THE race for the Sam Maguire will be based on a backdoor format this year, with pairings based on where counties have progressed in both their provincial competitions and their league placing. Any county reaching a provincial final will be in pot on for the draw and guaranteed a home draw. The full breakdown of […]
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. […]
By Shaun Casey THERE were so many turning points to Tyrone’s heroic 2025 season. Too many to count. Replays, wrongful red cards, last-minute winners, melees, match ups. The career-defining Armagh trilogy. The ten-game run to Sam. So many stories. But a meeting inside the dressing room after a league semi-final loss to Wexford jumps out […]
Armagh footballer Ciaron O’Hanlon explains why he has decided the time is right to hang up the boots. Shaun Casey writes… FROM making his first Armagh senior appearance as an 18-year-old schoolboy in the opening round of the Ulster Championship, being told he’d never kick a ball again to having Sam Maguire at his wedding, […]
County teams have a McKenna Cup campaign to feel their way into 2026. Michael McMullan ponders over the Ulster teams’ targets. ANTRIM NEW manager Mark Doran will have one clear focus and that is to get the Saffrons back out of Division Four after last year’s relegation. He has experience of inter-county backroom teams and […]
FORMER county star Damian Diver hopes that the Donegal senior footballers can overcome Sunday’s disappointment and stick together in order to try and go one further in the 2026 campaign. Jim McGuinness’s Donegal were on the receiving end of a ten-point defeat to Kerry in Sunday’s All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final at Croke Park. It was a disappointing […]
By Michael McMullan WHEN Gavin White swept onto the scraps of Sunday’s All-Ireland final throw-in, Jack O’Connor’s message would’ve been fresh in the mind. The finishing touches to the Kingdom’s 39th All-Ireland title was about playing on their terms. Not Donegal’s. Before they got on the bus for Croke Park, O’Connor laid out a message that […]
All-Ireland SFC final Kerry 1-26 Donegal 0-19 By Michael McMullan at Croke Park KERRY ended Donegal’s chances of a third All-Ireland title on Sunday to get their hands on Sam once again. Advertisement Joe O’Connor’s late goal put the icing on the cake for the Munster champions who were never behind. Dylan Geaney opened the […]
DONEGAL play their 11th championship game on Sunday as they enter the arena on the season’s biggest day. Here is a look back at Donegal’s road to Croker… ULSTER Game 1 Advertisement Ulster SFC Preliminary Round – April 6 Donegal 1-25 Derry 1-15 Donegal: Shaun Patton; Finnbarr Roarty (0-1), Brendan McCole, Peadar Mogan (0-2); Ryan […]
All-Ireland SFC final Donegal v Kerry Sunday, Croke Park, 3.30pm By Michael McMullan Advertisement IT was convincing in 1992 when Donegal bossed Dublin to lift Sam for the first time. In 2012, a well-versed training ground routine morphed into an early Michael Murphy goal Mayo never recovered from. Two finals, two wins. A 100 per […]
