I WAS in Donegal last week and three different people told me – in absolute confidence (“Don’t mention my name Joe”) – that in their in house training games, Michael Murphy has been playing in goals. According to them, Jimmy has discovered a loophole in the no pass to the keeper rule, by not putting […]
IT was a very good year for Mickey Harte. Mickey managed to get three cars in one year, with less miles on them than an elderly nun’s. Being a county manager these days can be awfully confusing, just ask Mickey Graham. Harte started off the season with Louth, unveiling his plans for the new year […]
AFTER the votes last weekend, there will not be “A New Energy” or “Moving Forward Together” for the country, but there most certainly will be for Gaelic football. Standing in front of a Christmas tree in Croke Park on Saturday morning, Jim Gavin delivered the mother of all Christmas presents to the GAA community, with voting […]
WHEN Professor Niall Moyna said last month that Gaelic football was “probably the most boring game in the world to watch,” he was only repeating something I have been saying for a decade. Something I got lambasted for. “He doesn’t understand the modern game.” “He is a dinosaur.” “The game was just catch and kick […]
WHEN the well known badge kisser Mickey Harte was being presented with the keys to his new Renault in Celtic Park, proudly wearing his Derry tracksuit, he said that his Tyrone assistant Gavin Devlin was “the best coach in Ireland.” The best coach in Ireland went on to play an offside trap in a game […]
IT is a terrible irony that Jimmy McGuinness’s system won Michael Murphy an All-Ireland medal yet ruined his best years. As a young footballer Michael was so good it was cartoonish. Here was a real life Hotshot Hamish, fetching impossible high balls and driving them to the net like Tony Yeboah, the ‘keeper standing there wondering […]
THE games for the new rules over the weekend had all the drama of a plate of warm scones, though the final was fun. To be fair, I played in an All-Star game in Donegal after they won the All-Ireland and scored 1-2 in the first half against the most fearsome defensive formula the game […]
JIM Gavin has the air of a fresh faced young Mormon selling bibles door to door. Serene as the buddha, he could persuade you of almost anything. Imagine him as a US trial lawyer, beaming down from a gigantic billboard, with the slogan: Honest Jim Gavin, Trial attorney. Just because you did it doesn’t mean […]
AT the weekend, we brought our 14 day old to Knockmore to meet her people. On Sunday morning, we strapped her into her carrier and walked up to the pitch for the Senior Ladies Championship semi-final against Carnacon. The Knockmore girls are the county champions. They are also the league champions, having won that in […]
A MODERN coach/manager has finally broken ranks to say what we are all thinking. This week, Professor Niall Moyna, a state of the art expert who has managed DCU to four Sigerson Cups, was a selector and advisor to the St Vincent’s All-Ireland winning club team of 2008 and an integral part of Pat Gilroy’s […]
