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Cork's fast starts have become trademark in All-Ireland final run
Cork's fast starts have become trademark in All-Ireland final run

Irish Examiner

time7 hours ago

  • Sport
  • Irish Examiner

Cork's fast starts have become trademark in All-Ireland final run

'We're targeting goals all the time, we're targeting fast starts all the time. That's the goal of it, that's the game,' said Pat Ryan in the aftermath of their ruthless semi-final skewering of Dublin. At the county's All-Ireland final press evening two days later, he expanded on this point and core principle of the group's. 'From our point of view, what we were looking at was the attitude in the way we started, and the way we hunted down Dublin at the start was really, really good.' Following their second-half fall-off when hammering the 14 men of Tipp by 15 points in late April, the final margin just a five-point improvement on the half-time difference, the Cork manager noted that his team has only one gear and that is 'flat out'. 'We can't be in third or fourth gear, it is not the way we play. We have to be in fifth gear,' he added. And while their second half remains stubbornly inconsistent and rarely found in breach of the speed limit, those fifth gear first-half take-offs have been a centrepiece feature of a campaign where they've returned to an All-Ireland final that they led by 1-8 to 0-4 after only 14 minutes this weekend 12 months ago. Allianz NHL Round 1 29 minutes: Cork 1-11 Wexford 0-2; FT: Cork 2-21 Wexford 0-12 Cork's opening game of the season started in similar fashion to their concluding game of the season previous. 1-7 without reply had the visitors to the south-east a dozen clear in the distance before the half hour had even been reached. The 1-1 finish to that scoring sequence belonged to Blarney full-forward Pádraig Power, who a week later would sustain a season-ending shoulder injury. Allianz NHL Round 2 11 minutes: Cork 0-7 Limerick 0-2; FT: Cork 1-16 Limerick 1-16 Seven shots, seven scores. On a miserable night down by the Lee, the hosts feasted on Limerick waywardness from the placed-ball, sideline ball, and open play. Following the Shane Kingston white flag to stretch them five clear on 11 minutes, they'd add just one further point across the remainder of the half and found themselves two behind at the break. Allianz NHL Round 6 26 minutes: Cork 3-5 Clare 0-5; FT: Cork 6-20 Clare 0-23 In keeping with their entire year, an injury-stricken Clare rearguard lacked resistance and basic cohesion. Brian Hayes showing the cleanest pair of heels to the Clare full-back - Conor Cleary on that occasion - for the batted opening to his hat-trick was a warning sign not heeded for the return championship visit six weeks later. Allianz NHL Round 7 17 minutes: Cork 2-5 Galway 0-7; FT: Cork 4-22 Galway 0-22 Neither of the Cork goals were obvious green flags when the finisher first grabbed hold of possession. Brian Hayes' deceptively quick feet, with his back to the City End goal, took Pádraic Mannion out of the equation and he then sidestepped Joshua Ryan as if the debutant were not there. Darragh Fitzgibbon was outside football's 40-metre arc when he began the long - and successful - hunt for a second. Allianz NHL final 27 minutes: Cork 2-13 Tipperary 0-10; FT: Cork 3-24 Tipperary 0-23 The pyrotechnics from the two previous games weren't immediately unpacked. Behind at the 11-minute mark and stalemate affairs seven minutes later. Then, fireworks. Many, many fireworks. 2-5 to 0-2 in seven minutes. 2-1 off Tipp puckouts spoiled. Ethan Twomey's goal right on the stroke of the regulation 35 shoved the interval difference to 13. Munster SHC Round 1 25 minutes: Cork 2-8 Clare 0-5; FT: Cork 2-24 Clare 3-21 The red flashlight emoji was in use from the off. In Cork's first attack, Brian Hayes rounded Darragh Lohan and kicked for green having had the hurley pulled from his hand. A minute later, they pulled him to the ground under a dropping ball into the large parallelogram, unnoticed by Liam Gordon. A delay of the inevitable. On 12 minutes, another Brian Hayes batted goal in Ennis. The entire inside line engineered in tandem for his second 13 minutes further on. Munster SHC Round 2 16 minutes: Cork 3-6 Tipperary 0-3; FT: Cork 4-27 Tipperary 0-24 If the suspicion was that the fixture was killed stone dead by the opening minute dismissal of Darragh McCarthy, there wasn't a pulse to be found when Alan Connolly continued his penchant for raising green against the blue and gold. A fifth goal in three successive outings against the Premier. All six starting Cork forwards on the board and just over a quarter of an hour elapsed. All-Ireland semi-final 13 minutes: Cork 3-5 Dublin 0-5; FT: Cork 7-26 Dublin 2-21 Staying with Connolly and staying with green. His delicious one-handed finish 13 minutes and 26 seconds in bettered by just over three minutes Cork's previous best, from the aforementioned Tipp torching in Munster, for how early in a game their trademark fast start produced three majors. Tipp stifling needs to be ready to go from as early as the parade.

