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RTÉ News
18-06-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Oisín O'Neill: Kieran McGeeney's issue not with rules but constant tweaks
Kieran McGeeney's regular criticism of the FRC rule changes relates not to the rules themselves but the fact that they're constantly changing, according to Oisín O'Neill. This week saw the contentious 50m penalty for impeding a kickout mark buried before the commencement of the All-Ireland SFC knockout phase. This, despite earlier assurances in the wake of the league that the rules were set in stone for the rest of 2025, at least. Central Council voted - by 39 votes to one - to remove the 50m mark and replace with an on-the-spot free. On Saturday, it was confirmed that the FRC had proposed the abolition of the 50m penalty with immediate effect. Following his side's narrow defeat to Galway in Kingspan Breffni that evening, McGeeney lashed out at the decision to enact changes at a relatively late stage in the championship. "Some teams tell them to do something, I'd love that direct line," McGeeney said after the game. "Whoever has that direct line into Jim (Gavin) and Eamonn (Fitzmaurice), I would love that." Following the Cork-Kerry game in Round 2 of the group stage, both managers had criticised the 50m mark, with Jack O'Connor labelling it "ridiculous" and saying it was "going to have to be tidied up." While McGeeney has a reputation for being hostile to the FRC changes, O'Neill insists it's just the constant tweaking which was proving a headache for managers and players. "I think Kieran's biggest issue with them is they constantly change. We played half the league and they changed them," O'Neill said, at the launch of the All-Ireland SFC knockout stage. "They're talking about another change this week. There's four rounds of the championship left! "I think Kieran has no issue with the rules. It's more just that they're continuously changing. "As players, that's frustrating because you're working on one thing one week and then it might change." After five rounds of the league, the FRC introduced a major tweak, with teams now obliged to keep four players in their own half at all times to prevent the roaming goalkeeper functioning as an extra man in attack. "We probably had to tweak a few things that we've been working on and change certain things that we were trying to work on," O'Neill said. "Such as the mark, you know, you had to hold your hands up after going up and now you're being told you've five steps or whatever." As to whether he agreed with the kickout mark, O'Neill said it was fine as long as referees allowed players to compete for the ball. "I think if it's refereed in the spirit that the rules intended, you have to allow a little bit of leeway like for players to compete for the ball, but I think it's a reflection of how well coached you are. "And we were punished severely by it at the weekend, and it's something that we wouldn't be happy with." Follow a live blog on the All-Ireland Football Championship on Saturday and Sunday on and the RTÉ News app. Listen to updates on Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Saturday Game at 9.15pm and The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Irish Examiner
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Munster set to seed Cork and Kerry in 2026 football championship
MUNSTER GAA top-brass are in favour of seeding Cork and Kerry in next year's Munster SFC, with a full provincial council vote on the matter to take place next month. Under the current structure, which seeds the previous year's finalists, Clare and five-in-a-row Munster champions Kerry are to receive semi-final draws for the third year in succession in 2026. Kerry and Clare can still be paired against one another in the last-four stage, but this has not happened on the two occasions they were the seeded duo. This current structure has been in place since 2015, but in the wake of Kerry overcoming the Banner by 14, seven, and 11 points respectively in the last three provincial deciders, Munster's management committee is now recommending a change to the existing format and instead seeding Cork and Kerry in 2026. The seeding of Cork, over beaten Munster finalists Clare, would be linked to Cork's higher League position this year. Cork finished fifth in Division 2, whereas Clare just missed out on promotion to the second tier when winding up third in Division 3 for the second year running. League positions, similar to the criteria for Sam Maguire involvement, would be the new Munster model of determining what two counties are seeded for the following year's provincial draw. There is quiet optimism the recommended seeding of Cork and Kerry will be passed, even in the face of expected Clare opposition. The proposal was outlined to counties at the most recent Munster Council meeting, with a vote to take place at the next meeting in July. In his match programme notes on the day of the Munster football final, provincial chairman Tim Murphy wrote: 'It is incumbent on us as a provincial council to review and consider what we can do better to further enhance Gaelic football as a spectacle within Munster and create the conditions and structures necessary to improve and enhance the game for players and spectators alike. 