There was despair in Crossabeg/Ballymurn when, after 12 years as a senior hurling team, they sank down to intermediate in 2000. Looking back on the heady days of the 90s they thought things were going to get better until before they knew it, things were getting worse. It didn’t seem that long ago that they […]

4 years ago

Katie McCabe won her second player-of-the-match in a row on Tuesday night so her team-mate and partner Ruesha Littlejohn felt it was time to take her down a peg or two. “Who’s picking these man-of-the-matches,” said the Glaswegian, who qualifies to play for Ireland through her maternal grandparents. “Is it Katie’s mum?” The truth is, […]

4 years ago

Jonathan Daniels found it hard to drag the Blessington boys from the pub when they won the county final because, as a Blessington man, as a man who’d suffered the same as they’d suffered, he didn’t want this feeling to end either. So they did four days on the beer and he let them at […]

4 years ago

He had the breakfast eaten and the dancing shoes on as, a day after winning the double with Loughmore-Castleiney, Noel McGrath was on his way to the pub. It’s a big weekend next weekend but that’s then and this is now. Wednesday will be time enough to pick up the footballs again and it’ll be […]

4 years ago

Loughmore-Castleiney 2-14 Thurles Sarsfields 2-13 Not one man took a step back in a Tipperary county final that, through heart, guts and sheer determination, Loughmore-Castleiney endured to win by the narrowest of margins. The first half was a cagey affair but by the time referee John McCormack blew his final whistle to signal that this […]

4 years ago

Ballygunner 3-20 Ballyea 2-6 The Ballyea fans threw a flare onto the pitch for a finish but, in the absence of Tony Kelly, that was the only spark they managed during this one-sided Munster club hurling quarter final. These teams played out a thriller in this competition three years ago but with Kelly on the […]

4 years ago

When he became Clough Ballacolla hurling manager, it meant that, for the first time in his life, Declan Laffan was involved with a club that wasn’t Loughmore-Castleiney. They say it’s hard to be a prophet in your own land but in Loughmore, Laffan made a good go of it. He took over his native club’s […]

4 years ago

It was an early start and a late finish for Ken Hogan on Sunday, when he famously won two county finals in the one day. He let out a few yelps when the Lorrha camogie team won the Tipperary Junior B camogie title on Sunday morning but, with his St Rynaghs side playing in the […]

4 years ago

Tullamore were within kicking distance of a semi-final, only for their Leinster dream to be cruelly ripped from their grasp. They had done the hard part, in surviving an injury-time scramble and when the ball broke to their defender, with four minutes of injury time played and with a two point lead, you could hardly […]

4 years ago

Austin Stacks 2-9 St Brendan’s 1-12 (Stacks win 5-3 on penalties) The Star was never going to miss. Austin Stacks are through to their first Kerry senior football final since 2014, after the evergreen Kieran Donaghy kicked the winning penalty that brought them back. For large parts, it was a dour, low-scoring affair as Stacks […]

4 years ago

Eoin Murphy’s voice is gone but that’s only a small price to pay. He called it the best day of his life when, last Sunday, Glenmore won the Kilkenny intermediate championship and became a senior club for the first time since 2005. That he was playing alongside his brothers Shane and Alan made it all […]

4 years ago

She wasn’t even on the field that day but she didn’t have to be. Because in all her life as a GAA player, Anne Eviston has never experienced anything like Loughmore-Castleiney’s one point defeat to Kiladangan in the 2020 Tipperary senior hurling final. She wasn’t playing but her brother was. Her cousins were and looking […]

4 years ago

Eoin Finnerty had the easiest training session of his life on Tuesday. The trip seemed shorter, the night seemed brighter and, with last Sunday’s memories still dancing in the air, he walked in on a dressing room full of smiling faces. Sunday’s game. Monday’s session. It was a cold November night in the west of […]

4 years ago

Some sportspeople are guarded and don’t give much away, which is fine, but the first thing you’d notice about Tom Lahiff is that this man is cool as a breeze. You ask him about his breakthrough year with Dublin, he tells you there’s more to come. You ask him about the disappointment of losing to […]

4 years ago

It’s a real eye-opener that, due to a history of hamstring trouble, Niall Deasy is unable to do the required training to be a Clare senior hurler and that’s why, as of last year, he’s dropped himself off the panel. He scores all around him for Ballyea, he catches puck-outs, wins possession and dominates club-games […]

4 years ago

It was a huge blow to the game in 2021 when, with the pandemic upsetting the whole thing, the Camogie association failed to garner a sponsor for the 2021 All-Ireland camogie championships. Previously supported by Liberty, the insurance company pulled out in 2020 which left the blue riband competition of the camogie calendar without a […]

4 years ago

Ted Walsh maintains he was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, after being present during the raid of a farm in Kildare last Tuesday. The farm in question, located near Monasterevin, was under investigation by Gardaí as well as Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board authorised officers before they raided the place last week. […]

