0:00

The Kojvík part on Off The

0:02

Ball. It wasn't a fail, absolutely

0:04

not. But I'm glad to see the goalkeeper

0:06

is getting the benefit of the doubt. You

0:08

always get the benefit of the doubt.

0:11

Subscribe to the feed in the OTB

0:13

Sports app now. OTB

0:15

AM. The

0:18

sports breakfast show from Off

0:20

The Ball.

0:32

Very happy Friday. Welcome along to OTB AM. The sports breakfast show

0:34

from Off The Ball. It's half past

0:36

seven on the 7th of July 2023. And

0:39

you know it's a Friday because producer Colm

0:41

is giving us a round of applause from the booth. And cheering

0:44

and hollering and just

0:46

generally Jojo's laughing as well. That's fantastic.

0:48

Aisling O'Reilly, good morning. Good morning Shane. How

0:51

was things? Just feels like Friday doesn't

0:52

it? Yeah, Colm is a proper hype man

0:54

isn't he? Proper hype man. You kind of need this

0:57

sometimes to just get yourself in the mood for Friday. I

0:59

actually forgot it was Friday until I saw Colm look

1:01

so happy out there. Do you

1:02

know what, until you just said that there, I just

1:04

registered it was Friday. Absolutely. Because

1:06

when you work weekends, Fridays, you're not exactly

1:08

a Friday feeling.

1:09

Imagine. So what day is Friday

1:12

for you technically? Oh well it changes

1:14

every week so yeah, I don't know. It

1:17

could be a Monday which is pretty grim. But

1:19

here I work in sports so it's all

1:20

good. I'm not going to complain. I suppose. You're not going to

1:22

get much of these people out there I guess working in sports.

1:26

This is the last opportunity I'm going to get. They're

1:28

going to kill me for doing this. But last opportunity I get

1:30

to talk about last weekend in Monaghan. We

1:32

talked about this. I knew Colm wouldn't allow this.

1:35

Three minutes in. Three minutes in. Not even.

1:37

So clutch players. We were talking about clutch players

1:40

a little bit earlier. Rhian

1:42

O'Neill, Conor McManus, it was just the definition

1:45

of players who want

1:47

the ball at the most dangerous and opportune

1:50

moments. Those two lads showed it last

1:52

weekend. Unbelievable.

1:53

I was sitting down beside

1:55

the Monaghan subs and I saw

1:57

Conor McManus warming up a few times.

2:00

and even before the game I saw him and he

2:02

looked a bit maybe pissed off or maybe he's in

2:04

the zone maybe that's the way he does it but you

2:07

could see that he wanted to be on that

2:09

pitch and To come on

2:11

and do what he done is just phenomenal,

2:13

you know I think he took a shot at the

2:15

start it just dropped short and to

2:18

step up again And obviously then

2:20

to win the free to take the free

2:23

and to put it to penalties I don't think

2:25

players like that come around too often And

2:28

Connor McManus is obviously definitely

2:29

Monning best ever clutch

2:32

player Vinny Corey said it after the game and he couldn't

2:34

have put it better and We mentioned there

2:36

as well Reno Neal. It was similar

2:39

moments for him You know there

2:41

was times when maybe the ball was out

2:43

of scoring distance and he wanted to step

2:46

up and Try his hand at it And there was

2:48

one point that Jerry O'Gherins just took the ball

2:50

and like sort of played it backwards and just like keep the ball And

2:52

I just seen him just a bit like, you know,

2:55

I was gonna go for that But then we saw his

2:57

free as well out near the sideline like

2:59

he's just a phenomenal player and dick it us Yeah,

3:01

it just made us think like who are these clutch players

3:04

that you know across the the country

3:06

we have They're definitely two that are

3:08

up there Clifford's obviously an obvious Yeah,

3:10

of course, but Shane Walsh's performance

3:12

in the other and final last year would lead you to believe he's a clutch

3:15

player Obviously this year didn't exactly materialize

3:17

for him But there's just players who

3:19

what like

3:20

imagine a brave that is in a moment like that where

3:22

it's a melting pot You know your your county

3:24

is a point down last kick of extra

3:26

time They're

3:27

playing the ball short all of the RMA defenders

3:29

know that it's you that wants the ball Yeah,

3:31

I don't clearly want the ball to be in with Manus's hands Somebody

3:34

still gets it still skips past Groogan

3:36

and buys the free It's just it's

3:39

it's what it's so wise what

3:41

he did there like this to run towards the goal. Someone will trip

3:43

me up

3:44

Yeah, exactly. And the difference is he wants

3:46

it like he wants to take it like he's

3:49

loving it Like that is a great idea

3:51

on the hill 16 or near her 16 when the yeah, yeah, yeah I

3:54

saw your angle of the unbelievable. Yeah,

3:57

I took a video of a chain. What do you know? Listen?

4:00

I was delighted to see another angle of it. So

4:02

I was actually thinking of that when I took the video. I

4:04

was happy. I was happy enough. Shane's not going to like this.

4:07

Yeah. Yeah. If it's a monotone moment that I get to see again

4:09

and again, it's absolutely fine. We should

4:11

have said to people that you're going to the Herlin as well this weekend.

4:13

Yeah.

4:13

Yeah. Looking forward to that. And the Komogi's

4:16

on before it as well. So brilliant to

4:18

see the Democrat Park. But yeah, it should be

4:20

a good weekend. I think it's getting really exciting now.

4:22

They're tough semifinals to call. Claire

4:25

will probably be in the team of the championship

4:27

so far and some great storylines

4:29

around them. And yeah, they came up short in the

4:31

monster final against Limerick by a point that day.

4:34

But maybe it's going to be a blessing

4:36

in disguise for them. Yeah. Possibly.

4:37

Yeah. A lot of the build up, I guess, this week,

4:40

James, you Connor and even the lads yesterday were very

4:42

much they're going to be one score games in both games that seems

4:45

to be the general feeling. I'd love if it goes that way. We

4:47

will preview that. They heard a little bit later on in the

4:49

show just to highlight what's coming up between

4:51

now and 10 o'clock with myself and Ashley from

4:53

around 7.55 a.m. this morning, if a

4:55

man really interested here thoughts on

4:59

I guess our disappointment of missing out on Vera Powell's Republic

5:01

of Ireland World Cup squad. The season just gone

5:03

with Manchester. Did her injuries, Alessia

5:05

Russo's departure from ultra for maybe we'll touch on as well.

5:08

And of course, the game last night, the three nil defeat

5:11

by France at Tallis Stadium, which we'll get into very

5:13

shortly. I care enjoys former Kenny Herlert and

5:15

Brendan Butler, the former Claire star at 20 past

5:17

a previewing that game on Sunday, Clark Kenny

5:19

at Croke Park with the sports pages at 845. We'll

5:22

have Jack Cardi, the captain in our half

5:25

at around 10 to 9 on the show this morning. He's

5:28

an ambassador for the Jack and Jill Foundation as well. So we'll touch on

5:30

the season just gone for him and the friends departure and

5:32

loads more Wimbledon update Colin Boopik

5:35

will bring his smiling Friday happiness

5:37

in the studio to

5:37

bring us the latest. Andy Murray, of course, two

5:40

sets to one up in his match last night against

5:42

its pass. And that game was stopped

5:44

at around 11 o'clock for curfew

5:46

reasons at Wimbledon, which just annoyed the

5:48

head of me last. I was like, oh, this is great. And then all

5:50

of a sudden they stop it. But look, we'll get into all

5:52

Wimbledon and the talking points with column at

5:55

around 915. And then at half past nine, if

5:57

you missed it, all the car guns, you had to be there. Brilliant episode.

5:59

You'll get Paul Howard's episode of course from yesterday on YouTube and

6:02

podcast and actually you

6:05

stumbled into the Studio this morning

6:07

you stumbled into Marconi house. Yeah

6:09

crutches crutches aren't exactly on set

6:11

here But they're just out of camera line,

6:14

but

6:14

yeah, what's happened? Well, it's nothing serious

6:17

now. I'm probably too dramatic Well,

6:19

you can see the crutches. Sorry brilliant. We've got a

6:22

No,

6:26

I don't know yet exactly what

6:28

I think I tore my hamstring I'm hoping

6:30

it is not fair fully torn But

6:32

yeah have to wait and see I only did it on

6:35

Wednesday at a game I'd never done it before

6:37

so I wasn't sure like I come off straight

6:39

away once I did it like I Explained it

6:41

once at the start of the game and then the second

6:43

ball I got I turned was I

6:46

had space everyone was like Go yeah ran

6:48

took about then I went to solo

6:50

away and as I just brought

6:52

my leg up to to take the solo I just

6:54

heard

6:54

like a pop the right right foot I'm

6:56

left foot and you

6:58

just heard like a bit of a pop and New

7:01

straight away my leg just fell and I

7:03

just laid it off and just fell to the ground I

7:06

often have seen it obviously reporting on county

7:08

games that I'm like They'd go straight down

7:10

and they hold it like straight away. I was like, you know, I

7:12

think there's a hamstring Cuz I'd never did

7:14

it. I've been

7:15

which would really lucky with injuries. So Yeah,

7:18

but then I was obviously on Google straight away

7:20

being like what is wrong? Yeah,

7:23

very very dramatic now with that

7:25

angle was the most dramatic thing I've seen on Them

7:30

there for Yeah,

7:33

she knew yeah, but yeah,

7:34

hopefully not too serious they just say to stay off it

7:37

for like 48 to 72 hours That's

7:39

the the best time stay off when you have the best chance

7:41

it right getting back for championship It's all about that

7:43

chain.

7:43

Listen, you have to peek for the right times of the year Hopefully

7:47

we'll touch what you'll cover nice and quick dashing fingers

7:50

the thoughts of everyone is off the ball is that

7:54

Kathy McNamee has joined us since she was well this morning.

7:56

Hello guys. How are we keeping well at

7:58

the back of the Irish didn't You're kind of?

7:59

highlighting the thoughts in the papers

8:02

this morning gets serious, power implores players to

8:04

cut out mistakes, fear of power acknowledging, quote,

8:06

individual mistakes proved costly as France

8:09

pooped the Republic of Ireland's World Cup farewell party.

8:11

Disappointing. That's like I think you were there at Tallis Stadium.

8:13

Yeah, it's hard

8:15

to know how to feel coming out of it because France

8:18

are just such a talented side.

8:20

You know, you look at the levels of experience there

8:22

and the majority of the players are playing for, you

8:24

know, Lyon, PSG, all

8:26

these top clubs. I think the first 40

8:29

odd minutes were really impressive and

8:32

much more progressive than I expected

8:35

to see that Ireland team play. And I think we

8:37

really saw the shoots

8:39

of what we had seen in the US

8:42

games grow a little bit. And

8:44

the relationship between certain players like

8:46

Marisa Shiva and Kira Caruso really

8:48

improve. And hopefully

8:50

that can only get better as time goes on. Now is

8:53

it coming a little bit soon for the World Cup? Probably.

