In the end, Kilcoo had just too many holes to plug against Corofin.

Kilcoo trained on New Year’s Eve night and would have trained on Christmas Day too if their management team hadn’t called a halt.

Kilcoo continue to make a mockery of favourites’ tags and bookies’ odds, a superb dismantling of the Dublin and Leinster champions Ballyboden on Saturday earning the first-time Ulster winners a place in the All-Ireland final on January 19.

Kilcoo’s enchanting story has one more intriguing chapter to be written, and it will be penned in Croke Park when they meet defending champions Corofin in the All-Ireland Club SFC final.

John Fogarty previews the weekend's GAA fixtures.

Finally at last, with the Ulster Club Championship won and all that he had been striving for over the past decade secured

All season long, the media shy Mickey Moran has requested his selector Conleith Gilligan to take care of media engagements.

The GAA is not only about identity of course, but the first Ulster Club title for the hardest of hardcore GAA clubs in Kilcoo Eoghan Rúa will forever sustain this miniscule community of shepherds in a hollow of the Mourne mountains.

On the wall of a diner on Derrylin’s main street, hangs a picture of two men, tracksuited and beaming.

When Mayo last won their opening three rounds of the league, the year was 2006, Mickey Moran and the late John Morrison were in charge of the westerners and Aidan O’Shea was only 15 years of age.

It's been a few years since the two of us last spoke and 20 years now since we first met but the wit, wisdom and warmth of John Morrison continued to pop up in conversation and the imagination.

One former Donegal county man said it this week about Mickey Moran and his spell in the county that brought them to an All-Ireland quarter-final in 2002.

It says a lot about the maturity of Slaughtneil’s winter marvels when even one of their more recent additions talks like he’s got an old head on young shoulders.

Nemo Rangers, Slaughtneil are coming for you.

On this occasion Slaughtneil’s discipline let them down just when they needed to be at their best, writes Oisin McConville.

A 2016 hat-trick of Derry senior titles for Slaughtneil – football, hurling and camogie, writes Paul Keane

Slaughtneil (Derry) 1-11 Killyclogher (Tyrone) 0-8: Slaughtneil combined patience and composure with power and pace as they swept into another Ulster final.

Mayo may have annexed their fifth Connacht championship title in a row last month, but it was also their most low-key campaign. 

Monaghan. March 3, 2012. A turning point in Chrissy McKaigue’s career.

Corofin claimed the All-Ireland Club SFC title for the first time since 1998 and only the second time in their history with a superior show of football against Slaughtneil.

Stephen Rochford will go down in the annals of AIB Club football history, the first All-Ireland winner as a player with one club and as a manager with another.

It’ll be the wrecking ball for Cork soon enough as the bulldozers move into Páirc Uí Chaoimh. But it was county secretary Frank Murphy who was constructive, namely hitting the nail on the head when he spoke against plans to end the St Patrick’s Day All-Ireland Club senior finals.

The GAA has reported a large spike in the number of claims for hip operations among minor football and hurlers. A total of 77 teenage footballers and hurler last year made applications via the players insurance scheme compared to 19 in 2013, 20 in 2012, five in 2011 and 10 in 2010.

Another year, another sack of books.

Christopher Bradley sent a glorious winner sailing between the posts in stoppage time to give Slaughtneil their first ever Ulster Club SFC title in a dramatic and pulsating Athletic Grounds decider.

AIB ULSTER CLUB SFC FINAL:

AIB ULSTER CLUB SFC FINAL:

AIB ULSTER CLUB SFC SEMI-FINAL:

Slaughtneil 1-8 Ballinderry 0-9

It was the day Donegal’s ‘likeable losers’ tag stuck.

CONNACHT SFC FINAL:

Down the years there was a natural trepidation ingrained in Donegal supporters looking ahead to the next championship fixture.

Managers don’t live or die by their decisions but they either win or lose by them, keep their jobs or are fired by them.

It’s been a longstanding trend in the GAA for the No.2 to get all the glory and none of the gore.

It was a rivalry that defined a generation of Ulster football in more ways than one.

Mayo manager James Horan is considering his position after a number of logistical issues with the county board came to light.

John Morrison knows the perception of him.

After a review of their first season in charge, Barney Breen and George Dugdale have been given the green light to continue as joint-managers of the Leitrim senior football team for 2013.

Ask Brian McEniff if a Jim McGuinness-style contract would have worked 10 years ago and he digests the question.

August 5, 2002 — the afternoon Donegal extended their All-Ireland SFC interests by another 12 days.

Take a quick look through the internet to see where Ciarán McDonald stands in the hearts and minds of GAA fans throughout Ireland.

Around about halfway through their respective 11-year inter-county careers to date, Colm McFadden and Rory Kavanagh started spending evenings in the gym at Letterkenny Community Centre.

Leitrim forward Emlyn Mulligan is hoping the self-belief garnered from their win over Wicklow can power them to another victory over Laois today.

A look out the front-room window explains a lot.

June 16, 2002 should have been a memorable date for Donegal supporters.

LIMERICK secretary Mike O’Riordan has staunchly defended his county against what he believes were accusations they had brought the GAA into disrepute by threatening to boycott the forthcoming Allianz Hurling League.

MICK O’DWYER has not ruled out returning to inter-county management in 2013 when he will be 77.

Leitrim senior football manager Mickey Moran has stepped down for health reasons, Leitrim GAA said tonight.

THE BBC Northern Ireland website reeled in the years for Donegal this past week.

Mickey Moran has been reappointed as manager of the Leitrim senior footballers, following a special meeting of the Leitrim County Committee.