Galway hurling manager Anthony Cunningham has stirred the pot ahead of Kilkenny’s visit west on Sunday, accusing Brian Cody’s charges of complacency in their league defeat to Dublin.

When Michael Fennelly couldn’t even walk without feeling pain in his back, he could hardly have imagined the celebrations he would be part of only a few months later as Kilkenny won a 35th All-Ireland title.

Motivation is a funny old thing. It can come from many different sources.

ALL-IRELAND SHC FINAL:

Kilkenny are built on their defence

Management Moves

Cork and Clare’s rivals will be keeping a close eye on events at Croke Park as they seek an edge for next year’s Championship

On top for so long, has the wheel finally turned for Kilkenny’s hurlers? All will be revealed by 9pm tonight. They established a hurling empire but great empires decay from within.

At this stage of the league semi-finals the remaining team managers have different needs.

Kilkenny record breaker Henry Shefflin leads the nominations for the 2012 GAA GPA All-Star Hurler of the Year award, but faces stiff competition from his team-mate Paul Murphy and Galway star Joe Canning.

It’s a word used by everybody in sport, it seems, but what does physicality actually mean? Donal O’Grady gives his perspective

I take issue with John Bannon in the article ‘You are the ref’ (Aug 27) where, in particular, he states Conor O’Mahony of Tipperary should have got a red card for striking T J Reid with his hurley.

Kilkenny star Tommy Walsh remains mystified by Tipperary’s attempts to nullify his threat in the All-Ireland SHC semi-final earlier this month.

Ned Kelly, the Irish-Australian folk hero, was a man who robbed, pillaged and murdered his way through life.

The statistic that jumps out from Sunday’s game is the scoreline for the last 25 minutes.

Galway came to Croke Park on Sunday with a game plan and took the final to Kilkenny from the throw-in.

Kilkenny 2-21 Dublin 0-9

The 2012 M Donnelly-sponsored Interprovincial Football and Hurling Championship was launched today by GAA President Christy Cooney at Croke Park.

SAN FRANCISCO can be a weird and wonderful place. It’s a city where the unusual is the norm.

IT’S taken four attempts in the last seven years, but Wexford champions Oulart-The Ballagh have finally turned over a Kilkenny team in the Leinster Club senior hurling championship.

IN the aftermath of last Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC final victory over Tipperary there was much talk about the new approach by Brian Cody and Kilkenny, how the Cats had become newly tactical.

This was the first time in my long association with the Irish Examiner I had predicted a draw in a game, and, for a while, as the game was coming to a conclusion, it was beginning to look like I might be proved right.

ALL hail magnificent Kilkenny after this, their eighth All-Ireland title in the past 12 seasons.

GATHERING his hurleys in the Kilkenny dressing room after his sixth All-Ireland final triumph, Tommy Walsh was offered a helping hand.

Three factors that may decide tomorrow’s outcome

1: Brendan Cummins (Tipperary, incumbent), David Herity (Kilkenny) and Gary Maguire (Dublin).

I HOPE we’ll have a continuation tomorrow of the kind of entertainment we saw between Limerick and Cork in the Munster U21 final on Wednesday night.

KILKENNY didn’t give much truck to the merchants of doom after their league final loss and they aren’t paying much more attention to the garlands being thrown their way after their destruction of Dublin in Sunday’s Leinster final.

A HURLING masterclass in Croke Park yesterday, mighty Kilkenny retaining their Leinster title (and setting a new record in the process, seven in a row) against a Dublin side whose challenge never even got to first base.

ON the way to Dublin yesterday, watching the reading rising on the thermometer, I was fearful that this Leinster final was going to be a hard day for lads with a lot of mileage under their belts.

THE big one, and really, for a provincial championship, it could hardly be bigger. Reigning league champions against reigning Leinster champions but it goes far beyond that.

WITH two crucial games in the qualifiers this evening and the Leinster final tomorrow, it has the makings of a great weekend for hurling.

YOU want to know what makes Tommy Walsh different? No, it’s not his size – the Kilkenny multiple All-Ireland winner (5) and multiple All-Star (8) is bigger than he looks on television, and certainly a lot stronger. It’s his attitude.

THERE was a time, not so long ago, when if Dublin were meeting Kilkenny in a Leinster final (as they do in Croke Park this Sunday), any interview with a Dublin player would contain the obligatory mantra — “Kilkenny are a great team, great players, great achievements, daunting opposition”.

AT half-time in this Allianz NHL round two game in Nowlan Park yesterday it looked like Cork were heading for another terrible beating.

IT would happen, wouldn’t it? This being the opening game of the 2011 Allianz Hurling League and thus the first official appearance of Tipperary since their All-Ireland triumph last September, the draw drum was kind enough to pair the Premier men with Kilkenny – their victims in that match.

I AM probably an exception to the rule but I’m not a lover of hurling under lights.

IT’S over five months since the All-Ireland senior hurling final — Tipperary’s great win denying Kilkenny the glory of the five-in-a-row. Plenty of time for Tipperary to celebrate, Liam MacCarthy enjoying a very happy Christmas in the Premier County.

KERRY GAA officials have received the green light from board delegates to press ahead with the purchase of 48 acres of land at Currans, near Currow, to develop a GAA Centre of Excellence in the county.

The Opel-GPA Hurling Team of the Year has been announced ahead of the awards ceremony at the Citywest Hotel on Friday. The selected team includes 14 of the players who received All-Star awards last month.

UNLIKE its football counterpart, the Vodafone All Star hurling team for 2010, announced live last night on RTE at a gala event in the Citywest, contained no real surprises.

Six players who helped Tipperary end their wait for the All-Ireland SHC title have been included in the GAA Hurling All-Stars team, sponsored by Vodafone.

Tipperary lead the nominations list for the 2010 GAA Vodafone All-Star Hurling team with 14 of the Premier County's All-Ireland winning side making the shortlist.