Category: CHRONICLE COLUMNS
-
Life’s a Beach for Gordon on a day for hot Coko – 25/11/23
A colleague imparted some friendly advice in this direction during the week regarding my long held practice of putting tips online any day there’s a horse racing fixture in Ireland. Well, in fact, not so much that, as a bit of prudent and gladly received guidance in relation to sharing same on social media. I…
-
Time for the G. P. A. to put up or shut up – 18/11/23
It was always going to come down to who blinked first. And it would appear the fixture makers have called the GPA’s bluff. The divisive player representative body have been agitating for the pre-season competitions to be done away with, but they can hardly stir up anymore dung with fixtures and competition structure already in…
-
Sports administration is like carvery in a pub – 11/11/23
I just about remember the furore at the time rogue trader Nick Leeson brought down Barings Bank. Though was completely oblivious to the seismic ramifications of such an occurrence. In contrast, by the time of the financial crash of 2008, I wasn’t only fully tuned into the goings on, like most, there were effects of…
-
Ronan Keating was right! – 4/11/2023
How often have you seen a player excel at Minor level and be earmarked, as Michael O’Leary once said people were making Samcro out to be “The next coming of Jesus Christ” only for their careers to dissipate disappointingly before, in essence, they had even begun? Now, there’s often a very valid reason for such…
-
The engine can only be fixed with the proper tools – 21/10/23
What old style life hacks can you remember from when you were growing up? For example, I know there was a method of mending a puncture on a bike (or wheelchair!) involving washing up liquid. The same substance was also deployed to counteract a disease in rose bushes which I think was called blackspot. Vinegar…
-
Ladies showing the way again – 28/10/23
In various strands of life, Christmas is regarded as the silly season. Referring, of course, to the shopping and spending and socialising that seems to consume the entire month of December, if not beforehand. In a sporting sense, there are a number of incarnations of the silly season. From the Transfer Windows in soccer to…
-
To step up, you must first, you must first own up
About two minutes before half time in their headline-grabbing victory over Australia at the Rugby World Cup, Fijian back row forward Levani Botia spilled the ball forward at a time when the Pacific Islanders were camped on their opponents’ line. Thereafter, not only did the player literally go round each of his team mates to…
-
It’s all about marketing
Over the years, I’ve been very fortunate to meet a host of top sports stars, and befriend quite a few of them. Regular ingesters of content from this keyboard will know the list well. Or some of them. Colm O’Rourke, Graham Geragthy, Noel Meade, Jim Bolger, Trevor Brennan, Sean O’Brien, Peter O’Mahony and Michael Carruth.…
-
Is there a nice way to deliver bad news?
Not all that long ago, mention was afforded to the fact that the habit had been gotten into of retweeting – or re-posting as it’s now dubbed on what must henceforth be known as X – the goings on at matches it was desired one could be at. How it began I honestly don’t know.…
-
The engine can only be fixed with the proper tools
What old style life hacks can you remember from when you were growing up? For example, I know there was a method of mending a puncture on a bike (or wheelchair!) involving washing up liquid. The same substance was also deployed to counteract a disease in rose bushes which I think was called blackspot. Vinegar…