Having twice been shortlisted for the top individual award, six-time All-Ireland winning captain Stephen Cluxton is in the shake-up to claim his first footballer of the year as one of Dublin’s 13 PwC All-Star nominations.

Paul Keane in scoreboard Watching this epic qualifier tie unfold in Portlaoise, Clare sweating buckets and Meath literally spilling blood, we recalled how Colm Collins once described the Super 8s as a ‘cynical exercise in collecting more money’ by the GAA.

As a referee, there are games you look at and are so glad that you aren’t involved in. Mayo-Galway on Saturday night was as difficult a match to officiate as you can get.

They were clinging on by their fingertips at the finish in Portlaoise but Meath are through to the Super 8s for the first time after edging an epic Round 4 qualifier.

Seamus Clancy is unequivocal. Many of the giants in Clare football history will wear the jersey in Portlaoise tomorrow.

Not for the first time in Clare jerseys, David Tubridy and Gary Brennan rose to the occasion with huge displays to propel their team to victory in Mullingar and to within touching distance of the Super 8s.

For the fourth year in a row Clare followed their Munster Championship exit to Kerry with victory in their opening qualifier game of the summer, but the challenge for Colm Collins’ side is to to put

Clare fended off a strong Leitrim resurgence in the second-half as Colm Collins’s side worked their way into Round 3 of the qualifiers with a convincing win over Leinster at Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada.

On the road up to Ennis on Saturday evening, Clive Tyldesley was being interviewed on the radio about his recollections of his 1999 Champions League final commentary on ITV, and specifically about those final, frantic minutes when Manchester United went from 1-0 down in injury-time to somehow turn the tables and beat Bayern Munich 2-1.

The result was never in doubt, so why did Kerry’s victory feel like a let-down?

Kerry made hard work of seeing off Clare in heavy conditions to book a Munster final spot against Cork in three weeks’ time.

Eoin Cleary admits the Clare footballers must improve their shot-selection if they are to shock Kerry in Saturday’s Munster SFC semi-final.

Clare secured safe passage to a fifth Munster semi-final meeting with Kerry in six years, but what they produced in this desperately poor provincial quarter-final fixture won’t be anywhere near sufficient to even remotely trouble Kerry.

Rory Gallagher isn’t shying away from it. Five games into a division they were favourites to be relegated from, unbeaten Fermanagh took another big step towards a fairytale promotion at Brewster Park yesterday and their manager isn’t blinking at the bright lights ahead.

Relegation favourites at the start of the campaign, unbeaten Fermanagh have taken another big step towards a fairytale promotion to the top flight with another low-scoring victory at Brewster Park.

When Cork football rolled out its 2024 vision document last month, it was generally applauded how pragmatic its proponents like Graham Canty were by acknowledging that Cork were now outside the top 10 teams in the country, in truth, a mid-table Division Two side, and a distant second in Munster.

As much as Clare have progressed and consolidated under the masterful watch of Colm Collins, they’ve developed a regrettable tendency to foil glorious chances to nail a big trophy head upon the wall.

It might only be the McGrath Cup, but the Cork footballers, for a variety of reasons, would be best served by ensuring the pre-season silverware is perched at the front of the team bus when it pulls out of Willie Clancy country tomorrow afternoon.

Clare 1-19 Offaly 2-14

Kerry 0-32 Clare 0-10: New-look Kerry and new ground broken.

Here are all the latest headlines this lunchtime.

Your morning bulletin...

In February, Tipperary selector Shane Stapleton was concussed following an seemingly innocuous collision with Clare’s Jamie Malone at Cusack Park in Ennis. The incident triggered a frightening chain reaction with seizures, hospitalisation, and being unable to work for almost a month. Now fully recovered, he tells his story to John Fogarty

CLARE 3-12 LOUTH 1-11: Clare maintained their Allianz Football League Division 2 status, with a merited win over bottom side Louth at Cusack Park Ennis yesterday.

Clare 0-14 - Cork 0-12: The snowflakes were swirling around Páirc Uí Rinn as the Clare footballers headed to the dressing rooms at the final whistle last Saturday night, but the men from the Banner weren’t feeling the chill.

Cork 0-12 Clare 0-14: Clare took the honours in this Division 2 clash on a bitterly cold night in Pairc Ui Rinn.

Cork hurling manager John Meyler is hopeful Mark Coleman will make his first league appearance of the year when Waterford visit Páirc Uí Chaoimh this Sunday.

March isn’t yet in, but the GAA has madness in abundance. John Fogarty sets out five examples of how some have recently been losing the run of themselves:

Clare 0-11 Tipperary 0-11: Tipperary selector, Shane Stapleton, was in hospital last night, after a collision with Clare forward, Jamie Malone. The latter received a straight red card.

The last time Clare hosted Tipperary in a football league fixture, ‘Division 4’ ran across the top of the match programme.

Mayo's up and down summer continues as a determined second-half showing at Ennis progressed Stephen Rochford’s side into the fourth round of qualifiers.

It was the toughest draw they could have got, goalkeeper Joe Hayes concedes. No mind, though. Such is Clare’s rising graph, they’re not unduly fazed by Mayo’s impending visit.

Éamonn Fitzmaurice couldn’t have written away for a script as perfect as yesterday’s Ennis test of mettle for Kerry.

Galway 3-13 Clare 1-11: It’s six years since Galway lost their top flight status and while they are now in the driving seat to make a return, manager Kevin Walsh is not getting too excited just yet.

Allianz FL Division 2

Ulster 3-17 Munster 1-15: Kerry men have been leaving Dublin empty handed for quite a while now and Kingdom duo Aidan O’Mahony and Tommy Walsh experienced more of the same yesterday. Defeat while on interprovincial duty at a near empty Parnell Park won’t of course sting like a loss at nearby Croke Park to the Dubs in August or September.