A team if you will.

Done up to the nines, with some architectural aplomb and, quirkily, with a strong, pink-hued thread running through its decor and interior design, it’s now a very sizeable 3,391 sq ft private family home.

Eoghan Cormican in preview box The three-in-a-row has become a rare commodity in the Cork Senior Hurling Championship.

60 second on-the-whistle report from Kobe as Ireland secure bonus-point victory over Russia

North Clare and its Burren landscape is a barren, yet breath taking part of the country, writes Mimi Murray.

For several years, it was not so much smoke but thick clouds of cynicism that hung over Salazar’s work as head coach at the Nike Oregon Project.

Football is a game of two haves — the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. There is always a champion and a loser. There is always a veteran and a youngster. And there are always the rich, and the poor.

There is no talk of winning or losing in the Irish or the Russian camps this week. Nobody doubts which way the result will fall when they meet in Kobe tomorrow. This game will be about so much more than the numbers beside each nation’s name at the final whistle.

St Mary’s’ bid to complete the six-in-a-row of Jack Murphy Cups will have to wait until the middle of January at the earliest, as Dromid Pearses secured a late draw with two Niall Ó Sé frees during six minutes of added time in the Kerry SFC final at a bitterly cold Portmagee yesterday.

The result, which played out in front of a crowd of 1,628, means the All-Ireland champions cannot now progress to the decider.

In some quarters of the media, it has been said that Verona Murphy is only saying what a lot of people think.

The door closed today in Mardyke Street and the best-known medic in Irish sport finally put his feet up.

An umpire at the heart of the call not to award Limerick a last-gasp 65 in this year’s All-Ireland semi-final has been given a pair of glasses as a Christmas gift by a Limerick fan.

Leading referee Conor Lane has described the advanced mark as an ‘awkward’ rule and believes players have to take more responsibility in calling it.

Waterford taliswoman for the past two decades Michelle Ryan has called time on her inter-county career.

Cork just about did enough to record a deserved victory over Kerry in this John Kerins Cup opener in Tralee this afternoon as the hosts very nearly salvaged an unlikely draw from a deficit of five points entering injury time. 1-1 from substitute Darragh Hayes appeared to be enough to ensure Cork’s win but a penalty from Paul Walsh followed by a Killian Falvey point nearly ensured the match ended on parity.

Perfectly good goals disallowed. Travesties of justice waved on. Players and managers tearing their hair out. Supporters in uproar. Officialdom lambasted. The grand old game going to hell in a handcart. Ah, yes, who wouldn’t miss football’s good old pre-VAR days?

Further interpretations and clarifications on Gaelic football’s new rules have been issued to the national referees panel ahead of the start of the Allianz Leagues this weekend.

Forget the destination, it was the journey that thrilled Kevin O’Brien.

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.