8:56

I think the goals we conceded were so

8:58

disappointing because those

9:00

were the sort of things that we've tried really hard

9:03

to stamp out of our game.

9:07

I just recorded the latest episode of Koi

9:09

Gigg, which will be up very, very soon in

9:11

any of your podcast feeds. But Karen

9:13

and I were saying it was kind of like

9:18

a bit of a reality check last night, I suppose,

9:20

because we've been relatively positive

9:22

and our focus has been almost more

9:24

so on the squad and who's going to make it

9:26

and individual performances

9:28

rather than the entire

9:31

overall view of the World Cup and how we're going to

9:33

do in games itself. And I think, you

9:35

know, the quality that we face against

9:37

France is definitely close to

9:39

some of the quality we're going to face in the World

9:42

Cup and add into that all the added stresses

9:44

and pressures of the game as well.

9:48

But yeah, I mean, the atmosphere was

9:50

unreal despite the fact there was a howling

9:52

gale. The rain was absolutely

9:55

lashing down like it was a 10,

9:58

15 minutes before the game actually started. and there was barely

10:00

anyone in the stands and I was like, oh no, if people

10:02

not come out because, you know, the weather

10:05

is shocking. But actually, you know, the crowd was great.

10:08

Well, not the loudest crowds I've heard in Tallah. So

10:10

from that perspective, it was really good send off for

10:13

the team. But definitely, definitely a lot

10:15

of things to work on in the next two weeks.

10:18

Can we fix an entire team in two weeks? Absolutely.

10:20

Loads of time. Now, there was a

10:22

lot of positives. For me, I thought maybe just

10:25

maybe unfamiliar a little bit with each other.

10:27

Maybe that's what came across, because as you

10:29

said,

10:29

Marisa Sheva and Kira Cruz, they

10:32

linked up so well. Sinead Farrelly even, you know,

10:34

the touch he got for that first goal,

10:37

which pretty much was a goal. I know

10:39

the French goalkeeper maybe had stopped

10:41

at that point, but still, she

10:44

was onside. Yeah, you should keep playing, though.

10:46

That's not our fault if she listened to the whistle. Yeah,

10:49

like the whistle doesn't come into it now. The thing is as well

10:51

at the World Cup, there will be VAR. So yeah, those

10:53

situations, you

10:55

kind of have to train yourself to keep going

10:57

because there's a chance if that had been pulled

10:59

back, it would have been given as onside.

11:02

Yeah, just in familiar at times, I just thought

11:04

was what I saw. Like, I think it was Izzy

11:07

Atkinson up there. I think was the

11:09

left wing, and she just laid a ball off

11:11

to Marisa Sheva. And Marisa Sheva gave it back to her, but

11:13

she didn't make the run on. And I was like, they're

11:15

little things that you'll know if you play

11:17

with each other a little bit more. Yeah, you know, I

11:19

really felt for Izzy Atkinson when she came

11:22

on, because obviously coming on to her place,

11:24

Katie McCabe, are very, very big boots to

11:26

fill anyways. But she did

11:28

look particularly lost last night.

11:31

And but

11:32

like, that's not necessarily a bad

11:34

thing either. Like, I'd rather she experience it

11:36

now in Tala against France and a friendly

11:39

and realize, you know, OK, well, that's

11:41

the sort of level that I need to be at. Or that's

11:44

how much harder I need to work to

11:46

get to a certain level than having that first

11:48

experience of coming on against, like,

11:50

say Australia or Canada or Nigeria

11:53

in the World Cup. Yeah,

11:55

I thought there was just like a few performances that were a little

11:57

bit off. You had the likes of Heather

11:59

Peggs. It's probably one of the worst games I've

12:01

seen from her. It felt like

12:04

she was just chasing her tail a lot of

12:06

the time and couldn't get herself properly

12:08

into the game. Is

12:10

that her best position? To me, she looked

12:13

maybe out of position. I do

12:15

think it is her best position. It's where she normally

12:17

plays when she's over in the States. Like

12:20

chatting to her at the media day

12:22

that we were at last week, I was kind

12:25

of saying, you know, how are you finding, switching around for

12:27

the national team? It's not that unusual to look

12:29

at Anjol Gorman. She plays in defence for

12:32

the national team and then is up front in

12:34

the club game. And she said herself that she feels

12:37

a bit more comfortable there. I think it was probably

12:39

just the quality of the... I don't think Heather Payne

12:41

often comes up against players who can

12:43

outrun her. And there

12:46

was a lot of that last night, like the

12:48

French team are so fast and also their

12:50

one touch football is just... It's

12:52

so sublime to watch when they got going in the second

12:54

half. And kind of could very easily

12:57

forget they were playing Ireland and just sit

12:59

there and enjoy watching them

13:01

pass the ball back to each other. So

13:04

yeah, I think that was it

13:06

with her more than the actual positioning.

13:11

And obviously that's going to be important, like

13:13

when we're looking at who we're facing, who is she going

13:15

to be up against?

13:17

Because her pace and her

13:19

ability to just keep running is one of

13:21

her best attributes. She

13:23

just never stops. It's incredible.

13:26

The biggest concern for me possibly was the Lacroix's

13:28

second goal in the second half. So

13:32

we can use the excuse all we want, the

13:34

fifth best team in the world, the last of

13:36

the rankings. But that run,

13:39

any team can make that run. That's

13:41

not a fifth best team in the world sort

13:43

of run from a set piece. Normally we're good at set pieces as

13:45

well, which is the thing that concerns me. That's

13:47

something that was just a basic error of judgement.

13:49

Yeah, I think that would probably be

13:51

the goal there most. The first one and the

13:54

third one, I think those are the two that are probably the most disappointed

13:56

about. I mean, the first one we lost in

13:59

midfield.

13:59

really, and it's rare that we let

14:02

teams get in that close to

14:04

goal. I think it

14:06

was just really unfortunate for Courtney that

14:08

it squirms the way it did. I think there was a lot of build-up

14:11

play prior to that point that was probably

14:13

more to blame than the

14:15

way the goal went in in the end. With the third

14:17

one, France are so good at

14:19

set pieces. That's actually where they've got the majority

14:21

of their goals over the last couple of months.

14:25

They played games against Columbia,

14:29

Canada, and someone else, like

14:32

Zambia or something as well, and nearly

14:34

all the goals that came from set pieces. We definitely

14:37

would have known going into last night. That was

14:39

something that we really had to defend

14:41

well, and we didn't for that third

14:43

goal. It's

14:45

so hard because I think with

14:48

the team, it's a

14:52

frustrating thing where I think a lot of the time

14:54

the team know what they need to do, but the quality

14:57

isn't just quite there to

14:59

be able to properly achieve

15:02

it. Karen

15:04

was saying it earlier. We love it when

15:07

a team starts lumping balls into the box because

15:09

that's what we're good at. We have our big,

15:11

strong defenders in Louise Quinn, Nifahy,

15:14

whoever it might be, and we're happy

15:16

to get rid of those balls all day

15:19

long. But also, we need to be

15:21

able to make sure we're doing that

15:22

on individual set pieces as well as when

15:24

the pressure is on and a team are maybe hammering

15:27

us trying to get a goal.

15:28

You'd worry about the lack of attempts

15:31

on goal as well. Even

15:33

at 3-0 down and even against the team with the quality of France, you

15:36

want to be getting shots off. You want to be creating chances.

15:38

I think Kyra Cruz has said that after the game, we have to be comfortable

15:41

being uncomfortable, which is something

15:43

that this Irish team have to get used to doing

15:45

because it might happen against Australia, where you go

15:47

a goal down, maybe two goals down. Touch what

15:49

that doesn't happen. But you need to be able to respond to that.

15:52

That's the thing. We're not going to be responding

15:54

to going to a goal down in

15:56

general. I know we did it in the Zambia game, but I

15:58

feel like that was not really a good thing.

15:59

game to base much off just

16:02

because of how unusual it was in terms of five

16:04

subs at half time and the fact that half the

16:06

squad were vying for a place in the World Cup

16:08

team and I

16:11

saw actually on Twitter last night just

16:14

when we were playing well like before the first goal

16:16

went in and a lot of International

16:19

commentators were like, oh This is

16:21

exciting from this Irish team probably people who haven't

16:23

watched us as much over the last couple of months and seen

16:26

that kind of growth where we are now and They

16:29

were like, you know, this is really exciting We haven't

16:31

seen this from this Ireland team before and

16:33

it was ESPN Sophie Lawson who

16:36

was agreeing and being like Yeah, this is really exciting But

16:38

I have two questions is a can they do

16:40

it for 90 minutes and be where

16:42

are the goals gonna come from open play? And I

16:45

was just like don't say the quiet part out

16:47

loud because that's what we have all Known

16:49

to be the issue with Ireland for a long time We

16:52

see the potential of how we played in that first 40

16:55

45 minutes And

16:57

then we also look and go.

16:59

Okay, but where where is that goal gonna

17:01

come from if we do get it? Kira

17:03

Caruso did say last night when I was chatting to

17:05

her that even the fact that goal was

17:08

offside Well, it

17:10

wasn't offside It was onside like you can

17:12

tell by all the replays a seven-year-old tapped me on the shoulder

17:14

and told me That was outside and I choose to believe

17:16

her over the lines women. Yeah But

17:19

she was saying even though it was flagged offside

17:22

it was still a massive boost for her

17:24

knowing that she could get into those positions

17:26

and that if it was a World Cup there would Be var and

17:28

that goal would be given and it put

17:31

trust in herself Like when she played for HP college,

17:34

which a lot of people in Ireland

17:36

won't have watched I think in like 50 odd appearances.

