KILDARE football champions Sarsfields must get the very best from their defenders if they are to win Sunday’s AIB Leinster club final in Navan.

THEY are finally closing in on the Holy Grail. Yesterday in Croke Park, 25 years later, what they once called intestinal fortitude - and the width of a post - guided Armagh to the gates of the Promised Land.

THE mere fact of Dublin getting back to their first Bank of Ireland Leinster football final in three years doesn’t necessarily prove that Paul Caffrey was the best man to succeed Tommy Lyons as manager.

CIARAN McMANUS has defended the structure of the Allianz NFL despite criticism that the latter stages of the competition were impinging on teams’ preparations for the All-Ireland championship.

WHEN Stephen O’Shaughnessy runs out onto the Croke Park pitch on Sunday he may be a little more enthusiastic than his team-mates.

MICK O’DWYER loves Dublin. Scratch that, Mick O’Dwyer loves beating Dublin. In 1959, he played his first game for Kerry against them in the All-Ireland semi-final.

AN intriguing little managerial battle will be waged on the sidelines of Portlaoise tomorrow.

LIAM HAYES was installed as Carlow football manager late last night and immediately warned that everybody in the county would have to stand up and be examined by the end of the year.

Dublin 2-8 Donegal 0-14

ALLSTAR nominee Chris Lawn makes a dramatic return to the Tyrone team for the first round of the Bank of Ireland Ulster SFC clash with Derry at Clones on Sunday.

Monaghan 0-13 Kerry 1-11

YOU wouldn’t blame Brian Talty if he ever suffered from an identity crisis.

ALL over the capital, chests are being used as billboards for Arnotts. Natural order has been restored. The sky-blue buzz has returned with Dublin back in a Leinster final.

Tommy Barker, Property Editor

TOMMY Lyons left Navan on Sunday realising the task in front of his Dublin team.