Michael Curley from Galway will referee this year's All-Ireland senior football final between Cork and Meath. Curley is a Garda superintendent and has refereed many important matches in the past 10 years.

He took charge of a number of Connacht finals, two All-Ireland minor finals - Laois v Kerry in 1995 and Tyrone v Laois in 1998. He also refereed the Kildare-Dublin Leinster quarter-final last year and also this year's Leinster final between Meath and Dublin.

Curley has been at the centre of a number of controversies this year. On the final day of round robin matches in the National League he officiated a crucial promotion-deciding game between Wexford and Cavan. In its aftermath he was hit by Wexford manager JJ Barrett, who subsequently resigned.

In June, he sent off Armagh's Oisin McConville and Donegal's Martin Coll in their Ulster championship first round meeting. However, the red cards were subsequently deemed incorrect and were rescinded from the record.

Meath's Ollie Murphy, who was carried off in the second half of last Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final against Armagh, will have to wait until later in the week before the seriousness of his knee injury is known.

Murphy wrenched his left knee during the first half of the match against Armagh when his studs caught in the turf as he tried to turn. He is to have an X-ray on the knee to determine the extent of the injury. Murphy has been one of the outstanding members of the Meath attack this year and would be a big loss to the team for their All-Ireland final clash with Cork at the end of next month.

Former All-Ireland winning captain Tommy Dowd, another central member of the Meath attack, is hoping to be fit for the final. He has been troubled by a back problem since all year and only resumed light training last week.

Cork's Alan O'Regan, who was involved in a car crash last Friday evening and suffered severe chest injuries, will not play again for several months. O'Regan remains in a stable condition in hospital in Cork, but it may be months before he will be fit to play again.

A regular member of the side which won the National League earlier in the year, playing at either full forward or in the corner, he and also came on as a substitute in the championship match against Limerick. He was on the bench for Cork's victory over Mayo two weeks ago. In Cork there was considerable relief when all of the county's players emerged unscathed from a series of county championship matches at the weekend. Players from Balincollig, Na Piarsaigh, Duhallow, Castlehaven, Nemo Rangers and Muskerry all reported fit. Nemo beat Muskerry to reach the county semi-final, but Na Piarsaigh and Duhallow drew and must replay. Ballincallog and UCC are also through to the semi-finals.

In a public relations exercise at Pairc Ui Chaoimh last Saturday more than 8,000 people, many of them children, turned up to be introduced to the players from the hurling and football teams which will contest this year's All-Ireland finals against Kilkenny and Meath.

The GAA has fixed the replay of the All-Ireland minor semi-final between Down and Dublin for Navan next Saturday. The throw-in will be at 3.30.

Limerick could be providing the opposition in next month's Goal Challenge - should Cork win the All-Ireland football title. Traditionally, the All-Ireland champions played the rest of Ireland to raise money for GOAL, but there may be a change this year because of the difficulty in the past in getting players together to form a Rest of Ireland team. A spokesman for the Limerick County Board confirmed that John O'Shea of GOAL had been in touch with them, asking if Limerick would be interested in playing Cork if they were to win the All-Ireland.