Tag: Galway GAA
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Evolution of Jimmy Ball decides the finalists but the architect misses out
There was something very fitting about Rian O’Neill emerging from under the crossbar at the Canal End seconds before David Gough blew for full time. Armagh football pedigrees don’t come more purebred. McConville. Crossmaglen. Besides that though, nobody has typified Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh model more than the fair haired forward. Remember the piece which appeared…
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Humble Messiah O’Mahony’s greatness lay in his quiet approach
Joe Brolly tells a story about the late former Derry manager Eamonn Coleman pulling a newspaper cutting out of his back pocket minutes before the team were due to take the field for a crunch Ulster SFC encounter. The cutting was an ‘article’ in which a player – possibly Tony Scullion but I can’t swear…
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The call is from heroism, who will accept?
Perhaps if one had been around for the glorious yet curious duopoly between Dublin and Kerry in the 1970s and early 80s, it might be easier to reason with Dublin’s domination for the last decade and a half. Just to be clear, that is not in any way a criticism of those who are currently…
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Three out of four might go with form but there’s always the one…
There are always little signs. If you go back to one of the greatest GAA occurrences ever seen 33 years ago this week – Kevin Foley’s goal for Meath in the fourth game against Dublin – it’s hardly coincidence that they spent two hours rehearsing the move on a soccer pitch in Scotland seven days…
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The real Super Sunday delivers but also highlights glaring unfairness
“I didn’t interrupt you, boy”. And there it was, Donal Og Cusack’s arrogant ignorance got in the way of meaningful analysis and reasoned debate. Worse still, he was let away with it by Joanne Cantwell. But then, how she ended up with the most prized job in Irish sports broadcasting ahead of either Jacqui Hurley,…
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What should be the greatest day is now an inconvenient afterthought
As somebody who has been strapped into the rollercoaster that is mental health battles for longer than one cares to remember, the concept of a likelihood of playing into the wind at specific times of the year is all too familiar. Indeed, there are parts of life which, though they might set the pulse racing…
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Cup football still has its value
Mention has been made previously on these pages of how the idea of bucket lists doesn’t sit at all well here. If only because it makes a body think about, well, the journey around this big auld ball. And that’s challenging enough without bringing a stopwatch into the equation. That’s not to say, that there…
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The half day of the underdog
Maybe it’s the pondering of the thing about faraway hills always being greener, but, for a certain time every year, the occupant of seat does wonder what it’d be like to have been domiciled in the catchment area of one of the serially successful clubs. A St Vincent’s or a Kilmacud Crokes or a Corofin…
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A snippet of the opening round fixtures in the Allianz Leagues
All Ireland football champions Dublin will welcome Monaghan to Croke Park (presumably) in the opening round of the NFL, it was revealed this evening as some details of the fixtures in the perceived secondary competition were released on Friday afternoon. The Farney Army have caused the all conquering Dubs more problems than most over the…
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Whatever plan you have, they’ll come up with a better one
Limerick… 2-24 Galway… 1-18 Evidence that good players don’t always make good managers is ample. No need to name names but there have quite a few Galacticos who’ve flopped worse than a Premier League footballer trying to con their way to a penalty. Henry Shefflin absolutely does not belong in the above category. He couldn’t…