BEING drafted into the Cork senior setup as a raw defender out of the minor ranks was a milestone in Michael Shields’ football career.

CORK have slipped into the “second tier” of hurling counties, according to Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, who warned yesterday it may be the middle of the decade before the Rebels are in a position to challenge for major honours again.

1 THE Mary Byrne award for best female performance this year, happily, has been marked by our girls representing on the world stage.

Seán Óg Ó hAilpín says he is coming to terms with the end of his 14-year Cork senior hurling career and that he has departed the inter-county game content with the contribution he has made.

SEAN Óg Ó hAilpín says he is coming to terms with the end of his 14-year Cork senior hurling career and that he has departed the inter-county game content with the contribution he has made.

AISAKE Ó hAILPÍN has signed a two-year contract to play Aussie Rules with Essendon District Football League side Maribyrnong Park Lions.

Cork forward Ciaran Sheehan is set to join Australian Rules club Carlton Blues after next year's Championship campaign.

PROFESSIONAL sport is as cold as an accountant’s balance sheet.

Seán Óg O hAilpín says Cork "have huge problems" at inter-county level and that the county is producing players who "are not confident".

SEÁN ÓG O hAILPÍN says Cork “have huge problems” at inter-county level and that the county is producing players who “are not confident”.

CORK hurler Aisake O hAilpín has returned to Australia with his older brother Setanta and is unlikely to figure for the Rebel hurlers next season.

CORK football manager Conor Counihan is expected to inform the Cork County Board of his intentions for 2011 within the next week.

TIPPERARY has been engulfed in a giddy and happy atmosphere all week but by Tuesday night it was time for Padraic Maher and seven of his senior colleagues to take a step back from the celebrations.

EOIN KELLY of Tipperary has been battling a back problem this season — an injury so severe he’s had a series of epidurals, the pain-killing injections given to women in a difficult labour, just to enable him to take the field.

DUE to circumstances beyond my control – and beyond my understanding, because why any hurling county would schedule its own championships on a day when the All-Ireland semi-final was taking place is baffling – I wasn’t in Croke Park yesterday.

THE most successful teams in the GAA over the last decade have been Kerry, Tyrone and above all Kilkenny, who have nearly as many All-Ireland titles in that period as the two others put together.

CORK star Niall McCarthy says he and his team-mates will have to improve on their best performance of the championship so far, against Tipperary in their first game, to have any chance in the All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny.

Munster SHC Final Replay

IS there no separating these two magnificent hurling teams?

The replay? I’m really looking forward to that, though I doubt we’ll see the same two starting line-ups the next day.

LAST weekend, and not for the first time this year, you’d have to say the football outshone the hurling, big-time – a bad Leinster final in Croke Park.

EOIN MURPHY has been here before, looking down the barrel of a Cork-Waterford Munster hurling final.

WATERFORD manager Davy Fitzgerald is not looking ahead to the All-Ireland series, insisting he is totally focused on this weekend’s Munster final clash with Cork.

IN his first five years with the Cork senior hurlers John Gardiner played in four Munster finals. Now he’s happy to be back in the summer showpiece, and back against this Sunday’s opponents.

JOHN GARDINER has described criticisms of Séan Óg O hAilpín earlier this season as laughable.

CORK’S John Gardiner expects a “great battle” against Waterford in the Munster hurling final following his side’s expected defeat of Limerick in Sunday’s Munster Senior Hurling Championship semi-final.

THE medical experts may fret over him succumbing to the scourge of burnout and Cork supporters may worry about his ability to sustain a summer starring in both codes, but Eoin Cadogan’s approach to his incessant intercounty activities is calm and composed.

HOT on the heels of the heroics of Sean Óg and Aisake for the Cork hurlers last weekend, the Australian arm of the O hAilpín sporting dynasty continues to make headlines in the AFL.

NA PIARSAIGH claimed local bragging rights after crushing neighbours Glen Rovers in the opening round of the Evening Echo Cork senior hurling championship at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday night.

AISAKE O hAILPÍN may be the toast of Leeside this week but the Cork full-forward will not be representing his country in the International Rules series later this year, according to Irish manager Anthony Tohill.

CORK’S two-goal hero Patrick Horgan says the delay to Sunday’s Munster SHC game was a help rather than a hindrance.

SEÁN Óg O hAILPÍN has revealed he was never as sure about victory in a big game as he was ahead of Sunday’s 10-point demolition of Tipperary in the Munster SHC quarter-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

TIPPERARY manager Liam Sheedy admitted the character of his team will be severely tested in the coming weeks as the dethroned Munster champions look to revive their championship challenge in the qualifiers.

TIPPERARY centre-forward Seamus Callanan admitted “complete shock” following yesterday’s ten-point defeat against Cork.

When a player in the mould of Jerry O’Connor lines out at centre-forward, it’s obvious that the game plan will be linked through him, rather than by sending long balls down the middle.

CORK boss Denis Walsh insisted there were no thoughts of settling for a point with the penalty they were awarded in the 14th minute of yesterday’s Munster SHC quarter-final clash with Tipperary in Páirc Ui Chaoimh – despite the side’s recent poor goalscoring record from penalties.

IT BEGAN inauspiciously, a delayed start due to events elsewhere, then a two-point advantage conceded to Tipperary in the opening eight minutes – it could even have been more but for a save by Donal Óg Cusack from Lar Corbett that went out for a 65, converted by Eoin Kelly.

IF YOU aren’t with them, you’re agin’ them.

A FANTASTIC league final in Thurles yesterday, and great credit to the players on both teams for that, but the first people I want to talk about here are the Galway management team of John McIntyre, John Moylan, John Hardiman and Joe Connolly.

IT’S always been said that the National League is a secondary competition; well now we know that is true.

AISAKE O hAILPÍN has predicted that his brother Setanta will follow Tadhg Kennelly’s footsteps by returning from Australia to play for his native county before the end of his career.

THE GPA may have distanced themselves from the thorny question of pay-for-play but two of the country’s best-known inter-county stars have joined the chorus effectively calling for an end to the GAA’s cherished amateur ethos.

CORK’S hurling All Star Seán Óg O hAilpín is adamant inter-county GAA players should be paid for performing at the highest level and for “entertaining hundreds of thousands of people”.

ALL week leading into this match, the big question was which – if either – of these teams would be going all out for the win.