In sport, hope is like grass: it’s cut down, it grows back. Long before the qualification draw for Euro 2028 is made in Belfast in December hope will have been restored in the Ireland soccer team. In the months between Budapest and Prague it was the most powerful feeling the Ireland soccer team had generated … Read more
Motivation is not too difficult to find at this time of year in the GAA. This coming weekend, the Cork and Waterford hurlers go right to the brink. Win, and you’re still training on Tuesday night. Lose, and you’re un-muting the club team’s WhatsApp group. Dublin and Galway will both progress to the All-Ireland hurling … Read more
Championship hurling begins next weekend. Its contemporary success, especially in Munster, owes its origins to an initially little-noticed proposal in 2012, suggesting round robin competitions for the provincial championships. The GAA had no reason to harbour warm feelings for such a format. It had been tried in the middle of the previous decade as a … Read more
All-Ireland champions Clare have sustained a significant setback with news that Shane O’Donnell will not be available for the rest of the season. The reigning Hurler of the Year and All Star full forward has had to undergo shoulder surgery and is not expected back in action until the end of the year. “It’s very … Read more
GAA Director General Tom Ryan has acknowledged that the All-Ireland finals may be moved back from 2026. There has been some opposition to the new calendar, in which the finals have played in July for the past three years. Ryan, writing in his annual report, indicated that he would be open to tweaking the dates … Read more