Live GAA updates: Meath and Donegal battle for remaining All-Ireland final spot
All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Meath v Donegal, Croke Park, 4pm
All-Ireland JFC final: New York v London, Croke Park, 1.30pm
3 minutes ago
It's been a mad summer for Meath, the surprise package of the football championship. Losing the Leinster Final was a big blow, but they've beaten Dublin, Kerry and Galway on the way to their first All-Ireland semi-final since 2009. Malachy Clerkin describes how new manager Robbie Brennan has changed the Royals' fortunes.
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Vibes and victories: how Robbie Brennan put smiles on Meath faces
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1 day ago
Hello and welcome to live coverage of today's championship football in Croke Park. In today's main event, Donegal take on Meath (4pm), with a place in the All-Ireland final against Kerry at stake. Donegal come into the match as favourites, but Meath have already beaten the odds to get here.
Before that, London play New York in the All-Ireland Junior Final. Stay with us for updates throughout the afternoon.
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Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Tony Leen: With Jack's hand on the tiller, Kerry will keep their eyes front and centre
JACK O'CONNOR put it as only Jack O'Connor can when assessing Kerry's priorities building up to an All-Ireland final. Sunday week will be the Dromid man's eighth blue riband. His late mother, who warned him not to be going near the Kerry gig with all that toxic sniping and back biting, would be proud and impressed by her son's durability. 'The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing,' O'Connor explained with a dry cadence that made his point oddly intelligible. 'Not to be getting sidetracked by silly stuff. Keeping your priorities right and keeping the focus on arriving at Croke Park in the best physical and mental condition to play the game - rather than the occasion.' It is an oft overlooked arrow in Kerry's quiver. O'Connor kept the show on the road when his management team was falling apart for different reasons. Going back to Cian O'Neill was something few in his shoes would have pulled the trigger on, but it's a decision that's been handsomely rewarded. Kerry's display Saturday in Croke Park was their best of the season bar none. They were outmatched in size and certainly experience around the middle but got to grips with that after a ropey opening, and with minimal panic. They gradually sucked the air out of Tyrone's lively attack to the extent that Malachy O'Rourke's side went 21 frustrating second half minutes without registering a score – with the wind. Darragh Canavan finished with seven points off Paul Murphy, but his final score from play was in the 42nd minute. Tyrone's next score was in the 63rd minute. They designed and structured their attack to give David Clifford as much real estate as he required to score 1-9 off Paudie Hampsey. Had they taken even a couple of the seven goal chances carved out, the margin of victory could have been a chasm. Kerry might not annex their 39th All-Ireland title in a fortnight but it won't be for the tendency to get light-headed in the build-up. While the manager might have been paddling furiously beneath the surface this year, his squad has been adding a noteworthy maturity to their play. Given the paucity of opposition along the way – Cork apart in the provincial semi-final – the sobering defeat in Tullamore to Meath has been a saving grace. The manager is at his best circling the wagons and when backed into a corner. He transmits that energy and scratchiness to his players. 'We were all disappointed in our Tullamore performance. We knew that wasn't us,' reflected skipper Gavin White on Saturday night. 'We got a bit of slack for it but we tried to keep all that out of the camp. We knew the quality that we had inside in training and we believed in what we were capable of. 'So we just battened down the hatches going into the Cavan game, went back to basics I suppose and built from there. Obviously the Armagh game was a huge game for us considering what happened last year, so we wanted to rectify that and we were able to bring that into Tyrone as well.' Defensively, they grew into the task as the demands escalated. Jason Foley admitted afterwards that persistent sniping from the sidings about Kerry's defending began to infiltrate their efforts. 'If someone tells you enough times tyou are a bad defender…' There was a light air to the aftermath in Jury's Croke Park. Some of the Kerry management were bedding in for the evening, ready for Sunday's second semi across the road. Their manager is already plotting ahead. 'Where (that bit of experience) counts more than anything is in the build-up, to avoid getting carried away in the euphoria of the thing,' he said. He chose his words adroitly in discussing the injured players and their chances of making it back for the decider. Paul Geaney is 'certainly' be available for minutes. Tom O'Sullivan 'is giving himself a big chance of being available', while the unlikeliest to return, midfielder Diarmuid O'Connor is 'tipping way, and hoping to get into the fray. "So, I wouldn't rule any of the three of them out now." That makes things interesting. If the new thing is finishing stronger than you start, Kerry have the bandwidth to do so if that trio are in the mix. Paudie Clifford came off to a thunderous ovation from the natives late on, Tony Brosnan got some minutes into him Saturday and Killian Spillane's scoring cameos virtually guarantee him minutes. And that's just to top end of the field. It's all a long way from the Killarney afternoon Kerry saw off Cavan in a manner that can only be described as untidily. Anyone who mentioned in the spring that the Kingdom would go into an All-Ireland final with a midfield pairing of Dr Crokes' Mark O'Shea and Sean O'Brien of Beaufort would have got some quare looks. They'd tell you that themselves. But the centre field toilers feel like Kerry in microcosm: getting better with every outing. Some other takeaways: Even on their good days, Kerry have a habit of making things unnecessarily complicated for themselves, occasionally losing commanding leads in a madcap fashion. There's been little or none of that this season, and when Jack O'Connor reflected on their 14-man Munster SFC semi-final win over Cork after extra-time, he noted the players' ability to navigate themselves out of a tight corner. He might not have been deemed worthy of a mention in the MVP stakes, but Jason Foley delivered a masterclass in old-fashioned but essential one-on-one defending on Darren McCurry, who was called ashore, scoreless, inside 50 minutes. We continue to salivate over though maybe aren't contextualising the greatness of David Clifford. In over forty years in the trade, I'm not sure there's been a footballer who bends the game to his will as exotically as Clifford. For the manner in which he won possession on the deck, straightened his substantial frame and launched a two-pointer from beyond the arc with Hampsey all over him, he wins score of the weekend if not man of the match. That opinion fell Joe O'Connor's way and if it was for no other reason, his tracking to effect one of the steals of the afternoon at the Davin End is good enough. 'What a game Joe had,' his manager smiled. 'A powerful game and he's getting better, getting better all the time.' As are Kerry.
