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Irish Examiner
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Tyrone in it together as minors inspired by older sides
Tyrone coach Sean Murphy says it's been a summer of fun for the Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor football finalists at their Garvaghy training centre. Murphy's minors, Tyrone's all conquering U20 team and the flagship seniors all trained alongside each other and have enjoyed terrific seasons. The minors are 60 minutes from a first All-Ireland title since 2010 while the U20s have already won their competition. And the seniors are through to the last four in the race for Sam with goalkeeper Niall Morgan also part of the minor coaching team. Murphy said the three groups inspired and encouraged each other as they chatted at training and ate together afterwards. "The three squads were all up there together for a few months, it was absolutely class because everybody was all in it together," said Murphy. "Even around the dressing-rooms the vibes were great. Obviously the U20s ended their season with a great All-Ireland win and our season is coming to an end now as well. The seniors will hopefully keep it going for another wee while yet. "It's been great to have that tightness up in Garvaghy together and it's probably helped all three teams because the buzz has been so good and the results have followed." Both sides come to the minor decider with perfect records. Tyrone have claimed six wins from six, powering through Ulster to collect a 26th provincial title before taking out Cork and Roscommon in the All-Ireland series. Opponents Kerry won their third Munster title in a row before seeing off Cavan and Mayo in tight encounters. The two groups have talented players capable of running up big tallies with Peter Colton, Cathal Farley and Eoin Long impressing for Tyrone so far. Murphy namechecked the in-form Ben Kelliher, Kevin Griffin and captain Gearoid White as special Kerry talents. "That's only three I've named, Kerry have a load more guys and look a squad with great talent for sure," said Murphy, who reckons Newbridge is a great choice for what could be a classic final. "We're hearing great reports about the stadium since it's been done up. I'd imagine there'll be a cracking atmosphere." The Tyrone and Kerry seniors will meet the following Saturday - the latest instalment of an epic rivalry between the counties that goes back decades. But Murphy said they won't lean into the history element for the minor meeting. "It wouldn't matter what county we came up against, it's an All-Ireland final at the end of the day," he said. "Winning it is the main objective."
The 42
26-06-2025
- Sport
- The 42
How 'bio-banding' is helping Clare's young hurlers to reach their potential
FROM SMALL, AND sometimes large, acorns, mighty oaks grow. Exhibit A: The Clare minor hurlers that will contest Saturday's Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor championship final with Waterford. That Clare group will include the first batch of players exposed to the bio-banding training process which kicked on for Clare U14 academy teams in 2022. It is a disarmingly simple idea designed to max out every last ounce of potential in talented young players of all sizes – split them into separate training groups based on their biological age, not their chronological age. So the smaller, lighter players, who may still be some way off Peak Height Velocity, or their growth spurt, train together, while the taller, heavier players, who are closer to full maturation, do likewise. Now, instead of an early developing, six-foot powerhouse 14-year-old ploughing through a skillful but smaller defender, which does little for the development of either player, it is a much more level playing field. Applying bio-banding to Clare academy teams was the brainchild of Rob Mulcahy, who headed up their underage athletic development department, and is now in its fourth season. In 2023 they played the first bio-banded challenge games against Limerick. 'It's actually a brilliant idea, where the smaller lads would be in their pods, they're all hopping off each other, and then the bigger lads who would usually be pushing away the smaller lads are now off in their own group and up against a guy who is the same size at 14 or 15,' said Clare minor manager Ger O'Connell, who has guided his team to Saturday's final in Thurles. 'Now they have to use their feet more, they have to speed up their hurling because the other player they're meeting is as big and they can't push by him or push him away. It also helps the smaller lads to develop more confidence in tackling and winning the ball quickly and sharply. It's a brilliant idea.' Advertisement Clare minor hurling manager Ger O'Connell. Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO Ronan Keane, Clare's U14 technical coach, gave an insight into the approach in an explainer video put together in 2023. 'We've all seen mismatches that have occurred at this age,' said Keane. 'But yet you'd say that you'd never put an 11-year-old out marking a 17-year-old because that would be illogical and that wouldn't make sense. But in reality that's what can happen at U14 with the biological and chronological ages being different. It can be as great as plus or minus two or three years.' Left to their own devices, bigger players at underage level tend to run more in straight lines. Because the shortest route from A to B is a straight line and they can generally clear a path for themselves with their power. 'When they're put with players of their own stature, they have to develop the finer skills, their agility and movement-based skills,' explained Keane of the early developers. The same phenomenon exists in Gaelic football, of big players standing out in their early teens, often scoring goals for fun and dominating games, only to be overtaken as the years go on by players whose growth spurt came later. Often those late developers, like current Galway football powerhouse Damien Comer, worked harder on their skills at an earlier age. 