hurling like everyone else. He seems to be well able for it as well. At the same time, you can imagine that the jump from club hurling to county is a massive leap. We’ll see.”

For years, the county footballers picked off the very best rising dual stars and convinced them to focus exclusively on the big ball game.

There were some gains on the hurling side, yet even Anthony Daly, with all his charisma, couldn’t convince Ciarán Kilkenny or Cormac Costello, two brilliant young hurlers, to play for him.

Gilroy, within Dublin at least, is even more of an icon than Daly though, and there is speculation he could pull off the greatest coup of them all – by pinching Diarmuid Connolly from the footballers.

The pair are St Vincent’s club colleagues, winning All-Irelands at club and county level together, and Connolly is lighting it up on the club hurling scene at the moment, scoring 0-3 in a recent county quarter-final.

He already has five All-Ireland football medals and, at 30, it’s probably now or never if he’s going to make the big switch to hurling, something that might appeal to him after a hugely frustrating summer dominated by a 12-week suspension.

“I certainly hope not but you never know in life,” shrugged McCarthy, who was yesterday named the PwC GAA/GPA player of the month for September. “He’s obviously playing well for St Vincent’s now as well but I’d be hoping he’d definitely continue with us next year. I suppose you don’t really know.

“I’ve seen clips of him hurling like everyone else. He seems to be well able for it as well. At the same time, you can imagine that the jump from club hurling to county is a massive leap. We’ll see.”

McCarthy acknowledged that it was a long, tough summer for Connolly whose tangle with a match official in their Leinster championship win over Carlow resulted in him missing a huge chunk of game time.

Still, when it mattered most, in the second half of the All-Ireland final win over Mayo, he had a direct hand in four Dublin points, dovetailing superbly with the similarly inspired McCarthy.

“We don’t want to go back over that and how you get banned for such a long time for such a minor incident,” said McCarthy. “That was frustrating but he steadied the ship for us in the final and had such a big impact. He reminded everyone, in case they forgot, how good a player he is and how important he is for our team. We certainly hope he’ll come back next year.”

Gilroy will try to coax Mark Schutte back into the hurling fold too after joining the footballers earlier this year and making his championship debut.

McCarthy, an All-Ireland winner under Gilroy in 2011, knows his former boss will ultimately leave no stone unturned to be successful.

“If he gets a lot of the guys that are missing, the likes of Danny Sutcliffe and these guys, I think they’ll become very competitive again, very soon,” said McCarthy.

Asked what successful businessman Gilroy’s best trait is, McCarthy pointed to his interpersonal skills.

“He gets you wanting to play for him – that’s probably the best compliment I could give,” said the Ballymun Kickhams man. “If you have a manager and you want to play for him, that’s half the battle.”

McCarthy will line out for his club in Saturday evening’s glamour county semi-final clash with Kilmacud Crokes.

Ballymun, with county icons Dean Rock, Philly McMahon and John Small aboard, are already Dublin and Leinster club title favourites, and third favourites for the All-Ireland.

“It’s a bit ridiculous, isn’t it?” smiled McCarthy. “We haven’t won the county title in a few years. But I suppose that’s probably decided because we have a few county players and we’ve a mix of guys who are there or thereabouts with Dublin. But we have to earn the right to be that hotly tipped and we haven’t over the last three or four years.”

McCarthy won’t be available for the International Rules series next month. He was contacted by boss Joe Kernan but said three weeks is simply too much time to take off.

The midfielder ironically admitted that if the series hadn’t been returned to two Tests – apparently to save it from extinction – he might have played.

“I probably would have been in a better position to do it all right,” said the AIB Bank official. “It would probably depend on the club as well but 21 days, it’s a long time to ask your employers to let you off.”

He also added that the GAA are looking into taking legal advice to prevent such events from being held again in the future.

The 34-year-old former Kerry attacker will become the first GAA player to host a testimonial event on October 27th at the Intercontinental Hotel in Ballsbridge.

“I did say to him are you sure you’re doing the right thing here?” Duffy explained on Today with Sean O’Rourke on Thursday. “I did say to him that the GAA would not be supporting it and we’re not supporting it.

“If you do an autobiography or punditry, you’re not taking funds that could go to the GAA, if you’re holding a major dinner you’re going to the same people to support the dinner or testimonial as you would to support a club event. That’s the big concern I would have. Plus the fact that it is against the ethos of the GAA to run a dinner where the individual benefits. We don’t do that.

“Under our current rules, no. Do we need to look at it? Yes... It’s tricky because our current rules don’t allow us to deal with it but I think we need to look at the rules.”

Duffy, who was discussing the announcement of his own retirement for March of next year, said the GAA are actively looking to prevent these events becoming the norm.

“We are going to look at this. It will involve maybe taking legal advice or deciding ourselves how we want to handle it. We are looking at it and will look at it”.

Cooper told Off the Ball’s Joe Molloy earlier in the week that “over 50 per cent” of the funds raised will go to charity. Although he emphasised that “it’s a testimonial event, not a charity event”.

“I think this blew up because people were talking about, ‘Jeez, he’s going to make €200,000 and all this’,” explained the eight time All Star and five time All-Ireland winner. “I think that got lost a little bit somewhere in between the charity, Dr Crokes and Kerry here.

“So maybe the figures that people are throwing out and what might happen - and we don’t know - I know the majority will be going to the two charities and to Kerry and Dr Crokes. Until the night, we won’t know what that’s going to be.”

The 2018 championship sees the beginning of the ‘Super 8s’ experiment, wherein the All-Ireland final was to be brought forward to facilitate a smoother running of club championships.

However GAA director of games administration and player welfare Feargal McGill told the Irish Examiner on Thursday that the final will be held on Sunday September 2nd, and this was confirmed by director general Páraic Duffy on RTÉ Radio 1.

As explained at last weekend’s Special Congress, the hurling final will be set for August 19th. The football final was to take place on the weekend of August 26th, before news of the possible papal visit emerged.

Croke Park is in line to stage the concluding mass of the six-day celebration that weekend. From 2019 the football final is expected to revert to an August date.

In the beginning, Duffy was fairly adamant that the seven-year term that came with the job would be ample. In the end, he stayed for a decade and oversaw some of the most radical changes in the association’s history.

The Monaghan schoolteacher rose to the top of the association having been a player, a trainer, a selector and a county board chairman, as well as holding various national roles  including player welfare manager and chairman of both the Games Administration Committee and the National Audit Committee. Short of picking up litter on Hill 16 after a game, he will retire at the end of March 2018 having held just about every conceivable role in the association.

It is likely that history will be kind in its judgment when the time comes. Back in 2007, Duffy was openly nervous of how his lack of business experience would count against him in the job and yet he guided the association through a brutal recession with a steady hand.

Revenue for 2016 came in at €60.5 million, just over double the turnover recorded for 2006. In conjunction with Peter McKenna, Duffy has overseen the development of Croke Park stadium into a commercial behemoth and an enormous asset to the association.

Super Eights

His watch has also seen a fundamental change in the way the GAA runs its most high-profile competitions. From next year, the inter-county championships in football and hurling will feature more games between the best teams in the country.

The round robins in the hurling provincial championships and the Super Eights at the quarter-final stage in football are historic changes to formats that have only ever undergone a couple apiece since the foundation of the GAA.

In a previous generation, Duffy came up with a skeleton plan for the original football qualifiers in the living room of then GAA president Seán McCague. Add in the Super Eights – a term Duffy rails against but one that is likely to stick – and hurling’s answer to them and it’s arguable that no one person in history has had more effect on the way our GAA summers are structured than Duffy.

Before he took the job, his last act as player welfare manager was to broker a peace deal with the Gaelic Players Association to prevent a strike over the issue of player grants.

In the decade since, the GPA has been recognised as the official players’ body and has taken up a place on Central Council. Significantly, the two bodies have a framework agreement in place up to the end of 2019. Duffy has always been seen as an honest broker by the GPA and the lasting peace between the two sides is in no small part attributable to his efforts.

As director general, Duffy has overseen plenty of issues that were controversial, none more so than the Sky Sports deal. The symbolism of putting televised championship matches behind a paywall has always felt anathema to spirit of the association.

Club scene

Even after Congress emphatically rejected a 2016 motion proposing that all championship matches be shown on free-to-air TV, the unapologetically exclusionary move remains for many a stain on the GAA.

It is in keeping too with the increasingly commercial face of the GAA, an aspect that still sits uncomfortably with plenty of members. The move in recent years to shift the balance beck towards grassroots has unquestionably been a response. One of Duffy’s earliest declarations 10 years ago was that he was going to be a voice for clubs.

“There’s a huge, huge issue there,” he said at his unveiling, “and if I do nothing else over the next seven years, I really want the clubs to feel involved again. I want it so that they can say, ‘Well, maybe he knew nothing about business, that fella, but at least the club scene is better.’”

Few would argue that to be the case in 2017. The necessity for the formation of Club Players Association in January of this year would suggest much the opposite, in fact. Duffy has long made his frustrations clear at the inability of county boards to run their club competitions in a timely manner but in the end, he did accept that the intercounty game was swallowing the clubs whole.

Moving the All-Ireland finals out of September is a massive change in Irish life, never mind just in the GAA. But combined with the abolition of replays in all games but finals, huge changes are in train from 2018 onwards to make more room for club activity.

In time, it may turn out to be his lasting legacy.

At the time Anthony Daly was the unbackable bookies’ favourite, based, it appeared, on nothing stronger than his closeness to the multitude of Dublin hurlers who had left the intercounty scene and his still occasional presence at club and college matches in the capital.

Essentially, the theory went, it was a job nobody was exactly straining at the leash to do, so why not go back to the last man who had shown any vigour for it?

Behind the scenes, however, John Costello’s propensity for left-field thinking was already more interested in moving the situation forward rather than back.

Costello and Gilroy have remained close since the latter’s time as manager of the football team ended in 2012. Gilroy spent three years mainly living and working in the UK after he stepped down, but returned to Ireland in 2016 to take up a new post as Irish managing director of The Designer Group, an engineering firm based in Blanchardstown.

Once Gilroy was back in Ireland full-time, Costello had been on the look-out for a role for him within Dublin GAA. His guiding light as administrator of the association’s biggest single unit has always been to ask why certain things have always been done the way they’ve been done and never to be afraid of the radical option. From a hurling point of view Gilroy is certainly that.

Dual players

While St Vincent’s have always had a reasonably significant chunk of dual players and coaches, Gilroy would not have been counted among their number. He hurled at bit at underage, but unlike, say, Diarmuid Connolly or Ruairi Trainor (just to pick out a couple of names from the current generation), Gilroy was always a footballer from minor level on. He will be bringing no hurling experience to speak of into the role with him.

That said, it’s worth pointing out that when he took the Dublin football job in late 2008 he had no football management experience under his belt either.

The qualities that swayed the Dublin County Board’s appointment panel at the time were predominantly the traits that had made him a success in the business world. Gilroy was clear-headed, organised, a skilled communicator with a record of managing people. He beat Jim Gavin to that job, which looks like some achievement now.

The working assumption is that Gilroy will be a CEO-style manager, a big-picture organiser who leaves the nuts and bolts of the actual hurling to others.

Anthony Cunningham’s name has been mentioned heavily but as of Wednesday nothing was confirmed either way. Whoever it is, Gilroy will certainly bring a hurling coach of some renown with him.

General manager

Yet from talking to footballers who played under Gilroy, the notion that he will be a sort of American-style general manager concerning himself with simply creating an overall structure and delegating the actual hurling is way off base.

While it’s true that Mickey Whelan drove the coaching in that first season with the footballers, Gilroy’s management style – not to mention his personality – is such that he couldn’t stay out of the fray for long. Expect the same to apply here.

Of course, that’s not the immediate concern. Gilroy’s first task is clearly to take out his butterfly net and start gathering up the best hurlers in the county and getting them involved again. The ludicrous situation last summer where the Herald could line out an alternative starting 15 that you would have backed to take on the 15 who played Galway in the Leinster semi-final can’t be allowed to be repeated.

In the end it’s believed that this was a key factor in Gilroy’s appointment ahead of Mattie Kenny. The Cuala manager obviously has more concrete hurling bona fides than Gilroy, but he’s not Dublin royalty like the Vincent’s man.

Gilroy’s stature should be enough to bring back whatever refuseniks he wishes to reintegrate – the likes of Danny Sutcliffe, Peter Kelly, Paul Ryan et al will presumably have no issue with throwing their lot in with the man who ended the footballers’ All-Ireland famine in 2011.

But if they come back it will be on Gilroy’s terms.

The O’Callaghan’s Mills clubman made his Championship debut for the Banner against Cork in 2006 and went on to captain his county to All-Ireland Championship success in 2013.

Donnellan said: “I wish to sincere thank everyone that has helped me and made sacrifices on my behalf to ensure that I could represent Clare to the best of my ability. To my wife Edel, my parents, my brothers and sister I will be forever grateful.

“I will always consider myself a privileged person to have been able to play for Clare and I hope that I did my utmost for the cause while playing. It is hard to express in words what it meant to me, my family and my club to captain a Clare team. To be able to lift the Liam McCarthy on behalf of Clare and its people was a dream come true and I will always be thankful that I was considered worthy of the honour to be the representative of the Clare team by Davy Fitzgerald.

“Thank you to my club O’Callaghan’s Mills, to all of my former managers and coaches who instilled a love and respect for the game in me every day I took to the field. Thank you to Clare County Board, Club Clare Hurling Supporters and to all of the backroom staff who encouraged and supported me throughout my time with Clare. Thank you also to my employers and work colleagues in IAC for the wonderful support.

“I would like to thank all of the players that I have played and trained with over the years. I always felt a sense of belonging and brotherhood in a Clare dressing room and I have been lucky to be friends and teammates with you all.

“Finally, I am looking forward to supporting the team from the stands into the future and I wish the Clare team and management all the best for 2018 and onwards. An Clár Abú.”

He notified the GAA central council and management committee of his decision on Wednesday and released the following statement; “I am privileged to have had the opportunity to serve as Ard Stiúrthóir for the past 10 years.

“I would like to express my thanks to the four GAA Presidents with whom I have worked, Nickey Brennan, Christy Cooney, Liam Ó Néill and Aogán Ó Fearghail, to the members of Central Council, Management Committee and other national committees, to our staff in Croke Park, and to officials, volunteers and staff at provincial, county and club levels for their constant support and encouragement.

“I look forward to working with Uachtarán Aogán Ó Fearghail and Uachtarán-tofa John Horan on a range of projects over the next few months.”

On behalf of the GAA, the president, Aogán Ó Fearghail, sincerely thanked Páraic Duffy for his “outstanding service and wished him and his wife Vera and family well for the future.

“His vision, energy, integrity and fairness have been key to the association’s growth over the past decade; his contribution has been immense. Tá muid fíor bhuíoch dó agus guíonn muid gach rath ar Pháraic sa todhchaí.”

The man who brought Sam Maguire back to the capital in 2011, ending a 16 year wait for Gaelic football’s biggest prize, was confirmed on Wednesday morning following a meeting of the Dublin county committee.

Gilroy stepped away from the footballers following the 2012 season, citing work commitments abroad, but the successful businessman has been based in Dublin for the last six months.

In his Irish Times column last month, Jim McGuinness explained how; “It was under Pat Gilroy’s watch that Dublin began to run the senior team as a business.”

Gilroy seen off competition from Cuala’s All-Ireland club hurling-winning manager Mattie Kenny. Details of the full management team have yet to be announced, with former Galway manager Anthony Cunningham set to be named as team coach.

Cunningham is another to have put his hand to managing both codes. The former All-Ireland winner with the Tribesmen in 1987 and 1988 also won county and provincial titles with St Brigid’s footballers in his adopted county of Roscommon, and Garrycastle in Westmeath.

A member of the 1995 All-Ireland winning Dublin team, Gilroy also has some crossover experience in hurling. The 45-year-old made his hurling senior debut with St Vincent’s before his football breakthrough.

He is expected to recruit several established players such as Mark Schutte and Danny Sutcliffe, who either left or were dropped off the panel by former manager Ger Cunningham, back into the set-up.

The 2017 season was one to forget for Dublin hurling, with a combined losing margin of 36 points in their championship defeats to Galway and Tipperary. The Dubs will begin 2018 in Division 1B of the Allianz Hurling League.

The obvious one that will rattle around his brain this winter is what if he’d powered the ball low and hard beyond Stephen Cluxton at Croke Park last July.

The Kildare full-forward broke through on goal in the 42nd minute of the Leinster final and, with six points between Kildare and Dublin, had the opportunity to cut that deficit in half. To sow a genuine seed of doubt in Dublin minds.

But the 6ft 3in attacker’s shot flew straight at Cluxton who threw up a big right hand to avert the danger with relative ease.

Dublin scored the next three points and opened up a nine-point difference that remained at full-time.

Flynn, looking back, acknowledges that he “missed a sitter” though he’s trying to look at it a different way.

“We were nine points down after 20 minutes – we were beaten by nine points,” noted Flynn, accentuating the positive.

“We’re getting there. We pushed them hard. If things went our way, if we didn’t let in those two goals, if I’d scored that goal, you never know. We’re trying to catch them. I don’t think there is that much in it. I think the gap is closing between the rest of the counties and Dublin.

“Watching Mayo in the final, it does give you hope. It shows that Dublin are just human, it’s just 15 versus 15, white ball, green grass, everything is the same for both teams. It’s how you perceive them, and how you go at them, that’s the obstacle.

“We had huge belief going into that game that we were going to beat Dublin. I think that’s the right way to go at them, to go and play football. Mayo had that belief, we had it. Those two games were similar.

Glancing back

“They obviously pushed them a lot closer than we did but the styles of the games were similar. We went out and played football, rather than trying not to lose. Some teams are nearly beaten before they go out.”

Another regret that Flynn took longer to overcome related to his decision to turn his back on an Australian Rules contract in early 2015.

He cited homesickness as his reason at the time for leaving Port Adelaide and while things have since worked out well – he was recently nominated for an All-Star award – he took a while to stop glancing back at what he’d left behind.

“I had a small bit of regret for a little while, maybe a year,” said the Johnstownbridge man who conducted yesterday’s draw for the Top Oil Leinster Schools ‘A’ football championship.

“It was hard to settle back in, job wise, knowing what to do with yourself, when everyone else had gone two or three years ahead.

“I’m in college now, doing Accounting and Finance in Maynooth, just after getting a job with KPMG after I finished, so it’s all working out for me, hopefully. But there was a ‘what if’ sort of thing. That was the big doubt with me over whether I’d made the right call. But the football is going well here, my life is going well. I’m on that upward curve getting to where I want to be.”

O’Rourke has been beating this drum for several years and made the claim again immediately after Dublin’s three-in-a-row success last month.

It was Dublin’s fifth All-Ireland win since 2011 and with the U-21 crown also residing in the capital, as well as the O’Byrne Cup, won with a development squad, the sense of Dublin versus the rest is strong.

O’Rourke, a two-time All-Ireland winner with Meath, claimed that it has got to the point where strong club players in Dublin now have no chance of making it at county level.

He admitted that Dublin supporters he has encountered are totally against his idea but claimed they are blinded by ‘winning, winning, winning’ and merely retaining the Sam Maguire Cup.

The secondary school principal at St Pat’s College, Navan said the bigger picture is that good young players need to be afforded realistic opportunities to experience county football.

“To me, it’s a no-brainer,” said O’Rourke at the draw for the Top Oil Leinster Schools ‘A’ football championship. “People say I’m looking on it as penalising Dublin but if you’re involved in the GAA you should be looking at providing opportunities, giving more opportunities for young players to play with Dublin.

“So if Dublin had three teams, I would say that would be about right, to give all the young fellas that stood on Hill 16 for the All-Ireland final some hope of some day playing for Dublin, rather than the present situation where the team is the absolute cream of a huge pot.

“Anybody from Dublin that I would talk to would be absolutely opposed to any idea of it. But I think they’re caught in the mentality of winning, winning, winning. Winning, to me, is not the only thing that’s important.

