Andy Farrell poised to start nine Irish players for the Lions in tour opener against Western Force
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Irish Examiner
14 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Your sport on TV this week: Kerry v Donegal, Lions take on Wallabies and Women's Euro final
Don't Miss: The All-Ireland SFC final is upon us and it is Kerry in search of their 29th title up against Donegal chasing their third. Jack O'Connor goes head-to-head with Jim McGuinnss in the 2025 edition of the All-Ireland final. It promises to be a cracking final between the last two teams standing in this year's championship. Watch the action live on RTÉ One and BBC. Set the Sky Box: The second Test of the Lions Tour takes place on Saturday. Andy Farrell will be hoping his Lions will put the series to bed with a second win but Joe Schmidt welcomes back a few key players and will be hoping to push who takes the Tour out to the final test. Watch all the action live on Sky Sports Action and Main Event. Streaming Pick: The All-Ireland Ladies U18 final takes place on Saturday with Cork taking on Dublin. Cork last claimed the title in 2022 with Dublin last bringing home the trophy in 2012. Cork's last appearance in the final was three years ago while Dublin last were in the final in 2016. Cork are in search of their 13th title while Dublin are chasing their third crown. Watch all the action live on TG4 YouTube. For all your sport throughout the year, check out our sport calendar. Friday July 25 9.30am, Women's Scottish Open, LPGA, Sky Sports Golf 10.15am, England v India, 4th Test D3, Sky Sports Cricket 11am, Belgian Grand Prix, Practice and qualifying, Sky Sports F1 12pm and 6pm, World University Games, Multi-sports, TNT Sports 4 12pm and 6pm, World Championship, Pool, Sky Sports Mix 12.15pm, Tour de France, Stage 19, TG4, TNT Sports 1 and ITV4 1.30pm, Senior Open Championship, Champions Tour, Sky Sports Golf 7pm, 3M Open, PGA Tour, Sky Sports Golf 7.30pm, World Matchplay, Darts, Sky Sports Plus 7.45pm, Cork City v Sligo Rovers, SSE Airtricity Premier Division, Virgin Media Two Read More Kerry v Donegal: What time, what channel and all you need to know about the All-Ireland SFC final Saturday July 26 10.15am, England v India, 4th Test D4, Sky Sports Cricket 10.45am and 12pm, Tour de France, Stage 20, TG4, TNT Sports 1 and ITV4 11am, Australia v Lions, British and Irish Lions Tour Second Test, Sky Sports Action and Main Event 11am and 5.30pm, World Championship, Pool, Sky Sports Mix 1pm, Women's Scottish Open, LPGA, Sky Sports Golf 1.30pm, Cork v Dubiln, All-Ireland U18 final, TG4 YouTube 1.30pm, Ascot, Horse Racing, Virgin Media One 1.30pm, Senior Open Championship, Champions Tour, Sky Sports Golf 3pm, Stoke v Wolverhampton, Pre-season, Premier Sport 2 3pm, Galway v Tipperary, All-Ireland Senior Camogie semi-finals, RTÉ 2 3pm, Hull FC v Huddersfield, Super League, Sky Sports Plus 4pm, Ireland v Norway, Women Summer Basketball Series, TG4 Player 5pm, Cork v Waterford, All-Ireland Senior Camogie semi-finals, RTÉ 2 7pm, Ireland v Norway, Men Summer Basketball Series, TG4 Player 7pm, 3M Open, PGA Tour, Sky Sports Golf 7.30pm, World Matchplay, Darts, Sky Sports Plus 8pm, R Whittaker v R de Ridder, UFC, TNT Sports 2 9pm, Everton v Bournemouth, Summer Series, Sky Sports PL 9.30pm, Up for the Match, Pre All-Ireland SFC final, RTÉ One Simon Lewis and Brendan O'Brien reflect on a first Test win and preview a busy week ahead. Sunday July 27 12am, Man Utd v West Ham, Summer Series, Sky Sports PL 7am, World University Games, Multi-sports, TNT Sports 4 10.15am, England v India, 4th Test D5, Sky Sports Cricket 12pm, Women's Scottish Open, LPGA, Sky Sports Golf 1pm, Women's World Matchplay, Darts, Sky Sports Plus 2.30pm and 3pm, Tour de France, Final stage, TG4, TNT Sports 1 and ITV4 3pm, St Mirren v Ayr Utd, PS Cup, Premier Sports 1 3.30pm, Kerry v Donegal, All-Ireland SFC final, RTÉ One and BBC 4pm, Senior Open Championship, Champions Tour, Sky Sports Golf 5pm, England v Spain, Women's Euro final, RTÉ 2, BBC and UTV 5pm and 10pm, Canadian Open, Tennis, Sky Sports Plus 7pm, 3M Open, PGA Tour, Sky Sports Golf 7.30pm, World Matchplay, Darts, Sky Sports Plus 10pm, ATP Washington Open final, Tennis, Sky Sports Main Event In the second of our daily special podcasts as we build up to the All-Ireland final, the Kerry icon speaks to Paul Rouse about delivering in a championship decider and how the coaches 'will earn their crust on Sunday'
Irish Examiner
14 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
No changes for Kerry starting side as Diarmuid O'Connor included in squad
