Since Tom Brady and Deflategate earlier this year, the match ball in sport has come under scrutiny, but the chances of such an episode being repeated at Croke Park on Sunday are slim to none, writes John Fogarty

The surprise omission of Marc Ó Sé means Kerry will start an All-Ireland final without a member of the famed Ard a’ Bhóthair family for the first time in 43 years.

Kerry legend Charlie Nelligan has compared the strength of the current Kingdom panel to that of the all conquering one he was part of during the 1970s and 1980s.

All-Ireland football weekend focuses every sort of issue and maybe not just the obvious ones.

Surveying the crowd of thousands last night in Nowlan Park at another victory celebration, Brian Cody was already planting the seeds for more All-Ireland homecomings in Kilkenny.

Are the best four teams in the All Ireland semi-finals? Every August, this question is the hurling query that counts.

They are the benchwarmers. The twilight-zoners. The panel-fillers. The cliche we hear on the Hogan steps: everybody from one to 35 played their part. Is there truth in it? Or even comfort?

WHEN Kerry won one of the most dour and tactically conservative All-Ireland finals in recent memory, last September, it would have been easiest to have put it down to tradition. Kerry win All-Irelands because that is what Kerry traditionally do. 

Someday someone will do a feature, perhaps even a book on the 10 greatest hurling matches ever played.

From Wexford hurlers’ adoption of Kenny Rogers’ "The Gambler" to the Kerry camp’s penchant for upbeat dance music last year, music is as welcome in inter-county dressing rooms and team coaches as it was when each Tyrone player was asked to contribute one song to a team CD in the early 2000s. But what if there were tunes inspired by them? Here we provide our own alternative.

When the year ends in ‘5’, fate’s hand guides Cork fortunes in strange ways

On a recent trip to New Zealand former Cork player Conor McCarthy got up close with some of the country’s best rugby players and coaches. So how does the GAA compare...?

A few years ago, I was captivated by all I could find about the Lance Armstrong controversy.

The former Dublin attacker on the win-at-all-costs debate that has moved beyond cynically killing a goal-scoring opportunity for the opposition.

I played a bit underage with the county and Dickie (Murphy) asked me to fall in with him as an umpire

1. Eamonn Fitzmaurice and the letters

Walk into a cobbler’s shop and the fragrance overwhelms your entire being. It’s impossible not to drink it in, and soak it up. Just like the Championship.

I came on against UCC in the Waterford Crystal in January, and the last time I hit a free was against Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final in August.

Clare and Limerick? The only differences between us are those little idiosyncrasies, those unique emblems, which distinguish us all as our own separate little tribe in the wider hurling family.

Never mind this September. Who’ll be football top dogs at the end of 2018? And does John Evans know something the rest of us don’t?

Twenty years ago, Loughnane’s Clare emerged from nowhere to set the summer alight. Are we there again, waiting for a bolter to win the All Ireland, a team to come from the clouds and cut a swathe through a mediocre field?

Behind every star turn, there’s the no. 1 number two — the best sidekick, supporting act, partner in crime — except in the Kingdom, of course, writes Larry Ryan

Is that the new thing now? Each season, inter-county management search for the extra inch. Rule-makers strive for the perfect rule And players do whatever it takes to win (in comfortable socks, of course). Here’s a few innovations for the Championship. Sort of.

As a primary school teacher and parent, I am strongly supporting a yes vote today.

The big issue is making sure the appetite isn’t sated:

It’s not just Marty McFly and Doc Brown who make a connection between 1985 and 2015. Like it was 30 years ago, Dublin and Kerry enter the football championship as the two favourites; Kerry as reigning kingpins and Dublin as the winners of the previous year.