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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Dublin to face Meath in Ladies All-Ireland final
Meath knocked out holders Kerry to book their place in the Ladies All-Ireland SFC final against Dublin, who required extra time to see off Galway in their semi-final. Goals in either half from Kerrie Cole and Sarah Wall helped the Royals to a 2-12 to 1-9 victory against the reigning champions as they reached the final for the first time in three years. A late flurry of goals and points in the second half of extra time helped the Dubs to claim a 3-14 to 2-14 win which sets up an all-Leinster decider. The two sides will now face off in a repeat of the 2021 final on Sunday, 3 August at Croke Park. Meath led 1-5 to 0-6 in Tullamore at half-time with Cole's smashed effort putting them in the ascendancy. Kerry fought back to level early in the second half with a goal from Danielle O'Leary, but Meath wrestled back control and a second goal, this time from defender Wall proved crucial as they saw out the win. Dublin and Galway were level at 1-6 to 0-9 half-time with Hannah Tyrell scoring a penalty for the Dubs. It was nip-and-tuck in the second half right up until the closing stages, with Tyrell scoring a late free to force extra time. The game sprang into life in the second half of extra time, as Carla Rowe and Kate Sullivan added further goals for the Dubs. Andrea Trill and Olivia Divilly replied with goals for Galway, but it was not enough as Dublin tagged on a few more late points to progress.
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Eamon O'Shea: It ain't the hope that kills. It's the hope that thrills
Leaving Croke Park after the All-Ireland football quarter finals I was a little uneasy, not only because Galway footballers had lost, but because the quality of the play in both games was so good. I had not been physically present at a football game under the new rules, and I was thrilled by the experience. The reason for my disquiet coming out of Croke Park was my certainty that evolutionary theory and economic obsolescence through creative destruction would ultimately lead to the decline of hurling. The main existential threat for hurling was not global anymore. More prosaically, football had suddenly become easy on the eye. The appalling vista had unfolded before my very eyes. That is, until Cork and Tipp came to town the week after and said, 'you want to be entertained we'll show you entertainment'. And it was thrilling. As hurling is meant to be. For a while I have been concerned that the game has become too academic, too bound up in structures, systems and data. The game is meant to be thrilling, emotional, unpredictable, joyful and passionate. As Billy Joel might have said to play hurling you have to be in a 'hurling state of mind'. In 2010, when Tipperary beat Kilkenny, Liam Sheedy and Michael Ryan epitomised a Tipperary confidence, spirit and passion that should never be under-estimated. So too does Liam Cahill. Cork, as a county, has these attributes too, so our expectations should be high for a game for the ages. Hurling at its very best must take players and spectators to another place, making them forget and remember in equal measure. A hurling match without passion is a Beckett-like experience where nothing much happens slowly. What Gaelic Football used to be like! Hemmingway was consumed by the thrill of the bull ring, but for hurling followers it is the search for delightful uncertainty and the chaotic feeling that anything can happen and often does happen in the game. Meanwhile, the modernists know a lot about the game, probably too much, but they can only understand the game backwards by taking anticipation, jeopardy and passion out of the actual spectacle itself. Net gains Goals then. How to create them and how to stop them? That is the question on supporters' minds as we look forward to Sunday's All-Ireland final. Do you go for a shoot-out or a shut out? First a confession. Back in 2014 in the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork in Croke Park we went for a shutout, helped by a puck out master class from goalkeeper Darren Gleeson. The final score of 2-18 to 1-11 reflected this strategy, a far cry from the current stratospheric scoring rates. Sometimes needs must and maybe we will all be surprised by what unfolds in the final but on the evidence of both semi-finals, I think not. Goals reflect your overall philosophy on the game and the confidence within the team at any given time. I was sitting in the stands for one of my all-time favourite Tipp goals scored by John O' Dwyer in the 2016 All Ireland final - a precise long delivery from Cathal Barrett, Bubbles appeared at the bus stop at the right time, a turn and then a shot that finishes a millimetre inside the post – a team at the height of its powers. Both Tipp and Cork know how they want to play – both comfortable in their skin and willing to go with the ebb and flow of the contest. Expectation is different to pressure and the team that expects the most will win. The former 'Hell's kitchen' for Tipperary has moved from the full back line to the full forward line. And Cork always threatens goals from the minute you see those red jerseys appear out of the tunnel. Ring's legacy runs deep while John Fitzgibbon's