Sunday 5 May is going to be huge. Celtic and Aston Villa legend Stiliyan Petrov has been announced as one of the big names signed up for the Ryan McBridge Foundation Soccer Sixes which will take place in Derry for its inaugural tournament this year. A club colossus, Derry City have already taken the decision […]

7 years ago

On Sunday night, ahead of the Three FAI International Awards, the Football Association of Ireland released a statement. The statement, in full below, was with regards to FAI governance and a bridging loan from 2017. It reads: In February 2017, the Football Association of Ireland formed a Governance Committee and arising from the work of […]

7 years ago

Tyrone were threatening to do this and, finally, they have. Mickey Harte has done a hell of a job in rebuilding what is his third Red Hand army and, despite pundits and fans being burned by hope of Tyrone in the last number of years, they finally backed up their ability to compete with the […]

7 years ago

Tadhg Beirne wanted a chance to show what he can do and, after 30 minutes of rugby, he was showing what he can do. It was far from a good opening half for Ireland – and even further than far, to be honest. Wales’ try after 71 seconds and the sound of the Millennium Stadium […]

7 years ago

Here’s the thing about Jack Grealish. For nearly three years, he’s been kicked. He’s been stamped on. He’s had boys lean down and butt their big heads into him, roaring something aggressive in his ear as he lies strewn on the grass after taking another bout of punishment cheered wildly by the opposition support. This […]

7 years ago

Lyndsey Davey never wastes a second. She can’t afford to. She meets us at 12 o’clock up at Skerries Harps, the club she’s been with since joining the nursery group as a five-year-old. Her father was the coach back then, Willie Davey. He might not have known it at the time, or even thought about […]

7 years ago

Cora Staunton and Anna Geary on how they made it to the top

7 years ago

Well, to be honest, l’Equipe’s 8 out of 10 is another man’s 23. It takes a lot to get any kind of a bump up from the most notoriously stingy quality assessors in the business. The news that Dusan Tadic got a 10 out of 10 for Tuesday night’s demolition of Real Madrid should never […]

7 years ago

The real quiz. Forget about winning World Cups and the like, can you tell us who owns which flag? 32 teams contested the 2018 FIFA World Cup and we’ve presented you with their 32 flags. All you have to do is pick which country they belong to.

7 years ago

Aishling Moloney is the personification of Tipperary rising. Her blitzing performance of the mighty Cork, banging in 2-9 in a famous win for the Premier County on Saturday night, was another marker on the wooden door frame panel measuring the growth of this unstoppable Tipp machine. Specifically though, her leap into the skies to fist […]

7 years ago

Tyrone haven’t gone away, you know. Beware the results and performances of the first three league games because nobody gives a shit about them come the summer. Tyrone had just one point from a possible six in their opening rounds but the two-week break has seen them completely and utterly transform from the flat, predictable […]

7 years ago

This is Jim Gavin’s seventh season with Dublin. In the time since he took over in 2013, he’s won five of the six National Leagues he could have won (five of Dublin’s 13 in their history). He’s won five of the six All-Irelands too and he’s lost just 10 games in total. 10. Kerry (3), […]

7 years ago

Gibraltar v Ireland. Saturday 23 March. Callum O’Dowda will be in the squad and, at this rate, Mick McCarthy will be thinking he could go on to be one his most important players over the next nine months. The Bristol City attacker, who has played all over the front six this season but mostly on […]

7 years ago

Brought to you by Electric Ireland 60 minutes from the big time. All roads lead to Mallow this weekend as the Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup Semi Final games play out in Cork between real giants of the competition. Within those games, counties are coming together for the good of the college. St. Mary’s v UCD […]

7 years ago

I have little sympathy for Northern Ireland over the James McClean situation. I can understand why their fans and coaches would feel frustrated and disappointed that a player they had invested in would pledge his allegiance to another team when it mattered most but I’d wonder what on earth had surprised them. James McClean is […]

7 years ago

Ah, what’s the point? It’s hard to be diplomatic. It’s harder to not feel the raw pain of losing your best player of a generation and losing him forever. This isn’t a run of the mill transfer, it’s someone who is already dominating the Premier League and has been doing so since he was 19 […]

7 years ago

“What I know about Saipan now that I didn’t know then…” It always comes back to Saipan, everything. If you think about it long enough – and most people do – you could make a case for every argument in Ireland having the same Pacific island-shaped undertone. In a simple story of one football player […]

