You’re in with a shot today.

5 years ago

Famed as a sweeper keeper, renowned as a mad hoor in the goals, what many don’t know is that Shane ‘Cake’ Curran was once a mad hoor in the forwards. The year was 1991 and Cake, this cocky, confrontational and class corner forward was the top scoring attacker in the Roscommon club championship. Martin McDermott […]

5 years ago

Start your week off the right way.

5 years ago

It says it all about Keith Higgins that corner forwards used to spend the day marking him. With his tenacious style and those frequent, uninhibited bursts from defence, Mayo’s number four was a missile that took minding and in his company, forwards spent a long time chasing shadows. In many ways, the Ballyhaunis clubman was […]

5 years ago

As Dublin’s dominance not just of Leinster but of Ireland continues, questions persist about finances, population and potentially levelling the playing field. On Thursday’s GAA Hour Show, Colm Parkinson quizzed Leinster Council CEO Michael Reynolds about plans and strategies to make the province more competitive. Colm Parkinson: Dublin is actually population wise, games development money-wise, […]

5 years ago

Paul Murphy was first called into the Kilkenny panel in 2008 and the recently retired four-time All-Star remembers that first training session like it was only yesterday. In the hallowed fields of St Kieran’s College was where he pucked his first ball as a Kilkenny hurler and the memories from that first night in roll […]

5 years ago

Truly devastating news. The Irish athletics community has been shocked and saddened by the death of brave athlete and straight-talking pundit Jerry Kiernan at the age of just 67. Born in Listowel, Kerry, the flamboyant Kiernan made a name for himself as one of Ireland’s toughest and most talented distance runners for his club Clonliffe […]

5 years ago

Can you beat 13/20? Wouldn’t bank on it.

5 years ago

There was a bit of stick doing the rounds last year, as Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester City side slipped from second place to fifth in the second half of the season. The critics were out in force and they called him the ‘half season man,’ a ‘bottler,’ and whole-heartedly claimed that his teams suffer, and will […]

5 years ago

After losing the 2011 All-Ireland camogie final, Galway centre back Therese Maher was down and out. 14 years of moral victories and near misses counted for nothing at that moment, as the final whistle sounded and her stomach turned at the reality of losing her fifth All-Ireland final in five attempts. It was Wexford who […]

5 years ago

You can understand the frustration felt by Novak Djokovic and his fellow quarantined tennis stars…to a point. The food from their Victorian base does look fairly bog standard. We’ll give them that. Having to train from a hotel room in the week leading up to a career defining grand slam is hardly ideal and without […]

5 years ago

Get the week going with a good old 12/20 in this quiz.

5 years ago

The news coming from Australia is positive, as Bríd Stack has been discharged from hospital and is expected to make a full recovery following an injury she sustained on Saturday. The 11-time All-Ireland winner was playing in a pre season AFLW game for the Giants when she was injured by a tackle that occurred late […]

5 years ago

Neither team wanted to lose. Neither team deserved to win. Liverpool are three games without a goal and United are still unsure of themselves. On the surface, a point at Anfield isn’t a bad return for Olé Gunnar’s men but cooling any Mancunian optimism is a makeshift Liverpool team, a Liverpool team playing the worst […]

5 years ago

Twitter would have been carnage. What the All-Stars really stand for has been lost in translation over the last while. When Colm Cavanagh’s named at full back on the team, even though he never played a minute on the edge of the square for Tyrone for the whole year, you know there’s something wrong. The […]

5 years ago

6 Munster titles, 1 All-Ireland, 1 All-Star and a National Football League – it’s fair to say that it wasn’t a bad innings for Kerry’s recently retired defender Shane Enright. 2016 was the Tarbert club-man’s individual peak, when he was named at right corner back on the year’s All-Star team. Overall he looks back on […]

5 years ago

The devil’s advocate says that Brian Cody’s methods are becoming stale, that this Kilkenny team aren’t fulfilling their potential. Sometimes, devil’s advocates makes a lot of noise. Eoin Larkin, on the other hand, is a realist, a realist who feels that Kilkenny have ‘overachieved’ in the last few years given the strength of their panel. […]

5 years ago

All the best.

