As you watched Eoin Murphy making the stops, sweeping the breaks and saving the cats in one of the great All-Ireland semi-final performances, it wasn’t long after the amazement when the mind turned back to a sunny Saturday in late May. Kilkenny had just annihilated Wexford in a National League game that, to both sides, […]

5 years ago

Shane Kingston had every reason to believe that he should have been starting in Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny. It’s not all about scoring, true, but it all points to an in-form forward when you can say that he’s scored a goal in each of the three championship games he’s played in this year. It […]

5 years ago

It’s going to be a long fortnight for Peter Casey, all ifs, buts and maybes as he mulls over a mistake and potentially, turns his head towards an appeal. It’s especially disappointing for the Na Piarsaigh man when you consider that, given the red card he was shown for ‘head-butting’ Conor Gleeson on Saturday, it’s […]

5 years ago

Ger Millerick hurled one of the worst games of his life in 2020 when, with the temptation of an All-Ireland club semi-final pulling him in, he threw caution to the wind and said to hell with it. There’s no way in heaven Millerick, on one leg and with no training, should have been hurling the […]

5 years ago

After what many are calling one of the greatest Irish boxing performances of all-time, Kellie Harrington has done it, she’s an Olympic champion. And that’s the beautiful thing for the Dubliner that, on the highest stage of all, in the show she’s spent her whole life preparing for, she didn’t just go through the motions […]

5 years ago

Limerick 1-25 Waterford 0-17 There was confusion in the Croke Park air as, having chatted with his umpires, All-Ireland semi-final referee John Keenan flashed a red card at Peter Casey which as things stand, will rule the corner forward out of the 2021 All-Ireland hurling final. Usually, given the GAA’s lengthy and all-encompassing appeals process, […]

5 years ago

As Jackie Tyrrell said earlier in the year, ‘I see these water-breaks, and there’s not much water being drank.’ Water-breaks were brought into the GAA for a specific reason at the start of last year, but as the time has gone on, it’s clear that they’re being used in completely different terms. Nowadays, managers, coaches […]

5 years ago

Peter Hogan is the best finisher I’ve ever played with. Let me re-phrase that. Peter Hogan is the best finisher I’ve ever sat on the bench and watched, jaw dropping to the grass, Hogan rifling sliotars nowhere else other than the top corner of the net. There was a time when we were teammates on […]

5 years ago

Having failed to make it out of Ulster in successive seasons, Paddy McBrearty says that Donegal have no excuses and admits that they haven’t lived up to the hype that has surrounded them. It’s been a disappointing couple of years for Declan Bonner’s men who, having followed up an Ulster final loss in 2020 with […]

5 years ago

You get the sense that, even if Kellie Harrington had lost Thursday morning’s fight against her Thai opponent, the Portland Row fighter would still be standing in the ring smiling, still taking it all in her stride, still lifting her opponent’s arm to the sky. It’s as if the 31-year-old has reached a state of […]

5 years ago

Liam Rushe went to nail him so when Tim O’Mahoney broke the tackle and left the Dublin centre back on his heels, it was like the red sea opening in front of him. Maybe Dublin’s corner backs had so much confidence in their bucking bronco of a number that 6 they never even thought about […]

5 years ago

For Ireland, there have been many hard luck stories, more disappointed faces and lots of tales of woe from Tokyo 2020. It’s the cold, hard truth of it that, in a competition against the world’s best, it’s no strange thing nor is it any shame for the whole experience to end in heartache. But the […]

5 years ago

Waterford 4-28 Tipperary 2-27 In truth, Waterford should have seen to it that Tipperary didn’t even get a chance to stay alive in this championship. But there John McGrath was, one-on-one with the goalie, three points down, seventy minutes on the clock. The Loughmore-Castleiney assassin hasn’t been himself in a year but after a bright […]

5 years ago

It was one of those nights in the Athletic Grounds when the significance of the result just faded behind the emotion and the sadness of the occasion. Of course, it would have been a precious thing for the Monaghan under-20s to have honoured their late team-mate Brendan Óg Ó Dufaigh with an Ulster championship but […]

5 years ago

While you were sleeping, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry were slowly but steadily climbing their way up the leaderboard at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama. The Irishmen did it together too as, playing alongside each other for the third round of this Olympics golf tournament, McIlroy shot a 67 to Lowry’s 68 which leaves […]

5 years ago

Paul O’Donovan is not here to make headlines. Paul O’Donovan is here to win races. It’s unfair to call the two-time Olympic medallist a mysterious, stand-offish character based on interviews alone but as he gives little away and occasionally, appears underwhelmed standing over a microphone, it’s the type of thing that leaves you wondering. After […]

5 years ago

There’ll be no sleeping after that one. Paul O’Donovan and his double-sculls partner Fintan McCarthy have won the Olympic Gold medal after another brilliant row on the Tokyo water. Expectations were high heading into the final, and the men from Skibbereen didn’t disappoint, clawing back the German pace-setters before powering to victory in the final […]