'I see this now as a school-teacher working with younger lads – the smaller lads who are battling away might be struggling a little bit, but you know they will be fine,' said Comer earlier this year on The Puke Football Podcast. 'While the bigger lads who are getting it easy when they're younger, they always struggle if they don't work on their skills, they always struggle when they get older.' lare's James O'Donnell wins the ball ahead of Cork's Colm Garde. Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO What Clare did was to intervene and to give both the early and late developers a better chance of meeting their full potential. The process works well with the large, 70-plus group of players in the academy groups, at U14 and U15. The data collected a couple of years back from one group of academy players, who were all born in 2008, was striking. One player, aged 14 years and one month, had a projected adult height of over six-foot-two and had just 5% of height left to gain. Another player in the same group, who was projected to reach a similar height, had another 12% of height to gain. In the Clare football academy in 2023, one player was six-foot-six and over 15 stone and another was five-foot-four and just over six stone. The data helped Clare to group academy players based on three distinct groups; those who were less than 90% matured, those between 90% and 95%, and those above 95%. Former Clare senior camogie manager O'Connell worked with Clare underage teams for three seasons before being appointed minor manager for 2025. He dealt with players who had been through the bio-banding process at U14 and U15 level. The hope is that, by the time they get to minors, they should all be more developed and better able to exist together on the pitch. 'When you get to, say, our minor team now, the likes of a Liam Murphy, who is a smaller lad, he has to be able to hold his own against a Jack O'Halloran or an Evan Crimmins or a Dara Kennedy who is six-foot-two or three,' said O'Connell. 'I think the confidence these lads build up from 14s, 15s, 16s is brilliant, for when they're training with us now three or four days a week as minors 'These lads now would have been the first group that would have gone through it at 14. Now three years on, they're minors. It's a great idea and I know the U14s are continuing that on. It's brilliant because it allows the smaller lads to gain confidence and it gets the bigger lads developing parts of their hurling game that they'll need as they get older.' Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
RTÉ News
26-06-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Ger O'Connell: Early setbacks have been the making of Clare
Ger O'Connell says early setbacks proved to be the making of Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor hurling championship finalists Clare. O'Connell's Clare will face Waterford in a first ever national final between the counties on Saturday in Thurles (5.15pm). Both teams have bounced back with huge performances in the All-Ireland series following significant defeats in Munster. Clare lost to Cork and Waterford in the Munster round robin, forcing them down the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final route. But huge wins over Dublin, Galway and then Munster champions Cork propelled Clare, who previously won the All-Ireland in 2023, through to another national decider. "We took massive learnings from the two losses against Cork and Waterford," said O'Connell. "I think the Cork defeat really exposed some of the areas we needed to work on, especially the second-half of that game. "It forced us to really narrow things down as a management team and to help the players and to go after certain things and scenarios within the game. "I remember saying it to the lads when Munster was over, that we were putting our cards on the table, we said to them, 'Munster is gone and it's a completely new tournament now'. We made four changes to the starting team and we made seven changes to the matchday panel for the Dublin game in the All-Ireland series. I just felt the intensity and the competition in training really went up." Waterford lost twice to Cork in the Munster championship, including in the final. But they took out Limerick at the Electric Ireland All-Ireland quarter-final stage and then beat Leinster champions Kilkenny to reach the final. "I think both teams have come on an awful lot since we played eachother in Dungarvan," said O'Connell, referencing Waterford's six-point win over Clare in early May. "We're bouncing at the moment, confidence is sky high and I'm sure Waterford are the same." Paul Rodgers has been terrific for Clare, blasting 2-60 in total. He's the younger brother of reigning All-Star Mark Rodgers, an All-Ireland senior medallist with the Banner in 2024. "Paul is a fantastic young player, very level-headed, cool, nothing really fazes him," said O'Connell. "He's a brilliant stick man, can win hard ball, high or low, it doesn't matter. He just has all the tools and the temperament as well. "The thing with the minors is, this is just a stepping stone. The plan is to get as many of these lads through, win or lose, to play U-20s and ultimately senior for Clare. That's the whole point of this. "And when you're looking at Paul, he is one of those who has all the attributes to be a top-class player." O'Connell took the Clare minor reins for 2025 having previously been involved with many of the players in younger age grades. The former Clare senior camogie boss isn't surprised that it has come down to Clare and Waterford now in the Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor final. "We knew Waterford were very strong coming into the minor grade this year," said the Clonlara man. "They're a physically big team. The thing that has stood out is their attitude, their never-say-die attitude. "They would have been down in a number of games, teams would have got a run on them, and they've always bounced back. When we played them, we went three or four up in the second-half and they dragged it back and finished really strongly and beat us."
