At the tender age of 23, Dr Tom Devine bid farewell to inter-county hurling. It had been on the cards.

Mayo GAA club delegates rubberstamped James Horan’s return as manager of the county’s senior football team last night.

Former Irish rugby and Lions team doctor Eanna Falvey tells a great story about how Joe Schmidt’s attitude is reflected in his players.

‘Our county is nothing without its people within it.’ Having toiled for 16 years to bring Mayo football within sight of the summit, Alan Dillon wants to move mountains to keep the Mayo brotherhood within the county bounds.

Dillon remained underrated both inside and outside his own county, right up until he announced his retirement yesterday morning, writes Kieran Shannon

Embattled Cork have far more to lose than their opponents in tomorrow’s Munster semi-final, according to Peter Lambert.

Liam Kearns has told his players victory over Antrim will count for nothing if maximum points are not secured when Sligo visit Semple Stadium next Sunday. 

The journey is over for now, but if Liam Kearns and his men were told at the start of this difficult year that they would play in front of almost 54,000 people in Croke Park on All-Ireland semi-final day, they would have accepted that scenario with open arms.

Tipperary football chairman Joe Hannigan, who claimed the county were aiming to win an All-Ireland senior title by 2020, has revealed the inspiration behind the goal.

A physical presence in Galway’s recent revival, Damien Comer may be walking a thin line on Sunday as a third black card this season would rule him out of a potential All-Ireland SFC semi-final.

While much of the focus on links between Mayo and Kildare revolve around Cian O’Neill - the Lilywhite manager who served as coach with the westerners when they reached the All-Ireland final in 2012 - there are other connections between the counties.

Former manager John Evans believes that Tipperary will fall short against his native Kerry in Sunday’s Munster senior football final.

Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice reckons Tipperary are a stronger and more “unified” force for having lost so many big-name players during the off-season.

The GAA won’t be taking extra security measures for Saturday’s International Rules test in the wake of the suicide bomb blasts outside the Stade de France on Friday.

Reader, we’ll let you in on a little secret. When counties hold press conferences ahead of big championship games, the better interviews are usually held later in the week closer to the match. No biggie, right? Managers are often the exception but they can, on the odd occasion find themselves in the Saturday edition.

Tipperary’s hunger to avoid a third straight defeat to Limerick in the championship manifested itself in a high-octane performance at the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday. 

Even if there is a sense in Tipperary this weekend of stars aligning, of providence, of a full tide turning and of this being a cusp game for a special bunch of players, they will still have to go out and produce the game of their lives to bring down the All-Ireland champions.

Tiipperary star Colin O’Riordan will discover later today if he has a chance of playing against Kerry in the Munster SFC semi-final on Sunday week, June 14.

Longford manager Jack Sheedy is unlikely to opt for an ultra defensive formation when his charges attempt a giant-killing act against Leinster champions Dublin in Croke Park tomorrow.

Seán Barron and Michael O’Halloran are the two Waterford debutants for Sunday’s Munster SFC quarter-final against Tipperary in Semple Stadium (3.30pm).

The mini-truck carrying close to 30 Tipperary U21 footballers edged through the town of Templemore close to midnight.

As they bid to avoid relegation, Clare travel to Kilkenny for the second time in the space of seven days with as many as five players unavailable. 

Stephen Rochford is Corofin’s first outside manager. A Mayo man, he won an All-Ireland club title with Crossmolina in 2001 alongside the likes of Ciaran McDonald and the brothers Tom and James Nallen.

Gerard O’Donoghue will line out for Gort at corner-forward in tomorrow’s Galway senior county hurling final against Portumna in Kenny Park, Athenry (1.30pm).

Paul Earley expects the Australians to try and make next month’s test in Perth an intimidating one for his players after Ireland’s last two series successes by considerable margins.

Ireland manager Paul Earley has included players from 15 counties in his 25-man squad for next month’s International Rules test against Australia in Perth.

By the time he got back to the dressing room, it was more vacant than victorious.

ALL-IRELAND SFC ROUND 4A:

Tipperary made easy work of Limerick to line up a Munster football semi-final against Cork in three weeks' time, but the refereeing of the black card rules still remains a major talking point.

Mayo SFC: Beaten All-Ireland club football finalists Castlebar Mitchels got the defence of their Mayo SFC title off to a winning start yesterday.

There’ve been Mayo results like this before.

Kerry 2-19 Tipperary 0-8, Fitzgerald Stadium

Tipperary’s senior footballers will be without influential pair Brian Fox and Michael Quinlivan for next Sunday’s Munster SFC quarter-final against Kerry in Killarney.

It used to be a very cosy world, Gaelic football in Munster, Kerry dominant, Cork challenging in what was a virtual duopoly.

Reigning champions Cork relinquished their grip on the McGrath Cup as they fell to a surprise 2-9 to 1-9 defeat at home to Tipperary this afternoon.

The three-in-a-row dream for Ballintubber is still alive after their come-from-behind victory over Crossmolina in the Mayo SFC semi-final at Elverys MacHale Park yesterday.

There were new Club Senior Football champions crowned in a number of counties today, with Errigal Ciaran ending their six-year wait for another Tyrone title.