1. “We never had plan A or plan B going into a game. We had a philosophy of how we wanted to play the game and the players had to be adaptable within that battlefield to make decisions. They’ll only make those decisions if they’re empowered to make them. If the players are looking to the sideline to me for instruction during a game, well that’s a reflection on me. If I’m roaring and shouting at a player to get into position on the field, that’s a reflection of how poorly they’ve been trained.”

Denis Walsh chats to Jim Gavin in The Sunday Times, two years on from his decision to step down as manager of the Dublin footballers.

2. The last six weeks have been ones Saoirse will never forget. In addition to her first senior international goal, she made her Ireland debut in the World Cup qualifier against Sweden in October, and she won the Women’s National League with Shelbourne in mid-November.

There to capture the big moments – just as he has been since he was a teenager using the camera given to him by his grandfather – was her 24-year-old brother.

Eóin, who is two years older than Saoirse, began working for Sportsfile seven years ago. His first gig was the 2014 Munster club football final between Austin Stacks and The Nire at the old Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Sportsfile used five of his shots from the game, and he spent the evening showing their local pub, the Grange Bar in Cork, his work while his father had a pint.

PJ Browne looks at the intertwining careers of Ireland international Saoirse Noonan and her older brother, Sportsfile photographer Eóin, for Balls.ie.

3. Elie, his father recalled, was resolute. The Sabbath is about honoring God, and as an observant Jew, that was his foremost responsibility. Baseball would come second. That won’t change at Wake Forest, or if he makes it to the major leagues.

“It’s a holy day,” Elie said, simply.

For as accommodating as coaches have been, from youth league through high school – some pushed Friday night games up and Saturday afternoon games back to avoid Shabbat – Kligman has missed out on plenty more contests. And scholarship offers too.

In The Guardian, Joshua Needelman looks at Jacob Steinmetz and Elie Kligman, the first known Orthodox Jewish players to be taken in the MLB draft since its 1965 inception.

4. There is an equilibrium to places that have been good at something for a long time. Borrisoleigh and Ileigh, their focal points, remain such a co-ordinate. Borris-Ileigh, the club, arrived as a comet. Their initial spell yielded three triumphs for glamorous newcomers. The first one clicked in October 1949, the club’s second season, after Borrisoleigh and Ileigh amalgamated in January 1948. The same click, 1950 and 1953.

Seán Kenny captained Tipperary to All-Ireland success in 1950, a path immediately followed by Jimmy Finn. The latter figure surged to the game’s pinnacle. Shorthand for his status? That he was picked at right half back on the GAA’s Centenary all time XV in 1984.

PM O’Sullivan heads to Borrisoleigh as the great Jimmy Finn turns 90, for The Irish Examiner.

5. As far back as his time in charge of Hoffenheim in the late 2000s, Rangnick asked for a countdown clock to be installed at the training ground. It was a ploy he also introduced during his two spells in charge of RB Leipzig and his time as director of football at Red Bull Salzburg

The idea was that, when the players worked on gegenpressing exercises, the clock would start to count down every time possession was won and lost.

“The assistant coach activates it and it starts ticking,” he told German television station DW in 2017. “We use it for a game called ‘the eight-second rule’. The players can hear the ticking and know they have to get the ball back within eight seconds — or, if they have possession, they need to take a shot on goal within 10 seconds.

In The Athletic, Oliver Kay and Raphael Honigstein examine what it’s really like to play for Manchester United’s new interim manager, Ralf Rangnick. (€)