Options, options, options. For all the pieties to be heard after NHL games, managers are keeping an eye out all the time for options.

GIVEN that the issue is largely to do with the men in the middle and how they apply — or not — the rules of the game, let’s start with a former All-Ireland referee.

Once more, Tipperary appear to be the oldest Liam MacCarthy Cup panel around but age clearly didn’t debilitate them last season.

It came as a great relief to us that the sky didn’t fall in on Sunday. If anything, the majesty of the troposphere over Croke Park that evening seemed to signal approval of the move of the All-Ireland Senior Club Championship finals from March 17 to January.

TJ Reid was tight-lipped about the identity of the “ex-Kilkenny hurler” who helped Ballyhale Shamrocks prepare for the All-Ireland club final against Borris-Ileigh on Sunday.

There may be more vivid incarnations of optimism than a ticket tout prowling Gill’s Corner and environs for spare tickets ahead of the All-Ireland club final, but none come immediately to mind.

The giants of club hurling stand a little taller this morning. Defiant as ever following this test of their resolve and devoted to their fallen clubmen.

WHEN Siobhan Madigan interviewed Colin Fennelly for RTÉ Radio 1 Sport just moments after yesterday’s All-Ireland club final, Fennelly spoke honestly and succinctly about how far this Ballyhale team have travelled, and the deep satisfaction considering the starting point of that Ballyhale odyssey.

There may be more vivid incarnations of optimism than a ticket tout prowling Gill’s Corner and environs for spare tickets ahead of the All-Ireland club final, but none come immediately to mind.

With a second successive title, Ballyhale Shamrocks made it a clean sweep of All-Ireland club titles for Kilkenny this weekend despite some heroics from Borris-Ileigh’s Jerry Kelly and Brendan Maher.

Good question, responds TJ Reid when he is asked whether Sunday feels like an All-Ireland final.

An hour after the game, and anybody from Ulster who has a passion for hurling is still swamping Ballyhale Shamrocks manager Henry Shefflin, queuing for selfies, presenting hurls and jerseys for his signature.

It’s a career that has produced five All-Ireland titles between club and county but Joey Holden would be the first to admit it hasn’t run smoothly.

Ballyhale Shamrocks’ Joey Holden admits he is getting to grips with the scheduling of their AIB All-Ireland club semi-final with Slaughtneil.

Ballyboden St Enda’s captain Ryan Basquel has echoed TJ Reid’s criticism of the changes to schedule of the All-Ireland senior club championships.

Reid was given little space or respite by St Mullins’ Michael Walsh in the provincial decider in Portlaoise on Sunday.

It’s only a matter of months since St Mullins’ chances of doing something in Carlow were being written off. From there to here has been a victory in itself and yet Niall O’Donnell wasn’t about to look at it that way.

A routine day for Ballyhale. Only the opposition was novel.

Few counties have as little time for romance as Kilkenny and their county champions duly put paid to the fairytale run of St Mullins in this AIB Leinster senior club hurling decider in Portlaoise on Sunday afternoon.

John Fogarty previews the weekend's GAA fixtures.

Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy and former Cork boss John Meyler are set to lead the PwC All-Star 2019 and 2018 hurling teams when they head out to Abu Dhabi tomorrow.

Already trailing heavily with just 10 minutes on the clock at UPMC Nowlan Park, St Martin’s midfielder Aaron Maddock found himself hurley-less, surrounded and under pressure out on the left wing.

It almost isn’t fair.

Glen Rovers manager Richie Kelleher said losing the Cork county final took its toll.

All-Ireland champions Ballyhale Shamrocks had to work hard to dispose of a gutsy Clonkill side in today's Leinster Club SHC quarter-final in Mullingar.

Experienced Ballyhale Shamrocks made it a 17th senior county title in Kilkenny yesterday, throttling a game James Stephens outfit and running out easy winners in the end.

The GAA are strongly considering the decommissioning of the ‘maor foirne’ role in Gaelic football and hurling.

A superb solo individual performance from TJ Reid helped champions Ballyhale Shamrocks shake off a serious test to their Kilkenny senior hurling crown.

Former Kilkenny forward Christy Heffernan argues DJ Carey’s imminent appointment to Brian Cody’s management team is a necessary one for the team’s hiccuping attack.

Patrick Horgan has been shortlisted for 2019 PwC Hurler of the Year award, along with Tipperary and Kilkenny captains Séamus Callanan and TJ Reid.

TJ Reid was the star man as Ballyhale Shamrocks snatched a Kilkenny senior hurling league victory from the jaws of defeat — but they couldn’t get themselves out of relegation trouble.

Championship 2019: wonder after wonder. Here’s a few of the highlights from the reel.

In the aftermath of their 2014 All-Ireland final loss to Kilkenny, Eamon O’Shea defiantly declared that “This team (Tipp) will always have hope, they have great character, and the nucleus of this team will go on in the future and win All-Irelands.”

Michael Moynihan has rung all the juries, collated all the votes, and accepted all the bribes.

The team includes six players from All-Ireland champions Tipperary and four from beaten finalists Kilkenny.

Sending offs can have major influences on a game.

Trust me when I say this — it’s every referee’s worst nightmare to send a player off in an All-Ireland final.

A production of Hamlet with not one, but two princes.

A final for the annals but certainly not for the ages.

As a gauge of how competitive the All-Ireland final was, the free-taking sequence for both sides tells an interesting story.

A look back at the magical moments from this year.

Kilkenny were leading Tipperary by a point when Hogan made contact with the head of Cathal Barrett with a stray elbow along the Hogan Stand touchline.