RTÉ GAA Podcast: Who has done best out of the football draw?
Kerry will host Cavan, Cork go to Dublin, it's Down and Galway, while two provincial champions will battle it out when Donegal take on Louth.
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Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
'Cork hurling is much more than just a game — it helped me bond with my dad'
Last summer, my father was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, a progressive neurological condition that damages the motor neurones in the brain and spinal cord, leading to muscle weakness, atrophy, and eventually paralysis. It is a rare and incurable disease, well-known here in Ireland as the cause of Charlie Bird's passing. The average survival rate is typically two to five years from the onset of symptoms. Although some people live longer, many go far more quickly. Dad drove us to last year's All-Ireland hurling final. When Cork play Tipperary this Sunday in a bid to end our 20-year famine, he won't be travelling. The round trip to Croke Park would be impossible for him. It will be the first time that my brother Jonathan and I go to an All-Ireland final without our father. We suggested that the three of us stay at home to watch the game together, but dad wouldn't have it — his voice might be fading, but he still calls the shots. 'Go and shout for three,' my mother instructed. However the match goes, it will be a hard day. The recent Munster final was very difficult. When Cork beat Limerick on penalties, it was the first thing we acknowledged, that it's just not the same without our dad. That's the thing about hurling — it's more than just sport, not just a game. Dad took me to my first All-Ireland final in 1999. Cork beat Kilkenny by a point, 0-13 to 0-12. I have no idea how he managed to turn up the tickets — two for the Hill — but he did (I still have the stubs). This was before the motorway, when the drive from Dublin to Cork took you through every town and village in between. We arrived in Rathcormac to bonfires on the road — literally on the road — as thousands of Corkonians took to the streets to celebrate and welcome home the travelling fans. James's father was able to attend last year's GAA hurling final between Clare and Cork. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile Dad told me to get out the sunroof with my flag. I'm sure my memory has embellished the scene, but when I think back, I see thousands of people, the road to Cork city barely visible through all the red and smoke. I was sat atop the car, waving my flag while dad bate the horn. And for a few moments, I felt like some king of rebel king — the world was mine. That's what culture is — it's visceral, something felt in the gut. I never chose Cork hurling, it was passed down to me. That's what a father gives a son, a sense of something greater than themselves to which they can belong — culture, their culture. And that's why sport is more than just competition, it's a sophisticated framework for masculine intimacy and the delicate choreography of connection across generational divides. The relationship between my father and I followed a typical trajectory: first, childhood admiration, then, adolescent rejection, and eventually, adult reconciliation. I was a furious young man, full of fear and confusion. Nothing seemed bearable. One night, dad asked me to come for a walk with the dog. He told me it was okay to be angry. 'Everyone goes through what you're going through,' he said. 'What matters is who you are when you come out the other side.' I said something naïve about wanting a better world for myself and for others. 'Then go out and change it,' was his response. I think about that conversation a lot. James O'Sullivan: 'Hurling helped me to open up to my father. We had conversations during hurling that we wouldn't have had otherwise.' Do fathers remember all of the little things they tell their sons, the brief, offhand comments and remarks that take on permanence, becoming rules and values that shape lives? Education has been my life, not just as a profession, but as a principle — it's how I try to do some good in the world, if only just in our small corner of it. And that personal philosophy and political belief system all started with a short conversation with my father, while walking the dog. This was back before men were allowed to talk about mental health — I'm open enough to admit that, were it not for dad, I might not be here now. We'd not have been able to have those conversations were it not for hurling. It was the thing that bonded us because it was ours and ours alone — just him and me, and later, Jonathan. Just the lads, a father and his sons. The human need for belonging finds profound expression through sporting communities. The degree to which the GAA provides social capital is not unproblematic, and local clubs can be very cliquey, anachronistic spaces. But for many people, especially those who are lost, this shared belonging creates psychological scaffolding that supports identity development, social integration, and intergenerational continuity. Eimear Ryan writes about this in The Grass Ceiling, one of the most important books ever written on gender in the context of Irish sport. Eimear explains how hurling was the vehicle through which she learned who she was, who she wanted to be. I was probably the most useless — I was certainly the laziest — player to ever wear the royal blue of St Finbarr's, and like Eimear, I often felt like an outsider, feeling the need to hide parts of myself, like a burgeoning love of literature (Eimear on the other hand is a brilliant hurler who won an All-Ireland with Tipperary). But as useless as I might have been, I loved certain aspects of my playing days, if only just pucking balls with dad and Jonathan. The father teaching his son to strike a sliotar passes on muscle memory that connects to an older Ireland, to resistance and revival — it's sport functioning as a field of cultural production, where identity is actively constructed through embodied practice. Learning to hurl isn't just about the mechanics, it requires absorbing deeper lessons about competition, failure, resilience, and, perhaps most notably for men, emotional expression. In a changing, multicultural Ireland, hurling has the potential to be a shared tradition, a common language that can weave new identities into the fabric of local life. All of this is why hurling is so important. It's not always easy for fathers and sons to express their love for each other, so hurling can act as a substitute. In the pride in one's colours, fathers and sons find a vocabulary for love that transcends words, that transcends their relationship. The coming final won't be the same without my dad. I'll never forgive Conor Leen for pulling the back off of Robbie O'Flynn last year, when dad was well enough to travel. But I also remind myself that there is no point trying to restage the past, that the best moments between father and son can never be recreated. Even if dad had been with us for the Munster final, it wouldn't have been the same — it wasn't Thurles, Mark Landers wasn't the captain, and the game wasn't won by Joe Deane (who I chose that day as my all-time favourite) when he buried Seánie McGrath's endline flick beyond Davy Fitz. So when Cork and Tipperary meet in Croke Park, it will be hard, but it will still matter, because hurling is about being part of something that was here before us and will go on long after we're all gone. Because, fundamentally, that's what hurling is — it's the way we remind ourselves that we're never alone.
Irish Examiner
4 hours 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
4 hours 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.' *****
