This is madness

7 years ago

They say a bad winner makes a worse loser and the opposite is true too. A classy winner makes a gracious loser and Rob Cross did himself and the sport proud on Friday night despite being dumped out of the World Darts Championship in the round of 16. The 2018 champion who stunned the world […]

7 years ago

It was always going to end this way for James Wade. The most unpopular man in Ally Pally crashed out of the World Darts Championship in a seven-set last-16 thriller and, as he was brought to his knees, the arena jumped to its collective feet. The killing of the ninth seed’s tournament hopes brought nothing […]

7 years ago

Just before Cuba Gooding Jr. breaks down in the tunnel with every emotion in his body as he hugs Jerry Maguire, there’s a great shot just beforehand. If you haven’t watched the film, don’t read the next two paragraphs. Rod Tidwell – Gooding Jr’s character that won him an Oscar – is being ushered into […]

7 years ago

Brendan Dolan is in the last eight at Ally Pally. The Fermanagh legend is lighting the place up in London and has upset the odds by gatecrashing his way into the quarter-final of the PDC World Darts Championship. Dolan wasn’t seeded going into the tournament but now finds himself in the finals of the competition […]

7 years ago

It’s hard not to take a massive compliment when you’re compared to a €55.6m signing for the league champions but it almost does Declan Rice a disservice. Ian Rush was doing analysis for beIN Sports on Thursday night and was fortunate enough to witness a Declan Rice masterclass. The Irish international was instrumental as West […]

7 years ago

The talent of Declan Rice is no longer a secret on Irish shores, that’s why the mere whisper of those three syllables descends the country into utter chaos. He’s a brilliant, brilliant player already. We’re not talking about potential or an investment or capping him for the sake of it, we’re talking about one of […]

7 years ago

Cooper, Brogan, Canavan but who tops the list?

7 years ago

Numbers 20 to 11

7 years ago

I think it was one of the Kardashians who once said, “life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” Willie O’Connor isn’t making any other plans. The Limerick man has nowhere else to be and nothing else to do but continue his rise through the swings and arrows of the sport he was destined […]

7 years ago

Never have so many large men produced movements that consistently and aggressively draw the breath from you. Willie O’Connor is a 32-year-old in good shape but darts isn’t about physical fitness and the absence of that necessity doesn’t make it any less of a sport – never mind one of the most difficult, competitive and […]

7 years ago

Darts at its finest. James Wilson came into the PDC World Darts Championship fancied a lot and, as 26th seed, he was actually showing that tag was underselling him. Willie O’Connor ran up against a hot-handed English man in round two at Ally Pally and had to show tremendous resolve to even get anywhere near […]

7 years ago

The questions had to be asked but the questions were never going to be answered. Mauricio Pochettino arrived ahead of schedule for his weekly Tottenham Hotspur press conference and would’ve been well aware what was coming for him after Tuesday morning’s news. Jose Mourinho’s departure from Manchester United – and United’s decision to go with […]

7 years ago

Somewhere along the way, Mourinho manoeuvred himself into a position where he thought it would be a clever play to talk about how much better Liverpool are than the team he has put together. In his third season, with all the money he’s invested, with all the time he’s had and boasts he’s made, he’s […]

7 years ago

Okay, the money that Mourinho has spent is well-documented. He blew a fortune bringing players to Old Trafford that he’s now crying about not being good enough. Roy Keane made an interesting comment on Sunday, though, about how the signings Alex Ferguson made didn’t always turn out to be success stories. They were brought in, […]

7 years ago

Another Jose Mourinho press conference, another insult to Man United fans. The Premier League’s most successful club, the big-money spenders and the company with the highest wage bill in England went down the road to their biggest rivals and left with their arses gift-wrapped like some leftover cake at a birthday party handed to them […]

7 years ago

Five transfer windows, 370 million pounds and three pre-seasons later… these are the fruits. To be honest, this started during Mourinho’s first campaign at Old Trafford. Whilst Pep Guardiola’s Man City were trying to shake off the feeble clutches of Claudio Bravo from under their studs, it was at least clear that they had a […]

7 years ago

Feelin’ hot hot hot. Rob Cross is back and he’s looking like he’s back to where he left off last year. Since stunning the entire darts-loving planet in January and beautifully ruining Phil Taylor’s farewell, Cross struggled to back up his World Darts Championship title with another win throughout 2018 but he got his defence […]

