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RTÉ News
3 days ago
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Roscommon overhaul Mayo at the death to win dramatic Rackard Cup
Brendan Mulry will be the toast of Roscommon hurling after capping a remarkable Croke Park fightback with a dramatic winning point to steal the Nicky Rackard Cup title. Trailing by four points in the 68th minute of a rollercoaster game, it looked as if Roscommon were set for another loss to Mayo after National League and Rackard Cup group game defeats. But points from substitute Ben McGahon, joint captain Conor Mulry and Eoin Kiernan tied the game, laying down the platform for Mulry to snatch the winning score with just seconds of stoppage time remaining. It was a dramatic ending to an exciting game that swung back and forth though Mayo, the Division 3 champions and pre-match favourites, will kick themselves for letting victory slip through their hands. Aside from coughing up that late advantage, they also blasted 20 wides over the 70 or so minutes as they slipped to agonising back-to-back final defeats. Sean Canning, Robbie Fallon and Mulry all finished with 1-02 each for Roscommon who have fought back superbly in the competition after losing their opening game to Mayo and drawing their next match. Roscommon operated in Mayo's slipstream in their previous two meetings, losing that group opener by seven points and conceding 3-25 when they met in the league. Both of those games were in Castlebar admittedly though it looked as if things may go a similar way at neutral Croke Park. Mayo were 0-09 to 0-03 ahead at the end of the opening quarter and dominating proceedings. With a near patent on possession, they racked up point after point and Tooreen's Liam Lavin helped himself to three of the scores. Eoghan Collins drilled one over too and then set up Eoin Delaney for one of his two scores as Ray Larkin's side turned the screw. The only concern for Mayo was all the wides they were also tallying with far too many chances squandered. They finished the first-half with a whopping 11 wides and another couple of point attempts that dropped short. Roscommon seemed to draw energy from Mayo's difficulties and suddenly came roaring into the contest in the second quarter. They outscored Mayo by 2-5 to 0-2 between the 19th minute and half-time to take an unexpected three-point half-time lead, 2-8 to 0-11. Canning tortured Louth in his previous outing for Roscommon, striking a hat-trick of goals in that final round group game, and blasted 1-02 during the blitz. It was his fourth game in a row to score at least one goal and he posted notice of his blistering pace with an earlier point after a speedy solo run. Canning's 28th minute goal was a trademark powerful strike, coming at the end of a darting run in from the left. Brendan Mulry's goal in stoppage time was more fortunate as he went up to contest Conor Cosgrove's long delivery and smiled as the sliotar deflected in off him. Collins drew a great save from Roscommon goalkeeper Enda Lawless after the restart as Mayo chased scores. Shane Boland, football star Fergal's brother, clipped two points to help reduce the gap to three after 45 minutes, 2-11 to 0-14. Mayo had the deficit down to just one with under 20 minutes to go but were rocked by Roscommon's third goal from full-forward Robbie Fallon. An amazing game still had a couple of crucial turns to take. Mayo once again wrestled control of the game, reeling off 1-05 without response to take that three-point lead, 1-21 to 3-12, thanks in part to Eoin Delaney's 57th minute goal. But just as Mayo seemed certain to get their hands on the silverware, they had it whipped from their grasp in the form of four Roscommon points in a row and that dramatic Mulry winner. Roscommon: Enda Lawless; Adam Donnelly, James Dillon, Mark Ward; Micheal Hussey, Conor Cosgrove (0-01, 0-01f), Darragh Finn; Eoin Fitzgerald (0-03), Jack Donnelly; Finn Killion (0-01), Conor Mulry (0-02), Cian Murray; Sean Canning (1-02), Brendan Mulry (1-02), Robbie Fallon (1-02, 0-02f). Subs: Liam Og Coyle for Killion 47, Ben McGahon (0-02, 0-01f) for Hussey 50, Jack Dowling for Murray 54, Ryan Conlon for Fitzgerald 58, Eoin Kiernan (0-01) for Fallon 62. Mayo: Bobby Douglas (0-01); Connor Murray, Oisin Greally, Conal Hession; Simon Thomas, David Kenny, Eoghan Collins (0-01); Danny Huane (0-02), Shane Boland (0-06, 0-03f); Cormac Phillips, Ryan Duffy (0-01), Liam Lavin (0-04); Kieran McDermott (0-01), Eoin Delaney (1-03), Joe Burke.
