Tag: Australia

  • Good news stories and tough home truths

    Good news stories and tough home truths

    There are some occasions in sport – and other facets of life – when the form book can go out the window. Or at least that’s the way it used to be. With Irish sport anyway. Tonight at the World Cup though, the form book didn’t so much go out the window as into a…

  • Reserve Tanks do little to enhance their status

    Reserve Tanks do little to enhance their status

    Ireland… 35 Fiji… 17 Anybody with the slightest knowledge about rugby for the four decades this writer has been on the go – at the very least – will surely know of the efficiency of those from the Pacific island of Fiji in the 7s format of the game. Therefore, you’d have thought that a…

  • We are the only dopes if we swallow this one

    We are the only dopes if we swallow this one

    Lance Armstrong – even mention of the guy’s name makes my skin crawl. For me, it’s the deception. Yes over what he ‘achieved’ on the bike under a cloud of shame. But the deceit goes even further than that. There’s trying to decipher what was real from what wasn’t. I mean, he was obviously a…

  • Impressive variety but staple diet needs freshening up

    Impressive variety but staple diet needs freshening up

    Ireland…19 South Africa…16 How much store do you place on the Autumn Internationals? A passive observer would probably deem them no more than puffed up friendlies. The aficionado, though, sees them as the laying foundations and building something as the nuts and bolts of the day job kicks off for International players. My own view…

  • Hideous Horner should put down the shovel

    Hideous Horner should put down the shovel

    I’ve been lucky to have legendary former Meath football manager Sean Boylan central to my life for as long as there’s been a pulse here. There’s hardly a superlative in the English language which hasn’t been used in praise of the man. Of the numerous articles, interviews, television programmes and books produced about this mosy…

  • Nelson’s the pillar on which Meath aim to build more success

    Nelson’s the pillar on which Meath aim to build more success

    How do you follow greatness? The common answer to this question is that whoever draws what can be a poisoned chalice is on a hiding to nothing. Think about it. David Moyes after Sir Alex Ferguson, Eamonn Barry taking over from Sean Boylan. Or whoever strove to be National Hunt Champion Jockey in the UK…

  • If you’re not happy winning by the rules it says a lot

    If you’re not happy winning by the rules it says a lot

    “Trust it, move it, prove it groove it, show how good you are”. So sang his wife in a former life. Yet you suspect if Christian Horner was told his was the only team in an F1 race he’d still find fault with the arrangements. Remember, this is a man who badgered former Race Director…

  • Sideline Cuts – 20

    Sideline Cuts – 20

    Dessie gets deserved extension Despite much speculation over his future, it was confirmed this week that Dessie Farrell will remain in charge of Dublin for at least another two years. Which is only as it should be after the Na Fianna clubman guided the sky blues to an All Ireland, three more Leinsters and at…

  • If you dance every dance eventually the Waltz will come around

    If you dance every dance eventually the Waltz will come around

    Among those most stoic and devoted people, Mayo football supporters, you wonder is there one particular final defeat which rankles most among the many days of suffering endured by the green and red. Before any high horses are mounted, the above pondering was not meant in a derisory sense in the slightest. On the contrary,…

  • Lally point completes Royal rally

    Lally point completes Royal rally

    Meath……0-09 Armagh……0-09 Eamonn Murray’s ladies showed the true character of champions when reeling in a classy Armagh outfit at Glennon Bros. Pearse Park. In so doing guaranteeing their passage through to the knockout stages of the race for the Brendan Martin Cup. The Orchard County county had the better of the first half but, having…