Micheál Donoghue believes there is no need to rethink the weight of the sliotar in light of his Galway team’s achievement in claiming last year’s All-Ireland title without finding the net in their last four championship games.

Next month marks the 50th anniversary of the National Hurling League final between Kilkenny and Tipperary, one of the most controversial clashes in GAA history, writes Enda McEvoy

They share more than a surname, principally a red-blooded passion for Cork GAA, with a combined 88 years of astonishing service to the cause.

“Tipp v Clare...another turkey shoot. Goals are getting scarce. Sliothar has to be looked at. Travelling far too far. Points from distance. Boring.”

Babs Keating has described the All-Ireland winning Cork team of 1966 as “moderate enough”, claiming it was one of the easiest All-Irelands ever won.

The Tipperary match-day cavalcade lost a vehicle this year. For years, Conor O’Mahony’s Skoda Superb pulled up the rear. A bad traveller, he was given special dispensation to drive, with Shane McGrath riding along for company.

Easy enough to take for granted the loop Google and Twitter and Whatsapp and SkyGo keeps us in.

Babs Keating has called on Congress delegates to vote against the motion to bring forward the All-Ireland finals by two weeks.

Tipperary’s Pádraic Maher has found the fallout in Galway since their All-Ireland final defeat to Kilkenny bizarre.

Brendan Cummins admits he broke down after Tipperary’s 2013 All-Ireland qualifier defeat to Kilkenny — his last appearance in the county jersey.

The sporting community in Cork and beyond turned out in force yesterday to honour the memory of renowned hurling coach Archdeacon Michael O’Brien, whose funeral took place in his native Innishannon following Mass in St Mary’s Church yesterday.

The man who was affectionately known as ‘the Canon,’ had the Midas touch when it came to developing hurling talent and coaching teams to success at the highest level, achieving this with St Finbarr’s, Farranferris, UCC and Cork at underage and adult level.

It’s almost that time of year again when clubs put forward motions to county conventions, but 2014 is slightly different.

If the last week has shown us anything — and we say this without any intended pun regarding the coming All-Ireland hurling final between Kilkenny and Tipperary — it is that there is more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to the tricky business of managing a team.

Some goals are bigger than others. Michael Moynihan has a look at nine of the most significant scores in the history of Cork v Tipperary.

There’s a brutal sense of honesty about this Tipperary management team that can’t but endear itself to any keen hurling follower.

The Irish Sun has been granted exclusive worldwide rights to show highlights of more than 170 GAA matches a year to subscribers of its iPhone app – or through the newspaper’s website on tablet, laptop or desktop.

Seamus Horgan (24, 5’11’’, 11-7 Tournafulla): “Like a lot of goalkeepers Seamus was also a very good outfield player but ended up in goals because he could be a bit wild out there!

Your first ever radio station?

Between 1991 and 2006 Cork held Tipperary in check in senior hurling, with the Premier County forced to play second fiddle when the two sides met.

It was June 2006, the build-up to the Munster senior hurling final in Semple Stadium between Cork and Tipperary, Lar Corbett was talking about a young neighbour of his.

He returned ‘home’ expecting to attend a retirement party for his brother Liam, but former Cork dual star supreme Brian Murphy was the centre of attention at the Nemo Rangers complex on Saturday night where he was honoured for his remarkable sporting achievements.

THIS being the off-season, the days and weeks tend to be pockmarked with talk of those stepping away from the carousel that is the inter-county scene, but Brendan Cummins intends staying on for one more spin at the very least.

IT DIDN’T happen today or yesterday but that doesn’t matter, just as it doesn’t matter what time of the night Hamlet actually takes the stage.

WATERFORD manager Davy Fitzgerald last night hit back at his sharpest critics, claiming they all have agendas against him.

THE inquest was lengthy and immediate.

Diarmuid O’Flynn and Fintan O’Toole argue both sides of the debate

IF there’s one thing sports journalists like writing about more than an athlete’s performance’s on the big stage, it is their departure from it.

IF you were to reduce winning senior championships in hurling to a formula, then managerial leadership + player talent would be as good as any.

IN case Red C don’t cut it, Newstalk have turned to the English Channel.

I AM looking at a photograph in the programme for the Tipperary-Kilkenny All-Ireland final of 1967 (priced, incidentally at an old shilling).

JOHNNY MURTAGH yesterday ended months of speculation when resigning as stable jockey to Ballydoyle-Coolmore.

WHEN news broke yesterday that Conor Counihan would be staying on as Cork senior football manager, there was a sense of relief, and not just in Cork.

BABS KEATING has defended his criticism of Liam Sheedy this season and claimed the current Tipperary management has benefited from his controversial second stint in charge of the county seniors.

EARLIER this week we asked a number of former Kilkenny captains and players if their team could create history tomorrow and complete the five in a row.

FIRST it was Cork, then Waterford, Limerick, Tipperary, Galway, Wexford, and now Clare.

BABS KEATING has called for the National Hurling League to be pushed back until after St Patrick’s Day with the competition to conclude in early summer.

The GAA and Allianz have announced an extension of the insurance company's sponsorship of the national football and hurling leagues for a further three years.

ON MY way to Croke Park yesterday I met Michael Bond; we all know what Michael did with Offaly in 1998.

PERHAPS it may be too much to expect that Davy Fitzgerald can match the achievement of Michael Bond ten years ago, when he took over the Offaly team after Babs Keating opted out following their Leinster defeat to Kilkenny, and inspired a magical triumph over them to claim the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

We defended as a unit, we really stuck to our guns. Everyone got in hooks and blocks, which are crucial

FOR Conor O’Mahony and the newer members of the Tipperary hurling team, meeting Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh next Sunday will mean the fulfilment of a dream.