It was all one way traffic in Mayo this weekend. And the Kiltimagh cars were the only ones motoring. It’s not often you win by 36 points and keep a clean sheet in a gaelic football match so it was a job well done for the Mayo side in their home pitch on a stormy […]

8 years ago

There was no need for this. Whatever you want to say about Arsene Wenger, there’s no denying that the French man always had the best interests of Arsenal at heart. A refreshing outlier from the norm in modern day football, Wenger stayed loyal in North London for 22 years, and it more than likely would […]

8 years ago

A cruel lesson but you don’t know Declan Rice if you think he won’t come back stronger from this. The youngster has enjoyed a stunning breakthrough season with West Ham this year. The 19-year-old London born defender, who qualifies to play for Ireland through his Cork grandparents has been a rock at the heart of […]

8 years ago

Some GAA players had an issue with the GAA being dragged into the debate. A referendum is taking place next month on the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution. Taking place on Friday, May 25, the referendum will either lead to the Eighth Amendment remaining in place or being repealed. That amendment reads as follows: […]

8 years ago

If any man was going to make it, it was going to be Ruby Walsh. The iron man of horse racing, the iron man of Irish sport, the man with wolverine like healing powers has been defeated by injury, but he will be back soon. Kildare jockey Ruby Walsh has confirmed that he will not […]

8 years ago

The game is over now. Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger have been bitter rivals for years. Their verbal warfare began soon after the Portuguese arrived to England for the first time in 2004. The year before that, Wenger was the top dog, Arsenal were the kingpins. His Gunners had just completed an invincible season and […]

8 years ago

Strong line-ups. Leo Cullen and Johann van Graan will have struggled to sleep this week with their minds occupied on picking their best hand for their respective Champions Cup semi-final clashes this weekend. Because both men were facing some tough, tight calls not only regarding their Starting 15s but also on the personnel they would choose […]

8 years ago

It’s a tough one. Westmeath manager Colin Kelly announced his panel for the upcoming Leinster senior football championship during the week. Three players, in Darragh Daly, Stephen Gallagher and Joe Moran were drafted into the squad after not playing any part in the county’s League campaign. Stand out performances for their clubs were cited as […]

8 years ago

Remember the date

8 years ago

They’ll look at you as if it’s some sort of foreign object. But in reality, nothing could possibly be any more Irish. What is wrong with all of these people? Only hurlers will understand because they’re the only ones who have experienced it. Where gaelic footballers slot in after a bus from the country up […]

8 years ago

The toughest conversation you’ll have to have all summer. Thought telling your parents you’re too old to go on holidays with them anymore, was tough? Thought breaking it to your girlfriend every Saturday night of the summer that you can’t go out on the town with them again because of training on Sunday morning, was […]

8 years ago

You love how much you hate it. You hate how much you love it. It’s 10.00 of a Wednesday morning and you’re up in the college gym grimacing through the pain of a tough foam rolling session. It’s boring enough up there but you know you have to do it because you don’t want to […]

8 years ago

It can be a tough team to pick. That’s because the majority of county championship games aren’t televised, with only a handful of county finals making it onto TG4 or eir sport. So a player could have been untouchable for a whole campaign, the best player in the country, yet many of us mightn’t have […]

8 years ago

The man with all the responsibility. We’re talking about the man who’s been hitting his county’s frees in their League campaign just past. Of course, it hasn’t been the same fella who takes every single free. In the League, players are often rested and rotated. Sometimes, in football, a team will vary their taker when […]

8 years ago

These are the best of times. Few will regret the time they spent playing GAA with their college. For most lads, college is something entirely new. You’re taking a step out of your comfort zone, you’re living away from home for the first time, you’re meeting a whole host of new people. It is a […]

8 years ago

You just won’t get by anymore. Any GAA player who’s taking the game half seriously at the moment will have some sort of gym programme on the go. Most panels re-convene nowadays in the winter months and they start off by attempting to pair themselves into shape, or to add that necessary bulk in the […]

8 years ago

Should I stay or should I go? It’s a catch-22 for the inside forwards. Chase them down and you mightn’t even get a word of thanks because you are just doing your job. Leave them be and your man could go down the other end of the field and rattle the net. And then you’re […]

8 years ago

What’s the point in having a Ferrari if you’re going to keep it in the garage? Ciaran Kilkenny is too good to be just another link on the chain but that’s exactly what he was last year. There are plenty of lads in the Dublin panel able to do the job that Ciaran Kilkenny was […]

