Dublin pitted against Connacht champions, Ulster runners-up, and Derry in All-Ireland SFC draw
THE DRAWS HAVE been made for the group stages of the 2025 All-Ireland senior football championship and Tailteann Cup.
The make-up of the Sam Maguire groups will be confirmed after the provincial senior football finals: Mayo and Galway face off in Connacht, and Kerry and Clare do battle in Munster this Sunday, 4 May.
Next weekend, 10-11 May, All-Ireland winners Armagh and Donegal go head-to-head in the Ulster decider, and new champions will be crowned in Leinster as Meath and Louth do battle.
The Sam Maguire group stage games get underway on the weekend of 17-18 May, while the Tailteann Cup starts a week earlier on 10-11 May.
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2025 Sam Maguire Cup draw
Group 1: Ulster winner (Armagh/Donegal), Connacht runner up (Mayo/Galway), Tyrone, Cavan.
Group 2: Munster winner (Kerry/Clare), Leinster runner up (Meath/Louth), Roscommon, Cork.
Group 3: Leinster winner (Meath/Louth), Munster runner up (Kerry/Clare), Monaghan, Down.
Group 4: Connacht winner (Mayo/Galway), Ulster runner up (Armagh/Donegal), Dublin, Derry.
2025 Tailteann Cup draw
Group 1: Kildare, Sligo, Leitrim, Tipperary.
Group 2: Offaly, Laois, Wicklow, Waterford.
Group 3: Westmeath, Limerick, Antrim, London.
Group 4: Fermanagh, Wexford, Carlow, Longford.
New York will enter at the preliminary quarter-final stage.
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RTÉ News
27 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
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In terms of hurling, this has to be one of the great weekends of the year with three blockbuster games, including two provincial finals, down for decision. Once again, the TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick will be jammed to capacity as over 44,000 people fill every seat and stand on the terraces behind the Ennis Road goals or the City End as we look across at Thomond Park and the Clare hills in the distance. And all of this on a Saturday evening. On Sunday, Croke Park will have an expected attendance of over 30,000 for the Leinster Hurling Final between Kilkenny and Galway, which will be preceded by the much anticipated clash between Kildare and Laois in the Joe Mc Donagh Cup Final. All three games will be televised live by RTÉ and there will be commentary on RTÉ Radio 1. The 'Split Season' has its supporters and its detractors, but when we have three crucial games being played between a Saturday evening and a Sunday afternoon on one weekend, it really highlights the impact the condensed calendar is having. Nobody involved - from players, managers, officials, fans, or those of us who work in the media - have the time or the space to actually savour and enjoy the championships any more. There is little or no time to analyse in some depth the learnings from games last weekend or preview matches coming down the tracks. In the past, the summer really belonged to the GAA, but with the 'Split Season' in operation, this has dramatically changed. The GAA is in direct competition in terms of media coverage with other sports who fully deserve their coverage by RTÉ and other media outlets. Last Tuesday, I filmed in Croke Park interviews with Galway's Cathal Mannion, Kilkenny's Adrian Mullen, David Dooley from Laois and Paddy McKenna, the Kildare goalkeeper, and my report previewing the Leinster Hurling Final and Joe Mc Donagh Cup Final was broadcast on Tuesday evening on the Six One News. This evening, I will be broadcasting live from Bruree in Co Limerick - very close to the Cork border - where I will be interviewing two former stars, TJ Ryan and Pat Mulcahy, as we look ahead to tomorrow's Munster Hurling Final, which has traditionally been one of the biggest games of the year. We only have limited space and time in the bulletin. 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There is also a strong argument that this match hould be played at a provincial venue like Portlaoise or Tullamore where 30,000 fans attending would bring an electric atmosphere to the occasion. The same number of people in Croke Park will mean a more than half empty stadium which won't add in any way to the atmosphere around the ground, or have that visual impact that a full venue would have for the people in attendance or the hundreds of thousands watching on television. Leinster Council has shown great vision this year with some of its calls so perhaps the decision to move the Leinster Hurling Final out of Croke Park in 2026 might be considered in its review later this year. The weekend pictures on the TV and the difference between the scenes in the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick tomorrow evening and Croke Park on Sunday might just persuade everyone that it's the right thing to do.
