A massive win for the Déise. Wexford went into this first round qualifier clash with Waterford as hot favourites, they came out of it with their championship hopes over for another year as they picked up the unwanted label of being the first county to exit this year’s All-Ireland championship. And they were well beaten […]

8 years ago

Big talk. Galway are 5/4 favourites to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup for the second year running. The four leaders in the betting for hurler of the year are all Galway men. These are exciting times for hurling folk out west. The Tribesmen have swept all before them with a relentless ease in this championship […]

8 years ago

This is the weekend we’ve all been waiting for. There’s an absolute bonanza of GAA games taking place this weekend. The ever reliable Munster championship boils down to two games on Sunday. Seven football counties will see their seasons ended by Saturday evening, and there are also a host of other ferociously contested games, including […]

8 years ago

The 26-year-old is restarting his career in pastures anew. Paddy Jackson hasn’t played for province or country at all in 2018 and, in April, he left his club of seven years. “Following a review, conducted in the aftermath of recent court proceedings, the Irish Rugby Football Union and Ulster Rugby have revoked the contracts of […]

8 years ago

Especially during Championship season

8 years ago

All of the best hurlers can play anywhere at all on the pitch. David McInerney is one of the best of them. When Clare won an All-Ireland in 2013, their Tulla tank was one their star men. He finished that campaign with an All-Star and an All-Ireland under-21 title to boot and the sky looked […]

8 years ago

This is real championship hurling. While the only complaint about the new hurling structure so far has been based on the fact that the round-robin structure doesn’t lend itself to real win-or-bust championship clashes every week, a lack of consequence is a shortcoming that won’t be associated with the Munster Championship this weekend. Tipperary’s clash […]

8 years ago

Something every young hurler is taught. But something they quickly grow out of. For under-6s and 8s going over to the hurling field for the first time, shortening the grip will be a staple of the session. That’s because these youngsters often have very little control over the length of their puck, their main focus […]

8 years ago

This is the start of it now. The last few weekends have been the appetisers, this weekend is the main course. Hurling has ruled the roost for the last few weeks and it has delivered more than its fair share of entertainment. The Munster hurling championship is watertight going into the last two rounds of […]

8 years ago

Listen, there’s always going to be an element of frustration when a referee makes a mistake. Going into a game, you’ve enough worries about your own team and about the game itself, never mind the referee giving a few borderline calls against you or an umpire calling a shot as a goal when it wasn’t […]

8 years ago

What makes a GAA club special. It’s all hands on deck when there’s turf to be footed. We’re not blessed with the good weather too often in Ireland so when the sun’s out and the bogs are drying, you have to strike while the iron is hot and get the turf in for the winter […]

8 years ago

Damien Comer doesn’t let anything define him. The Galwayman didn’t make the county minor team but now he’s one of the most effective wrecking balls in the game. He wasn’t even playing for St Jarleth’s when his school made it to the Hogan Cup final in 2011 but that wouldn’t be the end of him. […]

8 years ago

These are galling times for Offaly. It seems that the light hasn’t shined on the Faithful County’s hurlers for an eternity now, but Sunday was their darkest ever day. It was a day that saw them relegated from the Leinster championship for the first time in their proud history. It was a day that hammered […]

8 years ago

Dublin half back Shane Barrett had a productive Sunday afternoon’s work against Offaly. So did Chris Crummy on the other side of the pitch. The Offaly hurlers had an absolute nightmare on the same Sunday, the day that saw them relegated from the Leinster championship for the first time in their history, but just as […]

8 years ago

James O’Donoghue has endured an injury hell for the last while. A couple of serious shoulder injuries have stalled his progress in recent years. A calf injury sustained in the very first round of this year’s Allianz League campaign against Donegal kept him out of the rest of that competition. So when James O’Donoghue was […]

8 years ago

There will be as many radios as spectators in Semple Stadium and in The Gaelic Grounds next Sunday. There is guaranteed to be a couple of teams on the same points at the end of it all, and at that stage, crucially, head to head results will hold sway. One thing for sure is that […]

8 years ago

A credit to himself, a credit to his county. It can’t have been easy for Waterford to accept this decision, it can’t have been easy for Pauric Mahony to accept this decision. Were it not for an umpire’s erroneous call, the Déise would have secured the two points and they would be up and running […]

