“People trained like alcoholics in those days. They didn’t like people to know they were training.”

Cork senior hurling manager Kieran Kingston is on the lookout for a new coach with the departure of Frank Flannery from the Rebels’ backroom team.

Galway’s future in the Leinster hurling championship has been placed in doubt with two clubs from the county submitting proposals to withdraw from the province in 2017 if they are not granted equal status.

Thurles Sarsfields 1-18 Nenagh Éire Óg 3-11 (Tipperary SHC final): Thurles will wake up alongside a familiar bedfellow in the Dan Breen Cup this morning but boy did they cut this one fine.

New Cork senior hurling manager Kieran Kingston will make his championship bow as manager against Tipperary in Semple Stadium next May.

Sarsfields 4-15 Erin’s Own 1-14: Sarsfields’ remarkable level of consistency in the Cork senior hurling championship continued at Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday when the Riverstown club reached an incredible seventh final in eight seasons.

Tommy Walsh is likely to make his return to competitive football for All-Ireland champions Kerry off the substitutes’ bench, after he was kept in reserve for Sunday’s Allianz Football League Division 1 opener against Mayo at Fitzgerald Stadium (2pm).

Ballincollig’s Patrick Kelly and Daniel Kearney of Sarsfields were the big winners at last night’s Reardens Cork GAA club All Star awards.

TIPPERARY SHC FINAL:

A huge weekend of senior hurling activity saw the Tipperary SHC championship reduced to the last eight, and while there were no major upsets, there were some very significant results, not least the victory of Thurles Sarsfields over Drom-Inch.

The aftermath of celebrations of Sarsfields’ win in the Cork county hurling final in 2012 saw a serious attack on a man at his home by a father with his two sons.

Sarsfields 5-12 Killeagh 2-09

Sarsfields 2-14 UCC 0-9

Sarsfields 1-21 UCC 5-09

Éire Óg, Nenagh 0-15 Thurles Sarsfields 0-12

Champions Kilkenny face an anxious wait on the fitness of a couple of players before Sunday’s Allianz Hurling League final against Tipperary, but it looks likely Richie Power will be unavailable.

As unfair as it is, Lar Corbett is still seen, both inside and outside his county, as the personification of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final humiliation to Kilkenny.

AIB ALL-IRELAND CLUB SHC SEMI-FINAL

Ballymun Kickhams (Dublin) 1-08 Sarsfields (Kildare) 0-05

John Keane has embraced new faces but will meet some old ones in the Munster Club SHC final on Sunday.

Carbury 0-11 Sarsfields 2-11

The left peg remains cultured. Pádraig Brennan may be pushing 34 but 15 years’ service to defence forces has helped to keep him in decent nick.

A lot of the build-up had focused on Sarsfields’ previous final experience — it was their fourth final since 2008, whereas it was Bishopstown’s first ever.

Tipperary senior champions Drom & Inch remain on course to retain the Dan Breen Cup following an impressive 2-22 to 0-13 quarter-final win over west champions Clonoulty Rossmore at Semple Stadium.

Sarsfields 3-11 CIT 0-14

London club Kilburn Gaels retained the Tom Semple Cup at the International Hurling Festival in Thurles at the weekend, beating Dunboyne of Meath in the final by 2-7 to 0-9.

GAA president Liam O’Neill has praised the Wexford County Board for their handling of a racism case.

The trip to Laois and Offaly in three weeks will mark a historic first appearance for Ballincollig in Féile na nÓg, the national football festival for U14 players.

THERE were several shocks around the country yesterday but perhaps the biggest was in Limerick where Na Piarsaigh claimed their first county title with a 2-18 to 0-13 win over Ahane at the Gaelic Grounds.

KEEPING Lar Corbett scoreless — it’s a winning formula.

THURLES SARSFIELDS stayed on course for a third successive Tipperary SHC title, seeing off the challenge of Loughmore-Castleiney by 3-17 to 2-16 in a thrilling quarter-final at Semple Stadium on Saturday.

TIPPERARY champions Thurles Sarsfields put their poor divisional form behind them as they hammered Knockavilla Kickhams 6-21 to 1-12 in the first round of the county senior hurling championship at The Ragg.

THE Wild Geese, a team of US marines based in England, are amongst eight sides competing in the inaugural Thurles Sarsfields International Hurling 13s this weekend.

CORK senior hurling champions Sarsfields’ squad has been strengthened with the arrival of another Wexford inter-county player.

THIRD county final in-a-row for Sarsfields’ Kieran ‘Fraggie’ Murphy this Sunday, against the Glen in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, but it never gets old, not for a guy who has known the bad days in the now-thriving east Cork club.

RELIEF on the Sarsfields side that they somehow managed to win a game they appeared set to leave slip through their hands contrasted with a deep sense of frustration among Killeagh players and supporters that they missed out on a quarter-final place in the Evening Echo Cork SHC in Midleton on Sunday evening.

RELIEF on the Sarsfields side that they somehow managed to win a game they appeared set to leave slip through their hands contrasted with a deep sense of frustration among Killeagh players and supporters that they missed out on a quarter-final place in the Evening Echo Cork SHC in Midleton last evening.

CORK boss Denis Walsh last night made three changes for Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final against Kilkenny from the team that defeated Antrim in last month’s quarter-final tie.

SEÁN ÓG Ó hAILPÍN has ruled himself out of Saturday night’s replay of the Munster SHC final with Waterford, with his hamstring injury requiring “two to three weeks” to heal.

TOP-GUNS John Gardiner and Jerry O’Connor have been given starting places on the Cork team for next Sunday’s crunch Allianz Division One NHL clash with Tipperary at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.