Latest news with #NaFianna
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Sport
- Irish Independent
‘This will be long forgotten as well if we don't follow through' – Dublin boss Niall Ó Ceallacháin keeps cool after Treaty shock
A sensation. The shock of the hurling summer. The shock of the hurling decade? When it was over, Niall Ó Ceallacháin fell into a hysterical conclave with his selectors. The last time he was here, on the line for a championship match, was Na Fianna's virtuoso All-Ireland final win in January.
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Ó Ceallacháin:' We knew they wouldn't fold, we knew we'd be in it'
A most remarkable afternoon at Croke Park. Outsiders, written-off, looked on as a run-out for Limerick – Dublin didn't read the script. Indeed, they failed to revert into their shell when captain Chris Crummey was dismissed after just fifteen minutes. Their two more recent quarter-finals were forgettable afternoons. Thumped by Clare in 2023, their radar was one of their main issues when they succumbed to Cork 12 months ago – but they have a new man in charge. Niall Ó Ceallacháin doesn't read scripts, and if he does, he tears them to shreds. Na Fianna, All-Ireland Club Champions in the early spring, and now they've knocked out Limerick – a side fancied by so many to reach the final, once again. 'Very proud. It is a complicated game – but it was just character that won that game. So many things against us, absolutely written off by ye (the media) and everyone else. To go down a man in those conditions after 15 minutes, I would have to be just so proud of the lads', explained the Dublin Bainisteoir. Short their launchpad, Crummey, it was not something anybody would plan for 'We obviously prepare for a lot of scenarios, but we just prepare from a set-up perspective, so we just know what we are at from that point of view. In the case of inter-county hurling, there is only a certain amount of preparation you can do. 'You need to physically be able to do it and stay at it for that period (of time), so for the boys to stay at it and have the lads in that shape. But most of it is deep in your stomach, to have that character and the will and hunger to do it – that it what we are proud of.' Just before the two game-changing, and game-winning goals, the Treaty snuck ahead. 'I've no doubt that the expectation would have been that Limerick would settle into their stride and go three, four or five points up but that underestimates is the character that is in our dressing room. We knew the lads wouldn't falter, a lot happens in a game, we knew they wouldn't fold, we knew we'd be in it.' Seán Brennan, the Cuala netminder, who has returned to the side, denied Aaron Gillane when the net seemed likely to ripple again, 'It is a huge moment, the lad striking the ball (Aaron Gillane), is a good a striker of the ball as there is. These are the big moments in big games, it could easily have went the other way. In any game at this level, there are big moments, Sean was brilliant. A squad that is building, albeit seemed slowly during the Leinster Championship, have now arrived. They'd won the games they were expected to win, but now they've delivered something only they expected. 'The whole thing means a hell of a lot to them (the squad). They are a very well-connected group, they are very close is what I'd say, they have each other's backs, it means a lot to them and they look out for each other. In the chaos of what happens out there you need to know that the lads have your back – and they do." 'To answer honestly, it probably hasn't sunk in. I get it, Limerick for what they are, and what they've won, going down to 14, it is an incredible achievement. In our minds, there are four games here, there are two down and two to go," explained the Na Fianna clubman, coldly. 'We are out again in two weeks time, I don't mean to state the obvious, but we will park this in the morning. That's not to understate the day that is in it, I totally understand that but this will be long forgotten if we don't follow through in two weeks time.' Dublin are now just 70 minutes short of a first All-Ireland Hurling final since 1961.
Belfast Telegraph
10-06-2025
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
Armagh on lookout for new hurling manager as Karl McKeegan steps down from role
Under the former Christy Ring winner, the Orchard county reached the Division Three Final in the National League in his first season in charge but they were unable to reach that height again. Following a disappointing 2024, this year Armagh failed to reach the Nicky Rackard Cup Final after failing to exit their group, leading to McKeegan's resignation. According to the Irish Times, Middletown's Na Fianna manager Kevin 'Kizzy' Hughes is the favourite to take over from the Cushendall man after leading his side to nine senior club championship titles in the last decade, with the club going for seven-in-a-row this year. Former Keady Lamh Dhearg manager Declan Napier is also believed to be interested and would bring considerable experience to the role having worked as a club coach in Armagh and Down, as well as managing the Down senior camogie team.
