Latest news with #TyroneAll-Ireland
Irish Daily Mirror
30-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
'After Armagh, I couldn't hack a Tyrone All-Ireland, I'm sticking with Galway.'
This time last year we all told you that Armagh wouldn't win an All-Ireland. We said it with real conviction too. Six weeks ago if anyone had asked, 'Where are Tyrone?,' you'd probably have said, 'It'll take a good team to beat them but ultimately they won't win an All-Ireland.' I'm not so committed to that viewpoint now though. I've said it before. Tyrone have a lovely balance to their team that compliments these new rules. And while we won't read too much into the result against Donegal last Saturday night, and the performance from either side, what I'd read a lot into is that at the final whistle Darren McCurry just turned to the Donegal sideline, strutted into a swagger and stared them down. It annoyed me in the extreme and that was the brilliant part of it. I haven't looked on at a Tyrone team and felt that emotion in a few years. They're also coming off the back of a brilliant Under-20 All-Ireland win. After an Armagh All Ireland last year, I couldn't hack a Tyrone All-Ireland this year. But I went with Galway at the start of the year so I'm still sticking with them Looking around at the football landscape after the first round of the All-Ireland series, three of the provincial winners lost their first game and have probably resigned themselves to the extra game in the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final. Take Donegal's case. They'll have played from Ulster's preliminary round - and won back to back provincial titles, which is notoriously difficult to do - but now they've to do the same if they want to win an All-Ireland As Jim alluded to, Donegal seemed off it on Saturday night. Louth looked the same against Monaghan and Galway looked a shadow of the side they've shown us so far in their loss to Dublin. Each of these teams had to dip deep into the reservoirs in their respective provincial finals and each of them were caught by good teams with a few weeks to prepare. An age old argument in the GAA was, and still is, are multiple games the best prep or is the team that lies in wait, training away, better placed going into a match. I haven't worked out the answer to it yet. On Galway, yes Dublin brought an edge to things that probably rattled them, but in the first half I'm looking at Galway and thinking to myself how is there such a difference here from the Mayo game? A few weeks ago I watched the Connacht Final and said to myself that bar Connor Gleeson in the goals, that's an All-Ireland winning team that Padraic Joyce has put together. Every line just looked solid. In the Dublin game their form dipped massively. The way they defended. Paul Conroy's form dipped. Shane Walsh wasn't at the level. Last year all four provincials winners won their first games in the All-Ireland, and bar Galway everyone topped their group so it's hard to know if it's the schedule, or should Joyce be genuinely worried at such a drop in form. Derry's final 10 minutes against Armagh means they're probably in decent shape mentally as the players and management do their best to convince themselves that they're still in the hunt. I've been there too and its nearly a form of torture - wee glimpses of a performance to keep your hopes up. They'll go at Galway with hope again. In my opinion, two pointers will determine who wins the All-Ireland - the ability to score them and the team that can defend them best. If you forced me to pick just two Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), I'd pick two pointers scored and opposition shots as the figures to chase. I've no doubt Galway have the best array of two point kickers in their arsenal and potentially the best way of defending and stopping that shot. Just to note, Damien Comer needs to be on the field to maximize those two pointers, because teams can't have it both ways. They can't go out hard after the two point shooters while keeping coverage inside - and if you've Comer inside then most teams are going to drop a man back in front of him. For all the talk about the new rules and how it promotes attacking football, how teams defend and shut down the opposition attack will have a massive say in where Sam Maguire heads. The new rules have definitely forced the issue though and made the game more in favor of attacking play. And the new kickout rule means that, at the minimum if you get a shot off then the attacking team can set up their press. How many times have we seen the momentum of a game turn purely because of a team's inability to get out with the ball. Shot off, set up in your press, keep them penned in. Repeat ad nauseum. It's incredibly important for teams to get their hands on the ball in a phase like that, or at the very minimum stop the shot. You'd