8 years ago

This was what cost Waterford. Every soul in Tipperary is counting their lucky stars that their hurlers are still alive in the championship, because were it not for a plainly wrong decision from one of the umpires at The Gaelic Grounds, they would be knocked out at the very first hurdle in Munster. This game […]

8 years ago

What the hell happened there? Waterford went into this Munster Championship round-robin clash as 6/1 underdogs with the bookmakers. They played like they a team motivated by the disrespect of that. The Déise got off to a flying start down in the Gaelic Grounds with Jamie Barron, Patrick Curran and Pauric Mahony rattling off early […]

8 years ago

It just gets worse and worse for the Faithful county. Offaly hurling has been on a downward spiral for a while now but this, a relegation to hurling’s second tier in the Joe McDonagh cup surely has to be the county’s darkest ever day. With absolutely everything at stake for both Offaly and Dublin in […]

8 years ago

Madness. After a drab encounter unbefitting of the Omagh sun, Fermanagh smashed late and grabbed it all when an Eoin Donnelly goal in injury time fired them to a shock one point victory over a stunned Monaghan, and all the way to their first Ulster final since 2008. In an extremely disciplined performance, Rory Gallagher’s […]

8 years ago

This isn’t the foregone conclusion many are making it out to be. For God’s sake, this is Waterford we’re talking about. Last year’s All-Ireland finalists, Waterford. Perennial contenders, a proud hurling county, a young team with plenty of ambition. This is Waterford, the home of Austin Gleeson, Pauric Mahony, Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh and many many […]

8 years ago

I love to watch you go and I love to watch you leave… Gareth Bale was probably the happiest man in Madrid on Thursday when the news broke that Zinedine Zidane was stepping down from his post. Bale and Zidane didn’t enjoy the most fruitful of relationships. Prior to Zizou taking his place on the […]

8 years ago

Farcical stuff. These are not professionals. These are amateur sports people who live like professionals only because of the pride they have in representing their counties and the grá they have for the game. And living like a professional isn’t an easy thing to do. Inter-county players nowadays revolve their whole lives around training and […]

8 years ago

The gospel according to… Some of us live for the entertainment, others crave detail and analysis, the best pundits in the game are able to strike a balance. At the end of the day, the most important thing for a pundit is that they’re one hundred percent confident in what they’re going to say. These […]

8 years ago

Brought to you by Paddy Power. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Paul Broderick knows that now. The Carlow corner forward has established himself as one of Gaelic football’s sharpest shooters over the last year. With a left peg the rest of us can only dream of, the Tinryland star has been slotting the […]

8 years ago

There are cool cucumbers, there are calm killers, then there’s Tipperary’s John McGrath. The most prolific forward in hurling makes a mockery of the age-old notion that you have to go bald-headed into every ball to survive. That you have to have the hair standing on the back of your neck to make it, that […]

8 years ago

Gaelic football fans are having a tough time of it. The GAA’s television tactics have come under fire in recent weeks and rightly so. While the majority are in agreement that the increase in the number of championship games this year is a good thing, the regrettable fact that the GAA didn’t increase the number […]

8 years ago

Justice for Ronaldo

8 years ago

Brought to you by Paddy Power. Conor Whelan is absolutely lethal. The Kinvara club man is so confident in his own first touch that he turns and goes before he even has the ball in his hand. And when he goes, he chases that goals down as if his life depends on getting there in […]

8 years ago

It’s 222 minutes since Jason Forde has hit a free or a 65 wide in a Tipperary jersey. Tipperary’s opponents should know by this stage. Give away a free and you’ll pay for it. And it doesn’t matter where the foul is committed because the Silvermines sniper can swing them over from all angles and […]

8 years ago

Offaly rising. After a turbulent few weeks for football in the Faithful County, the under-20 side restored a bit of pride as they travelled to Netwatch Dr Cullen Park in the first round of the Leinster Under-20 Championship and stunned Carlow in their own back yard. And it has been tough going for Offaly in […]

8 years ago

Small in stature but big in heart. You have to come through the school of hard knocks to make it as an inter-county hurler and on his first start in the famous black and amber jersey, Luke Scanlon learned all about that. But the James Stephens attacker is made of stern stuff and he rode […]

8 years ago

An unbelievable passage of play. An passionate Noel McGrath summed it up better than anybody else could in his interview just after Tipperary and Cork’s thrilling draw in Semple Stadium on Sunday. “That’s Munster hurling at its finest there. That’s what we grew up watching. That’s what we love to be involved in, that’s what […]

