It is a safe assumption that Walter Walsh and Shane O’Donnell will never stand side by side in any identity parade.

Gort chairman Martin Kerins confounds your opener pretty quickly.

It’s been a year where sportstars at home and abroad have again had plenty to say for themselves. Fintan O’Toole and John Riordan picked out their best offerings

VICTORIOUS All-Ireland minor winning manager Matt Murphy rounded off a great year when he guided his club Gort to their sixth Galway SHC title with a deserved success in front of a crowd of almost 9,000 at Pearse Stadium yesterday.

ST THOMAS created a huge shock when they sent three time All-Ireland club champions Portumna crashing out of the Galway SHC after a dramatic weekend of quarter-final action.

The Galway hurlers will field a much-changed team for their Leinster Championship opener against Westmeath in Mullingar tonight (throw-in 7pm).

ALAN KERINS was seemingly omnipresent around Croke Park yesterday as Clarinbridge became the latest Galway representatives to All-Ireland club hurling honours.

CAN you imagine the following two things happening within five days of one another — Kilkenny being ahead in a National League game by nine points and losing by four; their senior hurling club champions, O’Loughlin Gaels, being up by five points with only a few minutes to go in the first half of an All-Ireland final, and losing by 12?

Clarinbridge 2-18 O'Loughlin Gaels 0-12

MICHAEL CARR is a blue chip, dyed-in-the-wool Clarinbridge hurling man.

GOALS win matches, that’s what they say,” said Loughgiel’s magnificent centre-back Johnny Campbell after this hard-fought All-Ireland club SHC semi-final in Parnell Park on Saturday afternoon.

THERE may be a tendency in the GAA to liberally bestow classic status on games, but the rush to throw garlands on this All-Ireland Club SHC semi-final is wholly justified.

I’D like to start by going back to Saturday, andnot to the inter-county scene either.

Clarinbridge (Galway) 3-22 De La Salle (Waterford) 1-27

DE LA Salle’s heavy defeat to Portumna in the All-Ireland club hurling final of 2009 is the motivating force behind the Waterford club this year, according to captain Ian Flynn.

GALWAY U21 manager Anthony Cunningham says he would favour the county moving into Leinster for underage competitions.

GALWAY hurling boss John McIntyre is set tonight to be reappointed for another two years, as the Tribesmen bid to end their All-Ireland famine.

THE Galway minor hurling team to play Limerick in Sunday’s All-Ireland final shows two changes from the side that defeated Cork in the semi-final.

Hurling results: