"Substitutions are a consequence of how you read the match. You cannot predict them before the game because it is unpredictable" – Jose Mourinho

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Check back over the videos of Galway’s three Championship wins over Brian Cody’s Kilkenny and there are common threads.

It was the game that convinced Brian Cody to turn the thermostat down — way down — on his relationship with Kilkenny’s players.

Drico ‘an All-Black in other colours’

Here’s an interesting question. Granted, it may be a little too deep and existential, not to mention downright unanswerable, for a Saturday morning, but let that pass.

THE spectre of police collusion and corruption in the murders of three young men in The Miami Showband massacre over 36 years ago has been raised by an internal report of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

SENATOR David Norris refused to disclose the source of his legal advice not to publish controversial letters of clemency during last night’s presidential debate.

HOW GOOD is Henry Shefflin? Where does he stand in the pantheon of the hurling greats? For a cross-section of opinions we asked nine players for their assessments of the man simply called King Henry.

SELFLESS volunteers dedicated to rebuilding the lives of young people caught in the aftermath of one of the world’s worst disasters have been honoured.

THE Kilkenny SHC final certainly didn’t live up to its top billing before 8,000 spectators at Nowlan Park yesterday.

IT hasn’t been a great year so far for county senior hurling finals, one-sided editions in several marquee hurling counties, with Newtownshandrum (Cork), Thurles Sarsfields (Tipperary), Adare (Limerick) all crowned champions without ever really being tested.

FOR most counties, an All-Ireland final involvement enhances public interest in the domestic championships and it will be no different in Nowlan Park when the Kilkenny hurling semi-finals are decided tomorrow.

IN these final few days before the All-Ireland decider, all the talk is about the players from both teams. Henry, Eoin Kelly, Eoin Larkin, Lar Corbett – these are the stars, these are the guys you pay to see, and the pressure is on them to produce.

SO MUCH for this being regarded as one of the greatest Kilkenny teams of all time! The accolade is certainly flattering to the players and manager Brian Cody but in the opinion of many shrewd judges, it’s hardly justified.

GOOD FENCES make good neighbours. For Robert Frost, maybe. In Waterford and Kilkenny there’s no such thing as a barrier. Not when you have a Waterford man helping to sponsor the Kilkenny hurlers, and a Kilkenny hurler helping to dress the Waterford hurlers. Michael Moynihan tries to make sense of it.

GARDAÍ are investigating two internet videos showing a driver racing at 160km an hour under the River Lee and along a dual carriageway in Cork.

Portumna 2-17 James Stephens 0-11

Goals from Damien Hayes and Joe Canning helped Galway’s Portumna dump champions James Stephens out of the AIB All-Ireland Club Hurling Championship in Thurles.

EOIN LARKIN smiles when recalling the 2004 Kilkenny county hurling final.

YOU can't beat breeding, claimed the great Fan Larkin, after yesterday's thrilling Leinster club senior hurling championship final, in Portlaoise.

IT’S déjà vu all over again, as our American friends like to say, as James Stephens of Kilkenny play UCD, Dublin champions, in a repeat of last year’s final.

James Stephens 1-18 Ballyhale Shamrocks 2-12

COUNTY, provincial, and All-Ireland champions James Stephens put all three titles on the line at Nowlan Park on Sunday when they play Ballyhale Shamrocks in an eagerly anticipated Kilkenny senior hurling final.

AIB are to launch a marketing drive to enhance the profile of the club championships provincially to match the popularity of the competitions at national level.

HILL 16 was blessed for future generations on Monday, but yesterday’s titanic All-Ireland club football final between Ballina and Portlaoise should go a long way in converting the heathen to the creed of Gaelic football.

James Stephens 0-19, Athenry 0-14

IT’S the calm before the storm.

Athenry, seasoned campaigners in the All-Ireland club competition, take on Kilkenny county champions James Stephens in the All-Ireland club hurling final today at Croke Park.

IT WON’T matter to Athenry or James Stephens, but after three poor contests in succession, hurling needs a good AIB All-Ireland club final today.

LET nobody be under any illusions. The life of an inter-county manager is tough, even tougher at the top.

Jim O’Sullivan

RIGHTLY or wrongly, the general perception of next weekend’s All-Ireland semi-finals of the AIB club hurling championship would be that Kilkenny champions James Stephens will advance at the expense of Ulster standard-bearers O’Donovan Rossa, while Athenry may have a slight edge over Toomevara.

OVER the past several years, this year more than ever, we’ve had headline after blaring headline on whether or not the GAA will open up Croke Park to rugby and soccer.

James Stephens 1-13 UCD 1-12

James Stephens 2-16, Young Ireland’s 3-12

JAMES STEPHENS bid to end a 23-year wait for a Kilkenny SHC title against Young Irelands in tomorrow’s county final at Nowlan Park (3pm).

Young Irelands 1-18 Tullaroan 1-9

AFTER Kilkenny’s demolition of Galway in Thurles, it wasn’t a stretch to visualise a dressing room scenario beforehand of newspaper cuttings around the walls depicting Brian Cody’s team as a spent force and predicting the end of the road for them.

DOWN hurlers need more than just the goodwill of GAA bosses if they are to benefit from their involvement in Division One hurling in next season’s Allianz National League.

KILKENNY manager Brian Cody paid tribute yesterday to retired defender Philip ‘Philly’ Larkin for the contribution he made to hurling in the county over the past decade.

Kilkenny defender Philly Larkin is rumoured to have quit the Cats' camp in defiance of his non-selection by boss Brian Cody.

THE end of another purrfect week for Kilkenny, but should the Cats now carry a public hurling health warning? Can anyone stop their relentless pursuit of three All-Irelands in a row, and three league titles to boot?

THE ubiquitous AN Other makes an appearance in the Kilkenny team announced last night for this Sunday's All-Ireland final against Cork, but otherwise the team is unchanged from that which trounced Tipperary in the semi-final.