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Irish Independent
2 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Kerry's All-Ireland quarter-final record in Croke Park is grounds for hope of further success
If there is a bit of doom and gloom and lack of confidence around the Kingdom ahead of the team's prospects against Armagh on Sunday, there's certainly one truth that Kerry supporters – and the players – can cling to: for the most part, Kerry do not lose All-Ireland quarter-finals.
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Turnstiles click for a game transformed and the most open championship in decades
The All-Ireland SFC is down to the last eight. After this weekend there will be four teams and three matches left. So far this has been a brilliant season, showcasing the rule changes introduced by the FRC , which have impacted beyond the wildest and most optimistic imaginings. By Friday teatime, Croke Park were reporting sales of 63,000 for Saturday's double bill of Monaghan -Donegal and Tyrone -Dublin with 74,000 shifted for Meath- Galway and the weekend's box office pairing of All-Ireland champions Armagh and brand leaders, Kerry. If the tickets keep going, these quarter-finals could be the best attended in 16 years. Another 10,000 in sales and the combined attendance for the weekend will surpass 2017 and you would have to go back to 2009 to find a bigger turnout. A game with additional space for forwards and the incentive to move the ball quickly into attack has blossomed into a spectacle that has captivated spectators. READ MORE Providing a two-point scoring option has rendered big leads assailable and plenty of teams have availed of the opportunity to pull matches back into the undecided column. Last weekend GAA president Jarlath Burns , who empanelled the FRC less than 18 months ago, permitted himself a tincture of self-congratulation in the match programme for the Croke Park double bill. GAA president Jarlath Burns speaking at Croke Park last week. Photograph: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile 'The FRC and the new rules have had a dramatic and transformative effect on our game. The high quantity of scores in football now is being matched by the high quality of scores in matches and is being backboned by a welcome increase in drama and competitiveness. 'Usually, we urge caution before rushing to conclusions. But what we have seen in the last six months is a game rediscovering itself and is a joy to see.' Vindication wasn't long in re-appearing. The following day, Galway went to Newry and led Down by 10 points at half-time. Within a minute and a half of the restart, the deficit was down to six after two two-pointers and closed to two with 15 minutes left. They survived, drawing this haunted response from manager Pádraic Joyce: 'We were battle-hardened before today but we're battle-hardened again.' Joyce's team, together with All-Ireland champions Armagh and back-to-back Ulster champions Donegal , lead the betting for this year's Sam Maguire. Having lost two of the last three All-Ireland finals, Galway have made a tightrope walk out of the campaign so far. On Sunday they face Meath , rejuvenated under Robbie Brennan's management. This is seen as one of the clearer-cut matches but the Connacht champions will still have to cope with a team that became the first in 17 years to beat both Dublin and Kerry in the same championship campaign. Meath manager Robbie Brennan after their win over Kerry at O'Connor Park. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho They have also adapted really well to the possibilities of the two-point kicks, as have Galway. A rapidly-transitioning contest with orange flags in constant profusion? There could be more battle-hardening on the way for Joyce. It is difficult to think of an All-Ireland denouement with a greater spread of credible candidates. Monaghan, facing Donegal on Saturday – much to Donegal's chagrin, having played their preliminary quarter-final only six days prior – is the only county in action this weekend not to have won the Sam Maguire at some stage. The other seven counties have won every All-Ireland of the past 30 years with only the sole exception of Cork's triumph in 2010. There has been very little between them. Every county has lost at least once this championship. It is unprecedentedly competitive, as Burns also referenced a week ago. 'Already, this 2025 football campaign ranks as one of the most open, exciting and enjoyable championship summers in memory and we are still only now at what some might call the 'business end',' he said. One consequence of this is that virtually every county can have dreams going into this weekend – six of them without having to hallucinate too hard. Dublin's Con O'Callaghan. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho The relentless tempo of the split-season schedule means that injury bites hard and a number of teams are awaiting prognoses on important players. St Januarius maintains his feast day in September, as a good few people would prefer the GAA to do in regard to All-Ireland finals. But not even the crowds that gather in Naples each year to see whether the saint's blood liquefies are as rapt with anxiety as Dublin supporters waiting to see if captain Con O'Callaghan's hamstring miraculously loosens for the fray against Tyrone. Galway await a similarly positive prognosis on Shane Walsh's shoulder. Kerry will hope for Paudie Clifford's full engagement and Monaghan for Gary Mohan's. To name but a few. Eight teams are poised but only four will make it out of this weekend with their hopes intact. At least one will hope to do so with a decisive display that establishes them as the contenders with momentum going into the semi-finals and beyond. On your marks.