imagine we will see teams in the future going all out to stop that ball going out for a kickout. The ability to mix up the way a team defends is so important too. Because of that long association over the years, teams immediately associate defending in Gaelic football with men dropping back. Galway can do that but they can also do it well. Some teams are struggling to manage that zonal press with the extra space around them. I watched some highlights of the Armagh/Derry game (for some reason the GAA in their wisdom decided not to televise it so highlights was the best we could get) and some of the defending by Derry was absolutely farcical. I'd be running them clips on loop in the analysis session and just asking men, 'Do you think that's good enough?' You'll still have men dropping back and setting up but I also believe there is serious joy to be had from a team pressing high from play. Galway have the right tools to do that. I've seen clips of them where they are incredibly smart at how they press high. You'd think the high press isn't the right option for a team with big, robust men like John Maher and Conroy but they've tweaked it so they can go after the ball if needs be. Galway have the tools to go on and win that All-Ireland but what happened against Dublin can't happen again. They looked porous and when a Galway player had to individually defend, he struggled. They'll be hoping it was an off day and Derry at Celtic Park tomorrow is a good way to get the show back on the road again - to becoming the stingy type of team that wins an All-Ireland. I'm still sticking with Galway for an All-Ireland but we'll see over the next two games if they can get their defense to where it needs to be.
Irish Examiner
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Sarah Harte: Basic respect for players on skorts issue is not a lot to ask in 2025
We've come a long way since my primary school days when girls had to sit inside sewing while, through the window, we saw the boys playing football outside in the field. It was a form of torture, particularly during the summer months. My clear memory is resentfully threading my needle through a grubby square of material, with my fingers slipping with perspiration in a hot classroom. I wanted to hurl my wicker sewing basket through the window and stick pins in my eyes. Happily, there has been a massive upsurge in girls and women playing sports. Yet, a persistent undercurrent suggests certain team sports are still primarily a male domain, a space owned by men that women athletes encroach on. Certainly, those at the top are still ignoring women's voices. At the weekend, the Leinster senior camogie semi-final was almost called off when 15 Kilkenny and 15 Dublin players wore shorts in protest instead of the required skorts. Eventually, the rule-breakers were forced to swap their shorts for skorts before the match could begin. Absurdly, they may still face sanctions for wanting to wear shorts. This is not the first protest of its kind. The whole episode was very revelatory. Skorts, by the way, look like skirts but have built-in shorts. They are impractical and uncomfortable. I remember wearing a pair. On the surface, you may think it's no big deal whether you wear skorts or shorts, but the skorts debacle is just one manifestation of an enduring conflict involving gender, power and parity. Does the fact an overwhelming number of female players want to wear shorts not count for anything? A paper published last week by the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) revealed 83% of the 650 inter-county camogie players surveyed said they would prefer to wear shorts, or players should have the option to choose. A quote from the GPA paper states: 'Player welfare should be prioritised over established norms and traditions in decision-making.' As the paper's authors and many female GAA players and officials will know, established norms and traditions are ultra-powerful and hard to root out. Men have always received preferential treatment in GAA due to a substantial institutional bias favouring them as athletes. As Tyrone All-Ireland winner and primary school teacher Conor Meyler said: 'Our largest sporting organisation is still run by men and boys for men and boys, then there's a kind of ripple effect into society.' He has spoken about how "shockingly" women are treated in GAA. Meyler is currently undertaking a PhD in sport, leadership, and gender, examining the lack of equality for women and girls in GAA and Irish sport in general. He won't be short of case studies rooted in real life regarding gender inequality. The Ladies Gaelic Football Association, the GAA and the Camogie Association are separate organisations, although a plan is under way to integrate them by 2027. GAA structures are inching towards 40% female representation on their Coiste Bainistíochta, or