Latest news with #Dalo
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Climate
- Irish Examiner
Will it rain at Croke Park for the All-Ireland final on Sunday and does it matter?
Will the rain make a difference Sunday? That was the first question posed by the audience at the recording of Dalo's Hurling Show in Sarsfields on Wednesday evening. The narrative appears to be forming that a rainy day might suit Tipp better. That conditions might slow down the match, and negate Cork's perceived pace advantage. And perhaps disrupt the slick exchanges of the Cork forwards that have delivered goals so far in this championship. There is also an age-old concern that Cork don't win in the rain, though surely Mark Landers and the 99 gang put that one to bed, beating Kilkenny 0-12 to 0-11 in a miserly game in miserable conditions. In the years since, current Cork selector Wayne Sherlock, who played that day, has relished that factor. "The fact that it was in the rain, too, that was important, because you'd always hear this thing that Cork couldn't play in the rain.' To Sunday, Met Eireann, by Thursday afternoon, has dialled back on its gloomiest predictions. Earlier in the week, Dublin was among the areas threatened with thundery conditions Sunday, as well as spot flooding, hail, and lightning. Now, light showers are on the menu for final day, even predicted to clear around the throw-in time of 3:30pm. So do Anthony Daly and Mark Landers think the weather will matter? "I think if it was in any other pitch other than Croker you'd be talking about it more. Croke Park is so insulated," Dalo maintained. "The pitch is bone dry. It is nearly artificial. It is hard to get the right studs. You saw the footballers slipping and sliding." But he's certainly not having the idea that conditions will level any skills gap. "I often think the better hurlers come to the fore in the rain. I think the fella with beter touch comes to the fore in wet conditions. When the hurley and ball are slippy." Landers is in agreement. "In the Killkenny-Tipp semi-final there was a tsumani in the middle of the first half. It was ferocious for 10 minutes, but the score still ended up 4-20 to 0-30. "It didn't stop the skill of the players on view. I think the players will adapt to any conditions Sunday. Whether it's sunny, windy, raining. I think the level of skill and performance now is so high that I don't think the weather will come into it. "The weather will be the same for both teams and I think both teams are really skillful."
Irish Examiner
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Watch: Dalo live at Sarsfields. Part 1 of a special All-Ireland hurling final preview
It was a most enjoyable episode of Dalo's Hurling Show on Wednesday night, recorded live at Sarsfields Hurling Club, home club of Cork manager Pat Ryan. After paying homage at the magificent Teddy McCarthy statue, special guest Eamon O'Shea joined regular trio Dalo, TJ Ryan and Mark Landers to dissect all aspects of Sunday's historic Cork v Tipperary All-Ireland final. This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in Take us with you this summer. Annual €130€65 Best value Monthly €12€6 / month
Irish Examiner
10-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Register To Attend: Dalo's Hurling Show All-Ireland Final Preview
We want you to join us for a very special Dalo's Hurling Show All-Ireland Final Preview, this Wednesday, July 16 in Sarsfields Hurling Club, Glanmire. Exclusive to Irish Examiner subscribers, we're inviting you, plus a guest, to this intimate live podcast recording where Anthony Daly, TJ Ryan, Mark Landers and special guest, former Tipperary All-Ireland winning manager Liam Sheedy, will preview this historic first ever All-Ireland final meeting of Cork and Tipperary. This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in Take us with you this summer. Annual €130€65 Best value Monthly €12€6 / month
Irish Examiner
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Dalo's Hurling Show: Isn't it time Cork and Tipp started meeting like this?
The key moments, the cards, the tennis goals, the scoreboard controversy. And how Dalo and TJ can avoid the next two weeks! In partnership with Centra, proud sponsors of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.