8 years ago

This is the Kilkenny way. Fresh from yet another National Hurling League triumph at the weekend, the most successful bainisteoir in the history of the GAA gave a brilliant interview to Tim Moynihan on Radio Kerry. During it, the topic of egos in the dressing room came under discussion and Cody made it fairly clear […]

8 years ago

Ryan Cassidy is headed in the right direction. And wherever he wants to go he’s intent on getting there sooner rather than later. The St Kevin’s Boys product has taken England by storm ever since he made the move across the water just over eight months ago. After cutting loose in the country’s under-18 ranks, […]

8 years ago

A sight for sore eyes. Hordes of Irish youngsters will flock to America as soon as the colleges quit and the first sun sets on another summer. The American dream is an adventure being taken by more and more of our youngsters with each passing year as the lure of the ‘once in a lifetime’ […]

8 years ago

He can do it with the Dublin seniors alright but how would he fare with a group of boisterous nine-year-olds? Because boys will be boys and kids will be kids. The toughest challenge facing every underage coach in the country is bringing order and encouraging focus in a bunch of youngsters who really, just want […]

8 years ago

Championship first round weekend is finally here

8 years ago

The man for the big occasion. Cristiano Ronaldo is a machine. His goalscoring records are so outlandish and so far ahead of everybody else’s that they don’t even seem real anymore. The numbers don’t even hold much weight because, in reality, how could numbers do a man like Cristiano Ronaldo justice? We should really appreciate […]

8 years ago

Routine. St. Vincent’s began their defence of the Dublin Senior Football Championship in explosive fashion in Parnell Park on Thursday evening. Opponents Skerries Harps were the victims as the three-in-a-row seeking Vinnies’ hit the ground running and never once took their foot off the gas in a relentless Donnycarney destruction. It looked like Diarmuid Connolly […]

8 years ago

It just goes to show how dominant the pair are. After the Cheltenham festival, all the talk was about the success of Irish trainers in comparison to the struggling English. For the second year in a row our handlers raided the home trainers in their own back yard to land the Pretsbury Cup again. There […]

8 years ago

Easy does it. Kilkenny warmed up for last Sunday’s National Hurling League final clash with Tipperary like the always do. On the stroke of 3.00, team captain Cillian Buckley led his troops out onto their patch in front of an excited Nowlan Park crowd. The sun was hanging high in the sky over the sleek, […]

8 years ago

When Brian Cody talks about coaching, coaches everywhere should listen. Because he is the most successful coach the GAA has ever seen. He’s been doing it right for 20 years now and he’s still yearning for more, but more importantly, his players are still heeding his guidance and living off his advice. On Sunday, underdogs […]

8 years ago

Roscommon supporters will have high expectations. While plenty of changes are coming into play for the 2018 All-Ireland football championships, the provincial competitions will still be played out as normal. The provincial winners, the beaten finalists in the respective competitions, and the teams who progress from the qualifiers will then face off against each other […]

8 years ago

That’s how it’s done. The revamped GAA calendar for 2018 has caused plenty of debate. From an inter-county perspective, the master-plan was shown up during the League as the weather made the GAA pay the price of leaving themselves with not enough room to wiggle in a susceptible calendar. In the end, the GAA cut […]

8 years ago

It will be different this year, that’s for sure. The All-Ireland senior hurling championship has been revamped for 2018. The Leinster and Munster championships will be ran on a round-robin basis with each county having four matches at this stage of the competition on consecutive weekends. Each team will have two home games and two […]

8 years ago

He was sent to the stands for the second half. The Spaniard was within his rights to be angry with referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz, but that’s no excuse for such a forceful outburst. Guardiola is well known for his passion, for his emotional investment in the game. He wears his heart on his sleeve at […]

8 years ago

Tough on Megan Connolly. The Ireland women’s team went into their Tuesday night World Cup qualification clash with the Netherlands sharing the top spot in group three with their opponents. Colin Bell’s side have impressed up to the half way point of this campaign, securing ten points in their first four games of the competition. […]

8 years ago

Conor Fogarty meant business on Sunday. Conor Fogarty always means business. A bout of Glandular fever over the winter kept the Erin’s Own club man out of Kilkenny’s National League campaign up until its closing stages. He may not have been ready for game time but he was still putting in the hard slog in […]

