Gaoth Dobhair, Mullinalaghta. The stories of a year in club football, the stories of a sporting year. Where else would you get a club of 155 people beating a club of 4’800? Inter-county football has taken its fair share of flak recently, but the gift that is club football keeps on giving us more than […]

7 years ago

These lads will be hitting up Dublin in February. As is always the case on the night of the World Darts Championship final, no sooner is the trophy presented to the winner than Barry Hearn is centre stage on Alexander Palace. The English promoter is given airtime to announce the always debatable, top secret list […]

7 years ago

These lads are living proof that the dual dream is dead. Fine footballers in their day, the lure of the small ball eventually won them over. Though they still play with their clubs, their presence is certainly missed on the football inter-county scene. Most of them tried the balancing act at certain stages in their […]

7 years ago

Mighty Mike can’t be stopped. It says it all about Michael van Gerwen’s performance in his semi-final victory over Gary Anderson that after four sets of the game, the Scot had averaged above 100 yet the scoreboard still read 4-0. That’s the type of ruthless, machine-like darts the Dutch man was throwing and with MVG […]

7 years ago

What a game of darts. Michael Smith is the first man through to the 2019 World Darts Championship final after a truly thrilling encounter with Nathan Aspinall in which both men through the darts of their lives. Smith began like a house on fire and his explosive beginning made Nathan Aspinall look like a rabbit […]

7 years ago

The encounter between Ruby Walsh and a Twitter troll was probably a set-up, but it did make a very important point. Ever since he fell off Annie Power in the mares’ hurdle in Cheltenham in 2015, Ruby Walsh’s falls and his defeats have been greeted with a dim, depressing chorus from a dim and depressing […]

7 years ago

Chris Cloete had to be stretchered off the Thomond Park pitch on Saturday night. Ireland’s greatest rivalry was simmering from the word go in Limerick, and on the half hour mark, it all boiled over with Leinster players Tadhg Furlong and James Lowe receiving yellow and red cards respectively in the space of just two […]

7 years ago

Johnny Sexton has had more enjoyable days at the office. After scoring the drop goal of a lifetime after 41 nerve jangling phases in France, after starring in Ireland’s entire Six Nations campaign and after being rewarded with the World Player of the year crown, things couldn’t have been going much better for Leinster’s fly […]

7 years ago

There were only four seconds on the clock in last year’s All-Ireland final but Limerick had already laid down a marker. A vicious, booming marker. After Darragh O’Donovan won the throw-in, he had only one thing on his mind. Aaron Gillane. Gillane was after cleaning Cork out of it in the air in the All-Ireland […]

7 years ago

Who’s is the most competitive of them all? A county championship win is something so outlandish and so far-fetched for most clubs that winning the thing seems like the greatest and the most prestigious thing in existence. There’s tunnel vision and there’s there’s a little bit of narrow-mindedness and every player, and every club will […]

7 years ago

And then there were four. The club championships were full steam ahead throughout the winter and so the three-month break between the provincial finals and the All-Ireland semis seems a bit restricting. Anyway, we can’t complain, we had our fill of it, from a genuine classic in Munster between Ballyea and Ballygunner to one of […]

7 years ago

The Asp is as fiery as they come. Against all the odds, Nathan Aspinall sent World Number five Gerwyn Price back to the gym on Friday night and two days on he was throwing the darts of his dreams again. On Sunday night, it was Kyle Anderson who walked into the best world number 91 […]

7 years ago

Everton have had a tough time of it recently. And with a club of their stature to be lingering in the bottom half of the table at Christmas, to have picked up one point in their last five games and to have kept only four clean sheets all year, their players were never going to […]

7 years ago

Keegan Brown will never be gifted as much support in his life. Before he took the oche on Sunday afternoon and four days after the crime, James Wade said on Sky Sports that he doesn’t remember much about Wednesday, the whole day, and he certainly doesn’t remember much about the night and the infamous game […]

7 years ago

The commentators were talking up Mervyn King from the word go but Brendan Dolan could not have cared less. They talked about him taking this one, they even talked about him making it to the final but before they got carried away about their own English man, they should have first considered that he’d have […]

7 years ago

Roy Keane doesn’t have much time for the modern breed of footballer. The type of footballer which, he claims, are not only weak as players, but weak as human beings and he feels there are a number who apply to this category in the Manchester United dressing room. From the good old days at Manchester […]

7 years ago

It doesn’t seem that long ago when Kyle Coney was the great red and white hope. Five points from play in the All-Ireland minor final win over Mayo wasn’t against the grain for the teenager who had the Red Hand in the palm of his lámh from well before final day. Ardboe knew they had […]

