Seamus Darby has savoured the joy, dealt with the fame, and endured the adversity that followed the most famous goal in GAA history, writes Colm Buckley.

Michael Moynihan asks a few different questions for the week ahead.

In a few weeks, New Zealand’s All Blacks will begin their campaign to win their third World Cup in a row. That would be, by any yardstick, an exceptional achievement.

...and ended up in the Premier League with Sheffield United. Ireland defender John Egan on his enduring love of Gaelic games, the influence and legacy of his famous father, and why, after facing Chelsea today, he hopes to see the Kingdom put a stop to the Dubs’ drive for five tomorrow. He talks to Liam Mackey.

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.

Talk of Dublin’s drive of five, or Kerry somehow bringing a halt to it will grow inescapably deafening in the next few days.

Dublin won’t panic like Kerry once did on the brink of five in a row, says Ronan McCarthy.

It’s not often golf takes precedence over Gaelic games for me but this was an exception — and oh what an exception.

Offaly’s slide from football superpower to forgotten backwater has happened, for the most part, on the fringes of the wider consciousness but the county’s parlous state has been framed in a sharper focus of late.

Finisher. That’s the term managers prefer to use these days when selling and telling a player that they’re not starting the next day but should see action at some point.

Kieran Donaghy has challenged Kerry to stand up when it truly counts in the Championship and to prove their credentials by delivering in a major game.

If there is to be another Seamus Darby this year, the man himself believes he is likely to be a Mayo man.

Whether big mileage has finally caught up with five-in-a-row chasing Glanmire is one of the seductive sub-plot for tomorrow’s Women’s Cup final at the National Arena. And whether there’s a handover of power to DCU Mercy in the offing or not, writes Tony Leen.

Mick O’Dwyer admits that Kerry’s last-gasp, 1982 All-Ireland final defeat to Offaly still haunts him and he contemplates the setback at least once a week.

RTÉ must deliver a “maximum level of transparency” in relation to how much it pays its stars like Ryan Tubridy and Ray D’Arcy, Communications Minister Denis Naughten has said.

The idea to erect a statue of Kerry hero John Egan may have culminated with an unveiling in his native Sneem, but it originated in his adopted hometown of Cork.

Walking off the pitch in 1982 after hitting the goal for Offaly that ended Kerry’s five-in-a-row bid, Seamus Darby was collared by a supporter.

An admission. Most of us knew it at the time but Colm O’Neill has held his hands up to nudging Donegal’s Éamon McGee for Cork’s goal in the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final. “No comment,” he laughs. “I think I got away with that one alright. The game was probably over at that stage.”

Many a campaign was plotted in the front room of John and Maureen McNamara’s house on Shamrock Hill in Clonmel, many a victory celebrated, many a defeat mourned, many a cup of tea shared over the years on good footballing days and bad.

Dressing Rooms No 1 and No 2 are only feet apart at Mallow GAA’s stately Carrigoon complex, but the swing of a left foot yesterday daubed one in black and green despair, and turned the other into forever folk heroes in Tipperary.

It was a wet day in Croke Park, which is some excuse for the lowest scoring final since 2003. 

Getting chilly, isn’t it?

Arguably, the three most useful words in a sports fans vocabulary are ‘THE – YEAR — OF.’

ALLIANZ FL DIVISION 1 FINAL:

IT was 2013’s craziest, most dramatic four minutes in Irish sport.

Seamus Darby, scorer of the most famous goal in GAA history, has paid tribute to the man who supplied him with the decisive pass in the 1982 All-Ireland SFC final.

Offaly football legend Liam O'Connor has passed away at the age of 58.

A little over a week after the 2005 All-Ireland football final, this writer received an email from a fairly irate Kerry supporter.

Sport needs to be partisan.

At a get-to-know-you meeting with the media earlier this year, Jim Gavin showed journalists footage of Dublin football from the 1970s and 1980s.

He may no longer be with us, but Páidí Ó Sé remains the tie that binds.

It might be joked Seamus Darby has been on the phone to Andy Moran looking for his goal celebration back but there was something uniquely delightful about the Mayo forward’s reaction to his score on Sunday.

It was the kind of send-off he would have loved — a packed house, music, humour, sporting people, and, most importantly of all, friends from all over the country.

What might happen if football’s top referees, across the continent, walked away?

July 17, 2005, a little after 5.30 in the afternoon.

Your first ever radio station?

Over the course of his glittering Kerry inter-county senior career, which lasted from 1973 to 1984, John Egan made 40 championship appearances for Kerry.

PREVIOUSLY, Kevin McMenamin’s head would have been wrecked before a big game, his nerves nearly shot, his energy practically drained.

Dublin goal scorer Kevin McManamon has described the "complete joy" after winning yesterday's thrilling All-Ireland SFC final win over a much-fancied Kerry side.

BEING a football analyst requires checking one’s emotions at the door and delivering cold, impartial analysis. For me this is much harder this time round.

DARRAN O’SULLIVAN’S wonder goal against Limerick in last Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final is one of the greatest goals ever scored in Croke Park, according to the man who scored the most famous football goal in GAA history, Seamus Darby.

THE VOICE was arresting people. We were in an alcove in a Cork hotel, killing a pot of tea, and those hurrying past kept slowing down and peering in when they heard the soft tone drifting out.

Changing to an alternative strip usually works for All-Ireland finalists. But what happens when both change, as they will this Sunday? asks Denis Hurley