The Championship: Damian Lawlor and Co preview the women's football final
Tony Óg Regan discusses how All-Ireland men's champions Tipperary and Kerry executed their performance strategies
Also,Cian Murphy of the GAA on the centenary of The Hogan Stand.
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Irish Times
41 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Croke Park, a good neighbour and one of the most loaded four-letter words in the English language
Jimmy Noddy Black was buried on Monday morning. A handball man, a Meath man, a good man. My old neighbour. It has been a difficult few weeks for McCullen Park, a small horseshoe-shaped estate in Kells known locally, and defiantly, by its residents as The Kingdom. Jane Smith, a gentle, warm and kindly woman who lived in one of the first houses at the entrance to the estate, died just over two weeks ago. Jimmy's house is further back, but just a couple of hundred metres away. Sad times. On Sunday afternoon, I took my two children to the All-Ireland women's senior football final at Croke Park , Meath v Dublin . The nine-year-old boy and six-year-old girl are born and raised in Dublin to culchie parents - a Meath dad and a Meathish-Cavanish but largely non-committal mother. READ MORE Still, on Clonliffe Road, she bought them blue and navy woollen headbands. On subsequently meeting cousins in the Croke Park Hotel, the sight of said headbands was enough to raise faux outrage and open debate on the possibility of family excommunication. For me, that is, not the children. After all, I was the adult in the room, allowing such horror to visit our fiercely green and gold Royal family. But within moments, all that seemed to matter to the gathering of children was the colour of their MiWadi and the flavour of their crisps. Approaching our seats in the lower Hogan about an hour later, we stopped to chat with Colm McManus – chairman of Meath LGFA and a man who also grew up in McCullen Park. His mam, Moll, brought a tin of her home-made buns topped with slatherings of pink and white icing to our home every Christmas. No pastry has ever eclipsed Moll's buns. That horseshoe-shaped estate wrapped around a humpy hill (imaginatively called The Hill) on which hundreds of World Cups and All-Ireland finals were won and lost, is where my mind automatically goes when I think of home. And yet it is a place my children don't recognise or know. All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Championship Final, Croke Park, Dublin, on Sunday, where Meath played Dublin. Photograph: Inpho Home to them is Dublin. Meath is where their grandparents and cousins live. But I'm not sure they realise, or care, that it's also where a large part of their dad will forever be. Home can be one of the most loaded and complicated four-letter words in the English language. Either way, the acquisition of free TG4 blue and navy flags (they were available in the colours of all the participating counties) at the turnstiles seemed to rouse the boisterous Dub within my children. And then we found our seats. On which they sat, briefly. With their view of the pre-match parade obstructed, both of them figured the solution was to stand on their seats. I made some faint protest against this reckless move, but they were already in motion and by then, naturally enough, everybody around us knew exactly how this venture was going to play out. Snap! The six-year-old went down first, her right leg moving back to tip the balance of the seat. The chair folded, and her leg was trapped. The nine-year-old, intrigued and thrilled at the predicament in which his sister found herself, couldn't resist the temptation to shift his body weight for a closer gawk. Snap! Down went another little Dub. As the parade turned for the Cusack Stand, I was on my hunkers trying to free both children. Given it was the first time all day they had lacked pomposity, I briefly contemplated leaving them there, but figured they'd probably tell their mother. After eventually dislodging all limbs from seats, I calmly and confidently assured the traumatised children they'd just experienced a rite of passage, they'd learned a life skill: 'It'll not happen to you a second time.' I imagined them, years from now, passing on my sage advice to their children, perhaps in this very stadium. But then my reverie was interrupted by a woman behind us frantically screaming something about Jesus Christ. Beside me, the six-year-old now had both legs trapped in the chair and was bent forward at an unnatural angle, while the nine-year-old had made a sudden, unannounced break for the toilet. Which child to save first? Dublin's Carla Rowe leads her side during the parade before the final. Photograph: Inpho As for the game, it is fair to say it was over as a contest by half-time. Dublin were the better team, but they were also the more cynical side. I told the children this. They didn't seem to care. Instead, they enthusiastically waved their flags in my face and repeatedly roared: 'Up the Dubs!', each trying to outdo their sibling in a who-can-be-louder competition. I resolved that cynicism and boorishness are both Dublin traits. By the time Carla Rowe was lifting the Brendan Martin Cup, the children – not satisfied with a factory load of chocolate and a freezer of ice-cream – were wondering what they would be having for dinner. 