This should be fun. For some reason, the hype hasn’t really taken off for Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor’s World Lightweight title fight at UFC 229. After all, their Las Vegas clash is just over two weeks away now. Fear not because with the pair facing off for the first time in the Radio City […]

8 years ago

It’s time. It’s a real hurling weekend with quarter finals taking place all over the country. Clare’s games are the pick of the lot and they’ll be shown live on GAA BEO on TG4 on Sunday. There are some decent football games too, in Mayo, Donegal and further afield. We’ve a seven leg accumulator for […]

8 years ago

Yes, yes and yes. The county championships have been delivering already. Like we can always count on them to do. You know rubber’s really hitting the road with the county championships all over when TG4 are on board, and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, Pat Fleury and co. are travelling the country this weekend. We don’t miss […]

8 years ago

There’s a sacredness about it all. There’s something magical about it all. There are few experiences quite like it. Walking in the door of a hurley-maker’s work-shop is like walking into a church for the first time. You’re not sure where to look because from the floor all the way up to the roof there’s […]

8 years ago

Hard to argue with the Kerry legend. Ciaran Kilkenny enjoyed a brilliant 2018 National League campaign. The Castleknock club man was widely considered as the most impressive performer of the whole competition with his positional change from the dogged, tracking half forward to the dangerous man on the inside line clearly giving him a new […]

8 years ago

What talents

8 years ago

There are apparently three men in the running for the role. Is it a poisoned chalice or is it an attractive post? Stephen Rochford’s abrupt release would appear to suggest the former, but there are a number of pulls with the Mayo job too. The most primary of those is undoubtedly the fact that Mayo […]

8 years ago

That was a sweet one for the Dublin ladies. The Dublin ladies lifted their second Brendan Martin Cup in a row on Sunday. A powerful performance saw them edge Cork with five to spare in the thrilling Croke Park finale. Mick Bohan’s side put on a spectacle for the 50,141 in attendance with their direct […]

8 years ago

The stars of the show. The open nature of the Minor Hurling Team of the year underlines just how competitive the 2018 championship was. By the end of it all, it was Galway who lifted the Irish Press Cup for a second year in a row but that was only after they came through some […]

8 years ago

Sleep is key. A study was carried out on the lives of inter-county players recently and there were some interesting findings. Basically, inter-county players are more sleep-deprived and injury prone than your normal Gael because of their involvement in the county panel. But as with all stats, they should be taken with a pinch of […]

8 years ago

He’s coming good now. Tony Brosnan always had it. It takes a special talent to make it onto a Kerry minor team these days and Brosnan made it in 2013. He was a sub that year but three years later he’d made the jump that every minor aspires to make. By 2016 he was on […]

8 years ago

The Mayo county board hope this is the end of it now. The Mayo ladies management and the 12 players who left the panel have been involved in a back and forth over the last few months. Throughout it all, the Mayo county board have remained by the management’s side and they stuck to their […]

8 years ago

We didn’t really care about this until it started affecting us. Because we’re going to be leaving work this evening while half of the night’s Champions League games are kicking off. It’s going to be peak rush-hour traffic in Dublin while Barcelona take on PSV and Spurs battle with Inter Milan. We had something special. […]

8 years ago

Jonny Cooper couldn’t even lay a glove on him. Skerries Harps almost pulled off the shock of the Dublin Senior Football Championship at the weekend. The 13/1 shots were leading Na Fianna by six points early in the second half only to be pegged back for a draw by a late charge from the 1/8 […]

8 years ago

There was a battle of the brothers in Parnell Park on Friday evening. Ballyboden St Enda’s were hot favourites going into their Dublin SFC quarter final against Oliver Plunkett’s but they only survived by the skins of their teeth. A late Colm Basquel free saved the 2015 All-Ireland club champions’ bacon late on, after Bernard […]

8 years ago

This was 28 years coming. The divisional championships aren’t contested as fiercely in any county as they are in Tipperary hurling. There are four divisions in Tipperary – the west and the south but it’s generally the north and the mid that are the most competitive. You’ve hurling giants like Loughmore-Castleiney, Drom and Inch and […]

8 years ago

Remember the name. He may not be the biggest or he may not be the strongest. He may be small in stature but Shane Conway doesn’t let that affect him. Many of hurling’s finest have been slight figures with sharp hurling brains and big hearts. Just look at DJ Carey and Joe Deane back in […]

