It used to be like this. A call for coffee with the manager, or a discreet invitation from one of the selectors. In the worst-case scenario a league panel without your name on it might appear in the paper.

Stephen Cluxton has spoken about his return from serious injury last season, his obsessive focus on self-improvement, and his admiration for manager Jim Gavin.

In the 2017 Division 1 final, Kerry brought Dublin’s 36-game unbeaten record across League and Championship to an end. Next Sunday, they aim to prevent Jim Gavin’s men from extending their defeat-less Championship run to 36. Thirty-three Championship wins and two draws have brought Dublin to the brink of creating GAA history. Here are 15 facts and figures behind their remarkable five-in-a-row tilt:

Just once have Dublin failed to score a goal against Mayo and their nine points were still enough to win in a dour

It's been a challenging few months for actor Johnny Ward. Last March, while wowing the nation with his gravity-defying dance moves in RTÉ’s Dancing With The Stars, his beloved dad died.

It was the final whistle for former Dublin footballer Denis Bastick, who last night became the sixth

Noel Baker It was black tie night on Dancing With The Stars, but not all contestants will go to the ball.

Switch-up week in Dancing with the Stars saw some of the contestants really switch-on with a change of partner — but for others it proved to be a real turn-off.

Holly Carpenter couldn’t hide her disappointment after becoming the second celebrity eliminated from Dancing with the Stars.

The new series kicks off Sunday, January 6 for a 12-week run.

"Since retiring from Dublin football I always wanted to try new things, I never imagined that this would be one of those things though!"

As has been their habit since the innocent summer of 2011, the Mayo football team hasn’t been short of takers lining up to bury and praise them in recent days.

Former Dublin defender Johnny Magee has revealed he skipped surgery after damaging his cruciate knee ligament, playing on for years, and he reckons Bernard Brogan could do likewise.

John Fogarty picks out five players who are set to make their mark on the Allianz Football League.

Central Council delegates will discover tomorrow if one of Páraic Duffy’s last acts as GAA director general will be a recommended rulebook change to ban testimonials.

What’s another year? That is the rhetorical question the GAA hierarchy are asking as a motion to change the U21 All-Ireland hurling championship to U20 to fall into line with Gaelic football is being prepared.

It is to O’Shea’s immense credit that in the face of constant provocation he has not succumbed to being a reactor, says Kieran Shannon

Alan Brogan didn’t stick around too long when it became apparent he was an impact substitute for Dublin.

Former footballer of the year Michael Darragh Macauley is feared to have ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament, putting his 2017 championship in jeopardy.

Paul Keane lists five transfers that would turn the Allianz League on its head.

They say no-one knows the son quite like the father, though it must be getting increasingly difficult for the elders of Dublin football to identify with their sons’ remarkable achievements.

Leinster Council chairman John Horan has described the decision to take Dublin to Nowlan Park last summer as a “cautious” first step forward.

Are the back-to-back All-Ireland champions set fair for further domination or already past their peak?

Your letters, your views...

It was at this stage two years ago Dublin found there was a limit to their hunger as All-Ireland champions. Denis Bastick can’t say for certain if they will meet another threshold this Sunday.

Other than how referee John O’Brien could have got it so wrong on Saturday, the most pertinent question arising from the Christy Ring Cup final surrounded the role of HawkEye in Croke Park. 

Transplant the final Division 1 table to this time next year when semi-finals will be a thing of the past and there would be no equivocation — for the first time in 30 years, Dublin and Kerry would contest a Division 1 final.

Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice has backed Paul Murphy to shine again at centre-forward, though he accepts that tomorrow’s Allianz FL Division 1 clash with Donegal in Tralee will represent a different challenge for the Rathmore man than Down did last week.

John Fogarty talks to Declan O’Mahoney ahead of Ballyboden St Enda’s All-Ireland Club SFC semi-final with Clonmel Commercials.

Mayo 0-7 Dublin 0-9: After just two rounds of league football, Mayo already look to have a huge fight on their hands to retain their top-flight status.

Barely an hour after Dublin’s 2013 All-Ireland football final win, manager Jim Gavin spoke in grave tones of what was coming down the line.

In a Dublin career that stretched out across 13 years — from 2002 to 2015 — there’s a strong case to be made for Alan Brogan’s last point of a remarkable 11-134 championship haul being his most important.

Cian O’Sullivan has heard no news so far about potential retirements in the Dublin football camp and with January 1 fast approaching, that’s good news as far as he’s concerned.

Michael Darragh Macauley is in new territory.

Well known GAA stars have joined forces with Special Olympics Ireland to get ‘freezin’ for a reason’ this December and take the Polar Plunge for charity.

Dublin’s Philly McMahon is in line to pick up the 2015 footballer-of-the-year award, having been named on the all-Dublin three-person shortlist.

The Championship isn’t over a week and already the debate has begun about Dublin dominance next season and how the football landscape will look in the coming years.

The number of black cards issued during this year’s All-Ireland senior football championship and national league reached 163, an increase of 12% on the 2014 figure.