Enda McEvoy on calling the All Ireland final: 'I can't believe you didn't tip us...'
Enda McEvoy on calling the All Ireland final: 'I can't believe you didn't tip us...'

Irish Examiner

time12 hours ago

  • Sport
  • Irish Examiner

Enda McEvoy on calling the All Ireland final: 'I can't believe you didn't tip us...'

THE story begins in the summer of 1996. It was warm and sunny, everyone appeared to be doing the Macarena and Limerick and Wexford were making their way by circuitous routes – the former after a punishing campaign in Munster which would tell on them in the end, the latter by winning their first Leinster title in 19 years – to Croke Park. Your correspondent, newly installed as hurling correspondent of the Sunday Tribune, had opposed Wexford in the provincial final ('you'd have been mad to go for us,' Liam Griffin did have the decency to say afterwards) and again in the All Ireland semi-final. This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in Take us with you this summer. Annual €130€65 Best value Monthly €12€6 / month

'You have to level up' - the curse and blessing of running in a golden era for women's hurdles
'You have to level up' - the curse and blessing of running in a golden era for women's hurdles

The 42

time17 hours ago

  • Sport
  • The 42

'You have to level up' - the curse and blessing of running in a golden era for women's hurdles

SARAH LAVIN SOMETIMES tells her parents that she wishes she was born a few years earlier. It's all in jest, of course, but there's a veneer of truth behind the joke. Lavin is the queen of women's hurdles in Ireland. She took the crown from Derval O'Rourke at the 2023 World Championships when she blasted through the 100m hurdles semi-final in a time of 12.62. It was a milestone moment for her. A long-term target. But her literal best performance was not enough to see her through to the final on that occasion. The upside for Lavin is that her career coincides with a golden period for women's hurdles. The downside for Lavin is that her career coincides with a golden period for women's hurdles. 'The greatest who have ever done women's sprint hurdles are all around in this era now,' Lavin says, summing up the challenge she faces every time she steps on the track. 'The records that were there in the 80s are gone. So many of us are national record holders and the best who have ever done it from our country. The world record holder, the European record holder, the Olympic record holder and the world indoor record holder . . . everyone is in this cohort. 'And when you bring them all together, it means mad stuff is happening timewise. You have to level up.' Advertisement It was a similar scenario for Lavin at the European Indoor Championships in March. She clocked a season's best of 7.92 in the final of the 60m hurdles, which was good enough for fourth. Switzerland's Mujinga Kambundji set a European record of 7.67 to take gold, while Nadine Visser broke the Dutch national record to win the silver medal in 7.72. Pia Skrzyszowska of Poland clinched third in 7.83. 'Who's happy with fourth?' Lavin told RTÉ's David Gillick after the race. 'It's not the end of the world in the fastest European race ever. Last year I was in the fastest world final ever.' The World Championships in Tokyo are the main goal for Lavin in 2025, and the good news is that qualification is already assured for the Limerick athlete. The bad news is that the bar remains nauseatingly high. She ran a season's best of 12.76 in the 100m hurdles at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava last month. She also won the 100m hurdles at the European Team Championships in Slovenia in a time of 12.82. But she knows that 12.5 is the aim if she wants to make the final in Japan. 'It's not beyond my realm of possibility, but again, you could also run 12.5 and not make it,' she adds. Along with chasing the clock, Lavin has been working on some technical aspects that have been affecting her performance. The first hurdle has been particularly problematic for her. At the World Indoor Championships in China, she failed to reach the final after clipping the first barrier. 'It's clear as day to anyone sitting on the couch, whether you know anything about it or not, that that's an area I could definitely improve on. 'We really tried to zone in on that. The biggest thing I'm trying [to do is] get up to speed sooner in my race between hurdle one and two, to increase my flight times to get under the 0.33 of a second that you're in the air.' Lavin has also been sampling relay running to help with preparation for Tokyo. Along with Sarah Leahy, Ciara Neville and Lauren Roy, she ran the fourth leg of the 4x100m at the European Athletics Team Championships in Slovenia. Together, they clocked 43.97 to come third. 'Relay running is really good to work on your flat speed which is obviously really crucial and probably my my biggest strength when it comes to the hurdles,' she continues. 'We're trying to hold on to those strengths and then tidy up a few of the technical things like the the hurdle crossovers.' Lavin will compete in the relay again at the London Diamond League this weekend. The National Championships will then come into view on the August Bank Holiday weekend where she is contemplating the 200m or 100m along with the hurdles to get into Tokyo mode where she will be racing on back-to-back days. Everything is geared towards 14 and 15 September. 'Record,' she responds when asked what would be a good World Championships in her book. 'I can't control what anyone else is going to do but if I run quicker than I've done before, that's something that I can't but be proud of.' Sarah Lavin was speaking at an event to announce Spar and Eurospar as official retail partners to the Olympic Federation of Ireland and Paralympics Ireland

Ireland's ‘unhealthiest region': Limerick and the midwest suffering extreme health inequality
Ireland's ‘unhealthiest region': Limerick and the midwest suffering extreme health inequality

Irish Times

timea day ago

  • Health
  • Irish Times

Ireland's ‘unhealthiest region': Limerick and the midwest suffering extreme health inequality