7 years ago

The 2019 season beginning in December 2018. You wouldn’t get it anywhere else and though it seems like something we should be complaining about, we might just be better off to have these pre-season games out of the way in the new year when the more important outings need space. Always look on the bright […]

7 years ago

Long live the citeogs. You can call it unorthadox, you can call it awkward but there’s absolutely no denying its effect. The traditional hurler holds his stick with his right hand over his left and catches the ball in his left hand. The majority of teams will have two or three, if not more, lads […]

7 years ago

James Wade has apologised. But the thing is, James Wade had the chance to apologise on Thursday night after he’d done what had everyone thinking he was going to apologise for then. But instead of apologising then, he doubled, trebled down on his aggressive, unsporting behaviour from moments earlier and made everybody despair again. All […]

7 years ago

Only one man has managed a maximum, 170 checkout in the World Darts Championships so far this year. That man is a Fermanagh man, his name is Brendan Dolan and he’s still bopping along to the swings and arrows of Ally Pally this Christmas. Those swings come around often and those arrows cut through the […]

7 years ago

What could possibly be wrong with the boy who had it all? From the outside looking in, Shane Carthy’s life couldn’t have been any better at 18. He had a close friend group, he’d debuted for the Dublin seniors in the National League and had been a part of the championship panel later on that […]

7 years ago

It was business as usual for the history maker though. From the moment Fermanagh’s Brendan Dolan stepped foot into Alexander Palace on Wednesday afternoon, he had the game-face on. He had a job to do and he was here to do it. After striding onto Dropkick Murphys’ world famous and Irish claimed belter, Shipping up […]

7 years ago

Westmeath club Multyfarnham were in the All-Ireland junior club football final last February. So the week before the game, they visited Croke Park to sample the atmosphere, to get a feel for the place, to familiarise themselves with the pitch and the stadium in which they’d be playing the biggest game of their lives the […]

7 years ago

Gary Neville has seen this coming since last summer. Ever since Jose Mourinho came back from Manchester United’s pre-season tour and complained about the transfer money he’d been given and the players he hadn’t, Neville knew that this whole thing was only going to get worse. A couple of months later and here we are. […]

7 years ago

That’s two darting legends gone at the very first hurdle. If Peter Wright’s shock defeat on Sunday night wasn’t enough to turn the darting world upside down, Raymond van Barnevald delivered the final push on Monday. The Dutch legend was out of sorts from the word go in his opening round clash against Lithuania’s Darius Labanauskas […]

7 years ago

If Devon Peterson had lost that game… We hate to say it but it would probably have been one of the greatest bottle jobs of all-time. At two sets up, the South African had the chance to take it in the third and then again in the fourth but he passed both of them up. […]

7 years ago

This lad was a joy to watch. From the moment Lourence Ilagan stepped on the Ally Pally stage on Monday night, we knew we were in for an experience. With a pep in his step, a cock in his walk and more finger-points in his short walk up to the oche than you’d get in […]

7 years ago

God knows we could do with him. Ireland have a new breed of strikers coming, in Troy Parrott, Michael Obafemi and Aaron Connolly but it will be a few years yet before those lads (all still under-20) hit their peaks. One man who is closer to the peak of his powers is 25-year-old Leeds United […]

7 years ago

Christmas will be some time for these eight clubs. Basking in county and provincial glory, Stephen’s and New Year’s nights out couldn’t be much sweeter. But before 2019 is even a day old, you can bet your life on it that the eight of them will be focused on a date in February. They’ll be […]

7 years ago

Clonoulty Rossmore aren’t the biggest of clubs. The numbers aren’t great in the parish and there aren’t too many houses being built there either. But every house in Clonoulty Rossmore knows about the GAA club and the GAA club sure as hell knows about every house there too. The GAA is Clonoulty Rossmore’s tradition, it’s […]

7 years ago

When Davy Fitzgerald is in, he’s in. The Clare man doesn’t do half-measures and with Wexford’s Walsh Cup campaign still around the corner, it’s been in Ireland’s Fittest Family that he’s kept his competitive juices flowing over the last few weeks. And it’s fair to say he’s well warmed up for the hurling at this […]

7 years ago

Mourinho is sure that United will finish in the top six. He thinks that they can finish in the top four. All going very well, that’s where the club will be come the end of the season and this depressing place is where they’ve been heading for quite a while now. Ever since they abandoned […]