'The Meath football team,' I jested. Nobody laughed. We stopped in Fairview and ate fried chicken and vinegar-soaked chips. The nine-year-old, mid-strawberry milkshake, asked if his cousins were in Meath yet. So we called them. Turned out they had made it back just in time for Jimmy's wake. Later that night, the children inquired if they knew the person whose funeral I was going to in Kells on Monday morning. They didn't. And the truth is, they don't know many of the people or places of my youth. I'm aware of this reality probably more often than I should be. But that was our choice in deciding to raise them in Dublin, a wonderful place with equally wonderful people, and a city that gets a bad rap more often than it should. And with all that's happening in the world right now, what a privilege it was on Sunday to be among 48,000 people at a women's sporting event with my children, and the stadium dotted with family, friends and neighbours. The town turned out to give Jimmy a fitting farewell on Monday morning. After the funeral, I told my parents I'd be back down home soon. The Meath green and gold bunting was still flying proudly at the front of the house as I pulled away. Then I drove back home to the children in Dublin, fully expecting to be greeted by a smiling six- and nine-year-old, both waving blue and navy flags while proudly wearing their new matching woollen headbands.
The 42
an hour ago
- The 42
'It's great, fantastic, I can't complain' - O'Dowd on her second All-Ireland return from AFLW
SOME PEOPLE JUST get all the luck, it would seem. After opting out for the 2024 season, she did so under unusual circumstances. The reason was, she was playing AFLW for Greater Western Sydney Giants. Over there, she made quite the impression as, on her debut, she scored the fastest goal in AFLW history with her very first kick in her debut in round one of the 2024 season. The reason she was earmarked to play over there came from a string of brilliant performances when Dublin won the 2023 All-Ireland. It all seems a long way from Ballinamore, Co Leitrim where O'Dowd is from and played with at Junior level. She made a move to Dublin to teach and, in 2021, transferred to Na Fianna, which in turn brought about an approach from the Dubs. Back with Dublin this season, the athletic midfielder once against won another All-Ireland. 'Yeah, it's great, fantastic, I can't complain!' she laughed when asked about her impressive strike rate after the defeat of Meath in Sunday's decider. 'God, it's just so special to be back here. I think when I stepped away last year to go over to Australia and focus just on AFL, there definitely was a big part of me that felt like I was missing out. 'Even just watching the girls last year going in the group stages and even the league, you always feel like… you're just missing out, and you want to be a part of it all the time. 'It's very hard when you're over in Australia, the time difference and everything. That definitely gave me the motivation to want to come back and do it all again, because when you get the taste for that glory, you just want that success again. So, yeah, delighted to be able to get a second one. Two out of two!' Her colleague Martha Byrne was sitting alongside her, and paid tribute to the brilliant mentality that the management team of Paul Casey and Derek Murray instilled within. Advertisement Martha Byrne. Leah Scholes / INPHO Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO 'So proud,' said Byrne, 'I think there's something really special that we have within the Dublin defensive unit. Like, a lot of us know what the other person is going to do before they probably even know themselves. 'And when you have the likes of Leah Caffrey, like, right up until the last minute, shouting at me, 'Who do you f*****g have (to mark)?' 'Like, she just sums up what the Dublin defence is all about – a never-say-die attitude and it's an absolute privilege to play alongside those types of players.' Casey himself had warm words of praise for his players and the setbacks they had to overcome. 'Being able to bring Hannah Leahy in there..' he began, 'She had suffered three cruciate ligament injuries over the years. Aoife Kane had a really bad injury against Kildare in the group stage of the Leinster championship. To be able to bring those players in was fantastic. It's great for them and it's testament to all the hard work that they've done. 