A child is woken up in the middle of the night by gardaí raiding their house. The child's parents are on the wrong side of the law, battling with addiction, poverty and unemployment. The child goes to school the next morning, exhausted, anxious and stressed. As a result, they're unable to focus on their education, affecting their learning, life path and – most surprisingly – their health. This, according to Dr Anne Dee, consultant in public health medicine, is a situation children in some areas of the midwest region – Limerick , Clare and north Tipperary – experience due to levels of extreme deprivation. But these adverse childhood experiences, she says, are more than just about poverty or crime. Such incidents, she says, are a significant determinant for the health of the people in the area. READ MORE 'Internationally, we know well that people who live in areas of deprivation or who are unemployed, or who have poor levels of education, or poor housing, that they have poorer health,' Dr Dee says. 'People who live with disadvantage are more likely to have chronic disease, which is heart attack, asthma, diabetes, respiratory disease.' According to the 2022 Census, the population in the midwest is more deprived than the national benchmark. We have double standards around what is acceptable and what is not, who we need to consider and who we need to dismiss — Dr Anne Dee In 2022, the most recent year for which figures are available, 24 per cent of the population in Limerick were considered disadvantaged, very disadvantaged or extremely disadvantaged; 21 per cent in Clare; and 23 per cent in north Tipperary. 'Children are more prone to having adverse childhood events if they're living in poverty. If their father or their parents are unemployed. If their communities are unsafe. If we can start changing that, we can create communities and environments that are much more healthy.' In light of this, Dr Dee, the recently-appointed president of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), is leading a new project in the midwest that seeks to examine the social determinants of poor health and reduce them. Under the project, which is sponsored by the newly-elected mayor of Limerick John Moran, and Sandra Broderick, regional executive officer in the HSE, the 'big players' in education, employment, the probation service, Tusla, the HSE and other organisations will come together to try to improve the health of the region. 'Data from Scotland would show that about 30 per cent of children who have more than four adverse childhood experiences will go on to potentially succeed in life. Seventy per cent of them will not. They'll either end up dead, incarcerated, addicted or with chronic mental illness,' Dr Dee says. 'It's about looking at our population of children and saying, how can we change the trajectory of their life in terms of outcomes? There are really excellent healthcare initiatives but they're not across the whole population. We need to make sure that where the need is greater, there is extra available.' The midwest consultant analysed a random sample of emergency department attendances at hospital in Limerick, and coded them by deprivation. 'We were able to show if you lived in extreme deprivation or severe deprivation, you were around 2.5 times more likely to use the emergency department than if you lived in an area of affluence,' she says. 'They were also more likely to be hospitalised and more likely to wait to be seen than people from other areas of deprivation.' These people are 'not spurious' users of the health system, she says, adding that often wait until they're at crisis point before seeking help. There is a lack of trust among many of these vulnerable groups, and the project aims to mend that, she adds. Part of the problem, she says, is the prevalence of a culture of blame. 