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Monaghan's Croke Park record is of failure against big teams - Donegal clash is a chance to change it
This is usually the point at which any Monaghan bandwagon starts to creak and groan and chug its last. In their best years in the All-Ireland series, they have tended to be the little engine that could, right until it becomes obvious they can't. There's no big mystery as to when they arrive at that point, either – it's generally when they come face to face with a Division One team in Croke Park . In 2005, Monaghan played their first championship match in Croke Park for 27 years, a double-scores whipping by Tyrone . It was only their sixth championship game at HQ since 1930, including a replay against Kerry in 1985. They have become far more regular visitors since but their record is reliably dire, a between-the-eyes summing up of their place in the scheme of things. Over the past two decades, Monaghan have played 15 championship matches in Croker and lost 11. Those defeats have come against Tyrone (five times), Dublin (three), Kerry (twice) and Kildare (once). Of the remainder, they've beaten Kildare twice and Down once in normal time, as well as a memorable penalty shoot-out win over Armagh two summers ago. If you drill down into the victories, Down were a Division Two team when Monaghan beat them in 2017 . And though Armagh (2023) and Kildare (in 2014 and 2018) had played in Division One earlier in the season, they'd all been relegated at the end of their respective league campaigns. Of the four, only Armagh were considered as possible All-Ireland contenders – and even then, they were down the list behind Kerry, Dublin, Derry and Tyrone. READ MORE The point is, Donegal are favourites for the 2025 All-Ireland. Monaghan don't beat the favourites for the All-Ireland. They don't ever beat serious contenders for the All-Ireland, not in Croke Park and not in the All-Ireland series. History tells us that this is where they come unstuck. So why should this year be any different? On the face of it, it shouldn't. Donegal have beaten Monaghan already this summer and haven't lost a championship game against them since the 2015 Ulster final . They've won the last three clashes between the counties and drew the one before it, making this the longest unbeaten Donegal stretch in the fixture since the counties first met in 1929. But dig a little deeper and you'll find that games between these two have always found room for an upset. Even when Donegal were a bit of a rabble in the summer of 2023, they were still able to pull off the biggest win of their year with a two-point victory over Monaghan in Omagh . That result was in keeping with tradition – time and again, matches between these sides have been won by the unfancied team. For Donegal 2023, read Monaghan 2013 . And Monaghan 1995. And Donegal 1983. If you go through the games Monaghan have lost in Croke Park over the past 20 years, they have been against sides that they have no tradition of beating. Tyrone have been their bogey team for a generation now – they've never beaten them outside of the Ulster championship. As for Kerry and Dublin, Monaghan have never won a game against either of them in championship football. Donegal are favourites for the 2025 All-Ireland. Monaghan don't beat the favourites for the All-Ireland. Photograph: Leah Scholes/Inpho In the GAA, everyone has a mental block about somebody. It doesn't make sense but it's undeniably true. And it means that Monaghan supporters will travel in much more hope and confidence this weekend to face Donegal (top of the betting for Sam Maguire) than they would if they were facing Tyrone (sixth), Dublin (fifth) or Kerry (fourth). Don't ask for the science, just accept the facts. Away from that sort of specious juju though, Monaghan carry a threat that is specific to this particular championship. In Gabriel Bannigan's first year in charge, they have taken to the new rules in an eye-catching way, embracing the possibilities offered by two-pointers and backing their hard-running style in one-on-one situations around the arc. [ Malachy Clerkin: Mayo's decision to oust Kevin McStay was fair enough but the way they did it was foul Opens in new window ] Back in the spring, they were the top scorers in the league across all the divisions, averaging a shade over 1-24 a game. They have kept that number steady throughout the championship, putting up 4-96 in four matches. Only Down scored more than them in the group stage, with Armagh a full three points-per-game further back in third. There are caveats aplenty, of course. Monaghan ran up all their gaudy totals in Division Two of the league, which showed itself to be an outlier in terms of scoring. Of the 10 highest-scoring teams in the 2025 league, seven were in Division Two. Westmeath and Down got relegated from the second flight despite being the joint third-highest scorers in the country. Division Two was a high roller event this year and everybody played fast and loose. And though the average of Monaghan's totals hasn't dropped in the championship overall, the numbers don't tell you everything. All three group matches were against teams from Division Two and Three. In their only match all year against a Division One side, they scored just 0-21 against Donegal in Clones in April. That match was a ruthless depiction of the difference between the elite teams and the rest. Jim McGuinness's side put on a masterclass of scrubbing the opposition's strengths and making them find a different way to try to compete. Rory Beggan had been Monaghan's leading scorer in the league, filling his boots from two-point frees. So Donegal simply took that option away – they didn't concede a single kickable free to Beggan all day. No fouls outside the arc, no three-up breaches, no dissent. The Monaghan goalkeeper got to take just a single kick at goal all day, a first half 45 conceded by Shaun Patton when he turned a goal chance from Ryan McAnespie around the post. Monaghan stayed in that game by kicking two-pointers from play, five in all. But even that was a lower total than they needed – they tried for 12 two-pointers and missed seven. By contrast, Donegal only attempted a couple of two-pointers in the course of the game and landed them both. McGuinness's players didn't drop a single kick into Beggan's hands all day. Their shooting return was 76 per cent; Monaghan's was 57 per cent. Monaghan's best chance was always to try to sit in and hold on, to give themselves a chance down the stretch. It worked against Armagh in 2023. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho That's the difference. Monaghan's season so far has looked impressive at first glance but it has been built on games against lesser opposition. Clare and Down led them at half-time before Bannigan's side wrested control as the game progressed. In both games, they were helped by their opposition's wastefulness in front of goal. It seems unlikely that Donegal will be quite so obliging. And yet, there's no doubt Monaghan come to Croke Park this weekend with a genuine chance. Andy Moran's fingerprints are all over the way they attack. In the likes of Beggan, Dessie Ward, Micheál Bannigan, Jack McCarron and Conor McCarthy , they have a consistent two-point threat from a range of different angles and scenarios. That threat forces defences to come further out to meet them, leaving space for Bannigan, McAnespie and the elusive Stephen O'Hanlon to take on their men one-on-one. More than any other factor, the new dawn brought on by the rule changes have changed Monaghan's expectations here. All those years over the past two decades when they came to Croke Park to play a big Division One team, they were bound by their desire to keep everything tight. Their best chance was always to try to sit in and hold on, to give themselves a chance down the stretch. It worked against Armagh in 2023, albeit after penalties. But the limits of that approach were shown a fortnight later in the All-Ireland semi-final when they matched strides with Dublin all the way to the hour mark before eventually falling to a seven-point defeat. It was a slow death, the latest in a long line. [ Dean Rock: Rory Beggan is Monaghan's ace card who stops forwards at one end and puts fear in defenders down the other Opens in new window ] Whatever happens against Donegal, it won't be that. Monaghan have gone about the new game like a backpacker taking on a new identity in a foreign country. Who they were and what they did in the old game is irrelevant, for now at least. They know they can only win by going for broke. They are conceding big totals but on the flipside, they are taking a huge amount of shots. If they find the accuracy to go with their sense of adventure, they could finally smash through the glass ceiling. After 20 years of trying to beat a big team in Croke Park, this is as good a chance as they could hope for. If not now, when?
Leader Live
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
Wrexham AFC's Kerry Evans releases book about her life
Many people will recognise Kerry Evans from the hugely-successful Welcome to Wrexham documentary. She has been the Disability Liaison Officer at Wrexham AFC for over a decade by now and has become a powerful force for change through that role. So much so, that a book all about her journey so far in life has been published. Kerry's autobiography 'Stronger Than You Think' will be available to buy from Amazon as of August 12. From surviving a near-fatal brain bleed to creating accessible spaces for fans and helping to transform the club she loves, Kerry's journey shows us that no matter what life throws our way, we are all stronger than we think. Speaking to The Leader, she says that conversations with her late nan and Wrexham AFC co-chairman Rob McElhenney ultimately convinced her to put her life onto pages. Kerry said: "The book came about as my late Nan used to say if I ever wrote a book no one would ever believe it to be true, because so much has happened in my life. "Then, at the first promotion from the National league I chatted to Rob McElhenny and said all I want to do in my role is inspire people and his reply was that I inspire hundreds of people including him. "Which then got me thinking if it was possible to write a book then my job would be fulfilled if just one person felt they too could achieve from being inspired by my story." The front cover of Kerry Evans' autobiography 'Stronger Than You Think'. (Image: Kerry Evans) Kerry added: "It then grew from there. I am so immensely proud now having it completed and seeing the front cover was a real wow moment, making it feel very real. "It's been a very long hard journey at times, but I really want to hopefully leave people with the belief, if I've been able to achieve, they too can achieve." The summary of Kerry's autobiography, published by BiteBack Publishing, reads; "Born with cerebral palsy, something she worked hard to overcome and forge ahead with her life, Kerry then suffered a bleed on the brain, which left her with no feeling on the right side nor the ability to walk. "Such a setback could have destroyed her. Initially, she lost confidence and felt worthless. But then Wrexham Football Club came into her life, and she was transformed. And then Hollywood came calling. TOP STORIES "As disability liaison officer at Wrexham, Kerry was one of only six staff members who worked at the club prior to the Hollywood takeover and is therefore uniquely qualified to speak about how life at the club has changed. "She has witnessed at first hand the incredible story of how two Hollywood stars fell in love with a small football club in north Wales and transformed not only the fortunes of the team but also those of the community surrounding it. "But this is not just the story of the Hollywood takeover at Wrexham – this is the story of how one woman's indomitable spirit enabled her to overcome adversity and spend her life helping others."
Irish Examiner
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
The coaching rise of Kieran Donaghy - 'In a way his entire life is a sports film'
WEEKS before Armagh beat Kerry in the 2002 All-Ireland football final, an American called Rus Bradburd first met a promising but wayward teen called Kieran Donaghy. They did not hit it off. Bradburd had initiated the meeting upon hearing Donaghy was the best young basketball player in Kerry and wanted him to play for the Superleague team that he had just been entrusted with, Tralee Tigers. 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
