Gaelic Games digest: Galway defender Michael Comer is out of football until after Christmas because of a hand injury. Comer will miss Corofin's bid next Sunday to capture their first Galway SFC title since 2002 when they take on Micheál Meehan's Caltra in the county final at Pearse Stadium.

Comer will also miss the Connacht club campaign should Corofin - looking for their 11th Galway title and eighth since 1991 - be victorious on Sunday.

Caltra are bidding to add to their sole success, in 2003, when they went on to win the All-Ireland club title.

Hayes doesn't hold back

The former Carlow manager Liam Hayes has stated that the county must undergo wholesale changes if it is to experience any success in the future. Failure to do so, he warns, will lead to another half-century of heartbreak.

Hayes, writing in the Nationalist newspaper, said the framework was not in place for the county to progress, and he also slammed the antics of players he said he should have thrown off the panel. He said he regretted not getting angrier with players as well as officials.

"All of the characteristics which present themselves in winning football teams, and winning counties, are mostly absent in Carlow. Or, at least, I did not see them in my two years travelling up and down to Carlow.

"There were half-a-dozen lads on my squad over the last two years who were kidding themselves and pulling my leg, and giving their hard-working team-mates a kick up the backside - all in one fell swoop.

"My greatest regret and disappointment with myself as Carlow senior football manager was not taking the advice of wiser Carlow men around me, early on, and 'kicking' these players as far away from the county squad as possible.

"Practically everything in Carlow must change if the county is to stop undervaluing itself, and underperforming on the field. Right now, the county is facing another 50 or 60 years of complete failure at senior football."

Kildare may move ground

Kildare is the latest county considering moving from its headquarters to a new stadium in what is becoming a growing trend in the GAA.

While a decision is not imminent, the county board is to make a presentation to club officials and delegates relating to options on a move from St Conleth's Park to a new, "state-of-the-art" stadium on the outskirts of Newbridge.

This has been a long process which began under the chairmanship of Andrew O'Sullivan with the zoning of a 25-acre green-field site for new purpose-built grounds on the Naas side of Newbridge and plenty of behind-the-scenes work has gone on during the past two years since Syl Merrins succeeded O'Sullivan.

Much progress has been made on the project, but the final decision on any sale and subsequent development of a new stadium will come down to the clubs.

"We will be making a presentation to the clubs with a view to the whole matter," Merrins said yesterday. "The decision on what we do is theirs."

Wexford and Clare have also been linked with big-money sales of their county grounds in recent months.