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Irish Examiner
4 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Expect a tight finish, but Cork can travel alone to new heights
A third Cork-Galway final in five years. The only pairing that guarantees a competitive final. The only pairing that guarantees Cork will not coast to three-in-a-row. The only pairing that brings the absolute best out of Galway. This is the final camogie wanted, needed. Whatever about desperately one-sided League deciders or early summer non-events, whenever Cork and Galway pitch up at Croke Park together, they usually go to the wire together. The 32 white flags raised 12 months ago was an All-Ireland camogie final first, re-emphasising how these two teams are continually raising the bar. Galway drove the standard at the beginning of the decade. The relationship has since taken on a red hue. Whatever height Cork climb to, Galway are typically found on their heel. So was the case 12 months ago when the Leeside favourites had to find a late three-in-a-row, after going scoreless for 13 minutes, to take the title by that very margin. Are Cork stronger than 12 months ago? Yes, but only marginally. Cruciate victim Izzy O'Regan is a loss in defence. Against that, Meabh Cahalane didn't start last year's decider because of injury. Younger sister, Orlaith, is another year further on in her development and the damage she is capable of wreaking, although she'll have been disappointed with her scoreless semi-final contribution. There are others in Cork's middle third, including Ashling Thompson, that know an improvement on their Nowlan Park showing is demanded. Katrina Mackey's return from injury and return to form has been perfectly timed. Her retention at corner-forward means Clodagh Finn will, for the second final in-a-row, be used for bench impact. Finn, though, is a completely different force returning to Croke Park. Her starting role across the group phase saw 4-7 racked up. Cork are stronger than 12 months ago for the semi-final challenge presented by Waterford. Galway won't go plus-two in defence as the Déise did, but Cork, for the first time in 2025, had to problem solve. They also had an openness in defence that will have been since addressed. Although Galway have back in their defence Shauna Healy and Emma Helebert, a pair of All-Ireland winners absent last year, they are overall weaker for the missing Áine Keane (cruciate), Niamh Hanniffy (traveling), and incomparable Niamh Kilkenny. Even their bench is a paler complexion of 12 months ago. Where there is encouragement for again pushing and possibly outlasting the champions is their improved form coming in. The teams ranked three, four, and five - Waterford, Tipp, and Kilkenny - were bettered by six, seven, and eight points respectively. From midfield up, you can count six potential matchwinners on the Cork side. For Galway, too much of the responsibility falls on Aoife Donohue, Niamh Mallon, and Ailish O'Reilly. 53 years on from Cork's most recent three-in-a-row, Ger Manley's side can travel alone to new heights. Verdict: Cork
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Meabh Cahalane hoping three in-a-row chasing Cork can return silverware to Leeside
Meabh Cahalane hopes Cork can lift the spirits of the county by bringing All-Ireland silverware back to Leeside on Sunday. The eldest daughter in the famed Cahalane clan of Castlehaven, she was in Croke Park last month for the All-Ireland senior hurling final, in which her oldest brother, Damien, featured. Another brother, Jack, was part of the extended Cork panel. The manner of the defeat to Tipperary has led to a lengthy postmortem in Cork, but Sunday provides an opportunity for the county's camogie team to claim a third consecutive All-Ireland senior title. Meabh and Orlaith Cahalane will both play in the Croke Park decider against Galway , but their sister Gráinne has missed the year through injury. READ MORE 'You're guaranteed nothing in sport and unfortunately they [Cork hurlers] probably didn't perform to their potential that day, and they'll know that more than anyone else,' says Cahalane. 'I suppose the worst feeling coming away from Croke Park, and we've had it ourselves, is regret. Hopefully that group can stick together now, because you probably learn a lot more when you lose. 'Hopefully the lads can use that as a target to go forward, to hopefully get back to Croke Park next year and right those wrongs.' Cork's Meabh Cahalane at Croke Park ahead of Sunday's All-Ireland senior camogie final. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho The 29-year-old has experienced the pain of defeat on All-Ireland final day twice – to Galway in 2021 and Kilkenny in 2022. But the team channelled those losses to fire them to O'Duffy Cup glory over Waterford in 2023. They successfully defended their title in 2024 and now hope to become the first Cork side since the early 70s to claim three in-a-row. Standing in their way will be a Galway outfit hell-bent on revenge after losing last year's final by a goal. Meabh was handed the Cork captaincy this season, exactly 30 years on from her dad, Niall, captaining the county's senior footballers. Another of Meabh's brothers, Conor, was part of the Cork senior football team this year – a side managed by their uncle, John Cleary. Five of the seven Cahalane children are still living at home, while Meabh resides in Cork City. 'It's very easy for them [parents] to relate to us and they offer us huge support, we're so lucky to have that. They're the main reason that we're lining out for Cork in Croke Park the next day,' she adds. Sunday will be the third time Cork and Galway have met this season – Galway won the last round of Division 1A regulation games 0-19 to 0-13 in March, but in the league final two weeks later Cork ran out 0-21 to 0-10 victors. That defeat to Galway in March remains the only loss suffered by Cork in any competition this year, and while Ger Manley's side had already booked their place in the league final by that stage, the display prompted some soul-searching within the dressingroom. Meabh Cahalane lifts the trophy after Cork's win over Galway in the Division 1A league final at Semple Stadiun in April. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho 'While there's nothing at stake, you don't prepare for a performance to be under par, and for us that day that performance was definitely well under par,' remembers Cahalane. 'We definitely had an honest conversation with each other as players. Nobody was happy with that performance, so when we met Galway in the league final we just knew that we wanted to put in a Cork performance, and one that might put us in a position to be within grasp of winning a league title. 'We were happy enough coming away from Thurles that day after the league final but we knew we'd meet Galway again later on in the season.' Meabh has four All-Ireland senior titles to her credit – the first coming in 2015 in what was her debut season – and she's now just one win away from captaining Cork to glory. 'I suppose your perspective changes the older you get. Like every other team, you go back training in January with one thing in mind, you are aiming towards an All-Ireland final and an All-Ireland medal,' she says. 'I suppose when that final whistle goes, the only description that I can give of that feeling is that all the hard work that you've put in all year has now paid off, and as a group that's what you feel collectively. It's those battles that you've had in training, those tough running sessions, the nights where it was raining and you didn't want to go out training. 'But I think when you get over the line and that final whistle goes, it's just relief that it has all been made worth it.'
Irish Independent
22-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Blow for Cork City with Malik Dijksteel set to join St Mirren in January
Cork City have confirmed that attacker Malik Dijksteel will join St Mirren in January on a free transfer following the expiration of his deal on Leeside. The 24-year-old arrived at Turner's Cross in July 2023 and helped the club win promotion back to the Premier Division in late 2024. The Dutchman, who had early spells at the academies of Feyenoord and Middlesbrough, has scored five times in 41 appearances for City to date.
Irish Times
20-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Darragh McCarthy's redemption song soundtracks extraordinary Tipperary All-Ireland victory over Cork
All-Ireland SHC Final: Tipperary 3-27 Cork 1-18 There had been much emphasis on how much Cork would benefit from hard-earned lessons in previous All-Ireland finals and by half-time, all that adversity looked like it had been well invested. A Shane Barrett goal in injury-time put them six points ahead going in for the break. To most present, that was enough to suggest that the match, if not over, was on a course that would be hard to alter. Beware easy consensus. Former Tipperary player John O'Dwyer was doing a spot of punditry at half-time and breezily asserted that he could see his county getting a couple of goals and winning. Bravado, surely? In a tumultuous second half, Bubbles was proved a prophet and Cork's fervent hopes of ending 20 years of drawing blanks and taking Liam MacCarthy home to Leeside. READ MORE What actually happened defied explanation, let alone foresight. Tipperary simply took the match away from their opponents and refused to yield control for the rest of the final. [ Tipperary player ratings: Darragh McCarthy shines on famous day at Croke Park Opens in new window ] [ Cork player ratings: Shane Barrett starts strong but too many fail to reach final crescendo Opens in new window ] The inspirational Ronan Maher, who quelled Cork's leading Hurler of the Year contender Brian Hayes and moved himself to the top of the betting, ended up lifting the Liam MacCarthy Cup, and in a moving speech referencing their late team-mate Dillon Quirke. There were so many heroes on the Tipp team in an outstanding collective display. Nineteen-year-old Darragh McCarthy has had a baptism of fire this year. Brought in at the start of the league, he was entrusted with free-taking duties and broke off to play in the All-Ireland winning under-20 team as a warm-up for senior championship. Tipperary's Ronan Maher celebrates the final whistle. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho Two high-profile red cards had raised question marks over his temperament, or at least his tackle technique after loose striking saw him sent off for the last 10 minutes of the semi-final against Kilkenny. This weekend he answered any doubts about his readiness for the top level of the game. Fifteen attempts at scores yielded 1-13 – just one wide from play in the second half spoiled a pristine return – and his impeccable free-taking, nine from nine, marked a monumental display in a first senior All-Ireland final. It included ice-cold composure for a penalty strike after John McGrath was taken down in the 55th minute. [ The anatomy of a collapse – how Cork managed to lose the second half by 3-14 to 0-2 Opens in new window ] For the second All-Ireland decider running, Cork were outscored three goals to one and undone by that concession. In the second half they were outscored 3-14 to 0-2. Tipps full forwards weren't as celebrated in the raising of green flags as their opponents coming into the final but they had shown plenty of lethal intent along the way. Four goals saw off Kilkenny in the semi-final, which mightn't have equalled Cork's seven against Dublin but each of them had to be chiselled out of a tough surface and helped to turn around the match. Ditto, the four they dug out in Ennis during a vital Munster set-to with their All-Ireland predecessors Clare. Tipperary's Ronan Maher lifts the Liam MacCarthy Cup. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho This hadn't looked altogether likely in the first half, although in a portent of what was to come Jason Forde got a touch to a long-distance free from Eoghan Connolly to send it to the net, but referee Liam Gordon disallowed the goal for a square-ball infraction. Otherwise, the Cork full backs were well in command. They were playing with the advantage of a big wind, which complicated scoring into the northern end. Tipperary had nine wides during the first half and although shot selection and execution were questionable in some cases, the second half cast it in a new light – as had been the case with the Donegal footballers a week previously. The leakage of scoring chances was frustrating for Liam Cahill's team because tactically and individually they had done a fine job in restricting Cork's feared full forwards. Willie Connors dropped to wing back, where he had a superb match at the heart of nearly everything disruptive, liberating Bryan O'Mara as the plus-one defender, which he executed to perfection. Unlike the Páirc Uí Chaoimh matches when Cork scored seven goals in the league final and Munster round robin, there was no easy space to be exploited. Cork's Patrick Horgan. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho Sam O'Farrell came to centrefield with Darragh McCarthy floating out from the full forward line. Ironically, they might well have run the same playbook in May but for the latter's red card before the match started. Cork manager Pat Ryan pointed out that even if his full forwards were on tighter rations, the half forwards were able to take advantage. Diarmuid Healy and Barrett helped themselves to 1-6 and there were six points in it at half-time, 1-16 to 0-13. Lively scores, picked off to keep their opponents under pressure. Declan Dalton threw in another of his huge frees. After a sequence of feisty Tipp defence in the 21st minute, Patrick Horgan was on hand to loft over the squirming ball for a three-point lead. [ Liam Cahill: 'Fortune favours the brave and our hurlers were really brave today' Opens in new window ] A mark of the current Tipp team, as rebuilt by Cahill, is a refusal to throw in their cards. They kept the scores down and swallowed the frustration of missing so many of their own chances. Maybe the first sign of Cork's unease came when Horgan hit a straightforward free wide just after half-time. The referral to Hawk-Eye only prolonged the awkwardness. This was followed by a rallying point from Conor Stakelum, who had provided three similar scores when the semi-final had not been going well. But this was more than token defiance. It started a run on the scoreboard that Cork could not arrest. An unanswered 1-5 convulsed the match. Andrew Ormond, quiet in the first half, popped up with two in rapid succession. Tipperary's John McGrath celebrates scoring a goal. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho The real instrument of destruction though was John McGrath, whose return to form this year was such a feature of Tipperary's All-Ireland run. Capitalising on a Jake Morris shot that came back off the post, he calmly set about regathering the ball among defenders and making room for a shot to the net. Subdued in the first half, he was now rampant and taken down for the critical event of the match, a penalty that saw McGrath's marker Eoin Downey sent off on a second yellow card in the 53rd minute. McCarthy slammed it to Collins's left. Six minutes later McGrath had his seventh goal of the championship, a steely, eyes-on-the-prize jump for another booming Eoghan Connolly delivery and a touch to the net, uninhibited by what might happen at the hands of converging defenders. A fitting grace note for a match that had long been decided. TIPPERARY: R Shelly (0-1); R Doyle (0-1), E Connolly (0-1), M Breen; C Morgan, R Maher (capt), B O'Mara; W Connors (0-1), C Stakelum (0-1); J Morris (0-2), A Ormond (0-2), S O'Farrell; D McCarthy (1-13, 1-0 pen, 8f, 1'65), J McGrath (2-2), J Forde (0-2). Subs: S Kennedy for O'Mara (50 mins), A Tynan for Morgan (56), N McGrath (0-1) for O'Farrell (60), D Stakelum for C Stakelum, O O'Donoghue for Ormond (both 66). CORK: P Collins; N O'Leary (0-1), E Downey, S O'Donoghue; C Joyce, R Downey (capt), M Coleman; T O'Mahony, D Fitzgibbon (0-2); D Healy (0-3), S Barrett (1-4), D Dalton (0-1f); P Horgan (0-4, 3f), A Connolly (0-1), B Hayes (0-1). Subs: S Harnedy (0-1) for Dalton (44 mins), D Cahalane for Healy (56), C Lehane for Horgan (58), S Kingston for Connolly (65), T O'Connell for O' Mahony (67). Referee: L Gordon (Galway).
Irish Examiner
19-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Cork boss Pat Ryan: 'You have to win All-Irelands' to succeed as manager
Pat Ryan was given a three-year term. Tomorrow is the final game of that term. Let's go right back to the eve of his opening game in the opening year of that term. In January 2023, the new Cork manager was asked if his reign would be deemed a failure should Liam MacCarthy not return to Leeside at some point before close of business this summer. 'It would be a failure, yeah,' he replied. Are they words he still stands by? 'I would. I won't back away from stuff I've said before. You'll be judged by other people, but my judgement as a Cork person, as a person who's played, as a person who's watched games and been involved in going to matches when we won All-Irelands in the 80s and 90s, that's what's expected,' he reaffirmed. 'That's the expectation when you take on the job, that you're going to win All-Irelands. If you don't, is failure the right word? It's probably a harsh word at times. But it's true, to be honest, because you have to win All-Irelands if you're going to be the Cork manager. You have to win All-Irelands. It's as simple as that. You don't shy away from that.' And neither does he shy away from the players' job to honour the red shirt given the connotations it carries. While so much of the focus over the past fortnight has been on match specifics, Ryan has not been reluctant to lean into tradition, what the shirt represents, and doing the shirt justice on Sunday. 'That's the standard. That's what we have to live to is what the Cork jersey represents to the people of Cork. Fellas might say tis cocky or arrogant, we haven't won an All-Ireland in 20 years, but I'm talking about my generation. That's the way I grew up. The Cork jersey has to mean something to everyone, every time you put it on. 'The players I grew up idolising in the 80s, there was no soccer, no rugby. The Teddy McCarthys, the Tomás Muls, the Jim Cashmans, the Jimmy Barry Murphys, the Seánie O'Learys, they were gods. "And there's an expectation that we wear the jersey as well as they did, and do we lean into it? Yeah, you bet your life we do. Look, it's a good thing to come from. 'I listened to a Bernard Dunne podcast recently and he spoke with James McCarthy about that. James said that when he was with Dublin, there's a way that Dublin should play and there's a way that Dublin should carry themselves, and I just said, 'Jesus, that makes total sense'.' One final new belief of Pat's. Inter-county hurling is a 'grown-ass sport'. Its participants must be thus treated as such. Birth cert details are irrelevant. He eulogised earlier this week on Gary Keegan's value in the one-to-one conversations that he's had with the Cork manager and players. Equally illuminating and equally effective were the one-to-one conversations Ryan had with his players in the downtime after the 2024 season so crushingly concluded and the latest climb began. 'Sometimes you try to be as honest as you can with players and then sometimes you're probably trying not to hurt feelings. "A lot of the players would have come to me and said maybe you just need to be a bit more honest sometimes with us and just tell us what we need to do exactly. 'Sometimes you might be, for want of a better word, pussyfooting around the situation, but it was being a bit more direct. That is something that I've done this year.'