8 years ago

Just when things were starting to look up. Jesus, what a blow for Dublin. What a blow for Dublin hurling and what a blow for the Dublin county board. Befor 2018, their county’s hurlers had been in the wilderness for way too long. Anthony Daly left the scene back in 2014 and that sent Dublin […]

8 years ago

She doesn’t even give the goalkeeper a chance. Dublin won the All-Ireland senior ladies final for the second year in a row on Sunday and Carla Rowe’s cool finishing was the difference between themselves and Cork. The Clann Mhuire woman got two chances out there, and she put both of them away like she wanted […]

8 years ago

And by God did they get their money’s worth. Build it and they will come. The LGFA have gotten to work over the last few years and Ireland has responded. Now ladies football is stronger than it’s ever been and it’s only getting stronger with each passing year. They’ve set out their targets, they’ve got […]

8 years ago

Tyrone 6-8 Meath 1-14 A goal in each half from captain Neamh Woods helped Tyrone claim the TG4 intermediate title and secured their return to senior football after a three-year absence. Niamh Hughes, Gráinne Rafferty and Gemma Begley also hit the net for Gerry Moane’s side, who put the upset of last year’s defeat at […]

8 years ago

Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face. Belts, cuts and scars heel a lot quicker when you’re after winning a game. After losing, the pain of a loss and and any injuries suffered are ten times worse. Moy Tír Na nÓg suffered an agonising one point defeat to Edendork in the […]

8 years ago

When everything else deserts us, the GAA is always there by our sides. Some say the settling of the All-Ireland hurling and football championships marks the end of it for another GAA year. They’re wrong. Or else they’re only sunshine supporters. The club kicked off in April but there was only one game then and […]

8 years ago

Now we’re hurling. The evenings are getting shorter, the weather is getting windier and the days are getting wetter. Which can only mean one thing, that club championships in Cork, Antrim and everywhere in between are reaching their decisive stages. The preparation has been done. They’ve been running laps of waterlogged pitches since this time […]

8 years ago

Do you play county? It’s time for the underage star to hit college or for college to hit them – whatever way you look at it. College can and will make a GAA player just as easily as it will break the next one. They all head up the road – up to Dublin and […]

8 years ago

The bookies are rarely wrong. But when it comes to club GAA, there are always a few bargains to be had. That’s because the bookies simply can’t have their finger on the pulses of every single GAA game going. There’s a load of club games all over Ireland this weekend. It’s more of a football […]

8 years ago

Last weekend was the first we’d heard of Tommy Walsh in a long time. Once an underage prodigy, the AFL explorer’s Kerry career never really hit the heights again once he returned home to the Kingdom. A nightmare hamstring injury when he was in his pomp at 26 Down Under undoubtedly hindered him, and finally, […]

8 years ago

The Underdogs series 2018 is in full swing now. Episode two of the Underdogs was broadcast on TG4 on Thursday night and the lads were put through their paces in AIT. The unheralded bunch performed a whole host of physical tests, from standing jumps to the dreaded bleep tests and it certainly separated the fit […]

8 years ago

Tommy Walsh is enjoying life as a club footballer for now. In 2009 the Kerryman headed Down Under with the world at his feet. He had the pick of the AFL clubs and eventually it was St Kilda who won the race to secure his signature. He’d spend two years there in Melbourne before transferring […]

8 years ago

That’s a fair bit of feeding in just the one day. Ever notice that it’s actually your skinny friends who eat the most? That’s usually, apart from the odd case of a lazy lad with a high metabolism, because of the amount of exercise these skinny ones pack into a day. And when it comes […]

8 years ago

The best was yet to come for Kieran Donaghy. It’s a windy December night in 2004 and Kieran Donaghy is just another Underdog. He’s impressed through the trials, he’s made the cut for the team and he’s lining out against his home county Kerry in his own back yard in Tralee. Kieran Donaghy hasn’t made […]

8 years ago

All Richie Hogan wanted was a few options. The four-time All-Star and 2014 Hurler of the Year thinks John Conlon should be in with a big shout for that gong after this year. With Graeme Mulcahy hot on his heels. The Kilkenny man was also impressed with Seamus Flanagan’s abrasive style in a Limerick jersey […]

8 years ago

It’s always tough to decide on these end of season awards. The 45 nominations for the 2018 All-Star hurling team were released on Thursday morning. All-Ireland champions Limerick lead the way with each of their starting 15 earning nominations and they’re followed by beaten finalists Galway with nine, Cork with seven, Clare and Kilkenny five, […]

