Eddie O’Sullivan isn’t in the business of keeping people happy. His is the business of telling the truth. Ireland bulldozed their way over a World Number 20 ranked Russia on Thursday morning in Kobe, Japan and former manager Eddie O’Sullivan, to put it lightly, wasn’t all that bowled over by what he’d seen. And that’s […]

6 years ago

Rotten, rotten luck. All Jordi Murphy wants to do is play. As soon as it became clear that he wasn’t first choice at Leinster, Jordi Murphy wasn’t content. He was on the move. Leinster’s pack at the time was unbreakable and this man wasn’t going to hang around. There was a chance at Ulster and […]

6 years ago

Nobody has been stung as much as Jack O’Connor. The Kerry under-20 manager for the last two years, both of those years have been overshadowed by two monumental losses. First, it was Sean O’Shea. 2017 was the year of change. It was then when the under-20 competition replaced the under-21 grade and with the drop-down […]

6 years ago

All over the country, managers are dreaming. The three man weave. They’ve been persisting with it for years to grunts and groans from their players. They haven’t bowed to the pressure. The whispers start and the heads shake. They’ve stayed loyal to their convictions. The manager is a dreamer. Admittedly, an ideal situation will be […]

6 years ago

Jack O’Connor just couldn’t stay away. A teacher of 30 plus years, his first year retired was meant to be about taking it handy. But that isn’t how this man operates. From winning three All-Irelands with Kerry in the noughties to dropping down to the minors and the 21s in more recent times, the GAA […]

6 years ago

It was the hurling that kept lads like Damien Hayes in Portumna. Work was elsewhere, commitments and distractions were all over the place but no member of this millennium’s most successful club team lived more than an hour away from Marian Park, Portumna. Tell you a good one. Damien Hayes and Ollie Canning won All-Stars […]

6 years ago

Rian Considine is still just 20 years of age. 20 years of age. It’s hard to believe it, when you consider that the dainty corner forward has been lighting up the Clare SHC for Cratloe for the last two years. But it’s come quicker to this lad than it does to most. Tipped for stardom […]

6 years ago

This should have been a special weekend for the Ballinkillen hurlers. Having not made it to a county senior semi-final in a number of years, their form this year brought them back to the big time. A couple of big results, a few big wins and they’d made it to the last four. Anything can […]

6 years ago

There were six Ballymun Kickhams players on the Dublin panel this year. On one of the greatest panels there ever was. John Small, James McCarthy and Dean Rock. Three of the most consistent players Gaelic football has been lucky enough to have over the last number of years. A warrior, the complete player and a […]

6 years ago

Luke Thompson could barely rise himself to walk off the Shizuoka Stadium pitch. It wasn’t one of those time-wasting, dilly-dallying ploys that you’d see in soccer. It was pure, genuine exhaustion and you could see it etched across the Japanese lock’s face. Every step took its toll at this stage. The man was out on his […]

6 years ago

From early doors, Ireland were in bother. The pack were breathing hard and stepping slowly. Their legs were heavy and their lungs were under siege. Our backs thundered into the game but from the 20th minute onwards, it was all out defence. And you can only play that kind of game for so long. Eventually, […]

6 years ago

There’s a man on fire in Japan. And the Japanese don’t have a breeze of how to cool him down. They should have probably known this was coming. By his standards, Garry Ringrose was quiet In Ireland’s first game of the 2019 Rugby World Cup against Scotland. His defence was pure textbook and he never […]

6 years ago

“It was my instinct and my intent to go at the game as soon as it started…” Ciaran Kilkenny was happy with his performance in the drawn game. But there was more to give. He’d set up scores, yes. He’d dictated the pace of the game too. But the Castleknock man is a forward. One […]

6 years ago

We all know who’s actually underrated now. Underrated is an over-used label. More often than not, ‘underrated’ players become overrated just because it’s said so much about them. The best players are barely ever underrated anyway. Not in this day and age. They’re the ones who stand out so much because of their jaw-dropping skills […]

6 years ago

45 of the very finest. The PwC All-Star football nominees are out and the debates are about to begin. 11 counties have players nominated for All-Stars in a list spearheaded by 13 Dubs and nine Kerry men. It’s hard to have much qualms with their sizeable representations. In the goals, thankfully, Shaun Patton’s flawless year was […]

6 years ago

‘Go live’ For Antrim people who weren’t at the Dub, that was the story of the night. The Antrim SFC semi-final replay between Lámh Dearg and Roger Casement’s Portglenone. The first day was heart-stopping. You know what you’re going to get here. At least you think you know. An 8.00 Thursday night throw-in, where else […]

6 years ago

“At the moment, Paul Pogba is that guy…” There’s always one, says Wes Brown. When he started out with Man United in 1996, Ryan Giggs was the player in the spotlight. Do something good and he’d be heralded to the heavens. George Best re-incarnated. But then, one mistake or one bad game and the jury […]

