Green and gold summer as Kerry and Donegal set up football decider
Donegal's 20-point triumph
, Kerry made to work harder by Tyrone, but, writes Gordon Manning, steered home by
David Clifford who was in 'gluttonous form'
.
A year ago, Michael Murphy was working as a TV pundit, having hung up his boots. Then he decided to come back
'to help in every way possible that I could.'
His part in reviving Donegal has, says Malachy Clerkin, been 'immense'. As, of course, has that of Jim McGuinness, Gordon hearing from
the manager and Paddy McBrearty
after the game.
And Seán got the thoughts of
a highly delighted Kerry manager Jack O'Connor
, who's now through to his seventh – seventh! – final. Just as chuffed were
the footballers of Kildare
, Paul Keane reporting on their victory over Limerick in the Tailteann Cup final.
The focus now shifts back to hurling ahead of next Sunday's final, Denis Walsh looking at
the history of the Cork v Tipperary rivalry
. 'On the stairway to eternity, Cork and Tipp matches were forever jostling for favour.'
READ MORE
Gerry Thornley brings us the latest from the Lions tour, Hugo Keenan finally making his debut in the
48-0 win over an AUNZ Invitational XV
. '
Getting off the jacks was an issue
,' he revealed when asked about the bug that laid him low. He was flushed with success, though, Johnny Watterson rewarding him handsomely in his
player ratings
, although no one scored higher than Mack Hansen,
'star quality shining' from the fella
. Andy Farrell is now left to ponder
his selection for the first Test
, Gerry reckoning that at least five starting positions remain up for debate.
Australia, you'd imagine, will prove to be trickier opponents for the Lions than Portugal proved to be for Ireland. John O'Sullivan was at the Estádio Nacional do Jamor to witness
that 'grizzly' 106-7 non-contest
– perhaps fortunately for Portugal, he discovered that there was
scant interest from the Lisbon locals
in the game.
In golf, Philip Reid reports on
Rory McIlroy's tied-for-second finish at the Scottish Open
, his thoughts now turned to this week's Open at Royal Portrush. That's where Shane Lowry's focus is too as
he attempts to replicate his 2019 success
in the tournament. Leona Maguire, meanwhile, will have a 'pep in her step' ahead of next month's Women's Open after
she tied for seventh at the Evian Championship
on Sunday.
There were first-time winners in both the men's and women's singles at Wimbledon at the weekend,
Jannik Sinner coming from a set down
to beat Carlos Alcaraz,
Iga Świątek crushing Amanda Anisimova
6-0 6-0.
And in New York, Keith Duggan saw Katie Taylor 'close the books on her riveting series of fights against Amanda Serrano',
the Bray woman triumphing against the Puerto Rican
once again at Madison Square Garden.
TV Watch:
It's the final day of the third test between England and India at Lord's – England need six wickets and India need 135 runs to go 2-1 up in the series (Sky Sports Cricket from 10.15am). It's stage 10 of the Tour de France (TG4, TNT Sports 1 and ITV4, from noon) and at 5pm you can see Ireland take on Scotland at the World Rugby Under-20 Championship (RugbyPass TV).
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RTÉ News
6 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Why do 90% of minor footballers not make the senior grade?
Analysis: The odds of progressing from county minor to county senior are overwhelmingly stacked against young players for a variety of reasons As Kerry gear up to face Donegal in next weekend's All-Ireland senior final, the spotlight will inevitably fall on the stars set to grace the field. But beyond the headlines and heroics lies a more uncomfortable truth: the odds of progressing from county minor to county senior are overwhelmingly stacked against young players. It's a sobering reality that should also serve as a note of caution for Tyrone's hope of a golden generation, despite their impressive success at underage level in recent times. How many make the jump from minors to seniors? In 1994, Kerry won their last All-Ireland minor title before a long drought that ended two decades later, in 2014. That 2014 win, under Jack O'Connor and against Donegal, was the first of five consecutive All-Ireland minor titles. By the end of 2018, a new Kerry senior dynasty felt inevitable. In fact, Éamonn Fitzmaurice was strongly criticised during his final year as senior manager for not promoting more of those minor players. If making the grade means starting a championship game for Kerry (not just a National League match or coming on as a substitute), the numbers are sobering. Minor panels typically carry more than 30 players, but we will keep it at 30 for this piece. In these calculations, a playeralso could not be counted twice so a player who was a Kerry minor for two or three years was only counted in his last year of being minor. From 1994 to 2013, 60 players (10%) from those minor squads went on to start a senior championship match. From the brilliant run of 2014–2018, the figure is 18 players (12%). The average number of players produced per All-Ireland minor winning sides (1994, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) is 3.1 while the equivalent number for all other sides in that time who didn't win a minor title is 3. Of the 78 players who did make the transition to senior championship starts with Kerry, exactly 50% of these were county minors for more than one year. A notable correlation but, as yet, not proof of causation. Does physical size matter? Research measuring 162 elite inter‑county footballers across six squads between 2014 and 2019 reported a mean stature of 6ft, with midfielders and goalkeepers tending towards the taller end of the range. That has real-world implications: players who thrive at minor might not have the physical tools to progress further. Unfortunately, genetics will play a large role here. A 5′9″ wing-forward can shine at 16, but that same player will most likely get swallowed up at senior level. "Supporters