management committee, because they have no choice. It's driven not by some desire for equality but because the Government has threatened to reduce funding if the quota isn't met. Amy O'Connor of Cork in action against Abby Walsh of Clare during the Munster Senior Camogie Championship semi-final match last month: You may think it's no big deal whether you wear skorts or shorts, but the skorts debacle is just one manifestation of an enduring conflict involving gender, power and parity. Picture Brendan Moran/Sportsfile You can bet while the Government may hold sporting organisations like the GAA to account for their lopsided power structures, it will take far longer for the cultural beliefs and attitudes underpinning this entitlement to change. The archaic attitudes don't just come from grey-haired dinosaurs on county boards. Meyler has received abuse from other players for the subject matter of his PhD, including homophobic slurs, and quips he should be playing for the Tyrone Ladies. What stands out is how femininity or being queer is regarded as a way to insult someone. These hyper-masculine locker room values start young and go hand in hand with a particular type of sporting mentality that too often remains unchecked and ultimately damages girls and boys. This ingrained sexism doesn't just pertain to the GAA. Sports culture generally remains highly gendered, with a powerful male-female binary and ingrained misogyny. To take just one example, The Belfast rugby rape trial exposed troubling views about women both within rugby, sport and in the broader culture. In 2018, Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding walked free from Belfast Crown Court after they were acquitted following a trial on charges of rape. However, a series of degrading and deeply offensive WhatsApp messages shared between players and reported as part of the trial proceedings introduced many of us to the term 'spit-roast'. They also lifted the lid on a sexist and misogynistic outlook in dark corners of rugby school culture that spoke about partying with 'Belfast sluts'. The great irony is that sports is one arena that has enormous potential to encourage a redefinition of strict gender stereotypes by showing men and women engaging in the same sport. Girls have as much right to the benefits of sports as boys. Apart from physical and mental health, these include a feeling of belonging, resilience, and self-belief that builds confidence in all areas of life. Laois' camogie players became the latest team to join the skort protest by lining out in shorts before the throw-in of Monday's Leinster intermediate camogie semi-final. Picture: Laois Camogie In reality, various actions must be taken simultaneously to achieve real change for girls and women in sport. Sportsmen like Meyler, a valuable ally with a significant contribution to make, must speak up and champion women's sport. Gender inequality in sport is not a woman's or girl's issue. It should concern us all. The quotas imposed by the Government will help because women's achievement of power at the management level may help correct male bias in sports dominated by men. However, the media also has a role to play, and male media allies are surely part of any solution. Despite greater female athletic participation, men's sports dominate mainstream media. The relative invisibility of girls and women playing sport in the media reinforces the view that sport is not for girls and impacts how audiences view male and female athletes. If you show more girls and women playing sport, you normalise it, assign it value, and encourage greater respect for female sport and participation. You have to see it to want to be it. A report published earlier this year, Gender Equality in Media Representation of Sport in Ireland, written by Dr Anne O'Brien of the Department of Media Studies in Maynooth in collaboration with the Federation of Irish Sport found women in sports media are either not represented at all, stereotyped, or have their achievements downplayed consistently across media platforms. None of this is positive for attracting girls into sport and, crucially, retaining them. The solutions won't come from quotas and media representation alone. At a fundamental level, this is a question of societal and cultural change. The hard work is engaging early with young girls and boys, teaching them lessons on how to play sports healthily while preventing young boys from developing unhealthy attitudes towards women and the LGBTQ community. Male mentors in this area have a huge role in teaching core values of respect, inclusivity and integrity, which should be an integral part of any game as well as teaching ball skills and boosting player process. In the meantime, the Camogie Association must finally pay players the basic respect of listening to them on the skorts issue. In 2025, it's not a lot to ask.
