Friday Night Leinster, Kerry men take Sam Down Under and a poor pre-match pen pic

We’ll have our first ever Friday night Championship game next week while Donegal’s most prized possession is now in the hands of a few Kerry ex-pats.

Following hot on the heels of, oh, every sport in the world, the GAA are finally embracing Friday Night Football. Next Friday, June 28, Carlow will play Laois in the first round of the Qualifiers at Dr Cullen Park, with a throw-in time of 7.45. So, after years of fans and players alike calling for a bit of Championship scheduling innovation, the day has finally arrived. It had been flagged at the back end of last year when the Leinster Council spoke about utilising the Friday night slot if the right combination of teams and locations fell for them. The meeting of neighbours Carlow and Laois in today’s draw opened the door and the GAA stepped through. The game itself might not be the most glamourous of clashes, but we have seen soccer and rugby make good use of the Friday night slot. Now it is the GAA’s turn.

Kerry lads get their hands on Sam again

It is now almost four years since Kerry had their hands on the biggest prize in Gaelic football. Two men who played in that 2009 final win over Cork, and who now live in Sydney, have managed to get their hands on Sam Maguire once again. Tommy Walsh, now of the AFL, and Tadhg Kennelly, retired from the AFL but living in Oz, were snapped with the cup at a function in Sydney over the weekend, a snap tweeted out by Walsh. That trophy must really rack up the mileage each year.

Sam Maguire's first time in Australia! @TadhgKennelly @CocknBull_Bondi pic.twitter.com/80IIFTw576 — Tommy Walsh (@tommywalshkor) June 16, 2013

  And if you are wondering who the gentleman on the left of shot is, that’s another Sydney Swan legend Michael O’Loughlin. And with a name like that, he has to be at least a bit Irish, right?

Unfortunate RTE pre-match pic of the week

The way RTE display the pre-match line-ups before their live GAA games is not quite as dramatic as the way they do it in American Football but it at least gives us a look at the players faces, an especially important tool in hurling, where we rarely see the players without helmets these days. But we wonder could they not have looked for a better snap of Roscommon’s Michael Finneran before using this one ahead of the Mayo game yesterday. Pic credit: @PaddyPower If we were Michael, we’d be demanding a change before the Qualifiers...