A week ago, Darragh Ó Sé “couldn’t make an argument for Cork getting anywhere close” to beating Kerry in their Munster championship meeting on Saturday, so today he’s doffing his cap to them for taking the game in to extra-time. “It was great to see some of that old fire back in the Cork bellies,” he writes, having a notion that the team being written off helped put it there. The challenge now, though, is to kick on and prove that they don’t need to see the Kerry jersey to keep that fire burning.
Another of football’s great rivalries has been a wholly one-sided affair over the last 15 years, it being that long since Meath last beat Dublin. “If it’s not yet a dead rivalry, then it’s certainly a dormant one,” writes Gordon Manning in the build-up to Sunday’s game in Portlaoise, which will be the first Dublin-Meath championship fixture outside Croke Park since 1980.
Seán Moran, meanwhile, has been reading through a discussion paper published last week, the subject the effect on Gaelic players’ mental health when they’re competing in “an amateur sport in a professional context”. The findings are stark, but Seán notes that the paper is based on data gathered in 2018 and wonders if matters have improved since then, particularly with the introduction of the split season.
In soccer, there is yet more upheaval at the FAI with the announcement on Tuesday that Marc Canham is quitting his role as their chief football officer. His three-year reign was an eventful and not altogether successful one, that 231-day search for a successor to Stephen Kenny especially shambolic.
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In rugby, Gordon D’Arcy wonders what impact Rieko Ioane will have for Leinster when he arrives in November on a seven-month contract, attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal looking forward to working with the New Zealander. But his focus, he tells John O’Sullivan, is on this season’s challenges, next up Scarlets in the URC on Saturday.
Connacht and Ulster both face South African opposition as they attempt to keep their top-eight hopes alive, Linley MacKenzie talking to Cullie Tucker ahead of Connacht’s game away to the Lions, Michael Sadlier hearing from Richie Murphy whose injury-ravaged Ulster side host the Sharks.
And in golf, Philip Reid is counting down to Royal Portrush hosting The Open in July, when a record crowd of 278,000 spectators will attend the championship, but a lot of work needs to be done before Portmarnock gets the chance to become the first course outside the UK to host the sport’s oldest Major.
TV Watch: There’s more coverage of snooker’s world championships on BBC1, BBC Four and TNT Sports through the day and evening. At 8.0, Arsenal play Crystal Palace in the Premier League (Sky Sports) and Inter Milan meet AC Milan in the second leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final (Premier Sports 2).