17:38

She had 30 goals So she has the goals in

17:40

her and she also has that strength up. She's

17:43

powerful Yeah, well able to hold off a

17:45

player and she can turn she turned when they were in

17:47

art like a couple of times Yeah, it's like yeah, you

17:49

go Absolutely, it's brilliant to see

17:51

that but what happened then like it was well 30

17:54

minutes when Katie McKay went off Is that

17:56

really what happened? I think

17:58

so and this is something that's been

17:59

such an issue with this team for so long is that

18:02

you take one of the central cogs out

18:04

of it and things go

18:06

to pot quite quickly. There are certain positions,

18:09

say, like Rusha and Lil Yag,

18:11

you can swap those out and it doesn't make a massive

18:14

difference. You can

18:16

take Megan Connelly out of midfield

18:18

and sticker in the back line. Again,

18:21

we can adapt to stuff like that, but Katie

18:24

going off injured, Denise going

18:26

down, you could even arguably say something

18:28

happening to Courtney. Those are the little things

18:30

that are going to send this team spinning

18:33

a little bit and we do need to work

18:35

on that. I know there was quite a few people saying

18:37

last night that a character like Jamie

18:39

Finn could have probably done a job for

18:42

us in terms of just the general

18:45

strength she brings when she's on the ball. I was

18:47

thinking that. Yeah, and even just experience

18:49

wise too, I was kind of surprised Chloe Mistaki

18:52

wasn't brought on a little bit earlier,

18:54

but then I was also like maybe Virid

18:57

wants to give Izzy Atkinson the kind of exposure

18:59

to the sort of side before the

19:01

World Cup. The

19:05

FBI have just said that Katie rolled her ankle and she's

19:07

fine. She seemed to walk off the pitch totally

19:10

okay. She had a bit of ice on it, but

19:12

she wasn't hobbling or anything. She wasn't assisted

19:14

going off. Vera just said

19:17

that she was going to be assessed by the doctor in the next couple

19:19

of days. I think they're flying out today, so

19:21

possibly not today, but in the coming days

19:24

we'll find out a little bit more about what the

19:26

situation is there. Hopefully

19:28

it's just precautionary. They said it was, but I

19:31

never really trust these things until I actually get enough.

19:34

Until I have a scan on my desk of

19:36

Katie's ankle. I'm not trusting anything. And a flight

19:38

to Australia now is not ideal with

19:40

an ankle. No, it's not great. It's

19:43

not even great for say the three US players

19:46

who only flew into camp from the States,

19:48

you know, late mid last week and

19:51

now have to go and do another,

19:53

well, I don't know how long their layover is. Mine

19:55

is 12 hours in Dubai, so hopefully they don't have to go

19:57

through that experience. But you know, you're looking at. a

20:00

good 24 hours worth of travel

20:02

after a high intensity game. It's

20:05

not the easiest situation

20:07

to go into, but the fact that they're over there early

20:10

does mean that they will have time to adjust

20:12

to the time difference. And, you

20:14

know, I think the next couple of days,

20:17

what's going to be important is not so much what they're

20:19

doing on the pitch, but probably off the pitch

20:21

in terms of

20:22

rest, recovery, diet, nutrition, tactics,

20:25

mentality, so that we're not falling

20:27

apart the way that we did last

20:29

night when we conceded the goals. And

20:32

I think if we had just conceded the one

20:34

and had managed to get in at halftime, it

20:37

would have, it was definitely a sucker punch, but there

20:39

would have been something more to say, whereas the

20:42

two in quick succession, the team

20:44

just looked absolutely dumbfounded by

20:46

it. Yeah. We kind of regained a little

20:48

bit of composure in the second

20:51

half, but you just saw that France had that

20:53

quality where they could just turn a screw on us

20:55

if they wanted to. And that's

20:57

what they did. And like, you have to look at this French team. They

20:59

haven't like when they

21:02

were playing under Corinne D'Acq, you know,

21:04

there was so much consternation within

21:06

the team, so much, you know,

21:08

in fighting.

21:10

And that's only

21:12

started being resolved in the last couple of months

21:14

since Xavier Renard came in and

21:18

they still haven't fully clicked. And

21:21

I think when they do click, they are going to

21:23

do some serious, serious damage

21:25

World Cup, possibly coming too soon for them. But

21:27

next year, I'd if

21:30

I was a betting woman, there would be some money.

21:32

Hmm. We you were

21:34

chatting to the last night. I think we have a clip. What

21:37

are you talking about here?

21:37

And so just chatting about how

21:40

she feels the game went, she was quite positive

21:42

afterwards, she said, like, although there were

21:44

the individual mistakes, this is the

21:46

time to work on these things ahead of the

21:48

game against Australia.

21:49

Let's have a look. Game

21:51

and title for heading off to the World Cup. How are you

21:54

feeling afterwards? Very proud and

21:57

the goals against for individual mistakes.

21:59

and we learn massively from it,

22:02

that is why we play this game. The

22:07

first game that we set was this game, the latest.

22:10

I want to have a top five nation at

22:12

this day. We managed it from

22:14

there, we built a program, because what

22:17

happened tonight always happens when

22:19

you play for the first time at this level, just before

22:22

a World Cup, or European

22:24

Cup or Olympic Games. You

22:28

can only get ready for Australia

22:30

to make the mistakes that we've done tonight. But

22:33

other than that, I think that we have massively

22:37

impressed. I was really proud

22:39

of the players. Injury time, we

22:41

lost it, individual mistake.

22:45

They know now that at this level you

22:47

cannot think I will catch up a meter, because

22:49

you will not. And you

22:52

have to, at that moment, you just have to stick together,

22:55

get the lines close, so

22:57

we learn from that too. And the third goal was also

22:59

individual mistake. It was a player running

23:01

from midfield and was not followed. So

23:05

those things only help us to

23:08

get ready for Australia, and then hopefully those

23:10

mistakes will not

23:11

happen anymore. Jesse,

23:14

do you have to look at the positives, don't we? Yeah,

23:17

definitely. When you look at the

23:19

first 30, 40 minutes, it

23:21

was exciting to watch. I

23:24

was watching it with people that maybe don't always

23:26

get a chance to watch them play, and

23:28

they were really excited by it. And I was like,

23:31

yes, this is the type of football we want to play, I

23:34

suppose going back to the goal again. That went

23:36

in, it's what-ifs, but like that went

23:38

in, it's a different game altogether. Irish football

23:40

doesn't survive a what-ifs act, like not at all.

23:43

No, never, never. But

23:45

it goes in, that's completely different. The

23:47

boost that gives to the likes of Sinead Farley,

23:50

who got the touch on from Marisa

23:52

Shiva, who at that point was just playing brilliantly.

23:55

Her pace is frightening. There

23:58

was one say she turned on the Jets,

23:59

She was about like 10-20 yards behind

24:02

the French player and all of a sudden she was

24:04

in front of her with the ball And I was like so

24:06

speed. When did that happen? So there is lots

24:08

of positives to take I just think it's just more

24:10

game time together Maybe going out to

24:12

Australia now a bit more bonding time

24:15

all of that, you know, you've girls coming in there They're

24:17

making their home debuts as such, you know,

24:19

then they're going to a World Cup People

24:23

about last night and like Shane you might know even

24:25

on the men's side But like has there ever been a situation

24:28

where a team has

24:29

two players making their home debut? Yeah,

24:33

it doesn't feel like it's the normal thing

24:35

to do, you know, it feels like a very strange But then again,

24:37

if they're good enough, they're good enough Yeah,

24:39

they have to be in this and you probably it's probably fair enough that

24:41

they were in the squad So I

24:43

mean like they like they're great players.

24:45

You can't deny that. Yeah, I

24:47

think I

24:49

Part of me feels slightly sorry for them

24:51

in that obviously the whole conversation has

24:53

been about the other players The players who have

24:55

played in Ireland for so long that missed

24:57

out and it's also bad for them

25:00

But at this stage, you

25:02

know, they're pulling on the green jersey. We

25:04

have to get behind them. They are Irish

25:06

players No matter how many caps

25:09

they have to their name, you know, if you have one cap

25:11

you're an Irish player So like we were chatting yesterday

25:13

about if once you're an Olympian or not

25:15

yesterday was day before once you're Olympian You're always

25:17

an Olympian, you know, you can't once

25:20

you have that senior thing under your belt I won't say

25:22

every age level because obviously we have a few

25:24

traitors and that regard not

25:26

looking at anyone in particular but um

25:29

Yeah, I suppose They've

25:31

definitely earned their place in that

25:34

they've put in the performances

25:36

Even if there's still a little bit

25:38

of work to be done there in terms of making

25:41

them click with the squad Yeah, yeah,

25:43

and that's a matter of time I think that's all

25:45

you can do with that

25:46

still some issues to iron out for sure ahead of

25:48

the workup a couple of weeks time of course the team heading off

25:50

to Australia as we said today 7 55 a.m. On

25:53

Friday mornings OTP and

25:55

we're gonna come back to That game in just a second. But first

25:57

I should mention off the ball is coming to the Cork

25:59

podcast Festival join us on

26:01

Sunday 27th of August in a Cork Opera House.

26:04

Jimmy Barry Murphy, one of our confirmed guests

26:06

and plenty more to come as well. Don't miss out on a great

26:08

night of conversation and crack in the heart of the rubber county

26:10

for tickets. Go to Cork Podcast Festival.ie

26:14

forward slash off hyphen there hyphen ball.

26:16

After this very short break, magic edit on the Brook of Islands

26:19

E for Mannion. Stay with us.

26:21

You're listening to OTB

26:24

AM. OK 7.57 AM approaching on Friday

26:27

morning's OTB and the sports breakfast show with

26:29

off the ball myself and Ashley with you until 10

26:32

o'clock as well this morning. So I did to reflect

26:34

on the game more now from last night. The French 3-0

26:36

win over the public of Ireland at Tallis Stadium

26:39

with the magic out of Irish star if a man can

26:41

come on. How are things?

26:43

Oh, I say hi Ashley and lovely to be on.

26:45

Thanks for having me on. How are you? Thanks

26:48

for coming on. Thanks for coming on. How does it feel watching

26:50

the watching the match last night? Is it is

26:52

it bitter sweet? Is it exciting? What are the what are the overriding

26:54

emotions when you're when you're sitting down to watch the game?

26:58

I always say it's more nerve wracking watching the games

27:00

and actually playing in them. So

27:03

I was so excited to see how they got on. Obviously I

27:05

know that we're going to go going to talk about the game,

27:07

but the overall sense was leading

27:10

into the game just a real sort of happiness for

27:12

them with a send off game at tell obviously

27:14

that game against Zambia last last

27:16

week. I've family that went to the game. So

27:19

I was really really excited in the lead up

27:21

for them to get you know a really nice send off

27:23

heading off

27:24

to the World Cup. Some definite

27:26

positives to take I guess from the match last night. You felt

27:28

like clearly the quality of opposition

27:30

in France that's about as good as you can expect

27:32

to play against. Australia and Canada

27:35

will certainly be of a level, but

27:37

maybe just below where France are at in

27:39

the last few years. So I guess getting

27:41

opposition, opposition of that quality is something

27:43

VeraPau has really hammered home

27:45

in the last few years. That's that's an important thing for this

27:48

group of players.

27:49

Yeah, I mean mate no joke France

27:52

are one of the best teams in the world. I think they're ranked fifth

27:54

and really they're a bit of an unknown quantity. They

27:57

have some quality quality players. Obviously they're

27:59

just.

