To curve or to swerve — that is the question.

It used be thought you couldn’t win anything with young players, until Alex Ferguson came along and turned that on its head with his team of tyros from the class of ’92.

After more than eight years of this column, the arse long torn out of it, maybe it’s time to start taking requests.

If speculation hardens into fact, Davy Fitzgerald will take a break from inter-county management next season, thus ending 12 seasons on the sideline.

Michael Moynihan in scoreboard Fortresses overthrown and fortresses restored. Yesterday in Ennis was Bloomsday, of course, but was there a whiff of Tolkien to the proceedings, with the hills and hosts and stone fastnesses, waiting to be cast down or held in the face of assault?

Clare joint-manager Donal Moloney hit out after yesterday’s game at the criticism levelled at the Banner players after recent defeats in the Munster Championship.

Clare restored pride with a battling performance but exited the Munster championship yesterday despite beating Cork in Ennis.

Cork manager John Meyler says preparations are complete for tomorrow’s Munster SHC clash with Clare — so what are his Saturday evening plans?

There’s so much to be taken from those famous lyrics to the adopted Munster anthem ‘Stand Up and Fight’.

Just one Munster man — Cork GAA CEO Kevin O’Donovan — is involved in the new fixtures task force (four from Leinster, three each from Connacht and Ulster) but at least there are several members hailing from dual counties.

For our purposes this game should have been played at High Noon, because all week we were hearing that this would be a western classic.

I’ve had better weekends. Spurs and Clare. Big dreams. Big plans. All ending in dust.

Such was the good form of Donal Moloney at the finish that the Clare joint-manager even had time for a parting joke.

With The Sunday Game 40 years old this year, I was asked to pick my highlight for a short clip which was aired during yesterday’s live show from Cork.

A Shane O’Donnell and Tony Kelly-led Clare spoiled Waterford’s Munster championship homecoming to leave the Déise playing a dangerous game of catch-up in the coming weeks.

Castlelyons’ Niall O’Leary is the new face in the named Cork team to take on Tipperary in Sunday’s Munster SHC Round 1 clash as John Meyler goes with 13 of the team that were defeated by Limerick in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

Clare’s Munster and All-Ireland hurling ambitions have been significantly compromised by the loss of a trio of players for what appears to be the entirety of the championship season.

How long can a county player give his county nowadays? Waterford hurling captain Noel Connors is inclined to think that eight years is becoming the cut-off point.

Former Dublin hurling manager Anthony Daly has not ruled out an inter-county recall for Rory O’Carroll — for the Dublin footballers.

Clare’s Jamie Shanahan has been ruled out of the Munster senior hurling championship after undergoing surgery to alleviate a long-standing back issue.

We are a week into Munster Championship Lent. The 40 days and 40 nights before the start of the Munster SHC on May 12 commenced last Tuesday.

Shane O’Donnell has rejoined the Clare senior hurling panel following his return from Harvard University last week.

Clare hurling joint manager Gerry O’Connor has identified a trio of national league games that he thinks will prime the Banner for a tilt at the Munster championship next summer.

Shane O’Donnell will be back in a Clare jersey far sooner than envisaged with confirmation that the 2013 All-Ireland final hero will be lining out for the Banner County in the Aer Lingus Fenway Hurling Classic in Boston on Sunday.

It was Declan Hannon who said it, sitting in the victors’ banquet with the Liam MacCarthy Cup in front of him: ‘We’ve all marched behind the band out the back garden when we were four, five, six years of age.’

It was Declan Hannon who said it, sitting in the victors’ banquet with the Liam MacCarthy Cup in front of him: ‘We’ve all marched behind the band out the back garden when we were four, five, six years of age.’

How to feel your age part I: The Good Friday Agreement is a month older than Kyle Hayes.

Fresh from the Department of No Further Ado, the end of season hurling awards. Often copied but never equalled, the jury (Michael Moynihan, alone) has reported in.

"If you don’t win, you’re not remembered" — Andrew O’Shaughnessy

The art of goalscoring — from Cork’s old machine-gun fire to the heavy artillery of Tipperary — and the free spirits like Lar Corbett are in danger of being drowned in a sea of points. What to do? Change the sliotar? Award four points for the goal? Enda McEvoy reports

YESTERDAY’S events in Thurles told us more about a man who wasn’t on the field than one who was. If anybody was in doubt about the Westmeath man taking charge of the All-Ireland final, they aren’t now.

At the end of the match yesterday, I shook hands with Michael Lyster. It may be my last time doing a live TV game with Michael, who retires from RTÉ at the end of this year, and I wanted to acknowledge his help to me, and his absolute professionalism, over the years.

He’d know plenty about it already but the last couple of trips up the M18 from Ennis have given Louis Mulqueen great insight into the Galway psyche.

Éamonn Fitzmaurice shipped some criticism last week when he reintroduced Paul Geaney against Monaghan after a disappointing initial foray for the Dingle man.

First All-Ireland quarter-final win in five years. First time heading back to Croke Park in five years. Redemption for a Munster final that didn’t go to plan. Visible progress — at long, long last.

Stephen Barry picks out three talking points from yesterday's Munster final in Thurles...

The Munster crown weighed heavy on Cork’s head last year but it shouldn’t be a burden this time around.

“You have got to put a product together for people to buy. Maybe last year we didn’t put together a great product. Whereas, this year we feel we have a reasonable product to sell and the customers are coming to buy.”

Podge Collins fancies a resurgent Clare will be buoyed by the opportunity to maintain their fine home championship record in Cusack Park against Limerick.

Clare absolutely cashed in those chips when the roulette wheel seemed about to spin off the table, writes Anthony Daly

Tipperary 1-21 Clare 1-23

Cork 2-23 Clare 1-21: Is nostalgia ever justified?

The Munster SHC will boil down to whichever team has put in place the most effective recovery programme for between games, Clare joint-manager Gerry O’Connor has insisted.

Jamesie O’Connor believes the GAA has scored an own goal with their decision to play the Munster and Leinster senior hurling finals on the same day this summer.