Diarmuid O'Connor is included in the Kerry longlist squad of 28 players for Sunday's All-Ireland SFC final against Donegal as Jack O'Connor has announced no changes to his starting team. The 15 who began the semi-final win over Tyrone are set to be in from the off but O'Connor could be available for the first time since the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final win over Cavan in Killarney last month. Kerry have named 28 players but the match-day panel is limited to 26. The Na Gaeil man had to retire shortly after the start of that fixture when he aggravated the shoulder injury that has troubled him since the Division 1 win over Armagh in March. Paul Geaney, who scored a goal against Donegal in the 2014 All-Ireland final win, is again listed among the substitutes. However, there is no place for three-time All Star Tom O'Sullivan who had to retire with a calf injury in the first half of the All-Ireland quarter-final win against Armagh. Geaney and Paul Murphy are the two survivors in the squad from the final 11 years ago. From the team that exited the championship at the All-Ireland semi-final stage last year, nine of the team remain – Shane Ryan, Murphy, Jason Foley, Brian Ó Beaglaioch, Gavin White, Joe O'Connor, Paudie and David Clifford and Seán O'Shea. Five of the other six are on the bench – Tadhg Morley, Diarmuid O'Connor Tony Brosnan, Paul Geaney and Dara Moynihan. KERRY (SFC v Donegal): Shane Ryan (Rathmore); Paul Murphy (Rathmore), Jason Foley (Ballydonoghue), Dylan Casey (Austin Stacks); Brian Ó Beaglaoich (An Ghaeltacht), Mike Breen (Beaufort), Gavin White (c, Dr Crokes); Seán O'Brien (Beaufort), Mark O'Shea (Dr Crokes); Joe O'Connor (Austin Stacks), Seán O'Shea (Kenmare Shamrocks), Graham O'Sullivan (Dromid Pearses); David Clifford (Fossa), Paudie Clifford (Fossa), Dylan Geaney (Dingle). Subs (11 from 13): Shane Murphy (Dr Crokes), Killian Spillane (Templenoe), Evan Looney (Dr Crokes), Tom Leo O'Sullivan (Dingle), Tadhg Morley (Templenoe), Paul Geaney (Dingle), Micheál Burns (Dr Crokes), Tony Brosnan (Dr Crokes), Armin Heinrich (Austin Stacks), Tomás Kennedy (Kerins O'Rahillys), Diarmuid O'Connor (Na Gaeil), Conor Geaney (Dingle), Dara Moynihan (Spa).
The 42
19 minutes ago
- The 42
'At 18 years of age I would have done anything for football, at 21 I wanted an excuse to stop'
ON A SOAKING wet day in Ballybofey, May 2011, Donegal backroom member Marc 'Maxi' Curran was sent to the minor team dressing room to fetch Paddy McBreaty. He was just after scoring 1-3 for the minors, but they were beaten in the Ulster championship by Antrim. Curran got him fresh kit and a bowl of pasta. In the next short while, McBrearty would soon join an exclusive band of players who played minor and senior county championship on the same day. It began a pattern that Jim McGuinness would embed in his Donegal teams. He has said before that the most talented minor footballer in the county would play senior football, so the best thing for them was to bring them in and nourish them early. Since then, he brought in Ryan McHugh in 2013 and even was a little hasty in trying to fast-track Finbarr Roarty last year, who nonetheless is a front runner now for Young Player of the Year. In 2014, he brought in Darrach 'Jigger' O'Connor. He started the first Ulster championship game against Derry. He scored a goal in the semi-final against Antrim. He started the Ulster and All-Ireland finals that year, claiming a place ahead of none other than McBrearty. He had an early sight of goal in the 2014 All-Ireland final against Kerry that fizzed across and went wide. Donegal's Darach O'Connor and goalkeeper Brian Kelly of Kerry. Cathal Noonan / INPHO Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO He came from good stock in that regard. His father John 'Jigger' O'Connor had the ball in the net for Roscommon after just 35 seconds of the 1980 All-Ireland final, past Charlie Nelligan in the Kerry goals. Since then, he has played little football for Donegal. A sad litany of cruciate ligament and knee injuries has been his fate for the past decade, his latest occurring for Buncrana only nine weeks ago. Regrets? Not really. ***** He had an inkling it might happen. When he was playing for the county U21s in 2013, they lost the Ulster final to Cavan. After the game, assistant manager Rory Gallagher came over for a chat. Marking his card. 'I'll never forget the phone call,' says O'Connor now. After Buncrana clubmate Paul McGonigle was added to the Donegal backroom team in late 2013, he made a call to O'Connor. He was sitting in geography class at Scoil Mhuire. His phone was lying on his pencil case and McGonigle's name flashed up. He went sheepishly to the teacher and told her he had to take the call. She just laughed. Playing against Armagh in the Dr McKenna Cup. Lorcan Doherty / INPHO Lorcan Doherty / INPHO / INPHO 'I was still 17 at that time,' he says. 'You're just delighted, like, you know, like I remember just being so excited for it.' His mind flashed back to the Ulster meeting of Donegal and Armagh in the Ulster championship of 2007. He played at half-time in the mini-games on a day the seniors scored a rare win over that generation of Armagh players. Advertisement 'Karl Lacey, like I remember just watching Lacey that day and just thinking 'Jesus Christ.' From that moment on Karl Lacey was just a complete hero of mine. 