‘Mayo were hurting. They wanted a good performance for Kevin. ' – Malachy O'Rourke disappointed as Tyrone fall flat
Mayo, the eternal optimists, resuscitated their championship prospects at Healy Park on Saturday evening, a 2-17 to 1-13 win over Tyrone the perfect antidote after defeats in the Connacht final and the first round of the All-Ireland series at home to Cavan.
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Irish Daily Mirror
4 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Joe Brolly on the hilarious welcome he received at a Mayo pub
Joe Brolly has given a glimpse into the hilarious welcome he received at a Mayo pub over the weekend. The Derryman has moved to the West of Ireland, where he lives in the Knockmore area with his wife and radio host Laurita Blewitt. Brolly is on the coaching team for Knockmore GAA and has seemingly left a big impression on the local community. The former RTE pundit went to O'Tooles pub in Tourmakeady to watch his beloved Derry take on Galway on Sunday. And Brolly was greeted by a hilarious series of signs that stated his claim to many objects in the pub. Brolly was recently bemoaning the Mayo footballers for ruining a multiple bet he had put on with a friend across a number of GAA matches over the course of a weekend. The All-Ireland winner explained on his Free State Podcast: "I'm the GAA guy. He's the horses guy, I don't know anything about horses. But I'm the GAA guy. "We're really careful with it. Built up a lovely kitty. It's a lovely kitty. So we're sitting with it. "I said, look, I am telling you every fibre of my being is screaming to me that Limerick hurlers are going to beat Cork. "I said 'I know this in the way that a man knows when he's in love that Limerick are going to beat the Cork hurlers'. "They're stinging from last year. This is one of the greatest dynasties that's ever been, never mind in hurling or f***ing Gaelic football or anything else. A truly exceptional, frightening, demolition job of a team that can play it whatever way you want to. And I said, they're going to beat Cork. Great odds. "And I said, why don't we pad it out? We'll fire in a few more certs. He said, 'we'll build it up'. "We brought the whole package up to 11/1 with Down footballers to beat Clare and that was a good one "Down footballers to beat Clare, which we had surprisingly good odds on, I think because it was in Clare. "Tipp to beat Waterford in the hurling. Tipp always beat Waterford in the hurling. "And then the fourth vote. I said, like, come on 'there's absolutely no way that Cavan can beat Mayo in MacHale Park in Mayo'. I said it to him and he said, 'even I know that and I don't know anything about football, but you're right'. "Tick the box. Off he went, he's the wee online thing with the bookies. 11/1 for the package. "And there they came rolling in. There they came rolling in. Down slaughtered Clare, Tipp beat Waterford. He said, 'fair play to you Brolly'. He said, 'Limerick are already sort of 1-3 to no score up against Cork'. "And then the word runs through from McHale Park. Cavan are stuffing Mayo. "Martin Carney, the great Martin Carney, the inimitable Martin Carney, one of the great people of the GAA apparently, he was raging after the match because the Mayo super fans are all out in the pitch getting the autographs of the players after being beat by Cavan. Like, f*** me. "He says, 'those people out there, I wouldn't be surprised to see them climbing the Himalayas naked waving a Mayo flag'. "Oh, bloody Mayo. We put two-thirds of the kitty on. Substantial kitty. This was a good kitty. A very, very good kitty. "The only risky one was Limerick and Cork. People would say I mean, come on, Limerick. I was so certain. That was the foundation of the bet. "That was the foundation. I didn't even tune in to Midwest Radio for the Mayo game, so certain was I. "To be fair, I love the Cavan boys. And I've always had a great grá for the Cavan clubs and the Cavan people. I was truly delighted for them."
