AGB management relieved to get championship off to winning start
Today at 12:30
Championship differs from League in that momentum counts for less. One good run of results in the League could make the difference. In Championship, you need to deliver a winning performance nearly every day at the start, and certainly every day at the finish. Past results count for less.
There are no prizes handed out on the first weekend of the Wicklow Senior Football Championship; it has always been thus. But even in the round-robin era, an opening-week win is still valuable. Arklow Geraldines Ballymoney (AGB) secured that on Saturday night, but they also delivered a very good performance, which not all of the weekend's winners will be able to say.
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Irish Daily Mirror
11 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Liam Cahill and Tipp have previous with upsetting Cork in All-Ireland finals
Strong underdogs in an All-Ireland final against a Cork team that has already wiped the floor with you earlier in the year? Liam Cahill has been here before. Moreover, so have several of his Tipperary players - and a large number from Cork that he will plot against this Sunday. Much like with the senior grade now, in 2018, Cork had gone 20 years without an All-Ireland under-21 title but the overhaul of their underage system was beginning to bear fruit as they romped to the Munster title that year, their first since 2007, beating Tipperary by 13 points in the provincial final. READ MORE: Who will be on RTE commentary duty for Sunday's Cork-Tipperary All-Ireland hurling final? READ MORE: GAA Palestine cancels Ireland trip after visa rejection In the last year of the under-21 grade at inter-county level, however, the four provincial finalists in Munster and Leinster crossed over for the All-Ireland semi-finals. Cork hardened their status as Championship favourites by beating Wexford by 22 points, while Tipperary got past Galway to set up a rematch with them in the All-Ireland final. 'This is one of the best underage teams to come out of Cork and that's well known and well documented,' said Cahill ahead of that final. 'It's very obvious with 10 senior panellists on their starting 15 with the massive exposure that they've got in the last two years, they're really ahead of their time.' On the same afternoon that the late Pope Francis was saying Mass before a rather sparse crowd in the Phoenix Park, Tipp stayed in the game and were level with six minutes to go when Stephen Nolan netted. Cork hit back with points to go one ahead but another goal from Conor Stakelum meant that the 1/5 favourites were beaten. There was probably a bit of 'building them up' in Cahill's pre-match comments, but look at the players from that game that are backboning Cork's senior team now. Niall O'Leary, Mark Coleman, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Tim O'Mahony and Declan Dalton all started the All-Ireland semi-final romp over Dublin earlier this month and that game seven years ago. Robbie O'Flynn, Shane Kingston, both of whom came off the bench against Dublin, and Jack O'Connor, were mainstays in that under-21 side's attack. Ger Millerick, who has plenty of senior experience though has been injured for much of the summer, was an unused sub against Dublin but was introduced in that final seven years ago. So, up to nine of the 17 players that featured for Cork that day could see action again next Sunday. Despite bettering them, Tipp have less. Two players - Eoghan Connolly and Jake Morris - that started that day were on the team that beat Kilkenny in the semi-final, though it would surely have been three but for Dillon Quirke's tragic passing in 2022. Stakelum and Craig Morgan, however, also came off the bench seven years ago and are starting for the seniors now, so that makes four. Goalkeeper Barry Hogan lost his place to Rhys Shelly during the Munster Championship while Brian McGrath was an unused sub against Kilkenny. Tipperary manager Liam Cahill celebrates at the final whistle after beating Cork in the 2018 All-Ireland under-21 final. (Image: ©INPHO/Tommy Dickson) The counties met again in the following year's All-Ireland under-20 final when Tipperary, with Cahill still as manager, crushed Cork by 5-17 to 1-18 in the All-Ireland final having squeezed past them by one in the Munster decider. Five players from that team will likely start on Sunday - Morris, Connolly, Morgan, Bryan O'Mara and Andrew Ormond, while Cork will have Robert Downey, with Millerick and O'Connell set to be on the bench. Those Tipperary defeats were particularly damaging to the Cork psyche at a time when the senior squad was showing no great signs of bridging the gap to 2005 and their famine at underage level went back even further. A turning point came with a pair of under-20 All-Irelands within weeks of each other in 2021, following the Covid-delayed season of 2020, with current senior boss Pat Ryan at the helm. They won another under Ben O'Connor in 2023. Players from those sides have now supplemented the 2018-19 crop, but the way that those under-21/20 campaigns played out means that Cahill and at least a cohort of his players won't be hung up by a 15-point beating that they suffered with 14 men earlier in this Championship, much less the 10-point loss in the League final. They've clipped several of these Cork players' wings against the odds before. Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.
