Kareem Abdul-Jabbar presented all sorts of conundrums for opponents, writes Brendan O’Brien

IT has to be one of the most magical coach-player relationships in all of Irish sport, this bond the 70-something Eamonn Ryan and his Rebels have, and six All-Irelands in seven years is far too crude a measure of it.

A headless corpse was found in Baghdad today hours after an al-Qaida-linked group boasted it had killed a second American hostage, leaving the Briton they are holding to face execution.