
Kerry boss Jack O'Connor on red alert to the threat of Tyrone's ‘weapons'
Kerryman
Just after the appointed 4pm time on Monday, Jack O'Connor loped into Austin Stack Park, eased himself into a chair and cheerily assured the assembled media that there would be 'no rant' this afternoon.
The Kerry manager was very knowingly referring to his most recent time before the microphones – after the All-Ireland quarter-final win over Armagh – when he had a couple of things to get off his chest. Eight days on from that impressive eight-point win to dethrone the All-Ireland champions – and firing a broadside or two at a few local pundits – the Kerry manager was in relaxed mood.

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Irish Times
17 minutes ago
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Ciaran Meenagh appointed Derry football manager, Kerry name extended panel for All-Ireland final
Ciaran Meenagh has been appointed manager of the Derry footballers, succeeding Paddy Tally, who served just one year in the role. It has been a tough year for Derry, not winning any matches and getting relegated to Division Two. Tyrone man Meenagh has experience of the squad and was a member of Rory Gallagher's back room team for five years from 2018 to 2023, during which time Derry won back-to-back Ulster titles and climbed from Division Four to Division One. When Gallagher stepped away in 2023, Meenagh acted as interim manager until the end of that season. He has since been coaching with Down as part of Conor Laverty's management team. READ MORE Meenagh's first appointment in Derry has been that of former county player and All Star Chrissy McKaigue. Meanwhile, Kerry have named an extended panel for Sunday's All-Ireland final against Donegal . Former All Star Tom O'Sullivan has been omitted having failed to recover from a calf injury. Centrefielder Diarmuid O'Connor has been included, albeit in a 28-man panel, which will have to be reduced to 26 by match day. O'Connor and Dara Moynihan are the players added to the panel named for the Kingdom's All-Ireland semi-final against Tyrone. KERRY (v Donegal): S Ryan; P Murphy, J Foley, D Casey; B Ó Beaglaoich, M Breen, G White (capt); S O'Brien, M O'Shea; J O'Connor, S O'Shea, G O'Sullivan; D Clifford, P Clifford, D Geaney. Subs: S Murphy, K Spillane, E Looney, T L O'Sullivan, T Morley, P Geaney, M Burns, T Brosnan, A Heinrich, T Kennedy, D O'Connor, C Geaney, D Moynihan.


Irish Examiner
44 minutes ago
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'I'm just incredibly excited for the opportunity to go out there and play for this team and play with these lads who we've created such a great connection with over the last few weeks. It's incredibly exciting and looking forward to ripping into it. 'I'd say it's up there with one of the biggest games of my life. How often can you say you've done this down in the MCG with 90,000 plus people there? 'With, obviously, the series on the line like this and being able to kind of back up 2013, to win back-to-back tours. It's definitely up there with one of the highlights. 'Like, even just being on this tour up there with one of the highlights of my life and career as a professional rugby player.' That the first squad member to congratulate Porter was the man he will replace on Saturday, Ellis Genge, made it all the sweeter as a moment to savour. "Yeah, he was the first one. It's been said so many times but you come into this squad with perceptions of different players. You're so used to playing against them in the Champions Cup or Six Nations or wherever but your perceptions are dashed pretty much the minute you step in the door. 'Me and Ellis were rooming together as well, so I got to know him better. He's an incredible guy, an incredible player, and it's been great to build a friendship as well as learn from him. He's one of the best in the business, so it's great being able to become closer as mates and learn from each other along the way. "But yeah, he was the first one to congratulate me yesterday and sure he handed out my cap to me last week instead of my dad. So he's the dad of the squad. He's a great fella and a great player. 'Starting or finishing, it's a huge honour to do both in a Lions Test team. 'Probably everyone would probably say starting. But, being a part of this squad is just an incredible privilege and incredibly grateful to be part of it, whether it's on the bench last week or starting this week.' Either way, Porter has and will have given blood to the cause. His ears were weeping as he spoke and he said: 'They're cut all year round now. They're just all year round. I can't have white pillowcases at home anymore because it looks like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre after I wake up in the morning. 'So, yeah. I've been banned from the white linens anyway at home.' Porter now favours black pillowcases, explaining: 'You can't see anything on them. Probably disgusting though.' The patience of Mrs Porter, Elaine, has been further stretched by her husband's lengthy absence so soon after the birth of their first child. 'What have I learned about myself? I learned that babies get very big when you're away from home. Yeah, my wife is at home looking after the baby. He's nine weeks now. 'I could say it's not easy for me, but I don't think my wife would like that too much. I wouldn't get much sympathy. 'Yeah, it's that side of it as well. My wife is at home looking after our baby at the moment. She's the one in the trenches at home at the moment. I'm in the trenches over here. Well, I can't really say that. We're looked after here quite well. 'But it's a sacrifice on both ends. She's there with sleepless nights at home looking after him and I'm here representing my family, my country, and representing the Lions. It's two different kinds of sacrifices. But I'll definitely owe her for this for a long time anyway.' Porter is not totally without family support in Australia. His father Ernie arrived in time for the first Test and has been catching up with his sisters, Andrew's aunts Becky and Vera, both of whom left Dublin when they were young. 'My old man came down. He was down there for last weekend in Brisbane and he's down here now. So, he's having a nice old holiday. We have a load of family down here as well… all around the place. Perth, Brisbane, and most of them in Sydney. 'It's a good opportunity for him to go and meet up with all the family and everything. Yeah, I mean, it's great for me as well. There's a lot of them I wouldn't have even met before. A few cousins and stuff, a lot of them I haven't seen in years and years. 'So, it's a great opportunity, obviously, to reconnect with family as well as being down here. A lot of Porters all over the world now. 'They got most of their own tickets, in fairness. So, yeah, I'm trying to get rid of tickets now.'


