GAA: Brian Lucey of Kildare and Donal Curtis of Meath are the latest thirtysomethings to opt out of competitive Gaelic football, while Kerry’s All-Ireland winning Garda Johnny Crowley is threatening to do likewise. Meanwhile, Cork hurling prospect Aisake O hAilpin has joined his brother Setanta in Australian Rules. “Like Setanta, I have a real desire to become a full-time professional athlete, something we cannot do in Ireland,” he told the Irish Examiner the other day. GAA fans should be worried at this mass exodus, and GAA chiefs should do something to address the problem – before it’s too late. 

SOCCER: Great story about the Shamrock Rovers goalkeeper Noel Mooney, who has been bald for want of a better word for the past few years. Like English rugby player Austin Healey and legendary cricketer Graham Gooch before him, Mooney has resorted to science in a bid to lose his receding hairline and has had laser treatment to stimulate the follicles to renew hair growth. He claims it is working, but I bet he still gets the rear end slagged off him from the terraces next season. 

RACING: You know Christmas is around the corner when the talk turns to Cheltenham and the mass exodus that goes hand in hand with the March meeting in England’s Cotswolds. Already there are people here at home writing off Beef Or Salmon after last weekend’s defeat to Kicking King at Punchestown – with the very same pundits tipping Kicking King for glory in the spring!

SOCCER: Brian Barwick, the new chief executive of the Football Association in England, wants to introduce TV evidence in all major games, soccer’s equivalent of the video referee already used in big rugby matches. It will come as no surprise then to discover that Barwick has spent the last 24 years working in ….. television. At least he knows what he’s talking about then.