'You had Michel Murphy obviously came on the scene and Christy Toye. I remember in a school final we got beat by St Eunan's at a good game and Rory Kavanagh came up to me after, he was managing St Eunan's, and he shook my hand and I remember just thinking, 'Jesus, there's Rory Kavanagh. He plays for Donegal.' On his first training session, reality bit. 'Gruelling. I mean you weren't long realising, this is a completely different ballgame. But I just loved it. I loved every minute of it.' 'I had a lot of work to do. It was just the body adapting to be honest, really, because I didn't play county under 16, I didn't play county when I was my first year of minors, and I then was involved with the 21s and the minors at the same time. 'It was kbeing juggled at the start, playing a game with the minors, playing a game with the 21s, so you weren't doing a lot of the conditioning side. 'My first couple of months with the seniors, my hamstring was constantly pinging. Jim was always just gauging how I felt on the day. 'I was doing rehab runs, doing bike sessions, all that. There was never that pressure like you need to get you in there.' He was named to start for a league game but injured himself in the Thursday night session. McGuinness took him aside and outlined his plans. He was to concentrate on his mock exams for a while, but he was to be ready for a trip to Galway. After the game, he was put in a group with others coming back from injury, including Mark McHugh and Frank McGlynn. A small training pitch, a massive running session. He was also doubling up with Maxi Curran's U21 team. 'We'd finished what I thought was a session, and I was completely gassed, I remember so clearly it was in Castlefin,' he says. Playing a league game against his father's county of Roscommon. Tommy Dickson / INPHO Tommy Dickson / INPHO / INPHO 'The seniors had just trained before us, and I remember even just listening to Jim shouting at the boys that day got me excited. 'The hairs were standing up on the back of the neck because we were in the changing room and we could hear Jim driving the boys on. 'We'd done the training and a lot of ball work and we'd done a set of runs, and I thought that was, I was completely out of my feet. 'Then, they said there's two more sets of that.' He looked at team trainer Francie Friel as if to say, 'You can't be serious?' Friel looked back at him as if to say he was crazy for questioning their methods. 'And that was the day that I realised I need to get myself in shape here. This is a big step up.' With McGuinness, the tactical side of it was also something he had to catch up on. 'It's that you've so much clarity in what you're doing. 'I can guarantee you, the boys are still as fit, just now there's that much clarity of the game plan.' The championship rolled round and he was handed a start at wing-forward against Derry in Celtic Park. He had never played there before, but had clear instructions to get after their creative defender, Sean Leo McGoldrick. 'I knew what I was doing. Just to be around him. Anytime he went to go, I would go with him. 'Like there was no second thought.' He kept his place for the semi-final against Antrim and notched a brilliant goal, cutting back onto his right foot to shoot from distance, ending up with 1-2. He started the Ulster final and was taken off for McBrearty. Despite that, he again started the All-Ireland final but was replaced in the first half by Toye. 'Marc O'Sé had caused a wild bit of bother against Mayo (in the semi-final),' O'Connor outlines. 'My role was that when he's bombing forward, I have to mark him. And when he didn't run, I remember saying to myself, 'I need to do something here, I'm going to be pulled because Paddy McBrearty and Christy Toye are sitting on the bench and Jim's not going to leave me on here. 'But was on about them not really knowing you and you might get a good chance, but if Marc Ó Sé's going forward the way he was, you're marking him.' It was a game which Donegal never controlled. They had their plans, honed during multiple training camps and the weekend before they took up residence in the Lough Erne Golf Resort in Fermanagh, training at the nearby Brewster Park, home of Enniskillen Gaels. 'That's kind the disappointing aspect of the '14 final, that we didn't do what we should have done. I've never watched it. I never will,' he says. 'There was a flatness to us. It's going to haunt me to the day I die if we don't win on Sunday.' Even now, it's referenced. Eamonn McGee is now coaching Buncrana and he mentioned to O'Connor recently that he spends far more time thinking about the Kerry final of 2014, than the All-Ireland he won in 2012. At the end of the year, O'Connor had flunked school. He messed up his CAO applications form for college. He put down NUIG but he had no intention of going there. 