THE LAST FEW weekends of sport have been so manic and magical in equal measure that you’d find yourself wondering how we endured the first lockdown without anything other than classic games and The Last Dance to satisfy our cravings. And with the All-Ireland Championships entering their respective winter climaxes, we hope to sprinkle some of that weekend madness on your Monday mornings to kick off the week’s offerings available to The42 members.

Marc Ó Sé and Shane Dowling will record the latest episode of GAA Weekly tonight with the help of producer Kevin Brannigan, and will run the rule over a combined 108 years of hurt coming to an end in Munster and Ulster football, where Tipperary and Cavan somehow ensured that after a weekend during which the country commemorated 1920′s Bloody Sunday atrocities at Croke Park, the All-Ireland semi-final lineup this year exactly replicates that which came to fruition 100 years ago.

And that’ll be before Shane can even get started on the hurling.

Gaa Weekly has, with good reason, proven a major hit among listeners and will be ready to play first-thing in the morning for all of you members of The42.

Also on Monday, this writer — Gavan Casey, to briefly and reluctantly do a Zlatan on it — will give our own Murray Kinsella a buzz to record Rugby Weekly Extra, which in large part due to my absence, has become a quintessential debrief pod for rugby fans both in Ireland and elsewhere. Murray will park his emotions and pick apart Ireland’s demise at Twickenham in typically forensic fashion but with regular contributor Eoin Toolan on pre-season duty with the Kinetsu Liners this week, he has given me permission to “vent”, an opportunity of which I intend to avail regardless of the consequences.

That one will be available to members — even those in the famed members rugby WhatsApp group who so relentlessly took the piss out of my cardigan during last Thursday’s live video preview show — sometime in the afternoon.

Gavin Cooney will return on Tuesday with the latest episode of Behind The Lines, the podcast in which he he hears the thoughts and stories of some of the world’s most renowned sportswriters. Recent guests have included Paul Howard, Damian Lawlor, Roland Lazenby, Melissa Reddy, and Caitlin Thompson, and this week, Gavin will pick the brains of Andy Mitten, the author and football journalist who founded the United We Stand fanzine as a teenager.

Despite his years of experience for a multitude of publications, Andy was relatively recently accused of being a mouthpiece for ‘Official’ Manchester United, and in August faced criticism from at least one British media colleague for receiving a press pass for a United fixture during lockdown. Gavin will chat to him about the highs and lows of an adult life spent covering United in Tuesday’s BTL.

(A reminder that the full back catalogue of all The42′s members-only podcasts — including full series of Shane Keegan’s How to Win at Dominoes coaching pod, Kevin Brannigan’s Rise of Kenny, Paul Dollery’s Football Family, and our Warriors GAA pod which includes two acclaimed audio documentaries — is available to all members as soon as they join The42.)

Away from your ears, our Bylines series will be back to catch your eye this week when John Connell, author of The Cow Book and The Running Book, unveils his essay entitled ‘Eliud Kipchoge has an ear ache’. Our Bylines essays are written about sport but from the perspective of highly regarded authors who don’t tend to cover it, and are available exclusively to members upon their release.

We’ll also fire around Insiders Newsletters from the busy worlds of GAA, football and rugby, and will be announcing a new membership gifting scheme later in the week ahead of the Congested Christmas Period.

A reminder, too, that members get a 20% discount on our new book, Behind The Lines 4 (which retails at just €10 for non-members), as well as everything else available in the shop.

So, if you wish to add to your consumption of expert analysis and storytelling, support our independent sports journalism, and have your own input as to how we can keep doing more of it, join the rest of The42 members community at members.the42.ie.