The winners of this year’s Sydney Irish Festival hurling game between Galway and the Allianz Division 1 winners will earn a second trip to Australia in two years’ time.

Conor McKenna seemed to forget which sport he was playing when he produced the piece of Gaelic skill.

The big events are coming thick and fast for Cora Staunton.

In Australia today, the AFL stage their annual national draft. It is the major plank of their equalisation strategy to make the Premiership as fair as possible.

Ireland’s new International Rules manager Paul Earley admits that the series has lost some of its sparkle because the Australian have curbed the physical aspect of their play — but he expects a tougher challenge this time around.