Latest news with #BryanKeane
The 42
3 days ago
- Sport
- The 42
Calculators out: The final permutations for the All-Ireland football group stages
GIVEN THE RIOTOUS nature of the first two rounds of the All-Ireland football round-robin series, it's only natural that the delegates to Congress may be feeling a little regret that as of next year, the format will be scrapped and replaced with a double trapdoor/backdoor/reverse ferret system. But for now, we are looking at a final weekend of football fixtures with more cliffhangers than an EastEnders omnibus. Grab yourself a large pot of coffee and sit down as we consider the permutations of the final weekend and who will emerge blinking into the limbo of the preliminary quarter-finals, who gets to put their feet up until the quarter-finals proper, and who enter the Valhalla of finishing bottom of their group. Group 1 Probably the most entertaining of the groups so far. Donegal losing their opening round game to Tyrone in Ballybofey was something of a shock but not as much of a shock as Mayo losing to Cavan. Donegal recovered well by hammering Cavan by 19 points, while Tyrone experienced a sugar slump in losing to Mayo in Omagh. Paddy Durcan is cheered off the field after his three-point return against Tyrone. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO Essentially, everything is up for grabs with all four sides in a win and a loss so far. Donegal play Mayo and Tyrone meet Cavan in the final round on neutral ground. A draw in either game will be enough to squeeze out the losers of the other game. If there are two teams locked on the same points, then the head-to-head rule applies. If more than two finish level on points, then points difference will determine who remains. Advertisement Group 2 A bit more cut and dried this one. Kerry, with a win at home over Roscommon and away to Cork, have already qualified. Meath are in the same boat, having beaten Cork at home and drawn with Roscommon away. Those two meet at a neutral ground in the final weekend. A quarter-final place is up for grabs if Meath can beat Kerry. All Kerry need is a draw to guarantee their place in the quarter final. Kerry and Cork exchange pleasantries. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO Roscommon's record of a draw against Meath and a defeat to Kerry have them on a point. They face Cork now, and a win for either grants them a preliminary quarter-final slot. Group 3 Down top the table and it's fair to say they have been the surprise package of the group stages and will continue on after beating Clare away and then Louth at home. Monaghan also have a 100% record, beating Louth and Clare. Now, the two sides meet in a game that will decide who gets into the quarter-final. A draw in this game will have Down grabbing that slot as they have a superior points difference. Adam Crimmins produces a game-winning block for Down. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO Louth and Clare have found it difficult, but are still alive despite having lost two games each. Related Reads '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 Essentially it comes down to a shoot-out between the two in the final game. Whoever wins will guarantee themselves third place and the preliminary quarter-final. A drawn between the two will favour Louth and their healthier points difference. Group 4 Since their Ulster final defeat to Donegal, All-Ireland defending champions Armagh are already through to the quarter-final. Wins over Derry and Dublin have them on four points and while Dublin could draw level with them if they get a positive result against Derry and Armagh lose, they would still lose out on the head-to-head rule. Dublin's win over Galway seemed to be a sign of the good times returning, but they were flat against Armagh. Derry and Galway show that needle isn't gone from the game. Lorcan Doherty / INPHO Lorcan Doherty / INPHO / INPHO A repeat of the All-Ireland final is in store when Galway play Armagh, seemingly a staple of these round-robin game. Derry face Dublin and are also on a point after their dramatic last-gasp equaliser against Galway in Celtic Park, following their opening day defeat to Armagh. Both are on a single point. Should Derry and Galway win against an Armagh side already guaranteed their quarter-final slot, we could be looking at a scenario whereby Dublin are eliminated.
The 42
23-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
A historic moment for camogie but why did it take this long for choice to prevail?