Irish Examiner
26-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Sean Cavanagh: Win over Dublin would see Tyrone back at the top table of football
Sean Cavanagh reckons that the losers of Saturday evening's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final tie between Tyrone and Dublin will end the season with a pile of regrets. Three-time All-Ireland winner Cavanagh is confident, however, that Tyrone can pull off a win which he feels would be as big as their 2021 final success and which would 're-announce ourselves back at the top table of football'. Since that final win over Mayo four years ago, Tyrone have played 20 Championship games and won just nine, a poor return that has seen them exit at the qualifier (2022), quarter-final (2023) and preliminary quarter-final (2024) stages since. Only once in that period have they managed to put back-to-back wins together in the Championship, against Clare and Cork last year, and their patchy record so far this summer reads; win, loss, win, loss, win. They were also relegated from Division 1 earlier this year, albeit on seven points. Tyrone did, significantly, beat Donegal in their All-Ireland SFC group and former captain Cavanagh feels the rebuilding that has taken place in Tyrone in recent seasons is on the verge of paying dividends. Speaking ahead of the Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor championship finals, the five-time All-Star predicted that the 'sight of Croke Park and the sight of the Dubs and the sky blue jersey will definitely bring out whatever is in those players right now'. But, as is the case for Dublin, a loss would leave Tyrone's entire season feeling unfulfilled. "I think both Tyrone and Dublin will look to that game on Saturday night and think that this is our chance to make the entire 2025 season successful," said Cavanagh. "Because I think that whatever team loses, it'll be a disappointing year for them. "But, again, whatever team wins, it's their chance to go, 'Okay, we weren't totally expecting to be in a semi-final but this can drive us on'. And I think they'd compete well in the semi-finals from there on. "It's a great draw for both sides. Usually I'm not one for sitting on the fence but I think both teams will look at it in a very similar fashion. "There'll be that level of intrigue with the sort of magic and history of the game but equally I think from where the teams are at right now, I think both teams need a big performance, need a big statement win." Michael McKernan's shoulder injury looks set to rule him out for Tyrone while there's a question mark over Con O'Callaghan's hamstring injury, despite assurances that he will be fit to feature for Dublin. From Tyrone's perspective, Cavanagh feels they're a squad just waiting to cut loose after a rebuild of sorts in the wake of their last All-Ireland win. "It's only really now that we feel that we're kind of back where Tyrone football should be," said the Moy man. "But equally, and this kind of goes back to needing to win on Saturday evening, would beating Cavan and beating Donegal represent a great Championship season for Tyrone? I don't think so. "And look, the Donegal game was brilliant, a good performance, but I think we need more this year. So where we find ourselves is that if we want to get more, then we have to take out the Dubs in Croke Park. "You can flip that around very quickly and say to the lads, 'Look, what an opportunity this is for that team to really go and announce themselves'. "I think if we were to come to Croke Park and beat the Dubs, that would be as good a performance as we had in the All-Ireland in '21. What a chance it is to re-announce ourselves back at the top table of football." Cavanagh's sense is that Tyrone's rebuild is almost complete with recent All-Ireland U-20 winners, like Eoin McElholm, beginning to filter through. "There's a big opportunity in the next few years in Tyrone to go back to being in All-Ireland semi-finals and finals, and expecting to be there," said Cavanagh. "I think watching our neighbours Armagh win last year, and seeing where they're at at the minute, as probably the form team in the country, that will have stoked the fires enough for us to say, 'Yeah, we have to get back and we have the talent to get back there and we have the management team to get back'. "It feels like all the building blocks are there for us to do it. It's just about time that we have to arrive now."