27:59

had a manager. So things have changed with

28:02

their tactics, with their players. So it

28:04

would have been hard to really predict what they were

28:06

going to be like in the game. And crucially,

28:08

they changed their formation at halftime as

28:10

well, which I thought really disrupted the flow

28:13

of the game. I've got one old

28:15

United teammate, she was a centre half in

28:17

the first half, and then she was like left wing in

28:19

the second half. And so that sort

28:21

of speaks to, you know, credit to

28:23

them, their flexibility and how they adapted

28:25

in the game. And I hope that it doesn't get

28:27

lost in the score line. Actually, France are a really,

28:29

really top top team and will

28:32

definitely be pushing out the World Cup to

28:34

do big things. I was listening

28:36

to, I think it was Karen Duggan, until after the match last night,

28:38

and she was saying, Denise O'Sullivan's

28:41

late yellow card was, I think, Ireland's only yellow card

28:43

in the match. And she was making the point, she'd like to see

28:45

a little bit more physicality aggression.

28:47

Now, she's not obviously looking for more players

28:49

to get booked, but maybe a little bit more aggression

28:52

and maybe playing on the edge.

28:54

Would you like to see a little bit more of that from the Irish team that maybe

28:56

head into World Cup? That could be a positive

28:58

thing.

29:00

I think something that you know, you could never

29:02

accuse the girls of doing

29:04

is not putting in enough effort

29:07

or aggressiveness. So,

29:09

you know, me as a defender, that's kind of my bread

29:12

and buttering, that's all of the girls' bread and butter that

29:14

are defenders. So, you know, maybe there were instances,

29:17

I didn't see it myself, I think

29:19

physicality is something that they will always

29:22

bring in spades. And also what you've got to remember

29:24

as well is the formation that they were set

29:26

out in, our team

29:28

Ireland, it's a fiver

29:30

at the back. So, it's not necessarily something where

29:33

there's going to be real clear one-v-one

29:35

moments all over the pitch, a lot more about

29:37

tactics containing the opposition and

29:39

then getting really good opportunities potentially

29:42

on the build-up, but a lot on the break as well. So,

29:45

for me, knowing those girls, I

29:47

know that that physicality, it can never be

29:49

questioned and it's always at the fore, but we

29:52

can always have these questions, can't we? Yeah,

29:54

if you're definitely playing that style of play,

29:56

you have to be patient and we're just

29:58

speaking about the positives there within. the Irish

30:00

performance, mainly maybe the first

30:02

30-40 minutes for you. What did you make

30:05

of maybe the link-up play up front with

30:07

Kira Kurusic and Eiffel and Marisa Siva

30:10

in particular?

30:11

I thought in the first 40 minutes we did really,

30:14

really well. Kira Kurusic

30:16

sort of came out of nowhere

30:18

really in the last few games to develop

30:20

herself as that sort of lone

30:23

point target number nine. And I'm absolutely delighted

30:25

for her. She's a lovely girl. And certainly

30:28

in those first portion of the game,

30:30

she did really well. She's a really good hold-up

30:33

player. And I think the system that we play

30:35

in, it really suits having

30:38

a strong, confident target person. And

30:40

there was one moment where she kind of...

30:43

I was watching it and she got the ball and

30:45

then she kind of cruised it behind Wende Rennard.

30:47

We're talking about the most prolific

30:50

central defender in the whole world really,

30:52

Wende Rennard. So, Kudas

30:54

Tivak, and I hope that she can continue

30:56

with that confidence. Obviously, my other mates,

30:59

Amber Barrett, and other people like that who are

31:02

only going to come into the fall and add on top

31:04

of that. But really last night, I think

31:06

showed a real taste of what Kira is going

31:08

to try and bring it to the World Cup.

31:10

We talked about where it went wrong and

31:12

we wondered maybe was it Katie McCabe going off?

31:15

What is it like to be in and around Katie

31:17

McCabe? Is it her presence? Obviously,

31:19

we see it with her football, but she wasn't overly

31:22

having a massive effect football-wise last night.

31:25

But is it her presence as well that she really

31:27

brings to the team?

31:29

There's lots

31:31

of leaders on the pitch in terms of players

31:34

who are captains for their club,

31:36

which is unusual actually.

31:38

So, just off the top of my mind, you've got

31:41

Denise Sullivan at North Carolina, obviously,

31:43

Kate McCabe. I'm sure Louise

31:46

is in the mix

31:48

there as well.

31:49

But really, obviously, Katie is our captain.

31:52

So, it's not just sometimes what someone

31:54

does either talking wise or on

31:56

the pitch. Sometimes it's just that presence. It's

31:59

knowing that you're...

31:59

you're lining it out against someone who really

32:02

does not, they have no fear and she

32:04

does not care who's just playing against

32:06

what team it is. And that can kind of give you

32:08

that confidence. And look,

32:11

sometimes moments just happen

32:13

like that. You know, I think the

32:15

moment when France started to be able to bring in

32:17

some of their wingers into play a bit better and they

32:20

sussed that that was the way that they were gonna

32:22

have to go rather than trying

32:24

to play in between our midfield

32:26

and our defense, which we're always very good

32:28

at keeping those gaps really small. I think when

32:30

they sussed that out and they thought, right, we're gonna go

32:32

around Ireland, I

32:35

think that's when the momentum started to change. So

32:37

obviously that coincided shortly with

32:39

Kate and McCabe coming off. And, you know, as a

32:41

player, it's never nice to see, you

32:43

know, a fellow teammate going off the

32:45

pitch, injured as well. I'm not saying that would have

32:47

affected, I don't necessarily think it would have,

32:50

but it's definitely a mute moment

32:52

when that happens. So maybe

32:54

a bit of everything. I'm sure there's

32:56

a lot of mental fatigue as well with

32:59

the team, even naturally, given the tail

33:01

end of the season. And then of course the

33:03

squad selection, the pressure and all of that

33:05

in the last number of weeks. So clearly there's

33:07

been a lot of, I guess, stress

33:09

laid onto these players. So, you know,

33:11

when you see some of the little things that led to goals

33:13

last night that are maybe concerns, at least

33:16

I guess they're happening now and not in two weeks time.

33:19

Well, it's definitely the case that, you

33:21

know, what's happening now is a dry run for

33:23

the World Cup. So you take it, you know,

33:26

you take the little bits and bobs

33:27

now rather than two weeks time. In terms

33:29

of maybe being tired or fatigue,

33:32

actually the schedule that they've been having

33:34

is

33:34

I think has been really good. It's been giving

33:37

them a few days off in the week to return

33:39

to their families in Ireland and, you know, just

33:41

have a little bit of downtime and then be able

33:43

to keep that intensity. That

33:45

said, you know, as a player, they'd know

33:47

that they were in the run into the World Cups.

33:49

You're always going to have that anticipation. And

33:52

also you're playing in front of a record

33:55

teller crowd for

33:58

the Irish women's games. So

34:00

there will be that as well. Potentially, it's

34:02

good to get that extra atmosphere. Certainly,

34:05

my first cap for Ireland was over in Spain

34:08

a few months ago. There wouldn't have been any atmosphere

34:10

at all. So it was really good that those girls are going

34:12

to get that in spades because obviously

34:14

that first opener against

34:17

Australia, I think it's in a sellout crowd

34:19

of something like 80,000. So

34:22

I think it's all good

34:24

things and it's all hopefully going to be built

34:26

on and taken forward.

34:27

I presume you're heading over to Australia yourself

34:30

in a viewing capacity. Like

34:32

it's, I guess, how

34:34

do you feel about the whole thing now? Because I know

34:36

you are so, so close and so unlucky

34:38

with injuries and timing is everything, I

34:41

guess, when it comes to squad selection. But how's

34:43

your head feeling

34:44

now and how are you thinking about it at all at this

34:46

stage? Well, firstly,

34:48

thanks for asking. Look, there's a few

34:50

of us that just missed out for

34:53

various reasons. And I was gutted,

34:55

I was gutted at the time.

34:57

And I think the squad announcement

34:59

was something around Tuesday last week. And

35:01

I ended up, I just got a

35:04

knee brace off that I'd had on for a few weeks. And

35:06

then I stayed over in Ireland for the week. I didn't get into

35:08

it. So obviously I'm back at United,

35:11

stayed over, just stayed with my family and the

35:13

kind of got around me and

35:15

we did things. I went to

35:17

the Mayo Dublin quarterfinal

35:20

in Crow Park. I won't say anything about the result. So

35:23

I did a few things just to put my feet back on the ground,

35:27

you know,

35:27

take a little dose of reality. And then by the time

35:29

I came back to England this week, back to

35:31

United, I've been more of the

35:33

verb to like approach it in the right way. And

35:36

I'd said at the time, I said

35:38

at the time, look, I'm going to go to Australia. And I

35:41

didn't realize, I hadn't really properly got

35:43

that okayed from the

35:46

physios and from the manager at United.

35:48

So I'm pleased to say that there's support

35:51

in that.

35:51

I sort of, what is it, put

35:53

the cart before the horse? So I sort of said that

35:55

and I hadn't actually checked, but they were delighted

35:57

for me. So I booked my flight.

36:00

I'll be eating rice and beans when I'm over there.

36:02

No, I've put my fries in. I've literally

36:04

put it in to sort of go. And I

36:07

think I'm doing the second best thing.

36:10

The first best thing is going over and playing. And

36:12

then the second best thing is sort of being in the mix

36:14

as much as I can. Told

36:16

the girls that I'm going. So

36:18

I'm really, really looking

36:19

forward to it.

36:20

That's a brilliant mindset to have, Eve.

36:22

Is that something that you've always had? Like I

36:25

read your tweet not long after it was announced

36:27

and you're congratulating the girls and saying

36:29

how proud they should be. Like that's an incredible

36:32

way to be able to look at things. Is

36:34

that something you've always had?

36:36

Oh, thank you. I don't know if it's

36:38

necessarily something that I've been aiming for.

36:40

And, you know, there's probably moments that you'd

36:42

catch me where maybe I wouldn't be able

36:44

to hit that note quite as good. But on

36:46

the whole, I'm trying to take that mindset.

36:49

And also a big thing is knowing those girls,

36:52

knowing their characters, their personalities,

36:55

knowing their families, knowing if they're anything

36:58

like my family, that would be one of the

37:01

biggest achievements in your whole life. So I'm just

37:04

so pleased for them to obviously get that

37:06

opportunity as I would have wanted to have.

37:10

And so I'm delighted for them. And especially

37:12

for players like Denise O'Sullivan,

37:14

who has just done, you know, 100

37:16

caps on her last camp. And so there's

37:19

players that have seen that from day

37:21

one to where it is now. And it's

37:23

so important for them to get that, you

37:26

know, almost like the fruits of or the rewards

37:28

of everything they've put in. So there's

37:30

that history that comes with it as well, that it

37:32

will be really, really nice to sit and watch that.