'HE'S COMING….' The words we had been waiting for all evening had finally arrived. It was followed quickly by the sound of footsteps in the distance becoming gradually louder. In the room, there was a flicker of needless movement. A tap of a laptop key or another look at a phone to make sure a camera was facing the right way. Anything to feel a bit more ready. But, of course, we were already locked into position. Everyone had two of everything to cover both outcomes. Two drafts ready to be published. Two different messages to post on X. Motion passed. Or motion defeated. No to shorts. Yes to shorts. Which way would Caeser's thumb point? Surely, a marginal win either way, we thought. Advertisement And then Camogie Association President Brian Molloy began to speak. White smoke from the camogie conclave. An overwhelming yes to shorts and skorts together, he said. A 98% yes, if you please. In the end, it was all so simple and yet, it poses a pertinent question: why did it take this long for choice to prevail? 'Was their much debate?' one journalist asked after he delivered the outcome of the Camogie Association Special Congress. 'No,' came Molloy's response. 'There was no need for a debate,' he added later. An almost unanimous decision to empower players with the right to choose between skorts and shorts, and finally draw the curtain on a difficult few weeks for everyone involved in camogie. It comes just in time for the commencement of the All-Ireland camogie championship this weekend. Preparing for battle is the only burden players will carry. Playing under protest is no longer something they have to consider. Hearing about matches being postponed on the eve of throw-in is no longer something they have to fear. And while this was ultimately a night of celebration for camogie, one must also reflect on the misery players have endured to bring about this result. They are the ones who launched this movement. Camogie Association President Brian Molloy. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO They are the ones who emerged on pitches in shorts to make the public aware of their cause. They are the ones who either refused outright to play in skorts or would only agree wear skorts but without consenting to photography or video clips of their games. They are the ones who have been asked by media for interviews about their feelings on the matter, or for updates on what form of protest their team is planning for an upcoming game. Essentially, they are the ones left picking up the tab. Some provincial finals have been cancelled due to the protests, and there is no indication for when those games will be refixed. It will be difficult to find a free date with the All-Ireland championships now taking over the calendar. Many will feel this matter should have been resolved last year when two motions on skorts were put before the Camogie Congress. However, both were defeated. From that disappointment, a raging desire for change emerged. And yet, just one year on from that Congress, any sense of division on this matter has all but been severed. Only around three people out of 133 delegates voted to prevent the inclusion of shorts in the sport's playing attire. Since the media was not permitted to attend Special Congress, we can only rely on the president's description of how the delegates came to this decision. They began, he says, by having some food and interacting with each other. He added that it was clear that the delegates had engaged with their players before attending Special Congress to vote. Related Reads Camogie president hails 'fantastic victory for choice' as shorts added to sport's attire Shorts permitted in camogie after overwhelming majority vote at Special Congress Decision day as camogie set for major vote on skorts controversy 'It's been really difficult for the volunteers,' Molloy said while commenting on the challenging period that has preceded this historic moment. 'It's been really difficult for the players. Players just want to play camogie. 'I think the message that goes out to players is we will react, we will engage, we will work. If you talk to us we will work with you but we will do it within our rules. We can only do it within our rules. 'We cannot set aside rules just because people want us to. I'd like to see other associations that could point to turning around a rule change as quick as we have done here.' Throughout his address, he referred to how the Camogie Association responded to the outcry for choice and change within the sport. 'We didn't have you waiting too long,' he added. 'It was a fairly quick congress.' That may be true in the context of tonight. But on a broader scale, the players have waited too long for this.
Extra.ie
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Extra.ie
Squeezed middle provides headaches for Kerry
