Latest news with #SigersonCup
Irish Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
McGeeney hails 'best system GAA has ever produced' that is set to be scrapped
Kieran McGeeney's one man crusade to save the All-Ireland round robin format is beginning to gather support. The much-maligned system is due to be binned at the end of this season after a GAA Special Congress voted in a new format last February, with an overwhelming majority of 92.8 percent. Ironically, it comes at a team when the format is being widely showered with love by pundits and fans alike. McGeeney's comments came after another thrilling weekend of football where Derry and Galway played out a pulsating draw, Armagh trumped Dublin at Croke Park and Mayo bounced back to shock Tyrone in Omagh. On top of that, Down pipped Louth in a thriller at Newry, while Meath and Roscommon fought out a draw at the Hyde. The main factors for getting rid of the old format were the belief that there were too many games for a tight window and that only four teams were eliminated out of 16 after three rounds of games (24 matches). Another solution would have been to have just two teams qualify out of the four-team groups rather than four, although this may have meant more dead rubbers. In the current system, the carrot of topping the table to claim the one of the four automatic All-Ireland quarter-final places on offer has proved worthwhile with teams seeing the value in it and going after it hard. Having one game less and clear two week breaks between big games appears to have advantaged sides, rather than having a hectic schedule of playing three huge championship matches in 13-15 days. The other criticism of the format was that teams could lose three championship games and still make the last 12, as happened with Derry and Roscommon last year. However, this fails to take into account how competitive Ulster in particular is. The new format still has 16 teams, who qualify in the same fashion - the eight provincial finalists, the highest ranked league finishers, and the Tailteann Cup winners from the year before. Those 16 teams play off against each other in Round 1, with the winners going to Round 2A and the losers going to Round 2B, where those eight losing teams play off against each other. The four Round 2A winners qualify for the quarter-final stage with the Round 2A losers meeting the Round 2B winners in Round 3 (preliminary quarter-final). Once again the lopsided provincial championships determining the top eight seeds corrupts the system, but this seems unlikely to change in the near future. The new system is already used in the Sigerson Cup. McGeeney, though, reckons the current format is the best the GAA has ever had with big games week on week in May and June. And he says you can't look beyond your next fixture: 'That's why I love this system," he says. "You're looking at the next point. 'As you can see there (the Armagh/Dublin game), the way this game is played, the minute we put that ball short, Dublin were hungry to get a score because they know how much it means. We were the same against Derry. 'Again, I think it's why it's the best system that the GAA has ever produced.' McGeeney doesn't believe the system is too hectic and demanding on players and managers and that the preseason builds a robustness in players if it is done properly. 'I think the whole system is better,' he continued. 'I genuinely do. Those week to week (games). It is hard. Again, that was probably the argument for the pre-season. Teams do their own pre-season. 'Those days of flogging players and the stuff that I used to do is long gone, thank God. Your pre-seasons are mapped out to the last degree. 'To have somebody who doesn't even know your players, their medical history or anything else, to tell them what to do, I think plays a big part. 'If you get the pre-season right, that robustness in your players can last. It doesn't guarantee it, but it's no different in any sport, professional or amateur. 'I don't think it's too much. Sometimes when you get extra time in a game and you can be out the following week, that's a lot because you're basically playing two games in that one weekend. 'In general, sometimes you fall foul of it, sometimes you don't. 'The cadence we have is pretty good. I do think the system we have works well. We can't expect every game to be a clinker. 'We can't expect everything to be brilliant. It's no different than when there's Champions League or World Cup rugby. There's going to be rounds and there's going to be games that are poor. 'But I think what we've got is good. In our sport, we have to respect the club level as well. 'At the minute, we seem to have that, although most of the leagues are going on at the minute without a lot of the county players. They're normally back in for the tail end of the league. 'It's an important part of it and into the Championship. I don't know if we need to mess with it that much. I think we've done enough of that. I know it changes again next year, but the cadence is pretty good.
