“I’d imagine they’re not inclined to suffer fools gladly.” Dessie Farrell is in an impossible position. It might appear easy. He’s taken over the most successful football team of all time and there isn’t any reason to think they won’t continue doing what they do. They’ve comfortably the best squad in the country, they still […]

6 years ago

Two major tournaments attended. It might not have always felt like it but it was a relatively successful decade. Giovanni Trapattoni, Martin O’Neill and Mick McCarthy have guided Ireland through 2010 to 2019 with extended trips to Poland (more brief than extended) and France helping to light up the football fraternity on the island. Despite […]

6 years ago

Pre-season Paul is no stranger to this time of year. He comes down full of enthusiasm and banter. He hasn’t been around for a while but he’ll take over the changing room, no bother to him, and he’ll even be telling boys to get their acts together and get into the huddle faster or do […]

6 years ago

Don’t take me home, they sing. Over and over and over again through the clattering, the laughing, the dancing. At first glance, you’d think it’s a circus. Chaos. Two and a half thousand people falling over each other, climbing over each other and shouting over each other and the only thing that brings them together […]

6 years ago

Inch by inch, play by play, until we’re finished. Who doesn’t love a good inspiring speech? Some of the greatest sports movies have given us some truly hair-raising moments down through the years – although some of them didn’t feel like they needed that defining speech. But a bit of motivation from the big screen […]

6 years ago

Brought to you by NOW TV. Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal. Best time of year? You bet your behind it is because we’ve non-stop football, non-stop darts and thanks to our friends at NOW TV, we have 10 Sports Extra Week Passes to give away. With the football fixtures coming thick and fast, it’s important to […]

6 years ago

Brought to you by NOW TV Let’s play darts! ‘Tis the f**king season, lads. Premier League, darts, Premier League, Champions Cup, Premier League. It’s Christmas time and big fluffy balls of sport are raining down from the skies. The darts is back, the Premier League is having the worst Christmas break of all time – […]

6 years ago

From the meeting to the arse lick in the group messages

6 years ago

Brought to you by NOW TV Ole’s at the wheel and that isn’t a punchline anymore. That’s a ‘how do you like me NOW’ statement. One win and one of the most lovable personalities in football has his swagger back but the party could be over nice and quick with a trip to the Etihad. […]

6 years ago

Brought to you by NOW TV And breathe. The international break is over. We made it. Just a couple of days back to the normality of the Premier League and it’s already more dramatic, more exciting and more deadly than anything else could be. Imagine you were a Spurs fan who goes to bed early. […]

6 years ago

Mick McCarthy was being tossed underarm throws in his post-match press conference but he decided to viciously slap them all away with his hand, rather than play any ball. There was a gathering outside the auditorium of some non-journalists who described how the Ireland manager was “destroying lives in there” but they reasoned that he […]

6 years ago

Ireland 1-1 Denmark It’s always 1-1. Yeah, it finished 1-1, Dean https://t.co/wbnTGkVWR3 — SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 18, 2019 Ireland were good on Monday night. They controlled the ball, they had the most chances and they could’ve won had they not fallen asleep at the back on one occasion. Unfortunately, once again, they needed the deficit […]

6 years ago

If you had told me at the start of the campaign… Bitten your hand off. All that. It’s a simple task for Ireland tonight: win and they’re through to Euro 2020. Unfortunately, due to recent events, it’s not all on the line anymore – it’s not win or bust which is generally what brings out […]

6 years ago

Brought to you by NOW TV A lot of you let yourself down last week. The average score for the Liverpool v City special came in at 12. 12! Please do better with this time. Please. There’s no Premier League this weekend so you’re safe in the international comfort zone. The Champions Cup is back […]

6 years ago

Brought to you by NOW TV Liverpool v Manchester City: hold onto your hats. The SportsJOE Friday Pub Quiz is devoted to two of the greatest teams of the Premier League era. Jurgen Klopp welcomes Pep Guardiola to Anfield on Sunday for the 4.30pm kick-off and it’s a must-win for City. The champions of Europe […]

6 years ago

Brought to you by NOW TV It’s Friday. It’s quiz time. And there are prizes to be won. The SportsJOE Friday Pub Quiz is back and it’s as tough as ever. In collaboration with NOW TV, we’re giving you the opportunity to win a free 2 month NOW TV Sports Extra Pass to enjoy the live action […]

6 years ago

It’s been a hell of a year for Leitrim GAA. In April, the footballers made their way back to Croke Park for the first time in over a decade. In June, the hurlers made Croke Park their own. "The balcony of heaven has opened and all of Leitrim are looking down…" 13 years on, the […]

