Latest news with #AllianzFootballLeague
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Work on open terrace end of Austin Stack Park will increase capacity to 14,000
WORK on the revamp of the Horan's End of Tralee's Austin Stack Park will begin in the coming weeks and increase the capacity at Kerry GAA's second home to 14,000. Castleisland contractors Griffin Brothers have been appointed to the project and are expected to begin work in early August, and finish early next year in time for the beginning of the Allianz Football League. The terrace works - behind the goal to the right of the main stand as one looks out onto the pitch - involves the development of a facility similar to that on the Mitchel's end of the ground, but without a roof - as well as the construction of a new toilets block for patrons. As the development begins, access to Austin Stack Park from the Horan end will be restricted, but supporters will enter the facility from the current access points closer to the Mitchels, while plans are also in place to create further access points. According to Kerry GAA vice-chair Liam Lynch - who is the chairman of the Austin Stack Park Development Committee - the upcoming works will ensure that Tralee can continue to host major club and National League games. He said the Development Committee, formed almost ten years ago, continues to receive significant support from local businesses. 'The scheme has approximately 150 members. Everyone pays €1,000, and we have other people that pay higher, and we're hugely thankful to every one of those,' Liam said. Recent years have seen the development of the playing pitch, improved floodlights and the development of the Mitchel's end of Austin Stack Park. "Anybody who has been here for the Dublin National League game will know, that's where the Hill 16 on tour goes, and it's been a fantastic addition to the grounds," Liam said. 'The next part of the jigsaw always was to replicate that without the roof in the Horan's End. 'Covid intervened, but now we're in a position to start the Horan's End development,' Lynch explained. 'Austin Park will now be able to cater for 14,000 people, which is fantastic." "It's quite a unique concept," he said. "The businesses of the town and some also from North Kerry, west Kerry and Castleisland areas, have come together to support us. It's their support only, that has enabled us to go out, to borrow the money, and to pay off bank loans over time."
Belfast Telegraph
12-07-2025
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
Mickey Harte makes decision on his future as Offaly boss after a strong campaign
Harte joined the set-up last August and since then he has helped to make a significant impact on the county's fortunes. The team won Division Three of the Allianz Football League before losing to All-Ireland Semi-Finalists Meath in the Leinster Championship. The Offaly side showed greater composure and commitment this year and Harte is hopeful that they can offer greater resistance and staying power next year although he acknowledges that they may find the going tougher in Division Two. Harte's impact, though, has been felt both on and off the field in Offaly. The midland county won their first two group matches in the Tailteann Cup against Oisin McConville's Wicklow side and Waterford before a defeat to Justin McNulty's Laois sent Offaly into a Preliminary Quarter-Final against New York. They eventually lost to Kildare in the Tailteann Cup at the Quarter-Final stage with the Lilywhites proceeding into Saturday's Final against Limerick at Croke Park (2.30pm). Meanwhile, the two former Armagh players who have been holding down managerial posts in Leinster will continue in their current roles. McNulty and McConville were in the Armagh team that won the 2002 All-Ireland title but right now McNulty has indicated that he will remain as manager of Laois while it is understood that McConville will continue as the Wicklow team boss. Both McNulty and McConville have made an impact with their respective counties and are particularly keen to chart significant progress next year. McConville has helped to assemble a Wicklow side that has been improving of late and he is particularly keen to take the team further next year.