need to realise that minor football has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to senior football", commented one former Kerry player me bluntly. "The physical difference is massive and takes most of us years to get used to." The opposite is also true. We often see 'outstanding' minor players whose dominance is largely down to early physical development compared to their peers. By the time they reach senior level, that edge is gone because their peers have caught up with them. Former Tyrone star Kyle Coney has acknowledged that his early physical maturity gave him such an advantage. "At minor level I had a couple of years of size on most fellas and was a bit bigger and stronger," he says. This is where bio-banding comes in, a method of grouping young athletes by biological rather than chronological age to level the playing field in development. In the GAA, bio-banding practices have improved significantly in recent years, thanks to the work of researchers like Fionn Fitzgerald and Rob Mulcahy. Whether bio-banding will impact on the numbers playing senior for their county remains to be seen, but it is certainly a big step forward. 'Sick of football' by the age of 18 In recent years, several former county minors have told me directly they were "sick of football" by the time their minor careers ended. After five years of development and minor squads, strength and conditioning, diet monitoring, video analysis and countless hours at the county Centre of Excellence, all before even reaching their 18th birthday, mental fatigue had set in. From RTÉ Radio 1's News At One in 2018, new research highlights negative impact of GAA, including poor mental health, on senior inter-county players One player recalled a dark moment on the night he won a minor All-Ireland: "was this really worth all those years at the Centre of Excellence since we were 13?" Are we giving players a taste of county football in their teens, hungry for more or leaving them dreading entering another county set up? More than anything, are we even giving them a voice? From a purely performance-driven point of view, especially in terms of producing seniors, we have to ask if winning too young is actually counterproductive. Would a player be better off experiencing short-term pain through defeat, building resilience and long-term hunger, rather than winning early, feeling satisfied and believing there's no need to continue their hard work? It must be stressed that development squad issues are a systemic problem, and not specific to any one county. Former Cork manager Brian Cuthbert alluded to it in his PhD thesis: development squads suffer with poor alignment between academy, club, school, parent, and player goals; there is poor long-term planning and the emphasis on early success leads to burnout, not development. From Munster GAA, Dr Brian Cuthbert at the Munster GAA Club Forum 2025 on getting the balance right between competition and development Is there a solution to this? More emphasis on school-based training This is where players are with friends in less pressurised settings and have increased contact time with coaches (as recommended by Cuthbert). To underline this point, people seem to forget that the five Kerry minor teams of 2014-2018 had key players from four Hogan Cup wins, namely Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne (Éamonn Fitzmaurice's school, in 2014 and 2015) and St. Brendan's College Killarney (2016 and 2017). Manage expectations for players, parents, clubs and supporters Playing minor is an honour, but not a guarantee of senior success. The same applies to development squads. When clubs highlight under-14 or under-15 development squad appearances on social media, it raises the question: is the focus on development or validation? Sustainability Coaching for retention isn't just about downplaying the importance of winning. It's about keeping the game, and the process of preparing for it, sustainable. Younger players are pushed into completing weekly questionnaires monitoring their gym routines, nutrition, sleep and hydration, when the focus should still primarily be on skills, games, and, dare I say it, the ball. If a 16 or 17 year-old is already rebelling against daily/weekly questionnaires, how can we expect them to sustain that for another ten years at senior level? If 90% of county minors never play senior championship, that's where the real analysis needs to focus What about the ones who don't make it? I've learned a huge amount from my two PhD supervisors Dr. Phil Kearney and Dr. Ian Sherwin, but the airplane analogy Phil showed me one day really struck a chord. During World War II, Allied analysts studied the bullet holes in aircraft that returned from missions. Most of the damage was concentrated on the wings and fuselage. Logically, the military considered reinforcing those areas. But mathematician Abraham Wald, working with the U.S. Statistical Research Group, realised they were looking at the wrong planes. The ones with damage had survived. The planes hit in places like the engines or cockpit never came back. This led to a foundational concept in survivorship bias: the mistake of focusing only on visible successes and ignoring the unseen failures. It's the same in Gaelic football. We often look at the tiny percentage of minor stars who become senior county players and assume the system is working, but they are the survivors. If 90% of county minors never play senior championship, that's where the real analysis needs to focus. Those are the planes who never made it back. Officially, county minor football is about development. Managers talk about building young men for the future, but they know they're judged on results. They also know those results shape under-20 succession plans for managers looking to move up the chain. Development is the official line, but winning is the currency. In the end, it's a grade that often seems caught between two stools and it's the players who hit the ground the hardest.