6 years ago

The GAA task force set up by John Horan to ‘fix the fixtures’ could be undermined by John Horan’s plans for a tiered championship. A vote will be taken at Special Congress today for the introduction of a new tiered structure that would see Division 3 and 4 counties excluded from the football qualifiers – […]

6 years ago

“Lads, listen, you’re dealing with a different animal here.” Unfortunately in this game, talent and hard work isn’t aways enough. There comes a point for a lot of teams where they have to ‘stand up to it’, whatever it is. It’s usually just physical confrontation and the way around it is to toughen up and take […]

6 years ago

“So when you say it was an anticlimax, you mean there weren’t enough orgies?” Joe Brolly is a high-achiever. As a footballer he helped his club and county to heights they’ve never been near since. As a barrister, he’s renowned. As a pundit, he became one of the most influential in the country. At one […]

6 years ago

Sorry to bring it back to Wes Hoolahan. But remember the perception was always that he wasn’t the right man for certain jobs? If you wanted to keep it tight, if you wanted to grind out a result, you couldn’t afford to carry Wes Hoolahan – that’s what they said. And, yet, for one of […]

6 years ago

The Mazars Audit of specific financial operations of Galway GAA has rated 17 of its findings as ‘high risk’. Incidents of blank cheques being signed, gate receipt activity and the ability for an electronic funds transfer to be made up to €18.5k without secondary approval have all been highlighted in the report, seen by SportsJOE. […]

6 years ago

11.45am – “Well, boy, are you looking forward to this shite?” – “It’s about four months overdue. No point having a crisis meeting now when we have no time to fix the actual problems.” – “What’s the biggest problem that needs fixing?” – “The manager!” 11.50am There’s a nervous excitement in the air – the […]

6 years ago

Andy Farrell is a big advocate of line speed but he’s a bigger advocate of the bottom line – stopping the opposition. It’s not always about line speed. It’s about brains. It’s about aggression. It’s about plays. So as much as the Ireland defence coach demands of his wingers to keep a high line and […]

6 years ago

Niamh McEvoy, a Dub to the core. When the opportunity arises for any sportsperson to play professionally, it’s impossible to begrudge them. When those chances come up in an Australian summer, in a game perfectly suited for the player and in a season that will see them home in time for inter-county championship anyway, there’s […]

6 years ago

Noel McGrath probably won’t care too much that he wasn’t nominated for hurler of the year but the world feels a little imbalanced today because of it. Tipp’s killers, as Derek McGrath would call them, are deadly because of the shooting range Noel McGrath picks them up and drops them off at every couple of […]

6 years ago

The statistics are scary. Girls are way more likely to drop out of sport during their teenage years than boys are and it’s a shame because, at its best, sport is truly magnificent. It’s the greatest form of escapism that this race has invented and it can be so important for the head, for the […]

6 years ago

The golf bug comes for us all. Even after you go out and shoot a round of 204, even after you run out of balls – having started with 10 and picked up any stray ones you could find along the way – it only takes one good shot to drag you back. One free, […]

6 years ago

4pm There’s no-one on the southbound train from Drogheda who isn’t going to the game. You’d nearly feel sorry for the Dublin fans at this stage – they’ve gone into some of the biggest matches in their county’s history with almost boring inevitability. Few nerves have accompanied them along the way, just a hope that […]

6 years ago

Immortality. Dublin are the All-Ireland football champions for a fifth time in succession and they have written themselves into the annals of history. 1-18 to 0-15 was the final score at Croke Park as Dublin and Kerry were finally separated and here’s how the players got on the second day. KERRY Shane Ryan 7 Could […]

6 years ago

“Just got hammered this week, didn’t I?” Jon Walters wasn’t living under a rock. He saw the Roy Keane comments, he listened as his character was assassinated, his football career scoffed at and his family life – or at least his interviews about his family life – used as some sort of stick to beat […]

6 years ago

To treat everybody equally, treat them differently. People are different. Roy Keane is different. In any walk of life, the key to good management is getting the best out of your best assets, however you have to do that. With any group, you’re going to get some pains in the hole and you’re going to […]

6 years ago

Apparently Roy Keane holds grudges. A meeting of heads at Ipswich Town has transformed into what the tabloids would dub a war of words. Jon Walters has been telling some amazing stories about his eventful football career on JOE’s Liquid Football and, naturally, a lot of the madder ones revolve around a certain Cork man. […]

6 years ago

56 minutes on the clock and the scoreboard reads Dublin 1-14 Kerry 0-12. Jack McCaffrey has beaten another man and kicked another score and it’s a long, long way back from here against the best, most risk-averse team we’ve ever seen. Con O’Callaghan has just won a break from the next kickout – the only […]

