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The Irish Sun
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
‘It's a week on the gargle' – Damien Duff slams LOI mid-season break after half-time rant in Shelbourne draw vs Cork
DAMIEN DUFF let loose on his Shelbourne players with a half-time tirade during their 1-1 draw against Cork City. A fan video from outside the Turner's Cross changing rooms caught some of Duff's 'ranting and raving' through an open window after a below-par first half. 2 Shelbourne drew 1-1 with Cork City Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile 2 Damien Duff slammed his team's performance Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile Duff said of his half-time rant: 'I haven't done that in a long time, and I wasn't planning it, but sometimes you are driven towards it. 'You can talk tactics and subs, but sometimes when a manager vents, it's for themselves. That wasn't for myself. It was to get a reaction out of them. 'Does it usually work ? No. Did it work in the second half? We were better. Was it because of that? I don't know. Read More on Shelbourne 'It could have been the subs. It could have been our application. 'The first half wasn't a Shelbourne performance. It wasn't a performance befitting champions. 'To win a league again and be up there or thereabouts again, you need a bigger edge. Everything has to be better than the year before, and it hasn't been. That's why we are where we are.' Duff also admitted that he 'fought tooth and nail' with some of his players over their holidays . Most read in Football When asked about the mid-season break, he replied: 'I have never liked it. The flipside is it has come at a good time for us as it's a time for reflection, but I don't like it. 'There's an air of the jolly boys out. They are meeting at the pub in the terminal. It's a week on the gargle. That's not the football education I had in Shelbourne manager Damien Duff gives sweet birthday shoutout to his mother after his side's draw against St Pat's 'People probably think I am unfair saying it. I think it's ingrained in the culture here. It's ingrained in my guys. I fought tooth and nail with my guys. I am not happy with some of my guys on it, but that's for another day. 'But they have had a different football education to what I've had. I was taught differently, and that's why it doesn't sit right with me.' At the league's halfway mark, fifth-placed Shels remain nine points behind front-runners He stressed: 'There's a long way to go. We are still alive and kicking. We still have a heartbeat, and I know it because they are great guys. 'We have certainly dropped a lot of points along the way with basic individual errors when we have dominated games. Different story here. 'I love challenges. It gets me excited. If it doesn't excite our players and the club, the second half of the season, be it the FAI Cup, Europe , or chasing Rovers down, then they are in the wrong place. 'Nine points is a pretty big gap, but if you have a decent fortnight in the League of Ireland , you can claw it back. 'I wouldn't say it's a big challenge. I have always embraced big challenges. Taking over Shelbourne Football Club was a hell of a big challenge. 'Cup final the first year, Europe the second year, won the league the third year. They are big challenges, but we overcome them, because that's what we do.' SUBS STANDARD For the second time in the past month, Duff made a triple substitution at half-time, including the return of Paddy Barrett in defence. Duff warned: 'It could have been more. Absolutely could have been more. 'We can't waste 45 minutes. We talk about not wasting a moment, an action, you can't waste a half of football. 'It's a common theme here: if you waste a half, you are coming off. 'They are not decisions which should make you nervous or afraid of giving the ball away. When lads come off lacking energy and spark, and there's a flatness about them, that's why. 'Unbelievable quality all week, and then maybe they thought they could roll into Turner's Cross and turn Cork over. It doesn't happen like that in Turner's Cross. 'Maybe they have stopped listening, I don't know. Sure, we got a reaction in the second half, and even in the first half, you can say we showed resilience getting in at 0-0 because the fire was coming.'
The Irish Sun
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Mairead O'Brien warns Kilkenny that Waterford ‘running faster than ever' after skorts row ahead of All-Ireland clash
MAIRÉAD O'BRIEN has warned Kilkenny that Waterford are ready to hit the ground running — and they have been running faster than ever before. Today, Michael Boland's Suirsiders get their Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Championship Group 2 campaign underway against the Cats, who already have a win under their belt after thumping Derry last weekend. 2 Dual star Mairead O'Brien warned Kilkenny that Waterford are working harder than ever Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile 2 Kilkenny players return to the changing room before the Leinster Senior Camogie final against Wexford Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile The action throws in at UPMC Nowlan Park at 12.30pm and O'Brien cannot wait to don her shorts and try to take down the Cats. The game's postponement — after the players insisted they would be lining out in shorts — was a regrettable plotline but ultimately led to the alteration of the rule on playing kit by a 98 per cent majority at a Special Congress, allowing players to choose shorts or skorts. And O'Brien, 22, said: 'Yeah, we were delighted. We got the news at training and we were just about to do our running bloc. I swear we've never run so fast all year. Read More on Camogie 'It is a massive step. There was an issue with comfort levels but the players were listened to and the results were pretty significant. And any step forward for keeping younger girls involved is great. It was frustrating to have the Munster final postponed 16 hours before when all the preparations had been made to optimise our performance. We had been training well and had a good win over Tipperary to get there. 'I suppose as a group we're just driving it forward and just focusing on the Championship now. And I think the management team we have currently is phenomenal. 