BBC News
07-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'GAA can lead gender equality campaign'
Conor Meyler's own GAA career may be on hold because of injury, but during his lengthy time out he is passionately throwing himself into something he hopes will help bring long-lasting and positive change to the sport he 2021 Tyrone All-Ireland winner is currently undertaking a PhD in sport, leadership and gender which is particularly aimed at examining the lack of genuine equality for women in Gaelic Games and indeed wider sport on this island. During a 2024 which included two knee operations plus an Achilles injury, Meyler's research took him down to Australia and New Zealand last year as he visited Australian Rules and rugby franchises to see how they are approaching gender equality in their sports. And with Saturday's International Women's Day looming, the Omagh St Enda's club-man talked about some of his research findings at Monday's launch of Sport NI's 'Be Seen, Be Heard, Belong' campaign aimed at supporting women and girls to find their place in sport."When Sport NI launched this, it was definitely something I was keen to be involved with," Meyler told BBC Sport NI."I suppose the first thing I wanted to find out was whether there was an action plan, more follow-up with it and seeing that and knowing that this is hopefully going to have a lasting impact for women and girls in sport, definitely made me want to get involved." Official Gaelic Games integration is scheduled to happen in 2027 with the amalgamation of the Gaelic Athletic Association, Ladies Gaelic Football Association and the Camogie says it is vitally important it becomes a reality on the ground and not just at the top table."I still struggle to stand over and say that we've got the best organisation in the world, when the opportunity provided to young girls and women is very different than boys and men," says the Omagh man who turned 30 last September."That's the vision, that every club is a one-club and every county is a one-county and at national level we're integrated. Then on a wider scale, what we do in sport has a knock on impact on society and how we treat women in sport. "Our largest sporting organisation is still run by men and boys for men and boys, then there's a kind of ripple effect into society. "The opportunities we give to women in sport has a knock on effect to society and that's just a healthier place to be and a healthier culture that we hopefully start to create here in Ireland." But Meyler admits it is not an easy task almost trying to over-turn history."If we go back and this is part of the research for me now, sport was created by men for men."All the values, systems, behaviours and beliefs were for men and it was a way for men to sort of show their masculinity and male dominance, strength, we associate with men. Women's sporting organisations came a lot later."In the case of ladies GAA, the Camogie Association was founded in 1904 - 20 years after the GAA's foundation in Thurles - with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association not arriving until 1974."It's a case of can we change sport to suit rather that just add women to men's sport and stir and hope for the best," adds the Tyrone footballer. "It has to be that we change sport, make it more inclusive, create the opportunities and facilities for the 50% of the population and also fund it because at the minute those opportunities still aren't there." 'Women must be in leadership roles' Meyler admits young boys are also opting out of sport but he insists not at level of girls because of the particular lack of opportunities for young females."I was very naive and ignorant to the inequality that existed for a long time until I started the PhD and got my eyes opened to some of the barriers that existed."Being a sports person, you're very narrow minded and selfish at times and growing up in a house and an environment and a club where women were given opportunities, you weren't directly seeing any imbalance. "It probably wasn't until I began the research that I realised that and then there was probably a moral sense of justice that I could do something here that had a wider impact and not just for me."Meyler is convinced the GAA can play a particularly transformational role in helping the island of Ireland foster genuine gender equality."We could be a leader in pushing women's sport and promoting gender equality. For me it's just giving those opportunities."It's actually getting women around the table and into leadership positions where they can impact change. "That's the thing for me. Can we get the right people? The right people create the right structures and systems and the right structures and systems will create the right long-lasting cultural impact and men are very important in driving that." As regards his own recovery from injury, Meyler admits that being forced out of the entire 2024 campaign was "mentally really tough" but believes he is going to get back into the Omagh and Tyrone jerseys."From a young age, the dream was always to play for Tyrone and while you've managed to do that and play for as long as possible, I still feel like I've a lot to offer if I can get the body right."At the minute, it's just a case of accepting whatever comes. I'm doing as much as I can, doing the right things. "I've a lot of really good people around me which is good. Part of a really good set-up and some of my best friends are up there as well so I want to stick it out as long as I can and throw everything at it and hopefully get back on the pitch this season."While he may not be involved this year, Meyler believes Tyrone can again contend for All-Ireland honours after a comparatively lean three seasons since their Sam Maguire triumph in 2021."I think from a Tyrone perspective, there's excitement because we know we've got such good quality [players]. "We have the new management and the backroom team that are certainly going to spark something as well. "And as a county, we're very fortunate to have the resources and the facilities that we have as well so we've a lot of things going for us. It's just a case of getting it all to gel now."
