The idea was that the absence of Diarmuid Connolly was supposed to strip Dublin of a vital source of flair. Well, Niall Scully is more than a reliable ball-player and a tireless worker. Niall Scully has skill, pace, audacity and nerve. Donegal were giving Dublin the test the whole country wanted to see the All-Ireland […]

8 years ago

The All-Ireland quarter-final off the back of those monstrous provincial groups. Except, at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, it felt nothing like knockout hurling. It felt nothing like the last eight. It was as if this wasn’t two counties 70 minutes from the semi-finals. As Wexford and Clare did battle to take themselves closer to Liam MacCarthy, […]

8 years ago

Mayo ladies manager Peter Leahy has released a statement about the controversy that has surrounded the panel this week. 12 footballers left the squad this week, just days before their championship opener with Cavan, but the reasons for their departure weren’t made clear. In a statement from the women who walked out, they highlighted ‘personal […]

8 years ago

The 2018 Word Cup, please don’t leave. Of all the thrills and spills and love and hate and drama and beauty thrown up from one of the finest tournaments of all time, Roy Keane on ITV will still prevail as a lasting memory too. From the very first week, he was sat in a room […]

8 years ago

It was Aodhán O’Donnell’s birthday on Tuesday. 20. He would’ve turned just 20 years of age. It’s such a short space of time to be given on this earth and yet here’s a young man who lived every minute of it and lit up everyone else’s lives along the way. He was a fierce Gael. […]

8 years ago

There’s a legendary swim that takes place every year and starts on this very island. They call it the North Channel Challenge. From Donaghadee, just south of the Belfast lough, swimmers take off on a 35km trek across hazardous waters and all the way to Portpatrick in Scotland. The fastest it’s ever been done is […]

8 years ago

But The People’s Game still prevailed in the end. RTÉ released the viewing figures for the midweek World Cup semi-final and it’s safe to say that there’s an awful lot of people on this island who love the prospect of England failure. Over one million Irish people tuned into RTÉ on Wednesday night to see […]

8 years ago

Slowly but surely, this country is making a serious name for itself on the track. The renowned Gina Apke-Moses continues to light up the athletics world and, on Thursday evening, she will contest the final of the 100m sprint at the World U20 Championships. Akpe-Moses qualified through a tough semi-final with an incredible time of […]

8 years ago

Cycling’s coming home. Ireland’s Dan Martin has won Tour de France Stage Six. Three years after finishing second to Alexis Vuillermoz at Mûr-de-Bretagne, the UAE Team Emirates rider won the queen stage of Brittany ahead of another AG2R-La Mondiale, Pierre Latour, to score his second Tour de France stage win five years. 6ª Etapa¡Victoria para […]

8 years ago

“The mistake arrived.” Three words that probably sum up Jose Mourinho’s philosophy. It’s not about finding a way to get through a team, it’s not about finding a way to score even, it’s about the other lads making more mistakes than you. You can see it in United’s style of play. Everything is kept tight, […]

8 years ago

It ain’t over ’til it’s over. Jordan Pickford had a great World Cup. He had a good game against Croatia too and he’ll probably win a place in the team of the tournament for his performances. But nobody likes prematurity. During extra time of England’s eventual loss to Croatia, the teams were deadlocked at one […]

8 years ago

Well, that was a ride. It was a decent World Cup for England, they exceeded expectations and they garnered a lot of good will from neutrals who started to actually like the team. But, as Dion Fanning said on The JOE World Cup Minipod: “I thought I liked the new England, but God I missed […]

8 years ago

It’s the first World Cup game she’s actually sat down to watch. I’m around at the pre in-laws (we’ll say pre pre in-laws just to avoid scaring anyone) and the girlfriend’s mother is checking in on the hysterics from me and the dad in the living room. She’s heard enough screeches by now to grow […]

8 years ago

We’re sick saying it at this stage, but Coolera-Strandhill needs to be split in two. Sligo hurling is in a good place at present. Lory Meagher champions, Croke Park success, and a rise of ash from the ashes of the north-west. With the Calry/St. Joseph’s juggernaut given an early test by one of the main […]

8 years ago

If a mistake or a bad game was rare for Loris Karius, nothing else would need to be said. If he was a goalkeeper that Liverpool could actually win the league with, you’d excuse him a clanger. After it was revealed with hindsight that the German native had suffered from a form of concussion during […]

8 years ago

Ah lads, think about it. Wes Hoolahan’s last game for Ireland was losing 5-1 at home. Whether you think Eamon Dunphy rips the arse out of praising the Dubliner or you’re one of those ones who believes that the managers who were afraid to play him couldn’t be wrong because they’re the pros, it’s still […]

