The gaffer suffered an acute existential crisis during the week. Which is a contagious business.

Stand by for another golden age of sportswriting. Perhaps even newspapers can yet be saved, writes Larry Ryan.

“People were raving afterwards about Tommy Craig. He has great skill and he is strong… When you are watching a game it looks like he’s making a great contribution. But that is on the premise that what he is doing on the ball is what it’s about at that level. And it is not. Maybe it should be. It would be nice if it were.

Now that elite pathway has been closed off, there are fears the women described by F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo as ‘fast girls’ will be condemned to the slow lane, writes Larry Ryan

Like most of the great survivors in management, Martin O’Neill likes to help the impression form that it is he doing you the favour, writes Larry Ryan

Another turbulent week, yet there’s a sense too we are on the cusp of a great breakthrough, of landmark progress. There is a mood for change.

At a time of great volatility in the world, there is considerable comfort in the few reliables we encounter during this extended period of reflection in the GAA calendar.

Columnists are flagging and the end-of-year audits are piling up; of moments, personalities, achievements, goals. But what of the commodity that keeps this whole operation going? How was 2017 for words, asks Larry Ryan.

There has been robust discussion around this week’s series on Irish football and the things being done to restore our supply of top talent. It even spilled beyond these shores, from the UK to USA and Sweden to South Africa, with many of the issues raised striking a universal chord.

The dive itself is an unsophisticated relic relied upon only when there has been a gross failure of imagination, writes Larry Ryan.