By Niall Gartland ULSTER GAA provincial secretary Brian McAvoy is delighted that the Dr McKenna Cup will return in 2026 following a one-year hiatus – and he counters the concerns flagged up by GPA head honcho Tom Parsons about player burnout. At a meeting on Tuesday evening, county delegates voted unanimously to restore the McKenna Cup and […]
By Brendan McCann AS the dust begins to settle on a fantastic football championship, attention for returning and new county management teams turns immediately to putting preparations in place for the next campaign. The announcement from headquarters in September 2024 that early-season provincial competitions, including the Dr McKenna Cup, were being paused for a year, […]
By Niall McCoy ULSTER GAA officials remain confident that Dr McKenna Cup will make its return in January following its suspension in 2025, Gaelic Life understands. While no time-frame has been placed on any confirmation, the provincial body recognise that last September’s Central Council motion was only to remove it from the calendar for one […]
HAPPY New Year to you all. Normally at this time of year we are going out to see McKenna Cup games and a lot of the talk this week has been around why those competitions have been shelved. I understand the logic behind the thought, and we will get into that a little later, but […]
By Katrina Brennan FERMANAGH manager Kieran Donnelly has said they were “blindsided” by the decision to suspend the Dr McKenna Cup next year. The decision comes following a campaign over a number of years by the GPA (Gaelic Players’ Association) to abolish the pre-season inter-county competitions and at the weekend, the GAA Central Council voted to […]
CONSIDERING that the 2024 inter-county season only fully kicks off next weekend there’s so much happening this week with the GAA. Let me begin with the decision to overturn the eight week suspension handed down to Jim McGuinness last week. I wrote here last week I thought the decision was farcical from the beginning. I […]
Dr McKenna Cup Round Three ARMAGH 1-14 TYRONE 2-10 By Barry O’Donnell THE margins were wafer-thin come the final whistle last night but when the various permutations were untangled it was Armagh who booked their passage into the last four of the McKenna Cup by virtue of this narrow victory over old adversaries Tyrone at […]
DOWN manager Conor Laverty feels his side can still qualify for the semi-finals of the McKenna Cup and playing against Derry will have benefited his side. With Odhrán Murdock to the fore, Down were twice seven points ahead during the first half of Saturday’s clash in Celtic Park. It was very much a game of […]
I SPENT Christmas Day like everyone does, eating way too much, sipping on wine and beers and spending quality time with the family. On St Stephen’s day, I went for a brisk walk in the fresh air to clear the head after my overindulgence of the previous day. I stopped off at the Gaoth Dobhair […]
Micheál Bannigan (Monaghan) “PERSONALLY, I definitely always look forward to the McKenna Cup. I think it’s very important at this time of the year and it’s very useful to get those couple of competitive games in before the National League. “You get them under you belt and it lets you know where you’re at. From […]