'The commitment they've shown is as much as the girls'. We're all just kind of working together and pushing forward as a group and trying to get the best out of each other.' The postponing of the Munster final and the fact they had a bye for the first week of the Championship means Waterford are perhaps more rested up than they would like to be. Most read in GAA Hurling But given she hit the Cats for a brace of goals on the way to defeat in the league in March, Tommy Shefflin and Co will definitely be forewarned about O'Brien's threat — and even if they were not, Caoimhe Keher Murtagh would inform them. Cats star Keher Murtagh was a colleague of O'Brien as UL won the Ashbourne Cup for a second season on the trot, and they were both in the third level Team of the Year. Young Kerry LGFA fan steals the show with sign during All-Ireland final win over Galway But whereas Keher Murtagh's Rower-Inistioge are a storied, traditional The camogie club was only established in 2011 to field an Under-12 team but O'Brien has been at the core of everything that has been good about them since, highlighted by her tally of 1-4 as they defeated Tipperary outfit Fethard by 2-5 to 0-10 in the Munster junior club final last November. She explained: 'The first adult team was put out in 2017, we won the junior in 2019 and then obviously last year we had a good run of luck. 'As a group, our main aim was to get back to the county final and try and win it. We probably bottled a lot of disappointment from the year previous. But to be fair, we used it to our advantage and went back training that bit earlier and worked really hard through the year. 'Once we got out of the county, we were definitely in bonus territory, and unknown territory. 'The lads involved were great when it came to the big days. They never kind of picked up on the occasion too much. Their main point is just to go out and enjoy it and work really hard. And that's what happened.' 'UNBELIEVABLE' The smile breaks out just thinking about Modeligo's odyssey and what it meant in the small country parish. She added: 'It was just unbelievable. We had a few good celebrations. We just enjoyed it. When we were enjoying it, we were just playing well. The whole community was behind us. 'And in the Munster final, they were definitely a 16th player. We were struggling for scores in the second half and had phenomenal support that got us over the line.' With that club success behind her, and experience of playing in one All-Ireland final already at a young age when the Déise went down to Cork in 2023, O'Brien is at the top of her game at the moment, alongside celebrated camogie county stars such as Beth Carton, Niamh Rockett, Lorraine Bray and Brianna O'Regan. But football has also been part of her story — a former dual operator, O'Brien stepped away from the big-ball squad this year as she was completing her final year in physiotherapy at UL. Everything right now is zoned in on the next couple of months with Waterford camogie — and today's date with the Cats ensures that it is no soft launch. She said: 'They beat us in the league but we would be looking to improve our performance from then. We got off to a good start but in the second half we didn't maintain it. 'I don't think we've ever actually beaten them in Championship so hopefully we will put that right this time.'
The Irish Sun
27-05-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Offaly GAA boss Johnny Kelly insists controversial split season ‘not working' and reveals why it's ‘time to review it'
JOHNNY KELLY reckons the split-season experiment has not worked out. His Offaly side beat Antrim to retain their Leinster SHC status last Sunday but their season is over, with their next game eight months away. Advertisement 2 Offaly manager Johnny Kelly before the Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 5 match against Antrim Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile 2 Oisin Kelly of Offaly in action against Eoghan Campbell of Antrim Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile Kelly led his native Portumna to All-Ireland club glory in 2009 and reckons this calendar is a failure. He said: 'I was an advocate of the split-season. But it's not working. I was down in Portumna, watching the boys train, and they're gone since last January without any club games, league games. 'We've one set of players playing five games in six weeks. We've another set, club players, ambling around since January, waiting for the thing to finish. 'Clare are out of the Championship. Leinster is finished for three teams. I don't think it's right, maybe it's time to review it. Advertisement Read More on GAA 'That's it now. What do we do tomorrow? 'If you were a professional set-up, you'd be saying, 'OK, take your break, we'll go back into it and look at some of your strength and conditioning, the physical work, look at the injuries'. That's not really possible. It's an amateur game. But that's the way it's gone at inter-county level. It's so professional.'
The Irish Sun
02-05-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Tommy Lonergan keeps Waterford revival going as he inspires win over Bohemians in Premier DIvision clash
TOMMY LONERGAN made an assist before scoring a cracking winner to end Bohemians' resurgence. The hitman's sharp work up front kept Waterford's own revival going as the managerless club made it back-to-back victories. 2 Waterford beat Bohemians Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile 2 James Olayinka, bottom, scored their first goal at Dalymount Park Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile Caretaker Matt Lawlor guided them to victory over Derry City last time out and they dug in here for a gutsy away win. Gypsies' Bohs were the better side in the first half but went in behind. Read More on League of Ireland First their 43rd-minute penalty claim was not entertained when Jordan Flores looked to have been upended by Grant Horton. Bohs did not clear their lines as a deft touch from Lonergan found midfielder James Olayinka in space . The 24-year-old Londoner took a controlling touch before rifling a low drive from distance into the bottom corner for his first goal for the club. Most read in Football Bohs' response from the restart was pretty immediate as they were level within three minutes. Kyle White was yellow-carded for a clumsy challenge on Tierney with Flores meeting Dayle Rooney's flighted free-kick to the far post. Cork City fans watch League of Ireland clash against Dundalk in cinema And though his header came back off an upright, the ensuing scramble saw Blues defender Darragh Leahy get the final touch for an own goal. Level-pegging lasted 15 minutes, though, as sloppy defending gifted Waterford the chance to regain the lead. Defender Seán Grehan stretched to get a touch on White's cross with the ball rebounding off the chest of goalie Kacper Chorazka. Lonergan pounced to collect the loose ball, get turned and blast his shot to the roof of the net. SUN STAR MAN Tommy Lonergan (Waterford) BOHEMIANS : Chorazka 7; Grehan 7, Cornwall 6 (Mousset 74, 6), Flores 7; Morahan 6, Buckley 6 (McManus 66, 6), Devoy 7, Rooney 7; Tierney 7; Clarke 6 (Brennan 66, 7), Whelan 7. WATERFORD : McMullan 7; Radkowski 7, Leahy 7, Burke 7; Horton 7, Glenfield 6 (McMenamy 74, 6), Noonan 6, Olayinka 7, White 6 (Dempsey 90+6, 6); Lonergan 8 (Pouwels 90, 6), Amond 6. REFEREE : G Colfer (Wicklow) 6.
