Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger showed a complete lack of respect to a pair of rules officials at the Ryder Cup on Saturday afternoon. “If I break my wrist, it’s on f***ing both of you,” said the notoriously confrontational Koepka, as he aggressively and unflatteringly attempted to barge his way to a free drop from […]

4 years ago

The Ballysaggart and De La Salle players were out on the pitch warming up when, in a cruel twist of fate, the lights at Fraher Field started twitching. They came back, they went again and after an evening of uncertainty in Dungarvan, the Waterford senior hurling championship relegation play-off was eventually postponed for another day. […]

4 years ago

If it wasn’t for Covid, Zach Tuohy would last year have been stuck in the middle of the famous AFL Grand Final parade. That’s a tradition, put-up with by players and adored by fans, where the competing teams parade through the streets on the eve of the AFL grand final. It’s a different world, we […]

4 years ago

It was 2016 in Hazeltine, Minnesota when, with the adrenaline of the Ryder Cup pumping through his veins, the world saw a different side to Rory McIlroy. It was a confrontational, fired-up scene as, not only did the Down man try to beat Patrick Reed, he tried to beat the American crowd too during one […]

4 years ago

There were shades of Brian Corcoran circa. 2004 in last Sunday’s Carlow senior hurling final as, having dropped to his knees, Mount Leinster Rangers forward Jon Nolan stuck one straight over the bar. It was a tremendous piece of skill from the corner forward who, after being taken out of it by his marker, used […]

4 years ago

The Meath ladies footballers had tunnel-vision this year, their minds and hearts set on their county commitments and this single-mindedness, according to Vikki Wall had a key part to play in the team’s success. Dunboyne is where the heart is for this inspirational centre forward but in this day and age, and with the demands […]

4 years ago

Having lost an All-Ireland final in 2018, Kieran McGeary has an idea of the hurt and despair being experienced by Mayo’s class of 2021 right now. An idea is all it is because, as McGeary says himself, losing one is no comparison to losing two, three or even seven finals, as some of Mayo’s vanquished […]

4 years ago

Andrew Trimble didn’t know up from down, he didn’t know his left from his right but when he was told to gather up his own puke and put it in his pocket, he did know that he’d be best off doing what he was told. It’s one thing, facing down a New Zealander, an Australian […]

4 years ago

It’s hard to believe it, when you consider that the last of the inter-county finals only threw-in at the weekend, but in varying corners of the country county finals are already upon us. Wexford, Carlow and Kerry didn’t hang around and so, before the majority of counties have reached the quarter final stages, it’s county […]

4 years ago

Niall Morgan was 21, he was cock-a-hoop and looking ahead to his first championship game for Tyrone, he had no fear. He could see no reason for it. The League was his first experience of inter-county football and having won man-of-the-match against Donegal, having gone well in the final against Dublin, ahead of a trip […]

4 years ago

There are moments as a spectator when, exceeding all the chaos and madness and excitement for a second, a player just beats all and stuns you into silence. These are the moments that, in walking out the gate with the game lighting up your mind, in chatting to the person next to you or in […]

4 years ago

It’s a ruthless old game these days. Full of recommendations, sub-committees and talk about terms and contracts. Peter Keane was given a three year contract when he was appointed as Kerry manager at the start of 2018. That contract has now ended and if you were to read between the lines of an unusual Kerry […]

4 years ago

Galway 1-15 Cork 1-12 The ball hadn’t even been thrown-in but Aoife Donohue was already face-flat in the grass, nursing a dunt in the back. Aishling Thompson had just nailed into her and if Donohue didn’t know before, as she got back to her feet gingerly, she certainly knew then that this was going to […]

4 years ago

It was an un-settling build-up to the All-Ireland senior camogie final for both teams with Cork only finding out in the late hours of Saturday night that Orla Cronin was free to play. Cork’s centre forward received a red card in the semi-final for striking Grace Walsh but having exhausted every avenue of appeal and […]

4 years ago

Orla Cronin is free to play in this Sunday’s All-Ireland camogie final in nothing short of farcical circumstances. A last minute and absolutely mind-boggling ‘stay of suspension’ means that, having failed in her appeal to the camogie association during the week, Cronin, who was red carded for striking Kilkenny’s Grace Walsh in the semi-final, will […]

4 years ago

It’s a strange sight, you’d have to say, to see only one Dublin footballer making a team of the year but this was a strange year. It was the year of Gaelic football’s ‘great disruptors’ as Tyrone, yet again, came from an un-fancied position to win their fourth All-Ireland ever and their fourth of this […]

4 years ago

When Darren McCurry scored Tyrone’s second goal and put them five points clear with 12 minutes to go, all looked lost for Mayo. They had come back from a similar margin against the Dubs but lightning rarely strikes twice and without ever lighting up this final, they looked like a beaten docket again. But then […]