8 years ago

A chip off the old block. We can talk about match-ups, systems and tactics all we want but the bottom line is that Kilkenny were hungrier than Tipperary in Nowlan Park on Sunday. They smothered the breaks quicker, they hunted like savages in tight packs when Tipperary had the ball and when they won it […]

8 years ago

It was all about TJ Reid. Hurling’s deadliest forward’s first half performance in the League final on Sunday was the greatest the majority of the 17,000 crowd in Nowlan Park have ever been lucky enough to witness. The Ballyhale Shamrocks sniper only got on the ball on six occasions in that opening 35 minutes of […]

8 years ago

And he still came out on the losing side. Alan Davey just had one of those days. One of those days where not even from a bullet from a gun would have made it past him. One of those days where he was able to spread his body with the the flexibility of an elastic […]

8 years ago

The moment of the game. Padraig Walsh is in the full back line by necessity. A problem position for Kilkenny ever since JJ Delaney hung up his stick in 2014, Brian Cody has tried and failed to fill that famous number three jersey on numerous occasions in the meantime. Joey Holden was tested, Paul Murphy […]

8 years ago

Harsh. Here’s how the Lades National Football League Division One table looks now with the group stages now complete. Each of the eight teams played each other once in these group games. With the group stages now complete, the competition turns to its semi-final stages. In a set-up like this, you would expect that the […]

8 years ago

That was a brilliant League. At the end of it all, it was Kilkenny who came out on top of the pile. We didn’t think we’d be saying that after the Cats lost their first two rounds to Cork and Clare but six victories later and Cillian Buckley would be accepting the Dr. Croke Cup […]

8 years ago

It was only two weeks ago that these lads were toasting their second All-Ireland club title in the space of two years. Only two weeks ago, they had reached the very top of the club game after 12 months of hard training, after coming out the victorious side of mammoth battles every time they took […]

8 years ago

Club GAA is back. It hasn’t really been gone for that long. After all it was only two weeks ago that Cuala lifted hurling’s ultimate crown when they defeated Na Piarsaigh in the All-Ireland club final replay. On Saturday Matty Kenny’s men were back in action as they began the defence of their crown in […]

8 years ago

Walter Walsh is your quintessential full forward. The Tullogher Rosbercon club man is one of hurling’s biggest men. Standing at over 6 ft 5 in tall, the former Leinster rugby trialist is built like a brick wall too. Along with Paudie Maher, Kilkenny’s unorthodox attacking weapon is without doubt the most frightening physical specimen in […]

8 years ago

The cream of the available crops. The more things change, the more they stay the same. For all the talk of youth-inspired risings in Clare, Limerick, Wexford and further afield, it’s still Tipperary and Kilkenny who will contest the first of the year’s National Hurling finals. The old rivals will lock horns again in the […]

8 years ago

Not the way the American wanted to begin his Friday. Jordan Spieth dropped three shots on his first two holes in Augusta National on the second round of the Masters tournament. The American plunged to a double bogey 6 on the first hole and followed this up with a nervous dropped shot on the Par […]

8 years ago

Conor McGregor told Dana White that he felt his actions in Brooklyn on Thursday evening were justified. McGregor and some of his 30 strong entourage were captured on camera vandalising a bus full of MMA fighters and injured some of those fighters at the UFC 223 Media Day on Thursday, which led to three fights […]

8 years ago

Paddy Jackson has released a statement. The Ireland and Ulster rugby star was acquitted of rape last week. In a statement released on Friday morning, the 26-year-old told the Press Association of his shame at the events of the night in question. He also apologised for his use of offensive language in WhatsApp messages. You […]

8 years ago

It’s set to be a sporting feast on this Friday’s Late Late Show. Few have mastered the art of saying a lot, but saying nothing at all quite like those involved in sport. There are few things in this world less disenchanting than the passive sporting interviews that have frustratingly become all too common recently. […]

8 years ago

He doesn’t appear to be too intimidated by The Notorious. Conor McGregor’s backstage Brooklyn binge was said to have been inspired by a beef with Russian fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov. McGregor went nuts at the Barclays Centre on Thursday evening, hoisting and launching railings and bins in the direction of a bus which contained fighters for Saturday […]

8 years ago

Conor McGregor has been charged with assault and criminal mischief following his antics at the UFC 223 media day. The Crumlin native and his 30 strong entourage went nuts in the Barclays Centre on Thursday evening. They gained unauthorised access to the backstage area of the Brooklyn arena and made their presence felt upon arrival. […]

8 years ago