Time was that Kerry used to fear emerging from Munster untested. Their near-absolute control of the provincial championship — they have won 14 of 16 titles since 2010 — caused anxiety about entering the All-Ireland series without their team being properly stressed. The dilemma is of a different order this summer. Their match with Roscommon in Fitzgerald Stadium tomorrow afternoon is the first of the group stages, and it is also likely to be the first step in a trouble-free stroll for Kerry. Indeed their wildly exciting Munster semi-final win over Cork, only secured after the Rebels' attempts to score a two-pointer and force the game to penalties failed, could be the most challenging match they play before the quarter-finals. Kerry manager Jack O'Connor. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile That's not to lightly discount the presence of Cork in Kerry's group; the teams meet in round two in Páirc uí Chaoimh, before a match with Meath at a neutral venue. But it's unlikely that Jack O'Connor's team will allow a re-match with their neighbours to turn into a cliffhanger, just as it's clear that Kerry have the most benign draw of the four most viable contenders for the Sam Maguire. While Galway and Dublin go into battle later tomorrow in the first action of a Group of Death that also includes Armagh and Derry, and Donegal must negotiate the challenges posed by Tyrone, Mayo and Cavan, Kerry keep company with three counties that spent the spring in Division 2. Kerry's modest scoring rate from outside the 40-metre arc does not live up to the county's tradition. Pic: INPHO/Bryan Keane They shouldn't be long detained with that schedule, and a place in the quarter-finals already looks assured. This, though, will cause those familiar anxieties to stir again around preparedness. O'Connor will take some solace from the gut-check his team survived in that scintillating match against Cork, albeit that they ended up in that situation in the first place is another worry. It was notable that while Cork players lay devastated at the final whistle that night, many of the Kerry men didn't seem to know how to react. Cork players lay devastated at the final whistle. Pic: INPHO/Bryan Keane There were few outbreaks of pure joy, or even expressions of satisfaction. Instead, players looked exhausted, emptied by the effort it took to put away an opponent few thought would keep it kicked out to them. Their extra-time performance was unerring, and a good illustration of what separates tier-one teams from the rest. Kerry took on four shots in that period and scored with all of them. Cork kicked nine wides in the same time, having lost the extra man advantage they enjoyed following the dismissal of Paudie Clifford in normal time. Surviving his departure was another consolation for Kerry, given how central he has become in orchestrating their play. No player will supersede his brother in importance, but David is reliant on what happens out the field, and much of the good work there goes through Paudie. David Clifford is reliant on what goes on out the field. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile David Clifford finished the game with nine points, including a two-pointer — Kerry's first in four matches. They managed two more in the Munster final saunter against Clare, one from Clifford again, and another from a free by Seán O'Shea. However, Kerry's very modest scoring rate from outside the 40-metre arc goes against what the casual football watcher might expect, given the county's tradition. It also helps pinpoint the area of the team where Kerry look lightest: the middle third. The emergence of Joe O'Connor this year has been a major boon. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile Midfield has been a long-standing problem, but the emergence of Joe O'Connor this year has been a major boon. He was partnered by Barry Dan O'Sullivan against Cork and Clare, and Kingdom manager O'Connor went out of his way after the Munster final to praise O'Sullivan. Getting Diarmuid O'Connor fit would strengthen their options greatly, there, though. He injured a shoulder in the Allianz League win against Armagh in mid-March, and the initial expectation was that he would miss the Munster campaign. By that timeline, he should be returning to fitness soon, but news is being tightly controlled, and given their benevolent draw, it would be no surprise if he is used sparingly over the next three weeks, or perhaps not at all. His return would bring experience to the middle third, but it's the absence of scoring power from that range that leaves Kerry short of the likes of Armagh and Galway. Seán O'Shea is capable of long-range scoring, as are both Cliffords, but presuming David remains inside, the scoring threat from distance is best utilised by attackers coming on to the ball from deeper. Seán O'Shea is capable of long-range scoring. Pic: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo Galway have been masterful exponents of this so far this year, Armagh are adept at it, too and Meath used two-pointers to blow Dublin away in the first half of the Leinster semi-final. Kerry have an excellent goalkeeper in Shane Ryan, and a very experienced defence where Graham O'Sullivan, Jason Foley, Tom O'Sullivan, Gavin White and Brian Ó Beaglaoích bring experience and quality. It's bridging defence and attack that is posing a persistent challenge, and in the era of the two-pointer, the tap and go and the return of high fielding, the demands on players between the two 45s are varied and unrelenting. While Galway, Armagh and Donegal have the resources to address that, Kerry's ability to do so is less certain. O'Connor should have the leeway to continue working on this while also making unchecked progress to the last eight, and the residual class in the team still allowed them to make short work of Clare without Ryan, O'Sullivan and O'Connor through injury, while Paudie Clifford was suspended. Kerry are much too good for the best of the rest, but their season will be decided by how they cope with the leading teams, and the solutions their veteran manager finds to their issues around the squeezed middle.
The 42
10-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Does Donegal caution still trump risk as Armagh await in Ulster final test?