5 years ago

In terms of motivational tools, the good old fashioned chip on the shoulder gets more credit than most. There’s nothing quite like a simple grudge to rile a person up and if you’ve ever seen Ryan O’Dwyer hurl, you’ve witnessed a man who played the game like he had a floury spud weighing him down. […]

5 years ago

Easy like Sunday morning…

5 years ago

“I was thinking to myself this lad must have the wrong number. It must be another Seamus, maybe it’s Seamus Hickey he’s looking for, because it’s definitely not me…” It’s easy to forget just how much of a bolt from the blue Seamus Flanagan was to the 2018 championship. With two rather unremarkable seasons behind […]

5 years ago

Here we flippin’ go!

5 years ago

Kevin Cassidy should be cherished and here’s why. Was he a wing back or was he a full forward? Over the course of a glittering 20 year career, he was both. You’d have to go a long way to find another two-time All-Star half back that inspired their club to provincial glory from full forward. […]

5 years ago

The Waterford midfielder was in high demand. Less than 48 hours after Milwall had a club record transfer bid of €1.5 million turned down by Brighton and Hove Albion, Jayson Molumby has completed a loan deal that takes him to Preston North End for the rest of the season. At Deepdale, the 21-year-old will join […]

5 years ago

“Time to go,” says Tom Parsons. After a 12 year Mayo career, the stalwart midfielder has hung up his inter-county boots. “To the resilient people of Mayo,” the 33-year-old added, “I can still hear your voices ringing in my ears from the stands of McHale Park to Croker.” There are none more resilient than Parsons […]

5 years ago

Andy Moran took a seat in the dressing room and sitting down across from him was David Clarke. This was Mayo under-16 training, this was first impressions and as young fellas do, Moran began sizing up the competition with the fella alongside him. Fred Queenan was his name, a Ballina Stephenites man and when they […]

5 years ago

20 years of stellar service, David Clarke gave a lifetime to Mayo GAA. The Ballina Stephenites player first arrived onto the Mayo senior panel in 2001 and ever since making his debut in the League in 2002, he has been a key player for his county. Winning All-Stars in both 2016 and 2017, Clarke was […]

5 years ago

It’s not getting any easier.

5 years ago

Dimitri Van den Bergh and Jose de Sousa have made the cut for the Premier League darts line-up for the first time in their careers. Dates for the 2021 competition are yet to be confirmed as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, however the show will go on, and it will once […]

5 years ago

An injury to his right wrist ended Gerwyn Price’s professional rugby career in 2014. Seven remarkable years on and that right wrist helped him become the World Darts champion, and the number one ranked dart thrower in the world. Playing in his first world final, Price blazed into a 5-1 lead and despite some late […]

5 years ago

We’re back baby!

5 years ago

Armagh are waiting with open arms. After two years Down Under, Cullyhanna man Ross McQuillan is coming back to the Orchard County having called time on his AFL career. McQuillan, who made his Armagh senior debut in the 2018 Championship season, headed for Australia in 2019 having impressed various AFL scouts and teams. The St […]

5 years ago

Two championship games in October and November gnaw away at him. Davy Fitzgerald has been tossing and turning. Galway beat them by 13 and Clare beat them by seven and Davy Fitzgerald has taken those beatings personally. The Wexford manager has been in overdrive since. In five years, he’s won a Leinster championship and changed […]

5 years ago

‘I ate my dinner in the bedroom yet the Roscommon minors won the Connacht Championship the following day. Where in good God’s name are our priorities at?’ The list of people looking for sympathy this year has ran out of paper. The lads didn’t get their annual St Stephen’s day night out. Loved ones had […]