'And then you look at Hannah McGinnis, I think you lose sight of the fact that she's 19 years of age. This time last year she was waiting for her Leaving Cert results. She's had to learn quickly this year because we've been tight on numbers at times. 'But any job we gave her…to go out and play midfield in an All-Ireland final was superb as well for her. But the defensive group that Martha talks about, everybody knows the role they need to play and they're hugely respectful of all the young players coming in. 'In terms of educating them and giving them little nuggets of information that only the experience of playing over the years can bring, they've been superb.' With additional reporting from Emma Duffy. Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
The Irish Sun
2 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Nicole Owens reveals she nearly quit before fairytale All-Ireland triumph send-off with Dublin
Dublin star Nicole Owens admitted she was ready to walk away from inter-county football before being convinced to stay on FULL-TIME Nicole Owens reveals she nearly quit before fairytale All-Ireland triumph send-off with Dublin DUBLIN star Nicole Owens was ready to walk away last year before her fairytale ending. Owens and Hannah Tyrrell waved inter-county football goodbye after Sunday's sizzling 2-16 to 0-10 All-Ireland final win over Meath at Croke Park. 2 Dublin reclaimed the All-Ireland title after a comfortable win over Meath on Sunday 2 Nicole Owens ended her inter-county career with another title at GAA HQ The 32-year-old suffered her second torn ACL in 2022 before an achilles problem further hampered her progress last season. Mick Bohan walked as manager before Paul Casey and Derek Murray took the reins. And Owens was coaxed to stay on and win her fifth All-Ireland to bow out at the top. Owens hailed Orlagh Nolan for helping her through the dark days before Sunday's dream send-off. Nolan battled back from her own cruciate hell to make a stunning comeback in their All-Ireland semi-final win over Galway last month, before starting in Sunday's showpiece against all the odds and bagging the player of the match award. Owens said: 'I was on the fence about coming back or not this year and I think I was in a bad way starting. "I think it speaks to this team, a few of the girls I would have chatted to, Paul and Derek would have been on to me. 'I was in a really bad way at the start of this year. They just kind of put an arm around me and got me back in. 'We already spoke about Orlagh Nolan on the pitch, but off the pitch, having someone there on the s**t days, to be in the gym doing the same stuff over and over again, that was massive. 'I'm so proud of this team and how that ended, and how we had a performance when it mattered. I'm glad that I managed to score a goal to cap it off.' 'Aged like milk on a windowsill in July' - Watch BBC's GAA pundits ALL predict Donegal to beat Kerry Owens admits her injury woes took their toll, but helped her find a new resolve to keep going. Winning another All-Ireland was beyond her wildest dreams when she was about to quit less than 12 months ago, but the support of Dublin's new bosses was vital as they delivered the goods in their first year in charge. She said: 'If you look at the likes of Martha (Byrne) down here and Leah Caffrey, who've probably missed about one game in the past 12 years. I'd love to have been that consistent and that solid. 'But, unfortunately… some of us maybe weren't made to play football to this extent! It's allowed me to develop a bit of resilience, and, look, I've always been given a lot of trust. 'The lads backed me when I came back this year, and I was given chances because of what I'd done in previous years. "And I think you can't understate the importance of that, the team trusting me and the role that played. I'm just delighted.' FINISHED BUSINESS And Owens knew on Sunday morning that Dublin would get the job done. She felt they had unfinished business from their semi-final win over Galway. They needed extra-time to win 3-14 to 2-14 in Tullamore as Carla Rowe's cheeky back-heel in overtime proved crucial. Meath bore the brunt of a serious backlash in Sunday's final, as Dublin raced into a 2-9 to 0-4 half time lead and never looked back. Owens said: 'Yeah, I felt really good on Sunday morning, to be honest because I think after the last game, as a team and as an individual, a lot of us weren't very happy. 'I think we knew that we hadn't really done ourselves justice and done the work we've put in justice, and the work the background team have put in and the stats team have put in justice. 'I think the first half was probably the best performance we've put in for quite a while.'
