SQUARE BALL

SKY Sports makes its first foray into the Munster Hurling Championship this afternoon, as has been well-trumpeted. And it’s a big deal for the broadcaster. Today’s Clare-Limerick clash is given pride of place on Sky Sports 1 and it has dragged out the A-team with JJ Delaney, Jamesie O’Connor, Ollie Canning and Nicky English all involved. It’s ironic that Sky’s first Munster SHC tie involves Clare as it was their county board who previously submitted a motion to Congress looking for all Championship games to be made free to air, a motion that was rejected by Central Council.

‘MARK my words, with the pressure that’s coming on players now to get stronger and stronger, it’s only a matter of time before questions are asked whether some player is supping the wrong stuff. In my opinion it’ll creep in. ‘And it’s a matter for the players, to be honest. We don’t want our games going down this route. It won’t make a better footballer out of you,’ those were the prescient words of Tomás Ó Sé, in his 2015 autobiography. While Kerry footballer Brendan O’Sullivan ‘bore no significant fault or negligence’ after testing positive for a banned stimulant, the list of products in the case hints at how aspects of a gym culture have become part of a county player’s diet.

CARLOW certainly added a dollop of old-style romance to the Football Championship and a bit of colour, too. Turlough O’Brien (below) has been like a new character added to an old cast, the news that he has a book out – not a no-holds-barred dressing-room memoir but a book on the best cycling pathways of his native province. On Friday, 24 hours before last night’s Leinster quarter-final against Dublin, he was busy tweeting about the idyllic scenes on the St Mullins trail. Maybe he’ll start a trend. Next up, Jim Gavin on the highways and byways around Clondalkin?