Donegal vs Kerry, McGuinness vs O'Connor and process vs talent
Joe is joined by Tomás Ó Sé, Philly McMahon and Colm Keys to preview Sunday's All-Ireland final between Kerry and Donegal.
What a win would do for the legacy of Jim McGuinness and Jack O'Connor is a big topic of discussion, as is the fascinating clash of styles between the two teams.
Our GAA coverage on the Indo Sport podcast is brought to you by AIB.
If you'd like to come along to the next edition of Indo Sport LIVE, head over to Ticketmaster for information on how you can join us at Vicar Street on August 6. Click here. ️
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Irish Times
33 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Jockeys' body says any new watering system for Thurles not anticipated until 2026
The body representing Ireland's jockeys has said it felt a consensus was reached on the need for a watering system at Thurles racecourse, but that any implementation wouldn't be expected until 2026. As reverberations continue from Friday's shock announcement by the Molony family that the country's sole privately owned racecourse was closing with immediate effect, focus has turned to standards and licensing requirements set out in a racecourse manual released in June by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) and Horse Racing Ireland (HRI). The 68-page manual outlines standards for tracks, including in relation to stabling, weighing room and medical facilities. It has been suggested that the Thurles closure – Ireland's first racecourse to close in 17 years – may have been due to a multimillion euro investment required to meet those standards. They reportedly include a minimum €300,000 for the installation of a watering system. READ MORE Since Friday, champion trainer Willie Mullins has queried the need for Thurles to have such a system and Henry de Bromhead questioned if compliance with new IHRB and HRI guidelines is too expensive for smaller tracks. [ 'A huge blow for Irish racing' - Thurles racecourse closure met with shock and sadness Opens in new window ] The Molony family's statement said increasing industry demands and the cost of doing business were a 'major factor' in their decision to close the track. That prompted the IHRB to state it supports continuous improvements but doesn't impose immediate or inflexible obligations. It stressed that the Molony family's decision was a private one. IHRB chief executive Darragh O'Loughlin added that the racecourse manual is intended to support racecourses but 'not to impose sudden demands or create barriers'. The focus on watering at Thurles intensified after jockey Michael O'Sullivan sustained fatal injuries in a fall there in February. A subsequent IHRB review concluded the crash was due to the inherent risks of National Hunt but urged the prioritisation of a watering system. The Irish Jockeys Association (IJA) say they met Thurles racecourse officials, trainer representatives and the IHRB in May with a view to try to provide ground conditions ideally no faster than the easy side of good going into the future. 'With the last two winters being quite dry, particularly last winter, it was obvious that Thurles had to try to ensure a regular consistent watering of the track. 'What we understood would be put in place, for the autumn period, racing would go ahead and we were perfectly happy that racing would go ahead for autumn, that they would continue to use the existing system that they had for watering with a view to a more long-term sustainable system which would ensure the future viability of the track in terms of producing the right type of ground. That was our last understanding of it. And when we left the meeting that is what we understood was going to happen,' said IJA secretary Andrew Coonan on Monday. 'It's being said the IHRB made conditions so difficult and there was so much cost involved. I'm not aware of any conditions that IHRB were putting on the track, other than as related to jockeys and that was solely the provisions of a watering facility, not immediately, but into 2026. 'As I understood it, there was always going to be racing in the autumn. There was always going to be watering under the existing system with a view to putting a sustainable consistent watering programme in place in line with best practice. 'That, to me, didn't seem an unreasonable position. And as I understood it, all the parties wanted to go ahead on that basis, and I understood that included Thurles, and the trainers and the jockeys,' he added. Coonan said the hope among jockeys is that racing can continue in Thurles with a proper watering system in place. HRI chief executive Suzanne Eade is due to meet the Molony family this week to discuss their position. Reports of a near €3 million cost to bring the overall Thurles facility up to required HRI standards have been suggested as a factor in the Thurles closure. Under HRI capital development fund rules, the Molony family would have to pay 60 per cent of any cost. In other news, Aidan O'Brien's recent impressive Killarney winner Benvenuto Cellini has been entered for Friday evening's Listed Coolmore Churchill Stakes at Tipperary. The Frankel colt earned 20-1 quotes for next year's Derby on the back of his maiden success. O'Brien's unbeaten Coventry Stakes winner Gstaad is likely to start a warm favourite for Saturday's Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh, Europe's first Group One of the season for two-year-olds. The champion flat trainer has dominated the race like no other Group One prize with a remarkable 17 victories under his belt. It is National Hunt action at Roscommon on Tuesday, where Sunday's Galway festival winner Aurea Fortuna could bid for a quick follow-up. Victorious over flights off a mark of 101 in Ballybrit, Tony Martin's runner races off a mark of 96 in a handicap chase.