“I think it’s about giving young fellas an opportunity. Fellas get an opportunity to play for Meath or Leitrim because they’re of a fairly decent standard – being of a reasonably decent standard in Dublin gives you no chance of getting near the team.

Commercial enterprise

“Ambition is great in a young fella and I don’t know how you could match the ambition in Dublin with the reality of trying to get near the current team.”

The Dublin GAA brand is a powerful one and is worth millions to the county and the GAA generally. O’Rourke said he wouldn’t be afraid to smash that brand by creating three new separate teams in the capital.

“I’d go back to what I always say; we’re different, we’re not a commercial enterprise,” he said. “The GAA is based on something as simple as community involvement. A lot of people, I think, are clouding their judgement on this with comparisons to rugby and soccer and other professional sports.

“The GAA model is one of involvement, of opportunity, of participation, as distinct from complete domination. We’re not Real Madrid or Manchester United where the big should dominate all the time. We have to have a different model to that.”

Seán Cavanagh, who captained Tyrone in their heavy All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Dublin, said afterwards that Dublin could go on to win at least five-in-a-row and, possibly, eight out of 10 All-Irelands.

“I think maybe that [eight] is a bit too much but they will go on winning indefinitely, there is no doubt about that,” predicted O’Rourke.

The draw for the 2018 football championships will be made on October 19th and Jim Bolger, the Leinster Council chairman, said it’s likely Dublin will play their opening game away from Croke Park again.

Dublin went 10 years without playing a championship game at a provincial venue before beginning their 2016 campaign at Nowlan Park and they travelled to Portlaoise last summer to play Carlow.

“It’s not written in stone but it has worked well the last two years,” said Bolger, acknowledging that taking Dublin to provincial venues means significantly lower gate receipts.

“We have taken a hit financially but it’s not all about finances. We like to do what we think is the right thing for everybody, for all our patrons and Dublin have been keen to come out of Croke Park also.

“It is a hit in the pocket but it can’t be all about that either.”

Daniel Glynn’s accuracy from general play and frees helped Pádraig Pearses end their 30-year famine in the Roscommon SH final at Athleague.

The Pearses centre-forward contributed 0-15, including five from play, over the hour as Pearses put the disappointment of losing their last eight finals behind them.

Shane Naughton’s four sumptuous points from play took some off the scoring burden off Glynn as Pearses opened up a 0-11 to 0-7 interval advantage.

Full-forward James Fitzmaurice goaled four minutes into the second half to hint at a Four Roads recovery. But when substitute Oisín Kelly availed of some hesitant Four Roads defending to flick Glynn’s 45th minute free to the net, Pearses were on their way.

Resolute Pearses defending kept Four Roads at bay, and it was fitting that Glynn bisected the posts in spectacular fashion in injury time to confirm his side’s first championship success since 1987.

PÁDRAIG PEARSES: P Dolan; K Daly, K Feehily, E Costello; D Loughnane, P Dolan, E Cogavin; T Seale, M. Donoghue; G Downey, D Glynn (0-15, 0-5f), S Naughton (0-4); A Finnerty, C Kelly, D Staunton (0-1). Subs: O Kelly (1-0) for Finnerty (h-t), T Cogavin for Downey (54 mins), J Donoghue for Daly (54 mins), B Fallon for P Dolan (59 mins), D Dolan for Seale (60 mins).

FOUR ROADS: D Dowd; Cormac Coyle, M McLoughlin, C Dowd; S Curley, M Kelly, J Mulry; J Moran, D Dolan (0-3, 0-1 65); S Beirne, J Coyne (0-6, 0-4f), P Kelly (0-2); E Rogerson, J Fitzmaurice (1-0), N Fallon (0-1). Subs: Conor Coyle for McLoughlin (h-t), J Rogerson for Cormac Coyle (h-t), B Mulry (0-1) for Beirne (47 mins), A Lawlor for E. Rogerson (54 mins), C Dolan for Moran (57 mins).

Referee: K McGeeney.

A late sideline cut from the brilliant 19-year-old Lixnaw marksman Shane Conway ensured his side forced replay as Ballyduff were denied a record breaking 25th Kerry hurling title in front of a huge crowd at Austin Stack Park.

Those present witnessed one of the best quality finals of recent vintage with two outstanding individual displays. Ballyduff’s Padraig Boyle lit up the afternoon with a personal haul of 2-11 while the precocious Conway fired 1-10 of his own.

Boyle had 1-6 on the board before Jack O’Sullivan scored the only non-Boyle score of the half. Boyle added another and the sides retired at 1-8 apiece with Shane Conway getting 1-4 for Lixnaw.

The second half was end-to-end stuff with some excellent scores. Ballyduff made an explosive start with two long-range Boyle frees. In the 34th minute Aidan Boyle set up brother Padraig whose shot was parried by PJ O’Gorman, who could not prevent the sliotar from drifting over the line for Boyle’s second goal.

Ballyduff led by three (2-15 to -1-15 ) with six minutes left but Shane Conway saved the day with points from a free, a 65 and then a 62nd minute sideline cut that levelled a thrilling contest. The sides will meet again on Sunday.

BALLDUFF: P J O’Gorman; A O’Connor, P O’Grady, C Kearney; D Goulding, P Costello, E Ross; D O’Carroll, A O’Carroll; P O’Carroll, A Boyle, J O’Sullivan (0-1); J, P Boyle (2-11, 1-0 pen, 1’65, 4f), M Boyle (0-1), J Goulding (0-2). Subs: L Boyle for P O’Carroll (h/t), G O’Brien for A Boyle (52), T Slattery for J O’Sullivan (52), A Boyle for L Boyle (59)

LIXNAW: M Stackpoole; D McCarthy, P Corridan, G Stackpoole; B Brosnan (0-1, 1f), S Power, C O Keeffe; J Griffin (0-1), B McAuliffe (0-1); J Buckley (0-1), R Heffernan, R Galvin (0-1); J McKenna (0-1), M Conway (0-2), S Conway (1-10, 5 frees, 1’65, 1 SC). Subs: D Shanahan for G Stackpoole (24), J Wallace for R Heffernan (h/t), J Flaherty for R Galvin (47), C Sheehy for J McKenna (56)

Referee: J Murphy (Limerick)

Late points from Eoghan Ruth and substitute Cormac Mullins rescued ÉireÓg in a tense and exciting Carlow SFC final at Netwatch Cullen Park.

There was a sensational start for the attendance of 3,500 when Alan Kelly’s lobbed effort into the Éire Óg goal area in the first minute fell kindly for Rathvilly full forward Gary Dempsey, who found the net. Dempsey quickly added a pointed free as the townsmen struggled to establish a foothold.

Rathvilly led 1-3 to 0-5 at break and by the 41st minute had forged 1-7 to 0-6 ahead. But Éire Óg gradually reduced the gap with Benny Kavanagh, Seán Gannon and Derek Hayden prominent. In the end it left to Ruth and Mullins to rescue Éire Óg and bring the sides to a second meeting.

RATHVILLY: R Molloy; BJ Molloy, C O’Brien, T Bolger; J O’Donoghue, W O’Donoghue, J B Leonard; Brendan Murphy, K Doyle; A Kelly (0-3), E Finnegan, R Ryan; Brian Murphy (0-2, one free), G Dempsey (1-2, one free), JJ Smith (0-2).

Subs: D Molloy for Ryan (47 mins); C Byrne for J B Leonard (50 mins); J Moore for J O’Donoghue (injured, 50 mins); B Smith for Doyle (57 mins).

ÉIRE ÓG: R Moore; F O’Toole, M Fitzgerald, B Kavanagh; J Lowry, P McElligott, R Dunphy; S Gannon (0-1), K Chatten; D Hayden (0-1), E McCormack (0-3, all frees), E Ruth (0-2); D O’Brien (0-3, one free), C Blake, M Furey.

Subs: C Mullins (0-1) for McCormack (41 mins); N Quinlan (0-1, free) for Blake (45 mins); J Morrissey for O’Brien (52 mins).

Referee: D Hughes (Erin’s Own, Bagenalstown).

Cavan Gaels captured their first county SFC title since 2014 with the minimum of fuss at Kingspan Breffni.

Veteran Seanie Johnston collected his tenth county medal and the man of the match award in what was a real tour de force.

Castlerahan were their own worst enemies, though, as they set about trying to claim first ever title.

They let the Gaels off the hook when Paul Smith blasted his shot over instead of under the black spot on 16 minutes and then Cian Mackey’s effort from the penalty spot - after Daniel Lynch was brought down - flashed wide of the junction of crossbar and upright in the 23rd minute.

Seanie Johnston and Robert Maloney-Derham compounded Castlerahan’s travails by splitting the posts with consummate ease.

Thereafter, Johnston’s points proved pivotal in steering his side into a 0-7 to 0-2 interval lead but points after the break from Oisin O’Connell, Oisín Kiernan and Mackey kept Castlerahan in touch.

Castlerahan kept nipping away at their opponents’ heels but to no avail and the dismissals of influential duo Cormac Daly and Stephen Cooney only served to rub salt into their wounds.

Cavan Gaels: C Flynn; L Fortune, N Murray, K Meehan; S Murray, B Fortune (0-1), L Murphy; P Graham, R Maloney-Derham (0-2); N Smith (0-2), M Lyng, A Graham; P O’Connor, S Johnston (0-5, 2f), M Dunne (0-2, 1f). Subs: D Sexton for S Murray (42 mins); D Meehan (0-1) for A Graham (49 mins); S Fitzsimons for B Fortune (BC, 61 mins); V Coyle for P O’Connor (62 mins).

Castlerahan: J Leahy; S Cooney, O Kiernan(0-2, 1 45), E O’Connell; P Smith, F Reilly, P Smith (0-1); C Daly (0-1), D Wright; B Coleman, R Flanagan, D Lynch; S Brady (0-1), C Mackey (0-1, 1f), E Flanagan. Subs: O O’Connell (0-1) for B Coleman (h/t); C McEnroe (0-1) for D Lynch (43 mins); P Brady for S Brady (62 mins); G Daly for E Flanagan (64 mins).

Ref: G Sheridan (Mullahoran)

Full forward Keith Beirne led a brilliant second-half comeback from Mohill as they consigned Glencar/Manor to a third straight defeat in the Leitrim SFC Final in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Glencar/Manor led by 0-8 to 0-6 at half-time but Mohill levelled 12 minutes after the interval thanks to Beirne, who converted a ‘45’, and Daniel Beck pointed from play. Ronan Kennedy put Mohill ahead for a second time when he shot a 46th minute point.

During the next two minutes Beirne, who finished with seven points, increased the Mohill advantage to three when he split the Glencar/Manor posts from play and a free.

Glencar/Manor points by James Glancy and Aaron Hickey reduced Mohill’s lead to the minimum by 50th minute but they held out to win.

MOHILL: P Tighe; J Mitchell, R Gallagher, O Madden; D Gordon, C Canning, C Kennedy; D McLoughlin, S Quinn; D Beck (0-1), D Flynn (0-1), K Keegan (0-1); R Kennedy (0-3, two frees), K Beirne (0-7, three frees, one 45), A McLoughlin (0-1).

Subs: D Mitchell for Gordon (50 mins).

GLENCAR/MANOR: A McDonald; T McDonald, P Gilmartin, F Rooney; J Rooney, P Maguire, J O’Brien; K McGriskin, D Sweeney (0-1); B McDonald (0- 1), A Hickey (0-4, two frees), A Croal (0-1); E Sweeney, J Glancy (0-1), N Brady (0-3).

Subs: C Dolan for Croal (52 mins); R Flynn for Sweeney (55 mins); T Coyle for McGriskin (56 mins).

Referee: B Sammon (Aughnasheelin).

Thurles Sarsfields cruised to a fourth successive Tipperary SHC crown at Semple Stadium on Sunday.

The Blues had 16 points to spare against neighbours Borris-Ileigh in front of a big attendance of 8,376.

Sars were too good, particularly in the second half when they outscored Borris by 1-13 to 0-4.

Conor Stakelum’s goal midway through the half killed this final stone dead, after Borris had been just four points behind at the break, 0-7 to 0-11.

Stakelum had a goal disallowed and forced a fine save from Jack Bourke before finally breaking through.

It was an avoidable concession from a Borris viewpoint as Bourke attempted to stop Stephen Cahill’s effort from sailing over the bar.

But he could only bat the sliotar into the grateful path of Stakelum, who made no mistake into an empty net from close range.

From there until the finish, it was a procession for Sars, who became the first club in Tipperary since Toomevara (1998-2001) to win four-in-a-row.

It’s a 36th Dan Breen Cup win for Sars, who enjoyed a five-in-a-row success in the 1960s, before going from 1974-2005 without tasting success.

The quest for Sars now is to translate dominance within their own county borders to the Munster stage.

Sars have won eight of the last 13 Tipperary titles but won the Munster championship just the once in that time.

They’ll face the Waterford champions on October 29th but it won’t be a simple task on Déise soil.

This was a first final appearance for Borris-Ileigh since 1988 but their big day ended in disappointment.

Dan McCormack hit three points from play, while Liam Ryan hit a brace from wing back, but Sars had too much firepower.

They were seven points clear three times in the opening half before Borris, who’d endured a barren 18-minute spell, hit three on the spin approaching the break.

Any faint hopes of a revival were extinguished early in the second half, however, as Sars claimed the opening three points to ease clear again.

With the Maher brothers, captain Pádraic and Ronan, lording it in defence, Borris found scores hard to come by, with their full-forward line finishing scoreless.

And after Stakelum’s goal, a sense of inevitability descended upon Semple Stadium, as Sars more than justified their status are red-hot pre-match favourites.

The general mood in the Sars camp at full-time was one of quiet satisfaction but deep down, players and team management will now feel that there are bigger fish to fry.

With past and current county players in various grades sited in each line of the field, Sars are viewed as one of the great under-achievers on the provincial and All-Ireland stages, considering the high-calibre of individuals at their disposal.

Down the home straight, Sars could afford the luxury of emptying their bench and they now have three weeks to get right for another venture into the province.

THURLES SARSFIELDS: P McCormack; M Cahill, R Maher (0-1), S Maher; C Moloney, P Maher (0-1), S Lillis; J Maher, S Cahill (0-1); D Maher (0-3), B McCarthy (0-3), A McCormack (0-9, six frees, one 65); C Stakelum (1-2), P Bourke (0-2), L Corbett (0-2).

Subs: M O’Brien for Bourke (38 mins), T Doyle for Stakelum (temp 50-51 mins), T Doyle for Denis Maher (52 mins), R Dwan for S Maher (59 mins), C Lanigan for Stakelum (59 mins), R Purcell for Moloney (60+3 mins).

BORRIS-ILEIGH: J Bourke; T Fahy, C Cowan, M Stapleton; P Stapleton, B Maher (0-5, all frees), S Burke; L Ryan (0-2), S McCormack; N Kenny, D McCormack (0-3), K Maher (0-1); J Hogan, C Kenny, J Kelly.

Subs: J Harkin for M Stapleton (16 mins), K Ryan for Hogan (49 mins), V Stapleton for K Maher (55 mins), M Ryan for Fahy (59 mins).

Referee: F Horgan (Knockavilla Donaskeigh Kickhams)

All-Ireland Club champions Dr Crokes, inspired by the genius of Colm Cooper, cruised into yet another Kerry club football final with an emphatic 5-13 to 0-14 win over West Kerry side on Saturday.

Crokes were always in control at Fitzgerald Stadium with their free-scoring forwards causing a youthful West Kerry defence problems throughout.

West Kerry’s cause was not helped when they lost livewire forward Tomas Ó Sé through injury and then, just before half-time, Jason Hickson collected an unnecessary second yellow card. Playing with 14 men for the entire second half West Kerry never had a chance.

A goal from team captain Daithi Casey in the ninth minute after work for Tony Brosnan and Gavin O’Shea gave Crokes a 1-2 to 0-1 advantage. Eanna Ó Conchúir had spurned a great goal chance for West Kerry two minutes earlier.

Casey cannoned a ball of the crossbar in the 20th minute but Brian Looney and the impressive Micheál Burns ensured Crokes led 1-9 to 0-5 at the interval.

Cooper displayed another touch of his sorcery three minutes after the restart when he spotted the West Kerry defenders arguing protesting with the referee after a free was awarded. Without hesitating, Cooper rifled the ball into the top corner past Tomas Mac an tSaoir.

Things got worse for West Kerry when Crokes ran their young bench as substitute Jordan Kiely netted two goals before Paul Clarke added another for a 14-point win.

They will face South Kerry in the final on October 22nd with Bryan Sheehan inspiring his side to a narrow 0-12 to 1-8 win over Kerins O’Rahilly’s. This was a slow burner, despite an early goal from a Jack Savage penalty, earned by Tommy Walsh who later had to limp from the fray.

Sheehan kicked three points from play while Daniel Daly added three more, but the tie remained in the balance until sub Ian Galvin gave them the lead from a free and Kerry fullback Mark Griffin added another in injury time.

Barry John Keane got one back for Kerins but then missed a long range free to force as replay as South Kerry once again held their nerve when it mattered most.

After waiting 66 years to claim the Longford SFC title last year, St Columba’s retained their crown with a deserved win over their neighbours Abbeylara who lost their third county final in a row.

The Mullinalaghta side dominated proceedings but that didn’t reflect on the scoreline and only for a second half penalty from Abbeylara’s Robbie Smyth the winning margin would have been greater.

Mickey Graham’s charges started the game with purpose; Rian Brady and Conor McElligott kicking over two points apiece. Robbie Smyth the slotted over a free in the 10th minute to open Abbey’s account.

Points were exchanged between David McGivney (free) and a wonderful James McEntire effort saw St Columba’s go in at the break just two points ahead; 0-5 to 0-3.

The exceptional Donie McElligott got St Columba’s opening point of the second half and in the 38th minute they extended their lead to four points. One minute later the gap was just two points after Abbey were awarded a penalty which Smyth duly put away.

It was all Abbey at this stage and two frees from Smyth left it a one point game in the 45th minute but that was the closest they would get as the half-parish showed great resolve and resilience to see out the game.

St Columba’s finished the game with 14 men after Jayson Matthews received a second yellow card.

St Columba’s: P Rogers; S Cadam, P Fox, F Mulligan; C Brady (0-1), S Mulligan, D McElligott (0-1); A McElligott, J Keegan; D McGivney (0-2, 1f), J McGivney (0-2), G Rogers; J Matthews (0-1, 1f), R Brady (0-4), C McElligott (0-2). Subs: J Mooney for Cadam (48 mins), M Cunningham for C McElligott (52 mins)

Abbeylara: G Kelly; C Brady, J McEntire (0-1), Barry Smyth (0-1); C Smyth, C P. Smyth, PJ Masterson; R Brady, F Battrim; Brian Smyth, J Kelly (0-1, 1f), B Crawford; R Smyth (1-4, 1-0 pen, 4f), S Mahon, C Berry. Subs: P Berry for Crawford (29 mins), K Smyth for Brian Smyth (37 mins), A Dalton for Barry Smyth (47 mins), N Rabbitt for McEntire (58 mins)

Referee: A Dowler (Moydow Harpers)

Slaughtneil survived an early scare to defeat Dunloy by seven points at Owenbeg. The Antrim champions hit the holders with an early blitz and led 1-4 to a single point after 13 minutes.

But, stung into action, the Derry men recovered impressively and ran out comfortable winners in the end. Cormac O’Doherty top scored for the winners with eleven points including four from play, in a man of the match performance for Mickey McShane’s men.

A Nigel Elliott goal in the eighth minute backboned a terrific start for the away side as Dunloy threw down an early gauntlet to the reigning champions. Trailing by six points early on, Slaughtneil responded magnificently to hit the next nine scores including Chrissy McKaigue’s somewhat fortuitous 26th minute goal. Cormac O’Doherty’s tremendous catch and ensuing point in the 20th minute signalled that his side had finally found their groove and when they gobbled up the Dunloy lead they never looked like going behind.

