Lehane limped off injured against Limerick last Sunday week while Spillane’s back issue has kept him out of action in Cork’s first two championship games.

Life as an inter-county defender, even one stationed in the relatively controlled environs of Dublin’s back line, brings with it the inevitability that you will be burned. The trick is doing all you can to limit your exposure to the fire.

Just when you thought this hurling summer could spoil us no more, the youngsters from Tipperary and Cork go and produce a most incredible finish to the last ever All-Ireland U21 final.

How to feel your age part I: The Good Friday Agreement is a month older than Kyle Hayes.

On Damien Comer’s last visit to MacHale Park, referee Paddy Neilan sent him for an early shower.

Given the wealth of underage successes the club has enjoyed in recent years, the turnover in the Na Piarsaigh team shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Limerick manager Pat Donnelly sees no reason why his players can’t translate their U21 success into senior glory.

You may have seen it, you may not have, depending on your familiarity with Facebook, the website set up, according to Hollywood, to get back at a girl who dumped a nerd at Harvard.

Confidence. That’s been the key. Granted, there have been other subtle improvements, but none as profound or important as the collective confidence of this Tipperary squad.

They’re an obstinate bunch, Tipperary football folk. Small in number but big in pretty much everything else — it took three pleas from the PA announcer in Croke Park to convince them to leave the stadium long after the players had retired to their dressing room.

The dream week for Tipperary hurling, anything but for neighbours Limerick.

Cork IT 1-11 Newcestown 0-12: A Newcestown comeback fell short as Peter Kelleher and Anthony Casey led Cork IT to an opening county SFC victory at Páirc Uí Rinn yesterday.

Cork midfielder Ronan O’Toole could be fit for Saturday’s EirGrid All-Ireland U21 final with Mayo at Cusack Park (6pm).

The dissatisfaction of Cork clubs with the lack of access to intercounty hurling players was expressed by a number of delegates at last night’s county board meeting at the Nemo Rangers complex.

Cork’s progression to the All-Ireland U21 final, on Saturday, April 30, looks set to disrupt local football championship fixtures.

Cork’s greater balance in front of goal propelled them past Monaghan and into a first All-Ireland U21 final since 2013.

Tipperary football defender Jimmy Feehan fears it will be an “absolute disaster” if a B championship is introduced to Gaelic football.

Richie had to be moulded into a Cody player... Cody put manners on him, says Adrian Ronan.

Kerry football manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice has defended the disciplinary record of his team, rubbishing suggestions that the All-Ireland champions play "close to the edge".

Their growing confidence inside the whitewash is at long last being matched by their words off it; Tipperary football speak has never been so bold or assertive.

It is the 1% that gnaws away at Colin O’Riordan.

Former Galway selector Mattie Kenny is to challenge the man he once shared the sideline with for the position of Galway hurling manager.

Jim McGuinness will assemble a largely new backroom team with Donegal’s senior footballers following the news Rory Gallagher and two other members have departed the set-up.

A few things are bothering me about this All-Ireland final and they revolve around the complaints coming from Antrim about playing the game in Thurles and their fans feeling slighted again.

Clare County Board will this week approach the Munster Council seeking the postponement of the provincial club hurling semi-final on November 10.

Davy Fitzgerald claims he has been inundated with messages from outside Clare expressing criticism of referee Brian Gavin’s performance in Sunday’s All-Ireland drawn final.

Cork U21 football manager John Cleary does not feel Damien Cahalane or Brian Hurley would be overawed by making the step up to senior championship football.

When the season began David Moloney was an interested spectator as Dr Crokes began plotting their Kerry senior football championship defence.

The greatness of this Kilkenny team and of Henry Shefflin in particular doesn’t stop at their pure hurling skills.

Ticket prices for the All-Ireland senior and minor final replays on September 30 are set to be reduced, although the GAA stand to make over €3million from the bonus games.

2012 has already been a marquee year for Kilkenny’s Cillian Buckley, the year he made the breakthrough to senior.

For over 40 years Brian Cody and Jimmy Barry Murphy have been crossing swords.

Cork captain Donal Óg Cusack admits he’ll be among his heroes when they launch the Allianz Hurling League on Saturday night against Waterford.

IT has been a season of incremental progress for Dublin hurling yet the true barometer at the season’s end will be the amount of silverware that rests on the sideboard.

IT seems unlikely but it could be argued that Cavan’s momentous Ulster U21 championship win in April was first formulated on the rock-hardplaying fields and in the bohemian bars of the west coast of America last summer.