4 years ago

It’s peak club season, with county finals taking place left, right and centre, and this was another jam-packed weekend that didn’t disappoint. The story of the day was certainly in Galway, where after years of heartache and near misses, Mountbellew Moylough seized the day to beat a Corofin team who look like they have reached […]

4 years ago

Not an over-reaction but a measured prediction. If the Dublin hurlers are to win an All-Ireland in the next ten years, then Sean Currie will have played a huge part. It might seem dramatic and over-the-top, especially when you consider that he hasn’t yet played a championship game for his county, but on a Saturday […]

4 years ago

In one of his first moves as Tipperary senior hurling manager, Colm Bonnar has brought back the inter-divisional trial tournament known as the Miller Cup. Bonnar made it clear, as soon as he was appointed as manager, that he would look in “every corner of the county” for Tipperary hurlers and by giving this tournament […]

4 years ago

Players want games so for the dual men of Loughmore-Castleiney, this is exactly what the doctor ordered. It’s been a busy time for them as, since the first weekend of August when the curtain was pulled on the Tipperary club championships, they’ve played every weekend since. This Sunday they are taking on Thurles Sarsfields in […]

4 years ago

Naas 0-14 Sarsfields 0-12 Managers…who needs them? It’s not too often you’ll hear of a club winning a county title without having a manager on the line but Naas have managed just that. After surviving a late Sarsfields rally, the long-starved people of Naas could celebrate a first county championship in 31 years after their […]

4 years ago

Ballyhale Shamrocks 3-19 O’Loughlin Gaels 3-15 The problem with Ballyhale Shamrocks is that they have you every way. You stop one bullet and they’ll find another. If you’d told Andy Comerford this morning that his O’Loughlin Gaels full-back line would only concede one point score to Colin Fennelly, Eoin Cody and Eoin Reid then he’d […]

4 years ago

There are many note-worthy stats about Eamonn Callaghan, and Naas GAA PRO and historian Liam McManus reels them off at will, but there is none as startling as the one that tells you he has played inter-county football against every county in the country. Even Kilkenny. “Believe it or not he played against Kilkenny in […]

4 years ago

If you were a St Mary’s Aghagallon person then waking up yesterday morning you would have felt sick. Sick to the core that, just as the dust began to settle on the sweetest win in your club’s living memory, it looked like it was all about to be taken away from you. From almost touching […]

4 years ago

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Niall McNamee hadn’t enjoyed his finest hour in a Rhode jersey but doesn’t that just say it all. The chips were down but, with the stakes at their highest, the Offaly icon was still showing for the ball and he was still probing for his opportunity. It was a […]

4 years ago

GAA players are more prone to ‘binge-drinking’ than their non-playing peers, according to a recent GPA survey. 717 current inter-county GAA players took part in the survey, organised by a team of researchers from universities and hospitals, with 93% revealing that they have engaged in ‘binge drinking.’ While that sounds very alarming, it might surprise […]

4 years ago

Naomh Conaill 0-11 Kilcar 0-8 It was wet, it was windy and after an hour of cagey football in O’Donnell Park, Letterkenny, it all exploded into life for a finish. That was when, with the game seemingly beyond their grasp, Kilcar threw the kitchen sink at Naomh Conaill and almost came away with a miracle. […]

4 years ago

Like ducks and the rain, Lee Keegan thrives in the rough and tumble. The same could be said for his Mayo team-mate Padraig O’Hora so it’s hardly any surprise then that, with one smiling and the other a study of focus and intensity, both men absolutely loved it when they collided during Saturday’s Mayo SFC […]

4 years ago

In many ways, Cian Lynch was born for days like these. He was just seven years of age when, back in 2003, he had his first experience of county final Sunday. He was too small to fill out the Patrickswell kit he was wearing and he was too young to appreciate the occasion fully but […]

4 years ago

There is no love lost between Kilcar and Naomh Conaill and long story short, things started to turn icy around August 2021. With Covid having put the 2020 county final on the long finger, it was only a couple of months ago when the decider took place but that was far from the only unusual […]

4 years ago

When Shane Walsh talks, your job simplifies. In fact, interviewing him on Tuesday was so far removed from your traditional media gig that, for half an hour, this job has never been easier. Wind him up and just let him off. The going was standard when this journalist started out with a question about Galway’s […]

4 years ago

Davy Fitzgerald’s involvement in inter-county hurling is set to extend to a 36th year, when, this Wednesday night, he’s set be announced as the new Galway senior hurling manager. The Clare Echo have brought the news, with the local paper having it that Fitzgerald, along with a Clare-based management team of Louis Mulqueen and Mike […]

4 years ago

All-Ireland Champions Galway lead the way on this year’s Camogie Association All-Stars shortlist, with 12 Tribeswomen nominated. Runners-up Cork are next best with 10 nominations, while players from six counties in total, across each of the four provinces, are in with a chance of winning one of the top awards in the game. Players from […]

