He’s not Zidane. He’s 35. We’re Ireland, for fuck sake. Get real. Of all the arguments used to beat the enthusiasm or even the desperation out of you, that self-effacing Irishness is the worst. The public give the media bad press sometimes when they’re coming down hard on the Ireland team or exasperating at the […]

9 years ago

This doesn’t make for great reading. After nine qualifier games – five of which were at home, four games against Moldova and Georgia – Ireland have hit 11 goals. A campaign which began on the crest of a Euros wave back in September 2016 is threatening to wash up tamely on the sort of dull […]

9 years ago

“Everybody wants to be the full forward, don’t they? That was me too.” Even for a man who’d play 23 years at senior level as a goalkeeper, a man who’d win 19 county titles, six All-Ireland club titles and 16 Ulster medals with Armagh and Crossmaglen as a number one, he had to be convinced […]

9 years ago

Not since June 2016 has Wes Hoolahan started two games in one week for Ireland. Since that Belgium game in Bordeaux, there have been 15 matches and seven different opportunities to play two games inside seven days but Hoolahan has been spared that torment every time. In fact, since the Euros, the only time Hoolahan […]

9 years ago

There’s still a chance we could finish top of the group – a very unlikely chance but a chance nonetheless. It all comes back to the fact that we should’ve just beaten f**king Georgia. Well, Georgia could yet do Ireland a favour because the first, second and third spots in Group D are still to […]

9 years ago

Yes, coming second is the most important basic for Ireland to focus on but achieving that with anything but a win in Cardiff will all but destroy their World Cup hopes. Irish fans keenly observed the Welsh game in Georgia on Friday night with a hope that their Irish Sea neighbours would provide a timely […]

9 years ago

The bad news is, we’ll still have to beat Wales. Thursday night’s results didn’t leave anything in Ireland’s hands in terms of securing a playoff spot but they did offer us another potential out. To qualify for a playoff spot for the 2018 World Cup, Ireland must firstly finish in second place in their own […]

9 years ago

Hold your breath. 19 Armagh club titles 11 Ulster club titles 6 All-Ireland club titles Wait some more. 2 National Football League titles 5 Ulster titles 1 All-Ireland For club and for county, for 23 years, for football, Paul Hearty has been a remarkable servant. Back in 1995, Joe Kernan brought in a lanky 16-year-old […]

9 years ago

These guys are allowed to have bad days too. They get busy, they get frustrated, they can get caught at the wrong time. It’s not easy having your every move studied under the microscope every single day and being expected to be the perfect role model and sound ambassador to every fan who calls your […]

9 years ago

Even by their literal definitions, gamesmanship and cheating are not the same. There’s a difference between bending the rules and breaking the rules. There’s a difference between doing something in plain sight of the authorities to deal with and doing something that you have to hope goes undetected to pay off. If you want to […]

9 years ago

Martin O’Neill will get ratty with anyone looking past Moldova. He’ll tell us it’s going to be a tough clash, that three points are not easily won against any team in this group. He’ll almost make out that you’re a fool for disrespecting the like of Moldova and that the country is severely handicapped with […]

9 years ago

Only eight second-placed teams will qualify for the playoffs. There are nine groups. As it stands, Wales – who are second in Group D – would not make the playoffs. As it stands, Group D is ranked as the ninth best of all the second-placed teams in Europe. Second-place rankings are determined by eliminating results […]

9 years ago

Ireland look like they’ll need six points to have any chance of reaching the playoffs. That means Ireland need to beat Moldova on Friday and then go to Cardiff on Monday and beat Wales. Those chances have been bolstered considerably with news that Gareth Bale will miss his country’s last two games. The Real Madrid […]

9 years ago

“It’s a great area. It’s a tough area.” Anyone who’s scored 68 international goals for any country is going to have a bit of mettle about them. Anyone who’s grown up in Tallaght and gone on to become an Irish legend would’ve had to dig deep from time to time and, for Robbie Keane and […]

9 years ago

One step forward, 19 steps back. You know, you’re almost at risk of someone telling you to give it a rest. It can sound like you’re beating a drum to exhaustion when you continuously highlight all these depressing landmarks in female sport in Ireland. The international women’s team’s strife was well documented and it was […]

9 years ago

This goal had everything. Movement: Check. Pace: Obviously. Skill: Cruelly. Finishing: Ruthless. This goal had everything you’d expect from a Paul Mannion goal. Kilmacud Crokes edged out Castleknock in a nail-biting quarter-final clash that finished with just the minimum between them. 2-8 to 1-10 was the score and Paul Mannion’s simply unprecedented individual goal proved […]

