Mine's a McGuinness

Gerrard and Rafael traded blows earlier in the day but it was Murphy who produced the real moment to remember, a blow of his own, a killer blow to the men from the west, not his first and certainly not his last. After gathering a long ball, yes a long ball, from Lacey and easily shrugging off the challenge of Keane, the only man to mimic Molloy smashed the ball past motionless Clarke. No need for formalities here. Surnames will do. Here's another. McGuinness. 

I was just a teenager when Molloy walked up the steps of the Hogan for the first time. Dublin hadn't been football's top dogs for nearly a decade but hunger is a great sauce and McEniff's men were not to be denied their first moment in the sun. Yesterday, they repeated the trick. The link? McGuinness. 

Shit love ma x

Taking the turn from Mountjoy Square on to Gardiner Street was my next task. Then I heard it. I felt it. A vibration. A small beep. I pulled my phone from my pocket. The message was from my mother, or 'Me Ma' as she is listed. I'd only talked to her, half hoarse, heart beating quicker than it should have been less than an hour earlier. Just before I did I used the phrase 'hurling heaven' in a tweet. 

To say proceedings took a turn for the worse when the age old rivals returned for battle would be an understatement. An understatement of an understatement. I still hadn't negotiated the turn. Something needed to be written about what I had just witnessed. What would I call it? I read the message from the woman who gave me life. Three words and a letter I'm all too familiar with. 'Shit love ma x'. That'll do.  

He could go out on top with Tipp

Mick O'Dwyer has yet to decide whether his services will be on offer for the 2012 season. The Waterville legend's five-year stint with Wicklow ended on Saturday night in Aughrim. He had brought them as far as he could.

'I'd like to think my involvement in the game is not over yet,' is how the sprightly 75-year-old responded to queries about his future in football following the defeat to Armagh. So there is hope? Someone could avail of his services? What county would benefit most? And why can't 'Micko' walk away?