The Emmet’s led 1-9 to 1-5 at the break and extended that advantage soon after through scores form Brendan Rogers, Brian Cassidy and the ubiquitous Cormac O’Doherty.

The Antrim men, feisty to the end, scored a second goal late on through Paul Shiels, but with O’Doherty in sparkling form Slaughtneil cruised to victory and another provincial final.

Slaughtneil: Oisin Doherty, Karl McKaigue, Sean Cassidy, Mark McGuigan, Meehaul McGrath, Shane McGuigan, Paul McNeill, Conor McAllister, Christopher McKaigue (1-1), Gerald Bradley (0-1), Sean Cassidy, Brendan Rogers (0-2), Se McGuigan (0-1), Brian Cassidy (0-2), Cormac Doherty (0-11, 0-7f). Subs: Cormac McKenna for S Cassidy (10 mins), Gareth O’Kane for S Cassidy (34 mins)

Dunloy: Ryan Elliott, Phelim Duffin, James McKeague, Paudie Shivers, Kevin McKeague, Conor McKinley, Kevin Molloy, Ciaran Elliott, Paul Shiels (1-4, 0-4f), Nigel Elliott (1-0), Gabriel McTaggert (0-1), Keelan Molloy (0-1), Eoin O’Neill (0-1), Ally Dooey, Conal Cunning. Subs: Nicky McKeague (0-1f) for C Elliott (half-time), Chrissy Brogan for A Dooey (38 mins), Shane Dooey for G McTaggert (41 mins), Eamon Smyth for P Shivers (49 mins)

Referee: James Clarke (Cavan)

Fermanagh claimed the TG4 All-Ireland ladies junior football crown at the second time of asking as they overcame Derry in a pulsating final replay in Clones on Sunday afternoon.

During the initial meeting of the sides at Croke Park last month, Emmet Curry’s Ernesiders had been nine points behind before rallying late to earn a second chance.

And they were clearly determined not to find themselves in such a position again as they started with a flurry of scores here and were soon three points to the good, with Eimear Smyth providing the pick of those early efforts courtesy of the outside of her boot.

At that stage, the Derry management rightly looked concerned, particularly when they could only strike the frame of the goal after Megan Devine had weaved her way through the defence and unleashed a low effort.

Slowly though, they began to find their feet and edged their way back in to the contest through scores from Emma Doherty and Ciara Moore.

But their increasing hopes of a comeback at St Tiernach’s Park were dented hugely when a rapid Fermanagh counter-attack was rounded off by Bláithín Bogue finding the net with a superb finish from a tight angle.

And, mainly thanks to that score, at the break it was the girls in green in charge with a narrow 1-4 to 0-5 advantage.

Derry, with the words of manager Paul Hasson clearly still ringing in their ears, began the second half in much brighter form and rapid-fire scores from Ciara McGurk and two Emma Doherty points quickly moved them on to level terms.

It was at this stage though that Fermanagh, roared on by a large support amongst the 5,000-plus crowd, seemed to grow stronger in the face of adversity.

Full forward Sharon Murphy, who salvaged a replay with a last-gasp penalty goal in the drawn game, rattled the crossbar with a powerful drive and Derry could only partially clear the danger.

Following that, Fermanagh corner back Joanne Doonan’s long punt towards goal dropped in to the back of the Derry net to make it 2-5 to 0-8 – a decisive score.

In the closing stages Derry found themselves in some great positions without being able to convert the chances their intricate build-up play deserved, while Fermanagh could do exactly that to narrowly get over the line and secure the West County Hotel Cup.

After losing intermediate finals in 2009 and 2014, Fermanagh finally landed a first All-Ireland title in the adult grade, but Derry’s long wait continues.

Fermanagh will also return to the intermediate championship grade next year, another reward for this gritty replay win.

FERMANAGH: R Gleeson; J Doonan (1-0), C Murphy, N McManus; M Connolly, S Hamilton, A Maguire; M McDonald, A McGovern (0-1); R O’Reilly, A Woods, L Maguire (0-2); E Smyth (0-2), S Murphy (0-4), B Bogue (1-0).

Subs: Nuala McManus for Bláithín Bogue (45 mins), Danielle McManus for Roisin O’Reilly (50 mins), Erin Murphy for Maria Connolly (58 mins).

DERRY: C Mackey; A McGough, D Donnelly, C Glass; N Browne, K Holly, D Kivlehan; A Laverty (0-1), Emma Doherty (0-6); J Donnelly (0-1), C Moore (0-1), Erin Doherty; A Crozier (0-1), M Devine, C McGurk (0-1).

Subs: Aimee Glasgow for Ciara Moore (20 mins), Rachel McAllister for Nuala Browne (24 mins), Catherine Fletcher for Erin Doherty (48 mins), Rhianna Curran for Annie Crozier (57 mins).

Referee: Kevin Corcoran

TIPPERARY SHC FINAL
Borris-Ileigh v Thurles Sarsfields, Semple Stadium, 3.30 (TG4)
Thurles are the Tipp championship’s pool hustler, holding the table all night, swatting away all-comers. This will be their eighth county final in 10 years and their seventh different opposition. They haven’t lost a final since 2008.

Borris-Ileigh are in their first final in 29 years. Borris have leaders throughout the field in Brendan Maher, Dan McCormack and Paddy Stapleton but experienced Thurles would appear to have more.

LEITRIM SFC FINAL
Glencar-Manorhamilton v Mohill, Páirc Seán MacDiarmada, 3.30pm
Glencar-Manorhamilton have ground their way to this final after looking in big trouble in the wake of an shock defeat to unfancied Bornacoola back in August. They’ve lost in the final for the past two years, one of them after a replay. Not much between these sides but Manor get the nod.

CARLOW SFC FINAL
Éire Óg v Rathvilly, Netwatch Cullen Park, 3.45
Palatine were going for three-in-a-row in Carlow before Éire Óg upset them with a five-point win in the semi-final. Rathvilly were inspired by Brendan Murphy in their semi-final win over Old Leighin and he can keep their flag flying here.

CAVAN SFC FINAL
Castlerahan v Cavan Gaels, Kingspan Breffni Park, 3.30
Two years ago, Castlerahan lost the final by a point; last year, they were pipped after a replay. They’re 3-1 outsiders, having never won a Cavan title. Maybe this could be their time.

LONGFORD SFC FINAL
Abbeylara v Mullinalaghta, Glennon Bros Pearse Park, 4.0
A repeat of last year’s final. Mullinalaghta probably have the more rounded side, with Abbeylara so heavily reliant on the brilliant Robbie Smyth. Could be the difference.

CORK SHC SEMI-FINALS

Blackrock v Na Piarsaigh, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, 2.15
Imokilly v Sarsfields, Páirc Uí Chaoimh 4.0
There will be talk of old glories being revived when the final comes around. Blackrock, Na Piarsaigh and Imokilly won six out of eight titles around the turn of the century but none of them have seen a final since 2004. Sarsfields look the most battle-hardened side, having overcome a star-studded UCC team after a replay.

ULSTER CLUB SHC SEMI-FINALS
Slaughtneil (Derry) v Dunloy (Antrim), Owenbeg, 2.30 Ballygalget (Down) v Lisbellaw (Fermanagh), Corrigan Park, 2.30

ALL-IRELAND WOMEN’S JFC FINAL REPLAY
Derry v Fermanagh, St Tiernach’s Park, Clones, 1.30 (TG4)
Fermanagh went into the drawn game as heavy favourites, after registering big wins over Derry in earlier league and championship clashes.

But Derry led by nine points at Croke Park and Fermanagh needed a last-gasp penalty goal from Sharon Murphy to salvage a replay.

Derry have named an unchanged starting 15 but Fermanagh have made two changes for the replay.

Joanne Doonan comes in at corner back for Edel Campbell, with Bláithín Bogue, who scored a point off the bench in the drawn match, at corner forward in place of Nuala McManus.

Clifford was a key figure yet again as Kerry secured their fourth minor title in four years. The Fossa clubman scored 1-10 in the semi-final win over Cavan and 4-4 as Kerry defeated Derry in the final at Croke Park in September.

The 18-year-old has now scored 10-68 in his 12 minor championship matches over the past two seasons and is widely expected to be a mainstay in the senior county team for years to come.

Meanwhile, Turnbull amassed a total of 1-51 over the course of the minor hurling championship this year, notching 1-7 in his side’s All-Ireland final loss to Galway at Croke Park.

Kerry legend Jack O’Connor was also honoured on Saturday with the Minor Star Special Merit Award, presented to him by Mícheál Ó’Muircheartaigh, for his significant contribution to minor football in Kerry.

Minor hurling team of the year

Darach Fahy (Galway, Ardrahan), Caimin Killeen (Galway, Loughrea), Sean O’Leary Hayes (Cork, Midleton), Darren Morrissey (Galway, Sarsfields), Aidan McCarthy (Clare, Inagh-Kilnamona), James Keating (Cork, Kildorrery), Lee Gannon (Dublin, Whitehall Colmcilles), Daire Connery (Cork, Na Piarsaigh), Conor Fahey (Galway, Padraig Pearses), Brian Roche (Cork, Bride Rovers), Sean Currie (Dublin, Na Fianna), Adrian Mullen (Kilkenny, Ballyhale Shamrocks), Sean Bleahane (Galway, Ahascragh-Fohenagh), Jack Canning (Galway, Portumna), Brian Turnbull (Cork, Douglas).

Minor football team of the year

Deividas Uosis (Kerry, Dingle), Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne (Dublin, Cuala), Conor McCluskey (Derry, Magherafelt), Cian Gammell (Kerry, Killarney Legion), Michael Potts (Kerry, Dr Crokes), Padraig McGrogan (Derry, Newbridge), Niall Donohue (Kerry, Firies), Barry Mahony (Kerry, St.Senan’s), Oisin McWilliams (Derry, Swatragh), Ross McGarry (Dublin, Ballyboden St Enda’s), David Clifford (Kerry, Fossa), Donal O’Sullivan (Kerry, Kilgarvan), Oisin Pierson (Cavan, Gowna), Lorcan McWilliams (Derry, Swatragh), Fiachra Clifford (Kerry, Laune Rangers).

Dean Rock’s dramatic injury-time free against Mayo secured the All-Ireland for Dublin last month, with Gavin’s side becoming only the ninth side to win three-in-a-row and the first Dublin team to do so since the 1920s.

Gavin’s achievement eclipsed that of Micheál Donoghue, who ended Galway’s long wait for an All-Ireland hurling title with their win over Waterford earlier in the month.

Dominic Casey, the Ireland coach who masterminded Ireland’s success at the World Rowing Championships, also misses out. Paul O’Donovan claimed a second lightweight men’s single sculls title in Florida, adding to the gold won by the lightweight men’s pair of Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll.

Last month’s All-Ireland was the crowning of Gavin’s remarkable reign with Dublin. His side swept through Leinster again, with an average winning margin of 17 points, before Monaghan and Tyrone met similar fates in the quarter and semi-finals.

Only Mayo truly tested the defending champions during the summer, last year’s beaten finalists pushing Gavin’s side to the limit before once again losing out by a single point.

The All-Ireland was Gavin’s fourth in five years as Dublin manager, during which time he has also claimed four National League titles and five Leinster championships. He was previously named Philips Manager of the Year in 2013.

The Dublin forward offered some insights into what was going through his mind as he put the ball between the posts in the 75th minute to secure Dublin’s third consecutive All Ireland victory.

“I didn’t want my mind to run away with me and think, ‘Jesus this is what I’ve always dreamed of,’” he explained at an AIG event yesterday. “Because as a kid you would have always imagined kicking a winning score in an All-Ireland final.”

But Rock is a self-professed “calm individual” – something which comes through in both his sporting life and in his day-to-day life working with people with intellectual disabilities.

“People would always refer to me as being calm, cool and collected. Not just from a free-taking or sporting point of views. Just in a way of life.”

So instead of getting overwhelmed by the what ifs, he simply focused on executing the task at hand and avoided any self-congratulatory pats on the back until the match was done and dusted.

“I had no time to sit back and reflect and think, ‘Jesus, I’m a great lad for putting that ball over the bar’.

“If I did start to think of the significance of the kick in the All-Ireland final and what would happen if I did get it or what would happen if I didn’t miss it, chances are I probably would have missed it,” he said.

“For me, it was about trying to concentrate on what I could affect, and then the rest would look after itself.”

Rock was also asked about an incident in which Lee Keegan tossed a GPS tracker in Rock’s direction as he prepared to take that last-gasp free. A few weeks on, he maintains that he was “oblivious” to what was going on and that he “genuinely thought it was a piece of muck”.

He dismissed the controversy as “irrelevant” and described such incidents as par for the course.

“You’d always notice lads distracting you, putting you off or calling you different things. That’s just part and parcel of it especially in Gaelic football,” he said. “You hear from spectators, you hear from players on the pitch. That’s just the norm.”

The twice postponed county board meeting could take place on Friday night with Gilroy expected to see off Cuala’s All-Ireland club hurling-winning manager Mattie Kenny.

Both Gilroy and Kenny will be considered by the Dublin management committee before a single candidate is put to the full county committee for ratification.

Gilroy is understood to be bringing former Galway hurling manager Anthony Cunningham on board in a coaching capacity. The successful businessman ended Dublin’s 16-wait for a football All-Ireland in 2011, before stepping down in 2012, citing work commitments abroad.

However, Gilroy has been based in Dublin for the last six months. The position is due to be offered on a three-year term.

As well as his notable football success, the 45-year-old does have a hurling background, having made his senior debut with St Vincent’s before his football breakthrough. He also won Dublin U15 and U16 hurling championship medals with the club, under the guidance of the late Lar Foley.

Cunningham led Galway to the 2012 and 2015 All-Ireland finals, losing both to Kilkenny, and is also a former All-Ireland winning hurler (twice with Galway, in 1987 and ’88).

The new manager is expected to entice several established Dublin hurlers, who either left or were dropped off the panel by former manager Ger Cunningham, back into the fold.

Already there’s some uncertainty surrounding the date of the All-Ireland football final; in the draft fixture calendar, it’s pencilled in for Sunday August 26th – after congress earlier this year agreed both the hurling and football finals would be played in August on a three-year trial basis. 

However, given the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland next August, the 2018 football final is likely to be put back to Sunday September 2nd. Part of the problem here is that the Pope doesn’t usually confirm his schedule until six months in advance, but he is expected to attend at least two of the events surrounding the World Meeting of Families, due to be held here between August 21-26th, including a Mass in Croke Park on that Sunday, August 26th. 

The new hurling championship structure will for the first time see both Leinster and Munster play their provincial competitions on a round-robin basis (consisting of five-team groups), due to be played off over five successive weekends (one team having a bye each weekend, with two of the four games guaranteed at home venues). 

These games are down to start on Sunday May 13th, through to Sunday June 10th. The issue here may be the availability of home venues such as Croke Park, Semple Stadium and Páirc Uí Chaoimh for dual counties such as Cork, Tipperary, Dublin, and Galway, who will be running off their provincial football competitions at the same time. 

Given the changes in hurling, only a 2018 football championship draw is needed this year – taking place next Thursday week, October 19th. The Leinster and Munster provincial councils will decide the draw and scheduling of games for their round-robin hurling championships, with the Leinster hurling final pencilled in for Sunday June 24th, the Munster final a week later, Sunday July 1st.

This however will leave the Leinster hurling champions with a five-week lay-off before their All-Ireland semi-final, and the Munster champions with a four-week lay-off, as the 2018 All-Ireland hurling semi-finals are pencilled in for the Saturday July 28th and Sunday July 29th. 

Three-year trial

After the football draw is made, the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) must then complete the master fixture calendar for final approval at Central Council’s meeting at the end of November. 

This draft calendar was circulated to counties as part of central council’s proposal for the new hurling championship structures, passed on a three-year trial basis at Saturday’s special congress after getting the necessary 62 per cent majority support of delegates. 

This will increase the number of games in the Liam MacCarthy Cup from 22 to 29 (excluding the 2017 four-team Leinster qualifier series), with Leinster and Munster now consisting of five-team groups and played on a round-robin basis; if the new two-tier championship is the included the number of games rises to 45, again on a three-year trial basis. 

This comes on top of the new Super-8 football championship, also introduced on a trial basis for 2018-2020, and will see the addition of eight games at the quarter-final stage, as eight counties play-off in two groups of four, all those games also pencilled in for July. 

When asked how the master calendar might fall into place, GAA director general Páraic Duffy said it was “a little bit constrained” until after the football draws are made: “The next central council meeting is the last week in November and we have to present it at that meeting so the work will start now next week. It’s a little bit constrained until the draws are made on the 19th of October and the question then is asked about the provincial councils and how they are going to work the round-robins.” 

Other dates pencilled in on the draft master fixtures calendar is Sunday April 1st for the Allianz Football League final, and Sunday April 15th for the Allianz Hurling League final. This will mean an earlier start to the football league, the intention being to free up April completely for club fixtures, with the exception of the hurling league final.

The wiry halfback was a key member of the All-Ireland winning team in 2013, winning his second consecutive All Star at the end of that season.

Last year he added a Division One league title to his list of honours, which also include a Fitzgibbon Cup with UL in 2011 and an Interpro championship with Munster in 2013.

He made his debut in 2007 but the 32 year-old played no part in this year’s championship as the Banner lost the Munster final to Cork, before bowing out at the quarter-final stage against Tipperary.

The Whitegate clubman released a short statement on Wednesday, reflective of his no-nonsense approach in the Clare defence.

“I wish to confirm that I am retiring from inter-county hurling with Clare. Thank you to everyone who has helped me on my journey along the way. I would like to acknowledge and sincerely thank my family and friends, teammates and management teams in Whitegate, Scariff Community College, University of Limerick and Clare. Thank you.”

Data collected throughout the 2017 hurling and football championships is aimed at assisting and improving referee fitness programmes – and shows they’re now covering just under 10km per game. Linesman, often seen to be standing still, are in fact covering close to 7km per game.

All 14 national hurling referees and the 20 football referees were tracked using GPS units throughout the championship (28 games in hurling, 63 games in football) by STATSports, who have their UK base in Newry, for research carried out by the GAA in association with Aidan Brady at DCU.

In hurling, the average distance covered was 9.64km, and slightly more in football (9.80km). The average number of sprints (>18km/h for more than 1sec) was 42 in hurling, with a maximum of 78; in football the average was 49, with a maximum of 90.

“We’re only starting to properly look at the match demands of referees during the championship, and certainly some of these numbers are surprising”, says Barry Watters, senior sports scientist at STATSports.

“They’re covering 9-10km on average, and that would be around the same for the average intercounty player. It might be higher for a half forward, midfield, but on average it’s 9.5 to 10km for the player as well.

“Over the 70 minutes, players would be doing three or even four times the number of high intensity runs, but all in all, referees cover same distance. We know how much work the players do to get in shape, and again the referees don’t often get the same credit. But the purpose here is to then base fitness tests and other markers at the start of the year, to help decide are they at the fitness standard necessary to referee senior championship matches.”

In football, the maximum top speed of the referee was 28.3km/h; in hurling it was 26.7km/h, again not far off the maximum top speed of the player – who would however be producing those runs with greater frequency.

Referees also cover more ground in football than hurling, despite the assumption hurling might be the faster game: the maximum distance covering in a championship match (11.70km) was also in football, slightly less (11.19km) in hurling.

“I was bit surprised at those numbers myself,” says Watters. “In hurling though the ball might go inside the 45m, then come straight back out again, so counters some of that out. The high speed numbers (7 per cent of runs) indicate as well that maybe referees do need to do more of a warm-up, and that’s something taken from the data before. The first two minutes of a championship match can often be the fastest, and it’s important the referees don’t pick up any injuries because they’re not warmed up, or ready for the game.

“With GAA players, Premier League players, this has been done before, where they look at the demands of the game, then work backwards, to make sure players are doing the right training to match those demands. It’s only now being done with referees, and they love getting the feedback to see exactly what those demands, and can then alter their preparations and conditioning. In the past they would have done a lot of long-distance training, not the high intensity stuff that they actually need.