9 years ago

Diarmuid Connolly is f**king brilliant. It’s really getting harder and harder to put into words just how good Diarmuid Connolly is. It can’t be stated enough and it really isn’t anywhere near being stated enough anyway. It actually hurts sometimes – it physically hurts – how good this man is with a football. The possibilities […]

9 years ago

Been there, done it. Louth are on the up, Pete McGrath is as hungry as ever. This makes sense. The All-Ireland-winning boss of 1991 and 1994 replaces Colin Kelly in the Wee County hotseat and a new era begins on the east coast and it starts with Division Two football. Pete McGrath has being Ratified […]

9 years ago

Ronan O’Gara likes a winner. Ends justify the means in his world, it’s all about the performance. He says things we’ve heard already – things like, why the hell would Jim Gavin give a shit about what the journalists think. He says other things like, it’s about what happens in the changing room and on […]

9 years ago

George Hamilton sounded like he was in the International Space Station there for a second. The term ‘phoning it in’ could not have been used in a derogatory sense on Wednesday night because that’s literally what had to happen, the commentary team had to phone in their audio back to the studio. After United ripped […]

9 years ago

You think this can be done… but it can’t

9 years ago

For every cloud, there’s an app you can download. All hope is not lost for Irish football fans either hoping to watch Liverpool and cheer them on or hoping to get a good laugh at their defence. The decision of TV3 to broadcast the Real Madrid on Tuesday night instead has split the camp. On […]

9 years ago

Some things transcend a manager and his team. Some things are for the overall good of the football club. Whatever you think of Jose Mourinho, nobody will deny that he builds good sides. He’s got a common sense, pragmatic nous for sniffing out what he needs and getting exactly that. Wherever he’s been, that approach […]

9 years ago

Game respects game and Money respects money. Perhaps, maybe, if there’s not a touch of class in Floyd Mayweather, there’s a bone – or at least a joint – of appreciation in there somewhere. It would be pretty hard for him not to like Conor McGregor after all. Whatever you thought of the Notorious’ credentials […]

9 years ago

What’s that line in Jerry Maguire? “That’s how you become great, man. Hang your balls out there.” Jerry Maguire ended up getting sacked but he had his principles. He had earned respect. Last year, TV3’s decision to ignore the classic between Barcelona and Man City while it was playing live did not go down well. […]

9 years ago

On Saturday, the players of Raharney and Lough Lene received confirmation that Cusack Park would not be available for their senior camogie final next week. On Sunday, the quarter-final replay of the men’s senior football championship between Athlone and The Downs was fixed for Cusack Park. So the double header of the camogie finals on […]

9 years ago

Everyone enjoys something good until it gets too good. Things can be appreciated by everyone, or at least they can be inoffensive to everyone, until their status scales new heights. When once there might not have been nothing but good will or just indifference towards something, critics start propping up from nowhere when the perception is […]

9 years ago

Before this year, I’d have been guilty of thinking that not much would’ve changed. I was living in a bubble, kidding myself that what I was doing was enough. Sure, I’ve covered plenty of ladies football games in my time. I’ve written and raved about camogie achievements and wonderful individuals recording remarkable feats. But what […]

9 years ago

A Dub to the core. The 12-point margin was tough on Mayo in the end but once the capital got a sniff of bloody, they went for the jugular and they did not let up. It was a blitzing finish to the ladies senior final that had been a one-score game for most of it […]

9 years ago

Noelle Healy could split the Red Sea with this sort of direct, driving velocity. As it happens, she did go ahead and open up the green and red rearguard as the Mayo defence simply parted out of respect for the momentum with which she rained down on them. It was impressive. It was deadly. But […]

9 years ago

Dean Rock has done a lot for Dublin already but this was the kick. This was the kick that set him apart. This was the kick that showed he had the stones, the bottle, the nerve. This was the kick that will put him down in Dublin folklore – the one that his whole life […]

9 years ago

How could you not be romantic about football? There are few things as beautiful in this life as watching someone’s unrelenting obsession with what most people would just call a game. The road to Croke Park consumes the people of Ireland and it doesn’t matter if you’re a junior club player or a senior inter-county […]

9 years ago

The old saying is now an extinct saying: You can repeat your leaving cert but you can’t repeat your last year of minors. Some people won’t even get a chance to be a last year of minor anymore. The inter-county ruling that meant Kerry’s triumph over Derry on Sunday would be the last ever under-18 […]

