They come out of the Cork football factory as solo-runners and handpassers. That is the manufacturer’s guarantee. The prevailing mood watching them toiling up and down the field is sadness. None of them can score goals. Instead they kick the ball straight at the goalie, allowing commentators who know nothing about football to shout, “Another brilliant […]
I would not be surprised if David Clifford caught a bus falling off a bridge on his way to Killarney. Instead of the National Anthem, they should play the Superman theme. In the modern game they are systems, strategies, tactics, statistics and there is David Clifford. Here, Armagh utterly dominated the first quarter. Kerry tense […]
THE word from Donegal since the start of the year was that Jimmy was preparing solely for Kerry. Somebody should have told them there are other teams in the championship. It might be an idea to start broadening out the training. As for Roscommon, they don’t seem to have trained at all since they won […]
I RANG Frank McGuigan’s life-long friend John Joe O’Neill this week. “Lonely Housewives.com,” he said, “How can we help you?” When I had stopped laughing, he said, “If you are a lady seeking to join, we will require your death certificate madam. We don’t want an angry husband walking in on a client.” When I […]
MY mother was very annoyed when Paudie Clifford chatted his way through the national anthem. She is a religious woman who keeps large bottles of holy water inside the front door to throw over visitors’ cars when they are leaving. As my brother Proinsias says, “you need to wind the windows up quickly.” “I hope […]
THE decision to hold the All-Ireland draw last week turned the provincial finals (except Connacht) into the biggest anti-climax since Cork football. During the week, I posed the question in the Trinity Old Boys Group (free staters to a man): What is wrong with Cork football? The answers came flooding in: Hurling. Donal Óg. Frank […]
‘We, the current Mayo team, request that the Mayo County Board takes steps to remove Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly from their roles as team managers with immediate effect…We, the players, have set ourselves extremely high standards in terms of team organisation and management and as a squad we do not believe they have met […]
The All-Ireland football final, 18th September 2011, Croke Park. It is the 70th minute. The scores are level: Kerry 1-11 Dublin 1-11. The third official has just raised the board to show that there will only be 2 minutes of injury time. Dublin have the kick out. Cluxton kicks long to Dublin’s number 6 Ger […]
WHO can win the All-Ireland? Not Derry. We just solo run and handpass. The boys are still Rory Gallagher’s team still playing the old rules. Ciarán Meenagh, our third Tyrone manager in a row, was Rory’s assistant and is therefore acceptable to the group in a way that Mickey Harte and Paddy Tally never were. […]
JACK O’Connor said before the final: “Yerra, we were only aiming to avoid relegation, so we are all a bit surprised to be in a league final. I suppose we got the bit of luck here and there along the way and yerra, we are in Croke Park again and no harm.” He went on […]