7 years ago

Gary Neville has seen enough of this. Neville is one of the best analysts around, he’s a club legend but above all he’s a United fan and every moment spent analysing his team’s struggles cuts him as deep as it does those at home watching. Another Sunday, another listless display from Jose Mourinho’s men and […]

7 years ago

What a comeback from Dave Chisnall. He looked dead and buried after two sets but Dave Chisnall showed all of his experience to rise from the dead and knock Josh Payne out of the World Darts Championships on Sunday afternoon. With Payne averaging an outrageous 114 on his way to two 3-0 wins in the […]

7 years ago

The history maker is at it again. Sporting a shirt straight out of lapland, ice-cool Brendan Dolan took to the oche on a mission and he carried out that mission ruthlessly. The Enniskillen native had the eye in from the word go in his first round World Darts Championship clash against China’s Yuanjun Liu and […]

7 years ago

He said he wouldn’t back down and he’s a man of his word. After striding out to the music of the late Tom Petty, Limerick’s Willie O’Connor took to the Ally Pally stage like a man inspired. And he got the crowd going too. O’Connor meant business from the word-go. An undoubtedly talented player, the […]

7 years ago

The darts is here

7 years ago

It wasn’t that long ago when Phil Jones was destined for greatness. 2011 was the year and Sir Alex Ferguson had to push hard to beat a number of other suitors to secure Phil Jones’ signature. He’d spent nine years in a youth set-up in Blackburn, he’d graduated to the club’s first team by the […]

7 years ago

And he’s still one of Dublin’s best club players. For 18 years, Mossy Quinn has been as much of a fixture for the St Vincent’s seniors as the blue and white jersey itself but he’s still going as good as he ever was. That’s why it’s 18 going on 19. The old saying goes that […]

7 years ago

Wherever possible, that’s the way it should be. Coolderry is a small area and there aren’t too many people living there. A familiar rural tale, it’s one of those places where every single youngster in the parish has been lined up by the GAA club well before they’ve become big enough to even hold a […]

7 years ago

Some of them are pushing on 23. By the time the 2017 under-21 championship will be finished in Galway, the 2019 GAA season will already be a week old. Where else would you get it? This Saturday, December 15 2018, and a Galway under-21 A hurling final throws in at Carnmore. Not this year’s one, […]

7 years ago

Troy Parrott has been ripping it up in the UEFA Youth League. Just last week, the youngster, playing three years out of his age showed Inter Milan a clean pair of heels. And now he can add Barcelona to the collection. Spurs’ under-19s travelled to the Mini Estadi to take on Barca’s youths in their […]

7 years ago

No Irish man has played in the Fifa Club World Cup since 2008. Back then, John O’Shea and Darran Gibson were Champions League winners with Manchester United and they were a part of the squad that made the trip to Japan for the end of year competition. Roy Keane and Denis Irwin have also participated […]

7 years ago

Meath manager Andy McEntee is on the fence with the new rules. He sees potential in some of them, he sees holes in others but either way he doesn’t feel the 2019 League should be used as a Guinea pig for them, especially at such late notice. “My real concern is the importance of the […]

7 years ago

Captain Shane Mulligan couldn’t even bring himself to look at the penalty that eventually won Leinster for his club. The 58th minute of a Leinster final, Mullinalaghta are trailing by two points and Kilmacud Crokes, playing with the wind, look like they’ve done enough. But Mullinalaghta aren’t spent yet. David McGivney bursts onto a pass […]

7 years ago

The morning after the day before and Mullinalaghta are still in a state of shock. When the smallest GAA club in Longford is trending worldwide on Twitter, is being mentioned on the news in the same breath as Munster and Castres and is being talked about by the Taoiseach, the sense of shock is hardly […]

7 years ago

What a year of club GAA it’s been. From Gaoth Dobhair winning Ulster to Mullinalaghta winning Leinster, it’s been a year of firsts and it’s been a year of constant entertainment. Here’s our final GAA club team of the weekend. 1 Ava Carey (Glanmire, Cork) The Glanmire goalie was in inspired form in the All-Ireland […]

7 years ago

Kilmacud Crokes had a poor, poor Sunday at the office. After flying out of the blocks with a Pat Burke goal after four minutes, the Dublin champions were in the driving seat. With the scores level at half-time and having defended well against a Tullamore gale, they were well placed to push on and grab […]

7 years ago

A lovely touch. The mighty men of Mullinalaghta made history on Sunday afternoon. One of the smallest clubs in Ireland, the 5/1 underdogs were supposed to be whipped out the gate by one of Ireland’s biggest. Those who gave them a chance were few and far between but the Longford lads never stopped believing. Belief […]

7 years ago