37:34

And obviously I've only been sort of lucky

37:36

enough to kind of come into it really late.

37:39

And hopefully my journey will go on well

37:41

past the World Cup. But

37:43

there's a lot of those girls who for this

37:45

has been a long time coming. So that's

37:47

gonna be really nice to sort of see and witness.

37:50

That's the attitude as well, isn't it, Aoife? When

37:52

you think back to your opening

37:55

cap, as you say, against China in February, and

37:57

like, I know it's hard to think beyond the World

37:59

Cup.

37:59

up with this current juncture, but all

38:02

of a sudden in, you know, a month, two months

38:04

time, this will all be over. And I guess

38:06

that the future squads will be the

38:08

question. And clearly you have the ability and

38:10

the mindset to be very much a part of the Irish set

38:12

up for years to come. You're only 27 as well. So I

38:14

guess you have plenty of time left at the international

38:17

stage, you would imagine and hope.

38:19

Yeah, I mean, I hope so. I think

38:22

the one thing about football is with

38:25

any moment or experience

38:27

or tournament, there's

38:29

always one more, there's always the next thing. So

38:32

obviously last week when I've been pushing

38:34

to try and get into the squad,

38:36

then the next thing is obviously to come back into club

38:38

and then you're pushing for Champions League or

38:40

you're pushing for the new season. And

38:43

then there's obviously things on the international circuit

38:45

as well. But right now, obviously I've

38:47

still got my World Cup out on, but

38:49

there

38:49

is always those things

38:52

that are sort of pushing you along and remind

38:54

you that there's just no time to wallow. And

38:56

also, why would you want to miss out on the

38:58

opportunity to celebrate

39:01

the girls over in Australia? So

39:03

there's that as well. And if

39:06

you knew all the girls, you'd be saying the

39:08

exact same thing. And so that's

39:10

probably how

39:11

I look at it. You posted

39:14

on Instagram, I know you'd suffered that knee injury

39:16

towards the tail end of the season with United.

39:19

And

39:19

as I said, the timing of that is terrible. But

39:22

you posted an Instagram story I think from Carrington, the

39:25

United training ground with your cast off for the first time

39:27

in a while. And then you'd see the Erlingus playing, heading

39:30

over to Dublin, of course, in the squad selection. But

39:33

do you have to then, was it I

39:35

guess up to you to make a pitch to say, I

39:37

feel ready, I feel okay? Or how does that conversation

39:40

happen? Because clearly, you could see it from

39:42

Vera Pow in the days leading up to the squad

39:44

announcement, she was dreading

39:46

having those conversations with players. Yeah,

39:50

I would not I definitely wouldn't

39:52

be jealous of those

39:54

sorts of decisions that managers have to make as a

39:56

player, we only have to look after ourselves

39:59

and

39:59

like you're saying, making a pitch for yourself. And so,

40:02

so I did go from the plane and we had a really

40:04

good conversation, a really long conversation.

40:07

And I put myself across the best that I

40:09

could and she has to weigh up so many

40:11

things, not just one particular

40:13

player, she has to weigh up how it's all gonna come together.

40:17

And ultimately, by the time, you

40:20

know, when we left that conversation, we were able

40:22

to, we were able to have a hug, you know,

40:24

I was able to wish the team

40:26

good luck. And so I was so pleased that

40:29

I got over, even

40:31

just to see everyone. And then obviously then

40:33

the following day to that was when the

40:35

squad was announced. And I saw the girls

40:38

before the squad had been, before that it

40:40

had been announced internally, before they

40:42

knew. And, you know,

40:44

it's just that anticipation for everyone

40:47

hoping that they're gonna be

40:49

able to get going. And so it was nice

40:51

to sort of just, you know, wish people good luck

40:53

on an individual level. But

40:55

yeah, I did go over, like looking back

40:58

now, it felt very foreboding, me putting

41:00

a picture of it, link some on my Instagram.

41:03

It was one of those regional airlines,

41:05

it's a bit kind of, you know, so

41:08

it's two each side and a bit side to side.

41:11

So, but no, look, it

41:14

was all, I think it was all sort

41:17

of in the cut and thrust of football. And, you know,

41:19

it was all done in the right

41:21

way. I don't take any particular

41:25

negative feeling off the back of that, if anything,

41:27

I've sort of feel resolved with the situation,

41:29

put my case across and

41:32

then that was that.

41:33

Yeah, I spoke to some of the players, we

41:35

did a send off party and then the next day as well, which

41:37

would have been two days after the squad was

41:40

announced and it was very bittersweet

41:42

for them. Yes, they were going to a World Cup, they

41:44

were so excited and they knew it was

41:46

a phenomenal opportunity, but you couldn't

41:49

but get the sense that they just, you

41:52

know, felt bad for the players that didn't get going.

41:55

And what was it like afterwards when

41:57

you heard the news, did you get to spend time with them?

41:59

to chat to them, that sort of thing.

42:03

So I wasn't with them anymore

42:05

after they had found out, I'd sort

42:07

of left a bit before that.

42:10

My aunt had kindly picked

42:12

me up from UCD in Dublin

42:14

and we'd went out for some lunch to sort of

42:16

lick the wounds a little bit. But

42:19

no, you're right, I was surprised actually

42:22

how many of the girls had referenced

42:25

people missing out in their posts because

42:28

I think if you looked at every

42:30

national team and sort of looked

42:32

at what

42:33

people would say about how delighted they were,

42:35

I think you'd see very, very few players

42:37

that would even, not that you would anyway,

42:40

but that would even think to potentially

42:43

mention that it might be bittersweet and obviously

42:45

there are some girls on the team

42:48

that it

42:50

would have been really, really good in Jamie

42:52

Finn, for example, and

42:55

obviously one of my counterparts over playing

42:57

over here in England as well,

43:00

Meg Campbell, you know, through

43:02

injury. So

43:03

bits like that. So it was, yeah,

43:05

I thought like, wow, that's a testament

43:07

to their character as well, that that would even be

43:10

on their mind on potentially the best,

43:12

not the best day of their life, but the best day of their

43:14

life that the players would

43:16

even have it within themselves to sort

43:18

of make note of that. And I think that's all the more

43:20

reason why whatever happens on the pitch

43:23

in Australia, everybody should be really

43:25

behind this group of players as a set of people

43:27

as well.

43:28

Do you manage Efeta in

43:30

the days afterwards, I guess, Lena,

43:32

and I guess in professional sports, you have the

43:35

opportunity to chat to sports psychologists and therapists

43:37

about how you're feeling about all these things. And I guess

43:40

also, Lena, on the other players that you mentioned there, the likes

43:42

of Megan Campbell and Leanne Kiernan and

43:44

Jamie Finn, all talented players who were

43:46

within such a narrow

43:49

margin of making this squad same as yourself. So have

43:51

you managed to talk to others, including

43:53

those girls maybe, about how the feelings

43:55

have materialized?

43:58

Yeah, definitely. I've chatted.

43:59

to, I've chatted to a lot of the

44:02

players, and I've chatted

44:04

to a couple

44:05

who weren't able to make the squad in the end.

44:07

I was chatted to Megan yesterday, for example.

44:10

And I said to her, you know, are you

44:12

able to watch, are you able to watch the game? Because

44:14

not always would people be able to watch the

44:16

game so soon. And she was

44:18

like, Yeah, of course I'm watching it, I have to

44:20

watch it. So obviously,

44:22

there's people are personally disappointed,

44:24

but also have it within us to be like,

44:27

no, we have to watch it, we're delighted

44:30

for them. And bits

44:32

like that. And, you know, mentions of

44:34

sports psychologists and

44:35

getting yourself right with your

44:37

mindset. And that's sort of something that that's obviously

44:39

massive as well. And the people

44:41

that I've been around have said, you know,

44:44

that you've had something that you wanted,

44:46

and it didn't happen. And then you sort of what now? How

44:48

can we make the best of this situation? And it's

44:51

just a nice place to live in when

44:53

you have that mentality.

44:55

And just looking club wise then as well,

44:57

you know, a brilliant year for Manchester United

45:00

and your Champions League football as well

45:02

to look forward to.

45:04

Yeah, we've got we've got some Champions

45:06

League football, which is so, so exciting,

45:08

because it's obviously it's our first time doing that. And

45:11

we've got into a round of the qualifying

45:13

for it. So we're not quite in the group

45:16

stage yet. And we're lucky,

45:18

because we came second rather than third, we

45:20

get to miss out one of the qualifiers. And

45:23

we're lucky because it means we get more holiday, we get

45:25

an extra week. The first

45:27

qualifier would have been a bit earlier. So that's

45:29

all helped me go to Australia as well, even

45:32

if it is as a capacity as a fan rather than

45:34

a footballer.

45:34

So

45:36

yeah, there's lots and lots of exciting things

45:38

in terms of club as well that I'm really excited

45:40

to. And then hopefully on the 23rd

45:43

of September, massive, massive

45:45

matchup at the at the Aviva for Ireland.

45:48

And I really hope

45:49

that I can be involved in that. Absolutely. How

45:51

do you feel about Alessia Russo's departure? No, a lot of United

45:54

fans and players will be disappointed

45:56

like but I guess that's football, these things, these things happen,

45:58

transfers, players come.

45:59

go so obviously disappointing for

46:02

the club I'd imagine.

46:04

Yeah it's disappointing for the club,

46:06

it's disappointing for everyone, it's disappointing for me

46:09

and it's disappointing because one

46:11

she's becoming a world class player

46:14

and two just being around her

46:17

she's just so

46:19

good to everyone she's so nice. When

46:22

I did my knee at United she

46:24

wrote me out a little card, she sent me a little anchor

46:27

bracelet, she's one of those people

46:29

that just she thinks she thinks

46:31

about what's going on to the lids with different

46:33

people and different you know like different

46:36

ones of us so I'm really really

46:38

gonna miss Alessia actually

46:40

and also we've got what we had, I wish

46:43

we still had her on a

46:45

badger one of the Spanish right back

46:47

so we're gonna miss her as well

46:49

but definitely Alessia and you know

46:51

she's only gonna fly now she's only gonna thrive

46:53

and unfortunately it's not gonna be at

46:56

our club but as a friend

46:58

I'm gonna watch on and be excited for her.

47:01

And just in terms of your own contract, I

47:03

know you signed a two-year contract back in July 2021

47:07

so does this mean that you're able to give us a little bit of

47:09

an update that you're gonna be staying on?

47:12

I'd love to give a big expose out

47:14

there. I think if I told you

47:18

everything I'd probably turn over my phone

47:20

there next to my laptop and I'd be seeing all

47:22

sorts of calls but you

47:25

know it's really exciting this next

47:27

couple of years are really exciting

47:30

and hopefully we're all gonna find

47:33

out in due course I'm sorry to be so

47:35

so vague I wish I could.

