Niall Coakley has taken the road less travelled in Gaelic football. First of all, the Cork man plays his club football with St Jude’s in Dublin. The Carrigaline native transferred to the culchie corner of Dublin’s southside in 2015 after spending a year trekking the breadth of the country to continue playing for his home […]

7 years ago

The club set-up is a unique one in Kerry. In Ireland’s most successful county, two county championships are ran off before divisional competitions take place. The main event, the most important county championship involves divisional teams such as South Kerry and Feale Rangers. A second county championship, known as the club championship also takes place […]

7 years ago

Gary Anderson clearly wasn’t happy with the Derry man. Daryl Gurney’s darts landed wherever he wanted them to at the Citywest Hotel on Thursday evening as his bid to defend his World Grand Prix title runs smoothly towards the last four. The 32-year-old, bidding to become the first man since Phil Taylor to do back […]

7 years ago

It’s been a difficult two nights for Slaughtneil. On Wednesday, the club’s senior team were beaten in the Derry SFC for the first time in five years after Eoghan Rua Coleraine came from behind to knock them out of the Championship. The Derry kingpins felt a few decisions went against them in Owenbeg and a […]

7 years ago

Stephen Scallan remembers the day well. He’ll probably never forget it. Three years ago he was the captain of the Kilkenny minor team that were beaten 70 points by Wexford in the Leinster championship. It was one of the biggest hammerings in GAA history and it was the biggest failure of his life. He has […]

7 years ago

He’s back for more. They say you should never go back but Mayo fans don’t want to know anything about that for the time being. The eternal optimists out west have nothing if they don’t have hope and they’ll be convincing themselves that the Ballintubber bainisteoir’s second bite of the cherry is going to finally […]

7 years ago

Pure and utter Mayo. Absolutely peak Mayo. No other county can match the westerners’ capacity to thrill. If it’s not their footballers winning the hearts of every soul in the country and everything else bar the Sam Maguire, it’s the county board losing their people or it’s a player stepping aside with a bee in […]

7 years ago

The drive for five was brought to a shuddering halt at Owenbeg. Eoghan Rua held Slaughtneil to a draw in their Derry SFC quarter final last weekend, and they went one better, dumping the Derry kingpins out of the championship on Wednesday evening. Despite trailing by seven points at one stage in the first half, […]

7 years ago

With his mind made up, Peter Keane is now heading into the lions’ den. Immediately after guiding Kerry to their second All-Ireland minor title in as many years, Peter Keane would give absolutely nothing away about his future intentions. There had been murmurs around the county that the Caherciveen native would make the step-up from […]

7 years ago

Every forward needs to be able to win their own ball. At inter-county level anyway. At club level, a skilful hurler who doesn’t win much primary possession might just get away with it. The hurling is a little bit slower, they’ll find themselves space easier and balls will be thrown out to them every now […]

7 years ago

It’s all change down in Kerry. Anthony Maher announced his retirement from inter-county football on Wednesday morning and in doing so he became the third Kerry player in the space of a month to call-time on their county careers. Anthony Maher soldiered alongside men like Donnchadh Walsh and Kieran Donaghy in the green and gold […]

7 years ago

Damian Young never stood a chance. For more than twenty years he’s been the Drom and Inch goalie. He still hasn’t quite figured out a way to stop the shot loaded with top-spin and driven with power, but nor has any other goalie either. And don’t expect a genius formula any time soon. Hurling goalkeeping […]

7 years ago

Damien Duff doesn’t reckon much has changed with Jose Mourinho. Duff was governed by the Portuguese for three years during his spell at Chelsea. It was the most fruitful period of Duff’s career, the Ballyboden native winning two League titles and a League Cup between 2004 and 2006 with the Blues. He never had a […]

7 years ago

Discussions are set to take place. After the year that was, there’s a general understanding and acceptance that the rules of Gaelic football could do with some re-jigging. With overly defensive football taking hold and cynical play rife, a number of commentators – such as Joe Brolly and Colm Parkinson have been encouraging restrictions and […]

7 years ago

Paul Flynn has seen it all in his ten years as a Dublin player. He’s been through a lot. The dark days, the best of days. He’s been the key player for most of it, but this year he was that substitute trying hard to make an impression. And if you ask his club Fingallians […]

7 years ago

They never lose it. We take a look at the hurling quarter final clashes in Tipperary and Kilkenny at the weekend and at Cork’s semis and Galway’s final group games. Tipperary SHC quarters Toomevara v Drom and Inch A game in which Benny Dunne showed that a clever, wily and sharp old head can make […]

