Ask Paudie Butler to discuss the ciotógs on the current Tipperary team and he can’t but mention the recently departed Jimmy Doyle.

The sporting community in Cork and beyond turned out in force yesterday to honour the memory of renowned hurling coach Archdeacon Michael O’Brien, whose funeral took place in his native Innishannon following Mass in St Mary’s Church yesterday.

Garrycastle 1-11 Mullingar Shamrocks 0-08

Few rivalries have as rich a history as Cork and Tipperary hurlers, points out Donal O'Grady.

Corofin (Galway) 2-6 St Gall’s (Antrim) 1-8

I wasn’t that sure about these Saturday evening games.

Two of Tipperary’s greatest hurlers believe Kilkenny under Brian Cody have never been more vulnerable as now.

The Cinderella club, that’s Eire Óg Annacarty in the Tipperary senior hurling championship semi-finals in Semple Stadium on Sunday.

If the great and the good of the GAA can pontificate on Cheltenham, then why can’t the cream of the country’s jockeys hold court on the Championship?

A last-minute point by James Dolan earned holders Garrycastle a second chance after an exciting battle with Mullingar Shamrocks in the county SFC final at Cusack Park, Mullingar, yesterday.

TALLAGHT: Robert Roberts, one of Ireland’s oldest businesses, has announced deals worth almost €1m with local suppliers.

THIS was an outcome which didlittle to appease either side asDublin surrendered their 100% record and Galway suffered relegation from the top flight for the first time in a decade and a half.

GALWAY 0-15 DUBLIN 2-09

WESTMEATH whistler Pat Fox has been finally appointed to officiate an inter-county senior football game after seven weeks in the refereeing wilderness.

GAA chiefs have denied official Pat Fox has been sidelined from refereeing matches for refusing to upgrade a yellow card to Tyrone’s Ryan McMenamin against Donegal last month.

KERRY will appeal Marc Ó Sé’s proposed four-week suspension arising from his involvement in an incident with Dublin’s Eoghan O’Gara in last Saturday week’s Allianz Division 1 game.

TYRONE manager Mickey Harte insists his players will rally round each other and confront the threat of relegation as a united group.

DEFENDING Sigerson Cup champions DCU sent out a warning yesterday that they’re deadly serious about retaining their trophy.

GAA referees have been ordered to clamp down on football goalkeepers moving too early off their line for penalty kicks.

KIERAN McGEENEY praised a referee yesterday but the Kildare boss had his tongue planted firmly in his cheek when offering kudos to Pat Fox for making this game exciting by giving DCU a host of scoreable frees.

Kerry GAA chiefs are adopting a ‘wait and see’ policy before commenting on television coverage of incidents involving defender Tomás O Sé in Sunday’s Munster SFC final as the An Ghaeltacht defender looks set to be the second high-profile Kingdom player to be slapped with a retrospective suspension this summer by the CCCC.

KERRY GAA chiefs are adopting a ‘wait and see’ policy before commenting on television coverage of incidents involving defender Tomás O Sé in Sunday’s Munster SFC final as the An Ghaeltacht defender looks set to be the second high-profile Kingdom player to be slapped with a retrospective suspension this summer by the CCCC.

JACK O’CONNOR will be hoping Kerry’s 73rd Munster SFC title is not tinged with the same disappointment as their semi-final success against Cork: with the belated suspension of a key player.

IT certainly wasn’t a game for the ages or anything like that but Louth boss Peter Fitzpatrick cared not a jot, satisfied that his side had realised their goal.

Dublin senior football manager Pat Gilroy is likely to escape a suspension for his involvement in a sideline altercation with Meath full-back James Macken during Wednesday's O'Byrne Cup replay at Navan.

EVEN extra-time couldn’t separate these two sparring partners last week and only a 73rd-minute point from Meath’s Cormac McGuinness prevented another extended night of football at Páirc Tailteann last night.

FOR likely starters Padraic Maher, Brendan Maher (not related, by the way) and Noel McGrath, and for all the other half-dozen or so U21s on the Tipperary panel, facing Kilkenny in this Sunday’s All-Ireland senior hurling final could be a daunting prospect.

Louth 1-13 Carlow 1-11

THE recent National Hurling League final, won by Kilkenny in Thurles, was very encouraging from a hurling point of view. This was Tipperary playing with a steel that I hadn’t seen in them for a long time, a team that stood up physically to a very strong Kilkenny side.

RAW POWER, pure brawn, a force of nature — all have been used to describe Irish backrow forward Denis Leamy, wordsmiths of varying levels of ability attempting to describe the destructive capacity of this favoured son of Boherlahan.

LAOIS 2-11 ARMAGH 2-8

THERE may still be only 12 days of Christmas, but it still seems to start earlier with each passing year. Unfortunately for Rhode, they took that all too literally yesterday by gift-wrapping a Leinster Club SFC title for Kilmacud that was theirs for the taking.

Kilmacud Crokes (Dublin) 2-07 Rhode (Offaly) 1-07

TWENTY YEARS is a long time in anyone’s life, particularly a sportsman. The Ireland of 1989 seems like a different planet given what we’ve experienced since.

The Ulster quarter-final replay between Tyrone and Down has been set for next Saturday.