8 years ago

The Tribesmen are on a different level entirely. Kilkenny weren’t at their best in Pearse Stadium on Sunday afternoon but that was only because Galway wouldn’t let them hurl. Oft’ criticised for having a soft centre in the past, those days are in the vapours now. Galway are a different animal now and the whole […]

8 years ago

Here we go now. With three Division One teams plunged into the first round of an open qualifier draw, the events in the Morning Ireland Studio of a May Monday morning were always going to be of interest. While the narrative in the build-up to this year’s All-Ireland football championship has been focused exclusively upon […]

8 years ago

He knew his player had a howler but he wasn’t going to throw him under the bus. Loris Karius had an absolute nightmare of a Champions League final. The German was at fault for the two Real Madrid goals that in the end, were the difference between the sides. The young German is out of […]

8 years ago

He’s not a happy camper. Gareth Bale was disappointed not to start the Champions League final. He’s disappointed at how he’s being treated at Real Madrid this season. The Welsh man suffered an injury at the start of the year, and that kept him out of action for five weeks, but he’s been fit and […]

8 years ago

In the midst of the Kiev madness, our GAA players were soldiering in grounds all over the country from Tullamore to Thurles. While there were no real titanic clashes taking place in the provincial championships, we did expect some tight, competitive games. The most eagerly anticipated of those was certainly the meeting of Tipperary and […]

8 years ago

Fair play to them. Roscommon did what was expected of them in Páirc Sean Mac Diarmada on Saturday evening. Kevin McStay’s men dispatched of Leitrim with minimal fuss and with fourteen points to spare to book their place in the Connacht final for the third time in as many years. #rosgaa #gaa Full timeRoscommon: 0-24(24)Leitrim […]

8 years ago

Lovely Laois are lording it. Go back two weeks and Laois were ten points down at half-time in their Leinster first round clash against Wexford. That must seem so long ago for the O’Moore County, who on Saturday evening made it back to back Leinster championship wins when they comprehensively defeated Westmeath by ten points. […]

8 years ago

D-day has arrived. It’s 13 years since Liverpool have been in a Champions League final. For many of those years, that famous night in Istanbul seemed a distant memory. But now, and in the last few weeks, the wonder of that amazing experience has been flooding back for ‘Pool fans. It’s been infesting them, it’s […]

8 years ago

Staggered prices are the way forward. The price of tickets in the GAA has been a moot subject for quite a while now. It’s not fair that a seat behind the goals in the Davin Stand costs €80 on All-Ireland final day, while a seat in the middle of the Hogan Stand costs the exact […]

8 years ago

It’s another blockbuster weekend of GAA action. Hurling folk never had it as good in their lives. For the second weekend in a row, there’s no football on television. The small ball is ruling the roost yet again Sunday’s two crunch clashes drawing RTÉ’s attention. Cork and Tipperary’s clash in Thurles already has a season […]

8 years ago

Leo Cullen has named his team. Leinster will host Scarlets in the Pro 14 final in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday. The 15 that will take to the field will show four changes from last weekend’s semi-final victory over Munster. Leo Cullen’s men are 2/9 odds on favourites to emerge victorious over last year’s champions, […]

8 years ago

With all the style and grace of a man in his peak

8 years ago

Colin Kelly says it how it is. “I had the conversation with James and to be honest with you, I was pretty stunned when I got the phone call, initially, on the Tuesday, but his mind was made up and you know, it wasn’t going to be changed. I asked was it definite, and he […]

8 years ago

Their preparations have been far from ideal. Waterford will go into their Munster championship campaign opener against Clare this weekend with a weakened hand and a tough task. 2018 was always going to have a rocky start in store for the Déise. After losing last year’s All-Ireland final, the team understandably took a brief hiatus […]

8 years ago

He’s grown frustrated at a lack of opportunities. And it’s hard to blame him for that. Republic of Ireland international Jon Walters made his €3 million move from Stoke City to Burnley last July, but fast forward nearly a year and the 34-year-old forward has only made a paltry five appearances for his new club, […]

8 years ago

Tough viewing. The Carlow minors were defeated 1-13 to 0-2 by Kildare in their Leinster championship meeting on Wednesday night in front of their home Dr. Cullen Park crowd. The Carlow team began their evening with three sweepers, and despite trailing by seven points at half-time, incredibly they would come out in the second half […]

8 years ago