Irish Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Watch live stream of Cavan v New York in the Lory Meagher Cup final
The Lory Meagher final taces place in Croke Park this weekend as Cavan take on debutants New York. The game throws in at 3pm and there is a place in the Nicky Rackard Cup for the winner. The match is being shown live by TG4 via YouTube and you can watch it live on the video at the top of this article. New York have reached the final in their first ever season in an All-Ireland Senior hurling competition, beating Monaghan by 1-29 to 2-13. Cavan are hoping to put their loss to Leitrim last time out behind them to win the cup. The Exiles previously won the 2024 Connacht Hurling League before being allowed to play in the Lory Meagher Cup after GAA Congress approved the motion. If they win the cup, no team will be relegated from the Nicky Rackard and the current format for Lory Meagher would apply in the Nicky Rackard Cup.
RTÉ News
24-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
New York have high hopes ahead of Monaghan battle
New York will compete in an All-Ireland hurling competition for the first time in almost 20 years when they take on Monaghan in the Lory Meagher Cup semi-final in Mullingar this afternoon, and expectations are high in the Big Apple. It is not long since the sport was in disarray in New York, which boasted just two senior clubs and no inter-county team as recently as three years ago. There may be some understandable displeasure with the Exiles being parachuted in at the penultimate stage of the competition, with Monaghan manager Arthur Hughes labelling it "an absolute disgrace", but that's unlikely to bother New York. The sport has experienced a complete revival across those last three years, with club and player numbers growing exponentially since 2022 when the New York county team was reformed. There are now six senior clubs competing across New York in addition to five junior clubs and three junior B clubs – and the benefits for the New York county team have been pretty much instantaneous. New York claimed silverware in the 2024 Connacht Hurling League, seeing off a Galway development side in the semi-finals before cruising to victory against Mayo in the final. That victory, coupled with the growth of the sport over the past three years, has given players and management hope of winning more silverware in 2025, the first step being today's semi-final against Monaghan at Cusack Park. The winners of Saturday's semi-final will earn a place in the final against group winners Cavan, with promotion to the Nicky Rackard Cup on the line. New York manager Richie Hartnett said the team has "full aspirations" of winning the competition but is well aware of the challenge posed by a motivated Monaghan. He noted that both Monaghan and Cavan have numerous competitive games under their belt, while New York have been restricted to in-house training games throughout 2025. "It's very hard to keep the boys, for lack of better word, from getting bored or doing the same thing every week and seeing the same faces. It's hard for us (management) to try and pick your best 15 as well. "But look, it's part of being in New York that we have to deal with. Now we just have to go with the blows and go home with our best foot forward for the semi-final." James Bermingham, who is part of the New York squad ahead of Saturday's semi-final, said New York's first championship game in 19 years means the team is travelling into unchartered waters. "We don't really know what we're going to be up against until we go back," Bermingham said. Bermingham has also set his sights on moving through the tiers with the New York team and believes the team's inclusion in the Lory Meagher is only the beginning. "You've got to start somewhere. No one really knows what New York are capable of, so hopefully we go in there and get off to a good start and make a name for ourselves." New York's last appearance in an All-Ireland competition has been the source of legend and anecdote for years. The team caused a shock by beating Derry on US soil in the 2006 Ulster Hurling Championship but could not travel home for the Ulster final against Antrim because a significant portion of their players were undocumented. Antrim eventually prevailed in a rescheduled Ulster final in Boston five months later, marking the end of New York's participation in the Ulster championship. There are no such concerns about a trip home on this occasion, with a number of US-born players also set to represent the Exiles in their upcoming game against Monaghan. James Breen, who captained New York to the Connacht Hurling League title last year, is one of those players. Breen said it would be "special" to represent New York in an All-Ireland competition, especially as someone who grew up playing the sport in Yonkers. GAA President Jarlath Burns recently travelled in March to Yonkers to "turn on the lights" for New