Irish Daily Mirror
44 minutes ago
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'Kickout battle is going to be huge' All Star 'keeper on Ryan-Patton match-up
For all the revolution that the new rules have brought to football, the most profound has been around the kickout. And so, in an All-Ireland final that is exceptionally difficult to call, it's reasonable to advance the theory that, for all the brilliance of the likes of David Clifford and Michael Murphy in either attack, the respective goalkeepers will wield the greatest influence on the outcome. Shaun Patton is hailed as one of the leading netminders in the game, arguably the best, and his talents will be exposed to final day for the first time this Sunday. It may be a surprise to many that the Donegal 'keeper has yet to win an All Star, though that's largely down to his county's failure to reach the latter stage of the Championship for most of his inter-county career, which is now in its eighth season. This week, former Kerry star Marc Ó Sé stated that 'if we can stop Patton, we've a great chance – we've one hand on the cup', citing the length and accuracy of his restarts. Ryan, meanwhile, despite winning an All-Ireland and All Star in 2022, doesn't quite command the same profile as other goalkeepers like Patton, Stephen Cluxton, Rory Beggan and Niall Morgan. 'Shane, in my opinion, is totally underrated all round as a goalkeeper,' says Tyrone 'keeper Morgan. 'He's rarely talked about in terms of the top 'keepers in Ireland when he's consistently been there the last three or four years. It's just Kerry always seem to be talked about in their attacking sense.' Tyrone goalkeeper Niall Morgan (Image: Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/James Crombie) Ahead of the final, Ryan pointed out how the new rules have forced goalkeepers to lower their expectations on kickouts, saying that while a 65/70% retention rate would have been just about acceptable last year, 'this year you would bite a fella's hand off for it'. 'It's very difficult to accept that you're not getting anywhere close to 100% anymore,' Morgan admits. 'It used to be that teams would have stood off for a good few of the kickouts, obviously with the old rules that doesn't happen anymore so most of them are a contest. 'I would totally agree that if you're winning 65-70% of your kickouts, you would more than take it but the big thing is what you're doing with the kickouts after you win them and Kerry and Donegal are both exceptionally good at turning those kickout wins into scores.' In their runaway win over Meath, Donegal mined 2-13 from Patton's kickout on his 100th appearance for the county and, while Sunday's game is virtually certain to be much more evenly contested, it's easy to see why Ó Sé places such weight on curbing his influence. Patton had an uncharacteristic meltdown in the first half of Donegal's quarter-final win over Monaghan, but Morgan doesn't believe that Kerry should draw too much encouragement from that given that he wasn't long back from an ankle injury. Donegal's Shaun Patton (Image: ©INPHO/Tommy Dickson) 'I know he had a bit of a knock in the Ulster final and didn't play against us in the group stage either so I think that was a case of getting him recovered and I don't think there's a chink in either of their armours if I'm being honest.' Somewhat reminiscent of David Clarke during Mayo's run to the 2017 final, Ryan has come to Kerry's rescue several times this campaign with that fundamental goalkeeping requirement that has almost become incidental these days - one-on-one saves. But while Morgan says that both are 'absolutely brilliant shot-stoppers', ultimately their influence on Sunday will still be felt most profoundly from what they produce off the tee. 'I think the kickout battle is going to be huge. I sort of look at it, over the whole game, over 50% of the kickouts in terms of both yours and the opposition's is going to set yourself up for a strong foothold in the game, it gives you the opportunity to launch your attacks and it's probably the time of the game when the other team isn't set up defensively, it gives you the opportunity to maybe get a goal or a bigger score. 'I think if you stand off either team on the kickouts, it's really dangerous. Giving them possession of the ball is what both teams want, they want to set things up and launch their attacks from deep. 'We saw it against Kerry, especially in the first half where we obviously put pressure on Seán O'Shea and Paudie Clifford but they were still more than capable of getting the ball up to pitch to David to do the damage and in the second half obviously, whenever David wasn't as much in the game then Joe O'Connor came into it so it'd be dangerous for either team to give up possession like that. 'Both 'keepers are key weapons for their teams and I expect whatever one of them can get on top at the weekend will set up their team really well.'