genius still resonates after all those years. And Pat Ryan has allowed his team the freedom to play in a delightful and authentic Cork way, with players encouraged to express themselves and showcase their skills, not just their power and physicality. Scoring goals is a collective experience. Mentality is the key, and it must be shared across the whole team from the goalkeeper up to the man who puts the ball into the net. People often ask me for goal scoring drills, as if there is some magic potion that helps transform attacking play. If only that were true. The truth is that goal scoring is more jazz than coaching magic. Any aspiring goal-scorer would be better off listening to jazz trumpeter Myles Davis than listening to a coach explaining how to score goals. The art of goal scoring requires improvisation, immersion, observation, heightened awareness, bravery and co-operation to create flight paths, triangles and space leading to opportunities for the strike. And make sure to turn up in the right place at the right time – think Jason Forde's dink from Darragh McCarthy's pass in the recent All Ireland semi-final. Before the 2019 All Ireland semi-final I met Seamus Callinan in the Ragg for a chat on when it might be appropriate to attempt a ground strike for a goal from within the square in the modern game. He had missed from the ground in a previous game, so we went through different scenarios on the pitch on best practice and ultimately my advice was to thread carefully and to generally avoid the strike off the ground. Thankfully Seamus ignored my advice and scored a beautiful first-time ground shot from a Niall O'Meara pass the following Sunday in Croke Park against Wexford. Most times the coach needs to stay out of the player's way. Every goal is different, but to score goals the ball and the play needs to be focused on what happens inside the 20m line. I understand the current fascination with dominating the middle third, but it's asking too much of forwards and taking attacking players away from the opposition goals. Sometimes you need to play through the lines, but other times you must be more direct. That is what Cork and Tipp do best and why they are contesting the All-Ireland final. I hope this is the legacy of this year's championship. Variation and improvisation are what the game needs and spectators rightly want entertainment and excitement. Use your short game and long-range shooters to provide variety and draw out the opposition defence. But get the ball as quickly as possible towards the opposition goal and rely on the movement, skill and fight of your inside men to do the rest, supported by at least two players from the half forward line. Attack, attack, attack. Sure, it helps if you have a Brian Hayes at 14 who doesn't mind what way the ball comes in, but if you are a goal scorer you will always find a way, particularly if you work as a collective unit, without ego. Goals are scored by individuals, but are created by the team for the enjoyment of family, supporters and the wider hurling community. It's not the hope that kills, it's the hope that thrills. *The author is Professor Emeritus in Economics, University of Galway.
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Ciarán Murphy: At 42 I took up hurling, the world's most frustrating and beautiful sport
By five o'clock on Sunday evening, over one million people will have tuned in to watch at least some part of the All-Ireland senior hurling final. Last year's hurling showpiece was watched by a peak audience of almost 1¼ million and if that figure isn't reached on Sunday, it will probably not be too far off. Many of the people in that seven-figure TV audience will have never played the game themselves. While most people watching the following week's All-Ireland football final between Donegal and Kerry will have kicked a football at some stage in their lives, the same just cannot be said of hurling. It is true that more people are playing hurling today than have ever played the game, but it also remains stubbornly the case that there are as many GAA counties who undermine the sport as there are counties who uplift it. Games have always been on TV, in broadly the same numbers as the far more popular (in playing terms) Gaelic football. But when it comes to making inroads into counties that historically have not taken hurling seriously, that TV audience has counted for very little. Hurling has never lacked for exposure. What it lacks is a plan to develop the game beyond the confines of those counties south of the Dublin -Galway railway line. READ MORE There are nine counties who, in the regular run of events, would consider themselves possible champions at the start of every hurling season. I was fortunate enough to be born in one of those counties, but I missed out on the chance to play the sport because the north-east corner of Galway that I grew up in is football-only. Hurling barely makes an imprint. We would have to travel 20 miles towards Athenry to reach a senior hurling club. When I was 11, at what might be the most impressionable time of a young person's sporting life, my own county played in an All-Ireland hurling final. But I never had a chance to pick up a hurley and play a sport that I watched religiously. I watched hurling with the same fervour as I did Gaelic football – which was the sport I played 10 times a week, at school, with friends and in my local GAA club. Hurling is only taken seriously in a select number of counties. Photo: James Crombie/Inpho So I spent my entire adult life playing Gaelic football. But I always had hurleys around the houses I lived in in Dublin. When I'd wander out to the Phoenix Park on sunny days in the summertime, I'd bring it along and puck around with other friends of mine who'd never had a chance to play hurling growing up either. We got a dog and I took my hurley out on walks with her. When Covid came, watching her chase a sliotar around the GAA pitch close to my home was as much exercise as I was getting. But an idea started to percolate. As I started to aim sliotars over the bar for her to chase, I'd idly wonder what it would be like to do it for real, just once. And in the end, last year (the year I turned 42), I decided to jack it all in, move to Waterford and join my father's club, Old Parish, and play hurling for a summer. If this sounds suspiciously like a midlife crisis, it at least had the advantage of being a lot cheaper than a sports car. The basic skills of hurling require dedication to master. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho It might also sound like the sort of thing a man would write a book about. And that's exactly what I did. Old Parish - Notes On Hurling, published by Penguin Sandycove, is available to pre-order from today . What ensued was a year-long crash course in what it feels like to take a whack from a hurley on the shin in the rain; what it feels like to catch the ball so often your hand feels like it's turning to mush; the frustration of knowing what you want to do and being entirely unable to make it happen. Finding out what hurlers look for in their hurleys; and why the game is played where it's played, and why it's not played where it isn't. Last year, for the first time, I attended the All-Ireland hurling final as a hurler. It would be over-stating it to say that I was able to admire for the first time the skill and bravery of the best hurlers in the country. That had been obvious long before my first abortive attempts at playing the sport they'd dedicated their lives to. Ciarán Murphy writes about taking up hurling relatively late in life in his new book, Old Parish - Notes on Hurling. But getting an insight into how hard even the simplest manoeuvres on a hurling pitch are (lifting, striking, hooking, blocking), meant my admiration for the hurlers we get a chance to watch at the top level is now deeper, more informed, and yet somehow even more bewildered than before. [ Cork crowds, Tipp trips, Munster mastery: Seven-step guide to the 2025 hurling championship Opens in new window ] To watch Tony Kelly's goal against Cork last year and to have as a frame of reference my own pathetic attempts at controlling the ball in the most leisurely of settings is to be brought face to face with real genius. Everyone who watches the All-Ireland final this Sunday, hoping for more moments of transcendence, should have that same frame of reference. Ger Loughnane once famously said that if you haven't started hurling by the time you're seven, it's probably too late. In my case, he was proven right. But it's never too late for the GAA to start giving more people the chance to play the most thrilling, frustrating, beautiful sport in the world. ♦ Old Parish - Notes On Hurling by Ciarán Murphy will be released by Penguin Sandycove on September 18th, and is available to pre-order now -
BBC News
13-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Donegal cruise past Meath into All-Ireland final
Donegal are into a first All-Ireland SFC final since 2014 after a ruthless display in their sizeable 3-26 to 0-15 victory over Meath in their semi-final at Croke have defeated Dublin, Kerry and Galway in a giant-killing season, but they fell short against the more efficient Ulster the Donegal carefully crafted points, Meath tried at every opportunity to shoot on sight, particularly within the two-point range, with varying degrees of success resulting in them trailing 0-13 to 0-8 at dialled it up a notch in the second half showing an even greater clinical edge with Oisin Gallen, Ciaran Moore and Conor O'Donnell scoring goals which put the result beyond McGuinness' side will now face Kerry in a mouth-watering decider on 27 July as they look to win the Sam Maguire for the first time in 13 years. Patience pays off for efficient Donegal In a breathless start in the sun, Sean Coffey hit the post when aiming for a point before Michael Murphy got Donegal off and running with a looping two sides then traded scores before Meath's first two-pointer arrived from Eoghan successive Donegal points followed, but another two-pointer, this time from Ruairi Kinsella, had Meath right back in it.A lull followed midway through the half, as both sides misfired going forward, with Meath guilty of 12 wides in a wasteful first-half display they failed to recover Brenan's side were dealt a blow as Bryan Menton limped off with an injury before Donegal wrestled control by demonstrating the efficiency Meath got the first point of the game in over 10 minutes with Murphy, Gallen and Ciaran Thompson helping McGuinness' side rattle off four successive scores as the tide started to turn in