“The venue can have an impact on this too, Croke Park obviously being a lot bigger than say Clones, or somewhere like that. The style of football and hurling being played can also have an impact, Ulster football say sometimes being that bit slower, with the more defensive systems.”

The average distance covered by the linesmen was 6.64km in hurling, 5.90km in hurling: “Most of the time when you’re looking at the linesmen they’re standing still, when actually they’re also covering a lot of ground, and would be close to some positions on the field, the full back line, or full forward line, average about 6-7km per match.

“Overall it’s helped a lot in the conditioning programmes being done up, an area under-studied, not just in GAA but across all sports. There isn’t much published data on exactly how much stress the referees are put under.”

STATSports also provide GPS units for a select number of county teams, including Dublin and Mayo.

2017 Referee and Linesmen Statistics

FOOTBALL

Distance

Average distance covered: 9.80km

Max distance covered: 11.70km

Average (Linesman): 5.90km

Max (Linesman): 6.97km

Speed

Max: 28.3km

Average Max Speed: 24km/h

Number of sprints (>18km/h for more than 1sec)

Max: 90

Average: 49

Distance breakdown

Walking (0.1-6.5km/h): 25%

Jogging (6.6-12km/h): 27%

Low intensity running (12.1-15km/h): 21%

Moderate intensity running (15.1-18km/h): 17%

High intensity running (>18km/h): 10%

HURLING

Distance

Average distance covered: 9.64km

Max distance covered: 11.19km

Average (Linesman): 5.97km

Max (Linesman): 6.64km

Speed

Max: 26.7km/h

Average Max Speed: 23.2 km/h

Number of sprints (>18km/h for more than 1sec)

Max: 78

Average: 42

Distance breakdown

Walking (0.1-6.5km/h): 29%

Jogging (6.6-12km/h): 25%

Low intensity running (12.1-15km/h): 22%

Moderate intensity running (15.1-18km/h): 17%

High intensity running (>18km/h): 7%

* The max distance in football (11.7km) was covered by Jerome Henry in the All-Ireland Round 2A, Laois vs Clare, in Portlaoise.

* The max distance in hurling (11.2km) was covered by Paud O’Dwyer in Round 1 of the All-Ireland qualifier between Tipperary and Westmeath at Semple Stadium in Thurles.

However Wednesday’s county board meeting – postponed from Monday – will also consider All-Ireland hurling club winning manager Mattie Kenny, who earlier this year guided Cuala to Dublin’s first ever title in that championship. 

Both candidates – Gilroy and Kenny – will first be considered by the Dublin management committee, who immediately afterwards will then put their preference to the full county committee for ratification. 

The position has been vacant since July when Ger Cunningham stepped down, and Kenny was the original frontrunner, before Gilroy’s name first emerged last week. 

Dublin’s 2011 All-Ireland-winning football manager is understood to have former Galway hurling manager Anthony Cunningham on board in a coaching capacity, further strengthening his candidacy. Gilroy ended Dublin’s then 16-wait for a football All-Ireland in 2011, before stepping down in 2012, citing work commitments. 

Much of that work was carried out in London but Gilroy has been back based in Dublin for the last six months, after changing jobs. The position is due to be offered on a three-year term. 

As well as his notable football success, Gilroy does also have some hurling background. He made his senior debut with St Vincent’s in hurling before football, and he won Dublin U15 and U16 hurling championship medals with the club, under the guidance of the late Lar Foley. 

Cunningham led Galway to the 2012 and 2015 All-Ireland finals, losing them both to Kilkenny, and is also a former All-Ireland winning hurler (twice with Galway, in 1987 and ’88). He has also been successful in the football sphere, winning county and provincial club titles with St Brigid’s in Roscommon and Garrycastle in Westmeath. 

The Gilroy-Cunningham ticket certainly appears attractive, although Kenny is not without strong credentials himself. He was part of Cunningham’s Galway management team in 2011 and 2012, before stepping aside. He then took over Cuala, steering them to two county titles as well as overseeing their historic All-Ireland club win back in March. 

Kenny was also known to be in the running for the Galway management job two years ago, before that went to Micheál Donoghue, who last month guided Galway to their first senior All-Ireland since 1988. 

Ger Cunningham, the Cork native, stepped down after three largely unsuccessful seasons. He had succeeded Anthony Daly who had guided Dublin to a Leinster title in 2013, their first in 53 years, and also the 2011 league title, their first since 1939.

Waterford have already conceded defeat in the quest to get their club football championship completed in time for the Munster championship – a direct result of their extended run to this year’s All-Ireland hurling final. 

Instead, Waterford will focus on getting their club hurling championship run off by October 22nd, with the Tipperary champions awaiting the winners a week later in the Munster quarter-final (Oct 29th). Those Waterford quarter-finals are down for this weekend, clearly no room for further delay. 

Waterford were one of the counties to openly oppose the introduction of the new hurling championship structures, which were passed on a three-year trial basis at Saturday’s special congress after getting the necessary 62 per cent majority support of delegates (which would however have failed to reach the previous threshold of a two-thirds majority, it was lowered to 60 per cent at annual congress earlier this year.) 

This will increase the number of games in the Liam MacCarthy from 22 to 29 (excluding the 2017 four-team Leinster qualifier series), with Leinster and Munster now consisting of five-team groups and played on a round-robin basis; if the new two-tier championship is included the number of games rises to 45, again on a three-year trial basis. And that’s all on top of the new Super-8 football championship. 

Exactly how this will impact on club fixtures next year remains to be seen, even with the All-Ireland finals brought forward to August.

Waterford had already been given an extra week to complete both their football and hurling championship; in football, they were drawn away to the Cork champions on the first weekend of November, but given the number of dual clubs still involved in both competitions, it was decided to defer the football competition until after the end of the hurling championship. 

Kilrossanty, An Rinn, and Stradbally have already qualified for the semi-finals, with nine teams involved in a series of play-offs to determine the fourth slot, including The Nire/Fourmilewater, home to Waterford hurler Jamie Barron.  

“It’s all a backlog of games being called off due to ourselves going so far in the championship,” said Barron, one of the three candidates for 2017 hurler of the year – along with team-mate Kevin Moran and Joe Canning of Galway. 

Big disappointment

“Obviously it’s a big disappointment, if you did win a county, not to be able to play in Munster. But that’s just the hand we’re dealt now and I think they’re aiming to get the hurling played off so that the hurlers can at least compete in Munster. 

“I suppose it’s just not feasible to get the two of them played off now at this stage. I think a few years ago Stradbally had to play the day after against Nemo Rangers, which isn’t fair either on players. 

“When you’re putting in as much time as players are, you want to be able to play the things you should be allowed play. It’s probably hard on club players who haven’t played all summer.” 

Last November, Waterford football champions The Nire reached the Munster final, losing to Kerry and eventual All-Ireland champions Dr Crokes; Waterford also missed the Munster club football deadline in 2003 and 2008. 

Yet Barron – unlike Waterford County Board officials – did give his backing to the new hurling championship structure, which under the round-robin format, will guarantee four championship games in late May and early June. 

“I suppose every player wants to be playing games. This year, we went in the back door and we’d games every two or three weeks. It’s good to have a very close aim, whereas our wait from the league until the Cork game was 11 weeks or something, which means it’s hard to train at times for something so far away. You get lazy. 

“Week on week would be a good way to go about it and it would probably give more use to the panel as well. At times there’s a lot of lads training and they’re not getting much of a look in, but if we were playing week on week the panel would be brought into use a lot more and a lot of new players will get their chance.” 

It also emerged over the weekend that seven players from Wicklow dual club Éire Óg in Greystones have withdrawn their services from next year’s county panels after being forced to play two championship games within 24 hours of each other.

Wicklow footballers Stephen Kelly, Darren Hayden and Daniel Woods are among the seven players, an early blow to new Wicklow manager John Evans; Billy Cuddihy, son of county doctor Dr Brendan Cuddihy, is among those to withdraw from the county hurling panel for 2018. It saw Éire Óg play two games in 24 hours the weekend before last, losing the hurling semi-final to Glenealy, and also the football quarter-final replay to Baltinglass. 

Another example of the backlog is that three of the four Kilkenny hurling quarter-finals ended in a draw, and they will be replayed this weekend.

The Ireland manager had invited in “seven or eight” of Dublin’s All-Ireland winners, including footballer of the year candidate James McCarthy. In helping Ballymun Kickhams beat St Brigid’s in the county quarter-final over the weekend, however, McCarthy is club-tied until at least Saturday week. 

Ballymun will face Kilmacud Crokes, while the other Dublin semi-final will see champions St Vincent’s face St Jude’s; both semi-finals will be played on Saturday October 14th. 

Also asked in was Dublin’s Con O’Callaghan, who may take up the invite after his club Cuala lost their quarter-final to St Jude’s, despite the young star scoring 0-4. “With Con O’Callaghan, people would say, ‘Has he enough experience?’” said Kernan. “Of course he has. He’s a class act but he has football and hurling to contend with, with his club, so it just mightn’t suit.” 

The 2017 series, back after a one-year hiatus, will see the opening game taking place on Sunday November 12th at the Adelaide Oval, and the deciding Test the following Saturday night, November 18th, at the Domain Stadium in Perth, in what will be the final game held in that venue. 

Club duty

Also held up in club duty is former Ireland captain Seán Cavanagh, still one of Kernan’s first-choice players despite his recent retirement from the county game. 

Cavanagh’s club, Moy, have now reached the Tyrone intermediate championship final against Derrylaughan, and if they win the title next weekend, they will go on to represent the county in the Ulster Club Championship.This also keeps his brother Colm out of making any commitment to the Ireland team. 

“I said to Joe I would see how things go with the club, and things are progressing rather well,” said Cavanagh. “It is going to be tough. So it may be difficult to commit if the run keeps going, but we’ll just take it week by week at this stage.”

“The International Rules is something I’ve always loved doing, but there’s certain priorities. I had a fire in the business this week, and my wife is heavily pregnant at this stage, so there’s lots of things happening in my life at the moment.”

Senior promotion

Cavanagh captained Ireland to series success over the Australians in 2008, but for now his commitment remains firmly with his club, who can gain senior promotion if they win the intermediate final. “It’s been a long time since we were in a county final. We’re there now and we’ll look forward to Derrylaughan. We lost it in ’08, so this is my second chance at a final with the Moy. There’ll be a good buzz around the town this week.”

Kernan admitted last week the club-versus-country conflict was far from ideal: Australia can get to pick from all their top players as the series comes in their off-season.

“The ideal situation is that you train together for five or six weeks, you have the boys one night a week, on the Friday night. If somebody has a match on a Sunday we don’t kill them with four quarters, we only give them a quarter or two quarters so we’re working with them, but they still have to be there.

“In fairness to the clubs they’re saying, ‘boys, we don’t want you to go there,’ so that’s hard on them, but I must say, on a whole, most of them are able to make the commitment.”

There are six nominations for beaten All-Ireland senior finalists Mayo. Forward Cora Staunton could earn a record-equalling 11th All-Star award on the night, after the Carnacon player was shortlisted for the full-forward position.

Ulster senior champions Donegal have been rewarded with five nominees, Munster winners Kerry have three players on the list of 45 and there are two nominations each for Armagh and Waterford.

Cavan, Galway, Monaghan, Sligo, TG4 All-Ireland intermediate champions Tipperary and runners-up Tyrone each have one player nominated.

Seven players from the 2016 All-Star team are nominated for awards again.

Dublin quartet Leah Caffrey, All-Ireland senior final player of the match Noelle Healy, Carla Rowe and captain Sinéad Aherne are in contention for individual honours once more, along with Cork pair Ciara O’Sullivan and Orla Finn, and Mayo’s Fiona McHale.

Dublin’s other nominees are goalkeeper Ciara Trant, defenders Martha Byrne, Sinéad Finnegan, Rachel Ruddy and Niamh Collins, midfielder Lauren Magee, and forward pair Nicole Owens and Niamh McEvoy, who scored a first half goal against Mayo in the All-Ireland decider.

Cork captain Ciara O’Sullivan is joined by her sister Doireann on the list, while the Rebelettes are also represented by Finn, goalkeeper Martina O’Brien, defenders Emma Spillane, Róisín Phelan, Melissa Duggan and Shauna Kelly, and forward Eimear Scally.

As well as McHale and Staunton, Mayo have captain Sarah Tierney in contention, along with fellow defender Martha Carter, midfielder Aileen Gilroy, and forward Sarah Rowe.

Donegal’s progression to a Lidl Division 1 final against Cork, an Ulster title win and a All-Ireland quarter-final appearance has been recognised with five nominees.

Ciara Hegarty is in contention for the centre half back position, Karen Guthrie is listed at midfield, with forwards Niamh Hegarty, Geraldine McLaughlin and Yvonne McMonagle also included.

Kerry’s Munster title win, and All-Ireland semi-final appearance, sees defender Aislinn Desmond, captain and centre back Caroline Kelly, and midfielder Lorraine Scanlon nominated.

Waterford, meanwhile, beat both Kerry and Cork in the Munster senior championship, and they have Megan Dunford and Katie Murray on the list.

Armagh, who reached the All-Ireland senior quarter-final, have Caroline O’Hanlon and Aimee Mackin in the running for All-Star awards.

Cavan’s Aisling Doonan, Galway’s Sinéad Burke, Monaghan’s Sharon Courtney, goalkeeper Noelle Gormley from Sligo, Tipperary’s Aishling Moloney and Neamh Woods from Tyrone complete the list of nominees.

Three players are nominated from the intermediate grade - Noelle Gormley, Aishling Moloney and Neamh Woods.

The 2017 TG4 All Star team will be announced at a gala banquet at the Citywest Hotel on Saturday 25th November, along with the junior, intermediate and senior Players’ Player of the Year award winners, the Provincial Young Players of the Year and the 2017 inductee into the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) Hall of Fame.

Nominations:

Goalkeepers - Martina O’Brien (Cork), Ciara Trant (Dublin), Noelle Gormley (Sligo).

Right corner back - Emma Spillane (Cork), Martha Byrne (Dublin), Megan Dunford (Waterford).

Full back - Sinéad Finnegan (Dublin), Aislinn Desmond (Kerry), Sarah Tierney (Mayo).

Left corner back - Róisín Phelan (Cork), Rachel Ruddy (Dublin), Martha Carter (Mayo).

Right half back - Melissa Duggan (Cork), Caroline Kelly (Kerry), Neamh Woods (Tyrone).

Centre half back - Ciara Hegarty (Donegal), Niamh Collins (Dublin), Sharon Courtney (Monaghan).

Left half back - Shauna Kelly (Cork), Leah Caffrey (Dublin), Sinéad Burke (Galway).

Midfield - Caroline O’Hanlon (Armagh), Lauren Magee (Dublin), Karen Guthrie (Donegal), Lorraine Scanlon (Kerry), Aileen Gilroy (Mayo), Fiona McHale (Mayo).

Right half forward - Aimee Mackin (Armagh), Ciara O’Sullivan (Cork), Carla Rowe (Dublin).

Centre half forward - Aisling Doonan (Cavan), Doireann O’Sullivan (Cork), Niamh Hegarty (Donegal).

Left half forward - Nicole Owens (Dublin), Aishling Moloney (Tipperary), Katie Murray (Waterford).

Right corner forward - Eimear Scally (Cork), Sinéad Aherne (Dublin), Sarah Rowe (Mayo).

Full forward - Niamh McEvoy (Dublin), Geraldine McLaughlin (Donegal), Cora Staunton (Mayo).

Left corner forward - Orla Finn (Cork), Yvonne McMonagle (Donegal), Noelle Healy (Dublin).

Beaten manager Paddy O’Rourke summed it up best - “Kilcoo don’t do panic”.

The reigning champions used all their experience to outscore 14-man Burren by five points to two in the final 20 minutes at Pairc Esler to collect a sixth Down title in a row on Sunday.

Dylan Ward enhanced his growing reputation with a match-winning contribution of 0-4 from play, three in the second half, as Kilcoo equalled the six-in-a-row record set by Burren in the 1980s.

Not for the first time this season, or most seasons, Kilcoo had to scrap their way over the line.

Burren lorded midfield in the first half but kicked five costly wides during their period of dominance.

Kilcoo punished them, twice coming from three points behind in that first period to trail by just 0-7 to 0-6 at the break, and they then slowly got on top, aided by vital scores from Ward and Jerome Johnston.

Burren lost Conaill McGovern’s to a straight red for striking Down team-mate Paul Devlin off the ball in the 57th minute.

The game was free-flowing and fast-paced up until a ragged final 10 minutes, when Kilcoo also picked up three black cards.

The champions get the chance to avenge last year’s Ulster final defeat by Slaughtneil when they host the Derry outfit in the preliminary round in two weeks’ time.

O’Rourke, the 1991 All-Ireland winning Down captain, hopes Kilcoo can end the long search for a provincial title, even though they beat his club in the county decider for the third time in five years.

“For one thing it might free Down up and maybe they (Kilcoo) wouldn’t keep trying so hard,” smiled O’Rourke.

“We started fairly well but didn’t put enough scores on the board. That kept them in the game, and they don’t do panic. They are seriously experienced. I hope they do go on and win Ulster. That team deserves an Ulster.”

Burren had the wind and knew they had to take the game to Kilcoo early. They made the start they wanted, landing the opening three scores inside four minutes, all from Donal O’Hare.

Ward got the champions on the board after 10 minutes and Paul Devlin’s free reduced the deficit further. Burren responded with Ryan Treanor’s excellent point from the wing and a ‘45’ from goalkeeper Cathal Murdock.

Kilcoo grew into the game, but they blew a great chance when Darragh O’Hanlon blazed a penalty - won by Ceilum Doherty - over the bar.

Having had the wind, Burren knew a 0-7 to 0-6 interval lead wasn’t nearly enough.

And Kilcoo stamped their authority all over the second half with points from Johnston and Ward putting them in front just three minutes in.

Burren hit back through Murdock and O’Hare, but once Ward levelled it at 0-9 apiece in the 39th minute, Kilcoo took over and punished an increasingly wayward Burren side who started turning the ball over too easily.

O’Hare and Shay McArdle had late goal-bound shots cleared, and when O’Hare floated a last-gasp hopeful ball into the square, Dan McCartan fisted it over - it was not enough to stop Kilcoo joining them as the only Down teams to win six in a row.

Kilcoo manager Paul McIver was delighted to have extended the club’s domination of the county, but said: “I look at football very differently than a lot of people.

“It doesn’t pay my wages, it doesn’t look after your health - your family is the most important thing. The players buy into that as well. This is only football. It’s great to have days like this, but it is not the be-all and end-all.”

McIver is looking forward to the Slaughtneil clash..

“Look, they are a brilliant team,” he said. “Slaughtneil are at a level everybody else is trying to get to. But we are not talking about Ulster.

“This was a massive thing for Kilcoo, six in a row. Today, we created a wee bit of history in county Down and that’s what we wanted to do.”

KILCOO: S Kane; N Branagan, D O’Hanlon (0-1), Aidan Branagan; D Branagan, Aaron Branagan, P Devlin (0-4f); F McGreevy, A Morgan (0-1); R Johnston, J Johnston (0-2), M Devlin; C Doherty, D Ward (0-4), C Laverty (0-1).

Subs: E Branagan for R Johnston (38), J McClean for M Devlin (39), JJ McLaughlin for Aidan Branagan (52), D Kane for McClean (BC, 55), S O’Hanlon for D Branagan (BC, 58).

BURREN: C Murdock (0-2 ‘45’, 1f); J McGovern, G McGovern, S Fegan; D Rooney, C Cox, C Foy; M McKay, C Toner; R Treanor (0-1), D O’Hare (0-6 3f), S McArdle; Conaill McGovern, K McKernan (0-1), D McEntee.

Subs: S Murdock for Treanor (41), Ciaran McGovern for J McGovern (41), D McCartan (0-1) for McKay (53), P Poland for McEntee (53), E Toner for C Toner (59).

Referee: P Faloon.