The 42
an hour ago
- The 42
'We massively underachieved in our eyes. When Jim came back, standards were raised'
TWELVE MONTHS ON and a vastly different All-Ireland semi-final experience for Donegal. Last year they were left with the stinging pain of regret as their second-half fadeout was the root cause of their loss to Galway, only scoring a single point after the 47th minute of the game. Today had the strong sense of satisfaction, posting 3-13 on the board after half-time illustrated their power in the closing period on this occasion as they blitzed Meath. 'It was a long road back, a hell of a long road back, but delighted to get over the line and obviously go one step further than last year,' remarked manager Jim McGuinness. 'We knew we had trained well, I suppose without covering old ground again, the difference between a one week turnaround and a two week turnaround really. You're going to get one session done in a one week turnaround, and I would say with a two week turnaround, you're looking at five or six. 'That's massive from a coaching point of view, trying to get the information pulled together, but to get out on the pitch and repeatedly work on the things that you feel would be important in the game. Advertisement 'We spoke about it as coaches in the hotel this morning that it feels like there is a performance in them because a lot of the things that we were looking to achieve in the game, there was a consistency in our training. 'So that's brilliant and obviously we get another two weeks now into the final and hopefully we can go down the same road.' Jim McGuinness with Donegal players after the game. Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO Victory propels Donegal back into the final for the first time in 11 years, a wait that captain Patrick McBrearty would not have envisaged at the time. 'Definitely not. When we left here 2014, I didn't think it would be 2024 until we reached our next semi-final. We massively, massively underachieved from '14 to '24 basically, in our eyes. 'When Jim came back, standards were raised back to where they were and we're just delighted to be back here, but you know they were a barren couple of years. 'We were winning Ulsters, teams were tipping us to go on and win All-Irelands and we couldn't do on the big days. Getting this man back obviously for that and getting back to days like this two weeks is gonna be massive.' Donegal's play was stunning to watch, their running power enabling them to mow Meath down in the second half. The sequence of play that led to Ciarán Moore netting in the 49th minute encapsulated the range of strengths they have to offer. 'There's a good bit of commentary about how we play sometimes,' remarked McGuinness. 'And maybe it is a wee bit different than other teams, but without covering the same ground all the time, that's who we are like at this stage of the game. We know what we want to do and it's been in our blood for a long, long time and we just try to tap into that and I think it was Finbarr (Roarty) that turned that one over. 'A brilliant turnover and we got all the way up the pitch and made it count which is great. It's encouraging, we're creating, even in the (the) first half, we created some goalscoring opportunities and we kind of felt that if we could keep at it and keep trusting ourselves, we could get into more goalscoring opportunity moments and that's the way it panned out.' *****
The 42
an hour ago
- The 42
Louth to face Antrim in All-Ireland Junior final as Tyrone face Laois in Intermediate decider
TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship semi-finals Louth 1-14 Longford 0-6 Antrim 3-10 Sligo 1-10 TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Championship semi-finals Laois 5-7 Monaghan 1-12 Tyrone 4-17 Westmeath 4-14 (aet) Advertisement TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship Relegation Play-off Donegal 2-15 Leitrim 1-12 **** THE 2025 TG4 All-Ireland Junior and Intermediate finalists were confirmed on Sunday. Louth will face Antrim in the junior decider at Croke Park on 3 Sunday August (11.45am), while Tyrone will take on Laois in the intermediate final (1.45pm). Sunday's intermediate semi-finals saw Tyrone defeat Westmeath by 4-17 to 4-14 after extra-time, while Laois got the better of Monaghan by 5-7 to 1-12. In the junior grade, Louth defeated Longford by 1-14 to 0-6 while Antrim defeated Sligo by 3-10 to 1-10. An extra-time goal from Sorcha Gormley was decisive as Tyrone, runners-up last year, advanced to another TG4 All-Ireland intermediate final. Tyrone struck 1-3 without reply to force extra-time when the sides finished level at 3-13 to 4-10 for Westmeath. Four goals in the opening half laid the foundation for Laois' win over Monaghan as they built a 4-4 to 1-6 interval lead. Mo Nerney and Emma Lawlor, who got their fifth in the closing stages, both got two goals apiece for Laois. Maria O'Neill led the way with 2-2 as Antrim, champions in 2022, advanced to another TG4 All-Ireland junior final. They led by 0-8 to 0-4 and pushed on from there despite Leah Duffy hitting 1-4 for Sligo. They will meet Louth in the decider after Kate Flood hit 0-10 for last year's runners-up to see off Longford in Clones with eleven points to spare. Meanwhile, Leitrim were relegated to the intermediate grade for the 2026 season. In Saturday's TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship relegation tie, Donegal survived as they defeated Leitrim by 2-15 to 1-12. Eva Gallagher led the way with 0-9 for a Donegal side who led by 2-7 to 1-5 at the break. Susanne White and Jodie McFadden got the goals for Donegal while Laura O'Dowd found the net for last year's TG4 All-Ireland intermediate champions Leitrim but couldn't stave off the drop despite 0-7 from Muireann Devaney.