The 42
an hour ago
- The 42
'I wasn't feeling sorry for myself': Cancer treatment, managing New York, and facing neighbour Mickey Harte
ON HIS WAY to the emergency room in a New York hospital in March, Ronan McGinley knew he had been kidding himself. Abdominal pains. Indigestion. What? For a couple of weeks? One morning the pain became too much to bear. He was absolutely swamped with work. He was swamped at home too, with his wife Kerri very busy in her career and their son, Tomás. And then there was getting New York ready for the Connacht championship. He hadn't time to be sick. It was nine days out from the Galway game. He hadn't time to be sick. Management were ready. The players were ready. They had put in a shift. It wasn't the time. But when has cancer ever asked for the right time? ***** Growing up on the family farm on the Whitebridge Road just outside Ballygawley, Ronan McGinley was the youngest of seven brothers to Terry and Deirdre; two of whom, Enda and Cormac, were part of the Tyrone team that delivered three All-Irelands in the 2000s. Ronan played for Errigal Ciarán but knew that a life away from home was his preference. He relocated to New York. The Rockland GAA club and the New York county team became his sporting outlets. He then spent a few years coaching and helping with the management in a backroom capacity when his playing days wound down. Ronan McGinley marking Shane Walsh. Andy Marlin / INPHO Andy Marlin / INPHO / INPHO Let's get back in the emergency room though. A scan revealed a blockage in the colon. A colonoscopy the following day went exploring right up to the point it found a large tumour blocking up his colon. As samples were sent away and plans to plot his next few steps were made, he kept going, kept turning up at New York training. He told the rest of the management team, but not the players. 'I decided it was going to be a distraction for the players ahead of the Galway game,' he says. The skirl of the bagpipes led the two teams out onto the Gaelic Park pitch on 6 April, in the quirkiest of GAA settings. The hype-ometer needle was in the red. Stars and stripes mixed with tricolours and Galway flags. The Two Johnnies were in the crowd doing their thing. Matthew Tierney had a goal within five minutes. Hot damn! Despite that, New York reeled off three consecutive points before half-time to leave them right in the game at the break. With twenty minutes to go, Galway took over. No shame, no disgrace. New York players were given a week off. When they came back into training on the following Tuesday night, McGinley had to tell them. 'I knew I would be going for surgery and knew I would be off my feet for a period of time,' he says. 'It's not something you can hide from the group when the manager is not there and I wanted to keep them informed. 'I'm sure it was a bit of a shock to the lads. 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He will be very closely monitored with three or four comprehensive checks a year. He might have to change his diet, something he'll figure out as he goes along. He got out of hospital on 14 May, a Thursday. Five days later he showed up for a New York training session. 'I wasn't worth much on the Tuesday night, but I wanted to get back at it. Doing what I could. 'I didn't want to be wallowing or doing anything like that. But I pushed myself to get back, to get back into the football and get back in the routine.' They're a stoic lot, the McGinleys. When we talk to him, he leaves his desk at work to take the call. He's the Chief Operating Officer at Coyle Construction. Their offices are in midtown Manhattan, the halfway point between the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Centre. He could take a dander over to Central Park for his lunch break if he so chooses. It's a long way from the Whitebridge Road. But all the same, work? Really? Is he going for Employee of the Month? 'Well…' he explains, 'Kerri actually now is the owner of the company. 'In the middle of all this unrest, we were purchasing the company. Or Kerri was. 'That's her background, her family have a civil engineering company back home that I worked with; McFadden Civils. That's how we met, we ended up working together and whenever she came in as a partner in this company, I came in to work alongside her and then now she is the owner. 'Like when I was in the hospital, I had the laptop open doing bits and pieces, keeping the mind occupied. 'I think it definitely helped me. I know when I got home from the hospital I was on the sofa and I was afraid to move, I was so sore. But that nearly made things worse, not moving and not getting up.' He continues, 'To be fair to Kerri, she was she was dealing with a hell of a lot. She was dealing with the purchase of the company, she was dealing with me being in the hospital, looking after Tomás. A serious woman to do it all at the same time.' Help came from other sources. The people of Rockland GAA came to visit. They called in with Kerri and checked what she needed. His backroom team in New York kept him going. He was glad to have all the distractions. Emotionally, he's had to be patient with himself. You get that initial shock from the diagnosis. And then, for me it was kind of like breaking it down into, 'Right, I have to prep for surgery and then have the surgery and then, you know, recovery from the surgery and long term down the road…' 'It was just trying to compartmentalise it a little bit. Break it down into stages that I could work through,' he says. 