Irish Times
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Mutual admirers Dessie Farrell and Kieran McGeeney help Dublin and Armagh get into their groove
The latest juncture of Dessie Farrell 's sporting life crossing paths with Kieran McGeeney will take place at Croke Park on Sunday, but it first started more than two decades ago in a haunt where many meaningful and complex GAA relationships begin. It started in Coppers. In the aftermath of losing the 1998 Dublin SFC final, several Na Fianna players sought sanctuary in the dark and loud and smoky clutches of Copper Face Jacks, the long-standing nightclub on Dublin's Harcourt Street. As Farrell and his team-mates were trying to numb the pain, McGeeney and his Armagh colleague Diarmaid Marsden passed by and respectful nods were exchanged. Farrell had played against McGeeney previously but, though he recognised him that night as a fellow county player, initially the Dubliner was flummoxed. READ MORE 'My memory blanked,' Farrell would confess seven years later in his enthralling autobiography, Tangled Up in Blue. 'Then McGeeney approached me and, mercifully, just as he extended his hand, his name popped into my head.' The conversation that followed was the beginning of a mutually beneficial and enduring friendship – they would go on to share a dressingroom, win three county titles as Na Fianna team-mates and on the day the Gaelic Players Association was officially launched in Belfast the pair travelled together from Dublin to the event. The exact details of that nightclub conversation in the small hours of the morning 27 years ago might forever be hazy but at some point the chat moved towards McGeeney considering a move to play his club football in the capital. He was working in Dublin with the Irish Sports Council at the time. St Vincent's had already been in touch. Farrell made his play. 'Having at least signalled our ambition by reaching the county final, I suggested, very politely, that he might consider coming up to Mobhi Road for a look and gave him my phone number,' he recalled. 'A couple of weeks later, McGeeney rang and said he and his Armagh colleague Des Mackin would be interested in talking to the club.' Farrell, Mick Galvin (current Dublin selector) and then Na Fianna manager Paul 'Pillar' Caffrey met the duo and convinced them to pull on the blue and yellow. Having only previously won two Dublin senior football titles (1969 and 1979), Na Fianna achieved a famous three in-a-row in 1999-2001. They also contested an All-Ireland club final in 2000 – a particularly compelling fixture for McGeeney and Mackin as Na Fianna's opponents that day were the pair's south Armagh neighbours, Crossmaglen Rangers. 'There's no question, I don't think that success would have happened without Dessie and Kieran,' says Karl Donnelly, who played in all four of those Dublin SFC finals between 1998 and 2001. Donnelly was also an Ireland basketball international at the time. 'Kieran set his standards by his actions more than anything in the early days, the level of intensity he would have brought to training would have been up significantly from what we would have been used to at the time. 'I'd have known it a little bit from the level I was playing at in basketball so I would have embraced that when he arrived. Personally, I really enjoyed that seriousness, preparation and the intensity he brought. 'Every training session was an opportunity for us to develop and get better. He would have brought that intensity and it deterred lads from going half-arsed in drills.' Farrell would later write that McGeeney's arrival helped him personally in achieving his goals with Na Fianna. 'For years, my clubmates had to listen to me constantly droning on about raising standards, about the importance of greater sacrifice, of greater application, of discipline,' said Farrell. 'At times I wouldn't have been the most popular for it; I never shied away from telling a lad to his face that he wasn't focused, that he was an underachiever. Now, there was someone even more zealous than me, a man who believed in realising his ambition.' John Horan, who would become president of the GAA from 2018-21, had spent years toiling away with teams in Na Fianna. He had either coached many of the players with the club or taught them in St Vincent's secondary school, Glasnevin. 'The leadership was always there with Dessie but when you got another strong leader in the room like Kieran, it certainly made a huge difference. Between the two of them, they drove it on,' recalls Horan. McGeeney's arrival was the missing link but Farrell had spent years laying down the foundations. 'Dessie was the architect of putting in all that infrastructure in terms of wanting to improve the standards,' adds Donnelly, who was a late convert to Gaelic football, having focused mostly on basketball and soccer until then. 'I would have heard stories subsequently that he was instrumental in bringing the Na Fianna seniors out of a kind of malaise of being also-rans.' Success followed success. On the back of all the club titles, in 2002 McGeeney captained Armagh to their maiden All-Ireland SFC triumph. In the semi-final they overcame Dublin, a game in which Farrell was deployed at centre forward to mark McGeeney in a deliberate ploy by the Dubs to try to curtail the Armagh captain's influence on the game. Armagh beat Dublin in a qualifier in 2003 – also a game in which both McGeeney and Farrell played – but by the time the counties next met in the championship, in 2010, both had retired. McGeeney was managing the Kildare senior footballers at that stage while in 2011 Farrell would manage the Dublin minors to an All-Ireland minor final appearance. Sunday's All-Ireland round-robin game is the first championship meeting between the counties in 15 years and only the sixth in history. On the road to this point, both men have endured difficult days on the sideline but ultimately they have each managed their county to All-Ireland titles. Farrell won the minors in 2012, the under-21s in 2014 and 2017 and claimed the senior title in 2020 and 2023, and McGeeney led the seniors to glory in 2024. Their relationship has transcended football pitches and sidelines – evolving from the dressingroom to the boardroom. Both were founding members of the GPA at the Wellington Park Hotel in Belfast in September 1999. [ Paul Grimley on Armagh's Kieran McGeeney: 'His longevity is incredible ... and he's certainly not finished' Opens in new window ] Farrell was one of only two non-Ulster players present, Galway's Ja Fallon the other. On finishing work at St Brendan's Hospital in Grangegorman earlier that day, Farrell was picked up by McGeeney and they travelled together to Belfast. 