Two points for the sideline cut? Padraig ‘Paw’ Conway is having that all day long. Conahy Shamrocks were out in the Kilkenny Junior D League against Mooncoin on Sunday afternoon and the corner forward was making a statement. Just last week, the merits of sideline cuts earning an extra point was up for debate. Seamus […]

7 years ago

Kilkenny are down a few men but they shouldn’t be written off just yet. That’s the message coming from DJ Carey and from Henry Shefflin. James Maher, Cillian Buckley and all of the injured gang are huge losses going into the Leinster championship – there are no two ways about it – but Brian Cody has […]

7 years ago

Rory O’Carroll has slotted back into the Kilmacud number three jersey like he was never away. In fairness, he’s been keeping himself busy over in New Zealand for the last few years. Imagine going to New Zealand to enjoy yourself and running into Rory O'Carroll… literally 😱 pic.twitter.com/c3llqmfVqW — GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) March 5, 2019 […]

7 years ago

The Harps thought they were playing in Old Trafford. Parnell Park of a balmy Thursday evening and the Dublin Senior Football Championship is heating up. It’s only in its round-robin stages but there’s a real knock-out feel to things in Donnycarney. Both teams have lost their first round games and this is what it all […]

7 years ago

April 17, 2016 was a sorry day for Kilkenny. Beaten 70 points by Wexford in the Leinster minor championship, the scoreline – 13-20 to 0-1 – was like something we’d never ever seen before. Unfortunately for those Kilkenny minors who’d barely trained before that game – what’s rare, moves the needle and though it’s selfish and […]

7 years ago

No inter-county manager supports the club game as much as Brian Cody, but he surely can’t wait for this club month to end. For Cody and Kilkenny, it’s been the stuff of nightmares. First of all, it was James Maher. April wasn’t even a full week old when news filtered back from Freshford club training […]

7 years ago

Everything happened so quickly for Henry Shefflin. Having just hung up the Ballyhale boots, the plan was to take a little break from hurling before mulling over what he’d do next. It’s hard to refuse your own though. Aware that the club needed something special, it wasn’t long before the Ballyhale Shamrocks chairman came calling. […]

7 years ago

We can only imagine Michael Morris’ reaction if this had been a tighter game. 10 points up and with no more than 20 minutes left to play, it’s fair to say Turloughmore were home and dry when their corner back received his marching orders in the Galway senior hurling championship last Saturday evening. The match […]

7 years ago

Naomh Colmcille hosted a fundraising tournament in February. A former club player and coach Paul Dillon is in the middle of a battle with Motor Neurone Disease and in order to help his cause, the club held a blitz type competition, which was organised by a local fundraising organisation. The tournament went down well, with […]

7 years ago

It’s when you don’t want your phone to ring that the thing goes wild. Brian Cody’s phone has been hopping this April. His Kilkenny players weren’t even a full session back with their clubs when the first call came. First of all it was James Maher. The unfortunate Freshford club man is one of the […]

7 years ago

Ruby Walsh has won his third Irish National. 6/1 shot Burrows Saint has won the Irish Grand National to make it a Cheltenham Gold Cup and Irish Grand National double for Carlow based trainer Willie Mullins. Paul Townend was the pilot when Al Boum Photo won in Cheltenham but it was Ruby Walsh who was […]

7 years ago

Some weekend for it. With hurling taking over everywhere else, Kerry and Meath were the only counties to run off a round of their senior football championships last weekend. In Kerry the set-up is slightly different with the county having two championships – the club and the county – and with the fixtures well ran […]

7 years ago

Momentum is a powerful thing. The gulf between intermediate and senior is a big one, but after mastering the stepping stone, clubs are ready for the step up. That’s exactly how it’s panning out in Cork, Kilkenny and Galway. Two full rounds of club hurling have been played in every big hurling county this April […]

7 years ago

One last hurrah before it all breaks up. There’s no point in getting used to club championship games but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t savour them. The GAA in its purest form, you really can’t beat the county championships but unfortunately this will be it until the sun goes down. We’d better enjoy it while […]

7 years ago

Munster were up against it before any of this. Saracen’s away is a trip right into the lion’s den anyway but Munster’s task has got even less enviable prior to their Champions Cup semi-final showdown. Johann van Graan’s side will travel to Allianz Park depleted with key men Keith Earls and Joey Carbery ruled out […]

7 years ago

Waterford FC will not take this lying down. The FAI released a statement late on Thursday night to inform Waterford FC that they had been denied a licence to play European football in the 2019/2020 season. This rebuttal is a result of the Déise club not fulfilling the three year rule which is part of […]