7 years ago

“Hopefully I’ve done ladies proud.” There was a moment on Thursday night when Ally Pally paid attention. Now, that doesn’t often happen. If you look at the crowd in the background of the World Darts Championship, they’re having the time of their lives but a lot of them aren’t even facing in the right direction […]

7 years ago

Remember that time Croatia got to the World Cup final? Remember when we were comparing their population with ours and, perhaps most depressingly, their football. The ink on Robbie Keane’s retirement statement isn’t even dry yet and already we have forgotten about players produced by this island and representing this country only a decade ago. […]

7 years ago

There’s no diversity anywhere in the world like there is on a GAA team. Only in the GAA would lads be playing with their fathers. Only in the GAA would teenagers studying at school, wearing pink boots, be lining out with the parish psycho. Only in the GAA would you find a haven for the […]

7 years ago

We’ve all been there

7 years ago

This will drive you mad

7 years ago

That time of year. Pre-season training… sighs. It’s bad enough as it is without team mates annoying you. You’re supposed to be in that sort of shit together but, one run in, and the whole bloody thing descends into chaos – into a dog-eat-dog, every player for themselves kind of world where the only thing […]

7 years ago

Remember that goal Ronaldo scored at Old Trafford against Chelsea? The goal that never was. Wayne Rooney went over to take a corner, pulled the ball out of the spot and walked away as if he had changed his mind. So Ryan Giggs came strolling over to take it but he just dribbled on in, […]

7 years ago

“You don’t realise how shrewd this man is. You want to see him out riding in the Curragh on his own.” When Frank Oakes comes looking for a jockey, he usually gets them. The veteran Kildare trainer is minding two horses at present – he has three, but one is retired – and it’s Frank […]

7 years ago

Back in October 2, the Standing Committee on the Playing Rules proposed five rule changes for Gaelic football. Now, bearing in mind that this is the biggest, most popular sport in the country, any potential rule change should stand up to robust scrutiny and should absolutely be justified with rationale and sense. But the actions […]

7 years ago

Only Kerry could lose Colm Cooper, Darran O’Sullivan, Donnchadh Walsh and Kieran Donaghy in the last few years and still boast a stupid selection of forwards. It’s an embarrassment of riches, really, what the Kingdom will have to choose from in attack and it’s only going to get stronger. Paul Geaney David Clifford James O’Donoghue […]

7 years ago

It’s not so much a cheat meal as it is just a better, acceptable treat. The life of a professional athlete isn’t an easy gig and if you talk to any of them, they’ll all tell you how important nutrition is. It doesn’t matter how well you design the car, so to speak, if you’re […]

7 years ago

At 25, Josh van der Flier’s trophy cabinet is filling up nicely. Two Six Nations titles with a Grand Slam along the way, a Pro 14 honour and a Champions Cup with Leinster shows the Wicklow man is getting used to winning. He’s even beaten the All Blacks twice – twice called upon in Ireland’s […]

7 years ago

This is too serious now to be f**king around. Ireland are managerless and the country has a very, very real chance to affect change. It seems that the choice is boiling down to Mick McCarthy and Stephen Kenny and, because of the profile of both managers, it’s boiling down to two very different options. On […]

7 years ago

What is it about Roy Keane? There are vocal fears amongst some young journalists about a Roy Keane interview.  You’d see some of the finest potential in the media coming through, taking on big stories, creating content that has the country talking but, when it comes to Roy Keane, it’s just different. They still haven’t […]

7 years ago

Mullinalaghta is the smallest club in Longford. A “half parish”, it’s made up of just 10 townlands and shares its land with Gowna in Cavan. A lot of the senior players don’t even live in in the county anymore but, for a club like Mullnalaghta, transferring isn’t an option. You’d think this was the start […]

7 years ago

Unrealistic expectations. That’s what’s been levelled at the Irish fans in the wake of Martin O’Neill’s tenure as national manager coming to an end. It’s been said that the supporters on Lansdowne Road, those at home and those who spare themselves the 90 minutes are deluded for thinking they could have better than what they’ve […]