The change that was accepted at the end of the congress when motion 21, obliging kick-outs to travel not less than 13 metres and outside the 20-metre line, secured 82 per cent of the 142 votes.

Dublin delegate Michael Seavers opposed saying that the change would, “condense our playing areas between the 21 and 45 yard lines. This does not reward the people who want to play ball; this is helping people who can’t play ball properly.”

Asked about proposals to extend the restriction to the 45-metre line, as is the case in international rules, Burns was unconvinced.

“You have to be very careful,” he said, “that you don’t turn the game into something that is contrived or you don’t end up with unintended consequences. It is maybe something that could be trialled at a later stage but it’s not something that we have planned. We just thought it was a bridge too far.

“If a forward is facing the goal and he knows that the ball has to cross the 45, there’s no incentive for him to be in that area so what they would do is maybe four out of the six would hang around the middle of the field and it would make it even more congested.”

He had introduced the motion by saying that the initiative would be “a slight discouragement” to goalkeepers going short with re-starts.

“I understand what Michael Seavers was saying, that you are limiting the space that a goalkeeper has to kick the ball out but, again, what we have found is, if you are reasonable as opposed to radical you will get things through Congress.”

He was also asked about any plans to address the type of scenes evident at the end of September’s All-Ireland final when various incidents of calculated misbehaviour took place. In response Burns said that his committee had to be careful about over reacting and he referenced the progress made in addressing the problem.

“People have come up to us and you can’t really knee-jerk on the basis of cynicism in the last five or 10 minutes of the All-Ireland final. I don’t think that’s something that our committee is going to change, perhaps the next one but I definitely think that there has been a fair change in the game and the attitude towards the game.

“People lambast the black card and I think the black card, while it’s not nice when somebody gets a black card and you don’t want to see anybody going off on a black card, particularly in the later stages of the championship, is a temperament sanction and it deals with the actual player himself having to prepare his temperament to make sure he doesn’t carry out any of the infractions that we see.”

He referred to remarks made by former GAA president, the late Joe McDonagh, 20 years ago.

“I took a photo of his comment and he said there was too much pulling and dragging in the game, too many stoppages and we needed to deal with it. I think that by and large, we are dealing with it. It is going to be hard to eradicate in an aggressive game where aggression is such a part of it but I think the game is better as a result of changes that have been brought in.”

Glenealy claimed their 15th Wicklow senior hurling title at Joule Park Aughrim on Sunday when they dethroned reigning champions Bray Emmets by seven points in a keenly contested encounter.

Bray, who won the last three titles in a row, established a 0-4 to 0-1 lead in the opening 10 minutes, but then they failed to build on that advantage despite having the aid of a strong breeze. Two of those opening four points were via free taker Christy Moorehouse.

In the 14th minute Glenealy’s corner forward Alan Driver fired to the net after being set up by Enan Glynn, which left his team just one point adrift at the interval (1-3 to 0-7).

Midfielder Jonathan ‘Bosco’ O’Neill was in fine scoring form for Glenealy from frees, finishing the match with a total of nine points, but it was dual player Leighton Glynn who put the killer nail in Bray’s coffin when he pounced on a defensive error to finish to the net on 52 minutes.

Glenealy: K Snell, L Kavanagh, W Kavanagh, E Byrne, G Byrne, D Staunton, T Doyle, J Manley, J O’Neill, E Glynn (0-1), R Byrne, J Byrne, J O’Neill jnr (0-9f), L Glynn (1-1), A Driver (1-1).

Subs: R O’Neill for R Byrne (54m), J Manley for J O’Neill Jnr (59m), G Weir for E Glynn (60m).

Bray Emmets: E Mason, S Maloney, P Kiely, P Walsh (0-1), D Henderson, J Henderson, E Forde, D Masterson, L Maloney, C Moorehouse (0-6f), P Doyle (0-2), M Lennon, T Cash, M Lee (0-2), P Cunningham .

Subs: B McCormack for T Cash (HT), L Benville for P Cunningham (49m), L Kenny for M Lennon (56), D Maloney for D Henderson (56m).

Referee: C Fleming.

Ardclough produced a stunning upset in the Kildare hurling final in Newbridge on Sunday when they beat hot favourites Naas to lift their 11th title, and first since 2006.

Few outside the Ardclough camp gave them a chance against a Naas side who lost last year’s final and who had beaten Ardclough three times already this year.

Naas couldn’t have wished for a better start as Richie Ryan rattled the back of the Ardclough net after just two minutes. He added a point a minute later to settle Naas into the game but with the Fitzgerald brothers, Paul and Martin, starting to find their form Ardclough came right back into the game.

Ryan’s goal was the only difference between the teams at half time as Naas led 1-8 to 0-8.

After Paul Fitzgerald and Ryan swapped early scores, both teams were reduced to 14 men when Ardclough’s Johnny Reeves and Naas’ Kieran Maher were sent off for an off-the-ball incident.

Fitzgerald then levelled the game for the one and only time with a 39th minute goal. He then added a point a minute later to put Ardclough ahead for the first time and from there, they never looked back.

As well as the two Fitzgerald’s, Colm Buggy hit two important scores late on. Naas did get back to within a point at one stage but Ardclough had moved into another gear and a frustrating day for Naas saw them finish the game with 13 men following a red card shown to Jack Sheridan in injury time.

Ardclough: A Buggle; E Walsh, D Collins, R Spain; P Aylward, R Hoban, R Maguire; P Ryan, J Reeves; T Spain (0-1), M Fitzgerald (0-7, 5f), C Buggy (0-3); N Delahunt, L Hanley, P Fitzgerald (1-4). Subs: M Stapleton for Aylward (27 mins); S Buggy for Stapleton (55 mins); S Crowe for C Buggy (60 mins).

Naas: C Gallagher; D McSweeney, R Bergin (0-1), P Sullivan; D McDonncha, S Walsh, S Gainey; E O’Hehir (0-1), M Nevin; S Ryan, M Purcell (0-1), S Lacey; K Maher, J Sheridan (0-1, 1sc), R Ryan (1-8, 7f). Subs: B Byrne for McSweeney (33 mins); J O’Malley for Bergin (41 mins); K Aherne for Nevin (51 mins); C Tobin for S Ryan (51 mins); K Byrne for O’Hehir (59 mins).

Referee: D. Peppard

Castletown-Geoghegan regained the Westmeath hurling title after a four-year wait with a fully deserved win over reigning champions Raharney in Mullingar on Sunday.

Aided by a strong wind, and with Westmeath captain Aonghus Clarke excelling from frees and open play, Castletown-Geoghegan were already 0-10 to 0-4 ahead when Cormac Deegan cleverly found the net in the 29th minute.

Raharney’s only scorer in the first half, Killian Doyle, and Clarke then traded points from frees, leaving the holders trailing by 1-11 to 0-5 at half-time.

The champions-elect kept the scoreboard ticking over throughout the second half, with full back Liam Varley and full forward Niall O’Brien prominent throughout. Trailing by 1-17 to 0-11, Raharney did manage to fire over five unanswered points but Clarke brought his tally to 12 with a crucial free in the fourth minute of added-time.

Joey Boyle’s goal for Raharney with time almost up was merely a consolation.

Castletown-Geoghegan: P Maloney; N McKenna, L Varley, E Óg Clarke; C Kane, S Clavin (0-2), E Quinn; M Heeney (0-1), D Lynch; P Maxwell, A Clarke (0-12, 9f), D McCormack (0-1); J Clarke, N O’Brien (0-2), C Deegan (1-0). Subs: D McDermott for E Clarke (35 mins), K Glennon for McCormack (56 mins), J Bermingham for Maxwell (60 mins).

Raharney: A Doyle; S Quinn, C Jordan, G Greville (0-1); D Giles, P Greville, T Doyle; N Flanagan, C Boyle; J Goonery, B Smyth (0-2), J Shaw (0-1); R Greville (0-1), K Doyle (0-9, 1f, 1sc), J Boyle (1-0). Subs: A Sheils for T Doyle (35 mins), C Doyle (0-1) for C Boyle (37 mins), E Keyes (0-1) for Goonery (46 mins), D Finn for Flanagan (49 mins), C Boyle for Smyth (56 mins).

Referee: M Murtagh (Clonkill).

Derrygonnelly Harps had far too much power and panache as they easily disposed of Devenish to win their third Fermanagh title on the trot.

The hot favourites were rarely troubled by the underdogs apart from the first quarter when Devenish marksman Terry O’Flanagan kicked them into an early 0-2 to 0-0 lead.

It took the Harps a while to settle, but they always looked dangerous on the attack against a vulnerable looking Devenish fullback line.

Lively wing forward Leigh Jones got the champions off the mark with a well struck effort and corner forward Gary McKenna levelled matters from a free.

Play was scrappy with planty of frees as Devenish edged clear again through the inevitable O’Flanagan in the 14th minute but it was score-for-score as Paul Ward hit back for Harps

The Harps owned the second quarter and created two clear goal chances that were saved by Thomas Treacy and Martin Doherty.

Conal Jones, meanwhile, was causing the Garrison men all sorts of problems in defence and with McKenna and Ward chipping in Harps led by 0-8 to 0-4 by the 27th minute.

Devenish corner forward Chris O’Brien then scored the point of the half when he danced through the centre of the Derrygonnelly defence.

Harps veteran Kevin Cassidy ended the half with a fine score to put the Harps ahead by 0-9 to 0-5 at the interval and they maintained their grip on proceedings in the second half.

Derrygonnelly Harps: J Kelly, K Cassidy (0-1), T Daly, M Jones: N Gallagher, E McHugh (0-1), G McGinley; R Jones (0-1) G Jones (0-1); Leigh Jones (0-2), P Ward (0-2, 1f), D Cassidy (0-2); G McKenna (0-3f) C Jones (0-2), S McGullion. Subs: D Greene for McHugh (black card, 33 mins), Lee Jones for Gallagher (45 mins) S McGullion for McKenna (54 mins) A Gallagher for Cassidy (57 mins) A Burke for Leigh Jones (60 mins)

Devenish: T Treacy; C McGowan, S McAloon, V O’Brien; R Doherty, A McGuinness, M Doherty; M O’Brien, J Love; J McNulty, T O’Flanagan (0-6, 6f), D Rasdale; G Gallagher, B Mulrone, C O’Brien (0-2). Subs: JJ O’Brien for McAloon, R Maguire for McNulty (both half-time), J O’Flanagan for Gallagher (40 mins) C Mulrone for Doherty (60 mins) S Jones for Cassidy (62 mins)

Referee: Gerard McLaughlin (Ederney)

John Davis has worked the oracle once more as Meath made the most of their second bite of the cherry to win the All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie final replay at the Gaelic Grounds and secure their place at the top tier next year.

The 69-year-old has steered the Royals all the way from Junior B to senior level, while at the same time, bringing them from Division 4 to Division 1 of the National League.

Amy Gaffney was the main driving force for Meath on this historic occasion with four points from play as they earned a deserved victory over a Cork side that failed to build on a strong opening.

Gaffney had a very deep supporting cast though as they likes of Megan Thynne, Ellen Burke, Jane Dolan and Aoife Maguire were among those to make their presence felt in a fiercely contested affair.

The exchanges were wonderfully physical and engaging as both teams dealt well with the howling gale and slippy underfoot conditions.

Cork clocked up three points in the first six minutes with the wind behind them. They only managed another two by the interval however and were held scoreless for 30 minutes.

Some injudicious shooting contributed to that but Meath improved as they battened down the hatches in defence, while Thynne, Gaffney and Dolan took the battle to Cork.

Keeva McCarthy used the wind to her advantage with three stunning points from frees for the Leesiders as they moved 0-5 to 0-1 ahead by the 17th minute.

The St Finbarr’s player missed a few later on but none were straightforward, with two of her scoring efforts coming from inside the Meath half and the second of those close to the sideline.

Caroline Sugrue shot Cork’s first score from play after putting good pressure on Burke following McCarthy’s opening brace.

Not for the first time in a stellar career, Dolan provided the spark for Meath. Moved to centre-forward, the Blackhall Gaels ace won possession before being fouled and made no mistake from the resultant placed ball 40m out.

The fired-up Lauren Callanan was unfortunate to be shown a yellow card for the indiscretion but had an outstanding first half with some real combative play. The Glen Rovers girl was fouled for McCarthy to claim her third point and Katelyn Hickey made it a four-point game thanks to an assist by Rachel O’Shea.

Gaffney slotted her first after a fantastic block by Thynne and Dolan converted a stunning free from 40m out and wide on the right to make it 0-5 to 0-3 at the break.

The sides were level within seven minutes of the restart thanks to points for Gaffney and Dolan (free). McCarthy slotted her fourth free five minutes later to end that half-hour barren scoring spell but Dolan restored parity on the three-quarter mark and Meath, who had definitely wrested control with the elements in their favour, stretched clear.

Aoife Maguire put the Leinster outfit in front for the first time in the game in the 50th minute, after taking a pass of precision and vision by Aoife Minogue. Gaffney added a brace after two scorching runs and when Dolan added her fifth free, they had one hand on the Jack McGrath Cup.

McCarthy gave Cork some hope with another pointed free but the Rebels never looked like chiselling out the goal they needed to avoid a second consecutive final defeat.

MEATH: E Mangan, E Burke, C Coffey, E Coffey, Á Keogh, A Maguire (0-1), L Donoghue, C O’Brien, M Thynne, A Gaffney (0-4), K Troy, A Minogue, F O’Brien, J Dolan (0-5f), S Hackett. Subs: M Keogh for M Coffey (ht), C Quinn for O’Brien (51).

CORK: A Lee, S Harrington, L Weste, N Ní Chaoimh, R Kileen, S Buckley, L Callanan, F Neville, J Barry, K Hickey (0-1), K McCarthy (0-5f), M McCarthy, R O’Shea, L Collins, C Sugrue (0-1). Subs: My Lynch for Kileen (41), M Buckley for Sugrue (58), S Fahy for O’Shea (60).

Referee: J Dermody (Westmeath)

Kilcormac/Killoughey returned to the summit in Offaly hurling with a nerve-tingling win over never-say-die St Rynagh’s in O’Connor Park on Sunday.

Ahead 2-13 to 0-8 with 16 minutes to go, Kilcormac/Killoughey looked to have more than enough done to win but were forced to mount a ferocious rearguard action in the closing quarter.

With the wind on their backs, St Rynagh’s came storming back and at one stage seemed set to complete a heroic comeback. They scored three points on the trot before an opportunist goal from substitute Joe O’Connor made it 2-13 to 1-11 with 10 minutes remaining.

A fine Stephen Leonard point settled Kilcormac/Killoughey briefly but the holders continued swarming forward in numbers, forcing them to enter into desperate defending.

The losers got four points without reply to make it a two-point game with three minutes left. Out on their feet, however, Kilcormac/Killoughey defended heroically with Damien Kilmartin and the outstanding Killian Leonard answering the most searching of questions. A brilliant point from Dan Currams, a surprise return from a broken arm, restored the three point gap.

Stephen Quirke and Ciaran Slevin exchanged late frees as Kilcormac/Killoughey held on for a dramatic but ultimately deserved win.

They had laid a powerful foundation when playing with a strong wind in the first half. It was tit-for-tat in the opening quarter and Kilcormac/Killoughey led by 0-4 to 0-3 after 14 minutes. A goal from man of the match Slevin put them 1-4 to 0-3 ahead in the 15th minute and Kilcormac/Killoughey went on to play their best hurling.

Thomas Geraghty added a second goal five minutes later and St Rynagh’s had no answer to the winners’ physical approach. They led by 2-10 to 0-5 at half time which in the end proved a sufficient cushion.

Kilcormac/Killoughey: Conor Slevin; K Leonard, G Healion, K Grogan; E Grogan (0-1), D Kilmartin, J Quinn; C Kiely (0-1, 1f), Ciaran Slevin (1-7, 5f); J Gorman (0-1), C Mahon, P Geraghty; S Leonard (0-1), P Healion (0-1), T Geraghty (1-1). Subs: D Currams (0-3) for P Geraghty (20 mins), B Leonard for P Healion (52 mins), O Mahon for E Grogan (56 mins).

St Rynagh’s: C Clancy; D Maloney, D Shortt, N Wynne; C Hernon, A Treacy (0-4, 3f and 1 ‘65’), B Conneely; G Kelly, P Camon; G Scales (0-1), G Conneely, M Maloney; S Quirke (0-7, 6f), S Dolan (0-3), S Wynne. Subs: J O’Connor (1-0) for Scales (37 mins), R Hughes (0-1) for Maloney (39 mins).

Referee: R Fitzsimons

St Jude’s have been a model of consistency in recent years and they reached their fifth semi-final in six years when beating Cuala by 0-16 to 1-7.

The template was set from the start with Jude’s building an early two-point lead thanks to scores from Kevin McManamon and Declan Donnelly. Three points in succession by Niall Coakley then pushed them five points ahead by the end of the first quarter.

Cuala eventually responded through a brace of points from Con O’Callaghan and a well-worked Conor Mulally effort, but late points from Mark Sweeney and McManamon edged Jude’s 0-9 to 0-4 ahead by half-time.

A Dara Spillane goal from O’Callaghan’s pass in the 33rd minute offered Cuala a modicum a hope but four second-half points from Donnelly were enough to see Jude’s home comfortably.

There was a dramatic start to the second match as Philly Ryan netted in the third minute for St Brigid’s and three Lorcan McCarthy points left the underdogs six points clear by the seventh minute.

A Dean Rock free and Paddy Small point helped settle Kickhams and they drew level by the 28th minute as Small palmed home after unselfish play from Eoin O’Neill. A late Paddy Andrews score inched Brigid’s 1-7 to 1-6 ahead by half-time.

Ballymun resumed impressively thanks to points from Rock, Small and James Burke to take the lead for the first time in the 37th minute.

They pushed on from that platform with Burke adding another point from wing-back and with Small excelling at full-forward, scoring 1-6 in total, and Rock accruing eight points, Ballymun advanced on a 1-17 to 1-9 scoreline.

After a debate the move was passed with 72 per cent support from delegates. The proposal, motion 9 from Central Council was supported by Galway whose chair Michael Larkin argued that having no provincial championship was a major impediment for the county, which has been competing in Leinster at senior level for the past nine years.

“We enter this (under-21) competition at the semi-final stage and that’s very unfair to Galway. We’d like to be part of the Leinster championship and would ask for the support of delegates and ask Leinster to welcome us. We believe it would benefit Leinster and be good for Galway.”

Leinster counties, however, did not extend much of a welcome to the prospect of one of the strongest counties at the grade moving in with Wexford chair Derek Kent saying that he believed no counties in the province were in support.

GAA Director General Páraic Duffy intervened to say that the main purpose of the proposal was to address the difficulties of Ulster counties. Only last month, this year’s provincial champions Derry lost their All-Ireland to Kilkenny by 52 points.

“By defeating this we would be saying, ‘keep coming to semi-finals. Keep getting hammered. This is to give those counties a decent chance to compete at a provincial level. The average defeat of Ulster counties (at All-Ireland semi-final level) has been 23 points and we can’t stand over that.”

The one football motion was also successful. Jarlath Burns of the Standing Committee on the Playing Rules proposed to restrict the goalkeeper’s kick-out by requiring the ball to travel at least 13 metres and outside the 20-metre line.

“We’re trying to give a slight discouragement to the goalkeeper and make it slightly riskier to take a short kick-out and encourage him to kick the ball long which I think would be a positive development for the game,” said Burns.

There was opposition from Dublin delegate Michael Seavers.

“This would punish negative teams who want to condense the play. We’ll condense our playing areas between the 21 and 45 yard lines. This does not reward the people who want to play ball, this is helping people who can’t play ball properly. It’s saying, ‘let’s knock those who want to play a bit of ball’.”

The change was however backed by 82 per cent of the votes.

Delegates accepted Central Council’s proposed reform of the senior hurling championship on a three-year trial basis. The decision was taken after a lengthy debate during which the four main proposals were individually presented to delegates.

Cork, Dublin and Tipperary also put forward their separate proposals.