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Delacroix on course to try and crack the Dubawi Derby puzzle for Ballydoyle team
The final countdown to the 246th Betfred Epsom Derby started on Monday as 20 possible starters are still in the blue-riband renewal, and with a potential dash of elite bloodstock irony in the mix too. Aidan O'Brien 's Ballydoyle team has four hopefuls left in the Derby after Monday's latest confirmation stage, topped by the antepost favourite Delacroix. O'Brien, chasing a record-extending 11th Derby success, has said he believes jockey Ryan Moore will find it hard not to pick Delacroix when new 72-hour final declarations for the race are made on Wednesday. The Lion In Winter is still on course to also line up for O'Brien at Epsom, as are Chester Vase winner Lambourn and Lingfield Trial scorer Puppet Master. READ MORE Joseph O'Brien has left in his Group One juvenile winner Tennessee Stud while a pair of French hopes, Midak and New Ground, were supplemented on Monday for £75,000 (€89,000). Delacroix has impressed in two trial victories at Leopardstown this season and will try to be a first Derby winner for his veteran sire, Dubawi. Third himself in the 2005 Derby, Dubawi has been the mainstay of Sheikh Mohammed's Darley breeding operation for years, although he has been conspicuously unsuccessful in the Epsom classic. Benbatl, fifth in 2017, has been the best of his nine Derby runners to date. It will be a salty coincidence then if it is the Sheikh's Irish superpower rivals that manage to crack the Derby code with his own top sire, although it could work the other way too. Godolphin's leading hope is their 2000 Guineas hero Ruling Court, a son of Coolmore's US sire sensation Justify. The Sheikh paid out €2.3 million to buy him at last year's Arqana Breeze-Up Sale. Godolphin are also set to be represented by the Guineas fourth Tornado Alley. William Buick aboard Ruling Court after winning the 2000 Guineas this summer at Newmarket. The Godolphin classic winner will take his chance in the Epsom Derby. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA Dubawi did finally break his Epsom classic duck last year when Dermot Weld saddled Ezeliya to win the Oaks. As expected, Midak will carry the colours of the late Aga Khan, in whose memory Saturday's Derby will be run. Also supplemented into the race on Monday was the Juddmonte operation's New Ground. The colt has been third in two starts this season for trainer Henri-Francois Devin, including behind Sunday's French Derby runner-up Cualificar in April. Juddmonte spokesman Barry Mahon said: 'His form is good and we think he is crying out for a mile and a half. We could have taken him to Chantilly, but decided to wait to go to Epsom. He's in great form.' One of the leading home hopes will be the Dante winner Pride Of Arras who is set to be joined in the race by another Ralph Beckett-trained contender, Stanhope Gardens. The John and Thady Gosden team will also be doubly represented through the Dante runner-up Damysus and Nightwalker. Aidan O'Brien goes into Epsom on a classic roll, having landed Sunday's French Derby with Camille Pissarro. Last month, he also picked up the French 2000 Guineas with Henri Matisse, while Lake Victoria was an impressive winner of the Irish 1000 Guineas. On Saturday, O'Brien will try to repeat his record feat of winning the Derby three years in a row on the back of City Of Troy's success a year ago and Auguste Rodin in 2023. No other trainer has ever pulled off the hat-trick that the Irish man managed between 2012 and 2024 with the trio of Camelot, Ruler Of The World and Australia. His son, Joseph, rode Camelot and Australia and had his first Derby runner as a trainer in 2017 with Rekindling. He subsequently went on to land the Melbourne Cup. O'Brien jnr will become just the ninth Irish-based trainer to win the famous race if Tennessee Stud jumps from his third to Delacroix in last month's Leopardstown Trial to secure Derby glory. A total of 24 Irish-trained winners have won English racing's most famous prize. The going at Epsom is good, although there is a mixed weather outlook for the week ahead. Friday's Epsom programme has O'Brien represented by the trio of Giselle, Minnie Hauk and Whirl in the Oaks. Joseph O'Brien has another potential classic shot here with the Salsabil Stakes winner Wemighttakedlongway. In other news, the Ballydoyle team has said that their star two-year-old Albert Einstein will miss Royal Ascot due to a setback. 'Group Three Marble Hill Stakes winner Albert Einstein, unfortunately, will not run at Royal Ascot due to a sprained joint. He will have an easy three weeks,' they reported. Albert Einstein earned rave reviews from Aidan O'Brien after each of his two starts to date, including the Marble Hill, where he was ridden for the first time by Ryan Moore. 'He's probably as fast a horse as we've seen work,' said the trainer. 'We always thought he was very special.'
The 42
6 hours ago
- The 42
A summer's evening among the Mayo faithful is one well spent
IN HEALY PARK, Omagh, a working journalist has their pick of two very different options. You can go across the pitch from the main stand and take your place in the rather futuristic setting of their elevated, purpose-built media facility. There is ample elbow room. Power points abound. Occasionally, occasionally, there is the chance of sandwiches. There's a convenient jacks. There's a snag though. The sun sets over the main stand, so you find yourself squinting out of the greenhouse. That's not the end of the snag list. The team dugouts are on the far side of the pitch – quite unusual for a GAA ground where the media are usually accommodated in the back of a main stand. And worst of all, it is sound-proofed. Not entirely, but you cannot hear stadium announcements and figuring out the substitutions can be taxing. There may be comfort and convenience, but it feels like you are watching an intercounty game from underwater. Like a lot of things, Covid sorted out the problems we never knew we had. Back then, the grounds staff erected some makeshift press benches with a steel frame and a six-inch plank. They brought power to the area and connected up some extension leads. Advertisement It was meant to be a temporary measure to help with social distancing. But it soon caught on with journalists who wanted the full-fat game experience. The temporary erection is now a permanent arrangement. There may be little room to set your various pieces of