7 years ago

And then there were four. The Kerry senior football championship is one of the most hotly contested club competitions in the country and now it’s down to its last four. Dr Crokes are still there, as usual, and the kingpins of the Kingdom will be joined by Dingle, Kerins O’Rahilly’s and East Kerry. The action […]

7 years ago

And no, someone who tells you that “you’re hip is the size”

7 years ago

Young lads are breaking onto the scene as fully grown men. It’s no country for old men and hurling is reflecting that. It’s a young man’s game now and these young men are quickly changing the expectations and that we once took as gospel about them and about the game. A few years ago, it […]

7 years ago

It would have been very easy for Tom Parsons to have accepted his horrid fate. It would have been very easy for Tom Parsons to have called it a day. He’s been a Mayo player ten years now in a young man’s game. He’s 30 now. He was 30 when he suffered the nightmare injury […]

7 years ago

Eamon Fennell summed it up best. “Look at this magnificent bastard,” he said. “Looking like a pacman about to eat a ghost.” Paul Flynn was already well known as being one of the most agile, physically refined specimens in Gaelic football. He’s 12 years a Dublin footballer now and he’s ended four of those years […]

7 years ago

We can guarantee you

7 years ago

Paul Mannion first played under Jim Gavin in 2012. Mannion was only just out of minor but he was good enough to make an All-Ireland winning under-21 panel two years out of his age. He was a whippet of a lad back then but Jim Gavin had faith in him. Not long after that final […]

7 years ago

Oh, she is lovely. The question on everybody’s lips out west is whether Mayo GAA actually expected the news of their new manager to drop, or whether they wanted to put their fans through an emotional wringer for one more September day. Now we know they’re a different beast out west. We’re well aware that […]

7 years ago

Some teasing going on. Mayo supporters are the most obsessive fanatics in the GAA and they don’t even need any bewitching to get them going. They’re already on tilt full-time at this stage anyway, with the managerial hot-seat at the head of the senior football side vacant and gaping. They don’t need to be hyped […]

7 years ago

They’ve been missed by the GAA ever since. These four inter-county stars hung up their boots a while ago now but we still miss them dearly. Do you know what age they retired from the inter-county game at?

7 years ago

It’s a rite of passage for some lads. It’s game-day and on game-day nothing can be left to chance. You pack your bag and then unpack it to make sure your shorts and socks are in there. And then you put in a spare pair of shorts anyway. You double-knot your bootlaces so they won’t […]

7 years ago

It can be an awkward enough situation for inter-county players. Obviously it shouldn’t be, but when you’re as genuine and as honest as Jack McCaffrey, showing up at club training after you’ve been away with the county for months can be a tough thing to do. In reality, your teammates are delighted to have you […]

7 years ago

Aaron Gillane has Patrickswell coursing through his veins. He’s a proud Limerick man of course, but he’s a Patrickswell man first and foremost. No cliches, no triteness, just full-on hell-for-leather passion for the village he was born, reared and made in. The celebrations of the All-Ireland win were great, but God by the end of […]

7 years ago

It’s All-Ireland final day but Kyle Hayes isn’t feeling too much pressure. He’s never been one to struggle with nerves before games. His routines help to keep him calm, to keep him distracted. He has a pre-match running order that has served him well in the past, before intermediate club games for Kildimo-Pallaskenry and before big […]

7 years ago

Hurling was never massive in the villages of Kildimo or Pallaskenry. The times they are a changing though in the club that only amalgamated as one in 2015. Two of their own were a part of Limerick’s historic win on the third Sunday in August and ever since, the only talk in Kildimo and in […]

7 years ago

Eoin Bradley is a busy man. On Sunday, the Derry legend scored 1-9 across the water for his club Parnell’s in the London Senior football championship. On Tuesday night, he was back home and he was playing for Coleraine in the Irish League against Ballymena. He told us 1-9 here at home. Not like Skinner […]

7 years ago

Loughmore-Castleiney are never ever beaten. John McGrath played a game of football for Loughmore-Castleiney last year despite the fact that he couldn’t kick the ball because of a groin injury. He still wielded his genius on the game. This is John McGrath we’re talking about. He was only able to hand-pass the ball but when […]

7 years ago

Hurling summed up. So Ballygunner hurlers Barry Coughlan, Harley Barnes and Paddy Cooke are out having a few pucks down in Waterford. They’re sharpening up for their Munster semi-final against Thurles Sarsfields later on that day in Walsh Park. A couple of intrigued Americans have a few questions that need answering. After watching the three […]

