One of the country’s top sports science experts has warned there is a “great danger” rival counties will be unable to compete with Dublin in the years ahead unless they overhaul their development structures.

Thirty years on from Tipperary beating Antrim in the All-Ireland final, there was a strong Saffron influence running through the team for Sunday’s All-Ireland win over Kilkenny.

Comparisons of teams and players across generations need to be conditional, mindful of changes in a sport and in the science of sport.

When you run your finger to scrape off the dust on Donegal’s season, the turning point for many would be Michael Murphy’s first introduction of the campaign eight minutes before half-time when Armagh visited Ballybofey in March.

Former Munster player Mike Sherry has announced his retirement from rugby at the age of 31.

Eleven years ago, Bryan Cullen was an employee of Ulster Bank. It was merely a means to an end. Having graduated three years previously with a sports science and health degree, the job made little sense but for the fact he was playing inter-county football and the bank were associate sponsors of the All-Ireland SFC.

Munster's strength and conditioning coach PJ Wilson seems set to follow Jerry Flannery and Felix Jones out the door this summer.

Whether you are a Munster coach or a team-mate, Tyler Bleyendaal ticks plenty of boxes as one of the great readers of the game and those insights could well be vital against Saracens on Saturday.

A culture of innate modesty and resilience among jockeys has resulted in a huge

Tony Leen on the key details from the new vision for Cork football.

Davy Fitzgerald has revealed how close he came to walking away from Wexford, and from hurling, before a crosscountry trip by some of the county’s players persuaded him to sign up for a third season in the southeast.

Mattie Donnelly knew what some were saying. And he knew why.

The Limerick academy I was involved with for three years was about fostering a culture of doing things the right way — and not necessarily all about winning. Some people in the county had issues with me over that but I never had anyone say a single negative thing to my face, writes Anthony Daly

As has been their habit since the innocent summer of 2011, the Mayo football team hasn’t been short of takers lining up to bury and praise them in recent days.

Ireland’s re-emergence as a player on the international basketball stage won a huge boost last year when the country’s Under 18 girls ranked second in the European Championships. Now the senior women’s squad look to build on that momentum in Cork this week.

The Crusaders got a week off after the Chiefs game up in Hamilton. Some of the squad went off to Fiji for R&R. I’m using the time for a bit of a recharge before heading to Brisbane today ahead of the first test.

Somebody from the south is going to be a winner at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow afternoon. Even if Cork Constitution are dethroned as Ulster Bank League champions in an eagerly awaited decider against Lansdowne (3pm), there will be celebrations down in the seaside town of Crosshaven.

Munster are closing in on appointing an American football strength and conditioning coach as head of athletic performance, causing surprise and disappointment within Munster and Irish rugby circles that indigenous candidates have been overlooked again.

In 2017, Shane O’Driscoll and Mark O’Donovan found another gear. After a series of near misses they blew their rivals away to win European and World Championship golds. It hasn’t made them rich, it’s barely kept a boat on the water, or a car on the road. But it kept the dream alive. Now, however, a political decision means they must start all over again and risk everything in their bid to make the Olympics.

Cork GAA intends to appoint an overall strength and conditioning co-ordinator to create consistency of approach from development squads to senior teams within the county.

Connacht back-row Eoghan Masterson says it came as no surprise to him to see Scarlets win the PRO12 last season and that he expects a real challenge from the champions this weekend as Connacht aim for a second win of the season.

Bernard Jackman could give you any number of reasons as to why he accepted the offer to coach the Newport Gwent Dragons.

The complications involved in travelling to South Africa so early in the upcoming PRO14 season are already evident for Leinster coach Leo Cullen.

They’re not half-pregnant now. For years there, that’s essentially how the Cork senior hurlers were going about the place. 

At least nobody will be asking Tipp about doing the 'back to back' for a while, reckon Michael Moynihan and Eoghan Cormican.

Ronan O’Gara knew Munster were good. He just didn’t realise quite how good. He could laugh about it afterwards, though it was a hollow effort quickly dispensed with. There just wasn’t an inch of him that found solace in the fact it was his province filleting his Racing 92 colleagues.

Sport is the greatest platform for making excuses to deflect attention from failings in preparation.

What has happened to Cork? When the last time you could actually trust the county’s footballers to deliver on the big day? Paddy Kelly knows the issues. “We haven’t had a big scalp in the championship the last few years. Even saying that, we sound like of the smaller counties, but this is a huge opportunity to put that right.”

Nothing but “revolution” will bring about the reform needed to reverse the decline of hurling and football in Cork, insists the county’s coaching officer Kevin O’Donovan.

Oliver Dingley had dreamed of winning a medal at a major diving event for 14 years before he earned the right to stand on the podium at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in the summer of 2014.

After a man of the match performance against Romania, Keith Earls has every reason to feel good about life right now but the Ireland wing has admitted that life at the World Cup can be tough, with a young family back at home.

Before getting into how both Cork and Kerry will be better for last Sunday, let’s start by acknowledging and appreciating that Cork-Kerry itself has hardly been better than last Sunday.

Fitness and conditioning guru Mike McGurn warns Carlow’s disappointing Leinster championship opener shows no amount of gym work will compensate for a shortage of skills.

CJ Stander will leave the personal plaudits on one side in the run-in to the Guinness Pro12 play-offs as Munster target not just a top-four finish but a home semi-final.

It is less a matter of what’s professional practice as what’s good practice. The best managers and management teams understand this, writes <b>Kieran Shannon</b>.