Compiled by DAMIAN CULLEN

WOMEN GET CHANCE TO SHINE

SO far ar this summer the only story concerning women’s football that has grabbed the national headlines has been some rather unfortunate incidents in Tyrone, which resulted in life bans being handed out.

Thankfully, the All-Ireland championship begins next weekend – with 34 counties (New York and London compete) playing across three grades. TG4 will broadcast live coverage of 17 championship matches, starting next Saturday.

Premier proposal: Why less can be more

THE GAA hierarchy never studied subtraction in school.

Competition formats, rules etc, are rarely made simpler. If there’s a problem, adding a new rule, or team, or competition round, or layer of bureaucracy is the usual policy.

Which makes the reports that the GAA is considering abandoning the hurling league format that has been in place for the past three seasons, in favour of the previous, more cumbersome system rather depressing. The previous format allowed all counties with a loud enough voice in the world of hurling to play in Division One.

If teams such as Clare can’t be promoted the old-fashioned way it seems, then we should just find a different way of bringing them up.

That means turning an eight-team Division One into a 12-team Division One A and One B.

But, why not go the other way?

How about reducing the number in each division to just five?

Based on the final positions after the 2011 league, you would have Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Tipperary and Waterford in Division One, each playing the other twice – home and away. Top two meet in final, bottom team is relegated.

It would leave no room for manoeuvre, all high-quality and important games, and with the return legs providing interesting repeat battles. (We’d suggest calling it the Premier Division, but those not from Tipperary mightn’t go for that).

Division Two would be occupied by Clare, Cork, Limerick, Offaly and Wexford. No easy games there.

The final game would have a big prize on offer, with promotion to the big boys – with the bottom team relegated to Division Three, which would have Antrim, Carlow, Down, Kerry and Laois – ie teams that have ambitions of mixing it with the big boys and would have a realistic chance to prove they can.

In the current format, with teams such as Clare, Limerick and Wexford in Division Two during the past few years there is little opportunity for teams like Carlow and Down (or even Laois and Antrim) to make it up to Division One. So, that’s it, our proposal for a new league format.

Tracking the score: New handy app a hit

WE’VE never been at a soccer game where someone has asked: “What’s the score?”

At GAA matches, though, particularly club games where there isn’t a working scoreboard, it’s often the number one topic of discussion – particularly in high-scoring encounters – and can cause disagreements as to how far apart the teams are.

Which is what makes the new scoreboard app for phones a deadly little invention. A few weeks ago, Joe Hyland, a software development student in NUI Galway, launched an app called “GAA Scoreboard”.

We found it completely by accident, after typing our favourite words into the Google’s Android Market (the online software store): GAA, Laetitia Casta etc

In the app, you simply type in the names of the teams playing, choose how long each half will be, and then you have a very handy app which you can use to track the scores, and time the game.

And, if youre so inclined, the twitter integration means you can send auto-generated match update tweets with a single click. There’s also a new Pro edition which has extra features including editable tweets, match location and smarter twitter messages.

There isn’t an iPhone version at the moment, so it’s just for Android users. Just a really simple, but really useful tool.

DOUBLE A LONG-ODDS BET

ONLY two counties are still involved in both the senior hurling and senior football championships.

Dublin are 146/1 to claim the Sam Maguire and Liam MacCarthy this summer – Limerick are slightly less likely, at 4,130/1!

Though, should Limerick beat Dublin in hurling and Wexford in football next weekend – two very achievable results – they would then be a combined total of just five victories from the double!