5 years ago

It was just before the second water-break in Saturday’s All-Ireland qualifier when Jamie Barron said enough with this bush-beating, let’s finish Galway off. 44 minutes were on the clock when he looked up, didn’t see a pass on so said he might as well burn a few Galway boys before putting Waterford 15 points up. […]

5 years ago

Mona McSharry is just 20 years old, she’s competing in her first Olympic games but that didn’t stop her beating some of the best in the world to make it through to the final of the women’s 100m breaststroke. Two brilliant performances, first in her heat and then in her semi-final, have seen the Sligo […]

5 years ago

It’s the battle of the Liams, says Shane McGrath, as Monday morning’s hurling qualifier draw pitted Tipperary against an in-form Waterford in this Saturday’s All-Ireland hurling quarter final. The other side of the draw will see Cork, buoyed by their defeat of Clare on Saturday, taking on beaten Leinster finalists Dublin who will be aiming […]

5 years ago

Waterford 1-30 Galway 3-20 If not one, then two Galway men were poised like greyhounds in the traps, heads on them like Shane Bennett, as he treaded dangerously close to the sideline, and Waterford were about to get sent a message. Shane Bennett looked one way, he jinked the other and that was enough to […]

5 years ago

It’s five years on from Rio De Janeiro, when Paul O’Donovan distilled the sport of rowing down to a simple thing. “Just close the eyes and pull like a dog,” is about the height of it he said, as himself and his older brother Gary powered their way to an Olympic silver medal. A lot […]

5 years ago

Colm Boyle was good enough to win an All-Star in 2017 but he was rarely good enough to last a full game for Mayo. To the naked eye, even when he was being whipped off after 45 and 50 minutes, the dashing Davitts club-man still had plenty to offer as one of the most energetic […]

5 years ago

It says it all, really, that after following up an eight point victory over Wexford with a six point victory over Meath, that Dublin are supposed to be in some sort of identity crisis. Davy Byrne bristles at the suggestion. The Naomh Olaf’s club-man will admit, yes, that it hasn’t been as smooth as it […]

5 years ago

As the Delta variant spreads across the country like wildfire, the inevitability is that, like the Dublin hurlers last Saturday, more county teams are about to be hit where it hurts by Covid 19. For the men of Dublin, they’ve suffered their fair share. One of their biggest and most eagerly anticipated games in years […]

5 years ago

Anton Tohill’s tears tell a story of their own but it’s the reaction of his teammates that tell you just how hard this man has worked for his moment. The Collingwood team huddle almost erupted with excitement, all jumps, roars and backslaps on Tuesday when head coach Robert Harvey let them know that Derry’s finest […]

5 years ago

Cork 3-20 Tipperary 2-17 In the space of a week, Tipperary have suddenly become a first half team. Just like the seniors, their under-20s blazed a first half fire that burned a pitch up and busied a scoreboard but from seven points down, Cork came back on this beautiful Tuesday night to win by six. […]

5 years ago

Never mind taking the ball off him because when Kyle Hayes puts the head down and takes off, you’d be doing well if you even fouled him. As a defender, this is what they call a hopeless task. As a teammate, this is what they call heaven. It’s a bit like watching Barcelona when the […]

5 years ago

A ball wasn’t even pucked in Saturday’s Leinster semi-final but with Covid Chaos having taken a hold of them, there was already a sense that the Dublin hurlers were up against it. Eoghan O’Donnell’s hamstring had dominated conversation and dampened expectation already but then, less than an hour before throw-in, the news landed like a […]

5 years ago

Compiled by John Fallon Cork manager Ephie Fitzgerald hailed his side’s fitness as they tamed the tropical temperatures to defeat Tipperary and qualify for the TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-final. The Rebels’ boss compared playing conditions in Tipperary Town to those he experienced in Thailand on an All Star trip, but despite their difficulties, two […]

5 years ago

Limerick 2-29 Tipperary 3-21 In a game of two halves so outrageously different it could be called a game of four teams, Limerick won the half that mattered most and in doing so they won their third Munster title in a row. How do you even make sense of it all? Tipp hurled like a […]

5 years ago

Derry 2-12 Kerry 1-14 The future is bright for the red and white. Kerry had some tremendous individual players, all silky, skilful and elusive in the All-Ireland minor in Tullamore on Sunday, but Derry were the better team and that’s why, after one of the most dramatic finishes imaginable, they are the champions. Martin Boyle’s […]

5 years ago

The future is bright. On what was a famous Saturday for Irish athletics, the country had three gold medal winners at the European U20 track and field championships in Estonia. Tallaght’s Rhasidat Adeleke got the team off to a flying start when she followed up her 100m gold with a comprehensive victory in the 200m […]