Irish Daily Mirror
41 minutes ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Dublin's lucky charm on what motivated her to come back and win All-Ireland
Dublin's lucky charm Eilish O'Dowd admits she felt like she was 'missing out' after parking her inter-county in 2024. The former Leitrim player, a long-time Dublin resident, was called up by her adopted county ahead of the 2023 season after impressing for Na Fianna at club level and slotted in at midfield as they went all way, beating Kerry in the All-Ireland final for their first Brendan Martin Cup success since their four-in-a-row run from 2017-20. But, like so many in the ladies game, her head was turned by the AFLW last year and she signed for the GWA Giants, with whom she made a notable impression, which included kicking the fastest goal in the competition's history some 15 seconds into her debut against the Western Bulldogs. Back home, Dublin relinquished their All-Ireland title at the quarter-final stage in O'Dowd's absence, suffering a surprise defeat to Galway at Parnell Park and with long-serving manager Mick Bohan stepping down in the aftermath, it seemed like the end of an era. However, with O'Dowd back on board after her Australian stint and Paul Casey and Derek Murray providing a seamless transition as they took over from Bohan in a joint capacity, Dublin are back on top after making light work of Meath, who sensationally halted their five-in-a-row bid in 2021, in Sunday's All-Ireland final. It means that, in terms of All-Ireland success, O'Dowd has a 100% record in her Dublin career with both of her two seasons having ended with the ultimate glory. 'It's great, fantastic, I can't complain!' she said. 'God, it's just so special to be back here. 'I think when I stepped away last year to go over to Australia and focus just on AFL, there definitely was a big part of me that felt like I was missing out, and even just watching the girls last year going in the group stages and even the League, you always feel like… you're just missing out, and you want to be a part of it all the time. 'It's very hard when you're over in Australia, the time difference and everything. That definitely gave me the motivation to want to come back and do it all again, because when you get the taste for that glory, you just want that success again. So, yeah, delighted to be able to get a second one. Two out of two!' The Dublin team maintained the tradition of taking the cup to the children's hospital in Crumlin this morning, while there will be a victory celebration staged in Smithfield Square tomorrow at 6pm.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Croke Park, a good neighbour and one of the most loaded four-letter words in the English language
Jimmy Noddy Black was buried on Monday morning. A handball man, a Meath man, a good man. My old neighbour. It has been a difficult few weeks for McCullen Park, a small horseshoe-shaped estate in Kells known locally, and defiantly, by its residents as The Kingdom. Jane Smith, a gentle, warm and kindly woman who lived in one of the first houses at the entrance to the estate, died just over two weeks ago. Jimmy's house is further back, but just a couple of hundred metres away. Sad times. On Sunday afternoon, I took my two children to the All-Ireland women's senior football final at Croke Park , Meath v Dublin . The nine-year-old boy and six-year-old girl are born and raised in Dublin to culchie parents - a Meath dad and a Meathish-Cavanish but largely non-committal mother. READ MORE Still, on Clonliffe Road, she bought them blue and navy woollen headbands. On subsequently meeting cousins in the Croke Park Hotel, the sight of said headbands was enough to raise faux outrage and open debate on the possibility of family excommunication. For me, that is, not the children. After all, I was the adult in the room, allowing such horror to visit our fiercely green and gold Royal family. But within moments, all that seemed to matter to the gathering of children was the colour of their MiWadi and the flavour of their crisps. Approaching our seats in the lower Hogan about an hour later, we stopped to chat with Colm McManus – chairman of Meath LGFA and a man who also grew up in McCullen Park. His mam, Moll, brought a tin of her home-made buns topped with slatherings of pink and white icing to our home every Christmas. No pastry has ever eclipsed Moll's buns. That horseshoe-shaped estate wrapped around a humpy hill (imaginatively called The Hill) on which hundreds of World