8 years ago

This is hard to believe. Graeme Mulcahy was tipped by many to collect the Hurler of the Year gong for 2018. The Kilmallock club man was on fire from the very first day in this year’s championship against Tipperary in the Gaelic Grounds to the last against Galway in Croke Park. He skinned each and […]

8 years ago

“That’s the only reason I’m on this show right now, because that brought it into a different category.” Cora Staunton was a guest on Off The Ball last week when she claimed that she had left the Mayo ladies senior football panel because the environment in that squad was no longer healthy or safe. “We […]

8 years ago

A group of 12 Mayo Ladies footballers left their panel in July. That was ten days before they were to play Cavan in the first round of this year’s All-Ireland senior ladies football championship. This ten left the panel on ‘player welfare’ issues. They have not since rejoined the panel and in the meantime a […]

8 years ago

It was all of our first times to experience All-Ireland camogie final day. Myself and Barry had a fair idea of what to expect but our Donegal friend Daniel had never seen a game of camogie in his life. In fairness, we’re not all-weather camogie fans either, but in comparison to Daniel, we’re experts. Daniel […]

8 years ago

Now this is hard to credit. The minor football team of the year was announced on Wednesday morning and one absentee is leaving football folk scratching their heads. Paul O’Shea was arguably Kerry’s most consistent player from their first game against Tipperary in Munster to their last, that famous win against Galway in Croker. In […]

8 years ago

But how many of them will make the team? Never will two GAA men agree on an All-Star team and 2018 will be no different. When The Sunday Game panel named Stephen Cluxton in goals ahead of Rory Beggan, on the back of his season of a lifetime in a Monaghan jersey, there was always […]

8 years ago

The Star was never a big man for the winter training anyway, but he definitely won’t be showing his face around the Kerry camp this January. Kieran Donaghy had a bit of a routine going for the last few years. He’d focus on basketball in the winter months and he’d only join up with the Kerry […]

8 years ago

Darragh O’Connell doesn’t drink. The Cuala and Dublin midfielder is one of the fittest hurlers in the game. He’s the type of midfielder you’ll see searing forward, dashing through the heart of the opposition’s defence. What’s unique about the 27-year-old is his running style. It’s so smooth. His posture is upright and his head his […]

8 years ago

Dublin are so dominant right now. Mayo have been the only team to really lay a glove on them in the last four years but as the Dubs improve with each passing year, the chasing pack falls further behind. There’s talk of splitting Dublin to even the whole thing up, there’s talk of everything and […]

8 years ago

Peter Crouch’s new autobiography is really good. So he says himself anyway. My book is really good . — Peter Crouch (@petercrouch) September 6, 2018 Crouchy has earned a bit of a reputation for himself with his Twitter presence over the last few years and if his self depreciating wit on social media is anything […]

8 years ago

“The budget required to finance success at the highest level demands year-round attention.” It was in Kevin McStay’s resignation notice to the Roscommon county board that he referenced the financial issue. “I have to acknowledge the inordinate amount of time I spent dealing with financial and facility issues…” he continued. Time is money, and Kevin […]

8 years ago

All of these stereotypes about inter-county players being boring, cliched people are wide of the mark anyway. What do we actually expect from our GAA players? Because they are just normal people. Yes, they’ve a a supreme talent and a status to go with that. Yes, we all look up to them and admire them […]

8 years ago

It’s every GAA player’s worst nightmare. It’s a game of swings and roundabouts. Less than three weeks on from Limerick’s historic first All-Ireland win since 1973, victorious defender Richie McCarthy tore his cruciate in a club game. The Blackrock full back had been a mainstay of the Limerick team for years. A short, stocky, plucky […]

8 years ago

Mark Gibbons knew he had work to do from the minute he walked in. The Dublin man had seen that three goalies had been picked before him. He left the Abbotstown meeting room where the trialists gathered and headed in Paul Galvin, Valerie Mulcahy and Ray Silke’s direction knowing what they were about to say […]

8 years ago

Giggsy didn’t know what to make of it all. The Manchester United legend got his career in the dug-out off to a great start when his exciting, new look Wales team ripped Ireland a new one over in Cardiff. Martin O’Neill’s Ireland were absolutely hapless and the men of Wales lined them up and took […]

8 years ago

Paul Galvin knows what he wants in a player. TG4’s Underdogs returned to our television screens after a ten year hiatus on Thursday night and it brought a new job for Kerry legend Paul Galvin. Rather than throwing himself around the half forward line, the Lixnaw native was on the other side of the line […]

8 years ago

It’s not like Donegal people are shy to brag about their county, but…

8 years ago