What the papers say

One group, two papers, spot the difference. The Kerryman and the Corkman, both owned by Independent Group Newspapers, gave a perfect example of how to share resources and personnel in the wake of last Sunday's Munster football final at Pairc Ui Chaoimh. With judicious commissioning each county was catered for and, front page leads apart, both papers were able to use the exact same six pages of coverage in their sport supplements - same writers, same words, same pictures, same headlines. Peas in the same pod those Cork and Kerry people.

One of the papers' columnists (yes, that's one columnist, two papers), former Kerry great Mikey Sheehy, didn't spare his county's management and former colleague Paidi O Se on their decision-making from the sidelines. Sheehy wasn't short on ideas on what they should have done either. "Mike Hassett should have been brought in at centre half back and Seamus Moynihan moved to midfield, where freshness was needed." As to the substitution of Aodan MacGearailt, scorer of two goals, Sheehy says "I was absolutely amazed by that".

In Connacht, as much of the fallout from the Connacht final concentrated on Tuam Stadium as on Mayo's defeat of All-Ireland champions Galway. Ivan Neill's news follow-up in the Western People suggested that Tuam might lose its status as a Connacht final venue following "incidents at the double-decker programme". Chief amongst the incidents was the failure of a few hundred ticket-holders to gain access to the grounds after the gates were locked 15 minutes before the throw-in of the senior game. John Melvin in his Connaught Telegraph On the ball column ploughed the same furrow while in the Tuam Herald, Declan Varley, mindful of the development of Pearse Stadium in Salthil, asked Was this Galway's goodbye to Tuam Stadium?