Irish Times
17 hours ago
- Irish Times
Dillon Quirke in the minds of Tipp before final
When the final whistle blew in Croke Park a fortnight ago, Dan and Hazel Quirke 'turned to each other and cried' . 'How could they not,' writes Malachy Clerkin. 'Tipperary had made it to an All-Ireland final and it was only natural that their first thought was for their son Dillon,' the Tipperary hurler who died from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome three years ago. Malachy talks to Dan about Dillon and the foundation he and Hazel set up in his honour. Dillon won't be far from the Tipp players' thoughts on Sunday when they take on Cork in the final, Seán Moran reflecting on a championship season that has seen Liam Cahill's team bounce back in style having reached rock bottom 14 months ago when Cork beat them by 18 points. Conor Lehane has bounced back too, the Cork man having previously been dropped from the panel while also battling a string of injuries. Stephen Barry hears from him ahead of his first appearance in an All Ireland final in 12 years. Darragh Ó Sé, meanwhile, looks back at the football semi-finals and has no doubt that the two best teams in the country won through , Kerry and Donegal having 'sprinted away from the pack over the past couple of weeks'. Paul O'Brien analyses the two games , Tyrone and Meath's failure to take their chances resulting in Kerry and Donegal being 'treated to armchair victories'. READ MORE Down in Australia, the Lions are enduring their fair share of injury woes in the build-up to Saturday's first test, Gerry Thornley updating us on the walking wounded . He takes a stab at predicting Andy Farrell's starting XV, Jack Conan among his picks. ' This has been an incredible joy and the best few weeks of my career ,' the Leinster man tells him. Gordon D'Arcy looks at both coaches' options too, reckoning the Lions have yet to show their best on a tour that has been largely 'meh' to date . And Robert Kitson picks out the five areas where the series will be won and lost , the chief challenge for Andy Farrell and Joe Schmidt getting 'their key chess pieces in the correct places'. In golf, Philip Reid continues his build-up to the Open Championship in Portrush, few enjoying the week as much as Tom McKibbin who is back on home soil . And Johnny Watterson heard from Rory McIlroy's best buddy Bryson DeChambeau who said recently that he'd love nothing more than to beat McIlroy, 'especially in front of his own crowd'. Salty. The Tour de France resumes today after Tuesday's rest day, and a certain Ben Healy will be donning the yellow jersey . He is, Shane Stokes discovered, on cloud nine. 'I just want to honour the jersey the best I possibly can do,' he said. 'I know what I'm up against, but I'll give it my all.' In football, Gavin Cummiskey previews the return leg of Shelbourne and Linfield's Champions League qualifier at Windsor Park this evening, Shels winning the first leg 1-0 at Tolka Park last week. A lucrative game it is too, the winners picking up €750,000 for advancing to the second qualifying round. Alas, it's not on TV. TV Watch : The Tour de France gets going again today after Tuesday's breather, TG4 and TNT Sports 1 bringing live coverage of stage 11 from noon. And at 8pm this evening, Norway play Italy in the quarter-finals of Euro 2025 (RTÉ 2, BBC 1 and UTV).
The Irish Sun
20 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Common sense prevails as GAA to fix obvious problem arising from All-Ireland football final match-up
KERRY are set to wear their alternative blue kit in order to avoid a colour clash in this year's All-Ireland football final. Common sense seemed to be ignored for 3 The clash of Donegal against Kerry would throw up just that if the Kingdom similarly stuck to the green and gold 3 Apparently Donegal will wear their home kit for the July 27 decider 3 This was how the 2014 final between them looked It is the referee's call whether a colour clash is significant enough that one or both of the teams is compelled to wear one of their alternative strips. Ultimately, Paul Faloon did not deem that a necessary step to take. And in fairness many viewers expressed that they had little to no issue distinguishing Donegal players from Kerry counterparts. But it was a problem for some portions of the TV as well as Croke Park audience. Other sports such as rugby union have taken more of a proactive approach in recent years to be cognisant of those who suffer from colour-blindness around fixtures such as Wales against Ireland. Read More On GAA So plenty of GAA enthusiasts will likely appreciate a needless colour clash being avoided altogether. On Tuesday In a follow-up exchange on X he was asked by one follower 'Is this official?' To which, he replied: "Believe so Roman. County Board came to a decision on it." Most read in GAA Football It's worth noting that when these two counties met in the 2014 showpiece neither of them adopted a secondary kit. This arguably contributed to one of the most forgettable All-Ireland finals in living memory as the Aristocrats edged McGuinness' first batch by 2-9 to 0-12. 'Easiest interview I've ever had' jokes RTE GAA host after pundits go back and forth before Meath vs Donegal You could even argue that goalkeeper Paul Durcan's oddly errant kick-out straight to Kieran Donaghy for his goal may have been partly due to him blending in with the opposition. In any case, it seems the GAA is starting to move with the times on this dilemma with this set to be the first football final since the 2010 meeting of Cork and Down where one side won't be in their primary kit. REF CALL Tuesday also brought with it news over The Kildare native has been on the inter-county officiating circuit since 2019 and is a widely respected figure across the game. His line umpires on the day will be Monaghan's Martin McNally and David Coldrick of Meath, with McNally also set to serve as standby referee. Last year saw Cawley oversee Galway's narrow semi-final triumph over Donegal. This time around McGuinness' men had a far easier time of it as In the wake of But having seen his team hit 3-13 after the change of ends at a packed The Royals have already tasted unlikely Championship victories over Dublin, Kerry But Robbie Brennan's superb first season at the helm was brought to an end in chastening fashion. Even at half-time, things looked ominous for Meath as they trailed by 0-13 to 0-8. With a Sam Maguire decider