'We will be discussing this and working on what we can do to achieve the best possible outcome over the coming weeks and months.' The total attendance figure for this year's Munster SFC - 33,491 - was less than that which watched the drawn Munster final of 10 years ago. The Munster final crowd of 13,181, while bigger than the Kerry-Clare deciders of the past two years at Ennis (12,059) and Limerick (12,499) respectively, was still 59% down on the last non-Covid Munster football final - 2017- to take place in Killarney. It is now seven years - stretching back to the 2018 Cork-Kerry final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh - that a Munster football fixture has drawn a crowd in excess of 20,000. The average per game attendance for 2025 equates to a paltry 6,700. The Munster MFC also looks certain to be altered next season, the likely outcome that its structure will mirror the U20 format where Cork and Kerry are guaranteed a minimum of three games. At present in the minor championship, Cork and Kerry are guaranteed two championship outings, compared to three for Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford. The corresponding Munster MHC guarantees counties a minimum of four games. Cork minor football manager Keith Ricken touched on the issue following their nine-point All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Tyrone at the weekend. 'I said previously that the more games these lads play the better they will get, and that has been true. But they've played three games in Munster and one in the All-Ireland. Tyrone have played around 10 games between the Ulster league and championship. 'Until we kind of address that issue with the lack of games in Munster, then it's going to be a problem when you get into the All-Ireland series. Croke Park have called this minor, it's not minor, it's U17.' Elsewhere at Tuesday's behind-closed-doors Cork county board meeting, there was further criticism of both the executive's Munster hurling final ticket distribution and Munster Council's year-on-year ticket price increase for the game. The Cork executive was criticised for not allocating a single stand ticket to football-only clubs in their initial breakdown of ticket distribution. In the build-up to the game, St Nick's football club chairman Robert Brosnan told the Irish Examiner there was no need to distinguish between codes. 'There's enough people do that already without any good ground for it. Hurling is obviously No 1 in Cork, it is a sad state of affairs when the county board is backing that up,' said Brosnan. 'Even for an All-Ireland final, whether your county is involved or not, every club in the country receives two stand tickets. Our county is in the Munster final and we are not getting a stand ticket, not one.' Cork GAA CEO Kevin O'Donovan, in reply, said that due to demand, priority had to be given to hurling clubs over their football equivalents. The €50 and €40 stand and terrace tickets for last Saturday's game was also looked upon unfavourably by delegates, with comparison made to the €40 price for Leinster hurling final stand tickets.
Irish Examiner
04-06-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
Refs must retain right to adjudge kick-out mark infringements, insists Deegan
Football Review Committee member Maurice Deegan says referees have to retain the authority to interpret the 50-metre kick-out mark penalty as they see fit. Three-time All-Ireland final referee Deegan revealed he has received several messages following this past weekend's All-Ireland SFC Round 2 games where there were several instances of the rule being implemented. In the Cork-Kerry game in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday, referee Derek O'Mahoney exercised the 50m advancement on several occasions much to the ire of both managers John Cleary and Jack O'Connor. In the second half, Cork were adjudged to have obstructed Kerry a few times and as per rule the visitors took the option of bringing the resultant free advanced 50m outside the arc for a two-point free. Deegan is adamant it should be left up to referees to determine what constitutes an obstruction within four metres of a kick-out mark. 'That part of the rule has been there for some time now but it's probably being more enforced now. 'As for it being policed a bit too harshly, I don't think so. I would say the lads are policing it correctly. You're probably seeing more implementing it to the letter of the law. 'Every referee is different in how they judge certain facets of the game. It's like the advantage rule, which now has no time limit in football. The extent of the advantage given is open to the interpretation of the referee. 'There had been a time limit of kick-outs earlier this year but there is none now and that is also up to the referee and what he thinks is the acceptable amount of time for the 'keeper to take the kick. You don't want to take that out of the referee's hands either. 'The rules are being scrutinised like never before and I can understand where they are coming from. Nobody should want to take the power out of the referee's hands. It would be the wrong to do that. You have to trust the referee. It's the same in every walk of life, everyone is different.' Deegan accepts the point that the act of a player in unsuccessfully challenging to claim a kick-out shouldn't be considered as a tackle within the four metres. 'No, that isn't a challenge in that sense. If two players are coming down to the ground, you would imagine that is fine and the player who wins the mark either takes it or plays on.'
