FOR Pat Gilroy’s Dubs it was Corduff.

TALK about bittersweet.

THEY got knocked down but they got up again. Cork reclaimed the Brendan Martin Cup at Croke Park yesterday just over a year after a quarter-final defeat to Tyrone loosened their grip on a trophy that had come to feel like something of a birthright.

CORK and Monaghan have undoubtedly been the form teams this year and no one can quibble with their pairing in tomorrow’s TG4 All-Ireland Senior Ladies Football final.

CORK captain Amy O’Shea has revealed the Leesiders are desperate to win back the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies SFC crown this Sunday against Monaghan.

CORK ladies captain, Amy O’Shea insists she is not offended by the controversial Hunky Dory advertisements that feature scantily clad models playing Gaelic football.

CORK coach Eamon Ryan believes the hurt of losing the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies SFC crown in 2010 has fuelled a renewed quest for glory.

Cork 4-10 Laois 1-6

CORK captain Amy O’Shea is wary of the threat posed by Laois in Saturday’s All-Ireland ladies SFC semi-final in Cashel (TG4, 6pm).

CORK won their eighth successive Munster Ladies’ SFC title on Saturday, with a nine-point win over Kerry in Dr Crokes, Killarney.

THE GAA’s Medical, Scientific and Welfare Committee (MSWC) is hoping to publish guidelines for players which it is hoped will go some way to combating what appears to be an epidemic of cruciate ligament injuries.

THE president of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) has expressed his confidence that the ugly scenes which marred the recent Tyrone county final were isolated and not part of a trend carried over from the men’s games.

Cork 4-15 Laois 3-9

Brendan O’Brien on Cork ladies’ reaction to summer shock.

IT has taken some time to manifest itself, but ladies football and camogie are finally being hit by the same unemployment and emigration epidemic which has had such a negative impact on their male counterparts in the GAA.

CHAMPIONS Cork face Laois in the Bord Gáis Energy Ladies NFL Division One final on Saturday, May 7.

WHEN all looked lost for champions Cork in Croke Park yesterday, trailing by two points with eight minutes remaining and staring defeat in the face, the utter belief in their ability to hold on to the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies football title frustrated a Dublin team which, in truth, turned in the better performance on the day.

WHILE there were several key interventions – most notably a goal from top forward Amy O’Shea in each half – Cork’s character in the face of their biggest challenge since getting to the top in the TG4-sponsored Ladies Football All-Ireland senior championship in 2005 kept their five-in-a-row quest alive in Nenagh on Saturday.

CORK retained their Bord Gáis Energy Ladies National Football League Division 1 crown with a devastating performance against Mayo in Saturday’s Kiltoom decider.

CARNACON’S self-belief was the key to their second consecutive victory over East Cork side Inch Rovers in the VHI Healthcare Ladies Football All-Ireland Senior Club Championship decider, according to Mayo star Cora Staunton, who played a starring role by scoring all of their 11 points in Sunday’s final in Tullamore.

A GREAT game to win, but a terrible way to lose. The sense of euphoria shared by holders Carnacon with their supporters on the field at the finish contrasted sharply with the heartbreak experienced by Inch Rovers in yesterday’s VHI Healthcare All-Ireland Ladies club SFC final in Tullamore.

Inch Rovers (Cork) 2-14 Ballymacarbery (Waterford) 0-8

PREDICTABLY, the plaudits which holders Cork earned from another top-class display in the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies SFC were lost in the after-shock surrounding Valerie Mulcahy’s sending-off and the speculation on how much more difficult it would be to beat Monaghan in her absence.

GAELIC football is not one of my preferred sports and hasn’t been for some time. There are still a few teams who play it in the right spirit, Cork and Kerry among those, as are Galway, but for the most part I’ve grown sick of the cynicism.