tech, and you could end up with a mouthful if you nudged your laptop over the cliff edge and into a frustrated Tyrone fan. But it makes you feel like you're at a game. And with Mayo coming to town, you wanted that good stuff hooked into your veins. A few years back, I had to schlep my way to Dublin to meet the big cheeses of the 42. I sat across a table from three Tech bros handling the ageing process well, and was asked what pieces I might pitch in the middle of a championship season. One was to sit among the Mayo fans for a game when the stakes couldn't be higher. Bushy eyebrows went northwards. They were picking up what I was laying down. They like-a-da-lingo. They offered me the job. I thought nothing more of the idea. Tomorrow's another day. Packed it away with the rest of the arrows in the Quiver. Well, today is the day. The big idea gets burned. Could the stakes have been higher? Hardly. Mayo were staring at a May exit from the All-Ireland football championship. Not mathematically, but with a final game against Donegal looming, consecutive defeats to Galway, Cavan and Tyrone wasn't going to do anything much for the confidence. But they jumped into an early lead of 0-4 to 0-1. Ben McDonnell got Tyrone's second point but the pattern of the game was set. When Tyrone goalkeeper Niall Morgan had a kickout, he found Mayo goalkeeper Colm Reape clogging up the left wing, his favoured to spot to land a kick. The runs offered to him were lacking in conviction. He was forced to hoof it in the direction of Conn Kilpatrick but Mayo had rediscovered their Mayo-ness. They swamped and bullied Tyrone. They were aggressive and decisive. The crowd fed off it. After a tentative opening ten minutes when they didn't know if they were going to commit or not – they've been stung so many times – they got going properly, mirroring the effort of their team. Naturally, this being Mayo, they did not make life simple for themselves. Tyrone launched a comeback. By the 53rd minute they were a single point adrift. Just the right time to unleash the subs and watch them drag the home side over the line. But the substitutions had a completely different effect on each side. Tyrone visibly wilted. Their subs were forced into mistakes and panicking. Mayo's were assured, hungry and ravenous. The sight of Davitt Neary chasing down a Morgan short kickout to Tyrone's Shea O'Hare summed it up. O'Hare is a young player making his way, but his 80% run to the ball wasn't enough for Neary's eyeballs-out effort and Neary stole in for the steal, before setting up Paddy Durcan for a point. Afterwards, the supporters took over the pitch. They lingered and basked and bathed and wrung all they could out of a good day following their boys. In the stand long after the crowd had cleared out, Rob Murphy and John Gunnigan of the Mayo Football Podcast were still gassing away, pulling in people in their orbit to talk about Mayo and, bloody hell, Mayo football, eh? Stand-in Mayo manager, Stephen Rochford. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO All of this, and barely a mention of Kevin McStay, presumably at home recuperating. There's an old Brendan Rodgers yarn holds he said that football management was like standing in a river of shit. When you were appointed to a role, it was already running ankle-high. The trick is to make sure it doesn't get shoulder-high. You know something, it's one thing for Brendan Rodgers to say that as he reclines in his top manager comforts, with self-portraits on the wall and his property portfolio propping up the kitchen table – valued at 102 properties ten years ago during a divorce settlement. It's quite another for the managers that live among their communities, living to every gulpin at the shop giving them advice. Kevin McStay may be living in Roscommon for many years, but I'd say he has had his fill of guff from experts all the same this year. And his eager assistant Stephen Rochford hadn't even stood in the river only to find it was actually waist high with a strong current, before his first game back in charge even threw-in. On the sidelines for GAA+, the hirsute Padraig O'Hora said that we could expect nothing different from Mayo as Rochford was the man set up the team, the selection and tactics. He even went as far as to suggest that there should be a player's coup. Woah, mamma! There can never be enough drama for some. Related Reads Calculators out: The final permutations for the All-Ireland football group stages 'We'll be having a serious conversation': Mistakes and wides frustrate Dublin in loss to Armagh Armagh impress in victory over Dublin to ensure top group spot He knows better than all of us, of course. But he was also wrong as well as Mayo's emotional arousal and controlled aggression was in a sweet spot. The pressures managers and players face are amplified in this system. Witness Jim McGuinness, with a face that usually moves less than an Easter Island Maoi statue, marching down the line in Breffni Park to get in the face of Cavan manager Ray Galligan. Jim McGuinness confronts Cavan manager Ray Galligan. Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO / INPHO Chased back down the line in quick time, the only other time we can remember McGuinness getting on like this was in a qualifier game against Laois when he was given a powerful shove on the sideline by manager Justin McNulty. That game also followed a defeat to a Malachy O'Rourke team. In Celtic Park, Derry produced their best performance of the year in winning, then throwing away, then rescuing a draw against Galway. The panic of the last few moments felt like proper championship. All of this and we can only afford a cursory whizz through the majesty of Rian O'Neill, the courage of Adam Crimmins and his block on Tommy Durnin to seal a famous home win for Down, the scalding temperature of Celtic Park and how ferociously Derry played. On and on and on. Needle: Kerry and Cork get stuck in. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO Whatever about the way it is presented and who can qualify, nobody can deny that it has been a crazy ride. In the 16 games of the round-robin, nine of them have been wins for the travelling team and two draws. The concluding round will be one of the great Gaelic football weekends of the calendar, with suspense and desperation in equal measure. After many years of tinkering, it's difficult to argue that we haven't arrived at a very solid method of running off a championship, only to sack it off for 2026.
