Dessie Sloyan and Eamonn O'Hara named as Sligo joint-managers
The duo, who were ratified at Monday night's county board meeting, take over from Tony McEntee, who stepped down after five years at the helm following Sligo's defeat to Fermanagh in the Tailteann Cup quarter-finals.
Sloyan managed the Yeats County to their first Connacht U-20 title success in 2022 and more recently was part of the Longford senior set-up under Paddy Christie. He also managed his club Easkey and is currently on the coaching ticket at Mayo club Knockmore.
O'Hara, an All-Star in 2002, scored the decisive goal in Sligo's Connacht final win over Galway in 2007. Moving into management, he guided his native Tourlestrane to five county titles on the spin, before overseeing back-to-back crowns with Mohill in Leitrim. He currently manages Roscommon club Boyle.
Sloyan and O'Hara's backroom team will include Con O'Meara, who was joint-manager of the Coolera-Strandhill side that won a maiden Connacht club title in 2024, and Donegal All-Ireland winner Eamon McGee.
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Irish Examiner
28 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Seven wonders: When Cork's All-Ireland Senior Camogie title three-in-a-row attempts failed
No sheet was passed around the Cork dressing-room this past fortnight to make sure all answers to the inevitable three-in-a-row question carried a degree of sameness. Or, deflection, for that matter. Manager Ger Manley insisted to this writer earlier in the week that three-in-a-row hasn't once been mentioned in camp throughout a 2025 journey that has an hour left to run. At the opposite end of the room to Manley is Hannah Looney, the midfielder openly talking about this group becoming a 'generational team' ever before the back-to-back had been completed last August. At Tuesday's All-Ireland final media event in Croke Park, captain Meabh Cahalane admitted that the prospect of three-in-a-row is 'definitely' there in the back of the mind. 'It is a huge opportunity. As a group, there is no point talking about three-in-a-row unless you actually go and do it. We know it is going to take everything and more to get over Galway.' It is a strange quirk that for all the county's dominance over the past half century, no Cork team has managed to win the O'Duffy Cup three years in succession. Read More Bolivian altitude has lifted Ashling Thompson to new heights The class of 1970-73 remain the last bunch of women in red to achieve this milestone, their dominance extending a step further to four-in-a-row when the Marie Costine-led side kept the party going with a one-point win over Antrim in 1973. In the 52 years since, Cork's All-Ireland total of 20 is just behind the combined total of Kilkenny, Tipperary, and Wexford which stands at 25 for the same period. But while these three counties have all achieved the coveted treble, the standard-bearers on Leeside have not been able to go beyond back-to-back. Sunday is the eighth occasion in the past 52 years where a Cork team has chased three-in-a-row. All seven previous attempts were sunk. Here's who sunk them and how. 1984 All-Ireland semi-final: Dublin 3-4 Cork 1-9 'Shocker for Cork' read the Examiner headline. Joan Gormley's goal three minutes from time turned a two-point Cork lead into a one-point defeat. Dramatic Dublin revenge for the final heartbreak of the previous two years. Mary O'Leary was responsible for the entire 1-9 total of the vanquished Rebels. 1994 All-Ireland semi-final: Kilkenny 4-9 Cork 2-12 Kilkenny traveled to Ballinlough and took the champions on their home patch thanks to an Angela Downey hat-trick. 1999 All-Ireland semi-final: Kilkenny 2-12 Cork 1-13 Sinéad Millea's 60-yard free, in the third minute of injury-time, went all the way to the Cork net to move Kilkenny in front for the first time and move them also into the decider. 'Three players went up for the same ball and when that happens, no one is going to get it,' Cork boss Tom Nott said of the winning free. 2007 All-Ireland final: Wexford 2-7 Cork 1-8 Wexford centre-back Mary Lacey receiving player of the match was symbolic of a Model rearguard completely shutting down the Cork attack, held as they were to just three first-half points. Cork half-forward Jennifer O'Leary likened the winning defence to a 'solid brick wall'. 2010 All-Ireland semi-final replay: Galway 0-10 Cork 0-9 Two Síle Burns frees late in the drawn game had kept the three-in-a-row dream alive and earned Cork a second shot at securing a ninth consecutive final appearance. Cork never led the replay until the 53rd minute. Aislinn Connolly and Brenda Hanney returned Galway in front. Gemma O'Connor's equalising free from distance seven minutes into injury-time drifted wide. 2016 All-Ireland final: Kilkenny 1-13 Cork 1-9 A rousing third quarter performance – during which the Cats outscored their opponents by 1-4 to 0-1 – powered Kilkenny to a first All-Ireland in 22 years. Easily Cork's worst final performance of the Paudie Murray era. 2019 All-Ireland semi-final: Galway 0-14 Cork 1-10 After the two previous All-Ireland finals had been blighted to the point of ruination by whistle-obsessed officials, Liz Dempsey stood aside at the Gaelic Grounds to allow Cork and Galway have at it on the physical front. At the end of a most attritional hour, the Tribeswomen's display of substance and steel delivered a first knockout championship win over Cork since 2010.
RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Maebh Cahalane savouring those special days in the Cork colours
Another All-Ireland final for Cork captain Méabh Cahalane and another chance to really appreciate what it means to line out for your county on the biggest day of the year in camogie. The Munster county are aiming to make it a hat-trick of senior titles when they take on Galway at Croke Park on Sunday (5.15pm throw-in) in what is a repeat of the 2024 decider. Cahalane was vice-captain last year and now steps up to lead Cork, just like her father Niall, who skippered the men's football side in the 1980s. "It's a huge honour for myself and my family," the 29-year-old told RTÉ Sport. "There are so many leaders on our group, anyone could be captain on any given day but to lead out this group of girls is so special and it's something I don't take for granted." As for leading out her county as it strives to create more history, the St Finbarr's player is looking forward to gracing the Croke Park turf again. "It's such a special place to play and it's what you dream of growing up, when you're nine or ten years old," she said. "We watched the All-Ireland finals and now getting to play in those finals, but we've worked hard to get there. You know, maybe the older you get, the more special it is. "And these days don't come around too often and I try to say that to my sister Orlaith (pictured), who came into the squad in 2022. She's been here every every August since coming into the panel. But you know, this group of players are really talented group of players and it's it's not too often that you get to be a part of a group like that. "So we just want to make the most of these days, you know and hopefully put in a performance that might put us in a position to to get over the line." The arrival of younger sister Orlaith is an addition that makes the older sibling proud, with Méabh saying: "Orlaith came into the panel two years ago and we knew her potential coming in from underage. She has really grown into that role; she's a huge player for us and any night you're marking her at training you'd be dreading it. "She is so quick, so smart on the ball. I'm so proud she has come into the panel and made such a difference. It's so special on days like Sunday when you get to share the Cork jersey with her and hopefully I'll get to walk up the Hogan Stand steps with her." Cork are looking to complete a league and championship double after comfortably seeing off Sunday's opponents in the Division 1A final last April. That success ended a 12-year wait for spring silverware; it was a prize that Ger Manley's squad had their eye on. "At the start of the year the league was something we wanted to target, many of us on the panel had not won a league medal so that was important," Cahalane revealed. "We took it game by game and thankfully got over the line in Thurles and then heading into the group stage of the championship that really gave us confidence for those games. It was Important for girls coming onto the panel that they get to play in a national final." Four month have passed and Cahalane is expecting a much sterner challenge from Galway on Sunday evening, no doubt similar to last year's meeting when the Rebels had three points to spare at the end. "We know Galway will be a different story the next day, when Galway get to Croke Park they are a different animal. They bring huge tenacity. Around the middle third they are really good at getting on breaks and have quality forwards that will need looking after. Cork and Galway do bring out the best in each other. "As for the league, different teams can treat it differently. We played well that day and Galway will feel they underperformed. And you must remember that they brought a huge battle to us in last year's All-Ireland final. It's going to take up to 20 players to get over the line the next day and you know it's going to have to be our best performance of the year. I think we're prepared, and we're confident." In the semi-final, Cork came good in the second half to see off the challenge of Waterford, with Cahalane stating that "we had another few gears to go" in that second period. So the side is primed for one last battle and their skipper is hoping that a sea of red will be there to cheer them on on Jones's Road. "The hurlers had a great support this year, the public really got behind them and we're just hoping if If even half the people could get up and support us. then that would be great. "Bring your daughters, bring your nieces, bring your friends. I think the game has gone to a whole new level and you saw that in the semi-finals; the pace, the skill and the physicality. I just think the more girls that are exposed to that, it's only going to be good for the game, so I'd really encourage everyone to get behind Cork, get behind Galway and get a huge crowd up here next Sunday." Watch the All-Ireland Camogie Championship finals on Sunday from 12.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, including the senior final of Cork v Galway at 5.15pm. Follow a live blog on and the RTÉ News app. Listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Offaly camogie had to press restart and relaunch