Irish Independent
5 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Former Louth and Armagh inter-county star Padraig O'Neill to be remembered with charity walk
The walk in aid of the Irish Heart Foundation is being organised by Cillian O'Neill and will take place on Saturday, July 19. The route will take walkers across the Cooley mountains from The Lumpers Bar in Ravensdale and down into Carlingford, where Padraig, who was affectionately known as 'Bucket', had lived with his family at Grove Road. The Newry-native moved to Carlingford with his family at a young age, and during the course of his career lined out for both Louth and Armagh. He first played Gaelic football to a high standard as a student at the Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School in Newry and as a student of Ulster University, won three Sigerson Cup titles. His club career began at juvenile level with Cumann Peile Cuchulainn before moving to the Cooley Kickhams underage sides. Louth MFC and Louth U21FC titles followed and he made his senior team debut in 1982. He won several Cardinal O'Donnell Cup and ACC Cup titles in a lengthy career that ended in 2005. He captained Armagh minors when they were defeated by Derry in the 1984 Ulster MFC final. He went on to play for the under-21 team and was also part of the senior team beaten by Donegal in the 1990 Ulster SFC final. He later declared for the Louth senior football team. On his retirement from playing, he was involved in team management and coaching. He was manager of the Naomh Malachi team when they won the Louth IFC title in 2009, and was also associated with the Cuchulainn Gaels and Cooley Kickhams. The 58-year-old suffered a fatal heart attack on is way home from the 2024 All-Ireland SFC semi-final and died at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, on July 20 last. Now his family and those organising the walk are hoping that his friends from college, work and the world of GAA will join in the walk, celebrate his memory and raise funds for the Irish Heart Foundation. Anyone interested in taking part is asked to contact Daryl Bailey on 087 905 4282 and let him know they can join the hike. A donation of €25 per person is being requested.
Irish Times
6 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
‘Adapt and move on': Laois's Killian Roche on rule change deterring adventurous sweeper keepers
The night that Laois opened their 2024 National League campaign with a narrow win over Longford, goalkeeper Killian Roche filled his boots. The Clare native was his team's joint top scorer that evening, lamping three points from play and two more from frees. He performed a similar function earlier this year when powering UCD to another Sigerson Cup final with important points from play against DCU, MTU Kerry and TU Dublin. This year's Sigerson Cup was played under the 2024 rules while the first five games of the 2025 league also afforded adventurous goalkeepers such as Roche plenty of freedom to roam and score as 12 v 11 overloads were permitted. READ MORE But the shift in rules since then has cut the legs off sweeper keepers who are back focusing on the bread-and-butter basics of goalkeeping again: shot-stopping and kickouts. The Killeshin clubman will be back in action on Saturday evening when Laois travel to Newbridge to play Offaly in the final round of Tailteann Cup group games. A Laois win could see the 2024 finalists top the table and advance directly to a quarter-final. But is it all still floating Roche's boat like it used to and is football as fun with his wings clipped? 'The game probably needed changing in a way. You don't mind it so much. I'd be more worried about the kickout rule. That's probably the one that bothers me a bit more,' Roche said. 'Taking away the back-pass from the keeper is one thing, but still insisting on the kickout going long, that you have to kick it out beyond the arc, is another layer. 'Like, if you go short, but you can't pass back to the keeper, that's risky enough in itself. And that was kind of the issue in the past, where teams went short, got it back to their keeper and had the extra man so they could play keep ball. You can't do that any more. 'Every keeper is in the same boat': Laois keeper Killian Roche is seen in the Tailteann Cup against Kildare last year. Photograph: Bryan Keane/INPHO 'That's the one frustrating thing I find with the new rules, but I don't mind the rest of them. Every keeper is in the same boat, so you just have to adapt and move on.' Ulster trio Niall Morgan, Rory Beggan and Ethan Rafferty were typically identified as the most attack-minded goalkeepers under the rules that pertained before the mid-league change. But Roche was just as keen to live life on the edge and to burst forward in search of a score while leaving the backdoor unlocked. 'Since the rules changed, I haven't been going up as much,' he said. 'You can see it in the GPS numbers even, the distance covered has gone down considerably. It is probably hard to tell an outfield player to stay back for the sake of me going up. 'There are advantages there too. Ethan Rafferty is probably the best at it, he's a natural outfield player, too, and he's obviously a great man to bring up the pitch because he's fresh and it allows other players to get a rest when they're staying back. 'So it works for some, but for other counties it doesn't at all. It is probably harder now to tell an outfield player to hold back for you to go up.' Roche remains a vital cog in the Laois machine as they prepare for what will be a huge derby game on Saturday in neutral Newbridge. A Laois win, allied to a Wicklow win over Waterford elsewhere, would leave three teams – Laois, Offaly and Wicklow – all locked on four points, bringing scoring difference into play. Truth be told, anything could happen when it comes to Laois and the Tailteann Cup. They reached last year's final, and a semi-final in 2023, yet have also endured some of their worst days as inter-county players in the tier-two competition. Killian Roche, pictured playing against Wexford last April: 'You can see the prize at the end of it, it's a pathway to Sam Maguire'. Photograph: Leah Scholes/INPHO Roche, who has started 15 of the 16 games that Laois have contested since the Tailteann Cup began in 2022, was in goals for the 2023 semi-final defeat to Down, when they coughed up 8-16. 'It was a dark day. They drew with London that season too. More recently, they lost to division four side Wicklow in round two of this year's competition, a reversal that few anticipated. It remains a tournament they desperately want to win,' he said. 'You can see the prize at the end of it, it's a pathway to Sam Maguire.' His native county, Clare, will compete in that competition on Sunday when they travel to play Monaghan in Clones. Roche was on the Clare panel for three seasons, between 2016 and 2018, before injury, then a move to the midlands for college prompted a club and county switch. 'Where I'm living now, that's where my life is,' he said. 'I've been living on the Carlow/Laois border for the last seven or eight years now.'