6 years ago

And there’s the problem with Dublin, not that anyone needed any further evidence at this point. Kerry would’ve known they’d have a hell of a chance of beating the champions if they could somehow keep a lid on O’Callaghan and Mannion, and if they could stop Brian Fenton from running the show at the same […]

6 years ago

Conor Corbett doesn’t know when he’s beaten. Four weeks ago, Cathal O’Mahony stood over the toppled Dublin and declared words so fitting of Cork’s All-Ireland under-20 triumph. “We’re dogs,’ he said. “Dogs that fight in a pack. “So we just kept our pack going and we kept our county going.” On Sunday, in the minor […]

6 years ago

“There are seven changes to the match-day programme…” Well, there haven’t been yet so if we take Jim Gavin and Peter Keane at their word, we can see how 3.30pm in Croke Park will take shape. The teams have been named for the All-Ireland football final and, despite changes predicted before throw-in, the 15 that […]

6 years ago

It’s going to be a long 10 days living in Kerry for Peter Keane. It comes with the territory anyway, leading the most successful GAA county into an All-Ireland final, but it’s a different beast this time. It’s Dublin. It’s five in-a-row. And whatever about the rivalry or the history or the significance of this […]

6 years ago

8 games, 8 goals. Tipperary have a killer instinct and it’s because they’re led by the most cold-blooded assassin in the game. Seamus Callanan hasn’t left a championship pitch this year without rattling the net and none of their attackers – the Tipp Killers, as Derek McGrath would call them – are ever really happy […]

6 years ago

Brought to you by Centra Derek McGrath has spent a year out of the Waterford job and it probably feels like he hasn’t really been away. He’s kept his own distance. he’s done his best to switch off from it but his name has constantly been bandied about. Páraic Fanning stepped into the big shoes […]

6 years ago

Quietly, with strangely very little fuss-, the landscape of European football is changing. Right beneath everyone’s noses, a plan is being put in place to transform the Champions League by as early as 2024. Tony Evans wrote about the new format in the Independent.co.uk, which proposes four leagues of eight ‘super’ teams whose places in […]

6 years ago

Paddy Durcan was awarded The GAA Hour’s Paddy Power Performance of the Weekend title and it isn’t any great wonder. Once again, the Castlebar hammer was sent in to shut down a key opposition player and, once again, he did more than that. He did his bit on Sean O’Shea in the league final win, […]

6 years ago

Since he joined the Armagh fold as a 15-year-old, Kieran McGeeney hasn’t left the inter-county scene. Underage football with the Orchard county soon materialised into one of the most iconic senior careers in football where he took over the captaincy from Jarlath Burns no less and went on to become the only Armagh man to […]

6 years ago

“It’s shit. It’s shit.” Carl Frampton has had to pull out of his fight with Emanuel Dominguez because of a broken hand sustained in a freak hotel accident in Philadelphia. An ornament fell on the boxer’s left hand and fractured his fifth metacarpal, ruling him out of his comeback fight on Saturday night and putting […]

6 years ago

When I worked in the County Derry Post, we once got a phone call into the office from a proud parent giving out that there were no photos of little Johnny in the paper. Johnny was playing in an underage match we had dedicated two pages to and, whilst there were loads of pictures alright […]

6 years ago

Whatever regrets Kevin Kilbane may or may not have about his career, playing time or progression was not one of them. 540 football league appearances, 110 international caps and a path that took the teenage Preston product to Everton – as though it was all meticulously pre-planned – make his 17 years of professional football […]

6 years ago

It’s a lot of money but when has that ever slowed down Manchester United’s spending? Harry Maguire is incoming for a reported £85million and all that’s left is for football fans to chew the fat over the merits of the investment. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. United have made some stinker signings, they’ve fallen further from […]

7 years ago

Oh, the times they are a-changin’. You can say one thing about the Wexford county board, they’re not standing idly by. Paul Galvin is set to take over the Wexford senior football team, pending ratification in September. The Kerry legend was nominated by the manager selection committee and Wexford confirmed that his contract will run […]

7 years ago

Suddenly the dice has landed in favour of Mayo. They lost to Roscommon, stumbled unconvincingly back through the qualifiers, got hammered by Kerry, didn’t impress against Meath and after all that, they have a home All-Ireland quarter-final knowing that a win will take them through. Contrast it with Donegal, the Ulster champions, the undefeated, swatting […]

7 years ago

Let the shackles off. There’s probably never been analysis as basic as that, boiling success down to whether or not shackles are on. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got it there last season with Manchester United. They went on a mad run of winning games and the only thing he was said to have done was removed […]

7 years ago