Congress voted on all four with a view to selecting the two with most support to put before delegates.

In the event motion 2 from Central Council - to hold the Munster and Leinster championships on a round-robin basis - exceeded the quota with 90 votes and was put to congress, which voted by 62 per cent to accept the trial.

Had the vote taken place in the past, the proposal would have failed but the reduction of the necessary, weighted majority from two thirds to three fifths (66.7 per cent to 60 per cent).

It didn’t all go the top table’s way though, as the amendment from Laois, Meath and Offaly, to allow counties which reach the new Tier 2 final to enter the MacCarthy Cup in the same year received massive support. Only needing a simple majority as an amendment, the motion was passed 130-19 and means that there will be two additional matches.

These will be between the Tier 2 finalists and the third-placed teams in the provincial round robins with the winners going into the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Cork’s Frank Murphy opened the proceedings with his county’s motion, which sought to introduce a round-robin format into the All-Ireland quarter-finals - as has been done in football. He argued that this would make managing club championship fixtures, of which there are to be at least 412 in Cork this year, extremely difficult.

“Our principal objective is to allow club activity from mid-April to July in between championship games,” he said.

He said that although the county had opposed the football reforms, the fact was that “they are there”. Cork’s motion sought to retain provincial championships, give equal status to hurling championship at the quarter-final stage and ensure extended participation in the championship for eight counties.

Murphy argued that a round-robin system at the provincial stage would ‘carry risks’, including poor attendance levels and the danger of dead rubbers.

Putting Tipperary’s motion, Tim Floyd drew attention to the impact on club fixtures, which his county’s proposal sought to address by proposing a similar 10-team provincial structure, but played on a knock-out/losers group basis.

“Just two per cent are inter-county players,” he said. “Hurling should be a summer game for everyone and not just county players.”

Dublin chair Seán Shanley put his county’s proposal, the re-introduction of eight-team quarter-finals as played in the middle of the last decade. He said that the Central Council proposal would have a negative impact on clubs.

Central Council’s case was put by Roscommon’s Mick Rock of the Management Committee.

“This proposal will bring more certainty to club fixtures. If it is passed there will be 24 weekends free for club activity whereas now there are only 16. You’re asked to take a leap of faith for three years, we’re not putting this permanently into our rule-book. It’s an ideal time for hurling to make this leap of faith.”

Kilkenny’s Ned Quinn sought to postpone any move on hurling championship reform. “We’re proposing that the decision be deferred until we have more time to consider the football changes and form a consensus.” GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail however said that the debate would proceed.

Speakers from Galway, Antrim and the GPA’s Dermot Early supported the Central Council motion but Waterford chair Paddy Joe Ryan described the Central Council proposal as potentially “the worst decision ever made by the GAA”.

Put simply, if the Central Council proposal – more or less accepted as the one with the best prospects of success – is successful, the hurling calendar can be slotted in, tongue and groove, with the experimental football format for a three-year trial period.

Whereas there are obvious concerns about how these structures will work, they are, after all, just experiments, and there is at least a parallel interest in freeing additional weekends for club activities.

Aggregated, the various reforms of recent years – rationalising under-age grades, reducing replays and so on – can produce a 50 per cent increase in intercounty-free weekends between 2016 and 2018, from 16 to 23 or 24.

Small trimmings as well as big cuts can facilitate this further: eliminating All-Ireland under-21 semi-finals by taking Ulster and Galway into Leinster and All-Ireland club quarter-finals by bringing the British clubs into Connacht.

On the substance of the championship reforms, Paudie O’Neill, chairman of the hurling development committee, said in these pages during the week that they were essentially reactive in that as soon as the football experiment of a round-robin format in the All-Ireland quarter-finals was accepted, the cry went up for something to be done about hurling.

Competing proposals

As O’Neill further pointed out, much of the debate that has followed has been equally reactive, with counties defending their perceived interests as much as reimagining the optimal format for the hurling championship.

The competing proposals from Cork, Tipperary and Dublin aren’t expected to attract greater support than Central Council’s, but there’s no guarantee that any of them will be accepted, even allowing for the newly lowered bar for changing rules, which was taken down from two-thirds to 60 per cent at last February’s annual congress.

Central Council’s motion isn’t merely about shifting around the furniture. It has a philosophical thrust in wanting to provide more competitive fixtures in the championship calendar.

The vehicle for this, round robins in both the Leinster and Munster championships, isn’t guaranteed roadworthy as the format relies on parity of standards and engaging a hitherto sceptical public about the merits of being weaned off knock-out competitions.

There have, however, been sufficient signs of life in both Leinster, unusually, and Munster to convince the framers of the Central Council motion that the structure can work.

Nor is it entirely a matter for the traditional hurling counties, many of whom oppose the plans, as the provision of more fixtures and greater calendar certainty for those graded in the Ring and Rackard Cups has relevance to many football counties.

Here it is

There is also some controversy in the reduction of numbers, from 12 to 10, in the elite MacCarthy Cup. Counties on the cusp are unhappy that they will be confined to a Tier 2 championship with promotion that won’t become operative until the following year.

This has led to an amending motion from three of those affected – Meath (who competed in Leinster last year); Laois (who qualified for the championship proper); and Offaly (odds-on to be relegated the first year the new format kicks in) – which seeks to allow the Tier 2 finalists access to the MacCarthy Cup.

It seems harmless but there is considerable alarm among officials that the Central Council motion could be accepted and then a couple of emotive speeches later, an amendment that would, in one estimate, add three weekends to the championship thrown in to compromise any progress.

Will the proposal succeed? Even its advocates aren’t sure but there is a sturdy optimism that it may just edge into positive territory.

As one official put it: “After the football changes, you were all looking for something. Here it is!”

A month from now, on Tuesday, October 31st, the plug will officially be pulled from something called the Curriculum Sports Programme in Northern Ireland. The scheme has been running since 2007, at a cost of £1.3 million (€1.47 million) a year, and its purpose has been to place coaches from the GAA and the Irish Football Association with primary schools across the six counties. When November 1st arrives, 24 hurling and football coaches and 27 of their soccer counterparts will be out of a job. Moreover, 450 schools across Northern Ireland will lose the cornerstone of how they’ve taught PE for the past decade.

Pretty much everybody in the North thinks this is a bad idea. The list of things in Northern Irish life that can be said to be an unequivocal cross-community success is never very long for very long. But over the past 10 years, this programme would have always been nailed on for a place. In 2014 it won a UK-wide award for coaching project of the year. It has been held up as an example of best practice in Canada, where it was commended for co-operation between governing bodies and government departments. Everyone from politicians to teachers to pupils to parents to sporting bodies recognises it as something that works.

And now it’s gone. Or going, at any rate. Justin McNulty, former Armagh footballer and now an SDLP MLA, has been banging the drum for the past six months to try to get the decision to scrap the scheme overturned. It would be wrong to say he’s lost all hope; it would be equally wrong to say he has very much of it left.

“I led a delegation of MLAs to meet David Sterling, the head of the civil service,” McNulty says. “And he also understands how positive the scheme is but says his hands are tied, to a certain extent. But it’s also a bit ironic that over the last week, David Sterling was part of the delegation who were presenting the bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

“For him to be on the one hand saying that, yes, we understand the positive effect of sport and the massive contribution the Rugby World Cup will make to Ireland going forward, and then, on the other hand, to be axing a programme that is specifically sports-orientated makes no sense to me.”

Everybody punches down

Well, here’s the sense it makes. The schools programme is at the back of the queue. It’s where the rubber meets the road. It’s the point at which nightly news abstractions such as austerity and Brexit and Stormont gridlock start to consume real life in gluttonous, indiscriminate chunks. One minute you’re smarming your way through Have I Got News For You, next thing 38,000 kids under the age of eight have a little less sport in their lives at the stroke of a pen.

Everybody punches down. The UK government, still addicted to austerity as it is, has for the past year been in the process of slicing the best part of £1 billion off the block grant to Northern Ireland. As a result the North’s Department of Education has had to find £159 million in budget cuts. As a result, schools have had to find ways of making those cuts or face having them made for them. The schools coaching programme is one of the cuts that have been made for them.

A minister would have to stand in front of the Assembly and the electorate and justify this. Obviously the head of the civil service is not an elected representative, so he is not answerable in that way

In turn the political vacuum has allowed the situation to get to this point. Because there is no government in Stormont, there is no minister for education. The deadlock between Sinn Féin and the DUP is as far as ever from being broken, and in their place, the civil service is running the country. By its nature, the civil service is faceless and nameless. David Sterling has no constituency to placate, no pressure group to yield to. He has numbers to hit and Westminster bean-counters to satisfy. The programme is a line in a budget sheet, easily crossed off.

“I would say it would be different if the executive was back up and running,” says McNulty. “Because if that was the case, then you would have a minister who would have to be accountable for this decision. A minister would have to stand in front of the Assembly and the electorate and justify this. Obviously the head of the civil service is not an elected representative, so he is not answerable in that way. So basically, it would be much more difficult for a politician to get rid of this scheme than it is for a civil servant.”

51 jobs gone

Eugene Young is director of coaching and games development at the Ulster Council. The schools programme actually started life as an Ulster Council initiative back in the early 2000s, with trained coaches working with schools to provide two hours a week of PE to kids between four and eight. When Caitriona Ruane took over as sports minister in 2007, she introduced it to primary schools across the North and broadened it out to include soccer coaches from the IFA. At its heights, the scheme employed 60 coaches; when it finishes up next month, 51 jobs will be lost.

The guiding principle for all the coaches working in the programme is the promotion of physical literacy. What that means in jargon-free terms is that they’re not really coaching football or hurling or soccer per se. They’re coaching the basics of running and jumping and throwing and catching and kicking, the stuff of sport in general rather than overloading on specific skills.

I think they’re trying to get an ‘out’. But I’m not sure how they would be able to get cover on it. I do believe that David Sterling recognises that it’s a very valuable programme and that it has huge positive impacts.

The upshot is that although these schools will still provide PE, they will do so now without the professional guidance of qualified coaches. And, as Eugene Young explains, the crucial follow-up element of the scheme within communities will now be lost.

“In my book, physical education is a specialist area,” says Young. “As would drama be, as would languages be. Teachers who are not totally comfortable with it will not put the same effort or expertise into it. The focus is on early years, four- to eight-year-olds. And it was all around this notion of physical literacy, rather than being sports-specific.

“What the coaches do is identify a particular class and work with it through nine months, the academic year. It’s not about the GAA driving an agenda or the IFA driving an agenda. It’s about children learning activities that they can keep for life.

“One of the key things for us is that the scheme linked into the community club. So for example, Joe McMahon worked in the scheme for seven or eight years in Tyrone, working with the Omagh schools. And then what he would do is work with the kids in the school during the day and then establish that link with the Omagh club outside of school hours. That makes a fantastic school-club link and it provides for continuity after school. That was one of the real benefits of it.

“The beauty of having the governing bodies involved is our capacity for keeping them engaged outside of the school building and outside of school hours. The scheme worked so well because we were able to facilitate that. We did some research on 11-year-olds who had been through the programme. The results we got were excellent – we found that they were involved in 13 different sporting activities and that 92 per cent of them were involved in at least one of them. So there was longevity there in terms of their participation. That’s what it’s all about.”

Any chance of a U-turn?

At a stroke Ulster GAA has lost 24 full-time GAA coaches. Antrim, with the biggest population base in the province, will lose six coaches. Fermanagh, with the smallest, will lose two. Tyrone, Derry, Down and Armagh all lose four apiece. The Ulster Council may try to replace them over time and possibly restart the scheme in another guise somewhere down the line, but there are no plans to do so at the minute. Unless there’s an 11th-hour climbdown by the department, the programme will wind up four weeks from now.

“I think they’re trying to see a way to work out how they could justify a U-turn on it,” says McNulty. “I think they’re trying to get an ‘out’. But I’m not sure how they would be able to get cover on it. I do believe that David Sterling recognises that it’s a very valuable programme and that it has huge positive impacts.

“But I’m just not sure will he have cover to reverse the cut. Because if he does it on this, then what about all the other cuts he has to make? There are cuts in health, cuts in education, cuts everywhere. So I do accept that his hands are tied to a certain extent.”

In politics everybody punches down until they find the people who have nobody below them. In this case, it’s kids between four and eight years old and a small, cheap initiative that worked for a decade. Through the recession, through everything. Gone, just like that.

How shameful. How self-defeating.

His current management team will also remain in place, and Kerry county board say that additions to the backroom team will be announced “in due course”.

Furthermore, county board chairman Tim Murphy says that he will be proposing Fitzmaurice be ratified as senior manager for a further two year term (2019 and 2020) at next month’s county board meeting. He intends on Fitzmaurice overseeing a three year development programme for the senior squad.

An All-Ireland winner as a player in 2000, 2004 and 2006; and as a manager in 2014, Fitzmaurice has taken on a one year extension for the second season running.

Initially the 40 year-old took on a three year term in 2012, before agreeing on an additional term in September 2016, winning this year’s national football league and his fifth Munster title in a row. The team however were defeated by Mayo in their All-Ireland semi-final replay.

In his sixth season next summer, the pressure will be amplified as the Kingdom’s great rivals Dublin go for four in a row, and the likes of David Clifford filter in from the county’s fourth consecutive All-Ireland winning team.

On Friday morning Tim Murphy, chairman of the Kerry county board, released the following statement;

“I am pleased to advise that the Kerry senior football team manager, Éamonn Fitzmaurice, has confirmed that he will continue in his role for the 2018 season. His current management team will remain in place and additions to the backroom team will be announced in due course.

“This decision is very welcome and removes any uncertainty, allowing us to begin our preparations for the forthcoming season.

“Despite winning the Allianz League and Munster football titles this year and the continuing unprecedented success at under-age and schools grades, we all fully recognise and acknowledge the great hunger for senior championship success among the Kerry GAA community.

“Working closely with Éamonn and his management team, the Kerry county board is determined to provide the resources and supports necessary in order to ensure that Kerry achieves this success as soon as possible.

“To that end, the county board and the senior team management have agreed to develop in the coming months, a three year programme of supports for the senior panel, with particular emphasis on player development and progression together with strength and conditioning. The imminent completion of the centre of excellence in Currans will enable us to deliver these programmes within a state of the art facility in a co-ordinated and streamlined approach.

“In order to provide stability and underpin this programme I will be proposing that Éamonn Fitzmaurice be ratified as senior manager for a further two year term (2019/2020) at the next county board committee meeting on 16th October next. This proposal was unanimously supported by the Executive of the Kerry county board at a meeting last evening.

“I am very confident that a strong collective effort will ensure that the phenomenal success we have achieved at minor level will be translated into senior success in the coming years.”

A number of appointments made this week have filled most of the remaining vacancies with Sligo and Wexford the only counties still in the process of identifying who will take over for next season.

Stephen Rochford, manager of beaten All-Ireland finalists Mayo, is currently considering his position but the county board have been clear that the job is his should he wish to continue and optimism has been expressed that he will remain for a third year.

Either way there will be a significant turnover of nearly half the football managers with new bosses already in place in Laois, Louth, Offaly, Westmeath, Wicklow, Cork, Antrim, Donegal, Derry and Fermanagh.

The longest serving football manager is Tyrone’s Mickey Harte who, despite a disappointing All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Dublin, has had his tenure extended by a further three seasons at the end of which he will have been with the county for 18 years.

Outgoing Cork hurling manager Kieran Kingston said earlier this week that his decision to step down after a successful season that included the Munster title was related to the time-consuming nature of the role.

“As many intercounty managers have pointed out recently, only those involved at this level are aware of the sheer level of time commitment involved. It’s a professional commitment in all but name, and it amounts to a second full-time job for any manager who has ambitions not just to participate, but to succeed at the highest level.”

Despite these demands there is no shortage of candidates to take up inter-county positions and this year’s hiring season has been notable for the number of appointments made on a merry-go-round basis.

Four managers have changed counties in a chain effect: Declan Bonnar’s return to Donegal has seen his predecessor Rory Gallagher go to his native county Fermanagh and the knock-on impact sends Peter McGrath from there to Louth whose manager this year, Colin Kelly, was appointed in Westmeath.

There is relatively little churn at the top level of the game with Rochford the only manager from this summer’s eight quarter-finalists yet to commit to a further year. Before the championship began in May, Jim Gavin of eventual All-Ireland champions Dublin agreed to remain as manager until the end of 2019.

Of the other six, Roscommon were the last to confirm that their manager Kevin McStay would continue – with an announcement this week that he would remain with the Connacht champions for a further two years with the option of a third.

He was commenting in advance of Saturday’s GAA special congress, which will consider a number of motions to reform the championship – all of which propose an expanded fixtures schedule and the most prominent of which, coming from Central Council, advocates the limiting of the elite MacCarthy Cup to 10 counties albeit with relegation and promotion.

“I think there was a clamour for more matches although I’d like to qualify that as more meaningful matches,” said O’Neill.

“It was a reactive move after the agreement of the Super 8 in football. The flipside of that reaction was that because the hurling championship was very good and very exciting this year, people have been saying, ‘leave it as it is,’ which is another reaction – not a response.”

O’Neill believes strongly that the development of a more meaningful championship format would be of great assistance in the work to develop hurling around the country.

“The relevance to the development of hurling is that in reality we have people in hurling counties – and football but focus on hurling – who live in a delusional dreamland that they want to be competing in the MacCarthy Cup but look at this in an evidence-based manner and they may not have achieved anything at that level for years and years.

“At HDC we said we’d like to see a tier between the Christy Ring and MacCarthy Cups. What we asked was that the counties, Laois, Meath, Carlow, Westmeath, Antrim and Kerry play off in that tier but that the final be played at a major event such as an All-Ireland semi-final or preferably a final with a trophy. If you win that competition the following year you get to enter the MacCarthy Cup.

“The thinking here is that it is meritocratic. There is promotion and relegation and the winners have a year to get themselves up to speed and that comes on the back of a success.

“That’s more realistic in my mind than the desire to ‘have a crack at the big boys,’ which can end up in 25-point beatings. I understand on an emotional level the desire to take on the big guns but it doesn’t stack up. Playing yourself up a level based on performance in a meaningful competition makes sense.”

Status quo

He accepts that the idea is contentious with a number of the affected counties opposed to the idea with an amendment down to allow the winners of Tier 2 to enter that season’s MacCarthy Cup rather than wait for another year – in much the same way that under the status quo the Leinster preliminary group qualifiers progress into the Leinster championship. O’Neill says that this hasn’t been successful.

“If they play four or five what will be tough championship matches they don’t have the strength in depth to withstand injuries or suspensions. Laois this year played Dublin in the championship and had lost three or four fellas.”

Many of the elite counties are similarly unimpressed. Munster for instance is expected to split 2-4 against the Central Council blueprint with Cork and Tipperary putting forward their own motions and in the event of their failing, have both decided to vote against as well as Clare and Waterford.

O’Neill points out though that there are other motions worthy of consideration even if the big-ticket items fail to secure the necessary 60 per cent.

“It may be difficult to get changes through but there are other things on the agenda like the under-21 championships and the removal of these farcical All-Ireland semi-finals where Derry got beaten by 52 points. Maybe it’s negative to take away a game but those games were not meaningful fixtures.”

Motion nine proposes that in future Ulster counties and Galway contest the Leinster championship and that All-Ireland semi-finals be abolished with the final to be decided between the Leinster and Munster winners.

Whereas he is uncertain about the outcome this weekend, he is confident that the evolutionary process won’t be derailed, regardless.

“Change doesn’t come easily but I think it will come.”

And with that he offers a word of caution for young players like Kerry’s standout minor David Clifford, already linked with a move to the AFL: skill and talent counts for nothing against the determination to stick it out – especially the homesickness.

In 2014, Mickey Harte begged the then 18-year-old McKenna to defer any move to Australia and try at least one year with the Tyrone seniors; instead he took up his rookie contract with Melbourne club Essendon, and has just signed a new four-year full-time contract.

