It's at times like these you realise hurling never needed to be recognised as a UNESCO-protected cultural activity for it to be fortified.

THE ban on talking sport in the office can’t reach Cork soon enough.

GIVEN that the issue is largely to do with the men in the middle and how they apply — or not — the rules of the game, let’s start with a former All-Ireland referee.

There are somewhere over 2,200 GAA clubs in Ireland so the chances of one from any given corner of the country making it to one of the All-Ireland finals being decided in Croke Park in the same weekend are, well, long.

Last weekend, Slaughtneil and Tooreen, those oases in the hurling wastelands of Derry and Mayo, emerged from the shadows and into the limelight

Before Fox Sports broadcast the All-Star National Hockey League game in the US in 1996, they pitched it to their audience as “the greatest technological breakthrough in the history of sports”.

Now that it’ll be yellow from next summer on, the sliotar should be a lot easier to track — but even with the advent of such a smart ball, there’s probably an even smarter solution when another Brian Hogan incident arises.

Hurling is going from strength to strength in the east Cork area.

Of all the rows ‘The Sunday Game’ programmes generated during the last 40 years, perhaps changing the theme tune 15 years ago was the greatest of them. Here our GAA correspondent John Fogarty lists 10 of the controversies prompted by comments and quotes.

The most pressing “to-do” item in the inbox of Cork’s new high performance manager Aidan O’Connell is “getting the right people on the buses”.

Two-time All-Ireland winning Clare selector Tony Considine believes the Banner County would be well served by mirroring Cork’s progressive approach and filling their various management teams with the men who twice delivered Liam MacCarthy glory in the mid-’90s.

The Cork hurlers may have struggled to get goals last season, but their county board has, of late, developed a happy knack of hitting the target.

Cork GAA chairperson Tracey Kennedy has strongly defended the appointment of Donal Óg Cusack as Cork minor hurling manager, insisting the All-Ireland winner was subjected to a rigorous appointment process.

Cusack has been appointed for a one-year term but delegates at last night’s meeting heard Cusack criticised for his support of convicted paedophile Tom Humphries — and for his unflattering commentaries on Cork GAA in the past.

The return of Dónal Óg Cusack to the Cork fray was never going to run smoothly. And the award for most obvious hurling statement in 2019, beating “Liam Sheedy has the x-factor” and “you can never write off Kilkenny”, goes to...

Donal Óg Cusack is officially back in the Cork GAA fold after County Board chiefs tonight recommended him as the new manager of the county’s minor hurlers.

Just wondering — have we all recovered from the collective mourning now that Joe Brolly will not form part of RTÉ’s squad this weekend?

Last week, we brought you the management life and times of Brian Cody and Kilkenny in the words of Bruce Springsteen.

Derek McGrath has admitted he regrets his ‘self-indulgent’ The Sunday Game comments about the sweeper system which he acknowledged made him sound bitter.

In an unprecedented development, it has been widely accepted the Premier League has returned at roughly the correct time.

Cocooned by journalists in the offices of PwC in Dublin, Pat Horgan’s mood goes from light and breezy to dark and deep.

Liam Sheedy admits Tipperary’s Championship preparations this year were greatly helped by taking a dimmer approach to April’s club month.

Ten years ago the Late Late Show did a special edition marking 125 years of the GAA. It was presented by Pat Kenny. The expectations of most GAA folk were not high beforehand. The expectations were justified.

John Bull has always divided opinion. To our neighbours, he came to symbolise the best of British: A jovial, chubby, but solid and honest character of rural stock. For others (ie pretty much everyone else), this representation came to be viewed in very different terms. Just how different was apparent in a New York Times piece from 1861.

Kieran Kingston’s return as manager is the preferred option of the Cork senior hurling panel in the wake of John Meyler’s departure.

Dónal Óg Cusack has expressed an interest in being the new Cork hurling manager.

John Meyler’s departure after two years as Cork senior hurling manager means the county is once again on the look-out for leadership.

Cork GAA chair Tracey Kennedy described Meyler as "an outstanding servant to Cork GAA in a variety of roles over many years"

Meyler led the Rebels to successive Munster titles in 2017 and 2018, but the defeat to Limerick in last year's All-Ireland semi-final left a lingering aftertaste in the county as Cork coughed up a late six-point lead.

Given last Sunday night’s peculiar but surely forgivable digression by Derek McGrath and Dónal Óg Cusack had half the nation yearning for the return of the plain speaking of Ger Loughnane, it’s worth revisiting what the great Clare man had to say about the weekend’s two victors back in his final summers on our screens.

A VIDEO launched for Cork Pride featuring well-known Cork faces flips the world of discrimination to show straight people what it’s like to live as a marginalised element of society.

Former Kilkenny hurler Brian Hogan said that talk of hurling tactics is “blown out of all proportion” and echoed Brian Cody’s sentiments that workrate and determination are much more valuable attributes in players.

Former Cork goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack caused a bit of a stir on social media after describing people who criticise managerial tactics as showing "part of the last remnants of British culture on these islands".

Horgan's three highest tallies this year have all come in losses.

Dónal Óg Cusack had already begun changing the game with short puckouts in 2003 and 2004 but Damien Fitzhenry’s puckout masterclass against Kilkenny in the 2004 Leinster semi-final was still a keynote moment in hurling’s expanding tactical revolution.

How fitting it is that just two months after launching its Where We All Belong manifesto, the GAA, living up to and acting upon that assertion, will today walk in the Pride parade for the first time.

Edge, by definition, is a margin of superiority, a quality or factor that provides an advantage over rivals.

Cian Locke Dónal Óg Cusack was blown away by Davy Fitzgerald’s attention to detail when the pair met up to discuss Cusack joining Fitzgerald’s Clare management team.

When the poet told us we cannot bear too much reality, he was hardly thinking of the Waterford hurlers, but you never know.

I’m sure there are some people out there giving me a share of the credit for Cork’s win yesterday. I’ve no doubt that my comments in my column here on Saturday got Cork riled up big time.