BEFORE the Connacht semi-final between Corofin and Ballina, an interesting thing happened. Ballina came out an hour before throw-in and started into one of those standard-form, laborious warm-ups that have become the norm. Then, about 25 minutes before throw-in, they went back inside. Finally, at twenty to two, Corofin appeared. They jogged in and out […]
DAVID Clifford. Scored 12 points in the Kerry intermediate final last weekend then missed the vital one at the end to force penalties. It’s all very well scoring the unimportant ones. What a loser. Used to be you could drive two miles to see a game of football. Nowadays, you have to drive 300 (to […]
RORY Beggan kicked a three in-a-row of gravity-defying points on Sunday to slay Kilcoo and didn’t get the Man of the Match. It was the most extraordinary display of long-range kicking I have ever seen. Add to that the fact that all of the kicks were under the most tremendous pressure with the outcome at stake, […]
AFTER 29 minutes of the Mayo Senior Football final on Sunday, co-commentator John Maughan said, “All I can do is apologise to the viewers for this really terrible spectacle. I’m not sure it’s going to get any better.” At half time, hundreds of people upped and left, leaving empty rows of seats in the middle of […]
WE have so many small boxing champions, from Rinty Monaghan through to Carl Frampton. Once, I was playing in a charity match in Belfast. Both teams were full of All-Stars and a few famous sporstmen from other sports. Paddy Barnes, the famous boxer, was on our team. He is about five feet tall. Before the […]
AT Liam Hinphey’s wake on Sunday, somebody asked his son Liam Óg what had finally done for the great man. He said, “The news about Mickey Harte.” The house was filled with kids wearing their Kevin Lynch hurling shirts. Many of the adults were wearing Kevin Lynch shirts and track tops. A Kevin Lynch jersey […]
DAVID Clifford is almost single-handedly keeping the game watchable. At the weekend, he did it again. In the intermediate championship semi-final against Austin Stacks, Fossa were a point behind with 30 seconds of injury time left in extra time. It was at this moment Clifford went looking for the ball. Like all the greats, what […]
JUST when you thought it was safe, he’s back. Like Freddie Kruger appearing at the window. Or Jack Nicholson at the door with an axe, grinning, those dark eyes flashing. “Heeeeere’s Jimmy.” Having engineered the most extraordinary coup in the history of Gaelic football in 2012, then the greatest ambush in living memory (the 2014 All-Ireland […]
WHEN Glen, Maghera played Dungiven in the first round of the championship last week, Fergal McCusker and Enda Gormley took up position on either side of the ground with an abacus, to count the opposition players. They are believed to be the first tally men appointed to a backroom team. Dublin won again and will […]
I PREDICTED last week that Limerick would beat Kilkenny by nine. I watched the game on the BBC. How times have changed since the Après Match team lampooned the BBC’s coverage. “And now we go to Jackie at the Ballymena Showgrounds where Larne Academicals have played out a pulsating 0-0 draw with Lisnagarvey Mature Ladies […]