8 years ago

Honestly though, how stupid could FIFA have been? The World Cup final usually attracts a global audience of over a billion viewers but, next Sunday, the football showpiece is going to go head-to-head with the real football showpiece, Galway v Kerry. The GAA must not have realised the kick-off time for the World Cup final […]

8 years ago

Jack Bambrick hails from Ardclough. They say it has a population of 300. They say it’s the smallest club in Kildare. Naturally, Ardclough GAA is a junior side but they’re also sitting bottom of Division 4 of the football league right now in Kildare. On Wednesday night, they played third from bottom outfit Cappagh and […]

8 years ago

An Irish man hasn’t won a UFC debut since Joseph Duffy in 2015. And, although there will remain high hopes for Arklow’s finest Richie Smullen, the submission king found himself at the wrong side of a submission on Friday night. It’s been a hell of a ride for the SBG fighter who made The Ultimate […]

8 years ago

You can imagine the replies…

8 years ago

This has nothing to do with Dublin. Playing at Croke Park twice isn’t their fault. They’d have won three All-Irelands in a row regardless of where they played in 2015. 2016 and 2017. No-one blames them for something that the entire GAA voted on democratically. But when a team like Donegal now has to play […]

8 years ago

76% to 24%. Motion passed. Back in February 2017, after Paraic Duffy had travelled to nine different counties to discuss the GAA’s footballl championship reform proposals and the same man made himself available for media interviews, Congress deliberated over a change to the quarter-final stage of the competition. Despite Duffy being questioned by Colm Parkinson […]

8 years ago

There was a moment on Saturday night when the story of Mayo – The Great Struggle as it will come to be known – took human form. It was just minutes after both of Diarmuid O’Connor’s legs cramped simultaneously. When, realising that the physio stretching just one of them wasn’t going to cut it, he […]

8 years ago

You couldn’t make it up. Well, you could, but at this stage, no-one would believe you anymore. The GAA have been bumbling along from one stupid decision to the next of late and the latest this week was the scheduling of the very first Super 8 games. So far, only two fixtures for the All-Ireland football […]

8 years ago

I think the term they use sometimes is, ‘flawed genius’. Neymar is a top player, there’s no denying that. What he can do with a ball is verging on miraculous and what he can do with the pressure of the world on his shoulders is to be admired. But he’s also going to come away […]

8 years ago

Jim McGuinness is the most sought-after manager in all of the GAA. He could walk into any county tomorrow and they’d find a job for him, in either code. He’s got a CV that shows his first job in soccer was as a performance consultant for one of the biggest clubs in the world. He […]

8 years ago

One last chance to join the elite. With 12 teams remaining in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, just one set of fixtures remains ahead of the Super 8s. Eight teams are vying to join the provincial champions in the first round robin of its kind but, of course, only four can emerge – that’s why […]

8 years ago

Newbridge or… no, it doesn’t matter anymore. If Kildare make it through a tough tie with Fermanagh, they’re in the promised land. Cian O’Neill brought the county this far last year too after losing a provincial decider to Dublin but then came up short against Armagh in a period that sparked a hideous losing run […]

8 years ago

And then there were 12. The All-Ireland football championship has reached the nitty-gritty with round separating Gaels from the launch of the hotly-anticipated Super 8 series. With Galway, Donegal, Dublin and Kerry having already booked their places in the quarter-final group stages, they now await the winners of the Round 4 qualifiers between the sides […]

8 years ago

He left as the best player in Ireland. You can only assume he’s now the best player in America. Boston, say hello to Diarmuid Connolly. Diarmuid Connolly in Donegal colours 😱 pic.twitter.com/2xfh06tAC6 — Dublin Gaelic Fans (@DubsGAAFans) July 1, 2018 With a left foot as good as the best right foot in Gaelic football (his), […]

8 years ago

Hey, morons, listen up. There’s something you’ve been missing about this guy Lionel Messi. Yes, he scores goals. Yes, he seems to manage the Argentina team now as well as be one of the best players of all time. And, sure, he wins a shit load of trophies along the way too. But he can […]

8 years ago

It’s hard to beat a bit of knockout football. That’s what the GAA was always all about and, from now on, it’s do or die – until the Super 8s hands everyone another lifeline. It’s very unlikely but you can theoretically lose three games now in the championship and still win it. But for the […]

8 years ago

As everyone in England books off the Tuesday and Wednesday of July 10 and 11 for the impending World Cup semi-finals, they seem to have forgotten one thing: they lost to bloody Iceland two years ago. When England are expected to win in these major competitions, they generally don’t. The best thing about Gareth Southgate’s […]