Irish Examiner
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Cian McBride eyes end to injury gloom against Cork
Former AFL player Cian McBride is gearing up for a big week or so with Meath as he attempts to nail down a place against Cork. Meath will host John Cleary's side in Navan on Saturday week in Round 1 of the All-Ireland SFC, 13 days after the Royals' Leinster final defeat. McBride, who spent four seasons at Essendon before returning in late 2023, didn't make the 26 for the provincial decider having been restricted to a single appearance this season. But the 24-year-old midfielder is finally fully fit again after an injury plagued few years and desperate to show exactly what he can do. McBride featured in 10 of Meath's 12 league and Championship games last year under Colm O'Rourke, making seven starts. But a broken hand suffered while playing in the Sigerson Cup halted his progress, limiting him to one outing so far in 2025. It was another frustrating injury setback following two separate foot fractures while in Australia and a pulled hamstring last year. "I'm back fully fit now and that's great for me," said McBride at the announcement that Championship sponsors Allianz have extended their deal by three years. "I'm just hoping I can stay as injury free as possible from now until the end of the year. The start of the year was a bit hairy for me with injuries but I'm just trying to find a bit of form now." Eyeing the Cork game, McBride said he's keen to make the bench at least at Pairc Tailteann. "It's a case of putting the head down and pushing as hard as I can," he said. "If that's to get onto the bench or into the starting 15, that's it. That's one of the controllables for me, it's within my control to put in a great 10 days and to show the boys what I can do. With a bit of luck, I'll be able to get back in." McBride wowed AFL clubs with his athleticism and speed as a teenager. He was fresh off a Leinster MFC win with Meath in 2018 when he went Down Under with current Donegal star Oisin Gallen for trials. A number of clubs were interested but Essendon offered McBride a contract on the spot after watching him blitz a 2km time trial. "I landed back at the hotel after the 2k and they were there sitting with contracts," recalled McBride. "They just said, 'That's all we needed to see'. It was a bit crazy considering they hadn't seen you touch a ball or anything like that. "But they were just thinking, 'We can make a player out of an athlete - you can't make an athlete out of a footballer'. That was their kind of approach to it." Injuries and the impact of the pandemic undermined McBride's bid to make it in the professional oval ball game. By the end of his fourth year, he'd had enough. "The love for the game was was just gone, I just felt it had taken too much of a toll, just the whole Covid thing and the 'nearly theres', and then breaking the foot, and breaking the other foot," said McBride. "I just got riddled with injuries and I just never got the gra for it then. "I said to myself when I first went there, whenever that spark goes, there's no point in trying to keep going because you know what you can come back to and get stuck into, the gaelic, which was something you'd wanted to do from day dot. Even just last weekend, being around Croke Park for the Leinster final, huge days."
