RTÉ GAA Podcast: Who has done best out of the football draw?
Éamonn Fitzmaurice joins Jacqui Hurley and Rory O'Neill to reflect on this morning's All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final draw.
Kerry will host Cavan, Cork go to Dublin, it's Down and Galway, while two provincial champions will battle it out when Donegal take on Louth.
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The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
Jim McGuinness hails Donegal heroes as Ciaran Thompson nets first championship goal in rout of Louth
JIM MCGUINNESS beamed at Ciaran Thompson's first championship goal as Donegal blew Louth away to power into the All-Ireland quarter-finals. 2 Donegal manager Jim McGuinness hailed his side after a comfy win over Louth on Sunday 2 Louth goalkeeper Niall McDonnell fails to stop a shot by Ciaran Thompson, who scored his first championship goal in the clash Oisín Gallen got back to his best with 0-5 as a dozen Donegal players scored to see off And McGuinness gushed at Naomh Conaill clubmate Thompson for producing the goods, as his smashing second half strike killed the game. He said: 'Brilliant, brilliant. Listen, Tomo offers us so much and he's so consistent and so honest and so brave. 'He punches way above his weight in the skies to be honest with you, with a lot bigger fellas out there. read more on golf 'But delighted to see him get a goal as well because that's the first goal he's ever scored in championship football, so it's a good day all round for Ciarán.' And boss McGuinness gushed at fan favourite Finnbarr Roarty too. The Glenties teen sensation, 19, has been magnificent in the Donegal defence since making his SFC debut against Derry this summer and fired 0-2 in another sizzling performance yesterday. He said: 'He's a huge favourite there with the crowd because he's just so honest and works so hard and he wins balls and he turns balls over that probably he shouldn't at times, and he's so young. Most read in GAA Football 'He's like a breath of fresh air for everybody watching him. But for me the most important adjustment that he's made is on the ball. 'He's always been a brilliant tenacious defender the whole way up through the ranks but now he's playing at senior Inter-County level and he's difficult to take the ball off as well. 'Just in time for Father's Day' - Dublin GAA legends welcome the birth of precious baby daughter "And no matter how good you are defensively if you're going to give the ball away in attacking phases you know it can cost the team. 'But he's been excellent at that and very good agility and very good at avoiding tackles and he adds so much to our attack with Ciarán Moore and these other fellas coming from deeper positions.' And McGuinness hopes his men are granted a Sunday fixture this weekend after this morning's quarter-final draw, as they face their third championship game in 14 days. He added: 'I think every county in Ireland will be hoping for a Sunday fixture, I don't think there will be too many saying we're happy for Saturday. But listen, we'll wait to see what that brings.'
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Played 15, conceded 51, scored one: Carla Ward looking to change Ireland's history against US
Chicago's Soldier Field was, you might recall, scene of one of Ireland's more famed sporting achievements back in 2016, the All Blacks downed by Joe Schmidt's crew for the first time in their history. The Irish women's football team, as it happens, made some history at the same venue too – in 2004, New York-born Michele O'Brien scored against the United States. But? It's the only time in 15 meetings with the States that Ireland managed a goal against them. Played 15, lost 15, conceded 51, scored one. Carnage. Republic of Ireland manager Carla Ward grimaced when she rattled off those stats on her Zoom call from Colorado, where she and her squad are preparing for the first of two friendlies against the States, ranked number one in the world, this week. That game kicks off in the early hours of Friday morning (2am Irish time), and then there's the trip to Cincinnati for Sunday's meeting (8pm Irish time). 'We'd be foolish to sit here and say the aim is to go and win, we have to look bigger than that, we have to look at where we're at, what we've been building and continue that,' she said. READ MORE Modest ambitions, then, the one – possible – piece of encouragement that Ward's old pal Emma Hayes has named a largely experimental US squad for the games. With the exception of Chelsea's world-record signing Naomi Girma, she has rested all her foreign-based players, the rest of her 25-strong group picked from the NWSL. Four have received their first senior call-ups, but World Cup winner Rose Lavelle brings a mountain of experience to the squad, returning for the first time in six months following ankle surgery. It is, though, an understrength Irish squad too, captain Katie McCabe absent after a gruelling season, as is Aoife Mannion and a string of players recovering from injury, including Heather Payne, Leanne Kiernan, Jamie Finn, Lily Agg, Jess Ziu and Tara O'Hanlon. Mannion and Payne are now among five of Ward's players who have 'unattached' by their names after they were released by Manchester United and Everton, respectively, in the last week. Megan Campbell, Izzy Atkinson and Grace Moloney were already without clubs, and it's likely that Tyler Toland will be looking for pastures new after Blackburn Rovers' decision to drop down to the third tier of English football. Worried? 