7 years ago

Football at its best. Three games into the new season and Peter Keane is beginning to show what he’s about. Kerry are now three for three in the national football league and they’re doing it in such convincing fashion. Last year’s two All-Ireland finalists have come to the Kingdom in the last three weeks and […]

7 years ago

Reid… to Shefflin… and it’s over. There’s something so right about that, something so natural and easy and, still, all these years later, it’s as unique as it can be. If Kilkenny are proud of their hurling heritage, it’s because of families like the Reids and Shefflins. It’s because of the exploits of TJ – […]

7 years ago

No-one even dreams like this. Honesty, who the hell would ever grow up and think, ‘I’d love to score 3-7 in an All-Ireland final’? You think of the winning point, a screamer of a goal but Kevin McCarthy has the sort of balls to say he wants 3-7 and he wants to score more than […]

7 years ago

In the absence of a smoking gun to convince the public that all is as well as it was a few months ago, and whilst question marks remain over the flair and fluidity, the Irish team are at least offering a consistent bargaining chip. The honesty is there and what seems like a genuine desire […]

7 years ago

And the Irish are back. No bonus point, no amazing performance to get carried away about but a win and a bounce-back from the opening day loss against England that had the team nervous going to Murrayfield. FULL TIME Scotland 13-22 Ireland Here’s how the players rated. Rob Kearney 8 They say you only really […]

7 years ago

Watch for this, it’s unbelievable how often you’ll notice it. Ireland score a try, the team are celebrating, the commentators are gushing over the replays and, in the background of those replays, Johnny Sexton is lying in a heap. When you’re World Player of the Year and the creative hub of the number two ranked […]

7 years ago

Back then, it was all just chat. Kieran Molloy had the tough decision, the bad experience and his journey from Offaly to Santry, from an All-Ireland club semi-final to the second half of the Sigerson decider is a well-worn horror at this stage, only 11 months later. And, still, with all the controversy and injustice […]

7 years ago

At the risk of getting completely carried away after Round 2 of the national league, Mayo look good. Really good. Powerful, aggressive, direct, exciting. Hell, they look like Mayo again. And so it goes, a little earlier than usual, the only question on everyone’s lips in February: Can Mayo win the All-Ireland? James Horan’s back […]

7 years ago

It’s bad enough just thinking these things but deciding that it would be okay to say them aloud is bare-faced affront. Read the room. GAA Director General, Tom Ryan, published his annual report on Wednesday and, in doing so, undid the great work of the association in facilitating a national event that was each a […]

7 years ago

Relax yourselves. Yes, it’s not even February and there’s a long, long way to go and you couldn’t possibly have a more terrifying outfit in Pep Guardiola’s Man City chasing over your shoulder but Liverpool should win the Premier League. They’re five points clear, they look formidable, they’re cutting teams open for kicks and what’s […]

7 years ago

The GAA in a picture. The best photographers can catch a moment in time and bottle it to be savoured. During the All-Ireland football final in September between Dublin and Tyrone, Sportsfile produced what, at first glance, just looks like a general snapshot of the fans watching on at Croke Park. When you look a […]

7 years ago

A new year, a new manager, a new jersey design and, with all that, Tipperary will be hoping to get back to their old selves. It’s been a good January. Good pre-season games, good coaching reshuffles and mad rule changes in the football to keep the GAA appetite well-whetted and, now, it’s down to serious […]

7 years ago

The trip to France hasn’t been a hugely successful one but it looks like it’ll be short-lived anyway. Paddy Jackson is set to leave Perpignan to join London Irish. According to the Telegraph, the former Ulster Rugby player has agreed a long-term contract to link up with two former coaches now in charge of the […]

7 years ago

Bottle. Mettle. Clutch. When it comes down to it, these are the sort of characteristics that define careers. Skill is essential. Practice is obligatory. Athleticism, desirable, but they’ll amount to nothing in the big games if you can’t back them up with bottle. Kieran Molloy might be a race horse who looks as though he’s […]

7 years ago

Cue: mayhem in the capital. It’s hard for Dublin fans, it really is – once you get past all the success and the advantages that come with being the county with the biggest population in Ireland. They get the most investment from the GAA – which, to be honest, correlates with their numbers and the […]

7 years ago

There could be something in it. There’s a reward for being proactive, for thinking long and offensively and there’s a reward for accuracy and one for catching. Catch and kick is what they love and that’s what they can get too with the new mark but the change between the initial proposal in October and […]

