Tag: @SkySportsGAA

  • Johnny Cash was right about Sundays!

    Johnny Cash was right about Sundays!

    If you’re involved in GAA – or most likely any sport – it’s a fairly safe wager that you’ll experience more defeat than victory. In both 1997 and 2002, the number of finals Dunboyne teams lost hit double figures. Undoubtedly the most painful loss of the lot, however, was actually in the Junior Hurling Championship…

  • I’ve met some folks who say that I’m a dreamer – but this is a glorious reality!

    I’ve met some folks who say that I’m a dreamer – but this is a glorious reality!

    Dunboyne…1-13 Dunshaughlin/Royal Gaels…1-10 At the outset here, I must again defer to a piece of advice imparted in this direction via Ireland’s greatest man of letters, the gentle giant from Castle Island. He once wrote, in the context of his own failing health at the time that “If you have knowledge on a subject and…

  • 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…

  • Talent academy will need a new director as county gets plenty of scouts

    Talent academy will need a new director as county gets plenty of scouts

    Whoever pulls the levers in the control tower above generally has to close one door in order to open another. Now read on… Thus, one of the greatest talent academies in the county for Gaelic football must acquire a new director of operations after it was tonight confirmed the head of talent procurement will give…

  • Wintry Sundays while the sun’s still shining

    Wintry Sundays while the sun’s still shining

    I only saw Brian Mullins playing once. It will probably come as a surprise to many that the once blonde colossus was seen at all. It just happened to be my second year going to matches and, as far as can be recalled, it was Brian’s final match. Tiernach and Robbie Gilbert have been family…

  • One step forward, at least four back

    One step forward, at least four back

    The inner sanctum of the GAA at any given time and its surviving elders are about as receptive to change as one would be to a fart in a space suit. To that end, it’s actually quite astounding that initiatives like the Back Door, the introduction of red and yellow cards and the belated adoption…

  • It’s a fairly safe bet he didn’t watch Italia ’90!

    It’s a fairly safe bet he didn’t watch Italia ’90!

    Italia ’90 – even now, mention of the words together conjures so many memories. Pat Bonner’s grimace before that booming kickout against the Dutch, Genoa, Penalties, Bonner again, David O’Leary, the pub scene from The Snapper. Now read on… Another recollection from that glorious summer prompted what you are about to intake. A proclamation by…

  • Sometimes GAA people just can’t help themselves

    Sometimes GAA people just can’t help themselves

    Ballygunner recently won the Waterford Senior Hurling Championship for the ninth year in succession. Imagine that. Now contemplate being part of it all. As player, mentor, administrator or ‘just’ an ordinary fan. Think about the journey. The matches. The stories arising from same. For many, winning one county title could be the sum of lifetime’s…

  • Creating greatness all in a day’s work for gentleman Murray

    Creating greatness all in a day’s work for gentleman Murray

    1996 was some year for me. My first full summer with a powered wheelchair, Meath winning the All Ireland and da getting our first van which meant the power chair could be brought everywhere. That hadn’t always been the case. Of greater significance than any of the above, however, was the construction of the flat…

  • Things can always be worse

    Things can always be worse

    One would almost feel guilty writing anything about actual sport at the moment considering the unspeakable tragedy and grief which has befallen Clonoulty/Rossmore, Tipperary and the GAA community at large following the passing of 24-year-old Dillon Quirke during a Tipperary SHC encounter at Semple Stadium on Friday evening. Only weeks ago, the young defender was…