Every cloud and all that. Only for 2020 being so deranged, Killian Clarke may not have even spent the year in Cavan, never mind helping the county to their first Ulster Championship in 23 years. Go back to January of this year and holidays were in the works, plans were in the making as for […]

5 years ago

Get your kit on

5 years ago

Tipp and Cavan win… The provinces are saved! Gaelic football is alive! Or so they said… Former Dublin player and current Tipperary selector Paddy Christie has a different view on things, insisting that Tipp’s Munster final win over Cork was partly down to the momentum they’d gained along the way. Momentum they may not have […]

5 years ago

Here we go.

5 years ago

It was some night for Caoimhín Kelleher. Starring in Liverpool’s Champions League group stage win over Ajax, the Cork man became the first Irish player to play in the Champions League since 2016 – when Eoghan O’Connell played for Celtic against Barcelona – and indeed the first Irish goalkeeper ever to keep a clean sheet […]

5 years ago

You’re about to blitz your way to 15/20.

5 years ago

The road to Tipperary doesn’t get any shorter, but this isn’t the first time Paddy Christie has made the journey. Lorrha, the county’s most northerly parish, was like a second home for the Ballymun man growing up. His mother is a Lorrha native and with relatives in Borrisokane and in Nenagh too, the trip down […]

5 years ago

The first thing that strikes you about Darran O’Sullivan is the Kerryman’s deep passion for sport. His illustrious inter-county career has come and gone but that doesn’t mean he has left Kerry football behind him. Far from it in fact, O’Sullivan is a dyed in the wool Kerry supporter who almost a month on, is […]

5 years ago

Live by the sword, die by the sword. Ever since Eanna Murphy made a name for himself as Galway’s number one, distribution has been his forte. Low, drilled and pinpointed puck-outs are the name of the modern game and in terms of delivery men, Murphy is one of the most prolific around. Against Limerick, all […]

5 years ago

Austin Gleeson has to listen to a lot of rubbish. Yes, he was Hurler and Young Hurler of the Year at 20. Yes, he’s one of the most skilful aristocrats ever to have graced the hallowed turf. Yes, he’s had some bad days in the last couple of years. But Austin Gleeson is human, and […]

5 years ago

Galway 1-11 Tipperary 0-8 It’s a Galway-Kilkenny All-Ireland camogie final for the second year in a row. The Tribeswomen didn’t have it all their own way against a plucky Tipperary side, but a few glimpses of their free-running and free-wheeling best was enough to down a gallant Premier challenge, and to leave them one win […]

5 years ago

Kilkenny 2-10 Cork 1-11 Kilkenny are into their fifth All-Ireland final in the five years. A masterclass from Denise Gaule inspired Brian Dowling’s team past a spirited Cork side in what was a tremendous advertisement for camogie in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Cork started the better, and it has to be said, finished the better but […]

5 years ago

Get your groove on… The SportsJOE 12 o’clock quiz is putting on a show for you today. Go hard or go home!

5 years ago

Day 250 is dedicated to Diego Maradona.

5 years ago

All-Ireland final day 2008 isn’t an occasion the majority of Waterford people look back on with great fondness, but Stephen Bennett has only good memories. A seasoned campaigner at 12, the Ballysaggart youngster made his Croke Park debut on that very day in the half-time show against Kilkenny. “I was playing corner back for Waterford,” […]

5 years ago

Captain by name. Captain by nature. Conor Sweeney comes up trumps for Tipperary when it matters most. That’s just a fact of life. Through bad days and good, through wins and through losses, through the years and through the games, the sharpshooting Ballyporeen forward has consistently made big plays and kicked big scores for Tipperary. […]

5 years ago

Donegal and Dublin will be the game of the championship. Cavan did well to get there, but the jig is up now. All last week, Thomas Galligan was hearing about Donegal and how they were headed for bigger and better things beyond Ulster. How Cavan were just a warm-up game that Donegal would win handy, […]

5 years ago

You’d need a heart made of stone not to be shook by it. Tipperary had just won their first Munster title in 85 years and the camera turned to their manager David Power, who was looking up at the sky in disbelief. Raw emotion in his face, Tipperary football in his heart. Power isn’t one […]

5 years ago

Brought to you by WH After a summer’s rest, the stable stars are slowly filtering back out of the woodwork, and back onto the racetracks. Just in time for the heavy rain, the dull skies and most importantly, for the softer ground of winter. Suckers for punishment these lads, aren’t they? For the real blue […]

5 years ago

His head was cut. His hand was hurting. He’d just ran himself into oblivion over the course of 70 pulsating minutes. But nothing, nothing was going to stop Thomas Galligan from catching the million dollar ball that eventually led to the Ulster final winning goal. He attacked it like his life depended on it, he […]

5 years ago

Sport is an amazing thing. Do you know much about it?

5 years ago

Professional sport is a business, but this was a touch of genuine class. When Sydney Swans gave Colin O’Riordan his first professional contract five years ago, there was no condition of a Munster final appearance one November. No hint of the occasional trip home for a team and a game they had no reason to […]

5 years ago

Waterford 3-27 Clare 3-18 He turned on the style for Ballygunner and he’s turned Waterford into contenders again. The prodigal son came home just over a year ago and in Waterford they rejoiced. This lad will make the difference, they said. This lad is something special. They hadn’t much to go on but they’d seen […]

5 years ago

Galway 3-23 Tipperary 2-24 Galway and Tipperary brought the best out of each other once more and in the end, it took a late, great winner from corner back Aidan Harte to settle it. A former forward, the Gort club man showed his instincts of old to go for the jugular when the majority of […]

5 years ago

The score is on.