7 years ago

A few years back, on a crisp and clear Wednesday evening in October, two intermediate clubs in Derry were contesting a relegation playoff in Celtic Park, the loser of which was to be condemned to junior status. Joe Mulholland was the referee. A native of Moneymore at the very south of the county but a […]

7 years ago

You never think it’s going to happen. It’s the equivalent of someone saying, ‘if I had three wishes, I’d wish for a million wishes’. ‘My new year’s resolution is to have no resolution’. ‘You might as well pick numbers one to six in the national lottery because there’s just the same statistical chance that they’ll […]

7 years ago

Ah, Olé. Olé Gunnar Solskjaer, a man so nice that he’s been putting up with people mispronouncing his name for 23 years. A gentleman who actually tells English reporters to just call him ‘O-lay’ for the very simple reason that “it’s easier”. A club legend whose right foot brought about one of the most iconic […]

7 years ago

Not in this country, mate. Marcelo Bielsa didn’t break any rule and Leeds United certainly didn’t break any laws when a man was spotted standing on the public street. But there’s a code of ethics and morality in English football that no-one knew about until this week. Frank Lampard is disgusted by the behaviour and […]

7 years ago

How could you not be romantic about college ball? Rivals coming together under the same crest, the biggest names and the hottest prospects scattered around for one tournament, no gap in the fixtures to break it up, just wall to wall action of novel teams with loosened shackles. And they’re on during the week, night […]

7 years ago

2019, meet Shane Lowry. One round of golf was enough to say it’s already been a hell of a year for Offaly’s finest as he shot a ridiculous round of 62 (62, not a typo), in the first round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. After day one, Lowry sits on -10, three shots clear […]

7 years ago

After Ireland slugged out what we all once thought was a great goalless draw in Copenhagen for the first leg of the World Cup qualifier, the press huddled in the freezing Scandinavian cold. It was off the corner of the pitch, outside in the dark where the players would walk by into the team bus […]

7 years ago

At 40 years of age, Drew Brees is still as hungry and as hellbent as ever. The New Orleans Saints haven’t been to the Super Bowl since 2010 but their legend quarterback who brought them to history then is intent on giving them another bow on one of the biggest stages in the world. On […]

7 years ago

We’re not even out of pre-season yet and the last two weekends have brought us two penalty shootouts. God almighty, how could you not love Mayo? James Horan’s dream of finding that last remaining inch to get Mayo over the line to finally win the FBD League once more has been dashed. Mayo are out […]

7 years ago

West Ham must be looking at these transfer rumours thinking if a five-and-a-half-year contract isn’t going to shut people up, nothing will. Declan Rice’s star shines brighter and brighter. Every weekend he takes to the pitch, the interest in him increases and, actually, he’s already showing that his career can take him way beyond the […]

7 years ago

Joe Brolly once said that there’s something about being in the same room as Owen Mulligan that makes you feel good about yourself. It’s hard to put your finger on, to be honest. He’s funny, he has a warm smile and he’s as successful a GAA player as they come but there really is something else […]

7 years ago

Is it self-esteem or just realism that drives the desire in Ireland to see Declan Rice’s form plateau? Either way, it’s depressing. The Republic want a good player but not that good a player, not if he’s going to be so good that others will want him too. Not if that means we could lose him. […]

7 years ago

Mastermind is often far from elementary and, as Chris Tarrant used to say about general knowledge, it’s only easy if you know the answer. But Monty Panesar’s performance on one of the most classic British television shows left many as gobsmacked as he is at questions about A.A. Milne. It’s easy to get into a […]

7 years ago

It’s hard to believe that it hasn’t even been two years since Michael Conlan made his pro debut. In the space of 20 months, he’s backed up his feared status among the best amateurs by rampaging through the early stages of his professional career. 20 months, 10 fights. 10 wins and one belt. Now, with […]

7 years ago

Brian Kerr is good at pretending to remember people he doesn’t know. Before he even gets into the office, he’s confronted at the gates. It’s not a teenage superfan struggling to contain his excitement at the freak luck that would put him within touching distance of his hero but, rather, a well-dressed, well-built, tall elderly […]

7 years ago

You can’t do any piece of training nowadays without a school of thought scoffing at your lack of education. The developments in sport science in the GAA have been an obvious factor in taking the games to a whole new level with far superior match-specific athleticism on view and better care for players, especially for […]

7 years ago

These boys are in every club dugout

7 years ago