47:37

No, we tried our best. It's

47:39

only good things and it's only things that hopefully

47:44

people will be happy with. Brilliant.

47:46

I'm sure you weren't being vague as to who you were supporting in

47:48

Croke Park last weekend Aoife. I know your

47:50

I think your dad's from Galway and your mother's

47:53

from outside Kilmein in Mayo so that's

47:55

a bit of a controversial one having a parent from each but last

47:58

weekend in particular

47:59

I know you would have played a lot of Gaelic football growing up with Warwickshire

48:02

and that. So I mean, how

48:04

are the emotions coping in Crook Park

48:06

last weekend? I'm sure it was disappointing.

48:09

Oh, it was, it was a sickening

48:11

day out. It was, it was not what we

48:13

wanted at all. That first half, there was only

48:15

a point in it at half time. And I thought, well,

48:18

actually had a flight to catch. So I was hoping that it

48:20

wouldn't go to extra time. So I was going to have to make a

48:22

call whether to miss the flight or

48:25

obviously not

48:27

miss the flight, but this half time, that was where my mindset

48:30

was. That was where my mindset was at half time

48:32

that it could go to extra time. And

48:34

obviously then it sort of, it ran away from

48:37

us and, you know, it was really,

48:40

really, really not, not a good watch in

48:42

the end. So that's such a shame. I had

48:44

so many family down there. So we were

48:46

sort of wallowing together if you like, but I've

48:49

already started the calls for, um, may

48:51

have for Sam 2024. I don't know if it's too soon

48:53

yet, but it's the anticipation that kills. Yeah. So,

48:55

um, I, I, I, I, I, I, so,

48:58

um, yeah, it was, it was not

49:00

the best day out. Um, but I

49:03

really don't think that there's anything that will match

49:05

a packed out Crow Park. Um, I

49:07

love Wembley in England. Obviously that's the

49:09

biggest sort of football soccer stadium,

49:12

but those fields of when you go in and

49:14

it's, you know, it's, it's packed out at

49:17

Crow Park. There's just nothing that will be that for

49:19

me. Cause

49:20

I know that Gaelic, Gaelic football is in the heritage

49:22

of the Irish community in Birmingham. There

49:24

would be so, so popular. Even,

49:26

uh, I think Jack really should have played Gaelic football growing

49:28

up as well. You'd have known Jack a little

49:30

bit from primary school in my writing.

49:33

Yeah, we went to the same secondary school

49:35

and then we sort of played for rival Gaelic football

49:37

teams. And we did actually go away with Warwick

49:39

share,

49:40

um, on the same team once

49:42

or twice. And then we managed to

49:44

play in like halftime, a length to

49:47

final back, I dunno, like 15,

49:50

15 years ago. And that the game on Sunday, actually

49:53

had two teams, one from France

49:55

and one for Germany that we're playing at halftime, which I thought

49:57

was really cool. And I thought they looked really good.

49:59

know that they played Gaelic football

50:02

in Germany. So that was quite

50:04

good to watch actually. And obviously there's

50:06

an Irish contingent over there

50:08

clearly or else they've just been watching

50:10

YouTube videos. So no, that was

50:13

really good to watch. What was Jack Rieleich like

50:15

as a Gaelic footballer?

50:17

Yeah, he was great. He

50:20

was class much to my annoyance because we

50:22

would have been marking each other in the middle of the

50:24

pitch. Always

50:27

very skillful, very technical.

50:30

You know, would have had that work right and that

50:32

ability to get around the pitch as well. So no,

50:34

it was, you know, obviously the shining

50:36

star of his team. You

50:38

know, like I say, much to my annoyance. And,

50:42

for Sam, maybe next year, IFA and

50:45

I know your uncle Pat Kelly would have played for mail, I think, as well.

50:47

I'm writing soon. Yeah, and

50:49

he's actually listening. I know that he's listening

50:51

onto this because I told him

50:53

that I was going to be on. So hi, Pat,

50:55

if you're listening. Yeah,

50:57

Pat, my uncle Pat, he used to

50:59

play for mail and that just made

51:01

everything all the more special and exciting.

51:04

And I never forget how I feel as a kid,

51:06

obviously, looking up to people who

51:08

are playing sports. So I try my best

51:10

to do that for sort of the young kids

51:12

now. Because you just, yeah,

51:15

you sort of forget how much of a

51:17

special thing it is as a kid to have someone older

51:19

sort of to look up

51:21

to and to have a bit of a role model. So Pat

51:24

has a, well, he has two kids now. One of them is called

51:26

Ava and she's sort of like,

51:28

not a mini me, but she's, you know, a little cousin.

51:31

So I always make sure I try and, you

51:33

know, give her a few United bits and stuff

51:36

like that to make sure that hopefully

51:38

she can feel as excited as I did when I

51:40

was her age, looking up to Pat.

51:42

Absolutely. Shout out to Pat this morning, watching in. I

51:44

think Pat won an all out in club title with St Vincent as well.

51:46

So man steeped in GAA tradition. Ava,

51:48

you've been really good with your time this morning. Thanks so

51:50

much. And hopefully we'll check back in with you again very soon.

51:53

Thanks so much. Thank you. Great stuff. Ava

51:56

Manion there, Irish international, of course, magic and it's star

51:58

as well. Always great to hear from you. Yeah,

52:00

what a mindset. Yeah, incredible. Even

52:03

the way she's talking about kids looking up to her, he needs

52:05

looking up to her. Like, yeah, unbelievable.

52:08

Yeah. Yeah. It's not an easy thing to have when you've

52:10

had, you know, a

52:12

loss like not going to a World Cup, you know, very,

52:15

very tough thing to take. Um, but wow.

52:17

Yeah, that was, yeah, incredible.

52:18

Especially considering without the injury, she was a shoe-in

52:21

probably for the squad. Yeah. You know, when you know that you

52:23

would be there only for the injury, uh, but clearly

52:25

she's in a good place mentally and fair play to her. Great

52:27

to see you. Really, really interesting person

52:29

to talk to as well. 8 23 a.m. on

52:31

Friday mornings, O2B a.m. with myself and Ashley live

52:33

with you until 10 o'clock. We'll be

52:35

back in just a second. I do want to bring you some more reaction

52:38

from last night's match as well. Here is the player

52:40

of the match. Well, the Irish player of the match anyway, Kyra

52:42

Caruso, speaking with our own Kathleen McNamee.

52:44

Have a look.

52:45

Uh, yeah, I mean, result

52:48

1-0, 3-0, you don't want to see that. You

52:50

don't want to walk off the pitch and have played that 90 minutes, especially the nine

52:52

minutes we put into that game and see that result. So

52:55

that, of course, that I

52:58

feel like we have to recognize

53:00

and we have to walk away and we have to, we have to like,

53:03

we have to feel that we have to be, we

53:05

have to remember that like as professionals,

53:07

like that just can't, that just can't happen. And,

53:10

but those aside, like

53:12

the goals aside, I think that the most important

53:15

thing

53:15

is that as we felt as a team, especially

53:17

in that first 45 minutes, it's like a feeling

53:19

I haven't felt like almost

53:22

ever amongst us. And just this unspoken

53:24

ability to be like, know where we each other

53:26

are, our link up play, high balls, trusting

53:29

each other, moving up the pitch physically

53:31

and like imposing ourselves on a, on

53:34

a, an opponent like that, a top five opponent

53:36

in the world. It's very impressive and

53:38

it's something that I'm, I'm very happy to

53:40

take away from the game. Yeah, it felt like sometimes

53:42

in the past we've relied on very good individual

53:45

performances and like that

53:47

could have been any number of players in the squad. They

53:49

just had a good day, but that first 45

53:51

minutes until the goals really felt like everyone

53:53

was moving in tandem with each other. Yeah,

53:56

I'm glad that you felt that too. I think

53:58

I've been like, that's moving in.

53:59

interviews I'm trying it's really hard to describe

54:02

because it's almost like this on like again this is unspoken

54:04

ability to like trust that when

54:06

a ball comes into me, I know where a pocket

54:08

players going to be trust that when

54:11

Lou passes or picks up

54:13

a ball, I know she wants to go along with it and I

54:15

know that I know Katie want to live up on the line

54:17

or she wants to pull back around.

54:19

The

54:30

USAA annual mileage discount

54:32

USA get a quote today.

54:46

Or

55:00

of course that the new sponsors,

55:02

I guess, and kid manufacturers. But

55:04

yeah, to see this guy thing upside down

55:06

was a little bit of a they've been known to have these little

55:09

issues in the past as well. So yeah,

55:12

hopefully it's rectified and they're not the top set there. Bring

55:14

them with them. Maybe to I'm guessing it is though.

55:16

Yeah, unless they can print

55:18

some new ones pretty quickly. Yeah, some comments coming

55:20

in to keep your comments by the way coming in on the YouTube stream or

55:22

with you until 10 o'clock this morning. Shifty lad says Eva

55:24

speaking very well, maybe she'll be a panelist out there. Shame

55:27

to miss out on having to pay to be out there, which I know

55:29

is yes, point. Something

55:31

you probably never had to think that you would be dealing

55:34

with. Dandelene says France were top class.

55:36

Ireland looked a little bit off it. Hopefully this changes for the World

55:38

Cup, but it's hard to see in a short period of time. I

55:41

know what you're saying. I'd like to think obviously the

55:44

Columbia game behind closed I think Vera said

55:46

last night

55:46

she's going to play

55:47

two different 11s. That's what I gather two different

55:49

11s two different halves in that friendly. It's

55:52

of course behind closed doors, but the Australian

55:54

game. Hopefully they'll have picked up and learned from us to even if

55:56

they go and go behind and again, touch what that doesn't happen. They'll

55:59

have maybe learned how to

55:59

cope with that. Yeah again what

56:02

we were saying the first 40 minutes you know

56:04

and if the goal had went in all

56:06

of these things but there was enough positivity

56:08

there I think that you can build

56:10

on that. They have the players like if you look at

56:12

their talent that's what in that squad so

56:15

I would be keeping definitely optimistic

56:17

and yeah their group they can definitely

56:20

get something out of it I feel.