York GAA's state-of-the-art facility at Redmond Park, which features a full-sized pitch and two training pitches. The facility, operated by the New York Minor Board, will facilitate the expansion of Gaelic games in Yonkers, allowing hurling to expand among American-born youths. Michael Stones, a Westmeath native overseeing the logistics of the team's trip to Ireland for the Lory Meagher semi-final, said the New York Minor Board has already carried out "huge work" at underage level from Under-10s through to minor in order to encourage the growth of the sport among local communities. "We have a couple of Irish-American born players playing here," Stones said. "It's massive. It means a lot to New York GAA." Stones added that it is "absolutely phenomenal" for New York to be involved in the Lory Meagher and said players and management are taking the competition "very seriously." "They know what's at stake – to go home and play. The aim is to go home and play in Croke Park," he added. "It's all baby steps, but to get to be asked over into the Lory Meagher is a huge step for New York GAA and the progression of hurling in New York itself." Hartnett said New York's inclusion in the Lory Meagher will help boost playing numbers in New York even further, providing players with an opportunity to play intercounty hurling. Aidan Organ, who is part of the squad for Saturday and who represented New York during their Connacht Hurling League success, said he has seen a notable rise in quality in the club scene since the New York intercounty team was reformed three years ago. "The standard has gone way up since I came here for summer four or five years ago," Organ said. "It just drives lads on more."
RTÉ News
21-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Pride and frustration for Joe Baldwin after nurturing Fermanagh hurling's green shoots
The end, as so often in sport, did not come the way Joe Baldwin had wanted. After six highly successful seasons in charge of the Fermanagh hurlers - they won three trophies and two promotions - the man from Kilkeel, County Down spent the last two matches of their Nicky Rackard Cup campaign watching from a distance, before confirming his departure as manager yesterday. Baldwin maintains leaving had always been the plan - "Six years is a long time" - but that was hastened because he had upset some of the panel by calling out players missing training ahead of a 7-20 to 2-18 home loss to Sligo on 26 April. "We have boys that only completed one pitch session this week," he told the Fermanagh Herald after that stinging defeat. "It's really impossible for us to manage and coach boys if they're not going to put the complete shoulder to the wheel all the time. "Inter-county hurling takes full commitment and we didn't have that today." A breach of the apparent unwritten rule that Gaelic managers should keep criticism of individuals in-house? Almost a month on, Baldwin tells RTÉ Sport that it was an attempt to motivate gone awry, but that he also "hadn't said anything that I didn't say privately a hundred times in the changing rooms. "Just because you're small… there are certain standards need to be adhered to. This is the point that I was trying to get across. "We had players that week who didn't complete one pitch session in the middle of championship. That would be totally unheard of. "I don't want to be seen to be criticising the players, because a lot of the players have given me so much over the last six years... [for example] John Duffy and Caolan Duffy were traveling back from England. "This year, for some reason, maybe circumstances, I think we found out just how small we are. There were boys working away, boys travelling. We picked up a few injuries. "You've only got two [adult] clubs and it is very small. But at this time of year, you need everybody to put their shoulder to the wheel. We just weren't getting that and it was deeply frustrating. "We tried to create as professional a set up as we possibly could, but every single night that I'm driving down the road, my phone pings five or six times with excuses. "It was one of those things that I said in the spur of the moment. It's said now, I can't unsay it. "But one pitch session a week and no strength and conditioning is not going to win you a match at all, at any level. Even at club level. "If I was a player, and I was listening to what I had said, even though you knew it was true, you still would have been pretty annoyed at me" "Maybe it was wrong [to say it], but it was said. If I was a player, and I was listening to what I had said, even though you knew it was true, you still would have been pretty annoyed at me. "I understand their frustrations. I was trying to say it from a player's point of view, it just didn't work out the way that I thought it was going to work out." Baldwin says he knew he had "lost the changing room" after that but didn't want a dramatic departure to overshadow the last two