6 years ago

“Now, there’s a scoop for you” Twists and turns, swings and roundabouts. Peaks and troughs, highs and lows. Wexford hurling fans have experienced them all these last few months. And we’re not even talking about the hurling. Will Davy stay or will he go? Down in Wexford, they’re crazy about him. They need him. He’s […]

6 years ago

Nobody in Tipperary will forget. For a long time, all was quiet in Tipperary football. The tradition is rich, with four All-Irelands to their name. But the last of those came in 1920. Welcome to the lean years. From then on, hurling took over as football picked up second fiddle. The footballers have had their […]

6 years ago

Down in Wexford, they’re praying for a false alarm. Davy Fitz the messiah. Davy Fitz the saviour. Liam Dunne had them knocking but Davy Fitz banged the Leinster door down. 15 years of hurt were banished on the last Sunday in June and the Wexicans were hoping 2020 would bring with it another watershed. This […]

6 years ago

Tall tale. Mervue United Vs Dundalk in the Under-17 Irish Cup quarter final and the Galway side are on for a big one. 2-0 up with only a couple of minutes left. It’s a matter of running the clock down now. Ollie Neary has been in this position before. He’s played in these kinds of […]

6 years ago

Three reigning county champions were dumped out at the weekend. One club won their 38th senior title in a row while a GAA legend reminded every one of his class. It’s GAA JOE team of the weekend time. Club GAA is officially back. The All-Irelands are all over. It’s time to go back to the […]

6 years ago

Declan Bonner won a Donegal junior championship with Na Rossa back in 1982. That was the club’s first ever county title, and the precocious teenager was one of their key players. A whippersnapper 17-year-old back then, Bonner had it all ahead of him. Some 37 years on and plenty of water has gone under the bridge, […]

6 years ago

Now, it’s hotting up. County championships all over are reaching their closing stages and the big guns are coming to the fore. The weekend just past was a huge one from a club hurling perspective with giant killings and champions falling all over the place. It’s all summarised for you here. Kilkenny With the League […]

6 years ago

Oh we’ll take that for a start to Rugby World Cup 2019. A bruising defeat of a ragged Scotland side. A ravenous display of the hunger and the work-ethic that has Ireland ranked World Number One in the first place. And the best yet? None of the injuries picked up are all that serious. All […]

6 years ago

A ridiculous situation, but one that will continue to occur until something changes. Through no fault of their own, the Cuala camógs have been eliminated from the Dublin camogie championship. A do-or-die group stage clash v Naomh Mearnog but Cuala were given no option other than to concede a game. In the end, it had […]

6 years ago

Roy Keane has never been all that convinced by David De Gea in the Manchester United goals. And so the Spaniard joins a long list of United players who have failed to convince the Cork man. De Gea signed a four year contract extension at Manchester United during the week but Keane reckons it was […]

6 years ago

Funny thing is, Chris Farrell thought his Irish dream was over before it even started. A precocious talent up in Ulster, huge things were expected from when he was just a teenager. Farrell, the Fivemiletown thoroughbred was well able for the pressure. He made his Ulster debut at 18, everything going to plan, and for […]

6 years ago

Welcome to the World Cup, Scotland. Rory Best was near tears during the national anthem. A couple Scotsmen were in tears. The Yokohama stage was set. Ireland were ready. Joe Schmidt’s men were tuned into things from the word go. Jordan Larmour, under all that pressure coming into the game, was safe as a house […]

6 years ago

There was a meanness about Con O’Callaghan this summer. The military style buzz-cut, the bustling frame, the insatiable appetite to turn and drive at his man whenever he got his hands on that ball. That’s how it’s been from a young age according to the Cuala man, who picked up his Player of the Month […]

6 years ago

For the Mayo ladies, training takes on a very different meaning. With few jobs going within the county, the majority of players live away from home for work or for study. It could be Limerick, Galway or they could be as far out as Waterford or Dublin. For these players, the trip begins at four. […]

6 years ago

“If we have 56,000 people in Croke Park, there’s a lot of money there…” Lots of different things about women’s GAA are improving by the year. Attendances, training techniques, standards of play. But there are still some fundamental differences between the lads and the ladies game. Male inter-county players receive travelling expenses when they come […]

6 years ago

Sunday’s All-Ireland senior ladies football final was a bad game. And there’s no point in saying anything else. The standard of shooting was poor. There were more wide balls than there were scores. Handling was poor. The sight of a ball skidding out of hands was a common one. The conditions were poor too, but […]

6 years ago

The average age of the Kerry team that started the drawn All-Ireland final was just 24. Two of the starters are only 20 years of age (Clifford and O’Connor.) Two more are only 21 (Sean O’Shea and Jason Foley,) while Tom O’Sullivan is just 22. The majority of these lads – excluding O’Connor – got […]

6 years ago

Are you a fair weather fan or a diehard? Were you tuned in from the start of the provincial championships or did you just show up in Croke Park on final day? Enough of the talking, here’s the acid test.