Still only 21, this season he gave himself the target of playing 10 games with the club, and ended up playing in 19. Already, only seven GAA recruits have played more AFL games than the Tyrone native.

“I think it was a bit of stubbornness to tell you the truth,” he says.

“I just wanted so much to succeed and not just to go over and just come back after a couple of years. So probably just being stubborn. It’s more the homesickness, rather than the skill of the game. If you can get over that then that’s a massive part of it.”

McKenna left home in 2014 after captaining the Tyrone minors to the All-Ireland final defeat to Mayo in 2013. He’s already one of the first Irish players named on Joe Kernan’s panel to play Australia in the International Rules series in November, but again suggests the Australian game is a lot different.

“It’s more tactical. If the ball goes this way then you have to run that way, it’s all structured out. There’s actually a formula you have to follow. It’s probably the one thing I struggled with, but then that’s the way Gaelic is going now too.”

Asked about the potential for young player like Clifford, he said: “He’s an unbelievable talent, scary what he can do, but no I haven’t heard anything about Australia. Not from anybody in my club anyway. I’m sure he wouldn’t be bad.

Two sides

“Ach, there’s always two sides to it. If any young fella asked me should he go, I’d tell him, ‘go.’ I suppose that’s my opinion. Just, it’s a professional sport, you can devote your whole life to it, whereas with Gaelic you are working, you are playing for your club, you are playing for your county.

“It is a bit crazy. The training that some of them county teams are doing is up there with the training we are doing, and we are professional athletes as they say. It’s just the professionalism. It’s unbelievable.

“At some stage I do hope to come home and play for my club and my county. At the minute I am happy there and I’ll see after four years what happens.”

McKenna was helped in getting his start at Essendon after several first-choice players were banned after returning positive tests, blamed on contaminated supplements.

“There was a drug scandal back in 2012 and 14 players got suspended for a year. So as bad as it was then, it probably gave the young lads a chance to play because they had to play us. They took in an extra five older players just to help us out but they just gave us game-time and it sort of probably gave me confidence. I think I played the last eight games of two years ago. So that gave me confidence going into this year and got the ball rolling.

“I said I would never leave unless I played one game. That’s what was going on in my head for that.

“The reason I wanted to go is if I didn’t go I would probably regret it for the rest of my life I’d say. I said if I went, and went at it for a year, and hated it, I’d come home, but at least I wanted to try it. I am happy out at the minute.”

A meeting of the Roscommon GAA County Committee on Wednesday night rubber-stamped the former Mayo intercounty player and his management team in their positions.

McStay and his selectors Liam McHale and Ger Dowd helped Roscommon claim the Connacht title this summer after a disappointing league campaign.

Club versus country commitments remain largely unresolved and Ireland manager Joe Kernan has so far been unable to get full commitment from any of Dublin’s All-Ireland football winners. 

The GAA have secured a new one-year sponsorship deal with EirGrid for the November Tests in Australia, although in keeping with the enduring uncertainty of the series it hasn’t gone beyond that. There is, however, a return to the two-Test series, aimed at generating greater interest within the Australian audience.

Kernan, who two years ago also managed Ireland to a narrow win over Australia in Croke Park, will therefore take several more weeks before naming his 23-man Irish panel.

The opening game taking place on Sunday, November 12th at the Adelaide Oval, and the deciding Test the following Saturday night, November 18th, at the Domain Stadium in Perth in what will be the final game held in that venue. 

While adamant interest among the Irish players remains strong, Kernan admits the majority of first-choice selections are still caught up in their club championship: James McCarthy, Brian Fenton, Con O’Callaghan, Stephen Cluxton and 2015 Irish captain Bernard Brogan are some of the Dublin players he has contacted, but who have yet to make an absolute commitment.

“I have spoken to seven or eight of the boys at the minute, but they have club matches. Four or five said yes, two or three said no because of work commitments. It will take another couple of weeks to iron that out. 

“There are eight or nine guys who are 100 per cent and the couple who said no it was genuine enough. In fairness to them, we’ve got to give them time. They’re after having a busy season, they’re after coming off a busy week so next week we’ll really be getting down to seeing who is and who isn’t in. 

“But the beauty of this series is that there are players who are going to come out of the woodwork that you would not have thought off, like Gary Brennan a couple of years ago who was absolutely brilliant for us. A few other boys there, Brendan Murphy from Carlow is in and he did extremely well last weekend [at the first training session].” 

Mayo’s Lee Keegan, vice-captain, is ruled out with a minor hip injury, but Kernan does hope to have some of his team-mates: “Tom Parsons has to come back to me, Aidan O’Shea, Chris Barrett and Brendan Harrison are all okay and there are two or three others who have to come back because of medical issues.” 

Top players

Likewise with Tyrone’s Seán and Colm Cavanagh: “They were away with the club last weekend and they are away with the club this weekend. We have players coming from all over the country on a Friday and Saturday and then they play for their club on a Sunday. They have to be there so for the next couple of weeks we will sort out whether they are able to give that commitment if they did.” 

The AFL have confirmed that Geelong Coach Chris Scott, who was assistant coach under Alastair Clarkson in the 2015 series, will be their head coach for the 2017 Tests. Australia won the 2014 series, 56-46 played in Australia, which was also a one-game series; in 2015, Ireland won 56-52. 

Kernan has limited himself to three Irish players currently with AFL teams; Zach Tuohy from Laois (Geelong), Pearce Hanley from Mayo (Gold Coast) and Tyrone’s Conor McKenna (Essendon): “In fairness we wanted to keep as many Irish boys as possible, and if you look at the facts and the figures, these are the three top players out there.

“Conor is playing very well out there, has pace, power, accuracy, enthusiasm. He’s young, and really driven to look forward to it. And being Irish boys out there I’m sure they’ll get a lot of stick at times, but if they can go out and win with an Irish team out there it will do their profile no harm either.” 

Still, key to the long-term future of the series is ensuring both Australia and Ireland remain competitive with each other: “Well I presume they won’t want to be embarrassed in their own backyard, lose in their own backyard, so they will take a strong squad,” says Kernan.

“Chris Scott is a bit like Alastair Clarkson, plays the game high, pushes from defence up to the middle of the field, and leaves the full-back line open, like they did last time. So he’s a winner too, and from what Zach was saying, he’s certainly one of those boys who will have a strong squad. 

“And the Irish players still see it as a badge of honour. Anybody worth their salt will be excited about playing. The hardest thing is you can’t play them all, you can only play 23 but don’t think the boys are not committed to it, they really are.

“And it is worth persevering with provided we can make the game as exciting as maybe it was the last time, and us getting better at it, and then we put the onus on Australia . . . ‘this crowd of amateurs coming over from Ireland and putting the pressure on’. We’ll have no problem ever fielding a team. 

“Providing both put out their best teams the games will be exciting and the Irish boys are always committed. The last time we went out, even though we didn’t play as well, we were totally committed and we were very unlucky at the end.”

Kernan’s backroom team will again include Pádraic Joyce from Galway, Dermot Earley from Kildare and Kerry’s Darragh Ó Sé.

As if Moran has anything to be either afraid of or sorry for. 

His performances for Mayo this summer were a revelation on several counts – not least in defying his supposedly ancient 33 years. And if the end result ticked another box of regrets it’s done nothing to lessen his desire to keep chasing the now ultimate football salvation.   

“If anything I think losing makes that hunger even greater, at least you’re still chasing something,” he says, surmising both his and Mayo’s desire to rise again in 2018 and beyond. For sure he wants to be part of it. 

He turns 34 in November, and 2018 would mark his 14th season at senior level, having already made over 150 appearances for Mayo between league and championship. His own form this year – the now clear favourite for footballer of the year – had little to do with his decision; he was likely to continue anyway. 

“This thing about quitting, I’ll go when the likes of Stephen Rochford and them boys run me. I suppose that’s kind of the way we were brought up, from the town we’re from. So I don’t think I’ve ever had in my head that I’d ever quit. If Jenny my wife backs me, and my life kind of goes with it, there’s no reason why I would not go back, to be honest. 

“We’re in a very privileged position, from Mayo as you know, a bit nuts, as you say. Our first league game next year will probably have 15,000 people at it, at McHale Park, so that definitely makes it a bit easier, in where we want to go to, and get to. In terms of football this is what we do, what we love, so we just go again. We’re lucky enough due another child in January, and fingers crossed everything goes well there. I’ll be back in 2018, no doubt yeah. 

“Is there a difference to last year? There probably isn’t, being honest. It’s the same net result as what we got last year, in terms of the result from an All-Ireland final. But life goes on, as you say.” 

Speaking at the announcement of the GAA/GPA Player of the Month awards, Moran – the August monthly winner – spoke about several high points of the summer but also the lows; some of the criticism of his manager; Mayo’s failure to close out the final against Dublin. 

“It’s a funny situation. You genuinely do not look at anything. You take Twitter off the phone, take Facebook off the phone. You don’t see any of the criticism so you only begin to hear it when it is all over. The reaction to Stephen, he’s our manager, he’s the fella that leads us, so the reaction from the supporters to him and to the players was just to say thanks very much.” 

Yet Mayo’s inability to close out the final – compared to Dublin – was criticised by many. In hindsight, might Mayo have tried to slow down the game, like Dublin did, by whatever means possible, having been two points ahead with just over five minutes remaining? 

Great champions

“It’s hard to know. We’d get criticised if we did, and criticised if we didn’t. I think the Dubs are great champions, three-in-a-row. In my time playing football that hasn’t been done. Would I look too much into it? 

“If it’s within the rules and they did it, that’s it, it wouldn’t really faze me either way. Would we have done the same thing? To answer the question I would be hoping we would be clinical enough to close out the game. Would we have done the same thing? I’m not sure. But we’d be hoping we would be clinical enough to close out the game before we were in that position.” 

The endgame incident where team-mate Lee Keegan threw his GPS device at Dean Rock in a desperate effort to distract him is something Moran it neither willing nor able to delve into.

“To be honest I wasn’t aware until the function that night. A lot of things go on in that period of time. You are over 70 minutes in an All-Ireland final. It’s all go, a lot of issues going on, stuff happens, whatever. If you have an opinion on the GPS, that’s fine.

 “I think everyone is entitled to their opinion in that situation. It is what it is. It’s not really a big deal for me. Dean kicks the free...” 

Moran’s own replacement in the closing minutes of the final was also criticised by some, yet he says he’d hurt his hamstring in the Jason Doherty goal chance, “so it was the right decision probably at the right time...”

 He doesn’t expect any retirements, players or management, yet still hasn’t found the heart to look back on the game: “And I won’t watch it until November/December when I have to take the learnings from it. 

“Last year you have to remember we drew with Dublin in the first game, the two goals that they scored, they were very good chances, then the own goals . . . The last three, four finals we lost by a point. So I think we performed in the previous three finals to be honest.” 

The other GAA/GPA Player of the Month award winners, the first under the new sponsorship of PwC, saw Galway’s Conor Cooney and Mayo’s Lee Keegan as July winners, while Waterford’s Jamie Barron was the other August winner. Work commitments meant Lee Keegan was unable to attend the event.

 The leading motion from Central Council proposes two five-team round-robin formats in the Leinster and Munster championships: the top two would then contest the provincial final, the third-placed proceeding to All-Ireland quarter-finals with the defeated provincial finalists. 

This format would also see two home matches built into the championship, favoured by the likes of Clare, Waterford and Limerick but especially Galway – who have been not been allowed to play any matches outside of Leinster since joining the provincial championship eight years ago. 

“One of the main things Galway have been looking for is Leinster championship games in a home venue, so I’d be delighted if that passed,” said Cooney, speaking at the PwC offices in Dublin after picking up the GAA/GPA Player of the Month award for July.

“If you had a few teams coming up [to Galway], say Kilkenny coming up to Pearse Stadium, you’d get a packed house and it’d be fantastic. If it is passed I think it’d be great all round. 

“We’ve been coming to Tullamore, Portlaoise, that’s where we’ve been playing most of our matches. So I suppose we have been there for years and we have contributed to the Leinster Championship and I think it’d be fair if we got a few home games so I think that’s important.” 

Cooney would also like to see Galway’s inclusion in the Leinster under-21 championship.

Competitive games

“The more competitive games underage teams are playing the better. Maybe just going in towards the latter end of a competition isn’t as good as playing competitive games throughout.

“You’re looking at younger players and looking at development, competitive games is better rather than just going to the latter stages and I think it’d be a big plus for us on the senior side as well if we had a number of guys coming through who are hardened by matches against these Leinster teams.” 

There are a number of similar motions going before Saturday’s special congress, and although last February’s annual congress accepted a motion to reduce the necessary majority for rule change from two-thirds to three-fifths, 60 per cent is still seen a daunting standard to have to reach. 

Kilkenny are among those counties to express doubts, preferring to see how the football round-robin works out before committing the hurling champions to a similar format, even on an experimental basis. 

Cooney, who scored 0-3 in the final win over Waterford, has little doubt 2017 was his best season –the important thing now being to build on it.

“I had injury problems in the past obviously and luckily enough, I’ve got past them. I still had a few knocks throughout the year but that was a big part of it as well. The lads had confidence in me as well.

“They put me in a position and they’d let you know that you were going to be a part of their plans and it kind of gave you that bit of confidence to go away and work on everything that you could work on and get yourself as right as possible to be in the best place physically.”

Speaking at the announcement of the GAA/GPA Player of the Month awards, Moran – the August monthly winner – also indicated that Mayo’s hunger for All-Ireland success is possibly even greater despite the final defeat to Dublin for the second successive year.

“We’re luckily enough due another child in January, and fingers crossed everything goes well there I’ll be back in 2018, no doubt yeah,” says Moran.

“This thing about quitting, I’ll go when the likes of Stephen Rochford and them boys run me. I suppose that’s kind of the way we were brought up, from the town we’re from. So I don’t think I’ve ever had in my head that I’d ever quit. If Jenny my wife backs me, and my life kind of goes with it, there’s no reason why I wouldn’t go back, to be honest.

“We’re in a very privileged position, from Mayo as you know, a bit nuts, as you say. Our first league game next year will probably have 15,000 people at it, at McHale Park, so that definitely makes it a bit easier, in where we want to go to, and get to.

“Is it as easy as saying just go again? It’s not, you have go away and reflect and see where you’re going to go yourself, in terms of family life, work life, stuff like that. But in terms of football this is what we do, what we love, so we just go again.”

Moran turns 34 in November, and 2018 would mark his 14th season at senior level, having already made over 150 appearances for Mayo between league and championship.

His own form this year – which saw him nominated as footballer of the year – had little to do this his decision. He was likely to continue anyway.

Despite delivering arguably their best yet performance against Dublin, the one-point defeat still every bit hurt as much. Is there a difference to last year?

“There probably isn’t, being honest. It’s the same net result as what we got last year, in terms of the result from an All-Ireland final. But life goes on, as you say.

“I’d to go back to work on the Wednesday, have a little girl at home, and life goes on. It’s a game, we lost it, and we just have to go again and see what we learn from it.”

His work in Castlebar, and the gym business he runs just across the road from McHale Park, has also helped him squeeze more out of his career.

“Yeah, that’s true. My problem is that I got injured at the wrong time, around 2011, 2012, broke my leg, did my cruciate, then had back issues, just because the body was out of line. If I’d kept driving the car, kept being a rep, there was no way I’d have been able to keep going, so yeah the gym has definitely helped, got me out of the car, got me moving a bit more freely.

The other GAA/GPA Player of the Month award winners, the first under the new sponsorship of PwC, saw Galway’s Conor Cooney and Mayo’s Lee Keegan as July winners, while Waterford’s Jamie Barron was the other August winner.

Conor Cooney was instrumental in Galway’s Leinster SHC final win against Wexford at the start of July; the St Thomas’s clubman scored eight points in a man-of-the-match display.

July was a busy month for Keegan as Mayo had hard fought wins against Derry, Clare and Cork in the All-Ireland football qualifiers. He was then named man-of-the-match in their quarter final drawn encounter with Roscommon, scoring 1-03 on the day.

Barron scored 2-01 in an all-action display as Waterford defeated Cork in the All-Ireland hurling semi-final; Moran was on fire in Mayo’s All-Ireland semi-final drawn encounter with Kerry notching up 1-05, scoring 1-01 in the replay win a week later.

Work commitments meant Lee Keegan was unable to attend the event.

Although the final shape of the 2018 calendar is dependent on the weekend’s outcome, should the hurling season revert to default with no change, plans to clear nearly all of April for club activity would be compromised by the Leinster round-robin pre-qualifying competition, which takes place in that month.

Complicating the situation for the Central Council proposals, which envisage a round-robin format in both Leinster and Munster provincial championships, is the submission of several other motions by a number of counties. This increases the likelihood of none gaining acceptance.

Although last February’s annual congress accepted a motion to reduce the necessary majority for rule change from two-thirds to three-fifths, 60 per cent is still a daunting standard to have to reach.

There will be a general debate on the motions before voting takes place, with an attempt to establish a consensus preference before passing judgment on individual proposals.

The different perspectives on the proposed changes are clear enough, and although it is possible that Tipperary might support the Central Council motion if theirs falls, there is felt to be more rigid opposition from others tabling alternatives, chiefly Cork, Dublin and the weaker Leinster counties, Offaly, Laois and Meath – who are looking to have a route into the same season’s MacCarthy Cup for the Tier 2 finalists.

Advantages

There are definite advantages for other counties in the Central Council motion in that the format will see two home matches built into the championship whereas at present Clare and Waterford virtually never get home advantage and even Limerick, who do, are known to be anxious to play more regularly in the Gaelic Grounds.

All-Ireland champions Galway are more likely to be swayed given that as things stand they have been allowed to play no matches outside of Leinster since joining the provincial championship eight years ago.

Yet the sense around the counties is that the Central Council proposal will struggle to get approval and that the options are even less likely to find favour.

One of the arguments heard is that the idea of the round-robin format was produced too hastily in response to concerns expressed that the football experiment, which begins next year – and which the weekend’s proposals are hoping to parallel over the experimental period up until 2020 – would “overshadow” the hurling championship.

Cautious stance

Central Council has also been blind-sided a little by the fact that some counties, which supported the idea when it was unveiled at last May’s meeting, are now considered unlikely to vote in favour.

Kilkenny – whose delegate did not support the idea in May – have taken a cautious stance, wanting to see how the football round-robin works out before committing the hurling champions to a similar format even on an experimental basis.

Croke Park sources accept that the momentum for change has not been helped by what was a lively championship this summer with a unique final and champions who bridged a lengthy gap to their previous success.

It is unlikely that the arguments for reform will die away but they may have to wait a while longer before being embraced.

PRINCIPAL MOTIONS

 Motion 2: From Central Council, proposing two five-team round-robin formats in the Leinster and Munster championships with the top two contesting the provincial final and the third-placed proceeding to All-Ireland quarter-finals with defeated provincial finalists. It also proposes a Tier 2 championship for the next six counties with relegation and promotion.

 Motion 3: Tipperary propose a variation of the Munster minor championships format with a knock-out and losers’ group format rather than a round-robin in the provinces.

 Motion 4: Dublin want to reinstate the eight-team All-Ireland quarter-finals from 10 years ago with no other major changes.

 Motions 5 and 7: From Cork, this seeks to replicate the All-Ireland football championship format from next year by running a round-robin format for the last eight of the hurling championship. It is also proposed that no Munster counties be relegated from the MacCarthy Cup, and that should Kerry be promoted that the county compete in Leinster, as was the case this year.

An official announcement from Kerry GAA is expected this week to confirm that Fitzmaurice is remaining. This had been expected since Kerry chairman Tim Murphy endorsed him at September’s county committee meeting, at which there were no negative comments about the manager.

Rumours about certain individuals stepping away have also proved to be unfounded as it is believed that his selectors will remain – they include Mikey Sheehy, Maurice Fitzgerald and Liam Hassett.

Sheehy and Hassett were seen sitting together on Saturday at Austin Stack Park watching a county championship quarter-finals’ double header.

There may be changes elsewhere in the backroom team, and Murphy is due to meet Fitzmaurice this week to finalise plans for 2018.