'Instead of judging them for their behaviour or telling them they need to stop smoking, stop drinking, stop eating rashers, we need to start supporting these communities to be able to function much better,' she says. The unemployment rate in Ireland is 4 per cent, according to the CSO, but in parts of Limerick city it's up about 70 per cent. 'It's not just that people are lazy. It a very, very complex mix of poor educational attainment, intergenerational problems like addiction, no history of employment in living memory, a fear of authority or mistrust,' she says. But how has this situation occurred? Dr Dee says Limerick in the 1800s and 1900s had 'a lot of poverty'. 'I just feel, and I think quite a number of people would agree with me on this, that it hasn't always been the priority when it comes to government funding,' she says. Adding to this, future planning in health and other sectors such as housing is often based on population, Dr Dee says, though she admits work is ongoing in this area. She believes, instead, health planning must be based on need. 'They [policymakers] haven't traditionally taken a lot of heed of the deprivation level within that population. So everybody gets the same. So you'll hear some areas consistently crying out, saying 'we haven't enough' and that's because their need is greater,' she says. There are specific cohorts of people who are particularly deprived, she says, including those with disabilities, or members of the Roma or Travelling communities. The Census 2022 estimated the White Irish Traveller population as 0.6 per cent of the total population in Ireland. In the midwest, this is 0.9 per cent, and in the west Limerick community health network, the proportion is four times the national average. The life expectancy of members of the Travelling community is 10 to 15 years less than those in the settled population. Having worked in a leprosy hospital in Nepal 30 years ago, Dr Dee sees parallels in terms of the stigma directed towards Travellers and those with infectious diseases, and the impact that has on these people in relation to interacting with various systems in society. 'If you suffer from leprosy in most communities where people get leprosy, you will be stigmatised for having leprosy. And we look at that in the West and we say 'oh, that's really bad that people would be stigmatised for just having a bacterial infection',' she says. 'But at the same time, with the same breath, we talk about Travellers in a way that is very stigmatising. We have double standards around what is acceptable and what is not, who we need to consider and who we need to dismiss.' Though her pilot project is focused on the midwest due to its deprivation profile, Dr Dee believes healthcare should be provided in this way across the country – particularly in light of the spiralling homeless crisis . The most recent figures from the Department of Housing, from May, showed there were a record 15,580 homeless people, of which 4,775 are children. Dr Dee says the country has yet to see the true health crisis that will arise from this. 'The life expectancy of somebody living in homelessness is around 40. That would be street homeless; I don't think we've measured the kind of new homelessness,' she says. 'I can assure you all of these children growing up in homelessness are gathering up such enormous levels of adverse childhood experiences. The effects of poverty on children are long-term. The effect of adverse childhood events on children are long-term. The effects of both are additive.' Are we not setting these children, and other vulnerable groups, up for failure? 'We absolutely are. Absolutely. It really, really behoves us to do some serious prevention in the area of social determinants of health.'