4 years ago

The Dazzler is back, there’s no doubt about that. As he talked about the perfect day, as he soaked in the roars from the stands, he had just been named man-of-the-match in the All-Ireland senior football final and never has a man seemed so content with life. All the while, a tear was never too […]

4 years ago

Life in the goals can be a cruel station and nobody knows it better than Robbie Hennelly. One mis-step, after all, was all it took for his 2016 All-Ireland final replay to turn into a living nightmare which, you suspect, will only truly be forgotten about if this Saturday goes well. It’s been five long […]

4 years ago

The All-Ireland semi-final was a strange one for Cork camogie captain Linda Collins in that, having been dropped from the team to the bench, she can’t have been too happy with how it started but less than an hour and a half later, couldn’t have been happier with how it finished. Good things come to […]

4 years ago

Brian Kerr isn’t overly impressed by the Stephen Kenny revolution. That much is clear. Maybe it was a leap of faith, maybe it was just a misconception but given their comparable backgrounds as League of Ireland managers, as Ireland underage bosses and as advocates of a possession-based game, from a punditry perspective, the suspicion was […]

4 years ago

The minute he said it, you looked up at the screen to do a double-take, and then he said the same thing again. It was Mick Bohan’s pre-match interview on TG4 and he wasn’t talking about Dublin, Meath or the All-Ireland ladies football final. The Dublin ladies football manager talked instead about the Limerick hurlers, […]

4 years ago

Breda Maguire is a school-teacher in county Cavan. She rushed out of Corlough national school on Monday evening, hit the road home to Ballyconnell and then turned on the television to watch the Solheim Cup. Friends and family had been in and out of the house all weekend, it hadn’t been as busy in years, […]

4 years ago

So as not to reveal her age, Sarah Dervan tells little about her first All-Ireland final experience but as she talks about early days and teenage dreams, it’s not the age that stops you. That the teak tough Mullagh defender was there in 2008, when Galway lost to Cork, and that she’s still here now, […]

4 years ago

What you see is what you get with Vikki Wall. It could be that, on the day after winning an All-Ireland final as player-of-the-match, it’s easy to be relaxed and it’s easy to be straight up but if you know anything about Meath’s centre forward, if you’ve even just watched her play a game of […]

4 years ago

Emma Duggan meant it…of course she did. Having shot the lights out in the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork, Emma Duggan has, on the biggest stage of all, picked up from exactly where she left off. To have a chance in this All-Ireland final, you felt that Meath would need to settle well and settle fast […]

4 years ago

Dillon Matthews took off like a wild hyena, hitting the Cusack Park pitch in spots and if you thought he was going to slow down, if you thought he was going to pull the hand-brake or even lay it off, you had another thing coming. The Mullingar Shamrocks corner back scored what they’re calling one […]

4 years ago

The rules of golf are comprehensive, they are far-ranging and they are, at times, a little bit crazy. Even the cattiest observer would struggle to find fault in what Madelene Sagstrom did on the 13th hole in Toledo, Ohio, on Sunday but golf officials are catty by their very nature. Missy Jones just lived up […]

4 years ago

If ever he’s training and he’s down a football or two, St Peter’s Dunboyne manager Brendan Quinn knows where to look. He’s gotten the call so many times at this stage that it barely even registers but who else could it be? To take frees, to practice shooting, to perfect her passing, Emma Duggan was […]

4 years ago

Brought to you by Horse Racing Ireland 6.00 in the morning and Jack Davison is up and at it. Along with his team at Killarkin Stud in Dunboyne, Davison has around 25 horses to feed, to train, to wash and to guide through the day. It’s taken a whole load of graft to get here, […]

4 years ago

Seamus O’Shea would only love it, for the buzz to be building, for the nerves to be tingling, for the chance to play in another All-Ireland final for Mayo. But that was never going to happen, not on his body’s watch, and while that’s not the way he would want it, it does make a […]

4 years ago

Kieran McGeary is in sensational form. Some might say he’s in Footballer of the Year form. In years gone by, you might have seen the Pomeroy Plunketts club-man as a spoke in the wheel or a mere link in the chain but, at 27 and in the prime of his life, a swashbuckling season in […]

4 years ago

It’s exactly what it says on the tin.