The 42
10-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Tailteann Cup: Kildare hit Leitrim for 36 points, wins for Offaly and Laois
Tailteann Cup Round 1 Group 1 Kildare 0-36 Leitrim 0-11 Group 2 Offaly 2-13 Wicklow 0-11 Laois 0-28 Waterford 1-16 Group 3 Limerick 0-25 London 1-15 Group 4 Wexford 2-24 Longford 1-18 A LITTLE PIECE of history in Newbridge where Kildare began their Tailteann Cup campaign by putting a whopping 36 points on the board. Brian Flanagan's side didn't quite improve on the 8-16, 40-point, tally registered by Down at the semi-final stage in 2023 but the 36 points was a new record for points scored in the brief history of the competition. We can safely presume it's the most points Kildare has ever amassed in a Championship game too. They started last year's competition with similar gusto, racking up an overall 34-point tally that day – though it was made up of three goals and 25 points while they didn't raise a single green flag this time. Two-point scores have altered the scoring dynamics this year and Kildare struck five of them in total, four from top scorer Alex Beirne who hit 0-12 in the demolition of Leitrim. Steven Poacher's Leitrim gave Mayo plenty to think about in Connacht and were just two points behind with 27 minutes played at Cedral St Conleth's Park. But nine Kildare points without reply between the 28th and 35th minutes put daylight between the teams and left the Lilies 0-16 to 0-7 up at half-time. Darragh Swords and U20 attacker Ryan Sinkey were among 10 different scorers overall for Kildare and fired 0-13 between them while the fit again Jimmy Hyland grabbed Kildare's other two-pointer. Advertisement Leitrim were overwhelmed by the ferocity of Kildare's play when the hosts got going and Maynooth's Niall O'Sullivan came on in the second-half for his debut, scoring a point. There was a welcome return for former AFL player Darragh Kirwan too as Kildare underlined their title ambitions with the 25-point win. Sigerson Cup star Tom Prior had his moments for Leitrim, scoring two points and Barry McNulty drilled two two-point frees. There were Round 1 wins also for Division 4 champions Limerick and Division 3 winners Offaly. London led briefly early on against Limerick and Ruairi Rafferty grabbed a goal for the Exiles to leave just two points in it at half-time, 0-14 to 1-9. But Limerick dominated the second-half, restricting London to just six more points and stretching their own lead with two-pointers from Barry Coleman, Iain Corbett and goalkeeper Josh Ryan. Offaly built on a 2-6 to 0-8 half-time lead in Tullamore to run out eight-point victors over Oisin McConville's Wicklow. Jack Bryant's 1-5 haul for Offaly included a first-half goal and a two-pointer while Diarmuid Egan struck the other goal for the Faithful. Dylan Hyland was among the second-half scorers for Offaly and finished with 0-4. In the other Group 2 game, Laois hit 19 first-half points to lay the platform for their eventual nine-point dismissal of Waterford. Laois, beaten in last year's final, and on the end of that 8-16 spanking from Down in 2023, had 11 different scores this afternoon. It was tighter in today's late Tailteann Cup start, in Group 4, where hosts Wexford came from one down at half-time to beat Longford. Sean Nolan and Mark Rossiter nabbed first-half goals but Wexford still trailed by 2-8 to 1-12 at half-time. Cathal McCabe was Longford's goal scorer though final quarter two-pointers from Niall Hughes, 2, and Sean Nolan helped Division 4 finalists Wexford to turn it around. Kildare scorers: Alex Beirne 0-12 (3 tpf, 1 tp, 4f), Darragh Swords 0-7 (2f), Ryan Sinkey 0-6, Jimmy Hyland 0-3 (1 tp), Kevin Feely 0-3, Darragh Kirwan 0-1, Harry O'Neill 0-1, James McGrath 0-1, Niall O'Sullivan 0-1, Cian Burke 0-1 (45). Leitrim scorers: Barry McNulty 0-6 (2 tpf, 1f), Tom Prior 0-2, Keith Keegan 0-2, Riordan O'Rourke 0-1. Kildare: 1. Cian Burke (Clane) 2. Harry O'Neill (Clane) 3. Mark Dempsey (Moorefield) 4. Ryan Burke (Caragh) 20. Kevin Flynn (Celbridge) 6. David Hyland (Athy) 7. James McGrath (Athy) 8. Kevin Feely (Athy – Captain) 9. Mick O'Grady (Celbridge) 10. Darragh Swords (Caragh) 11. Alex Beirne (Naas) 12. Paddy McDermott (Naas) 13. Ryan Sinkey (Naas) 14. Darragh Kirwan (Naas) 15. Jimmy Hyland (Ballyteague) Subs: 23. Rian Teahan (Rathangan) for Kirwan (h/t) 21. Brendan Gibbons (Kilcock) for Feely (45) 19. Ryan Houlihan (Moorefield) for Hyland (53) 17. Niall O'Sullivan (Maynooth) for Kevin Flynn (56-64) 5. Daniel Flynn (Johnstownbridge) for Beirne (60) 17. Niall O'Sullivan for O'Neill (65) Leitrim: 1. Daire O'Shea (St Mochtas, Louth) 2. Eanna McNamara (Aughavas) 3. Donal Casey (Leitrim Gaels) 4. Kieran Clancy (Melvin Gaels) 5. James Rooney (Glencar Manorhamilton) 6. Mark Diffley (St Mary's, Kiltoghert – Captain) 7. Jack Foley (Kiltubrid) 8. Barry McNulty (Glencar Manorhamilton) 9. Cillian McGloin (Melvin Gaels) 20. David Feeney (Drumkeerin) 11. Keith Keegan (Mohill) 15. Darren Cox (Annaduff) 13. Ben Guckian (St Mary's, Kiltoghert) 14. Riordan O'Rourke (Fenagh St Caillins) 12. Tom Prior (Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins) Subs:
