Former Roscommon goalkeeper Shane Curran claims the GPA has left inter-county players “without a voice” and is compromised by GAA funding.

The Dublin senior footballers have been dealt a blow ahead of their 2015 preparations with the news Paul Mannion is set to be unavailable for the coming year.

ULSTER SFC PRELIMINARY ROUND:

It may, statistically at least, have tipped back in favour of convention last year with Dublin’s second title in three years but Sean Cavanagh has seen the benefits of the more scenic route to Croke Park in September.

Reaching 100 years as a golf club is not a rare achievement but it is no mean feat either, and the hope is that longevity is a sign of an institution that has earned its success on and off the course.

When you see an evening out at the golf club entitled “Five Shots Lower Without Changing Your Swing” it is usually enough to make any handicapper put down his remote control and go out into the night in search of a ticket.

Daniel Holland, a 21 year-old landscape artist who, in his own words, “never won anything before in golf”, emerged the hero for Dublin club Castle as they captured the Irish Senior Cup for the first time in their 99 year history at Kinsale on Saturday.

Newcastle West finally reached their destination after 74 years of trying yesterday when they lifted the Pierce Purcell Shield at Kinsale Golf Club.

Down’s two-time All-Ireland winner Conor Deegan has called for the new football review committee to restrict the hand pass to fist-only transfers.

As GAA trends go it’s been a curious one. When the dejection at losing the 2010 All-Ireland final had dissipated, Down could at least reflect that they were not far from the top with one point separating themselves and Cork at the final whistle.

THE GAA should be doing more to keep its players in Ireland, according to two Ulster greats.

THE compressed six-day period available for beaten provincial football finalists to recover before entering the All-Ireland qualifiers is “inherently unfair”, according to former Down defender Conor Deegan.

A COLLEAGUE who sat in on the 1991 All-Star selection meeting was amused by the Northern lobby’s capacity to find ever more important bodily parts, organs, and constituents to equate with members of the Down team, which had just won the All-Ireland.

While Cork and Kerry have mightily impressive credentials, Ulster teams will be confident that the Munster superpowers are far from invincible