7 years ago

It was a brilliant gesture from JP. If every millionaire in Ireland was like JP McManus, then the GAA would have no financial worries for the rest of time. There’d be state-of-the-art gyms, steam rooms and cryotherapy chambers in little GAA clubs in the middle of nowhere and never again would a team have to […]

7 years ago

Tipperary county board are pulling out all the stops. The wannabes have been weeded out and it’s down to the heavyweights of Tipperary club hurling now. It’s quarter final week down in the Premier County and the hurling promises to be rousing. It all kicks off on Tuesday evening when one of the most admirable […]

7 years ago

“Can ALL hurling games please be regarded as U21 in the future?” So requested the Wexford GAA Twitter account after Galway and Wexford’s under-21 game in Portlaoise earlier this year. Every single sinner in O’Moore Park longed for the same and anybody watching on TG4 must have wondered what it is about good old under-21 […]

7 years ago

Hoho hurling. Most counties are coming towards the last eight, and last four stages of their county championships now. Here’s our round-up of the games that took place over the weekend. Kilkenny SHC Ballyhale Shamrocks won the battle of the Ballys in O’Loughlin Gaels’ pitch on Sunday evening. 2017 intermediate champions St Patrick’s Ballyragget put […]

7 years ago

St Anne’s played with fire, and they got burned. Sitting back, trying to run down a clock and attempting to close out a lead is a dangerous thing to do, as St Anne’s found out to their cost in their final group game of the Dublin SFC last weekend. In a dramatic encounter against Naomh […]

7 years ago

Connaire Harrison doesn’t do things in half measures. Most people hold their stag over a weekend. Three days, two nights and they’d be a write off by the end of it. Connaire Harrison wanted a little bit more from his. The Down man is getting married later this year and he arranged his stag-do to […]

7 years ago

So beautiful to watch. When Tony Kelly opens his lungs, stretches his legs, broadens his shoulders and hurls like he was born to, that’s poetry brought to life. It’s poetry in its most beautiful motion. Every sprightly step he takes bounds into the next one, every dummy he makes brushes a defender away and creates […]

7 years ago

He’s been doing it all week, too

7 years ago

This is what Tiger Woods means to golf. Crowds jumping with excitement, shouting and buzzing in anticipation. The whole world had their eyes on the East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta, Georgia, the whole world had their eyes on Tiger Woods. It’s often said that no one man can be bigger than the game, but […]

7 years ago

Niall Deasy was unplayable on Sunday. When most of Ballyea were being horsed out of it by Inagh-Kilnamona in the first half of their Clare SHC quarter-final, Niall Deasy was standing tall, standing large. The battle-hardened amalgamation club were underdogs but they began this last eight clash like ravenous hounds. Since their joining forces in […]

7 years ago

There is no pub in Ballyea. The small village in county Clare, located just south of Ennis has a population of about 600 people. Crucially however, most of the people in Ballyea are hurling people. Tony Griffin first put Ballyea on the map with his exploits for Clare in the 2000s and another Tony, in […]

7 years ago

There were only 15 minutes of the game left when Nemo Rangers registered their first score. Now just because there’s a low scoring game of Gaelic football in Cork, it doesn’t mean that the game of Gaelic football is dead in Kerry and it’s dead in Dublin. It’s not even a death-knell for Gaelic football […]

7 years ago

A fitting gesture to a true legend of the county. Anybody who knows anything about football never undervalued Kerry’s most reliable solider Donnchadh Walsh. He was often dubbed an underrated player, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t appreciated. Because when everyone is calling a player underrated, it loses its relevance anyway and the whole of […]

7 years ago

Tell you what, it was a sight for the sorest of eyes. There are many great sights in the game of hurling but there are few better than Cratloe wizard Podge Collins at his scheming best. And he was dodging, ducking and dummying his way through the Clare senior hurling quarter final on Saturday afternoon. […]

7 years ago

Conor McGregor was bossing it. The first press conference for Conor McGregor and Khabib’s World Lightweight title fight took place in the Radio City Music Hall in New York on Thursday night and the Notorious was on top form. The Russian barely got a word in as the Crumlin native took over the stage Stateside. […]

7 years ago

This is brilliant. You think this is a quiet time of the year for inter-county managers. They’ve no training sessions, all they’re doing is waiting for December for county training to get going again, right? No chance. The county bosses the length and breadth of the country are popping up at club games at every […]

7 years ago