Today, in Portlaoise, former Tipperary coach Paudie O’Neill will have divided loyalties, part of his heart lying with both Clonmel Commercials and Ballyboden St Enda’s. As always, he’ll see the big picture, the health of the game. As he must in his role as chairman of the Hurling Development Committee.

Hurling Development Committee chairman Paudie O’Neill has slammed the “crazy” practice of third-level colleges enlisting high-profile coaches to oversee their Fitzgibbon and Sigerson teams.

Anthony Daly wrote in these pages yesterday about how the emblems on their chests can be all that separates Clare and Limerick, but there are an increasing number of occasions when even their jerseys are spun from the same wool.

IT would not be surprising if the family of Paudie O’Leary, a 42 year-old father of four who was killed in a hit-and-run accident in July 2012 outside Killarney, the people of Kerry and the gardaí who worked so hard to see that Shane Fitzgerald was convicted for the crime, were surprised if not angry with the sentenced imposed on him yesterday.

Cork 1-25 Laois 0-24: Cork senior hurling manager Jimmy Barry Murphy expects Mark Ellis and Alan Cadogan to return for the Rebels Allianz League semi-final against Dublin on Sunday week.