7 years ago

One of the great free spirits of the game. Lar Corbett was one of Tipperary’s greatest ever forwards. On the first September Sunday of 2010, the Thurles Sarsfields slinger cemented his immortality in the annals of Premier County history. Three gorgeous goals, obliging the hopes and dreams of a whole county, bringing Liam McCarthy back […]

7 years ago

A gifted footballer weighed down by the chip on his shoulder. Nobody has ever doubted his talents but on a revealing night in the Sao Paulo stadium, Lorenzo Insigne’s shortcomings as a footballer looked clearer than ever. And it’s nothing to do with his abilities. For the last few years, many have wondered why this […]

7 years ago

There’s going to come a time when lads just won’t return. Lee Keegan and Aaron Gillane both played club championship games last weekend. Gillane has another one this Sunday but then that’s it. Patrickswell won’t be out again until the end of Limerick’s summer. Westport the same in Mayo. Going on both county’s form, that […]

7 years ago

Last year wasn’t an easy one for the Mayo ladies. Headlines and lots of attention – and very little of it for their football – but with that turbulent spell behind them, team captain Niamh Kelly insists that they’re a united group now and that the sideshow is well and truly behind them. “It was […]

7 years ago

Anna Farrell isn’t used to it like this. As far back as she can remember, sisters Shelly and Meighan have been by her side. Travelling to Kilkenny training, going to matches and on the pitch too; no matter where she looked, one of them was close by. The last few weeks have been strange in […]

7 years ago

It must be a dream to be a striker alongside a man like Kevin De Bruyne. There are few sure things in this life but when the Belgian genius gets on the ball, everybody knows that something is about to happen. The opposition defenders scurry backwards unsure of what to do. Forwards, like Sergio Aguero […]

7 years ago

Football, bloody hell. If you’d told Mauricio Pocchetino before the game that Spurs would have two away goals in the first ten minutes of the game, he’d probably have bitten your hand off at the thoughts. Ten minutes into Tottenham and City’s Champions League quarter final second leg and that little genius Son Heung-min was […]

7 years ago

With everyone else talking, Mayo were just content to get down to work. After winning the National League on the Sunday, most of the team were back to work on the Monday and they were training the Tuesday night. It may have been the county’s first piece of national silverware in 18 years but James […]

7 years ago

You’d wouldn’t have to go too far back to find Aaron Gillane hurling junior for Patrickswell. Six years in fact. Now not making his club’s senior panel is hardly a moment of bleak realisation for a 17-year-old, but it’s safe to say an underage sensation like Cian Lynch had no such stalls. “I wasn’t good […]

7 years ago

If ever there was a case for good nets… Andy Moran came up with the goods for Ballaghaderreen at the weekend, he usually does. But this time around, there were a few debates swirling about the legitimacy of his winning score. Ballagh looked beaten by Claremorris with the clock ticking in the Mayo senior championship […]

7 years ago

Patrickswell vs Doon and there’s skin and hair flying. It’s the first round of the Limerick senior hurling championship, it’s the first time for most of these lads to wear their club jerseys this year, it’s live on TG4, it’s a dog-dirty Sunday in Kilmallock, this is helter skelter hurling. There’s a rivarly here too. […]

7 years ago

Last season was a disappointing one for the senior footballers of St Maurs’, but they look intent on righting those wrongs this time around. A pair of one point defeats at the hands of Whitehall-Colmcille and Templeogue Synge Street defined 2018 for the Rush based club but they’ve begun the 2019 championship on a better […]

7 years ago

If you went to bed early last night, you missed out on a hell of a lot. Augusta, Georgia is the place to be this weekend with the US Masters finely poised going into moving day. Thursday didn’t disappoint, and neither did Friday with Tiger Woods surging up the leaderboard like he would have done […]

7 years ago

The game has changed. For as long as golf exists, the complaints and grievances have been upsides. It really has been a win-lose for broadcasters as no matter who or what they air, they’ll be criticised for not showing enough of somebody else. Show too much of Tiger and they’ll be accused of ignorance but […]

7 years ago

Now that would be a baptism of fire for the Waterford man. Luke Shaw endured a frustrating first half in Old Trafford on Wedneday night. Not only was the 23-year-old credited with an own goal, but he also received a yellow card for a trip on Lionel Messi early on in the game. That yellow […]

7 years ago

Real Madrid was no fluke. Juventus were played off the Johan Cruijff ArenA park. With an average age of just 24, this Ajax team are coming to their milk just about now but unfortunately, as is often the case with Holland’s most celebrated and mystical club, they won’t have too many more games all together. So […]

7 years ago

Adrian Mullen never had to stray too far for inspiration or advice. As a youngster growing up in Ballyhale, hurling legends were in every corner. Henry Shefflin was the main man, but dotted around the small parish in south Kilkenny you had men like James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick, TJ Reid and then his first cousins Michael […]