'Kerri was very direct in terms of like, 'You have something you have to be getting out for, you've a Tailteann Cup that you want to go home for. You can't be doing those things if you're lying in the bed. You've got to be up, you've got to be going.' 'She can put stuff in perspective, made sure that I wasn't feeling sorry for myself. In one way I was lucky that the surgery went well, everything (went) the way it was meant to go. 'I'm lucky in that long-term treatment isn't necessary. Being at stage two, it's not the worst outlook, there's people out there obviously are going through a lot worse. 'I have to be thankful for that, and make sure that as much as I can take the goodness that I've got out of it.' On Wednesday night, the New York travelling party flew east to Dublin, landing on Thursday morning. The rest of the day was about getting acclimatised to the time difference and flushing the flight out of their legs. The plan on Friday was to gain access to O'Connor Park, Tullamore for a bit of a kick-around and get used to the pitch ahead of meeting Offaly in the Tailteann Cup on Saturday. And then, for the first time as manager, Mickey Harte (along with Declan Kelly) will come up against a New York team, managed by his club mate. Ronan played for Harte previously at St Ciaran's school. With the club, he was 17 when Harte took on Errigal for one season before becoming the Tyrone manager. He also took the Errigal U21 team, where Ronan got to line out alongside Enda who was in his final year at that level. They won that championship, beating an Owen Mulligan-inspired Cookstown in the final. The roads both have taken to this point have been mazy and complicated. Harte has had his own cancer experiences for two years between 2015 and 2017. The New York lads haven't missed their chance and are ribbing McGinley with the quip that between the two managers, they have three All-Ireland titles. But after all the tight handshakes and the catch-ups, a ball will be thrown in and the footballers of New York will play the footballers of Offaly. 'I've been very good in terms of making sure that we keep the thing going on, to play a game, whether I was going to be there or not,' says McGinley. 'We want the players to perform as well as they can. And because for them, you know, this is their opportunity in a county jersey, their opportunity in Ireland, and I would rather focus on that, than my own thing, like. Because everybody is going through stuff. 'Unfortunately, cancer affects most people's families, you know what I mean. 'You have to be grateful. Like, not grateful. Grateful sounds weird in this context. But it could be worse, maybe a worse diagnosis, it could be worse. 'It's about doing as much as I can, when I can, you know? Because you never know what's coming or you never know what's down the line. 'Make the best of it now when you're at it.'
Irish Examiner
2 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Derek Lyng rings the changes to Kilkenny team for Leinster SHC final against Galway
Kilkenny have named their starting 15 to take on Galway in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship final at Croke Park on Sunday. After ringing the changes for their clash with Wexford last time out, manager Derek Lyng has recalled a number of his key players for the showpiece occassion which throws-in at 4pm and will be shown live on RTÉ2. Mikey Butler, Huw Lawlor, Mikey Carey and Paddy Deegan will all make their return to the Cats' defence while Cian Kenny starts alongside Jordan Molloy in midfield and both Billy Ryan and Martin Keoghan come into the half-forward line. Read More Cathal Mannion: 'A lot of people wrote Davy Burke off, even within our own county' Kilkenny will again have to do without the services of Eoin Cody, who has again been ruled out through injury. Galway have also announced their team and they make two changes from their recent five-point victory over Dublin. Eanna Murphy and Kevin Cooney earn starts in place of first-choice goalkeeper Darach Fahy, who misses out through suspension, and corner-forward Anthony Burns. Kilkenny: E. Murphy; M Butler, H Lawlor, T Walsh; M Carey, R Reid, P Deegan; C Kenny, J Molloy; J Donnelly, A Mullen, B Ryan; S Donnelly, TJ Reid, M Keoghan. Subs: A Tallis, P Moylan, D Blanchfield, S Murphy, K Doyle, Z Bay Hammond, F Mackessy, H Shine, L Hogan, L Connellan, M Murphy. Galway: E Murphy; P Mannion, Daithí Burke, F Burke; C Fahy, G Lee, TJ Brennan; S Linnane, David Burke; J Fleming, C Mannion, T Monaghan; C Whelan, B Concannon, K Cooney. Subs: D Walsh, D Morrissey, J Grealish, J Ryan, D Loftus, R Glennon, C Cooney, T Killeen, A Burns, C Molloy, J Flynn.