'No,' said Ward, 'it doesn't concern me at all, this is normal this time of year, unless you're on a two or three-year deal. Most of them are talking to other clubs and getting things sorted.' Ward's main worry at the moment, she said, is about the conditions in Colorado. 'It's difficult any time to play the beast that is the USA, but add in the heat and the altitude and, yeah, it's going to be difficult. I went to the gym at five this morning and I struggled – and that was inside.' As if the challenge wasn't already big enough.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
TV View: Dublin deliver shock of the season to leave us all bewildered
Liam Sheedy put it best on The Saturday Game. If after watching Limerick beat Cork by 16 points you suggested that just five weeks later they'd be knocked out of the championship by a Dublin side down a man after 14 minutes, you'd have been sent to a home for the bewildered. Did you ever see the like? And be honest now, how many of you went out for some sun after Chris Crummey was sent off, making the assumption that, thereafter, Dublin would be pulverised? If it wasn't for the need to drop back indoors for another bottle of Factor 100, we'd have been none the wiser about what was unfolding, Darragh Maloney and Brendan Cummins' hollers on the telly alerting us to the drama. The new batch of freckles could wait. The Dubs, somehow, were three points up at the break, Joanne Cantwell's Gaelic Grounds-based panel mightily impressed by their efforts. But as Dónal Óg Cusack noted, 'can you imagine what's being said in the Limerick dressingroom?' READ MORE Exactly. Fireworks. So, the Dubs' delirium would be short-lived, Limerick would step it up a gear or eight in the second half, normal service would be resumed, and that'd be that for the plucky underdogs. Except, as Darragh asked after those two Dublin goals in a minute, 'WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?' You know the way sport can, occasionally, leave your jaw on the floor? This was one of those days, nothing more jaw-dropping than Seán Brennan denying Aaron Gillane that goal, there ending the save-of-the-season competition. By then, Hill 16 had filled up with the football crew who had arrived for Dublin's meeting with Cork , when at the start of the game there'd have been space to lay out a heap of picnic blankets and sun loungers. 'And how many times have we seen Dublin football followers drifting in to see a Dublin hurling team get the last rites,' asked Dónal Óg come full-time. On this occasion, they had been administered to Limerick's 2025 championship hopes. It was, in a word, sensational . Later in the evening, Damian Lawlor wondered if it was hurling's Séamus Darby moment. At the very least, 'is this the greatest day in Dublin hurling history and one of the greatest results in GAA history,' he asked Liam Rushe. 'Yeah, it's definitely up there,' he said, although he reminded Damian that the county had a few All-Ireland titles to its name. Mind you, only those pushing 90 would remember the last one. Rushe experienced a fair sprinkling of good days in the Dublin shirt too, but not too many saw this one coming. 'To think this morning I was at training and people were asking me would we cover the 12 point handicap,' he laughed. 'An absolutely massive shock.' Rare auld times indeed. Back at the Gaelic Grounds, Tipp and Galway's supporters were celebrating Limerick's demise while waiting for their own counties to square up, Galway following Limerick out the championship exit door come full-time. 'It was all a little bit flat,' said Joanne. 'Jeez, I don't often say this Joanne,' Dónal Óg sighed, 'but thanks be to God that's over'. It had, though, a hard act to follow. A view of the pitch ahead of the Lions v Argentina at the Aviva Stadium. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho If the Dubs fought like lions, the Lions were, well, a bit kitten-like on Friday night, Argentina ruining their big Australia send-off . And TG4 and Sky had given the game the mother of all build-ups too, Donal Lenihan among a string of folk who popped up on TG4 to reflect on their touring memories. It was only recently that he was rummaging around his attic, probably looking for Christmas tree lights, when he found not one but four boomerangs that he didn't even know he had. But sure, which one of us doesn't have four boomerangs in the attic? Not many, mind, brought them back from Australia after winning the 1989 series. Sky's team is exceptionally excited about this tour. 'All three tests are live on Sky Sports – just saying it makes you tingle,' as commentator Miles Harrison put it during their four hours of coverage of an 80 minute game. And the 'destination' of the current crop of Lions, asserted Will Greenwood, was 'a place in sporting history'. That might be arguable, seeing as they won in Australia before. Real sporting history would be, say, the Dubs doing the Double. If you'd even mentioned that possibility before Saturday afternoon, your address would, yes, now be: 'The Home for the Bewildered'.
