A round-up of today's other GAA news

• TYRONE:Tyrone have received a major boost with news Kyle Coney appears to have turned his back on a career in Australian Rules. Coney will not be returning to Australia following the Christmas break.

The Ardboe player had spent five weeks with top AFL club Sydney Swans, having signed a two-year rookie contract. "I was scheduled to go back on January 2nd, but I decided not to go back," he said. "I'm staying in Ireland for the time being."

Coney was the star of Tyrone's All-Ireland minor triumph last year, and was hailed as the brightest talent to emerge in Tyrone for years. He is expected to break into Mickey Harte's senior squad this season, while he will also play for the under-21 side.

• TIPPERARY:Tipperary's senior footballers must plan for the season without last year's captain Aidan Foley after the Moyle Rovers clubman was forced to emigrate to America in search of work. Foley led the county in 2008 after Brian Mulvihill struggled to nail down a place in the side.

Foley's absence and other issues with key personnel have left manager John Evans with something of a defensive crisis ahead of Tipperary's debut in Division Three.

It had been expected full back Mark Peters would captain the team after Galtee Rovers captured the Tipperary senior title but Peters has told Evans he is unable to commit to the county panel at present.

• LEITRIM:Leitrim football manager Mickey Moran is confident last year's captain Gary McCloskey will be available for the National League. Midfielder McCloskey has been in London since before Christmas and Moran is aware players may be forced abroad owing to the economic downturn. He said: "Gary was home over the Christmas and attended training sessions but we have to see on the work front."

• LIMERICK:Limerick senior football manager Mickey Ned O'Sullivan has been dealt a severe blow with the news promising full back Michael McCormack has been ruled out for three months with a broken leg. The Crecora clubman, a former Limerick minor, sustained the injury playing for the county's under-21s in a challenge match on Saturday.

• WEXFORD:The imposition of an off-season for intercounty teams in November and December is misguided, according to Jason Ryan. The Wexford football manager dismisses the notion of burnout among GAA players, arguing the off-season actually increases that possibility of injury because of a lack of proper preparation.

"If you look at a lot of professional sports, they have a close season but the close season is a time to fix mistakes and errors and a lot of errors that happen are in people's bodies . . . Training isn't the problem. It's the type of training that's the problem."

• DOWN:Down manager Ross Carr has called on the GAA to curb the amount of hand-passes in a game, in order to improve discipline, instead of forging ahead with their new rules.

Using the example of last Saturday's The Irish Times article that compared the 1988 All-Ireland final with the 2008 equivalent, the Clonduff man argued. "Hand-passing is leading to yellow cards and black cards and unless we come up with some rule that you can't make three consecutive hand-passes or you have to kick it after two hand-passes - I don't know what it is. But it's the hand-passes that are leading to more contact, scrums and raised intensity. It's not rocket science.

"There was a fantastic article in The Irish Times on Saturday that compared the 1998 and 2008 finals. The 1988 final came in for a lot of ridicule as being dirty but the two referees who looked at it again just added two more bookings and a sending-off for Colm O'Rourke. But the most telling thing was in the Meath v Cork '88 final they used the fist pass 73 times, in 2008, it was up to 205."

• WICKLOW/CARLOW:Thomas Walsh might return to play his intercounty football with his native Carlow. For the past two years Walsh has been playing for Wicklow following a row with the Carlow County Board.

Carlow manager Luke Dempsey has revealed he has spoken to Walsh and he has issued an appeal to him and his brother, Patrick, to return. Thomas Walsh did not play in Sunday's O'Byrne Cup clash.

Wicklow manager Mick O'Dwyer said: "We don't know if he (Walsh) will be part of the Wicklow set-up this year."