For the eighth time since 2001 the Kildare SFC final will be a Newbridge derby between Moorefield and Sarsfields after both won their semi-finals.

A five-star first-half performance saw Ballyhale Shamrocks blast their way out of relegation trouble in the Kilkenny senior hurling championship.

Jack O’Connor is the front-runner to replace Cian O’Neill as Kildare senior football manager.

Kildare are on the lookout for a new football manager after Cian O’Neill’s decision to end his four-year involvement with the Lilywhites.

When the mood takes me, I’ll often head back to the Atlantic Ocean in west Clare for a dip. Living so close to the sea gives me that luxury and I have any amount of options; the Pollock Holes in Kilkee, Cappa near Kilrush, White Strand in Doonbeg, Spanish Point in Miltown Malbay. Beautiful spots, every one of them.

They’ll have to play it in Croke Park, but this time they won’t mind.

The Twitterati, and numerous other Twitter bandits, were laying it into Jackie Tyrrell and I hot and heavy last Sunday night. They weren’t happy with our comparative analysis between the Munster and Leinster finals. A few of them told us to go away and watch the World Cup, that we might know more about Colombia and Japan than Cork and Clare.

Former Galway manager Mattie Murphy has taken Ger Loughnane to task for calling the county’s hurlers “gutless” after the Leinster final defeat to Kilkenny.

The Tipperary senior hurling team to play Cork in the Allianz NHL Division 1A clash at Semple Stadium on Sunday shows four changes from the team which started in last weekend’s drawn game with Dublin.

Cork U21 football captain Rory O’Sullivan will miss the rest of their campaign after damaging his cruciate ligament for the second time in just over a year during Wednesday night’s Munster semi-final victory over Clare.

LONG after the final whistle, Clare manager John Minogue was still struggling for words.