Cooperation and common programmes are the key to avoiding burnout and fatigue in the GAA, says a leading figure in strength and conditioning.

Dr Liam Hennessy, the IRFU’s former fitness director, has pointed to the issue of match scheduling as a huge challenge for northern hemisphere teams seeking to succeed at the Rugby World Cup.

Padraig Harrington isn’t currently in the field for the second major of the year in June but reckons a top-five finish in one of four upcoming tour events will be enough to secure him a spot in the US Open for the 14th consecutive year.

In the aftermath you may have missed it, but the remarks bear revisiting.

Gerry Fitzpatrick has been one of Ireland’s leading, if unsung, sports operators for over four decades. From hoops to hurling, from training Henry and Mullane to watching Shaq in the flesh, he’s seen a lot, if not it all. Now, he’s playing his part in the Wexford hurling revival.

Last Monday, Nate Silver re-launched his website, fivethirtyeight.com, writing a lengthy manifesto to accompany the new-look site, which features an equally lengthy list of new writers.

Three-time Major golf champion Pádraig Harrington set Dublin on the road to All-Ireland football title success with a private team talk.

DR Liam Hennessy of Setanta College (inset) can draw on a lifetime of experience in preparing teams when considering how Cork and Clare might have readied themselves for combat in tomorrow night’s replay.

All-Ireland SFC winners Ray Silke, Brian Mullins, Jimmy Deenihan and Pat Spillane are amongst the stars set to be inducted into the University of Limerick’s Sports Hall of Fame later this month.

It was the third inter-county defeat for Cork in 10 days. That didn’t help but it was the manner of it that hurt most: a 15-point defeat that would have been much more, had Tipperary not eased up on seeing the finishing line.

A few weeks ago we sat down with Cork footballer Eoin Cadogan, who mentioned the course he was doing in Setanta College.

Derval O’Rourke’s participation in next month’s London Olympics is in doubt after she pulled out of yesterday’s defence of her 100m hurdles title at the Woodies DIY national championships in Morton Stadium.

WHILE he is better known as an All-Ireland senior hurling medal winner with Cork in 1999, Kevin Murray was also a talented footballer, playing with Dohenys until six years ago.

CIARA MAGEEAN (City of Lisburn) kept Irish athletics in the headlines after winning silver in the 1,500m at the European junior track and field championships in Tallinn yesterday.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN has been nominated by Athletics Ireland for election to the Council of the IAAF, the world governing body for athletics.

LIAM HENNESSY, President of Athletics Ireland, was elected to the Council of European Athletics at the European Athletics Congress in London.

THE GAA’s much-maligned collective inter-county winter training ban could soon be replaced by an enforced pre-season.

THERE was good news for Ireland ahead of next year’s Olympic Games in London following the appointment of Dr Marie-Elaine Grant to the International Olympic Committee’s Medical Commission (Games Group).

LIAM HENNESSY, president of Athletics Ireland, refuted allegations that he said he had spoofed and lied on his initial appearance when he was called before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Sport, Community and Gaeltacht Affairs yesterday.

SPORTS Minister Mary Hanafin yesterday refused to rule out the construction of an indoor athletics arena.

THE line of people looking for autographs and photographs looked like it would never end for Paul McGinley.

WHEN the President of Athletics Ireland, Liam Hennessy, launched the bid to bring the SPAR European cross-country championships to Dublin in Italy in 2006, Mo Farah was a surprise winner of the senior men’s title.

ONE of Ireland’s foremost sports physiologists Dr Liam Hennessy is to head up a new state-of-the-art institute aimed at improving Irish sports performances.

FORMER Ireland rugby coach Eddie O’Sullivan yesterday shrugged off claims from former coaching ally George Hook he “has a problem with relationships”.

JOHN FOLEY is the interim chief executive of Athletics Ireland, an organisation that has gone through a traumatic period with the resignation of their very first chief executive, Brendan Hackett, early last year.

OLD wounds could be reopened in Irish rugby this week as some of the game’s central figures lift the lid on the highs and lows of the past couple of seasons.

MARY COGHLAN is no longer chief executive of Athletics Ireland, the association confirmed yesterday.

LIAM HENNESSY, President of Athletics Ireland, and members of his board will meet with the Irish Sports Council today to set out procedures for the appointment of a Director of Athletics.

Mary Cullen was the story of the Irish today at the European Cross Country Championships in Brussels as she took an excellent fourth position in the senior women’s race.

MICHAEL QUINLAN could be poised for a dramatic return to athletics’ top table at the Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI) annual congress in Dublin at the weekend.

MARY COGHLAN is to replace Brendan Hackett as CEO of Athletics Ireland. The chair of the Finance and Risk Committee begins her new role on May 19.

Dublin will host the 2009 European Cross Country Athletics Championships.

IRELAND will host the 2009 European cross-country championships.

Ireland beat off rival bids from France and Poland to host the European Cross Country Championships for the first time in 2009, it emerged today.

WITH the Olympic Games just around the corner, the world championships, which get under way in Osaka today, has been described as a ‘dress rehearsal’ for Beijing by Patsy McGonagle, Athletics Ireland’s first full-time senior team manager.

SCIENTISTS have questioned the effectiveness of a fashionable treatment for sportsmen which is a key part of Irish rugby world cup preparations.

PAUL HESSION will be chasing Paul Brizzell’s national 200m record at The Mardyke on Saturday afternoon when some of the world’s best athletes will assemble for Cork City Sports.

Several of Ireland’s top athletes were in action over the weekend with some excellent results achieved including a new Irish record.

ALISTAIR CRAGG was yesterday basking in the glory of a new Irish record he set on Sunday when he smashed Mark Carroll’s national 10,000m mark with a 27:39.55 run at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational meeting in Stanford University, California.