In fairness, if the lads aren’t fired up after being spoken to by this company of legends - there is no hope.

Hurling legend Henry Shefflin has appealed for volunteers to help build a refuge for the ‘forgotten’ children of Kenya.

THE punditry boom in the GAA keeps getting boomier.

The practice of sledging is all but non-existent in top level hurling, according to Henry Shefflin and Pat Horgan.

As Henry Shefflin prepares for his The Sunday Game Live debut in Thurles this Sunday, he admits hurling’s new advantage rule has been “a little confusing” but is supportive of it.

Jean Claude Trichet has denied phoning the late Brian Lenihan and instructing him to save the banks, Henry Shefflin selects RTÉ over Sky Sports to launch his GAA punditry career and Cian Healy is spared a conviction despite a judge ruling the tinted windows in his car were ’unsafe’.   These are some of the latest and most read stories on irishexaminer.com this evening.

Henry Shefflin is this week expected to chose between joining RTE or Sky Sports as a pundit.

The man can take himself out of the fight but can he ever take the fight out of himself? 

Michael Fennelly easily accepted Henry Shefflin’s decision to retire from inter-county hurling as a return to the fold for a 17th season would have been "high risk".

Remember “I am Tiger Woods”?

The first time I ran into Henry Shefflin was in 1999. Clare played Kilkenny in a challenge in Johnstown and this young fella arrived onto my patch as a second-half sub.

The shocking revelation that the Germanwings co-pilot deliberately destroyed the plane, a €349,000 watch sale in Keane’s Jewellers, and one Cork pub having some fun with helium are all part of our lunchtime briefing on the latest and most read content on irishexaminer.com today.   

Henry was lucky, so very, very lucky.

"You made the best of yourself" was Brian Cody’s glowing tribute to Henry Shefflin when the player informed his manager of his decision to retire on Monday.

IT would have been the perfect farewell and it very nearly came to pass last Tuesday week, but Colin Fennelly slightly overcooked his pull-back from the right – he hit it a little too well – and Henry Shefflin, in space right in front of the Kilmallock goal, couldn’t quite get his hand to the sliotar.

Mia Hamm is a legend of women’s soccer in the United States. She is retired some ten years but she is still revered Stateside.

Kevin Fennelly said it was a regret of his he didn’t produce Henry Shefflin when he was Kilkenny manager in 1998.

So the end came over tea and scones. That seems a rather genteel way to conclude the greatest career in Gaelic games rather than, say, a last, frenzied attack to overturn a two-point deficit, a desperate free launched into a hostile square.

IF hurling was an international game, there can be no doubt Henry Shefflin would share a pedestal with the likes of soccer star Lionel Messi of Barcelona and world number one golfer Rory McIlroy.

"It was important because I’d only been sent off in one game before."

Henry Shefflin, who has just anounced his inter-county retirement, proved that for every ounce of talent he possessed, the Ballyhale Shamrocks’ clubman had a grams worth of character.

Henry Shefflin has revealed it was Brian Cody who encouraged him to successfully contest his red card against Cork in 2013.

As was widely anticipated, Henry Shefflin this afternoon confirmed his inter-county retirement after 16 illustrious years.

Should Henry Shefflin per chance not bid farewell to his inter-county career today, the following can be dismissed as the musings of a man who presumed too much. 

Speculation is rife throughout the country that the days of witnessing Henry Shefflin soar in Kilkenny’s famous black and amber are over.

John Fogarty considers the tangible reasons both for and against Shefflin remaining on for a 17th season with the Cats.

They finally found a national treasure in Spain yesterday, the long-hidden resting place of the poet Cervantes. Contrast with Croke Park yesterday, where a national treasure was on open display.

With eight minutes left in yesterday’s All-Ireland final a face flashed up on the giant screens in Croke Park: pale, intent, following the action surge and swirl between the white lines in front of him.