7 years ago

Every one of us begins a new year with ambitious targets, lofty goals and demanding aims. Most of us start well in January, but slip back into our comfort zones by February. Galway footballer Kieran Molloy is a different animal though. Come the second month of the year, he’s really hitting top speed and he’ll […]

7 years ago

Paul Hearty remembers a different world well. Kicking the ball as far as he possibly could was the name of the game and he’d have spent his days learning how to lamp it into another orbit. 60, sometimes 70 yards down the other end up until one day, when a brainwave from manager Joe Kernan […]

7 years ago

Pleasant Company was one of the more high profile fallers in Saturday’s Aintree Grand National. After hitting the 27th fence too hard, Malcolm Denmark’s 11-year-old took a stumble and sent jockey Paul Townend tumbling. Unscathed and still on his feet, God, if you’ve been listening to PETA, NARA or any of the rest of them, […]

7 years ago

Pat Shovelin will have been smiling down on a left peg like that one. A couple of weeks before his passing, the Donegal goalkeeping coach was told that it was only a matter of time. Cancer had caught up on him, there was nothing more that could be done. Shovelin, however, had more to do. […]

7 years ago

For one weekend and one weekend only. Literally. In Tipperary and in many counties all over Ireland, some clubs played their first round of the championship at the weekend and they won’t play their second until their county’s interest in the All-Ireland championship is finished. Some will get another game next weekend. They’re the lucky […]

7 years ago

It’s the most iconic steeplechase in the world. 40 horses, four and a quarter miles, 30 jumps, endless tips, excitement and chat. Whatever you do, follow your hunch, whether it’s a jockey, a trainer or a horse you like. Here’s our guide for finding that hunch.

7 years ago

Poke the bear and he will respond. The Belfast crowd booed Rob Cross from the moment ‘Hot Hot Hot’ blared over the SSE Arena Tannoys but the 28-year-old Pembury native was undeterred, inspired actually as he went onto roast Daryl Gurney and silence the home crowd with a piping display of darts. Amidst all the […]

7 years ago

It was LIT’s but now it’s UL’s. For a while, we thought we’d never see the day. A venue dispute had the 2019 All-Ireland freshers championship up in the air for the guts of three weeks but after the associations, the colleges and the players came to an agreement, the final between LIT and UL […]

7 years ago

Faugheen just didn’t feel right for Ruby Walsh. The Kildare pilot has had many memorable days in the saddle with Willie Mullins’ majestic 11-year-old, but Thursday wasn’t one of those and the fear is now that we may have seen the last of him on a racecourse. Only a couple of jumps in and with […]

7 years ago

The Ballyea senior hurlers were down a number of men going into the 2018 Clare senior hurling championship. Tony Kelly tells the story well. “From the All-Ireland final team that started (2016), we’re down seven,” said Kelly on TG4. “I think six of them are all under-25 which is a massive problem for us this […]

7 years ago

Owen Mulligan feels that this year’s All-Ireland football championship is more open than the majority think. A procession was what man feared at the beginning of the year with the Dubs apparently so far ahead of the rest. Slowly but surely though, from their O’Byrne Cup final loss to Westmeath to their League losses in […]

7 years ago

You could almost physically feel the momentum shifting. It was five minutes into the second half when the ball came to Tommy Walsh, 40 yards out and straight in front of the Mayo goals. He had a fair bit of time and the score – what a crucial one it would have been – looked […]

7 years ago

No better man to pull it off. It’s not too often you get a towering corner forward but David Clifford is no whippet pushing 6ft 2. So nippy, jinky and skilful, it’s easy to forget that the Fossa club man blends all of these technical qualities with a rangy physical presence. And that’s what sets […]

7 years ago

There is no better link-man in hurling. They say the best players make it look like they’ve an extra second on the ball, well Cian Lynch makes it look like he has all day. He’ll dip and he’ll dodge, he’ll drop the shoulder, he’ll wait until the defenders runs out of patience and then, just […]

7 years ago

Dan Leavy isn’t even three days injured but he’s already thinking about the way back. He’s going to miss out on the rest of Leinster’s season, he’s going to miss out on the World Cup too but if his career to date is anything to go by, this man will be back stronger than ever. […]

7 years ago

Mayo are back, Limerick are still going strong. At so many different moments in Mayo and Kerry’s League final, you just felt that Kerry had their number. Mayo started the better, but the Kingdom hit them for two sucker-punch goals within the space of five fist half-minutes. That would have broken a lesser team beyond […]

7 years ago

Limerick are the real deal. One-hit wonders they said, they’ll be caught next year. No chance of that as rather than resting on their laurels, the Limerick lads went out and became the first team in five years to follow up an All-Ireland win with a League title the following year. These boys mean business. […]

7 years ago