‘One full day' – Sharlene Mawdsley's Tipperary GAA star boyfriend shares first snap of them together
NEVER mind One Fine Day, Sharlene Mawdsley and Michael Breen were just content to share 'one full day' amid her globetrotting schedule.
The sprinter was back in her native county for a full 24 hours after placing second in a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet in Zagreb on Saturday.
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'Lola's favourite is back (for one full day)'
Credit: @MIKEYBREENO
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The high-profile pair went Instagram official last weekend
Credit: @sharlenem1
Breen and his teammates had the weekend off from the Munster Hurling Championship as it happened to be their bye week in the five-team competition.
They were able to rest easy knowing that they'd already secured a spot in the top-three and with it, progression to the All-Ireland Series.
Sunday's action ensured they won't be in the Munster final, however, as Cork leapfrogged them in the standings with
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June 7 will be the Rebels' first provincial final since 2018 where they will attempt to stop Limerick clinching a ridiculous SEVENTH crown in a row.
Victorious manager Pat Ryan said: 'We left an awful lot of chances behind us. But it's knockout Championship, there's going to be a bit more trepidation in it, a bit more nervousness in it.
'Both ourselves and Waterford knew that if we didn't win, we'd be out of the Championship. We played a small bit like that, with a bit of nerves.'
Ryan's side finished the game with their wides tally at 17.
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One of those was a glorious goal opportunity for Shane Barrett.
Ryan added: 'That's something we'll work on, the efficiency side of it, but I thought our work-rate, our hitting the breaks, our hunger to get on the ball was an awful lot better than it was last week and that's the way it should be. That's the standard.
RTE pundit Joe Canning urges GAA to make huge change for Leinster hurling final as fans 'totally agree'
'You're not always going to play as well or have great hurling at times and things might not come off in your game-plan.
"But your work-rate, your attitude and your character has to be the standard.
'From our point of view, the attitude last week wasn't good enough. The effort wasn't good enough. I don't think we played brilliant hurling today but today was about attitude and character.'
The 48-year-old also used his post-game platform to
He insisted: 'It's hard not to get drawn into the hype. Some of it was stupid stuff altogether and a lot of it was coming from outside the county.
'You heard people writing off Limerick, some of our own people. Are they off their game or what?
'From my point of view, that was very annoying. I think sometimes fellas would be building you up, hoping that you'd get a kick in the ass.'
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RTÉ News
29 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Hell for Leather: How we made RTÉ's epic new GAA series
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As tends to be case with large-scale commissioned projects, I took many meetings and did an awful lot of talking before even formally asking RTÉ to consider supporting it. The primary issue was with what had just gone before it and with how effectively The Game had landed. Should we even bother, I asked the creative team at Crossing the Line, to attempt something similar with a sport often regarded by purists as the less aesthetic and less skilful of the family of national games? Any misgivings I had were quickly put to bed by a couple of trusted friends and regular sounding boards. Michael Moynihan and Diarmuid O'Donovan are fellow clubmen of mine from the fabled Glen Rovers on the northside of Cork city, even if Diarmuid is arguably better known for his involvement with the football side of that club, Saint Nicholas, and his work in a variety of roles at county level. Sharp, serious men both, they sketched out a provisional list of potential themes, topics, chapters and cast members for the team to chew over and flesh out. They didn't so much ease my mind as bend it in a variety of directions and, by doing so, turned much of what I'd ever thought about Gaelic football on its head. The game in Ulster, industry and All-Ireland success in the midlands, the eventual dawning of the women's game, Kerry's eternal majesty, the Jacks and the Culchies, Dulchies, Heffernan, Dwyer, the mighty men from Down, the mighty women of Cork. Seán Boylan, Mick O'Connell, the golden age of wireless, Sister Pauline Gibbons, Jim McGuinness and Jim Gavin. Bringing boardroom thinking to breeze-blocked dressing rooms. Renaissance, reformation, age of empires, true leaders and the days of our lives: it was up to director Gerry Nelson to shape the mine of history, some of it happening before him in real time, into tangible blocks. Sport is often seen as a reflection of life and, in this regard, its possible to trace the development of modern Ireland since way before independence through the prism of Gaelic football. Stitching