5 years ago

You’d be surprised the amount of people who think you’re stone mad just for playing hurling. Would you not be afraid some lad is going to chop your hand off with one of those sticks? It’s almost cringy and you laugh it off before trying to bring the conversation to an end. Ah, it’s not […]

5 years ago

Not for the first time in his career, Conor McGregor is set to return from retirement. Having opted out back in June, claiming he was ‘bored of the game,’ the Dubliner is returning to the Octagon on January 23 for a bout with American Dustin Poirier at UFC 257. The pair previously fought at UFC […]

5 years ago

Play every quiz like it’s your last.

5 years ago

Cycling took him to Sydney. It took him to Belgium. Gaelic football brings him to Pearse Stadium of a wet and windy Sunday. “I suppose it’s an individual sport, it can be quite lonely,” admits Anthony Murray, chairman of Covey Wheelers Westport cycling club. He thinks just now, of the cyclist Eoghan McLaughlin might have […]

5 years ago

Jamesie O’Connor had seen this coming. In conversation with the Clare legend last month, he let us know that Tony Kelly was on the move. Teaching alongside the Ballyea man in St Flannan’s, Jamesie could see first hand the mindset and indeed the work the 2013 Hurler of the Year was putting into his game. […]

5 years ago

Another day, another bunch of Ireland players bite the dust. It’s gotten to the stage now where it almost feels as if Irish football and everything to do with it, is cursed – both on and off the field. Off it, players have been falling by the wayside left, right and centre. Covid, injuries, suspensions, […]

5 years ago

Sorry about the punishment you’re about to endure.

5 years ago

There are only six teams left in the hurling championship and while Limerick would appear to be the strongest, there’s a lot of hurling to be done yet. Provincial champions Limerick and Kilkenny are sitting pretty with their semi-final places booked but for Tipperary, Waterford, Clare and Galway, there’s a quarter final to focus on […]

5 years ago

Kilkenny 2-20 Galway 0-24 They said he was past it. 32 years of age, his best days were behind him. Not on Richie Hogan’s barney. When Brian Cody called on his trusted lieutenant, Kilkenny were in a spot of bother. A point down with twenty five minutes to play, it wasn’t that Galway were out […]

5 years ago

Tipperary 2-18 Cork 1-17 The summer teams met in the winter elements. And in the end, it was the champions who gritted their teeth and came out on top. In Limerick, the weather was woeful. The rain was sheeting and the gale was howling. For Tipperary, Michael Breen was like a duck in water. The […]

5 years ago

Tee it up and send it home.

5 years ago

2020 was supposed to be Nicci Daly’s swansong. After a lifetime built around making it to the Olympic Games, she finally reached her promised land and Tokyo 2020 was to be her day in the sun. From there, she’d be content with her 190 caps for the Irish women’s hockey team and could, all going […]

5 years ago

Some games of Gaelic football make for a tough watch. Dawdling defenders and lateral hand-passes. Retreating forwards and restrictive systems. Slow ball. Boring game. Gaelic football is gone to the dogs you say, and with a shake of the head and a flick of the channels, you switch over to Burnley and West Brom on […]

5 years ago

Turn on the style.

5 years ago

We’ve all been there. You catch a glimpse of a goal that excites you, a set of highlights you want to re-live, a red card that you need to dissect. Time to settle down and analyse. Out of nowhere, you’re hit with this bummer. There’s nothing as frustrating. You can accept it in fairness, when […]

5 years ago

If anything shows the importance of the GAA in Irish culture, then this is it. 100 years to the weekend of the Bloody Sunday tragedy that took the life of Tipperary footballer Michael Hogan and 13 others in Croke Park, the Premier County’s footballers will wear a commemorative green and white jersey in their honour. […]

5 years ago

How in good God’s name could you make sense of that? Sport is riveting, it is wonderful and it is also cruel, so, so cruel. Just as they were setting their sights on a Munster final against Tipperary, Cork came from the blindside and they left Kerry on their knees. Down, out and disconsolate. Mark […]

5 years ago

Mayo 1-16 Roscommon 0-13 Five years without a Connacht title, Mayo are men on a mission in 2020. The O’Connors are sick of it, Paddy Durcan and Lee Keegan are sick of it, Aidan O’Shea is sick of being beaten in his own patch. Mayo were kings of Connacht, winning five-in-a-row between 2010 and 2015 […]

5 years ago

Make hay.

5 years ago

Get out there and have it large.

5 years ago

37 years young. 17 seasons putting it in. 77 games in the white heat. Ross Munnelly is a one-man stat-machine. When you think of Laois football, you think of Ross Munnelly. Back in the gold days of Micko and Leinster titles, he was the blonde bomber in the corner. It’s a different set-up now and […]

5 years ago

What you got?

5 years ago

Hand on heart, Davy Fitzgerald doesn’t know any other way. Say whatever you like about the Clare-man but dishonesty is one thing you couldn’t accuse him of. Good days and bad, Fitzgerald wears his heart on his sleeve and the same goes, it’s fairly clear, for his loyal lieutenant Lee Chin. Davy didn’t spare his […]

5 years ago

Limerick 3-23 Tipperary 2-16 Limerick march onto a Munster final and at this rate, it will take something special to stop them. John Kiely’s team put in a well-rounded performance to send Tipperary for the back door and to set up a Munster final meeting with Waterford in a fortnight’s time. A brace of goals […]

5 years ago

Donegal 1-13 Tyrone 1-11 The old 80 metre kick-out into a half forward’s path, sending them straight through on goal, you know the one? Shaun Patton is a law unto himself these days. Whether it’s a cannon under the shorts or a remote control engine in the ball, whatever he’s doing, he’s got it all […]

5 years ago