7 years ago

“Thanks for everything, Gaffer.” James McClean enjoyed the form of his life under Martin O’Neill. It wasn’t just that the county Derry manager plucked McClean from the Sunderland reserves when he took over on Wearside and gave him his first opportunity in the Premier League, but it was then the same manager who saw McClean […]

7 years ago

Sven Goran Eriksson has managed four international teams to date but, out of nowhere, he’s in line for a fifth. Despite the 70-year-old living the life in the Philippines, in charge of the national team in the Pacific, Paddy Power have slashed the odds on the Swede becoming the next Ireland manager. With Martin O’Neill […]

7 years ago

Goalkeeping has changed. Anyone who’s ever played sevens would know how important the ‘keeper is. Not at stopping goals – most of them are struck from about five yards out – but by being the playmaker. The goalkeeper is the free player, the one who can start the attack quickly, the one who can come […]

7 years ago

Odhrán Eastwood is in the Matrix. In mathematics, the Matrix theory describes an organisational structure in which two or more lines of command, responsibility, or communication may run through the same individual. In Armagh on Saturday night, Odhrán Eastwood was that individual through which everything and anything was possible. Antrim’s Naomh Éanna stormed into the Ulster […]

7 years ago

Ireland have a 90 percent chance of avoiding either Germany and what would be a tough, tough second seed team to pull out of the hat. With the Nations League group stages concluding on Tuesday night, all that was left from an Irish point of view was to watch on from afar to see whether […]

7 years ago

Rugby might well be coming home but just how big that home is, that’s the real question. Since Saturday’s amazing performance against the number one team in world rugby, the country has, for the most part, been split in two. One group sniggers at what they describe as a fake achievement. They call the Ireland […]

7 years ago

Exactly what something like the Asian Games is supposed to be – a celebration of culture. South Africa have that in spades and they have pride of place and they have pure joy too. On Friday, at the start of the Asian Gaelic Games finals in Bangkok, the South Africa Gaels wasted no time in […]

7 years ago

Well, there wasn’t much football to talk about. Another night, another goalless Ireland performance lacking intent and even dreams of trying anything. Of the seven games the Republic have played in 2018, they’ve won just one – a 2-1 win at home to America back in June. They’ve drawn three of those and lost three […]

7 years ago

The man who was never knocked down. Rónán Mac Con Iomaire has produced a book on the life of Seán Mannion that is simply a triumph in sportswriting and dramatic storytelling. The Man Who Was Never Knocked Down – The Life of Boxer Seán Mannion, journeys from Ros Muc in county Galway to Dorchester in Boston and […]

7 years ago

It’s like a sport in itself now, spending your days coming up with new ways to change Gaelic football. With the Standing Committee on Playing Rules altering some of their proposals that will now go to Central Council to be deliberated on and either passed into the 2019 National League or not, suggestions and ideas […]

7 years ago

The end of any season is a mishmash of emotions. For all but really one junior, one intermediate and one senior club, it’s going to end in misery. The aim for most will have been to give the championship a rattle but the vast majority will fall short of that. For a campaign that probably […]

7 years ago

“Everyone is so obsessed with finding the last 1% that they’ve forgotten about the other 99%”

7 years ago

The Irish Martial, they’re calling him. Festy Ebosele is fast, he’s skilful and he thinks of nothing else but beating a man every time he gets squared up. The 16-year-old attacker from Enniscorthy in Wexford lit up Tallaght Stadium on Thursday night with one typically explosive run that left a defender eating dust and forcing […]

7 years ago

“It’s infuriating to listen to O’Neill saying this stuff and actually thinking there’s a logic to it when it’s the worst possible thing an Ireland manager can be saying.” Martin O’Neill doesn’t seem to realise that his method of selecting players for the national team means waiting for another manager to tell him a player […]

7 years ago

On Friday night, Brian Fenton was voted the best Gaelic footballer in Ireland. His name was called out at the Convention Centre in Dublin to recognise the midfielder as the Footballer of the Year in, this, just his fourth season at inter-county level. On Saturday, Brian Fenton drove to Belfast. He was special guest at […]

7 years ago

James Skehill is on his knees. The Cappataggle goalkeeper has succumb to gravity, his hands planted on the soft and dew-covered November turf in Athenry, the top of his helmet supporting his bowed head pressed against the post. One by one, the Mellows players trudge up and offer a sympathetic pat on the back to […]

7 years ago