Murphy told the county committee meeting that Kerry supporters need to be patient. “People need to allow the management team a bit of latitude over the next while to bring the undoubted talent that we have at under-age level through to senior level. It doesn’t happen by waving a magic wand, and I think there is time required.”

Kerry have won a record fourth successive All-Ireland minor title, drawing further attention to the extravagant talents of David Clifford, who scored 4-4 in the final defeat of Derry. Next year’s under-20 manager Jack O’Connor has already accepted that the player will be fast-tracked into the senior panel.

Move quickly

Meanwhile, Cork are in a position to move quickly on the vacancy in their hurling management as the county executive and committee are due to meet on Wednesday.

Kieran Kingston’s decision to step down was announced at the weekend, and although it had taken a while to be confirmed, there had been concerns in the aftermath of the All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Waterford that the manager, who had also previously served as the county’s coach, might decide to call it a day after two years of management.

A busy career, which entails travel abroad, has been cited as the main contributing factor. Another selector, Pat Hartnett, had already announced his own departure, also for work-related reasons.

Cork filled a similar vacancy in the senior footballers by appointing a sub-committee of the executive to make the recommendation before Ronan McCarthy was appointed, and it is likely the same approach will be deployed on this occasion.

It is considered likely that the new appointment will come from among the outgoing management group, with coach Pat Ryan and selector John Meyler seen as the front runners.

Meyler managed the county under-21s this summer, and has worked with most of the players in the course of his involvement with development squads. 

The Dublin heroines came home to St Sylvester’s club, adjacent to Malahide Castle, on Monday night. Seventeen clubs are represented on the Dublin panel which won only the county’s second All-Ireland in the grade.

Three players came from St Sylvester’s, a fairly moderately-sized club by Dublin standards, the captain and corner-forward Sinéad Aherne, the full-forward Nicola McEvoy and left half-forward Nicole Owens.

The trio were the last on to the makeshift podium in the corner of the club grounds. The cheer from the 2,000 well-wishers and fans as they lifted the Brendan Martin Cup to the autumnal sky could be heard all the way across the Malahide estuary.

Dublin team manager Mick Bohan told a jubilant crowd that the lessons from Dublin’s success were simple. “If at first you don’t succeed try, try, try and try again.” This was a reference to the team’s loss of three All-Ireland finals in a row. This team had won a lot of hearts and minds but no silverware until Sunday’s 12 point demolition of Mayo. *

When it was pointed out to Sinéad that she had a 100 per cent record in the game from frees (she scored seven points from placed balls) she modestly countered that she also fluffed that penalty in the first half.

The celebration of this victory was made all the more keen by successive defeats. “The defeats shaped us. They made us more determined,” she said.

Her team-mate Noelle Healy won player of the match despite not scoring from corner forward. “We had a competition to see who had the worst miss and I won. Somebody was cursing me,” she joked.

“We said, ‘girls, we’re coming out of here with no more tears’ and then when we won we started bawling crying.”

The real winner though was women’s sport. “To see the coverage, the interest in it and more kids out, is great,” said the Dublin captain. “Hopefully it will continue to grow at that rate.”

The Dublin women have an unofficial anthem, Singin’ in the Rain. On a beautiful autumn evening, the song never seemed less appropriate for a team that has finally found its place in the sun.

*This article was amended on September 26th, 2017

He has been appointed for three years with an annual review and succeeds Frank Fitzsimmons.

Viewing peaked at 5.24pm when 409,700 people were tuning in to see Dublin claim their first title in seven years and the broadcast reached 563,000 viewers in total, taking 40 per cent of the viewing around the country.

The 2013 final between Cork and Monaghan was the previous highest in terms of viewing figures for the station with an average of 234,700 – eclipsed by almost 70,000 this time around.

46, 286 peope turned out to Croke Park to watch Dublin and Tipperary lift the senior and intermediate crowns respectively, while the junior decider between Fermanagh and Derry went to a replay.

The attendance at Croke Park was over 11,000 more than the Women’s FA Cup final at Wembley in England and more than the combined total of all Women’s Rugby World Cup matches which were held in Ireland last month.

Last week’s men’s final also drew record figures on RTÉ with 1.3 million people watching as Dean Rock kicked Dublin to a third All-Ireland title in a row.

They took their time about it and made sure to wander down every laneway and back-road on their route to the Hogan Stand but none of that matters now. After three years of losing finals by a kick of a ball each time, Dublin made sure to wipe all mystery from the equation down the stretch this time.

Three goals in the closing eight minutes will do that for you. All-Ireland champions, no ifs, ands or maybes.

That Mick Bohan’s side have been the best team all year isn’t open to question. This was their fifth game of the summer and their fifth double-digit win.

Their only shortcoming here was the untimely generosity that kept Mayo in a game that should have been long gone by half-time. They finished with four goals but ought to have had eight. For that reason only, this remained a contest for a long portion of the afternoon.

Ultimately, Mayo were all too one-dimensional to live with a Dublin team whose intelligent running and superb conditioning allowed them to run riot in the closing stages.

Mao’s reliance on Cora Staunton made them entirely predictable and ensured that the iconic full-forward had no margin for error on the day.

Sadly for them, she took 16 shots over the course of the game and only scored with seven of them. The rest of the Mayo team only took seven shots between them.

For all that, they got to the 52nd minute with still just a goal between the sides, Dublin leading 1-10 to 0-10.

Given that Mayo had seen two players walk to the sinbin on yellow cards earlier in the game – including a six-minute spell either side of half-time when they had to play with 13 against 15 – it was a near miracle they were still in with a shout.

Extra player

Dublin made their extra player tell over the closing eight minutes and walked in two goals by substitute Sarah McCaffrey and another from Carla Rowe. Game, set, out the gap.

“We’re just extremely disappointed,” said Mayo manager Frank Browne afterwards.

“I think the scoreboard flattered Dublin a little bit and I don’t mean that in any disrespectful way to great All-Ireland champions.

“There was a period early on in the game when we were worried, we had a little bit of dominance, certainly in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the game but we just weren’t reflecting that on the scoreboard at all.

“Dublin’s scores seemed to be coming that bit easier and then they set up really well. They defended really well and the couple of sin-bins really killed us because it allowed them to double up and break out at speed.”

He’s right about the early exchanges. Perhaps surprisingly for a team in its first All-Ireland final in 14 years, Mayo settled much the better. Staunton was scintillating early on, skating in to fist a point after four minutes and landing a 52-metre free soon after. But Mayo were so wasteful too – after 10 minutes they had four wides n the board and still only led 0-2 to 0-1.

Gradually, Dublin took the game over. Noelle Healy and Sinead Goldrick roared into the game and Sinéad Aherne ticked and tocked their scores with merciless precision.

Healy’s run directly through the middle of the Mayo defence set up Dublin’s opening goal after 21 minutes, Niamh McEvoy sliding a carpet finish past Yvonne Byrne in the Mayo goal to make it 1-5 to 0-5.

It was in the next 10-15 minutes that the game should have got away from Mayo. Byrne walked on a yellow card in the 25th minute after scything down Aherne with the Dublin captain in on goal. But sub-goalkeeper Aisling Tarpey saved a weak penalty from Aherne and Mayo stayed breathing. Soon after, Healy bore down on goal again but her shot came back off the foot of the post.

All in all, it meant that Mayo got to half-time only 1-6 to 0-6 behind. And for all of Dublin’s dominance, they sides still only managed 0-4 apiece in the first 22 minutes of the second half.

Though Mayo never really threatened a goal, all it would have taken was a mistake or a lucky bounce and they’d have been level.

It didn’t come, though. Dublin cleared the bench and in a battle between their fresh legs and clear heads and Mayo’s fatigue, there was only one winner.

Healy, McCaffrey and Molly Lamb filled their boots and Dublin were home and dry.

DUBLIN: C Trant; M Byrne, S Finnegan, R Ruddy; S Goldrick, N Collins, L Caffrey; L Magee, O Carey; C Rowe (1-1), L Davey, N Owens; S Ahearne (0-9, 0-7 frees), N McEvoy (1-1), N Healy.

Subs: D Murphy for Finnegan, 21 mins; F Hudson for Byrne, 47 mins; S McCaffrey (2-0) for Davey, 54 mins; M Lamb for McEvoy, 57 mins; H O’Neill for Owens, 60 mins. Yellow card: D Murphy, 58 mins. 

MAYO: Y Byrne; O Conlon, S Tierney, M Carter; R Kearns, M Corbett, F Doherty; A Gilroy (0-1), F McHale; D Hughes, N Kelly (0-1), C Whyte; S Rowe, C Staunton (0-7, 0-4 free), G Kelly (0-2).

Subs: A Tarpey for Whyte, 24 mins; Whyte for Tarpey, 34 mins; A Dowling for Whyte, 42 mins; S Howley for G Kelly, 62 mins. Yellow cards: Y Byrne, 24 mins; R Kearns, 28 mins; O Conlon, 52 mins. 

Referee: S Mulvihill (Kerry).

The reception, which takes place from 7.30pm and is hosted by Lord Mayor of Dublin Míchaél Mac Donncha, is by invitation only.

The event is being held on Tuesday because of a separate pre-planned function arranged for the players on Monday night.

Mr Mac Donncha said: “It is fitting that the city should acknowledge their great achievement, they have earned the name of champions by a wonderful display of Gaelic football at its best.

“Once more my commiserations go to a talented Mayo team who fought the good fight but were not victorious on this occasion.

“I congratulate everyone who took part in the Championship and wish you all every success in the coming season.”

The Killarney side had defeated the same opposition two weeks previously in the Kerry senior club final, and led by 0-7 to 0-6 at the break, as both sides rattled the crossbar in search of raising a green flag.

Colm Cooper was the catalyst for many of Crokes scores, but it was youngsters like Micheál Burns, Tony Brosnan and Gavin White who impressed most, while Kerry senior panellist Sean O’Shea was best for Kenmare Shamrocks.

A fractious encounter threatened to boil over in the second period, but Crokes kept their heads and they will face West Kerry in the semi-finals on October 7th.

The district side defeated a poor Austin Stacks side by six points in Tralee on Saturday evening. Eanna Ó Conchúir scored the only goal of the game early on, with a 1-10 to 0-9 half-time lead becoming a 1-17 to 0-14 success after a dominant second period. A number of recent Kerry underage talents such as Eanna Ó Conchúir, Tomas Ó Sé, Rob Ó Sé and man of the match Brian Ó Beaglaoich stood out.

There was better luck for Tralee’s other senior side Kerins O’Rahillys however, as they restricted All-Ireland minor winning captain David Clifford to a single point in a comprehensive 3-12 to 1-6 success over East Kerry.

Man of the match David Moran scored their first goal in the opening period but Jack Sherwood kept East Kerry in touch at the break, as they trailed by 1-7 to 1-4. Tommy Walsh and Gavin O’Brien scored goals in the second period as O’Rahillys kicked on for a 12 point success. South Kerry will be their opponents in the other semi-final after they overcame Aidan O’Mahony’s Rathmore by 0-16 to 0-12 in Killarney on Sunday.

The match was level at 0-7 apiece at half-time but South Kerry overcame an injury to Bryan Sheehan, as well as Killian Young’s absence, as Daniel Daly and Matthew O’Sullivan pointed them to victory.

Camross were crowned the Laois senior hurling champions for the 25th time following a thrilling win over Clough-Ballacolla in O’Moore Park on Sunday afternoon.

A late goal from substitute Mark Dowling was the crucial score but his team were still made to endure a nervous finish - after Willie Dunphy crashed home a brilliant goal for Clough-Ballacolla in injury time.

Camross survived that scare, however, and held on for the victory. In a highly entertaining encounter, Camross got off to a dream start with two goals in the opening 10 minutes - the first after five minutes when Dwane Palmer set up Niall Holmes; the second moments later when their roles were reversed.

But Clough-Ballacolla responded by scoring the next five points, four of them from the outstanding Willie Hyland who scored 15 points in total and was desperately unfortunate to end up on the losing side.

At half-time Camross led 2-7 to 0-9, but Ballacolla fought on after the break and took the lead in the 51st minute, when Hyland was on target again. Dean Delaney levelled things up with a point from play and then Zane Keean put Camross back into the lead with a sideline cut.

Dowling’s goal put daylight between the sides and although Dunphy gave Ballacolla a glimmer of hope, Camross held on.

CAMROSS: T Doran; M Phelan, M Burke, J Phelan; D Dooley, G Burke (0-2), D Keenan (0-1); T Burke, D Duggan (0-1); A Collier, Z Keenan (0-6, 0-3f, 0-1 s/c), D Delaney (0-2); N Holmes (1-1), D Palmer (1-0), C Collier (0-1). Subs: M Dowling (1-0) for C Collier (41 mins), Darren Gilmarting for A Coller (47 mins)

CLOUGH-BALLACOLLA: D Hanlon; JA Delaney, D Maher, E Doyle; R Broderick, M McEvoy (0-1), L Cleere (0-1); T Delaney, A Corby (0-1); C Coonan, S Hanlon, R Phelan (0-1); S Bergin, W Hyland (0-15, 0-9f, 0-1, s/c), W Dunphy (1-0). Subs: B Corby for S Hanlon (44 mins), B McEvoy for M McEvoy (61 mins)

Referee: A Stapleton (Rathdowney-Errill)

Mick Bohan’s Dublin buried Mayo under an avalanche of late goals to claim TG4 All-Ireland ladies senior football glory at Croke Park.

Dublin, who had lost the last three finals to Cork, finally got their hands on the Brendan Martin Cup for a second time, notching their first title win since 2010.

Mayo’s quest for a first All-Ireland win since 2003 fell at the final hurdle as Dublin scored three goals in a five-minute spell to emulate the success of the men’s team a week previously.

Sarah McCaffrey, sister of 2015 Footballer of the Year Jack, came off the bench to score two goals, while Carla Rowe was also on target in that purple patch.

Dublin were just three points clear – 1-10 to 0-10 – with 10 minutes remaining but the floodgates opened as Mayo, who had three players sin-binned during the game, lost the services of defender Orla Conlon.

Mayo’s tiring legs couldn’t carry them across the line as Dublin unloaded their bench successfully and finished with the big prize.

And for Bohan this was sweet revenge 14 years on from when he managed the Jackies in a final loss to Mayo.

Dublin led by 1-6 to 0-6 at the end of a dramatic first half as Niamh McEvoy’s goal separated the sides.

Mayo were playing with 13 approaching the break after goalkeeper Yvonne Byrne and defender Rachel Kearns were both yellow-carded and sent to the sin bin.

Byrne’s 24th-minute foul on Sinéad Aherne led to a penalty but the veteran goalkeeper’s replacement Aisling Tarpey – who came on for Ciara Whyte to ensure a specialist net-minder was on the pitch – made a fine save to keep out the Aherne’s effort.

That stop kept Mayo in contention but there was another let-off three minutes before the break, when player of the match Noelle Healy’s low strike struck the butt of Tarpey’s left-hand upright and away to safety.

It was helter-skelter stuff to end an intense and free-flowing first half that had been level five times before McEvoy’s goal.

That effort, in the 18th minute, was created by Healy’s driving run, and finished well by the St Sylvester’s forward.

McEvoy and captain Aherne were Dublin’s only first-half scorers – Aherne contributing five points (two from play) and McEvoy adding a point to her goal.

Mayo’s first half copybook was also blotted by eight wides – seven from the boot of Cora Staunton, who was double-teamed by the Dublin defence.

Sinéad Finnegan was one of the Dublin defenders tasked with keeping an eye on Staunton but she limped off injured shortly before McEvoy’s goal.

Staunton still caught the eye with a couple of picturebook scores – including a free from just outside the 45m line – while the Kelly sisters, Niamh and Grace, scored a point each in the first half.

Healy missed a glorious goal chance in the 37th minute with the game still delicately poised but Mayo could never get closer than three points to their opponents in the second half.

Plenty of effort was expended by the Westerners, who lost last year’s semi-final to Dublin by a point, but this time the margin between the sides was more emphatic.

Nicole Owens placed McCaffrey for a 52nd-minute goal and five minutes later, another sub, Molly Lamb, made a crucial impact when her crossfield ball found Rowe unmarked and she duly netted.

The dust had barely settled when the tireless Healy set up McCaffrey for her second goal and Dublin could finally celebrate after three years of successive heartbreak on final day.

For Mayo, it could be a long way back after losing in the first final since 2007 and fans may have seen Staunton, Byrne and Martha Carter pull on the county shirt for the last time.

DUBLIN: C Trant; M Byrne, S Finnegan, R Ruddy; S Goldrick, N Collins, L Caffrey; L Magee, O Carey; C Rowe (1-1), L Davey, N Owens; S Aherne (0-9, seven frees), N McEvoy (1-1), N Healy.

Subs: D Murphy for Finnegan (18 mins), F Hudson for Byrne (46 mins), S McCaffrey (2-0) for Davey (50 mins), M Lamb for McEvoy (53 mins), H O’Neill for Owens (56 mins).

MAYO: Y Byrne; O Conlon, S Tierney, M Carter; R Kearns, M Corbett, F Doherty; A Gilroy (0-1), F McHale; D Hughes, N Kelly (0-1), C Whyte; S Rowe, C Staunton (0-7, four frees), G Kelly (0-2).

Subs: A Tarpey for Whyte (24 mins), Whyte for Tarpey (34 mins), A Dowling for Whyte (41 mins), S Howley for G Kelly (57 mins).

Referee: S Mulvihill (Kerry)

Five unanswered points at the start of the second half paved the way for Dunloy’s 12th Antrim senior hurling championship title against old foes Cushendall. The Cuchulainns put a lacklustre first half behind them to blow away the opposition at Ballycastle on Sunday.

Dunloy trailed by three at the break but came out a different team in the second half to outscore their opponents 2-8 to 0-1 in the third quarter. Goals from Conal Cunning and Nigel Elliott midway through the half sealed the victory, while late goals from Conor Carson and Paddy Burke put a flattering look on the scoreboard for Cushendall.

In a first half that failed to really get going, Dunloy opened a two-point gap after five minutes with a Paul Shiels free and a superb Eoin O’Neill effort from play. Cushendall responded with points from Neil McManus and Paddy McGill to restore parity.

The sides were still tied at 0-3 apiece on 18 minutes but Cushendall landed four of the last five scores of the half to take a 0-7 to 0-4 lead into the half-time break.

Dunloy sprung to life after the restart. Shiels converted a 65 after Cunning’s goal-bound effort was turned round the post. Shiels added two more frees and points from Nigel Elliott and Keelan Molloy had Dunloy 0-10 to 0-9 ahead.

Carson stopped the rot for Cushendall but Molloy, Cunning and O’Neill all added further points. Goals from Cunning and Elliott within the space of a minute put the match beyond doubt. Cushendall were reduced to 14 men when McManus saw red for an off the ball incident.

Shiels and Nicky McKeague added points to open up a 12-point gap and although Cushendall added those two late goals, Dunloy were not to be denied another championship title.

Dunloy: R Elliott; P Duffin, J McKeague, O Quinn; K McKeague, C McKinley, K Molloy; C Elliott, P Shiels (0-7, 6f, 0-1 ‘65’); N Elliott (1-1), G McTaggart, K Molloy (0-2); E O’Neill (0-2), C Brogan, C Cunning (1-1). Subs: E Smyth for O Quinn (15 mins), N McKeague (0-1f) for C Brogan (h-t), A Dooey (0-1) for G McTaggart (53 mins), M Murphy for C Elliott (62 mins)

Cushendall: E Gillan; R McCambridge, M Burke, S Delargy; A Graffin, P Burke (1-0), D Kearney; E Campbell (0-1), A McNaughton; C Carson (1-2), N McManus (0-3f), D McNaughton; F McCambridge (0-2), S McAfee, P McGill (0-1). Subs: C McClafferty for D McNaughton (h-t), E McKillop for S McAfee (48 mins), E Laverty for E Campbell (48 mins), R Delargy for P McGill (57 mins)

Referee: M O’Neill (Armoy)