'But again when I look back, I wasn't worried about my Leaving Cert. 'I don't know why I had Galway down number one, but I found out around August time that you have to take your number one, and if you don't, you can take a year out.' He took the year out. He wanted to go and do teaching in DCU but never quite got there. He entered education through a circuitous route and now works with children who struggle to finish school through the Department of Education. 'That was always my interest, I would have worked a lot with special needs as well, so I thought I wanted to do teaching,' he says. 'And if I had done teaching, I would have just been looking after the bad ones in classes as they say.' School for him was tricky. He had undiagnosed ADHD in school. In primary school it was disastrous. He was continually getting into trouble, but his teacher, Maria Doherty, was also the school football coach. She recognised when the issues with his behaviour arose. 'She was the first one to realise when I was grand – after lunchtime,' he says. Maria spoke to O'Connor's mother, Catherine, who was a nurse. 'And she said that he's not getting in trouble after exercise. It's only when he's sitting for a long time and he starts acting up. 'And then all of a sudden it turns out that I have ADHD and secondary school is grand then because you're moving class every 40 minutes anyway. 'I think from that point on, I always have a look at the troublemakers. You just want to help them. If I wasn't at Gaelic, would my experience have been different?' He volunteered for a long time with iCARE, a disability services and support organisation in Buncrana. Everything started making sense. Even now, certain things get to him. Sitting for long periods. Inactivity. On days when they have to facilitate internal suspensions, he takes the children outside for breaks. They need it. He needs it. Related Reads 'One of my early years, I had the match played in my head a thousand times beforehand' David Clifford 'could be the best player that has ever played the game' - McGuinness 'It's challenging but it's adding to the entertainment' - Goalkeeper view on new rules 'I'm very forgetful,' he admits. 'For a long time, I thought it was just being forgetful, but I went to a few people since, and there's certain things about that. 'Doing paperwork is hard because you have to sit and concentrate. Wouldn't be the worst anxiety, but the thought of doing it then would just really trigger me. Not being able to exercise isn't great, for example, at the minute I've been in a cast for eight weeks.' Which brings us to injuries. In 2015 he tore his MCL playing against Galway in a challenge match. He played through it with the U21s, all the way to the Ulster final against Tyrone. Celebrating the 2018 Ulster final win with Stephen McBrearty. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO He was taking six weeks out but then tore it properly in a club game. Even at that, he still managed to get back to come on as a sub in the 2015 Ulster final loss to Monaghan. The following Tuesday they were training in Convoy. He did his cruciate on his other (left) knee then. It was left undiagnosed. He kept trying to come back. One night he was down at the club and they were short players. He played and this time ruined the knee altogether. 'Just dealing with injuries, people don't see the mental side of it,' he says. 'I just went from 18 years of age, would have done anything for football, to 21 nearly looking for an excuse to stop playing football.' By 2018 he was still floating around the panel under Declan Bonner, playing a few games here and there. He even made it onto the pitch for the dying moments of the Ulster final win over Fermanagh, scoring a point after coming on for Jamie Brennan. And then, another knee injury. 'The good thing that came out of Covic for me was I realised 'Jesus, I need to play football for as long as I can.' 'Important things in my life, they've been taken away from me.' A couple of months back, he injured his patella. He's in a leg brace since. The pain is severe. He believes he would take two cruciate injuries over what he has now. He doesn't look back as he doesn't have too far to look for people who suffered real tragedy. O'Connor was born in San Francisco in 1995 and three years later, he and his mother were on a plane after after his cousin, eight-year-old Oran Doherty, was killed in the Omagh Bombing. That gives him all the perspective he needs. He has his tickets secured for Sunday, though they are on the top tier. He's on the lookout for a swap for a lower perch, what with the hassle of the leg brace. Who could begrudge him that? ***** Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