4 years ago

Like many of the great managers, one thing’s clear about John Kiely and that’s that he has no airs or graces about himself. He’s not an attention-seeker, it’s all about the team – that much is abundantly clear in any interview he does – and with his selfless mindset, he has inspired the greatest hurling […]

4 years ago

For a second, Niall O’Leary must have thought to himself ‘lovely! straight into my trap, I have ya now!’ Because in fairness to the Castlelyons corner back, Peter Casey threw his customary shimmy but like a man who’d done nothing in the last two weeks only video analysis, this number two wasn’t buying it. He’d […]

4 years ago

There are three certainties in life and the third one is that someone is going to be unhappy about the All-Star hurling team. He should be on instead of him and that lad wouldn’t pick his nose! It’s only a matter of time before the critics are out in their droves and going on past […]

4 years ago

Limerick 3-32 Cork 1-22 After beating Cork by 16 points, Limerick have become back-to-back All-Ireland hurling champions for the first time ever. It was men against boys in Croke Park and, disappointing and depressing as it sounds, this All-Ireland final was over by the 25th minute when Cian Lynch scored the point that put his […]

4 years ago

Seamus Flanagan didn’t lick it off the ground. Ask anyone about his father and, as far as hurling goes anyway, they’ll tell you the same things about Johnny as they’d have told you about Seamus. A hardy operator they’ll say. Teak tough. Well able to hurl. Johnny is a farmer, cows, sheep, cattle, you name […]

4 years ago

All the talk has been about Cork’s lightning forwards but from the top to the tail of this season, Tommy Walsh has been just as impressed by their steadfast defence Mark Coleman’s brilliance is so consistent at this stage that it’s almost a given but when the Rebels needed leaders in their All-Ireland semi-final defeat […]

4 years ago

Are Dublin going through an identity crisis or was their All-Ireland semi-final loss to Mayo a rare-blip in the machine? As a continuation of the monotonous, risk-free and lifeless football that has categorised their year, Colm Parkinson, Ger Brennan and Aaron Kernan agree that there’s more to Dublin’s downfall than ‘just a bad day at […]

4 years ago

He’s 31 years of age, he’s ten years on the job but Lee Keegan is still going as strong, as fast and as powerful as he was in his mid twenties. After yet another swashbuckling display against Dublin, Aaron Kernan has called the Westport man the best half back he’s ever seen in his life. […]

4 years ago

Colm Parkinson and Ger Brennan feel that John Small has been done a dis-service by the images that have done the rounds since his Croke Park collision with Eoghan McLaughlin. The images in question show Small’s elbow rising to meet McLaughlin’s jaw but as Brennan and Parkinson point out on the GAA Hour, Small’s elbow […]

4 years ago

Lee Keegan and Dublin? It’s a match-made in heaven, or hell, depending on what way you look at it. The minds turns to the 2020 All-Ireland final when, having been laid out by a Mick Fitzsimons shoulder, Keegan was winded and he was breathless on the Croke Park turf. The play moved on, the ball […]

4 years ago

Kevin McStay has rowed back from his commentary of Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final, when he suggested that John Small’s hit on Eoghan McLaughlin was a legitimate one. “I have to say, from this distance, it looked pretty okay,” said the Mayo-man, as he stood in the Croke Park stands alongside Darragh Moloney on co-commentary duty. In […]

4 years ago

Five points down with only seven minutes to go, most players would have taken their beating and they’d have said to hell with it. From the minute it left his boot, Robbie Hennelly’s free was destined for nothing else other than a wide-ball but Diarmuid O’Connor saw things differently. In fairness, from the day he […]

4 years ago

The All-Ireland senior football championship was on Saturday turned upside down by the news that Tyrone will not be able to fulfil next weekend’s semi-final fixture against Kerry. Crucially, the statement didn’t act as an outright forfeit of the game, Tyrone honing in on ‘next Saturday’ and not straying anywhere beyond that. Obviously, it’s the […]

4 years ago

Let’s get ready to rumble. It’s hard to believe it but of the 15 Mayo players who started in the 2017 All-Ireland final against Dublin, only four of them – in Lee Keegan, Aidan O’Shea, Paddy Durcan and Kevin McLoughlin – will start in tonight’s All-Ireland semi-final against the same opposition. For Dublin, eight players […]

4 years ago

Conal Keaney reckons that, at the moment, club hurling is being refereed in a much stricter, by the book fashion than its inter-county counterpart. This inconsistency, the former Dublin player says, is leading to confusion among players and managers and ultimately, a more stop-start, card-dominated game. Keaney retired from the inter-county game this off-season but […]

4 years ago

It takes a special player to play not one year, not two years but three years on a county minor team. From the moment Brendan Maher first wore a Tipperary jersey as a fifteen-year-old, there has always been something special about the Borris-Ileigh club-man. Along with his right hand men Paudie Maher and Seamus Callanan, […]

4 years ago

If blood is thicker than water then it can’t have been easy for Kieran Kingston, head against heart, to drop his son Shane for Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny. In light of that, GAA Hour pundit Paul Murphy has praised the Cork manager’s integrity, his honesty and the principles that convinced him to make a […]

4 years ago