A former boxing coach out in the Institute of Sport may be among the most invisible players in Irish sport, but he’s one of its most influential too, writes Kieran Shannon.

There goes another one, a forward that used to light it up but has now conceded that the game itself more than father time has dulled and worn him down.

The great Jack Kyle passed yesterday, aged 88, but what a full life he lived and he knew it.

IT would have been yesterday, a Monday in November, 94 years ago, that Luke O’Toole, the general secretary of the GAA, walked through the early-morning mist and the blood-stained, bullet-ridden grass of Croke Park, shadowed by a journalist.

It’s hard to think of as bad a team that’s been as compelling to follow as the current Los Angeles Lakers.

One of the most engaging conversations you’ll have in life is a sit down with Anthony Daly.

Last week, just before he would inspire Austin Stacks to their first county title in 20 years and win the right to captain Kerry in 2015, Kieran Donaghy ran a five-day basketball camp for 150 kids in his hometown of Tralee.

If you hear an Irish rugby player in the coming year using the term ’Always Compete’ or ’Fail Fast’ or admitting to spelling words backwards when they’ve felt over-anxious, you can probably put it down to a recent conversation between Joe Schmidt and a psychologist Dr Michael Gervais.

Throughout his life and his new book Anthony Daly has found himself staring at the ceiling or out at the sea or over his wife’s head trying to fathom what just happened to his team, what did he do wrong, what does he and they do next?

Clare might have made an underwhelming fist of defending their All-Ireland title but 2014 has still been a very special year for Conor McGrath, confirming the 23-year-old’s status as one of the country’s leading hurlers.