If you were lucky enough to get a seat in Croke Park yesterday then you certainly can’t quibble about value for money.

When Gaelic football is played right, this game has it all. We haven’t been blessed with a lot of outstanding matches these last five or six years because of the way some teams play, but we were all lucky to see an All-Ireland final like that.

There are those in Dublin and Kerry who won’t have spent a waking hour these last two and a half weeks without thinking about the five in a row.

You imagine as the Kerry party left Croke Park yesterday evening they were preparing a case for the defence of Stephen O’Brien.

A blitz of 2-6 in 11 early second half minutes inspired by Con O’Callaghan and Paul Mannion sent Dublin into a fifth straight All-Ireland final.

After originally announcing new record i,i for the end of the month, Bon Iver took the music world by surprise with the digital release of the new album.

Well, did we ever suspect otherwise?

A Dublin football panel without a St Vincent’s club representative just doesn’t seem right.

Fourteen-man Dublin extended their winning run to 25 games in the Leinster senior football championship with this facile victory in O’Moore Park.

Some 4,000 schools across the country are taking part in a seven-step initiative to help environmental management and raise awareness, writes Áilín Quinlan AT 2.50pm each day, four schoolboys in the West Cork town of Clonakilty leave their classrooms to collect their special ‘bibs’ and litter-picker sticks.

Dublin won pulling up in their Division 1 NFL tie at Kingspan Breffni as Cavan fell way short of completing a hoped-for ‘mission impossible’.

Did ‘Winning Streak’ air earlier than scheduled Saturday on RTÉ? An edge-of-the-seat game of risk and reward in Tralee climaxing with a roll of the dice and everyone leaving Austin Stack Park with something in their pocket.

Dublin hardly expected Monaghan to roll out the red carpet for them on Sunday but when the home side chose not to provide them with a guard of honour the visitors knew for sure they were in for a testing afternoon, writes John Fogarty.

No harm for Monaghan to remind Dublin that they have their number at these early junctures. No harm for the champions either to be told that in this season of all seasons there is going to be gristle. The physical soreness they feel today after this niggly clash will serve them well for what lies ahead.

A Stephen Cluxton-less Dublin turned in a fine second-half showing to easily see off Laois to claim the county’s eighth Leinster SFC title in a row.

There are few more interesting interviewees in Gaelic football than Michael Darragh Macauley and he was in top form again last week when conducting a round of promotional media chats.

Dublin and Wexford players have insisted they did not train on their recent trips to France and Portugal respectively.

He’s one of the most engaging interviewees in GAA but Michael Darragh Macauley is invoking his inner Francis Urquhart.

Former Dublin defender Coman Goggins has insisted the All-Ireland champions are not unbeatable as they narrow their focus on four-in-a-row.

Galway forward Barry McHugh is not expected to be cited for making contact with Michael Darragh Macauley’s face during Sunday’s Division 1 league final.

Table-toppers Dublin continued their relentless march through this Allianz League campaign with a routine victory over beaten All-Ireland finalists Mayo in Castlebar.

If the latest row between the Dublin senior football management and RTÉ has confirmed one thing (other than just confirm how much the relationship has soured and how petty it has become), it’s that manager Jim Gavin does indeed watch a lot of inter-county football matches.

Dublin 2-17 Kildare 2-10: All-Ireland champions Dublin shrugged off a sluggish first half to make a winning start to their Division 1 campaign in Croke Park this evening.

Former footballer of the year Michael Darragh Macauley is feared to have ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament, putting his 2017 championship in jeopardy.

Five late, unanswered points salvaged an unlikely draw for Dublin at HQ against Tyrone this evening and extended to 31 the number of games the reigning league and All-Ireland champions have gone unbeaten.

Cavan 0-11 Dublin 0-18: An occasion to remember for Cavan, business as usual for Dublin.

Chekhov’s gun. It’s a literary, ahem, thing. Erudite and discerning folk that they are, readers of the Irish Examiner’s sports section will be familiar with the concept. 

Other than how referee John O’Brien could have got it so wrong on Saturday, the most pertinent question arising from the Christy Ring Cup final surrounded the role of HawkEye in Croke Park. 

As expected, for Dublin it was a comfortable first championship day away from Croke Park in 10 days but not without its faults.

Dublin midfielder Michael Darragh Macauley has accused Mick Lillis of gamesmanship following the Laois manager’s claim he’s ‘terrified’ of facing the All-Ireland champions.

Not for the first time, Michael Darragh Macauley has his audience of journalists laughing.

“Strike while the iron’s hot or forever regret it,” is the battle cry from Ballyboden St Endas’ Michael Darragh Macauley ahead of tomorrow’s All-Ireland club semi-final.

Michael Darragh Macauley is in new territory.

Former Footballer of the Year Michael Darragh Macauley insists he’s “not ready to be a super-sub just yet”, despite being axed by All-Ireland champions Dublin for the first time in his career.

Ballyboden St Enda’s 2-8 St Vincent’s 0-10 (Dublin SFC Final): Anybody who knows the impressive breadth and rich vitality of Ballyboden St Enda’s would never describe them as giant-killers.

Michael Darragh Macauley wasn’t wearing comparisons with the great Dublin teams of the seventies after yesterday’s win over Kerry — ‘we’re nowhere near those boys’ was his take on how the current Dublin team compare with Heffo’s Dubs.