Cork hurling captain Seamus Harnedy hopes his team “can learn from 2018” as they continue their quest for All-Ireland glory.

Clare’s Peter Duggan and Monaghan’s Conor McManus have been voted PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month award winners for their respective performances in July.

So here’s a thing: There are three counties left in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship and three counties from the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship are still in contention to win the All-Ireland.

The basic inequity of the promotion and relegation system applied to the new structure of the All-Ireland hurling championship is so obvious that it is impossible to ignore.

If the All-Ireland hurling championship was more like the Premier League (which, let’s face it, it increasingly is), and you could pick which team to follow rather than adhere to county boundaries, I like to think I’d still pick Tipp, says Eimear Ryan.

September is long gone now. The last strains of ‘The West’s Awake’ have petered out on the cold winter winds as a New Year clears its throat but still the hurlers from Galway continue to rack up the prizes.

Tipperary County Board secretary Tim Floyd has expressed concern that the new hurling proposals will significantly curtail club activity in April and May.

A loophole in the GAA rulebook has saved Sligo from a first round qualifier replay with Antrim.

It’s a shame it’s not in place for this year, this weekend. Picture it – and with weather like this, it’s so easy to picture it.

Tipperary’s All-Star defender Cathal Barrett believes that a Galway move south to join Munster would be a major setback to Leinster and the overall balance of the All-Ireland Hurling Championship.

• Revenue dropped €500,000 to 55.7m.

It was the France of Platini, Giresse, and Tigana that mesmerised us first. Between 1982 and 1986, that generation of French footballers bewitched and bewildered those of us already hopelessly in love with the game of football. The only time most of us were caught on the fence was when they faced Brazil.

SOME events are a gift to a columnist, others are a curse. Somebody with a large blank space to fill every week doesn’t drop to his knees in thanks when Kilkenny win another All-Ireland hurling title, but the Rugby World Cup is a gift that keeps on giving.

Is it possible that people have ran out of things to say about Dublin v Kerry? Even on Up for the Match, where the tolerance for cliché is high, they looked a touch jaded by it all.

Richie Hogan says he “hates” the structure of the All-Ireland hurling championship and would prefer to play at least another two or three games.

GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail has called on Cork supporters to police themselves in relation to the appearance of the Confederate flag at matches.

Michael Carton insists Dublin can still win this year’s All-Ireland hurling championship despite being demolished by Galway. 

Des O’Sullivan expects strong competition among sporting collectors for a rare nine-carat gold All Ireland medal.

THE announcement today confirming AIB as new associate sponsors of the All-Ireland SFC tallies with the GAA’s commercial bundle strategy in recent years.

So a quick pop quiz — name the current sponsors of the All-Ireland hurling championship?

Conor Ryan has revealed how Cratloe’s dual players made a private pact vowing not to allow their football heartache affect their AIB Munster club hurling bid.

Anthony Daly has hinted his time as Dublin hurling manager will come to an end before the summer is out.

Frank Lohan has revealed the hurling review forum will give serious consideration to condensing the inter-county season.

Eight points separated Clare from Waterford when the sides met in Munster last summer.

Dublin-based building group Noonan Developments has sold its 34.9% share in Liam Griffin’s Griffin Group Hotels for a knockdown €100,000.

You could say he walked it! The man who won Ireland’s first gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in 18 years has been crowned Cork Person of the Year.

The Dublin construction group that owns a 34.9% share in Liam Griffin’s hotel group wrote down its investment by 93% last year, “in light of prevailing market conditions”.

Less than a week after Kilkenny’s shock July exit from the All-Ireland hurling championship Diarmuid O’Flynn travelled to the Marble City to gauge the reaction and mood in the county. In that famed hurling talk shop of Langton’s, former stars Noel Skehan, Michael Walsh and writer Enda McEvoy were in no mood to write obituaries about Brian Cody’s men.

GAA Congress doesn’t exactly get pulses racing, but this weekend’s gathering in Derry is arguably the most important since 2005 when delegates voted to give Central Council the power to make Croke Park available for international rugby and soccer games.

GAA Director General Pauric Duffy has revealed his annual report to Congress this morning at a press briefing at Croke Park.

Dublin are among a number of counties against the GAA’s new guideline to reduce the number of officials on the sideline to five.

McGrath got vital Donnellan ‘goal’ decision correct

AN 11 year old from Tipperary has become the youngest girl to scale Africa’s highest mountain.

An 11-year-old from Co Tipperary has become the youngest girl to scale Africa’s highest mountain.

Limerick 1-22 Wexford 2-13

THE GAA’s efforts to instigate alcohol and substance abuse awareness programmes is “tokenism” in light of its receipt of alcohol sponsorship, former Tipperary hurler John Leahy has claimed.

IRISH sporting organisations face an anxious wait as a government steering group prepares a report which is expected to recommend the phasing out of alcohol sponsorship in sports.

DONIE O’DONOVAN from Bandon and Kevin Byrne of East Cork intend to make little of the oft-expressed modern contention that golf is a young man’s game when they line out for their clubs in the semi-finals of the Bulmers Barton Shield and Irish Junior Cup at Castlebar today.

ON a broader level the engrossing fare in Sunday’s Croke Park clash between Tipperary and Galway reinvigorated this season’s All-Ireland hurling championship, yet just as importantly the victory fuels the Premier men’s ambitions for the season ahead.

GAA president Christy Cooney has continued to show his commitment to bringing the club to the fore, with the first ever All-Ireland Hurling Championship launch in a GAA Club being hosted today by Ballyboden St Enda's in Dublin.

A GLUTTON for punishment surely, Seamas O’Brien heads off to Down this weekend for his 54th consecutive annual GAA Congress, that great two-day talk-fest when the massive wheels of the GAA can be at their most grindingly slow.

CENTRA was yesterday announced as the newest co-sponsor of the All-Ireland hurling championship,taking over from RTÉ in a deal which will last three years.