5 years ago

Brian Fenton was typically magnificent this season but in the the four horse race to become Gaelic Footballer of the Year, Ciaran Kilkenny is out on his own. Playing in a role that utilised his lethal attacking abilities, the Castleknock man went to town. From their Championship-opener against Westmeath to the final against Mayo, Kilkenny […]

5 years ago

Not a sinner on earth could criticise Dublin under-20 corner back Josh Bannon for accentuating the contact from Galway’s Eoin Mannion, as the Dubs chased a late equaliser in the All-Ireland final. Because in his boots, the majority would have done the exact same thing. With Galway defending resolutely and in great numbers, the chances […]

5 years ago

There’s no love lost between Lee Keegan and Dublin. But the mutual respect is clear. As the Westport man chased down an inviting Aidan O’Shea handpass on Saturday evening, he could have had no idea that Michael Fitzsimons was lining him up, ready to pounce. Keegan had eyes for the ball, mind on the goal […]

5 years ago

In the end, it was all a bit anti-climatic. Limerick have been threatening to plant a green and white flag in a different planet these last few seasons and on Sunday they set up camp. A blemish free, 30 point performance won John Kiely’s team their second All-Ireland senior hurling title in the space of […]

5 years ago

Ever since he was 19 years of age, Neil McManus has been the beating heart of Antrim hurling. For large parts of his career, their pulse only barely registered but McManus, that Cushendall stalwart, has been a key figure in keeping that great Antrim identity alive. Whether it was through inspirational feats with his club […]

5 years ago

Kilkenny 1-14 Galway 1-11 Having tasted defeat in the last three All-Ireland finals, the women of Kilkenny simply would not go home without the O’Duffy Cup on this December Saturday. With a display shaped by courage, conviction and some wholehearted endeavour, they got the better of last year’s champions Galway to win their first Championship […]

5 years ago

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen

5 years ago

On their holidays in west Cork, the Lyons family would often find themselves a man down. For fear he’d miss a training session or worse again, a match, youngest son Calum used stay back home in Ballyduff Lower, where he’d booked in with his underage coach Alan Dempsey. 12 years of age and already a […]

5 years ago

Sharpen the blades

5 years ago

Tipperary died but at least they didn’t die wondering. Against Cork, Tipperary took their chances. Against Mayo, they didn’t. You can complicate it, confuse it, conclude it that maybe Tipperary aren’t up to this level all you like, but if Michael Quinlivan had done what he usually does, and if Conor Sweeney had done what […]

5 years ago

The road to Qatar begins here. The draw for qualification to the 2022 Qatar World Cup took place in Zurich this evening with Stephen Kenny’s side unquestionably in for a rough ride. In many ways, Ireland’s fate was sealed during a goalless November, which saw them drop out of Europe’s top 20 and into a […]

5 years ago

“They (Galway) would have had the opportunity to get out onto the pitch earlier had they not spent so much time in the dressing room.” So reasoned LGFA president Marie Hickey on Morning Ireland on Monday morning, as she attempted to explain why the Galway ladies football team only had time five or six minutes […]

5 years ago

What even is a marquee forward? Cillian O’Connor does his talking in goals and points. By design, the Tipperary footballers play a kamikaze game based on high tempo flair and high stake opportunities. On Sunday, there was only one team taking the opportunities and there was one cold-blooded man leading the way. Tipperary did not […]

5 years ago

Anthony Nash was first brought onto the Cork panel in 2005. Over the course of the next six years, the Kanturk player would only make one Championship appearance, when he replaced the suspended Donal Óg Cusack in the 2007 Munster semi-final against Waterford. Nash didn’t start another championship game until 2012, aged 28. When the […]

5 years ago

What a disaster for supporters, for parents, for broadcasters and indeed for the ladies football championship in general. The TG4 All-Ireland senior ladies football championship semi-final between Cork and Galway has been switched from Parnell Park to Croke Park due to unplayable icy conditions in the Donnycarney venue. The game, originally due to take place […]

5 years ago

It’s Championship Sunday

5 years ago