A VERY WISE man once reckoned you should live as if you were to die tomorrow and learn as if you were to live forever. There is little evidence that when he mined that nugget of wisdom, Mahatma Gandhi had a futuristic Ulster football championship in mind, where winning it would be just a staging post on a by-road, far from the main highway. However, as pre Ulster final dressing room speeches go, Gandhi's words concisely wrap up the message which Kieran McGeeney and Jim McGuinness will seek to impart to their players as they head out into the Clones evening on Saturday. Play as if your lives depend on it, but learn enough while doing so to ensure that you play so long into the summer that by the end you will be the only one left drawing breath. It is a message that applies to both, but most pointedly to Donegal. After all, in losing last year's Ulster final to Donegal, it can be argued that McGeeney's team absorbed all the lessons which they needed to heed. Armagh's Stefan Campbell and Caolan McColgan of Donegal after last year's Ulster final. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO In a way, though, that is a little trite. In that game, on the balance of play, they were marginally the better team and lost in a post match lottery, but went onto win the All-Ireland, specifically against Kerry and Galway, by making being marginally the better team, the only margin they needed. It could be argued that instead of being perceived to idle on a lead like they did in the Ulster final, they pushed on more aggressively at the business end of games in the All-Ireland series, but there is an element of neatly joining the dots about that. After all, Armagh had chances to extend their four-point second half lead against Donegal but did not take them, while a goalkeeping error by Kerry's Shane Ryan gifted them a way back into the semi-final and in the final Galway's misfiring attack allowed them to stay within striking distance. Advertisement Just as winners write history, those who end up top of the class can always point to the education that got them there even though it may not always be necessarily so. However, there is a growing and gnawing sense within Donegal that lessons need to be learned and quick, one which has to a point supplanted the giddiness and optimism with which they bounced into the summer. 'I was more confident before the Ulster championship but I can't say now Donegal will win an All-Ireland based on what I have seen,' 2012 All-Ireland winner Eamon McGee admitted, when speaking on the Irish Examiner podcast this week. The Donegal football team. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO At the core of the angst expressed by McGee and felt by so many in Donegal is the fear that caution still trumps risk. That is an accusation that has long been levelled at them as a legacy of McGuinness' first reign, where a heavily invested defensive game-plan was weaponised by a fluent transitional attacking game. There were times over the last decade when that pigeon-holing of Donegal felt lazy and outdated, but in recent months it has felt relevant again. Their reluctance, even with the return of Michael Murphy, to engage a kicking game has mystified, particularly given how carrying the balls through the lines left them a jaded and beaten team in last year's All-Ireland semi-final loss to Galway. They have managed just four goals in 10 games this season and while that is also down to execution, nothing exposes vulnerability in a defence like a ball delivered so quickly that gaps morph into chasms. That is not to say that they have to relinquish an exhilarating running game, but they do need to find more than one way to skin the cat. But a bigger issue, although not unrelated, is how the team is setting up defensively without the ball, where they are largely passive outside the 40 metre arc, but aggressively swarm the ball carrier inside it, targeting turn-overs. It has been effective – they have not conceded more than a single goal in any game this season and have had four shut-outs – with turnovers usually leading to scores at the other end. But that strategy also hides the obvious risks involved. They always looked the better team and in control against Monaghan, yet it was a game that was left balanced on a knife edge at the death primarily because of the five two-pointers they conceded. To be fair, the concession of scores outside the arc is a given under the new rules, but by not squeezing higher against the stronger teams and better kickers, there is a bigger price to be factored in, one which Armagh are well positioned to charge. The other consequence of the defensive swarm inside the 40 metre arc is that if the ball carrier is not mugged and gets it away, unprotected spaces open up in front of goal, the kind which a limited Down attack failed to exploit in last month's semi-final. Rest assured, as the air gets more rarified, the likes of Armagh and others will. The sense that Donegal are still too anchored to a system too rigid for their own good was never more potent than in their under-20's recent Ulster final defeat to Tyrone. At the end of regulation time with two added minutes flashed up and the teams level, Donegal sat inside the arc and allowed Tyrone to drain the clock which they duly did before they kicked for the win. That Conor O'Neill's kick went wide was irrelevant, the mindset that Donegal were willing to take the risk of losing without giving themselves a chance to win most certainly was. Some might argue that would not happen to the senior team, but that play came straight out of the playbook which McGuinness has called from thus far. Perhaps it goes deeper than that. They say that DNA does what it does and in the end you just have to dance to its music. It may not happen on Saturday evening, but sooner rather than later, Donegal need to change the record. Otherwise, they may find that if it is just all about playing like there is no tomorrow, it may also mean that there is no tomorrow. *****