Irish Examiner
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Munster SFC attendance slightly down from last year's total
The total attendance figure for this year's Munster SFC - 33,491 - was less than that which watched the drawn Munster final of 10 years ago. In the latest sign of the dwindling interest in the Munster football championship, the total attendance figure for the 2025 edition represented a slight decrease on last year's 35,823 equivalent. More worrying and, indeed, more telling, however, is that the overall 33,491 figure is smaller than the 35,651 which attended the 2015 Munster final drawn game between Cork and Kerry at Fitzgerald Stadium. The replay crowd of 32,233 wasn't far off either from standing taller than the combined total from this year's five-game series. Of the two provincial football finals played on Sunday, the crowd in Killarney was less than half the 27,137 that paid in for Galway-Mayo in Castlebar. The Munster final crowd of 13,181, while bigger than the Kerry-Clare deciders of the past two years at Ennis (12,059) and Limerick (12,499) respectively, was still 59% down on the last non-Covid Munster football final - 2017- to take place in Killarney. It is now seven years - stretching back to the 2018 Cork-Kerry final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh - that a Munster football fixture has drawn a crowd in excess of 20,000. The average per game attendance for 2025 equates to a paltry 6,700. Writing in Sunday's match programme, Munster chairman Tim Murphy accepted there is a body of work to be done to make their provincial football championship more attractive than is currently the case. 'Over recent years much has been said and written about the competitiveness and non-competitiveness of Munster football. "The Munster Football Championship received a badly needed boost two weeks ago when we witnessed an exhilarating semi-final clash between Cork and Kerry. The game, which went to extra-time, had everything that is good about Gaelic Football. 'The new rules are certainly contributing to the improvements, but it is incumbent on us as a provincial council to review and consider what we can do better to further enhance Gaelic Football as a spectacle within Munster and create the conditions and structures necessary to improve and enhance the game for players and spectators alike. 'We will be discussing this and working on what we can do to achieve the best possible outcome over the coming weeks and months.'
Irish Examiner
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Munster final Sunday has become no more than a box-ticking exercise for all in green and gold
KERRY 4-20 (4-3-14) CLARE 0-21 (0-2-17) Munster chairman Tim Murphy, writing in the match programme, said the 'exhilarating' nature of the recent Cork-Kerry semi-final was 'a badly needed boost' for the often maligned and too often non-competitive Munster football championship. There was no second boost here, no second spectacle. There was nothing remotely exhilarating about this Munster final. Served up instead was apathy and another Kerry annihilation. The crowd of 13,181 was the smallest in living memory for a provincial decider at Fitzgerald Stadium. The Kerry majority within that number couldn't even be bothered to encroach the pitch afterwards. And fully understandable was their post-match muteness. Equally so was the understated behaviour of their players on the field. Munster final Sunday has become no more than a box-ticking exercise for all in the green and gold corner. The numbers bear out this argument. This latest Sunday was the fourth time in the last five years where their margin of victory on the concluding day of provincial business sat in double digits. Try these for lotto numbers: 22, 23, 14, 7, and 11. Has a five-in-a-row ever been so comfortably achieved? A stroll-in-the-sun 86th Munster crown. A stress-free 12th in 13 years. After Clare had the temerity to come within seven last May, they and their former Kerry boss were duly whipped here. Embarrassed, even, at times in the opening half when the gap ran to 15 points and threatened to run out of control. The Kerry and Clare players march behind the Millstreet Pipe Band in the parade before the Munster GAA Football Senior Championship final. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile. No surprise sprung by Peter Keane against his own. No getting one over on Jack, or anyone else from back home for that matter. His knowledge of local weaknesses from his three years at the helm did not lead to any exploitation of such. Indeed, such was the utter one-sidedness that the absence of the injured Shane Ryan, Paul Murphy, Diarmuid O'Connor, Graham O'Sullivan, and suspended Paudie Clifford was neither lamented nor felt. There was ample breathing space to hand championship debuts, off the bench, to Mark O'Shea, Evan Looney, and Keith Evans. Among those drafted in for the aforementioned missing quintet was a first championship start since 2021 for Micheál Burns. He finished a first-half goal and finished the first half itself by preventing an Eoin Cleary goal at the far end. Seán O'Shea started his first game since the League defeat to Dublin on February 15. It was as if he'd never been away. Inside 22 seconds, he'd kicked only Kerry's second two-pointer in five games. 'Seánie has had a frustrating time with a knee issue, but it just shows the reservoir of fitness he's built up, because he doesn't have a huge amount done. I was amazed he was going as well as he was for fifty minutes, but he's a great lad and got a great attitude,' said Jack, post-match. Kerry's so-called problem department in the middle of the field looked no problem at all. Barry Dan pinched 1-1 and pulled down kickouts. Joe O'Connor again broke restarts and broke perfectly-timed onto attacks. Because there is so little of a contest to reflect upon, let's instead focus on the reality ahead for the Kingdom. Unless Cork unsettle them for a second time at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on the June Bank Holiday weekend, Kerry will once again land into the last eight of the championship significantly less examined than their fellow Sam Maguire frontrunners. Deep down, the Kerry camp knows as much. So, how will Jack stir the juices? 'I'll tell you now, the best way to keep fellas' feet on the ground; there were four or five fellas who missed out today, and they'll all be training next week. Bobby Knight said long ago, if a fella thinks his arse is going to be on the seat, that will focus his mind pretty quick.' The reverse of that is the fellas who missed yesterday must have been getting anxious in the stand at how they were going to dislodge teammates from a side that kept Clare to five points in the opening 26 minutes, while at the same time posting 4-7. Suspense had been unforgivingly removed by the sixth minute. Kerry already had two goals on the board. Tony Brosnan and Tom O'Sullivan with the risk-reward passes. David Clifford, both times, with the finish. Clare did not help themselves. Keelan Sexton blazed over a first-half penalty. They converted only five of 13 first-half scoring opportunities from play. Emmet McMahon committed a stupid black card foul on 16 minutes after Paul Geaney had been stripped of possession. But instead of a Clare turnover won, O'Shea kicked his second two-pointer and Kerry enjoyed numerical advantage for the ensuing 10 minutes. It was a 10-minute period where Kerry doubled their goal count through Burns and Barry Dan. Their lead peaked at 15. That was the interval difference, 4-10 to 0-7. Their second-half easing off was, in keeping with the afternoon's theme, expected and understandable. An exhilarating semi-final, an evisceration of a final. Local business again taken care of. Now comes the real business. Scorers for Kerry: D Clifford (2-5, tp, 0-1 free); S O'Shea (0-8, tp free, tp, 0-3 frees); BD O'Sullivan (1-1); P Geaney (0-4, 0-1 free); M Burns (1-0); D Geaney (0-2). Scorers for Clare: E McMahon (0-8, 2tp frees, 0-2 frees); M McInerney (0-6, 0-2 frees, 0-1 '45); K Sexton (0-1 pen), B McNamara (0-2 each); M Doherty, D Walsh, A Griffin (0-1 each). Kerry: S Murphy; D Casey, J Foley, T O'Sullivan; B Ó Beaglaoich, M Breen, G White; J O'Connor, BD O'Sullivan; T Brosnan, S O'Shea, M Burns; D Clifford, P Geaney, D Geaney. Subs: T Morley for Foley (27-32, temporary); R Murphy for Brosnan, K Spillane for O'Shea (both 52); T Morley for Breen (54); M O'Shea for BD O'Sullivan (55); K Evans for Burns (59); E Looney for Ó Beaglaoich (64, temporary). Clare: E Tubridy; M Doherty, R Lanigan, C Brennan; A Sweeney, C Rouine, I Ugweuru; B McNamara, D Walsh; A Griffin, E McMahon, D Coughlan; M McInerney, K Sexton, E Cleary. Subs: C Meaney for Sweeney, S Griffin for Walsh (both 54); E Cahill for Sexton (58); R McMahon for Rouine (62); D Burns for Cleary (68). Referee: N Mooney (Cavan).