9 years ago

#ThingsDiarmuidDid. However much love and affection Gaels outside the capital withhold from Diarmuid Connolly, no-one denies him his talent. No-one in their right minds anyway. He changed the game on Sunday and that’s the crux of it. Mayo were completely dominating Dublin. They were far too intense. They looked better-drilled and they even looked fitter. […]

9 years ago

“I know people around the world who actually plan their trips home so they won’t get roped into rejoining the team”

9 years ago

Come into my web. Chris Barrett summed up how ready Mayo were on Sunday. He was strong, he was cruel, he was downright relentless. Paddy Andrews didn’t even touch the ball a handful of times in the All-Ireland final and the one time he actually tried to do anything with it, Barrett viciously stripped it […]

9 years ago

And all the grief Lee Keegan was getting. The Mayo man was criticised for throwing a GPS device at the ball during Dean Rock’s All-Ireland winning free kick but, listen, who wouldn’t do it? We can say we don’t condone it, we can even pretend to be outraged but most competitive beings would do what […]

9 years ago

Has boots, will control ball. That’d be an improvement. Jake Doyle-Hayes is only 18 years of age and he’s only played two competitive games for Aston Villa but, already, he’s turning heads. The Irish underage international, who was born in Dublin and grew up in Cavan, played the full 90 minutes of Villa’s League Cup […]

9 years ago

Notions. We’re a long way from Kenny Cunningham ripping Ander Herrera apart and saying United should break the bank to get Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in. Listen, this guy isn’t a complete dud but, for the guts of 40 million, he’s going to be held to a high standard. Jesus, you could’ve bought Paulinho for that price. […]

9 years ago

Robbie Brady doesn’t have a sweet left foot. Sweet left feet have Robbie Brady. Irish fans know all about the Dubliner – not just his skill, not just that left peg, but his nerve too. They know he has bottle. They know he can deliver when it matters. So there he is, 24 yards from […]

9 years ago

When Tadhg Beirne tells you to sit down, you don’t look for a chair. The powerful lock looks to be moving yet another step closer to returning to Ireland with a move to Thomond Park at the end of the season. In the summer, The Limerick Leader broke the story that Munster and the IRFU […]

9 years ago

Luck’s got nothing to do with it. If you’re good enough, if you want something enough, just go out and bloody get it. Don’t make excuses, don’t blame anybody else. Reflection is the better part of a champion and the best of them not only know their own worth, but they prove their worth. Michael […]

9 years ago

It’s easy to forget that David Clifford is just a teenager. He’s only an 18-year-old with the world in front of him but it feels like he’s already conquered so much of it. In the last 18 months, Clifford has won three different All-Irelands. He’s won the Hogan Cup with St. Brendan’s – he kicked […]

9 years ago

What could he possibly be watching? During the first semi-final of the summer when Mayo and Kerry played out an absolute clinker of a match that ended, of course, in a draw, Éamonn Fitzmaurice was allegedly being recorded. The Kerry manager and his trusted ally Liam Hassett were said to be filmed by a man […]

9 years ago

I’m from Derry. I know nothing about what Mayo fans are going through. If I was to say that I know how they feel, it would be a complete and total lie. And a bigger insult. But I do know what apathy feels like. I have a fair idea of what nothingness is and I […]

9 years ago

Every player in every county would do whatever it took if it meant distracting a rival from destroying your All-Ireland dreams. Dean Rock has a kick at the posts to win a third successive title for Dublin and ruin a sixth final for Mayo in just 13 years. He’s setting new records for free-takers this […]

9 years ago

They’re a very good team, those Dubs. A third All-Ireland in-a-row, six championship games in 2017 that they worked through effortlessly with minimum fuss. Business as bloody usual. In the aftermath of the All-Ireland final, it’s very easy to forget the rest of the championship and the rest of the stand-out performers that lit the […]

9 years ago

Any fans of Remember The Titans will be familiar with the term, ‘leave no doubt’. It’s a true story about a school in Virginia which had integrated black players into the team for the first time but soon found that everyone was praying for their demise. During one particular game that was seemingly fixed, the […]

9 years ago

Colm Boyle is fit to take anything thrown at him on a football pitch. He dishes out punishment, he’s not shy in telling you what he’s thinking, and he ploughs into danger as if he’s not even doing it for the love of his county, but just rather for the thrill of it all. During […]

9 years ago

The power of Dublin is that Mayo played very well and still lost. Another serious battle between two serious outfits saw the Dubs make it three-in-a-row but here are how the individuals performed on the day. Mayo David Clarke 6 Great stop to reject Paul Mannion. Safe kicking and cool head for 75 minutes until […]

9 years ago