Irish Examiner
26-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Graeme Mulcahy: Virtually empty Croke Park hindered Limerick's performance
Graeme Mulcahy reckons the lack of atmosphere in what he felt was an 'empty' Croke Park, compared to the packed out stadium for the Munster final, played a part in Limerick's demise. The Shannonsiders are still coming to terms with last Saturday's All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to a Dublin side that played with 14 men for the majority. Mulcahy expects a couple of Limerick retirements in the coming months but doesn't view the defeat as the end of an era and reckons that John Kiely and his management team will return in 2026 energised to make amends. The five-time All-Ireland medallist attributed the relatively flat performance, and ultimate defeat, to starting slowly in an 'empty stadium effectively' and allowing Dublin to generate momentum. Former attacker Mulcahy, who retired last year, pointed specifically to Aaron Gillane's unlikely wide in the opening minutes from a free as a sign of Limerick perhaps not being fully tuned in. Speaking ahead of the Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor championship finals, Mulcahy said it has been a few days of 'soul searching' and looking for answers in Limerick. Former Limerick hurler Graeme Mulcahy pictured ahead of the 2025 Electric Ireland GAA All-Ireland Minor Championship finals. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady "I think trying to come down off a Munster final, a Munster final that will live long in people's memories in terms of the drama, and then going to Croke Park a couple of weeks later, an empty stadium effectively with little or no atmosphere, like, you could hear the referee's whistle echoing around the stadium for the first five, 10 minutes," said Mulcahy. "It was just a completely different experience for that Limerick team. The whole game felt flat for that first 15, 20 minutes, aside from maybe the bit of intensity that Dublin brought. "In the first couple of minutes, Aaron Gillane had an easy enough free and it went to Hawk-Eye. "Whatever little atmosphere was in the stadium was sucked out at that point. I think that really played into Dublin's hands, just allowing them to get a bit of a foothold in the game." The Dublin/Limerick game preceded the All-Ireland SFC preliminary quarter-final tie between Dublin and Cork. The overall attendance announced for the day was 36,546, well below half the capacity of the stadium. "I think it can have a massive effect," continued Mulcahy. "Psychologically, if you're not prepared for that and if you haven't spoken about it, it can have a huge effect. I think if that game had come down to Thurles, you would have had probably three times the amount of Limerick fans at the game that were in Croke Park. On the flipside of that, you wouldn't have had as many Dublin fans travel. I think that would have added to giving Limerick an edge, certainly in terms of their performance, that was lacking in Croke Park." Limerick still had an extra player after the 15th minute dismissal of Chris Crummey though Mulcahy said it felt like the backing of the Dublin fans who came streaming in for the second game as the first game was concluding 'effectively gave Dublin back that 15th man'. The Kilmallock man said he agreed with the decision to send Crummey off for what was perceived to be a head high challenge on Gearoid Hegarty. "On a personal level, I would love if he got it overturned and was able to play in an All-Ireland semi-final, but I just don't see it happening," said Mulcahy. The seven-time Munster medallist reckons that Cork will beat Dublin in their July 5 semi-final and that the Munster champions will 'go on and bridge that 20-year gap' by winning the All-Ireland. But he insisted that if Dublin can maintain the quality and intensity they showed against Limerick, 'Dublin could easily overturn Cork in that semi-final as well'. And if Dublin were to beat Cork, Limerick's defeat may be viewed in a different light. "I think if Cork were to wipe out Dublin completely, then it would feel even more difficult for Limerick, but if Dublin were to go on and overturn Cork as well, and get to the All-Ireland final, I think it would really signal their intent and suggest that there's maybe a new hurling power on the rise." As for Limerick, Mulcahy rejected talk of the core of their group potentially coming to the end of the line. "I think people want to see it as an end of an era," he said, pointing to rival counties. "They want Limerick gone away and I just hope that's not the case. I think if they stay unified, like, you'll always lose a couple but I think if they keep the core group together and take the learnings from this year, I think they'll be competitive again next year."