Extra.ie
01-07-2025
- Sport
- Extra.ie
Joe Brolly has baffling excuse after calling All Ireland contenders 'useless'
Joe Brolly has given a baffling explanation after being criticised for some questionable punditry. Writing in the Irish Independent at the end of June, Brolly slammed Kerry's squad as 'useless' while explaining how the Kingdom judge their teams at a different level to all others. Suggesting that the Kerry population have a 'scorn' for their own team, the pundit went on to write that 'Being a Kerry footballer is like being Michael Jordan's son.' His point seemingly being that no matter how good you are, you will never be good enough when you are constantly compared to the greatest of all time. Joe Brolly. Pic: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos The Derry man went on to include plenty of conversations with people of Kerry dismissing their own team's chances, but it was Brolly himself who emphatically stated that 'the current crop is useless altogether.' 'Only David Clifford is exempt,' he wrote. The comments were boldly confident and, taking the analysis at face value, one would have been left to conclude that the Kingdom were destined for early All-Ireland elimination. Instead, just weeks later, Kerry went on to throttle Armagh, current All-Ireland champions, by a score of 0-32 to 1-21. 40:00 – Rian O'Neill puts Armagh 5 up56:40 – David Clifford puts Kerry 10 up16 mins of just outrageous football. The Sunday Game 🎥 — Daniel Hussey (@DanielHussey2) June 30, 2025 Having written off Armagh earlier this season, Brolly proclaimed in his piece; 'I was wrong, a confession I have not had to make since childhood.' Just weeks later, perhaps it was time for him to whip out that dusty old confession once again? He was, after all, clearly wrong. 25 January 2020; Eir Sport pundit Joe Brolly before the Allianz Football League Division 1 Round 1 match between Donegal and Mayo at MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey, Donegal. Photo by Oliver McVeigh/Sportsfile However, speaking on his Free State podcast, Brolly said that he had absolutely nothing to apologise for. 'Let me try to explain this to you,' he told his cohost Dion Fanning. 'My pieces are an entertainment, they're a conversation in the pub. They're written before the games. You understand that? 'I don't have a crystal ball. Games are chaotic and unpredictable, [so] anything can and often does happen. 'These pieces essentially… I'm not one bit irritated. They're fun. That's why they're read. That's why people get into it and enjoy the conversation and the debate and all the rest of it.' Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile So, it appears Brolly's excuse is that it's absolutely fine when players or entire squads get slated by pundits, but when it comes to pundits being questioned by their own readers? Outrageous. Criticism is fine when you've a ball in your hand, but when it's a pen between your fingers? Completely out of order. Sport is serious business after all. Punditry is only fun. It's not like he's a professional pundit writing for a national newspaper, it's just 'a conversation in the pub'. And if it is only pub talk, maybe it isn't Kerry's squad that's 'useless'?
RTÉ News
23-06-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Davy Burke: Rory Beggan is the No. 1 player in the new game
Rory Beggan is the most valuable player in Gaelic football, according to Roscommon manager Davy Burke. The Monaghan goalkeeper has kicked 0-54 in 12 competitive games in 2025, the advent of the two-pointer doubling his return from long-range frees. Burke has had to plan for Beggan on two occasions, once in the Allianz Football League in Hyde Park and then in the Division 2 decider at Croke Park. While Beggan was restricted to a single point in the Hyde, he took them for 0-07 in the latter, and Burke reckons he is one of the players who has profited the most from the FRC changes. The Roscommon manager said that the problem wasn't so much frees conceded on the edge of the arc, which referees are wary of giving, but more so when the ball is marched forward 50 metres. "We played Monaghan in the third round of the league in the Hyde and we restricted Rory Beggan to no effort at all for two pointers," Burke said on the RTÉ GAA podcast. "We beat them by five or six points. "We met them in the league final again. And we had a similar plan to restrict Beggan and I think he got four of them. "A couple of them were balls brought up (for not handing ball back), which is ridiculous really. And kickout marks, which are gone. "He's a cheat code. He's a complete cheat code. "Monaghan have the No. 1 player in this new game, in my opinion. He's the biggest threat to everybody. He could kick 0-10 in a game. He's phenomenal. "Particularly with the 50-metre rule. If you're bringing any ball up, that fella can kick the ball from 60 yards over the bar. "In fairness to the refs, they don't give away soft frees on the top of the arc. I would imagine they're discussing it themselves. "They don't tend to give you a soft free at the arc because most teams are playing for them, let's be honest about it. So, they don't tend to give you them, which is fair enough. "But the ones that are killing teams are the 50m ones. You might think a free up the field, there's no jeopardy to it. But if you stand in the way and they bring it up 50m and then the likes of a Beggan or a Niall Morgan can kick it from 60 metres and it's a real, real hammer-blow." While there were fears early on in the season that the addition of the two-pointer would result in fewer goals, this appears to have corrected itself as the campaign has progressed. Burke says that defences are now ultra attuned to pushing out on two-point shooters, which has had the inevitable knock-on effect on leaving more space inside. "You're seeing teams push out man-to-man and put pressure on the shooters out there. There's huge work going into it, from all angles, to try and exploit this two-pointer. "As things go on, we're getting a better balance between goals and two-pointers. "For a while there, people were saying we're not scoring enough goals, do we need to go back to a four-point goal? If you look at it now, we're scoring plenty of goals. "Galway and Down, how many goal chances did they miss between the two of them? "They missed six, seven or eight chances. But I think we're not programmed like this. We wouldn't have six goal chances in a championship campaign last year whereas now you have six in 20 minutes. "I think the players don't know how this is opening up in front of them. They're delighted with themselves and maybe panicking and rushing the shots. "But I think it might be next year before players get used to this and start finishing all of them."
Belfast Telegraph
20-06-2025
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
How my Wicklow boys can book spot in the Tailteann Cup decider at Croker
When the Wicklow team which I manage reached the 2023 Allianz Football League Division Four Final, I thought I would test the water in relation to the players' experience of Croke Park.