Cups and All-Ireland finals were won and lost, is where my mind automatically goes when I think of home. And yet it is a place my children don't recognise or know. All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Championship Final, Croke Park, Dublin, on Sunday, where Meath played Dublin. Photograph: Inpho Home to them is Dublin. Meath is where their grandparents and cousins live. But I'm not sure they realise, or care, that it's also where a large part of their dad will forever be. Home can be one of the most loaded and complicated four-letter words in the English language. Either way, the acquisition of free TG4 blue and navy flags (they were available in the colours of all the participating counties) at the turnstiles seemed to rouse the boisterous Dub within my children. And then we found our seats. On which they sat, briefly. With their view of the pre-match parade obstructed, both of them figured the solution was to stand on their seats. I made some faint protest against this reckless move, but they were already in motion and by then, naturally enough, everybody around us knew exactly how this venture was going to play out. Snap! The six-year-old went down first, her right leg moving back to tip the balance of the seat. The chair folded, and her leg was trapped. The nine-year-old, intrigued and thrilled at the predicament in which his sister found herself, couldn't resist the temptation to shift his body weight for a closer gawk. Snap! Down went another little Dub. As the parade turned for the Cusack Stand, I was on my hunkers trying to free both children. Given it was the first time all day they had lacked pomposity, I briefly contemplated leaving them there, but figured they'd probably tell their mother. After eventually dislodging all limbs from seats, I calmly and confidently assured the traumatised children they'd just experienced a rite of passage, they'd learned a life skill: 'It'll not happen to you a second time.' I imagined them, years from now, passing on my sage advice to their children, perhaps in this very stadium. But then my reverie was interrupted by a woman behind us frantically screaming something about Jesus Christ. Beside me, the six-year-old now had both legs trapped in the chair and was bent forward at an unnatural angle, while the nine-year-old had made a sudden, unannounced break for the toilet. Which child to save first? Dublin's Carla Rowe leads her side during the parade before the final. Photograph: Inpho As for the game, it is fair to say it was over as a contest by half-time. Dublin were the better team, but they were also the more cynical side. I told the children this. They didn't seem to care. Instead, they enthusiastically waved their flags in my face and repeatedly roared: 'Up the Dubs!', each trying to outdo their sibling in a who-can-be-louder competition. I resolved that cynicism and boorishness are both Dublin traits. By the time Carla Rowe was lifting the Brendan Martin Cup, the children – not satisfied with a factory load of chocolate and a freezer of ice-cream – were wondering what they would be having for dinner. 'The Meath football team,' I jested. Nobody laughed. We stopped in Fairview and ate fried chicken and vinegar-soaked chips. The nine-year-old, mid-strawberry milkshake, asked if his cousins were in Meath yet. So we called them. Turned out they had made it back just in time for Jimmy's wake. Later that night, the children inquired if they knew the person whose funeral I was going to in Kells on Monday morning. They didn't. And the truth is, they don't know many of the people or places of my youth. I'm aware of this reality probably more often than I should be. But that was our choice in deciding to raise them in Dublin, a wonderful place with equally wonderful people, and a city that gets a bad rap more often than it should. And with all that's happening in the world right now, what a privilege it was on Sunday to be among 48,000 people at a women's sporting event with my children, and the stadium dotted with family, friends and neighbours. The town turned out to give Jimmy a fitting farewell on Monday morning. After the funeral, I told my parents I'd be back down home soon. The Meath green and gold bunting was still flying proudly at the front of the house as I pulled away. Then I drove back home to the children in Dublin, fully expecting to be greeted by a smiling six- and nine-year-old, both waving blue and navy flags while proudly wearing their new matching woollen headbands.
