By Barry O’Donnell AS he approaches the twilight of his playing career, Gareth Devlin could have been forgiven for thinking that another crack at Croke Park may have passed him by. The 35 year old enjoyed a couple of memorable appearances there as a minor back in 2004 when he starred in the forward line […]
JORGE Valdano, the Argentinian striker who scored the winning goal in the 1986 World cup final (needless to say, from a classic Maradona pass), was interviewed in the Guardian a fortnight ago. The chat turned to the little man. He said “How could you not look at Maradona? When he walks into the dining room everyone […]
AS the curtain closes on 2022 and with Christmas day is on the horizon, I’d like to take a look back at a number of things that I was happy to see during this year’s GAA calendar season. 1 Death of defensive football I think a change has been slowly happening for a number of […]
IT’S a topic that always prompts lots of debate, and our journalist Niall Gartland has his say on who he thinks should be named on this year’s All-Ireland football team of the season… 1 ETHAN RAFFERTY (ARMAGH) I WAS going to opt for the steady and reliable Kerry goalkeeper Shane Ryan, but then I thought, […]
Now that the All-Ireland championship is done and dusted, Niall Gartland ranks the top ten scores from the championship, including the provincial series and Tailteann Cup 1 Sean O’Shea’s winning free against Dublin NOT only the most significant score of this year’s championship, but one that could see a seismic shift in the balance of […]
DEPENDING on who you listen to or who you tune into – or out from in this case – you would nearly think the GAA season is over. Well in the 11 days prior to this publication on Thursday, August 11, I will have attended four games (two u-17 and two senior), took part in […]
Shaun Casey looks at the key men from the last ten All-Ireland senior finals 2012 – Michael Murphy THERE was no question who the man of the match was in the 2012 All-Ireland final, the Donegal captain led Jim McGuinness’ men to the ultimate prize 20 years after they captured their first title. Murphy was […]
SAM resides in the Kingdom once again after Jack O’Connor’s men managed to turn the screw on Galway late in the second half last Sunday. Before we get stuck in to the nuts and bolts, let’s first applaud both teams on a wonderful occasion last Sunday when some of the football on display was simply […]
THE Dublin empire has fallen, replaced by a democracy of flawed challengers. Tyrone came out of the blue to win it last year. When they did, it was so mentally overwhelming for them that they were unable to recover in time to defend their title. They were a ghost team this season, walloped by Derry […]
By Steven Poacher ON Sunday past we witnessed a wonderful game of football between two teams who were extremely well prepared and well-conditioned. The meeting of Galway and Armagh had everything including the first-ever penalty shoot-out in Croke Park in front of a full house. The second game was never going to live up to […]