this editorial thread into the heart of Hell for Leather was always a tall order but one that producers John Murray, Jessica McGurk and Siobhán Ward managed with typical elan. So in as much as the series tracks the evolution and history of the game as comprehensively as time allows, it also tells a story of Ireland. With The Game already under the belts of the production team – as well as 2020's one-off, Christy Ring: Man and Ball – the doors opened far more easily this time around. Jarlath Burns, who has since become the most recent Uachtarán of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, was an enthusiastic voice from early on and helped unlock a variety of editorial lines. In every club and parish that we approached during the long gestation of this series – and there were many – the welcome was fierce and the humour was always good. So, what kept us? When we first discussed the potential for a series, I'm not sure if any of us expected the production period to endure for so long. But then neither could we have foreseen Covid, an All-Ireland final played during a lockdown and the consequences for sport, film-making and life in general during that time. Projects of this scale also require multiple funding and finance strands too and, to this end, we're grateful to Coimisiún na Meán, the Department of Finance, the Gaelic Athletic Association and to Collen, our generous sponsors, without whom the project could never have taken flight. And then there's the more mundane and practical stuff. Many of those featured in the series are proud, fabled former players for whom modesty has long prevented them from opening up about their own heroics and the scale of their achievements. The likes of Mick O'Connell, Seán O'Neill, Jimmy Gray and Seán Murphy are among many who decorate this production but for whom numerous site visits and no little persuasion was necessary. Others, despite our best and enduring efforts, just couldn't or wouldn't commit. All history is contestable, of course, and this too is the case with Hell for Leather. How can one realistically do justice to such a varied and complicated past in just 250 minutes of airtime? It is, therefore, to the credit of Gerry Nelson and series editor Andrew Hearne that the series delivers far more than the sum of its parts and still stays true to its purpose as agreed way back at the start. Gaelic football, flush with its recent re-enhancements, is enjoying a renewed sense of freedom, and talk of its latest existential crisis has abated, at least for now. As the former Kerry captain, Dara Ó Cinnéide told Nelson, "at the end of the day it's a game … but it's this bloody game we love so much". As a reminder about why Gaelic football's well-being matters, Hell for Leather is as good a starting point as any.
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an hour ago
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'It was a whole new world for me': Limerick-Cork Munster final memories 50 years on
50 YEARS AGO, they met in Limerick for a Munster final. Back when Limerick were recently-deposed All-Ireland champions, back when Cork were a team of flickering promise that threatened to become more. Two goals in as many minutes just before half-time from Charlie McCarthy and Willie Walsh left Cork in a commanding position. They came as a gut-punch to a Limerick side that had only been beaten once in two and a half years, and dominated the opening 20 minutes of the Munster final. Cork went on to win 3-14 to 0-12. Their young tearaways in Jimmy Barry Murphy – the other goalscorer – and John Fenton had a lot of stuff about them. Bertie Troy was busy blooding a lot of the successful U21s he had won All-Irelands with. He also had Justin McCarthy on the line alongside him. Official records would have them as a joint management team, but it was an eventful partnership. Even now, 50 years on, when you do a fact-check with Fenton on who was the manager that season, you sense he is being expertly political by feigning that it slips his mind. Either way, it was the start of five consecutive Munster titles for Cork, franked by a Liam MacCarthy three-in-a-row from 1976 onwards. The Irish Examiner report of the 1975 Munster hurling final. Irish News Archive Irish News Archive The past is a different country indeed. That summer, Limerick beat Tipperary in the Munster semi-final in the Gaelic Grounds. Ned Rea played the game, jumped into a fast car straight after the final whistle and was spirited to Parnell Park to play for his club in Dublin, Faughs, in a county semi-final where they lost by two points to Craobh Chiaráin. It was a time of gripping paranoia in the north. That very weekend, the Portadown and District Branch of the Ulster Special Constabulary Association – the former 'B Specials', issued a statement that the Irish Army were poised to 'invade' the north in early autumn. Which certainly didn't quell any tension. Advertisement The same weekend, Celtic came over to Donegal and drew 0-0 with Finn Harps who were bolstered by the inclusion of Mick Martin of Man United and Paddy Mulligan of Crystal Palace. Celtic had Danny McGrain and Kenny Daglish, with a young Tommy Burns coming off the bench. When the players of Cork and Limerick woke up on the morning of the Munster final, they did so in their own beds, in their own homes, getting their own breakfast sorted. 