Irish Examiner
05-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
'We were at our peak': Stephen Hiney still 'sore' about 2013 defeat to Cork
Calling La Sirène in the south of France. A family holiday briefly interrupted. A most obliging Stephen Hiney. Today's semi-final gets a look in - eventually. The 2013 semi-final is given precedence. Twelve years later, that semi-final is still a 'sore point'. 2013 was Hiney's 12th's season in blue. He was beating for 30. He'd seen woeful times. He'd seen wonderful times. August 2013 had the potential to surpass them all. The natural reflex of almost everyone involved in the semi-final is to go straight to Ryan O'Dwyer's second yellow on 50 minutes. Dublin led by the minimum. The momentum swung red thereafter. Such is Hiney's character, he neither begins with the sending-off nor attaches defeat to their numerical disadvantage. He begins instead with himself. 'My own performance was disappointing. Conor Lehane's pace, there were times I couldn't get hold of him. Maybe in years previously, but not at that stage,' he recalls. One can't but be impressed by such unprompted introspection. Maybe that's why when we went to Anthony Daly earlier in the week looking for a 2013 Dublin steer, Hiney was one of the first names he came back with. 'We were confident. Maybe others didn't, but we certainly thought we had a chance in that game,' Hiney continues. 'We had already done something we hadn't done in a long time which was to win Leinster, but we felt the opportunity was there to get to the All-Ireland final and potentially cause a massive upset. It probably still is sore that we didn't, but Cork won and we couldn't say we were hard done by. We did perform, just didn't quite get there.' He drifts between the past and present. Points to the 2021 and '24 Leinster finals as occasions where the Dublin team promised in the build-up but under-delivered on the day. Dublin performed 12 years ago, but did they under-deliver in not at least reaching the final day? 'That year, I think, yes. We were at our peak. Dalo had got us to a point where we were fully bought in, we were getting the most out of the players we had on a consistent basis, which is a really difficult thing to do. 'Even after 2013, I felt we are going to push on from this, contest a lot more Leinster finals and have more silverware. But the reality is, we haven't. It stagnated and we haven't kicked on.' During Dalo's six-year spell in the capital, they did a couple of sessions with the army rangers in the Curragh, particularly in Donnelly's Hollow, which the rangers turned into a torture chamber for the Dublin players. The rangers would remark to the then manager that Hiney was one of the toughest GAA players they'd ever encountered. And this about a chap diagnosed as an insulin-dependent diabetic at 15. At age 22, he was told he'd a 'slim chance' of ever hurling again after undergoing corrective eye surgery, while there was a cruciate rupture six years on again. The diabetes meant needles were packed into the gearbag before the socks and togs. 'On a regular day, my insulin levels would be absolutely fine. Come matchday, as the body prepares for the adrenaline, the fight or flight, it is just producing and releasing energy into my body at a level that was nearly counter-intuitive. 'Heading into Croke Park to play in front of the biggest crowds I would ever have, you would see my blood sugar levels start to rise with that adrenaline. A couple of hours out from the game, you'd need to start to take on a little bit more insulin. You'd then have a big comedown nearly the second the final whistle went as the adrenaline would flow out of you.' Just as Dublin's graph was rising under Dalo, the construction sector was hurtling in the other direction. Hiney was a senior engineer with Sisk. The downturn prompted a career pivot. His brother spotted an Aldi advertisement in the Sunday Business Post regarding an area manager role. 'It intrigued me. Joined in January 2012 and never looked back. Definitely an obscure change from construction to a German discount retailer.' He and the family relocated to Edinburgh for the three years pre-Covid as he served as operations director for the west coast of Scotland. He's currently store operations director for Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, and the greater Leinster region. The ladder climbed, the same as with Dublin. Rounding back to this evening. The holidaying Hiney's don't check out of La Sirène until tomorrow morning. 'A real pity to miss it. Niall [Ó Ceallacháin] is my age, so we would have been on the same Dublin development squads the whole way up. David Curtin is with him from Ballyboden, who I would have hurled with for many a year. If they can get the Limerick performance out of the players again, Dublin will be very hard to beat. 'There definitely was a chat about coming home for it, but hopefully there'll be another big day after it.'