4 years ago

Preparation has hardly been ideal for the Naas footballers as, for the first time since 1991, they’re aiming to make it back to the Kildare senior final. Just one hurdle stands between them and a place in the decider yet as they look ahead to this Saturday’s county semi-final against Maynooth, they look ahead in […]

4 years ago

Ballinamore Sean O’Heslins 1-16 Mohill 0-17 On a beautiful Sunday in Carrick-on-Shannon, Ballinamore Sean O’Heslins rose to the occasion to end 30 years of hurt and for the first time since 1990, to bring the Leitrim senior football championship home. Once the kingpins of Leitrim football, the club have endured their their fair share of […]

4 years ago

He’s 46 years of age, he owes his club nothing…but Brendan Cummins still has more to give. It was last weekend, with his club mired in the pits of a relegation battle, when the Ballybacon Grange stalwart wrote another chapter in the book that goes on forever. It sounds like more of a fantasy than […]

4 years ago

Cork were losing the 2019 All-Ireland under-20 final by nine points, with just 11 minutes played, when their centre back Sean Meehan ran into the team’s goalkeeper Josh O’Keeffe. ‘Tea and toast’ he said to him, ‘next ball.’ O’Keeffe had been at fault for the goal that gave Dublin their 1-6 to 0-0 lead but […]

4 years ago

There were emotional scenes in Derry last night as, having beaten Newbridge with a late-winner, the Bellaghy players and mentors ran into their bereaved son Declan Brown who, after burying his father that morning, came on as a sub to help his club over the line. It was a team pulling together, it was a […]

4 years ago

There were some disappointing scenes in Wicklow at the weekend as, with tempers fraying and rationale out the window, the county under-15D final between Carnew and Kilcoole was marred by an unsavoury row that, above all else, set a terrible example for the young players watching on. We’ve all seen the video at this stage […]

4 years ago

Gearoid Loughnane was the last gasp hero for Loughrea, as his stunning penalty save kept his club alive in the Galway senior hurling championship. You can almost imagine the throat-cutting tension that swept through Duggan Park Ballinasloe as, with injury-time up, with the penalty given and with only one more puck left, the supporters of […]

4 years ago

Chiedozie Ogbene was just 18 years of age but it was decision time. He had just scored 1-2 for Nemo Rangers in their drawn county final but as a Cork City player, he was put on the spot a week later when the under-21 A football final replay clashed with a League game against UCD […]

4 years ago

After defeating Deontay Wilder for a second time, Tyson Fury called himself the ‘generational fighter,’ before claiming to feel sorry for all of the other heavyweights of his era. It was a thriller of a bout between Fury and his Alabaman rival in Las Vegas but as was the case when the pair last met […]

4 years ago

It’s the hottest debate in the GAA right now and on Thursday’s GAA Hour Show, with both sides getting their say, it was trashed out blow for blow. In Colm Parkinson, the league-based All-Ireland Football Championship has one of its foremost backers in the sense that the Portlaoise man claims he was the first to […]

4 years ago

Each of the 15 Limerick players who started the 2021 All-Ireland final have been nominated for All-Star awards, as the Treaty aim to surpass their own record of nine awards, achieved last year. To underline that domination even further, the Hurler of the Year award is also guaranteed to go Shannonside with team-mates Kyle Hayes, […]

4 years ago

You only had to watch her post-fight interview to see that, through the tears, the stops and the deep breaths, this was the most disappointing moment of Katie Taylor’s career. It was raw, it was numb, it was the quarter-final of the women’s lightweight division at the Rio Olympics and, having been beaten by Finish […]

4 years ago

Stephen O’Keeffe, it seems, has never been too fond of the limelight. Have a look for a feature, a press-gig or a television appearance of his and, well, aside from the odd interview in the local paper, you’ll be a long time looking. It was in the build-up to last year’s All-Ireland semi-final between Waterford […]

4 years ago

Conn Kilpatrick has opened up about a crippling gambling addiction that saw him amass debts of over £10,000 on two separate occasions. The All-Ireland winning midfielder is now clean, having not placed a bet in almost three years but as he hauled himself back over the coals on Claire Byrne Live on RTÉ on Monday […]

4 years ago

“The knee is very good. The top priority has been getting that right.” Disaster struck for Pauric Mahony in 2020 when, two weeks out from the first round of the Munster championship, the Ballygunner club-man tore his cruciate ligament in a challenge game against Wexford. It’s the nightmare scenario for every sports-person and for Mahony, […]

4 years ago

It was less than an hour before a knock-out championship game and with the rain bucketing down above them, there were the Portlaoise seniors, huddled in tight, getting togged out under the shelter of a gutter. When is this joke going to end? Their opponents St Joseph’s weren’t so lucky as, with the O’Moore Park […]

4 years ago