'We never used buses. I never used a bus in my time,' says John Fenton now. Instead, there was a family by the name of Roche in Carrigtwohill who had the contract for Cork hurling. They would gather Fenton and his fellow Midleton clubman, Cork selector Paddy Fitzgerald, along with Seanie O'Leary, Denis Coughlan and Pat O'Connor into a taxi and off to Limerick they would go. Off to a hotel for a cup of tea and the pre-match meal of a sandwich, a quick meeting, and to war. For Richie Bennis – who hit 0-6 from frees – in the Limerick camp, there was no taxi, no sandwich and certainly no meeting. Instead, their instructions were simple; get to the Gaelic Grounds one hour before throw-in. Richie Bennis celebrates after the 2007 Munster semi-final replay that saw Limerick defeat Tipperary. Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO / INPHO 'It's completely different from now. There was a group of us around there on Monday night and they were showing us some clips of the Munster final in 1974 against Clare and we scored six goals. And we scored six goals in the Munster final of 1973 as well,' says Bennis. 'That would be unheard of now. 'Now, you are going to the pitch three hours before the match to have a small warm up. Then you go for a cup of tea and a warm up on the pitch before the match. 'We gathered an hour before the game. No pre-match anything, meal or meeting or anything.' The Irish Independent report of the 1975 Munster hurling final. Irish News Archive Irish News Archive Out there on the pitch, Fenton felt, to use a modern phrase, 'seen.' As a 19-year-old, he was on the county U21s and came on as a substitute. But he didn't feel he belonged in that company. 'It was a daunting prospect to be quite honest,' he says. 'I was young and Midleton would have been intermediate, we weren't at the top table of Cork hurling at the time. There was a massive gap between intermediate and senior hurling in Cork hurling and you had to jump a massive gap between senior hurling in Cork and senior intercounty hurling. That was two big steps. 'It took me a couple of years. To get up to the speed of the game was big for me. The likes of Jimmy Barry-Murphy and Tom Cashman, they were playing the top level of hurling in Cork at the time and those Cork teams were involved in Munster club and All-Ireland club series. 'I was two steps behind them. That's the big thing I found. I remember saying to myself that I had a lot to learn in the sense that I had the basics, but I didn't have the speed to do the basics well. Cork hurler John Fenton. 'You hear a lot of talk about the first touch now, but at the time my first touch wouldn't have been up to the level required. 'It was a whole new world for me. I had looked up to these guys all my life up to now and there I was, in the same dressing room. But the lads were great and they would give you great encouragement. Once you went onto the field, you were on your own then.' He got on for the last six minutes. It was his first Munster title of many. Surely as a teenager your stock is high in the after-party? 'There was none! No celebrations!' laughs Fenton. 'We were back to the hotel. We had a meal and the lads who were having a few drinks would do that, but basically we were back into the car and drove home and the following morning we were back at our work. There were no parades of anything like that. 'It was very low-key in one sense. A lot of those Cork lads had been there before, Gerald and Charlie McCarthy had been there in '66, in '70, there in '72. So they were used to the scene and they knew the Munster championship was a stepping stone in terms of an All-Ireland.' As much as it was another world away, some similarities can always be found in hurling. Related Reads 'That narrative has been debunked now' - Limerick boss hits back at end of an era talk Pat Ryan: 'Some of our own people writing off Limerick. Are they off their game?' The key areas where Cork must clean up house before facing Limerick again As ever, the price of everything was a hot topic. That year there were fears that the pricing structure of the All-Ireland hurling final might be increased from £3 for the Hogan Stand and £2.50 for the Cusack Stand. The Munster final took in £28,000 in Limerick with 46,851 in attendance, the largest attendance at a Munster final since the mind-boggling 62,175 in 1961 that came also to the Gaelic Grounds to see Tipperary beat Cork. You'll be delighted to hear that the Patrickswell crew of 1975 are still hale and hearty. 'I was out with Frankie Nolan last night, he was corner-forward on that team and scored two goals, I scored two goals, and Ned Rea and Eamonn Cregan scored the other (in the 1974 Munster final),' says Bennis. 'We are very close. Sean Foley as well. Frankie is only down the road from me here in Patrickswell. And of course my brother Phil was on that team. And there are four Patrickswell men on this team as well, three outfield and the sub goalie.' 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