8 years ago

Donald Trump is building up quite a portfolio for himself. He can pronounce Puerto Rico, he can market the beaches for Tourism North Korea and now he can just shoot the breeze about football. Not football football. Football. Never one to be deterred by his limitations or his lack of knowledge, the president of the United States […]

8 years ago

Sun’s out and The Curragh is looking glorious. One day down for the Irish Derby Festival, two more scorchers to go. With Kisanga winning the SportsJOE Maiden on Friday, the crowds were entertained and drenched in sunshine but, on Saturday, there are eight races ahead for revellers. In the first three cards of the day, […]

8 years ago

How can you criticise someone for not being 6’4″? So went a tweet from former Aberdeen goalkeeper David Preece along with a promise to block anyone who disagreed with him. The argument? What hand Jordan Pickford should’ve used in attempting to save Adnan Januzaj’s piece of beauty against England. Belgium won 1-0 in the final […]

8 years ago

Player power. The redressing of the balance of power is taking place before our very eyes in the GAA with players taking a stand and saying, ‘no more’. These are the guys training five and six times a week, these are the ones who are the cash cow at inter-county level and, yet, time and […]

8 years ago

Don’t try this at home. No, really, don’t do The Batshuayi. It’s stupid. Christ knows what was going through the Belgium striker’s head before a size five was going through his head but his celebration for Adnan Januzaj’s goal against England was the biggest misfortune – not just of unintentional physics but of the global […]

8 years ago

Something has to change in Germany. If it wasn’t arrogance that swept the camp of the world champions ahead of the trip to Russia, it was definitely at least some form of casualness. If they didn’t overrate themselves, they underrated everyone else. Everything from the reports of their preparation, the seeming disregard for obstacles in the […]

8 years ago

Back in April, after the most potent goalscorer of all time lifted himself six feet into the Turin sky and executed one of the most perfect, most clean, most audacious strikes of all time, a text message came through. Ronaldo was just in the middle of hammering through the Champions League knockout stages yet again […]

8 years ago

Even if you still have an aftertaste of the bitter variety from Pierre van Hooijdonk’s Celtic exit 21 years ago, you can never deny the happiness he once brought. For two and a half seasons, the Dutch master lit up Scotland and electrified Parkhead with just a relentless knack of scoring goals. Very few people […]

8 years ago

Imagine Meath weren’t put out of the football championship on June 9. Even with a first round qualifier exit, the Royal county can barely finish their own season on time and, as a result, clubs have been informed of a new, condensed fixture schedule over the next four months. It will see the Meath hurling […]

8 years ago

We want you! It’s summer, it’s championship, and the nation’s biggest GAA show is on the road again. The GAA Hour kickstarts its live shows this week in Donegal ahead of the Ulster final and it’s coming bigger and better than ever before with new partners Paddy Power. As Fermanagh chase their first ever provincial […]

8 years ago

Look at this. June 18: England v Tunisia June 24: England v Panama June 28: England v Belgium Welcome to the World Cup. It will take 10 days and three games for England to get a test in the 2018 World Cup and, by that stage, they’ll already have qualified for the last 16. They’ll […]

8 years ago

This is what true belief looks like

8 years ago

Rarely has a 19-point Dublin win thrown up so many worthwhile talking points. The red card for the tackle on Stephen Cluxton annoyed neutrals rooting for the underdog even if it should’ve been a red all along whilst Jonny Cooper was caught up in a bout of controversy too. The accomplished Dublin defender seemed to […]

8 years ago

It’s very easy to side with the minnows in the heat of battle. Stephen Cluxton shipped a huge challenge – a reckless one – that earned Longford’s James McGivney a straight red card in the Leinster final and, for the first time since he was sent off against Armagh in 2003, Dublin finished a championship […]

8 years ago

Don’t sell McCourt, Paddy McCourt, I just don’t think you understand. After 10 years, Paddy McCourt is going home. 10 years since he left the Brandywell, he has found his way back to his native Derry. It was a long road that took him there, through Glasgow, Barnsley, Brighton, Notts County, Luton, Armagh and Donegal. […]

8 years ago

When you hear that Donegal lilt, there’s something disarming about it. The friendliest of people occupying one of the most beautiful patches of land on this earth, it’s very easy to fall into this care-free mindset in the bosom of the good folk from the hills because it seems like life is never weighing down […]

8 years ago

Mickey Conroy tells a great story about living with Colm Boyle. A few weeks before Mayo headed off on a pre-season training camp some years ago, Boyle had the pair of them out doing extra work, just so they were ready for it. His thinking was that he didn’t want to get fit at camp, […]

8 years ago