56:21

Yeah 100% yes. Emma's telling

56:23

us you can't get the kits I've ordered weeks ago if my niece is

56:25

still waiting nightmare. You heard this

56:27

as well there's just such a backlog. Everyone's trying

56:29

to get kits for the World Cup for their kids, their

56:31

nephews whatever. We want

56:33

everyone kitted out. 100% and

56:36

it was lovely to see you last night. That's the great thing

56:38

about the women's matches like last night is they

56:40

give so much time to the fans and yeah there's

56:42

so many kids just waiting for autographs and selfies I don't know how

56:44

long they have to wait after the matches before they can get

56:47

off the pitch but it seems a significant period

56:49

of time at each at each game. They're incredible

56:51

and the girls go straight over

56:53

and they start signing and

56:55

getting the pictures and the whole lot and that means a hell of a

56:57

lot like I've met a lot of them now throughout the games and

57:00

the same ones are constantly coming back and the

57:02

girls even know them now at this point you

57:05

know because they're constantly at every game and yeah

57:07

it's brilliant to see and that's only going to inspire them and

57:09

yeah there's loads of little boys there as well

57:12

which is brilliant to see they're taking an interest

57:14

and that's how it should be.

57:15

Yeah absolutely. I keep the comments coming in on

57:17

the match last night. Greg Caffrey by the way separately says she

57:19

and Manohar are more jammy than a jammy dodger but

57:22

McManus is a legend. I don't know how

57:24

to take that one. McManus is a legend. You

57:26

don't get to an all-around semi-final if you're jammy.

57:29

Let's just say that. I'm on with some good wins this year. No, Vinny

57:31

Corey's doing a serious job Shane. Quality

57:33

and he's my former Leaving Start economics teacher as well

57:35

so. No way. Shout out to Vinny Corey. Didn't know that.

57:38

Yes there you go. We're gonna get him in the studio no doubt

57:40

after the after Manohar win the final. I've seen

57:42

it at the corner as well as we can bring the trophy

57:44

and maybe show and tell Sam

57:47

McGuire in hand. Yeah I'll come in that day.

57:49

Yeah getting ahead of myself a little bit but of course it's

57:51

just great to have a semi-final to look forward to.

57:52

Yeah he's not afraid to make the big calls as well.

57:55

Yeah. Obviously McManus coming

57:57

off the bench that this is the first year of him

57:59

doing this in Champ. championship. That was a massive

58:01

call in itself. Oh, huge. Played alongside

58:03

him, you know, obviously. So, yeah,

58:06

it's hard to do that to a former teammate.

58:07

Big time. There's two big games to look forward to this weekend

58:10

in the Herding Championship as well, the semi-finals at

58:12

8.28am on this Friday morning's OGB. And we're going to look ahead

58:15

to Claire Kilkenny now. We did Goa Limerick,

58:17

a significantly yesterday, delighted to welcome to the show

58:19

this morning the former Kilkenny

58:22

star, Kieran Joyce, and Brendan Bugler, who of course won

58:25

the All-Ireland with Claire back in 2013. Brendan

58:27

and Kieran, good morning, how are things?

58:29

Good morning, folks. Good morning. Thanks for hopping

58:31

on us. Much appreciated as per usual. Brendan,

58:34

might start with yourself. The injury

58:36

concerns, I guess, with Claire coming into this game were some

58:39

of the big talking points. David McInerney and John Conlon,

58:41

though, look like they will be fit. So

58:44

that's a huge boost for Claire.

58:46

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm

58:48

not sure what the story with Connor

58:50

is going to be. I know his name to start,

58:53

but I suppose we won't really know

58:55

until throwing on Sunday. But when

58:58

you go up to an All-Ireland semi-final, you're playing Kilkenny,

59:01

you're after a little bit of a

59:19

throw.

59:40

Brendan, for Connor Cleary, he

59:42

was named to start in the monster final

59:44

if I remember correctly. He didn't play in

59:46

the end, but his absence was felt.

59:48

How much of a loss would he be if

59:50

he's not out there this weekend?

59:53

Yeah, I think, actually, you look at the

59:55

full back position for Claire for a number

59:57

of years prior to Brian Lohan coming in.

59:59

And there was a lot of chopping

1:00:02

and changing. And it was a problem position for us.

1:00:04

Connor played a lot of his hurling out at center back.

1:00:06

And Brian decided to put

1:00:08

him back full back and had faith in him there.

1:00:11

And he's really excelled. And the thing about Connor

1:00:13

is

1:00:14

he just goes about his business so quietly. And

1:00:16

he does a great, great job for Claire. And I suppose

1:00:18

it wasn't until we were missing him, he

1:00:20

hardly ever misses a game, you see. And it wasn't until we were missing

1:00:22

him that you really felt his loss. So

1:00:25

I suppose,

1:00:26

especially in the most final, Connor

1:00:28

had been used to mark an earn-glane

1:00:32

on numerous occasions. And more

1:00:34

often than not, he broke even or got better than

1:00:36

earned. So yeah, sure. Obviously,

1:00:39

his presence was clearly, or

1:00:41

his absence was clearly felt come

1:00:44

once the final day. But he suffered a serious

1:00:46

injury. I just hope

1:00:48

that it's cleared up. And he will be available

1:00:51

for Sunday. Kieran, Kakeni

1:00:53

in an All-Ireland City final just appears to be a different prospect.

1:00:56

Kakeni at some other point in the year, a big

1:00:59

game team. Paul Murphy was chatting to Joe on

1:01:01

off the ball during the weekend. He was talking about how he never lost

1:01:04

in an All-Ireland semi-final.

1:01:07

Is that something that will be in these Kakeni players'

1:01:09

heads as well? Because even if you look at the performance last year,

1:01:11

12-point win, as Brendan says, maybe the gap

1:01:13

has been narrowed, though, you'd imagine, between

1:01:16

now and then. But

1:01:18

still, a semi-final, Kakeni will be confident.

1:01:21

Yeah, he will, of course. No good sense

1:01:23

of deja vu. I remember

1:01:25

last year, up in the match, and I think once

1:01:27

John Connell wasn't out, wasn't in the

1:01:30

team. And we knew at halftime the

1:01:32

kind of game was effectively over. But it's going to be a

1:01:34

different prospect this year, I think,

1:01:36

clearer and in a lot better position. Kakeni,

1:01:38

I suppose, is unknown on our side, I suppose, because

1:01:42

we haven't had a set till 15 there for

1:01:44

the last number of games. We've had a few injuries. Couple

1:01:47

of players have stepped up. Tom Fean has come into

1:01:49

the game. David Blanchfield has really

1:01:51

established himself this year. We've kind of only

1:01:53

seen games to him and the other, and finally last year he came

1:01:55

on. So it'll be interesting to see

1:01:58

what's happening at 15 is

1:01:59

Kenny will feel that matchup. I

1:02:02

suppose for Kenny's point of view, they've

1:02:04

showed glimpses of the

1:02:07

old Tkenny, you know, you know, they're

1:02:09

clinical at times but the one worry

1:02:11

was they've let teams back into games especially

1:02:14

to turn around the goal they had even though I suppose we got

1:02:16

the win, produced us however

1:02:19

it was but you know that's probably the one thing

1:02:21

they're going to worry about in terms

1:02:23

of

1:02:25

proper patch for Claire, you know, can Claire

1:02:27

put us to the sword, you know, are we going to be able to stay

1:02:29

in that and that so yeah

1:02:32

look it's I think it's going to be a completely different

1:02:34

game for last year I think it's going to be

1:02:37

really interesting in terms of the matchups how

1:02:39

Tkenny will figure their matchups

1:02:43

because I know look last year Tkenny, you know,

1:02:45

Mikey Butler took Tony Kelly, you know,

1:02:47

Hugh Lawler was on Peter Duggan at the time

1:02:50

and they really just nullified the

1:02:52

threat that Claire had and that but

1:02:54

I think that Claire probably have a couple more strengths for both

1:02:57

this year but I suppose Tkenny will

1:02:59

be looking at how they're going to get the matchups, we retrieved, we

1:03:01

played back, retrieved, sweet up

1:03:03

a lot about last year, you know, hopefully he's

1:03:06

fit to come back in so hopefully

1:03:08

we know probably tonight I think they'll end the team so we'll

1:03:10

know tonight then how we're going to be lined up.

1:03:12

Sorry go on, Henshyn. I'm just on that

1:03:14

point I'm wondering do you think Mikey Butler will take

1:03:17

on Tony Kelly again this year?

1:03:20

Yeah I'd say he probably

1:03:23

relished a challenge, you know, he's going to get the gold in the

1:03:25

last final so he's quite adept, he can

1:03:27

play anywhere and I suppose last year I

1:03:29

know he's been a lot flat in midfield, you know, and he's winning

1:03:31

ball and he's given the right option where

1:03:34

I know sometimes myself and Paul are ever in midfield at times

1:03:36

back in the day we just we just go through one,

1:03:39

put snow on it into the air but you

1:03:41

know he's a different prospect,

1:03:43

you know, and he kind of pays enough here and

1:03:45

you can see that so ideally probably

1:03:48

would, you know, it depends on how

1:03:50

clear we're lying out, you know, Cheryl Donald is lined up for full forward,

1:03:53

you know, look we know Hugh Lawler is very established,

1:03:55

whoever goes in on Hugh, you know, he should be able to handle,

1:03:57

you know, will the computer duck in in the air. So

1:04:01

it depends on the match-ups and it depends on whether they're going

1:04:03

to follow them or whether they're going to stay in their positions and

1:04:05

obviously Mark Webber comes in. But I

1:04:07

would assume, I suppose about work last year,

1:04:10

they'd probably try that at the start

1:04:12

and see. But I suppose the Kenny-Foe back line, you

1:04:15

know, Tommy Walsh in there is a very established

1:04:17

guy as well. He's very tidy-hearted and

1:04:20

that. So it depends on how clear line-up

1:04:22

is especially. And I suppose the first five

1:04:24

minutes you'll really see in terms of how they line

1:04:26

up, who's going to take who and will they start following

1:04:29

the man?

1:04:30

Tony Kelly, Brendan has, we've

1:04:33

probably run out of some perilives to use to describe Tony

1:04:35

Kelly but maybe throw us out a few more

1:04:37

there. Like what's he like to

1:04:39

play with, I guess, but also he's just added

1:04:41

so much to this clear team and 3-4

1:04:44

the last day in the quarter-final against Dublin. And some people were

1:04:46

saying he didn't even play that well.

1:04:50

So we all know how good Tony is. He's

1:04:53

a terrific player, truly curler.

1:04:56

What Tony has been doing the last three or four

1:04:58

years for Claire, we had seen that at club

1:05:00

level for five years previous

1:05:02

to Dash. And I suppose we'd

1:05:04

seen that before that back in 2013 when

1:05:06

he got player of the year. So I suppose

1:05:08

he's really, since he's become captain, he's really grown

1:05:10

into that leadership role and his performances

1:05:13

have been over the last couple of years. It's

1:05:16

been all their stuff every single year. So he's

1:05:19

a huge, huge, huge player for Claire. And

1:05:21

I think last year a lot of people were forgetting that going

1:05:24

into that RRL and it's a semi-final. Tony

1:05:26

did pick up a little bit of a knock in the

1:05:28

extra time period

1:05:30

of the monster final last year. And that

1:05:32

kind of carried into the Wexford game and obviously into

1:05:34

the RRL semi-final. So he wasn't at full tilt.