the then got Meath's first score since 14th minute, but they were indebted to goalkeeper Billy Hogan for keeping them in the game as he denied Hugh McFadden from close quiet Jordan Morris registered his first score on 33 minutes but late efforts from Gallen and Murphy, when he may have opted to go for goal, gave Donegal a five-point lead. Three Donegal goals in strong second half showing Points at either end followed early in the second half before Gallen netted to virtually end Meath's hopes of a stirring jinked his way inside before clinically dispatching beyond Hogan and into the far corner, with Murphy adding another point soon after to stretch their advantage to Patrick McBrearty tagged on another before Moore stroked home a second goal to add to Donegal's healthy lead with 24 minutes still pushed Thompson's effort away, but with space opening up, Donegal kept the scoreboard ticking, adding on five more were still hungry for more goals and Conor O'Donnell weaved his way inside before firing into an empty net as they inflicted further damage on a jaded Meath side, whose fairytale run came to crashing can now look ahead to the All-Ireland final in a fortnight's time against a Kerry side that dispatched Tyrone with similar ease to which McGuinness' side saw off Meath. Line-ups Donegal: Shaun Patton; Finnbarr Roarty, Brendan McCole, Peadar Morgan; Ryan McHugh, Eoghan Ban Gallagher, Caolan McColgan; Hugh McFadden, Michael Langan; Shane O'Donnell, Ciaran Thompson, Ciaran Moore; Conor O'Donnell, Micheal Murphy, Oisin Gavin Mulreany, Stephen McMenamin, Odhran McFadden Ferry, Eoin McHugh, Caolan McGonagle, Odhran Doherty, Patrick McBrearty, Jamie Brennan, Niall O'Donnell, Daire O Baoill, Jason Billy Hogan; Seamus Lavin, Sean Rafferty, Ronan Ryan; Donal Keoghan, Sean Coffey, Ciaran Caulfield; Bryan Menton, Adam O'Neill; Conor Duke, Ruairi Kinsella, Keith Curtis; Jordan Morris, Matthew Costello, Eoghan Sean Brennan, Brian O'Halloran, Eoin Harkin, James McEntee, Cian McBride, Conor Gray, Aaron Lynch, Daithi McGowan, Shane Walsh, Diarmuid Moriarty, Cathal Paul Faloon (Down)
BreakingNews.ie
12-07-2025
- Sport
- BreakingNews.ie
Kevin Cassidy questions Donegal's approach to Ulster championship
Former Donegal footballer Kevin Cassidy has questioned if the county could have approached the Ulster championship differently ahead of the All-Ireland semi-final this weekend. Sunday's game against Meath will be Donegal's 10th in the championship, which included a highly competitive Ulster championship, which they won after extra time against Armagh. Advertisement Combined with a schedule that Jim McGuinness has not held back to criticise, it has been a long season for the Ulster champions. Looing back on the season so far, Cassidy says Monaghan will have regrets of how the quarter-final eneded against Donegal, and how the toll of Ulster could now be showing. "Donegal played very well in the second half, but Monaghan will look probably look back on that video, and there is definitely some chances they left behind. "If they were to take one or two of those, then it is a different story. I think of the Beggan free-kick in particular, if that goes in it is a different story. Advertisement "We can't take away from the taxing Ulster campaign that we have had. Jim makes no bones about it, he really goes after the Ulster championship. "It is a double-edged sword. It is great to win the Ulster championship, but there is another competition that starts directly after it. "To get the boys up to such a level that they reach in Ulster, and then to keep doing that is difficult. That is where you see the drop off. "In the Tyrone game, Tyrone were very good, but I don't think we were as good as we can be. The Monaghan game, the first half was disappointing, the first half against Louth is disappointing." Advertisement Having won the Ulster championship last season in McGuinness' first season back in charge of the county, Donegal were defeated in the All-Ireland semi-finals to Galway. Having come so close to an All-Ireland last season, Cassidy says Sam Maguire would have been his priority this season over Ulster. "Personally for me, having won Ulster last year, I would not have put as much emphasis on winning it this year. "Ultimately for Donegal this year, the end goal is the All-Ireland, I think that is clear for everybody to see. Advertisement "There is two sides to it. Perosnally, I would have probably put more emphasis on the All-Ireland series, but Donegal have won their second Ulster back-to-back, and I think that's something Jim goes after from day one." One of the main players for Donegal this season has been a former teammate of Cassidy in Michael Murphy, who made his return after retiring from inter-county football in 2022. Under the new rules and back with McGuinness, Murphy has flourished at the age of 35, which has been no surprise to Cassidy. "Long before the announcement was made, Michael was back training with his personal trainer on a one-to-onw, to make sure he could give whatever was left in his body. "Perosnally, I thought Donegal would gain a lot more from Michael coming off the bench 10 minutes into the second half, but I think his performances through the season turned Jim's head. "That is testament to the work Michael has done and the shape he has got himself into."
