Dublin 0-12 Tyrone 0-7

WHATEVER was expected of the Dublin champions in yesterday’s AIB Leinster Club football championship Carlow, a six points defeat at the hands of Portlaoise would hardly have been anticipated.

WHILE they are already favourites for Leinster, with some tipping them for even greater glory, Laois manager Mick O’Dwyer is keeping a lid on the hype that is threatening to envelop his vibrant team again this summer.

CORK CITY manager Pat Dolan yesterday provided an insight into one of the less glamorous aspects of the job as he recalled the moment new signing Stephen O’Flynn broke his leg.

THE joke doing the rounds in Burlington House as Joe Kernan and Tommy Lyons launched the 2003 Allianz National Football League was that three managers were meeting the media in Dublin yesterday but only one was earning €400,000 a year.

PARADISE lost, found, cherished. Seven long years GAA's most famous fans have waited to see the boys in blue win a big match at Croker.

IT was a weekend of missed goal chances, come-backs and deadlocks, and a weekend which saw a tame end to Galway's All-Ireland reign.

DUBLIN defender Stephen Hiney is bidding to overcome a serious eye injury and return to hurling.

Jim O'Sullivan

TREVOR GILES will appeal to the Leinster Council tonight against the four-week suspension that rules him out of Sunday’s Meath SFC final.

ARMAGH have made two changes for Saturday’s Bank of Ireland All-Ireland SFC qualifier with Dublin at Croke Park.

THERE is no prize for guessing which manager has most reason to be optimistic about the season ahead facing into tomorrow’s opening Allianz NFL encounter in Hyde Park.

ONLY last weekend, it seemed you couldn't give the job of Dublin manager away. But last night in Parnell Park Paul Caffrey was officially rubber-stamped as the man to take over the capital's senior footballers.

CORK’S disappointment at losing their Munster SHC title will be shortlived.

THEY tried to create a real sense of occasion yesterday. A record-breaking attendance of 54,432, bolstered by 13,000 freebies for schoolchildren, came to Croke Park.

RTÉ analyst and former Meath footballer Colm O’Rourke has apologised to Tyrone’s Allstar attacker Brian Dooher for remarks he made four months ago.

By Jim O’Sullivan says Red Hand celebrations a distraction for U21’s as they face Dublin showdown

IT’S a bit early in the season to be having regrets, but John O’Mahony and Tommy Lyons each realise that slip-ups along the way have proved costly in terms of Galway and Dublin progressing in the Allianz National Football League.