Irish Daily Mirror
6 minutes ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Tipperary star hailed an inspiration ten years after cancer diagnosis
GAA supporters have hailed inspirational Tipperary hurler Noel McGrath for his outstanding All-Ireland display, a decade after his cancer diagnosis. The sporting hero was diagnosed with testicular cancer in April 2015 and had surgery just four days afterwards. On Sunday, Noel was accompanied by his brothers John and Brian for the Tipperary squad which defeated Cork in an electrifying second half of hurling. In a touching moment, the hurler also netted one of the scores which assisted the Premier County in triumphing over the Rebels. RTÉ pundit Donal Óg Cusack expressed his respect for Noel's resilience and courage, reports RSVP Live. He said: "When Noel McGrath comes into my mind, there is one thing I want to say. "Ten years ago that man was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Ten years ago. "And everybody within the hurling world would have been given a shock by it. "Ten years later, he is back here and is one of the main people with two brothers playing. "What an inspiration him and his family are for hurlers all over the country." Spectators at home were equally impressed by Noel's perseverance and flocked to social media to commend him and his brothers. "Great performance by John and fitting that Noel gets a point too... great hurlers," one supporter commented. Another said: "That'll be one proud Mammy of those boys!" "Iconic. Memories for life," a third supporter enthused. Whilst a fourth said: "Hang it in the Louvre." In a 2015 interview, Noel revealed that he initially mistook a lump for swelling from a hurling injury. "You would notice it very quickly, and I knew straight away that something wasn't right," he shared on RTÉ's Up For The Match. "I waited for a week or two to get it checked. I was hoping it might have been a knock I picked up in a match. "It all happened so fast. It took a while to realise what was actually going on, because of the shock of it all. Even though I thought about what it might have been, once you're told what it is, your body just sinks. "It's just that word that is associated with it, that just knocks you back. But there were good people around me, and they helped me through it."
Irish Examiner
36 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
'It was lovely to do that before the game' - Conor Stakelum on visit to Dillon Quirke's parents
From visiting Dillon Quirke's parents two days before the All-Ireland final to cracking jokes in the pre-match parade, Conor Stakelum has lifted the lid on some of Tipperary's preparations. Along with Quirke, Stakelum was a member of Liam Cahill's U21s that beat Cork in the 2018 All-Ireland final. Stakelum came off the bench to score the winning for a group featuring Jake Morris, Eoghan Connolly, Craig Morgan, Barry Hogan and Brian McGrath. A number of them remembered their late team-mate who passed away playing for his beloved Clonoulty-Rossmore in August 2022. 'A couple of us, we were out with Dan and Hazel Quirke during the week,' said Stakelum. 'We were just chatting about that match and when we were on the bus yesterday, and it started to rain… it was raining that day too. A lot of us were there that day, a lot of those great Cork players were playing that day and we just said we'd have another crack at them. 'We'd be close to Dan and Hazel. A couple of us went down before training, we had a cup of tea and a scone. They were just buzzing for the game. It's obviously very hard for Dan and Hazel, Kelly and Shannon… if things were different, Dillon would be here today and no better man to enjoy it with us as well if he was here. So that was something we decided to do on Friday and it was lovely to do that before the game.' For Stakelum, his younger brother Darragh and 15 others on the match-day panel, it was a first All-Ireland senior final experience. The other nine including Noel McGrath, Ronan Maher, Jason Forde as well as their manager told them to soak it all in. 'We were there having the craic trying on the suits and we were thinking, 'Should we be enjoying this as much as we are' but Noel, Ronan, Jayo all these boys, they were enjoying it as well. We didn't put ourselves under too much pressure. We kept to the same routine. 'Parents, friends and all of the rest soaked it all in as well. The world stays spinning. It's just another game. You don't get caught up in the hype too much. That's for friends and family and we just took it as another job, and now I suppose, we'll tap into the bit of craic and soaking it in and looking at the videos and clips and so on.' The light-heartedness continued into the parade on Sunday. 'Ah, we'd be sneering away. Willie [Connors] had his few jokes as we walked around in a line. It was calm, it was chill. 'There was such a big crowd at the semi-final that it was like a dry-run for the final, for lads who weren't there before, to soak in the atmosphere. The semi-final was a bit of a shock, but we were kind of used to the ringing noise then by yesterday, even though it was a huge spectacle. But you're so focused as well. I was nearly like, 'Will you just throw in the fecking ball?' That's it. You're waiting for that moment then.' After their father Conor in 1991 and Richard two years earlier, the number of All-Ireland medals in the Stakelum family doubled on Sunday. 'People see the really nice bits now but what's gone on, there's been a lot of dark days behind the scenes but they've always been in our corner,' said Conor. 'There's been plenty of stories about their (Richie and Conor's) successes growing up along but it was never a burden.'