5 years ago

Ulster football is the new Munster hurling. And Jack McCarron is the new Gooch. It’s great to have the crowds back, it’s even better to have the sun shining of a championship Sunday, but best of all is having Jack McCarron fit, healthy and buzzy because in this kind of form, there is hardly a […]

5 years ago

It’s hard to escape the sense that, five successful years on, this could be Davy Fitzgerald’s last stand with Wexford. Between the commute, the precedence, the narrative that, leading into this season, Fitzgerald’s hell-bending motivation was to right the wrongs of 2020. If a happier ending was what brought him back then it all pointed […]

5 years ago

What goes around comes back around as a year after they were knocked out of the Connacht U20 championship having lost a penalty shoot-out to Galway, Mayo got their back in the lottery this time around. The penalties, they were sensational from a nerveless bunch of young men but you could have searched the length […]

5 years ago

You would run through a wall for Giorgio Chiellini and then you’d ask him where’s the next one. If Italy have the hearts of the world, then they were won four weeks ago when, fittingly, the first game of Euro 2020 was played and Rome was the location. It turned out to be the destination […]

5 years ago

He who laughs last, laughs longest. Michael Murphy jogs onto the pitch and he knows it, Declan Bonner knows it and surer than anyone else, Gareth McKinless knows it that Donegal are in a place they never wanted to be. 25 minutes left and the cotton wool is off, the hamstring is out because if […]

5 years ago

Now we are hurling. After a dull League, hurling sparked into life with the dawn of the championship last weekend and now with the All-Ireland final unbelievably less than six weeks away, the whole thing is heating up. The qualifier draw was always going to be a snake-pit when Galway, Clare, Cork, Waterford and Wexford […]

5 years ago

Galway 1-17 Kilkenny 1-14 Galway have won the minor All-Ireland. It’s like saying that the pope is a catholic or that Kilkenny aren’t beaten until you’re on the bus home with the cup in the boot. The Irish Press Cup is in the boot now, it’s heading west for the fourth year in succession and […]

5 years ago

Laois 2-27 Antrim 2-21 Antrim were the favourites but Laois were the classier team. In what was a do-or-die, win-or-bust game for both of these counties, it was the Laois players who rose to the occasion as they preserved their All-Ireland senior championship status for another year and in turn, relegated Antrim to the Joe […]

5 years ago

You think of Kevin Kinahan. You think of Brian Lohan. You think of all of these skyscrapers of men who, all bald-headed and full of conviction, turned full back play into an art-form. They were their team’s last line of defence and it doesn’t matter if it’s highlights, re-runs or memories that you have of […]

5 years ago

Just like the rest of us, Didi Hamann was surprised when Danny Makkelie pointed to the spot to give England a penalty in extra-time of this Euro 2020 semi-final against Denmark. Just like the rest of us, Didi Hamann reckoned Raheem Sterling was already on his way to the ground before the contact, if you’d […]

5 years ago

Kildare 0-16 Wexford 1-12 Years of dedication, mountains of preparation and a far-fetched dream of joining the big boys came true for Kildare hurling on Tuesday night, as their U20 hurling team pulled off one of the shocks of the year. Not only did the Lilywhites defeat a fancied Wexford side in the cauldron that […]

5 years ago

If you were one of the lucky 8000 who made it into Croke Park on Sunday, all hyped and excited to get back, it would have been about four pulsating hours later when you didn’t leave the place disappointed. God, that was some afternoon of hurling, some afternoon of hurling you might have said as […]

5 years ago

If there are three certainties in life, then the third one is Kilkenny having a good minor team. They’re calling it a fallow period for the Cats, who haven’t won a minor All-Ireland since 2014 but if that’s fallow then the rest of Ireland could give it up. That’s because, even though Kilkenny haven’t been […]

5 years ago

On Friday, Dublin and Ballyboden St Enda’s hurler James Madden laid his father Noel to rest. On Saturday, the right half back played a stormer in the Dublin hurling team’s most powerful performance in years. It’s a testament to the 25-year-old’s mental strength and his determination that he didn’t just play the game but played […]

5 years ago

Paul Flynn has defended his former teammate Stephen Cluxton after the goalkeeper was criticised for keeping Dublin in the dark over his inter-county future. It’s all up in the air for Dublin and for Dessie Farrell after the manager revealed on Sunday that Cluxton has stepped away from the Dublin panel but hasn’t yet retired. […]

5 years ago

There aren’t too many inter-county players who could step away at the age of 39 and hope to be called back. It’s the other way around in Stephen Cluxton’s case as with Dessie Farrell confirming that the legendary goalkeeper has stepped away but hasn’t retired, Dublin will be the ones doing the hoping. It was […]

5 years ago

There were about ten straight seconds during  Tipperary’s Munster championship clash with Clare on Sunday, when you stared at the screen in disbelief, fully convinced that your eyes had deceived you. Tipp were just clawing the thing back, having gone into the break trailing by two, but then along came referee James Owens with the […]

5 years ago