Brendan Larkin and Michael Ellard

IT’S a little odd that people should be surprised by the presence of traditional heavyweights like Dublin and Derry in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals.

FOR a club so rich in terms of playing resources and facilities, Kilmacud Crokes would have ambitions to match their size.

OF all the familiar faces that Offaly will field against Laois on Sunday, the most familiar will be pacing around at corner forward.

IT’S that time of year again in Dublin where the natives rummage around the closet for the Arnott’s jerseys and blue and navy car accessories assault the eyes on every street. Even the Hill is back in commission this year.

NA PIARSAIGH young lions John Gardiner and Setanta Ó hAilpín have been given starting positions on the Cork team for Sunday's glamour

DUBLIN football manager Paul Caffrey will meet his hurling counterpart Humphrey Kelleher on Sunday to discuss the dual player issue.

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.

DUBLIN defender Paul Curran, who missed the drawn All-Ireland SFC quarter-final meeting with Donegal through injury, is set to return to training later this week.

SUNDAY has been a long time coming for John Gildea. The power-house midfielder has toiled with Donegal for the best part of a decade, yet Sunday will be his first All-Ireland semi-final.

WITHOUT question, Billy Morgan was the happier of the two managers coming off the field in Parnell Park at the end of yesterday's Allianz National Football League tie.

LAOIS have confirmed that Mick O’Dwyer is their main target to succeed Colm Browne as the county’s senior football manager.

DR NIALL MOYNA will take temporary charge of the Dublin footballers as the County Board continue their efforts to appoint a successor to Tommy Lyons.

DUBLIN supporters and GAA officials will discover tomorrow morning if Hill 16 is available for Saturday's All-Ireland qualifier in Croke Park.

PADDY CLARKE was in the air, flying to Australia as part of the Irish management for the 2001 International Rules Series, when Brigid’s lost heavily in the Dublin county football final to a Na Fianna side captained by Kieran McGeeney.

IT may have qualified them for a first league final in 59 years, but it was the manner more than the victory against Tyrone which was so pleasing to Wexford’s John Hegarty.

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.