Integrating younger players into the Cork senior hurling set-up is one of the big challenges facing manager Kieran Kingston.

If the championship is Broadway and the NHL off-Broadway, how would you describe last Saturday night?

Last week yours truly wrote about dentists in the NHL. Blood, stitches, exposed nerves, tooth fragments: Your basic Saturday night out. What about tooth loss in Irish sport, though?

Before Fox Sports broadcast the All-Star National Hockey League game in the US in 1996, they pitched it to their audience as “the greatest technological breakthrough in the history of sports”.

If you’re a little fragile this morning, though, join me in thanking the man who sent me a link to a terrific ESPN article, one of those items where the headline alone sells you on the story.

I remember a time when a wrapper was something that covered a bar of chocolate.

Seventy-three years ago, Jimmy O’Donoghue hurled for Limerick against Kilkenny in Croke Park. One of two remaining survivors from that champion NHL panel, he reflects on this evening’s All-Ireland semi-final between the two counties and on his journey as a hurler and a civil servant which saw him play the game in four counties

‘Our main men must step up, because Waterford hurling is in crisis’

A few hundred metres from Nick Nurse’s city centre apartment in downtown Toronto stands Fort York, one of Canada’s most significant historical landmarks, the symbol of the still nascent country’s war of 1812 with the US.

Jackie Tyrrell might have hesitated about placing the county in Ireland’s top three teams. Yet a later column implied cancellation of the caveat. Tyrrell deemed Limerick’s core emphasis ― “flood the middle third” ― an approach hard to counter.

Former Waterford selector Dan Shanahan says the Déise players must lift a downbeat county against Limerick in Walsh Park tomorrow.

Cork senior hurling manager John Meyler is looking forward to his side’s Munster championship opener in Pairc Ui Chaoimh — and hoping the post-match conversation won’t be about the playing surface.

Tickets for one of the most eagerly awaited Munster senior hurling championships go on sale tomorrow and the provincial council are expecting strong sales.

The aftermath of last weekend’s Super Bowl has been dominated by quarterback Tom Brady’s sixth title and the defensive masterclass planned by New England Patriots coach, Bill Belichick.

The summer game always looks strange when the players’ breath is visible in small clouds at every facemask.

Anthony Nash doesn’t feel the lack of relegation will affect competitiveness in this year’s NHL.

Springtime may not have landed in Nowlan Park quite yet, given the chill in the Kilkenny venue yesterday, but the virtues and habits of the men in the striped jerseys remain evergreen.

A landmark week for the ‘fastest field game in the world’ — and for one of the slowest, writes Larry Ryan

Arsenal’s majority shareholder Stan Kroenke has made an offer to take full ownership of the club in a deal which values the Premier League outfit at £1.8bn (€2bn). The American’s company, Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (KSE), currently owns 67% of the Gunners and has offered to purchase the 30% held by Alisher Usmanov’s Red and White Securities firm.

Most hurling matches are a result.

Alex Ovechkin put both hands to his head and screamed while he left the bench and skated into the thick of the Washington Capitals’ joyous celebration.

The Cork senior hurling management may have to plan for the early rounds of the championship without Newtownshandrum’s Tim O’Mahony, who picked up a suspected fractured elbow over the weekend.

Wexford All-Ireland winner Tom Dempsey strikes a balance about his county’s progress to the NHL semi-finals.

Cork attacker Alan Cadogan says he and his teammates aren’t stressed about the prospect of demotion from NHL Division 1A to the lower tier.

The slim gent at the doorway will look familiar to those heading from Liberty Square to Semple Stadium tomorrow.

On the eve of the final round of the NHL, who are the brightest sparks in the class and who are the must-try-harders? Firm but fair as ever, our headmaster Enda McEvoy does his ritual

In exactly two weeks’ time the 2018 Australian Rules (AFL) season begins with Richmond playing Carlton at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, writes Jack Anderson.

The pressures placed on GAA players juggling county and third level commitments may be generating plenty of debate in recent weeks but Tipperary’s Jason Forde believes the dual mandate has an upside.

Cork hurling manager John Meyler has been very impressed with Clare, who have picked up two wins in their first two NHL 1A outings.

Wexford’s focus is fully on this weekend’s NHL clash with Tipperary after a fundraising trip to New York last week, says Diarmuid O’Keeffe.

John Divilly on the takeaways from the opening weekend of league action.

This NHL 1A clash went to the visitors Wexford in front of a crowd of 7,567.

Tipperary manager Michael Ryan said notions that Kilkenny won’t be contenders this year are well wide of the mark and he expects a big response from Brian Cody’s men.

Waterford should win but might not. Their main difficulty is their convex tradition against Kilkenny in championship encounters, writes PM O’Sullivan.

While hurling qualifiers easily swerve into a labyrinth, that place of uncertainty and hesitations, Monday’s draw produced straight and narrow terrain, writes PM O’Sullivan.

Hurling pauses, if only to catch its breath. 

If Galway progress in a business-like manner, it will augur well for more than a Leinster semi-final, writes PM O’Sullivan.

Cork 0-26 Tipperary 3-16: Fittingly, this NHL clash between Cork and Tipperary was resolved by the game’s dominant personality deep in injury-time, with the result on the line.

Wexford hurler Lee Chin has admitted he was bowled over by the violence within professional ice-hockey, yet he believes hurling could learn a thing or to from it.