Long game paying off for Cork's Conor Lehane as he prepares for another final
Long game paying off for Cork's Conor Lehane as he prepares for another final

Irish Daily Mirror

timea day ago

  • Sport
  • Irish Daily Mirror

Long game paying off for Cork's Conor Lehane as he prepares for another final

Conor Lehane has a trying history with All-Ireland finals. And that's not just as a player. Cork have won three All-Ireland hurling titles in his lifetime and he's one of the few currently on the squad that were old enough - he turns 33 later this month - to have attended their last win 20 years ago. But while the ticket frenzy back then wasn't quite as intense as it is now, they were still difficult to come by. 'The parents were probably trying their best but they couldn't get them,' he says. 'I don't know what way the ticket allocation was back then but they couldn't get their hands on them. 'I went to the semi-final and quarter-final that year. I do remember them though. They were incredible days. They were absolutely unbelievable. I was probably about 11 or 12 when all that went down and you could see it. 'Everyone starts off as a supporter and if you're lucky enough to be able to play, then everyone ends up as a supporter again. 'So knowing what it was like before and the thrill that you got to see these players go out and represent the county and win is unbelievable and you'd love to be a part of something that would give that same thrill to younger people who'll be playing for Cork in a couple of years and they'll be the ones doing it for another generation. 'So it's an unbelievable cycle but it's just been so long now, you feel that pressure, that kind of longing to finally have the cup coming back down.' They've lost four finals in the intervening 20 years. Kilkenny denied them the three-in-a-row in 2006 and when they returned to the final seven years later, Lehane was one of their key forwards having prospered under Jimmy Barry-Murphy's management. They were within seconds of victory until Domhnaill O'Donovan nailed a last gasp equaliser for Clare, who went on to win the replay. It's a moment that Lehane is often reminded of as he goes about his business. 'It still comes up a lot to be fair. I was directly behind him when he got the point. 'I saw it going over about five seconds before. It took five seconds for the crowd to realise it, but I saw it going over from the get-go. 'The way it ended was so mental that it's naturally going to come up. Because it was so close to us going the other way.' Come 2021, Lehane was watching from home as Limerick crushed Cork to retain their title. The previous winter, he was deemed surplus to requirements by then manager Kieran Kingston. The fact that he didn't attend was down to Covid-19 restrictions, with the ground capacity restructured to 50%, rather than any bitterness on his part. 'I would have gone if we could. I know at the time we were training that day and I was so focused on Midleton at the time. We didn't want to be making a big fuss by going up and making it like a thing. I was happy out to watch it at home.' His sizzling club form that year led to a recall from Kingston, but with the emergence of a new wave of talent from successful underage sides, he has often been on the margins in recent seasons. In last year's All-Ireland final defeat to Clare, he didn't get off the bench. 'Well obviously I'd love to have been involved. I'd have loved to have been a part of it and try and make an impact but it's about being a grown up as well and if that's not the case then you've got to take it on the chin and regroup again and just drive on. You've no other choice really. 'If you get too caught up in it you'll only end up getting distracted and not being focused enough for whatever the next stage of the year is and you'll only end up being in your head. So you've just got to have the frustration of it, park it, and then what's next.' That patience has served him well as, after a difficult year with injury having dislocated his shoulder and then pulled a hamstring, he played a starring role off the bench in the Munster final against Limerick, scoring 0-2 and winning a free which was converted before scoring a penalty in the shootout. In the All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin, he came on to hit his first score at Croke Park in seven years. It appears unlikely that he will break into the starting team at this stage, but he hasn't resigned himself to that. 'You try and push. Keep pushing. Keep pushing to try and get your starting place, that's what everyone wants. 'Then you leave it up to the management to decide what they think is best. But you approach every session as if it's a chance to get your place. So you take every session as serious as you would that way. 'Whatever decision management make, you take it on. Then you bring the best version of what you can to whatever position you're put in.' Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.

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