games of the Nicky Rackard campaign, which selectors Conor Tinnelly and Seamus Breslin agreed to stay on and oversee, so stated that he had temporarily stepped aside instead. "The players had to come first because they still had a chance. The week of the Roscommon game, all the info that I would've had on Roscommon, I would've still been liaising with Seamus and Conor. "Because at the end of the day, of course, I still wanted the team to win and wanted the boys to qualify. "This is the frustrating thing about it. If they had put their shoulder to the wheel, they could have been sitting in a Nicky Rackard final. I honestly believe that. They played five Nicky Rackard games, 10 halves of hurling, and they were leading in five of the halves. "I felt, for the good of Fermanagh hurling, the best thing for me to do was just to step aside quietly, let the year pan out, and then I was finishing up anyway. "This was year six, so it was always going to be my last year. Obviously, what happened with my health last year and where I live [Coleraine] and the toll that it takes, I decided that this was it." It's hard to question Baldwin's commitment to the Ernesiders cause. He was making a nearly five-hour round trip to each session from his home in Derry, something that must have made players missing training harder to stomach. What happened with his health last year was a stroke, in January, which he, incredibly, took only three weeks away to recover from, returning to lead the county to his second and their third Lory Meagher Cup with victory over Longford at Croke Park last June. "I've recovered maybe 90%, but it was a full on-stroke," he says. "I probably should have took more time away, but I love the game and I felt the best place was to go back on to the hurling field. "My partner Frances is a nurse and she was there all along. She would sort of guide you on what to do and what not to do. And I'm a lot better placed than I was when it happened. "I'm gonna take a wee bit of time off now. I'm still doing quite a bit of club coaching up here in Derry [with Liskea camogie] but I certainly would have ambitions to get back into the game again. "You can say it's all about playing, but for me nothing beats winning." Fermanagh lost to Roscommon and drew with Mayo to finish bottom of the fourth-tier Nicky Rackard group. They will contend for the Lory Meagher Cup again next season. However, they will also compete in Division 3 of the Allianz Hurling League, having finished runners-up to Louth in the reorganised fourth tier this spring. "For the amount of work that me and my management team put into it over the last six years, to be judged on the last three weeks, it's not very nice," reflects Baldwin. "We've been in six finals. We won two Lory Meaghers, we won a National League [3B in 2022], we gained promotion this year. I don't think it's a bad record, you know? "This year, I felt we probably could get promotion, which we did, and then things really unravelled really in the championship." Despite the manner of his departure though, Baldwin still sees a bright future for hurling in the county, which is growing again after almost a decade of only having one adult men's team. "When I first started, I was dealing with just Lisbellaw. Now you've got four guys from Erne Gaels who started in that [county] team, which is brilliant. "Fermanagh now have six, eight juvenile clubs sustainable at Under-16 level. They've just got a couple of Ulster College titles there this year. "I have no doubt that [new head of hurling] William Maher will do a marvellous job. I know there was a road show up here last weekend that was very well attended. The more you can play hurling and the more that you can expose hurling to children, if you can see it, you can inspire to be it. "It's not easy. It takes a lot of work but Fermanagh can certainly continue to grow. I wish them all the best and all the players all the best. "Hurling is a gift from the gods given to the Irish people and it's something that you've just got to continue to do as often as you possibly can." Watch a hurling championship double-header, Dublin v Galway (2pm) and Cork v Waterford (4pm), on Sunday from 1.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Irish Independent
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Louth undone by Canning hat-trick as season ends with defeat
Nicky Rackard Cup Louth 0-20 Roscommon 4-17 (Full report) Louth's ambitions of finishing the season on a high with a win at home to Roscommon, were blown out of the water on Saturday at Downdallshill, during a 10 minute second-half spell when the visitors hit an unanswered 2-4 to turn a five-point deficit into a five-point lead. There was no way back for Louth after that. Three second half goals, two from Sean Canning, cemented Roscommon's win and, coupled with Armagh's defeat of Sligo, booked the Rossies place in the Nicky Rackard Cup final where they will face Mayo.