The charm dangling at the bottom of Orlagh Phelan's gold necklace is a map of Offaly. The necklace was a present from a Tipperary friend. The present was in recognition of her receiving the Offaly captaincy at the beginning of the year. Phelan is a young captain. A very young captain at that. Recently turned 21, she was all of 20 years young when manager David Sullivan handed her the role for the 2025 season. Being thrown in at the deep end is familiar work for the Naomh Bríd clubwoman, her senior championship debut at the age of 17 requiring the teenager to shadow and subdue then five-time Kilkenny All-Star Denise Gaule. Vice-captains Amy Byrne and Mairead Teehan have rarely left Phelan's side in helping her find voice and adjust to the captaincy title. It's a role she's growing in and slowly overcoming the few scary parts attached to the job. 'Not daunting, but you are like, I hope they are not going to turn on me now if I stand up and start giving out,' Phelan quips. 'In fairness, the girls have had so much respect for me as captain. They have really made my role easier. It is hard in that you are 20 and you are trying to tell a girl who is older than you, not what to do, but to come on, drive it on now. Overall, though, it has been such a good learning experience.' Offaly camogie, on the watch of All-Ireland hurling winner Joachim Kelly, broke through when achieving back-to-back junior and intermediate final victories in 2009 and '10. Two years later they were present at Nowlan Park on All-Ireland senior semis afternoon. The county's rise was swift and spectacular. Camogie nobodies to next stop Croke Park. They continued to hold top-level company in the years after their heavy 2012 semi-final defeat to champions Wexford. The Faithful women reached quarter-finals in '13, '14, and '16. They should have exacted Wexford revenge in the first of those, Ursula Jacob denying successive semi-final appearances at the death. The downturn came at the beginning of the current decade. They handed Cork a walkover in their opening game of the 2020 championship. Covid was not the reason behind the walkover. In that campaign and the three after, Offaly would lose all 13 of their championship group games. A relegation play-off victory over Down saved them in 2021. They could not repeat the trick against the same opposition 24 months later. They had to fall in order to pick themselves up. They needed to press restart and relaunch. The annual hidings at senior level had become harmful both to playing personnel and wider Offaly camogie picture. 'Sometimes you need to come down, have a reality check, and look at what is going wrong. We are slowly building Offaly camogie back up,' says the half-back and Mary Immaculate college student. 'When we lost the intermediate semi-final last year, we were probably saying, are we ever going to get out of intermediate, but going back down got us to reset, so it definitely was a learning experience for us. It has benefited us, and I hope it will again on Sunday. 'Everyone is talking about Offaly camogie again, which is fantastic. Offaly camogie has been spoken about for the wrong reasons for the last few years. It is good to see people are getting behind us and want to see us back up senior. Playing senior would be such an honour, that is every girl's dream.' The return road to senior was shortened and made slightly less treacherous by the Camogie Association decision for 2025 to stop senior counties fielding second teams at intermediate level. Against that, mind, the decision to relegate two counties from senior last year, as opposed to the usual one, meant no guarantees for Offaly and Kerry, the pair who lost out narrowly to Cork and Kilkenny at the semi-final stage in 2024. 'It could have been an Offaly-Kerry final last year, but allowing us to pave our way at intermediate without any of the second teams being there gave you confidence. There was room for other teams too to come up and make their statement. 'The second teams are in training with their seniors so they are getting that bit more experience, so it was great for other teams to pave their way and get people talking about camogie in their county, as well, as opposed to just the main counties.'