'On the road we spoke about player welfare issues, the first proper conversation I'd ever had on the subject,' recalled Farrell in his book. 'I was taken aback by Kieran's perspective. I found the conversation illuminating.' That car trip would be the start of another journey for Farrell – he later served as chief executive of the GPA between 2003-2016. McGeeney had a stint as GPA secretary. In the days following Armagh's victory over Galway in last July's All-Ireland final, Donnelly sent McGeeney a congratulatory text. It certainly wasn't the only message McGeeney received from his old comrades in Mobhi Road. 'The friendships and the experiences and the craic that we had around that team, while all that stuff was happening on the pitch there was also the social aspect to it where connections and bonds were created that you probably cherish for life more than any of the medals,' adds Donnelly. Na Fianna have yet to add another Dublin SFC but they have come close in recent years – losing a final in 2022. 'Those teams with Dessie and Kieran, they upped standards and gave everybody involved with the club an understanding of what was required in the context of effort and commitment to become successful,' adds Horan. Given both Dublin and Armagh chalked up wins in their opening group games of this year's All-Ireland series, the jeopardy at Croke Park this Sunday is not what it might have been had results turned out otherwise. Still, it's the 2024 Sam Maguire winners against the 2023 Sam Maguire winners, Armagh against Dublin, McGeeney against Farrell. 'They are two very good leaders in the context both have gone on to manage their county to All-Ireland wins,' says Horan. 'To have had two future All-Ireland-winning managers playing on the one team, very few club teams could claim that. They were the difference.'
Irish Daily Mirror
29-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Armagh minds will have been drifting towards Dubs clash says former Orchard star
Aaron Kernan reckons that Armagh minds may have been drifting towards Dublin even before they played Derry last weekend. Despite Armagh leading by 13 points at one stage on Saturday, a couple of Derry goals made for an uncomfortable finish at the Athletic Grounds, though the All-Ireland champions held out for a four-point win in the end. The nature of the round robin stage is that upcoming games are already in the diary and Armagh's second round trip to Croke Park had an allure about it as soon as the groups were finalised. It gets the juices flowing for all sorts of reasons, not least because it's a meeting of the last two All-Ireland winners but the rival managers, Kieran McGeeney and Dessie Farrell, have a shared history having played club football together in the capital for Na Fianna. Kernan said: 'It's a difficult one because you're always preparing for Championship and you sort of just know your next game. Whereas Dublin, Croke Park, big crowds, it's very hard not to let your mind drift forward a week.' The counties met in two high profile Championship games in 2002 and '03, both won by Armagh when McGeeney and Farrell were involved as players. Indeed, Stephen Cluxton played in those games and was famously sent off in the 2003 qualifier. He is expected to start on Sunday, 22 years on. Kernan's father Joe was Armagh manager at the time though he didn't come into the side until the following year and so just missed out on those clashes, with his only Championship meeting with Dublin being a relatively low key qualifier at Croke Park in 2010 which the home side won by three points. At that stage, Armagh were very much a fading force while Dublin were finding their feet under Pat Gilroy in what was a rare trip through the back door for them. 'They were in an unusual place,' Kernan recalled. 'That was the year they shipped the five goals against Meath, so they were trying to find their feet between being defensively solid and not taking away from what their strengths were in an attacking sense. 'Looking back now, or even at the time, I'm not sure that we had the genuine confidence or belief within our group that we were capable of going and beating Dublin in Croke Park. 'I think maybe if it had been a home game at that stage in the Athletic Grounds, we might have been the sort of team that could have performed an ambush. But the genuine belief wasn't there within us. 'I know it certainly wasn't the same spectacle that there was in 2002, 2003 in that qualifier game or that All-Ireland semi-final where they played Dublin in packed Croke Parks and even League games at that stage.' Indeed, the meeting of the counties in the 2003 League opener drew a whopping 54,000 to Croke Park, with Armagh winning well. Kernan added: 'They were the good times in Armagh football and good times in Ireland as a whole in terms of crowds that were turning out. 'But you'd have to think, given the Armagh support and how well they travel in numbers, and particularly Dublin, what they've given their fans, you'd hope again that if you had 50,000-plus, it would still be a brilliant spectacle. 'I think the Leinster final with 60,000 there showed that when you have a good contest and you have a crowd there, Croke Park fairly comes alive. Ultimately that's what players want, that's what you thrive on and that's what all the sacrifice is being done for. It's big days like that."
