WE should get a game today. The portents are good. These generations of Crossmaglen and St Brigid’s footballers subscribe to an attractive brand of play and on a wide open space like Croke Park with the forecast not too inclement there are reasons to be cheerful.

TWO of the GAA’s most high profile managers have backed preliminary plans to replace the current close season with a pre-season devoted to strength and conditioning work.

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

Leinster Club Footballer of the Year Brian Kavanagh believes that Crossmaglen Rangers are the standard bearers when it comes to the AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship.

OFFALY’S David Kenny is hoping to line out in Sunday week’s Allianz NHL Division One clash against Galway despite suffering concussion in Saturday’s abandoned Walsh Shield final.

A FOURTH Leinster Club SFC title for Kilmacud Crokes and the sweetest of them all, according to their manager Paddy Carr and captain Pat Burke.

THE GAA are confident they can dramatically reduce recurring injuries in inter-county hurling and football through their burgeoning injury database.

KILDARE team doctor, Dr Danny Mulvihill has been appointed chairman of the GAA’s Medical, Scientific and Welfare committee for the next three years.

YOU could say they are the GAA’s version of the TV licence inspector, except that they aren’t after your money. Only your reputation.

The use of creatine by GAA players is set to come under the microscope in the next year as the GAA, along with the Irish Sports Council, look to monitor the use of the controversial substance by its members.

THERE’S no scientific evidence to support the use of ice baths as an aid to recovery, according to a top GAA medical committee.

A NUMBER of key traffic issues will have to be resolved in Tralee before a €30 million project goes to the planning stage, it emerged yesterday.

MEMBERS of Kerry County Council are expected to do a U-turn on a controversial rezoning decision in one of Killarney’s prime tourism areas.

ANY player who purchases a food supplement over the internet runs the risk of being the first from the GAA to test positive for drug-taking.

South-East Correspondent Neans McSweeney profiles the award-winning Brother Columbanus.

Dublin 2-15 UCD 2-07 (after extra-time)

JUST before Christmas in 1996, an elderly farmer was awoken in the early hours of the morning. Pat Duggan lived alone in an isolated cottage near Claregalway in Co Galway.

NEARLY six weeks after Pakistan’s killer earthquake, people with untreated injuries are still being brought down from remote mountain settlements.

JOHN LEDINGHAM and Robert Splaine are, as expected, the two front-runners for the post of Chef d’Equipe of the Irish Show jumping team following a meeting of riders and management in Dublin yesterday.

RELIEF was the overwhelming feeling emanating from the Irish camp in the final of the Samsung Super League final in Barcelona last Sunday, following the team’s battling performance. But the sense of satisfaction at a task completed was also palpable.

SHOW Jumping Association of Ireland (SJAI) Chairman Charles Hanley has denied that a purge is taking place in the association, following a number of surprise resignations.

THE independent investigation of the Army Equitation School by two UCD vets has been completed and indicates there are/were no untoward practices at the facility, sources say.

THE national executive of the Show Jumping Association of Ireland last Tuesday rescinded a Cork/Kerry Branch motion limiting the length of tenure of its secretary position.

WITH the Olympic year in the offing, chief show jumping selector Peter Leonard is confident Ireland can produce the goods and win the country’s first gold medal in the code.

REGRETTABLY, Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy’s largesse towards Punchestown is proving to be a poison chalice for equestrianism.

BOOKMAKERS Paddy Power came a cropper at the Grand National and Cheltenham with a winning streak by punters, slashing a full €4 million off expected operating profits for the first six months of the year.

INVESTORS should seize the opportunity of the 3.5% drop in Paddy Power’s share price to buy, after a profit warning by British rival Stanley Leisure, according to stockbrokers Dolmen Securities.

REVENUES at bookmakers Paddy Power are expect to hit 639.5 million when the company releases full-year figures for 2002 later this month.

NEWLY-ELECTED Show Jumping Association of Ireland (SJAI) chairman Charles Hanley has poured cold water on efforts to re-ignite plans for a unified equestrianism body.

PHONE punters are leaving their betting shop counterparts in the also-ran place in the gambling stakes, placing wagers seven times greater than the cloth cap brigade.

THE woman campaigning to keep Don’t Step Back with rider Patricia Donegan claims to have commitments totalling €150,000 towards syndication of the horse.

CASH-rich Trintech, which reported revenues for the third quarter broadly in line with expectations, is unlikely to follow Conduit and Riverdeep down the management buy-out route (MBO), brokers Dolmen speculated yesterday.