6 years ago

You won’t see him fetching high balls but Eoin Murchan has made a sporting success story from a lower altitude. There’s more than one way to climb a mountain. And Murchan was destined for the summit as a prodigious juvenile in Na Fianna. He was part of the golden generation for the Mobhi Road club, […]

6 years ago

You’ll always hear them piping up. The team has just gotten hammered. Goals galore and points until they’re not even fun anymore but the proud corner back has something to say. His man didn’t score, he says. Don’t be laying the blame on my door. Cloud-cuckoo land is what you call it. Self-preserving doesn’t cut […]

6 years ago

While the majority of Dublin players sang and danced in the dressing room, Stephen Cluxton swept the floors. Five-in-a-row, a shoo-in for an All-Star, one of the greatest captains of all time, one of his greatest ever days. He’s down to brass tacks straight away. Stephen cluxton wins another All Ireland, still has a brush […]

6 years ago

When would a club team ever practice penalties? You have your free-taker who’s usually the penalty taker too and that’s their business. Might see them knocking about with a bag of balls before training. Honing and perfecting. It doesn’t just happen on the day. The art of the dead ball is a pressurised and refined […]

6 years ago

“And I mean this from my heart…” The more things change, the more they stay the same. He’s well past his prime, but Eoin Kelly still has something to offer for Mullinahone. And on Sunday, more than 20 years on from his Mullinahone debut and many glorious successes later, the club’s talisman gave them greatest […]

6 years ago

No Brian Fenton. No Paul Geaney. We know. Disgraceful, shocking and farcical stuff. A travesty. Who picked this? Hands up here, but please hear us out. This All-Star craic is a tough business. So many consistent performers, so many brilliant players. We’ve just had an incredible year of football. In the provinces, Jamie Brennan was […]

6 years ago

Liam Shinnick had a nickname for Aishling Moloney by the time she was 11. The Cahir chairman of 28 years, a coach for the majority of that quarter millennium. He’d seen plenty of brilliant young players pass through the most rising football club in Tipperary. But Moloney, from the day he first seen her with […]

6 years ago

15 of the finest. A brilliant year for football. Donegal, Kerry are among the teams that came of age but Dublin are still on a different level. They still reign supreme and it’s clear that they’re one of the greatest teams ever to have played the game. On Saturday’s date with destiny, they showed exactly […]

6 years ago

It’s easy forgotten that for 45 minutes, the 2019 All-Ireland senior football final was one of the highest quality affairs we’d seen all year. And that’s a fair achievement on All-Ireland final day, with the stakes, nerves and tension at their highest. Dublin were invincible for that period. Machines most of the time. Blue bloods […]

6 years ago

There seemed to be a special rule for Eoin Murchan. First half of the All-Ireland senior football final and it’s hot and heavy, it’s helter skelter. Every loose ball is hunted down. Every break is harassed and harried. This was intense stuff. But Eoin Murchan was in a world of his own. While Geaney, Clifford, […]

6 years ago

Killian, Adrian, Tadhg and Gavin were only young lads at the time so they wouldn’t really have understood. Tadhg Morley was the first of them. In with the Kerry development squads. The people of Templenoe began to hear good things. It hit them like a ray of light. For years let’s not forget, it was […]

6 years ago

In Templenoe, they’ve seen enough and experienced enough to know that worrying is a pointless exercise. The late 90s and the mid 2000s were bad. The lean years, as men like Timmy Clifford and Mike Crowley like to call them. Back then, this half parish in South Kerry struggled to field teams. Dropped down to […]

6 years ago

Let’s walk a mile in Galway’s shoes for a second. A taxing slog takes you to 40 minutes. Your six defenders have been under siege for every second of the 40. Noelle Healy pressing and probing. Lyndsey Davey dropping and creating. Carla Rowe shooting. Niamh McEvoy going straight for you. Jennifer Dunne doing a bit […]

6 years ago

It could have been soccer, tennis or even the AFL but the GAA is in Aishling Moloney’s blood. Her dad steeped in it with the Cahir Slashers, her club building something special from when she was young. She’s a brilliant camogie player too you know. Played for Tipperary at under-14s and scored five from play […]

6 years ago

In a replay, it comes down to a game of reactions. Who learned the most from the drawn game? Who adapts the best to what they had seen? A brilliant stat did the rounds this week and it summed up the value of change on the second day out. Michael Fitzsimons, Dublin. John Power, Kilkenny.  […]

6 years ago