Limerick's entire starting All-Ireland final winning team have been rewarded with nominations for this year's PwC hurling All Stars awards. In the running for Hurler of the Year are last year's winner Joe Canning, his Galway colleague Pádraic Mannion and Limerick centrefielder Cian Lynch. In the Young Hurler of the Year category, Cork duo Mark Coleman and Darragh Fitzgibbon are up against Limerick's man of the match from the All-Ireland final, Kyle Hayes. Meanwhile, ahead of Sunday's Ladies Football final between Dublin and Cork, Eamon Donoghue explains in his GAA Statistics column why it may come down to Saoirse Noonan to decide. The 19 year-old has scored an incredible 6-11 in five substitute appearances.
One of rugby's most senior officials has warned that the current financial model "is not working"- and the entire future of the international game is under threat unless the sport takes urgent action within the next 12 months. "If you ask me as a businessman, the business side of it is not working," stressed Gus Pichot, World Rugby's vice-chairman. "If you ask me as the playing side, it's not working. Is the international game under threat? I think it is. Look at the balance sheets of some nations and you can see exactly where we stand."
Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill believes the performance of a depleted Ireland side against Poland has restored some of the confidence beaten out of his players in Cardiff. He believes Harry Arter could well come back into the reckoning too, reiterating his belief that assistant manager Roy Keane and the midfielder will patch things up. Russia winger Denis Cheryshev is being investigated by Spain's anti-doping agency following remarks from his father Dmitri in the Russian media about an injection the player took to treat an injury. His father was quoted as saying his son had received an injection containing "growth hormone" in the run-up to the World Cup to treat injury.
The World Equestrian Games kicked off on Tuesday as Hurricane Florence barrelled towards the tiny rural town of Tyron, in North Carolina where riders from 70 countries and horses from six continents will battle for medals and Olympic berths. An estimated 500,000 spectators are expected to attend despite the town being in the projected path of the Category 4 storm.
In her column this morning Joanne O'Riordan tells us not to let recent controversies obscure our sportswomen's feats: "Frankly, these controversies rob the winners and losers of their special moments. By creating a circus and laying the drama at the feet of Serena Williams, the umpire or the camogie officials, either way, it does a disservice to what actually is going on on the pitch and on the court."