BBC News
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Coming out as gay in the GAA world
Aghyaran footballer Kevin Penrose is the guest on this week's The GAA Social Podcast on BBC Sounds. The surname 'Penrose' will be familiar to Tyrone football watchers with Kevin's brother Martin having helped the Red Hand County win the All-Ireland Senior title in 2005 and up in a GAA household, football was the done thing and he played for the club during his childhood and teenage the realisation that he was gay after going to university in Liverpool in his early twenties led to Kevin pulling back from the club to an extent, although he did continue to have sporadic playing stints with the St Davog's outfit based near Castlederg."The whole thing of changing room culture and lad culture was a thing. There are words thrown out there," he took several more years to come out to his family and friends and it was during a travelling stint in south east Asia in 2022 when he was aged 28, that he finally broke the news to his mother during a FaceTime call Aghyaran native painted a picture during the BBC podcast of the mental anguish that he went through for five days during a stint in the Thai city of Phuket as he weighed up whether to tell his family and friends about his sexuality. "I felt the travelling was catching up on me and reaching burnout in a way," Kevin recalls"I was in a dark room in a hotel. The motivation was gone to travel and I was just like, 'I can't really do this any more.' I was probably in the room for about five days straight. Wasn't going out, wasn't seeing anyone and I knew myself what it was."I needed to ring home and I needed to tell people and when I made the phone call on the Thursday or Friday with mum, it was just an instant weight lifted." His mother and father and indeed all his family reacted with love and understanding, which meant Kevin could finally visualise his previous life "of essentially playing two different people….two different characters", coming to an end."Dad is a man of few words. It was just 'right well done' sort of thing. He is just a typical GAA father and he was asking, 'when are you coming home?'. Where are you going today?'"After telling his aunts, uncles and cousins, Kevin, who already had a sizable social media following thanks to the travel videos he had been posting, felt it was time to inform the wider world."I was travelling for another month and with social media, having the platform I just thought 'I'll post this and whoever sees it, that's done and dusted'. Though as long as my family and close friends knew, that's all that really I cared about."By the time he arrived home in Castlederg, the word had spread and 2021 Tyrone All-Ireland winner Ronan McNamee soon got in touch to ask Kevin to return to playing football for Aghyaran. "I was worried in a sense because I hadn't really been fully involved in the team for years….in and out, in and out. I was there but not fully there. "Ronan McNamee asked me to come back playing and was speaking on behalf of the lads and saying 'no one has a problem with this'." 'I know I'm a good footballer' Three years on, Kevin is firmly established in the Aghyaran senior squad and is looking forward to the 2025 campaign for his club after playing probably the best football of his career in 2024."I know I'm a good footballer and growing up in my teens I was a key player in the group which is now the senior team that we play with. That same group of lads. "It was only last year when I was focused and not worrying about everything else and just there to play football."I do feel 100% included with the team. Not once have a I felt uncomfortable walking into that changing room or when we're on the pitch. For myself, I know I'm really included with the lads, although I know it might not be the case for everyone else in a similar situation within the GAA."Kevin admits that there still occasions he has to personally "call out" certain types of behaviour and comments."If you don't call it out, they won't know any better," he adds. Social media career Professionally, he is now making a living from his travel videos with brands using his social media profile to advertise on his platforms. "It started just as a love of outdoors and hiking and during my summers growing up on Camp America. "But Ireland has a lot here too with, cliffs, mountains and the beaches. I've made an effort to explore my own country and with my GoPro camera."Once you grow your following and get people engaged, brands just look at you as a way to push their products and that's where the brand deals come and how you make your money out of it."It's mad to think it's a career but so far so good."
