MICK O’DWYER however briefly, showed every one of his legendary 75 years in Aughrim on Saturday as the wind whipped at the snowy hair and the seamed face that had just watched Armagh knock his Wicklow charges out of the championship.

DURING last week’s pinking of Dáil Éireann, courtesy of Mary Mitchell O’Connor, one politician after another, one ex-politician after another, told us we shouldn’t be talking about the Miss Piggy episode.

KERRY boss Jack O’Connor has questioned the performance of referee Joe McQuillan in Sunday’s All-Ireland decider, claiming it was more difficult for his players to win frees than it was for their opponents Dublin.

IT was only yesterday morning that the sharp pain of defeat hit Aidan O’Mahony.

IT’S on occasions such as these that people like Declan Kidney realise that their day’s work is never really done!

IN a most remarkable gesture of sportsmanship, Tomás Ó Sé handed Stephen Cluxton the match-winning ball following yesterday’s final whistle.

ALL-Ireland finals have tended to be joyous occasions for Jack O’Connor, his Kerry managerial record defined by days where he steered the county towards September success.

KERRY defender Marc Ó Sé last night predicted some of the long-serving members of the Kingdom squad will bring the curtain down on their inter-county careers in the wake of yesterday’s shattering All-Ireland final defeat by Dublin.

AFTER a season which saw him sidelined with freak injuries such as a piece of chicken getting caught in his throat and a ball breaking his finger, Michael Darragh Macauley may have feared he had broken a mirror.

DUBLIN coach Mickey Whelan hopes yesterday’s victory will stop former All-Ireland winners criticising the team.

TIPPERARY’S minor football campaign this year was a stirring tale long before yesterday’s All-Ireland decider in Croke Park.

HE was fresh from steering Tipperary to a rare All-Ireland football triumph but in the midst of the euphoric celebrations in Croke Park yesterday, David Power was already thinking of the future.

COURCEY ROVERS are just one step from senior ranks after surviving a stern test from Kilbrittain before a big crowd at Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday.

IT was the result of their lives but the feeling in the Ireland World Cup squad as it decamped to the shores of Lake Taupo yesterday was that beating Australia was just the beginning of the journey.

MY school reports could make weary reading.

EVEN having seen his team only survive the siege of Moscow by a miracle, Giovanni Trapattoni would still rather manage Ireland than try to manage in a real war zone.

FABIO CAPELLO is no longer “Shrek”. Unfortunately, Robert Earnshaw was the donkey after blowing a glorious chance to deny England victory at Wembley.

AFTER a game which pretty much defined the concept of backs to the wall, Giovanni Trapattoni was in tell-it-like-it-is mood in his post-match press conference in the Luzhniki Stadium.

YOU wouldn’t have caught it on the telly, the director either choosing to go to a replay or onto something else, but when Henry Shefflin scored his first point from play on Sunday and later shouldered a Tipperary back over the sideline for a Kilkenny lineball, he gave a little jump and animatedly fisted the air.

GATHERING his hurleys in the Kilkenny dressing room after his sixth All-Ireland final triumph, Tommy Walsh was offered a helping hand.