1:05:36

He wasn't at 100%. And I know

1:05:38

Mikey Butler had a good game that day, but

1:05:41

this year is just a completely different

1:05:44

year. And I

1:05:45

think Dicey was on about there, about matchups here and

1:05:47

matchups there. We won't know what's

1:05:49

going to be the story until the ball is thrown in

1:05:52

on Sunday. And that's the reality of it. I'd

1:05:54

imagine Kilkenny will

1:05:56

look at the clear full back line if Conner Cleary

1:05:58

isn't there and they might bombard a couple of...

1:05:59

highballs in there and test out the bodies and

1:06:02

you know we're going to have to be really really on it there Bush.

1:06:04

I suppose from a clear point of view going

1:06:06

up last year you know you're

1:06:09

really really confident on the back of a real good

1:06:11

monster campaign and then you know after 15

1:06:14

minutes the kidney just came out and they absolutely just

1:06:16

blitzed us.

1:06:17

So I suppose this year what I'm looking at

1:06:19

is to see where the energy levels at you know

1:06:22

and I was really really happy I suppose leaving to get

1:06:24

it ground against Dublin Dash.

1:06:26

There was no win in energy

1:06:28

levels you know compared to the monster

1:06:30

championship and you know we're running from the

1:06:32

start. Albeit

1:06:34

you know that accuracy wasn't done, especially

1:06:37

in the first half but the energy levels

1:06:39

were there and if they're not

1:06:41

there well you're not going to give yourself you know

1:06:43

much of an opportunity to win. You could see that with Tipperary,

1:06:45

you could see the same with Tipperary and Galway in the first 20

1:06:48

minutes. Galway were on it, they were burning the intensity,

1:06:50

they were burning the energy and Tip couldn't

1:06:52

handle it. You know and then Chidi

1:06:54

came out in the Sunday game afterwards and he mentioned

1:06:57

the stat about the number of turnovers and tackles that

1:06:59

Tipperary had against Limerick in the monster championship

1:07:01

in comparison to what they had against Galway and it was just

1:07:03

chalk and cheese. So

1:07:05

that's the big thing. It's about you know picking

1:07:07

you're going to burn it and I just hope that we can burn

1:07:09

it as well.

1:07:10

And Brendan what's your view on the free

1:07:13

taking situation with Claire? Is that a concern

1:07:15

for Brian Lowe and I know they changed it up

1:07:17

a little bit in the monster final and Tony

1:07:19

went on them in the end. You know Aiden McCarthy,

1:07:22

Mark Rogers has been on them as well. So

1:07:25

what is your view on all of that?

1:07:28

Yeah it's look we

1:07:30

have good free

1:07:32

takers and Claire Ashling. Aiden

1:07:35

obviously is out the next day so Mark

1:07:37

Rogers was on him against

1:07:39

Dublin and he you know he struck him really

1:07:41

really well. So I'd imagine I'd see Aiden I'd

1:07:43

have no problem with Mark hitting trees and all that and it's

1:07:45

going to be fine and he has that temperament. The one thing Mark has

1:07:48

throughout his under age career

1:07:50

he's got a lot of attention from defenders in

1:07:52

this game and that game at club level and his

1:07:55

temperament is exceptional and you

1:07:57

need that as well when you're a free taker. that

1:08:00

excellent temperament and he's got it. So

1:08:02

I'd imagine I'd see him starting in the freeze anyway

1:08:05

and if things are going bad we also,

1:08:07

Tony, is back up there anyway.

1:08:09

I suppose Kieran we touched on Tony Kelly

1:08:12

with Brendan, we should touch on Tijia, read with yourself

1:08:14

as well and it'd be rude of us not to.

1:08:16

How he's still producing what he's producing at this stage

1:08:19

is quite remarkable. How

1:08:21

can you see

1:08:23

Claire marshalling him? I don't want you, obviously you're not going to give

1:08:25

away state secrets and tell Claire how to do it but

1:08:28

if you were the Claire manager, how would you deal with Tijia

1:08:30

Reid?

1:08:32

That's a good question.

1:08:35

I suppose Tijia last year

1:08:37

had an exceptional semi-final

1:08:39

in finance. A lot of people are saying after the final

1:08:42

with Tijia, oh you know, you

1:08:45

know, for the region. So throughout

1:08:47

the year Tijia, you know, you're

1:08:49

showing games with other teams, I suppose

1:08:51

what we expect and that's the problem with Tijia,

1:08:53

Tony Kelly, they have exceptional games

1:08:56

and you know that's the standard and if you don't hit that standard

1:08:58

every day, you say that you have a core game

1:09:00

but I suppose Tijia, you know, the amount

1:09:02

of assists, the amount of puck

1:09:04

outs he wins and bringing other players into games, you

1:09:07

know, it's phenomenal for him. So he would

1:09:10

be a root one, it's

1:09:12

usual for Tijeni, we go along and off-line,

1:09:15

we play through the lines at times but

1:09:17

I suppose the one concern

1:09:20

I have for many of the times that, you know, our

1:09:22

half-hard line at times, we didn't break

1:09:24

the lines, you know, it's getting a goal

1:09:26

like, we took Wally West to come on and really

1:09:28

bring a big influence on that, you

1:09:30

know, he broke the line a couple of times, you know, we got a

1:09:33

goal from it from him, I didn't even imagine,

1:09:36

one of all you broke the line as well and Mike Butler

1:09:38

was there to give it to us so we need to kind

1:09:40

of break the lines against Claire because we know

1:09:42

Claire having established half-backlight, you know, if that half-backlight

1:09:45

starts, you know, they will, you know,

1:09:48

putting ball down top from your points has really

1:09:50

come on last year too, you know, we're not

1:09:52

going to have much headway so

1:09:54

Tij

1:09:59

What I would say is if you ever

1:10:01

have a front in DJ, you're in trouble.

1:10:05

You always need to be behind him. He's just

1:10:07

a great guy to win a ball and he just finds

1:10:09

his catch the last second. So

1:10:11

I'd say for

1:10:13

any player man you want to make sure he's always

1:10:15

behind DJ and always

1:10:18

he's in front of the goal instead of having DJ in front of

1:10:20

his role. Another dangerous

1:10:22

aspect as well. He's five points behind Patrick

1:10:24

Horgan for the all-time leading scorer.

1:10:27

So maybe that's something that will be in the

1:10:29

back of his mind as well.

1:10:31

Yeah, I agree. He probably

1:10:33

has stories of people. He

1:10:36

talks when he's been training and stuff, he cheats himself

1:10:38

up. He kind of has many mind

1:10:40

game competitions that have been said so far. I

1:10:43

think all he feels is that there are a couple of links.

1:10:46

But yeah, he teaches us our character.

1:10:48

He thinks about us, but he won't see that

1:10:50

as the authentic. I

1:10:54

suppose he teaches a pure team player.

1:10:57

He's probably the most selfless player I can see in

1:10:59

terms of he wins a ball. Because his first

1:11:01

instinct is not a score. His first instinct is to

1:11:03

look around and see if

1:11:05

a killer passes on. You know, it's not

1:11:07

going to happen.

1:11:09

Whereas other players might get caught and take

1:11:11

my score here. DJ's goal is

1:11:13

going to be a goal on first. No goal

1:11:15

on first. So

1:11:17

he probably is. And that's why

1:11:19

Tkenny has thought it can depend on maybe the last

1:11:22

five or six years. You know,

1:11:24

Mark Jones has been there the last couple of years. He could

1:11:26

be a goal-trash. Obviously all goalies there are really

1:11:28

goal-trash. And they have kind of stemmed

1:11:30

the goal because the dependency is not really

1:11:33

on DJ there. I suppose

1:11:35

DJ is still a rude man. He's that player

1:11:37

that wins the early ball. He's that player that

1:11:39

wins the 60-40 ball that sometimes you think

1:11:41

yourself, other players probably win. DJ

1:11:44

wins

1:11:44

and he makes him pick the right option.

1:11:47

And even in the sense of finding there, you know, that they're

1:11:50

on a corner, they're up there. They're trying to pick

1:11:52

the ball. And DJ actually lost

1:11:54

his herd. He went down, he attacked

1:11:56

the lad with no herd. He picked back up the herd. He

1:11:59

eventually then won the game. the ball and I think

1:12:01

he would

1:12:02

pass it off and then it was easy

1:12:06

to pass it but the thing

1:12:08

about this you know that was

1:12:10

75th minute you know he had the wearable

1:12:12

to not fail but you know

1:12:14

get the last of the holiday you know that's the

1:12:16

kind of experience and for

1:12:19

us the

1:12:21

last she last gave you know

1:12:23

Chris Conner thought she came in you know

1:12:25

Conner had a good feature and

1:12:28

we came in he did a good job in the field

1:12:30

you know obviously Wally came on most

1:12:32

of the old guard and I still went on and

1:12:34

still got on like you know but

1:12:37

that's great for the experience

1:12:39

there you can play as well so it's

1:12:41

a nice blend but

1:12:43

the one thing is yeah it depends on TJ it's

1:12:45

still, Rakhonie has a great step of finding

1:12:47

people and we probably will need him to have a

1:12:49

seven or an eight hour game to get over here.

1:12:52

Brendan the wide situation for

1:12:54

Claire is that is that concern going forward because

1:12:57

even in the win over Dublin early on in the game especially

1:12:59

you know the shooting accuracy just wasn't

1:13:01

exactly there but is that

1:13:04

something I guess it's something that can be that

1:13:06

can be stabbed out of

1:13:08

the game in training you know you can work

1:13:10

on that so at least it's something that can be that can be

1:13:12

fixed but it was it was it a concern I guess so

1:13:15

far this season?

1:13:16

I don't think it was a concern so far this

1:13:18

season Shane but it was a little bit of

1:13:21

a concern against Dublin and I think

1:13:23

going forward to this game is definitely something that I probably

1:13:25

looked at in training and might

1:13:27

have done another shooting drill etc etc but I

1:13:30

think it was funny in the get-it-grounds that evening

1:13:32

because all four teams were guilty of

1:13:35

really bad wide you know and in the Galway,

1:13:37

Pippa every game you know the exact

1:13:40

same story you know some

1:13:41

ridiculous wide that you usually wouldn't see

1:13:44

from you know top quality players so I

1:13:46

think there was something in the wind or the way it was swirling

1:13:48

around in the get-it-grounds that evening

1:13:51

so you know when you're leaving after a

1:13:53

win and after scoring 5.26 I

1:13:55

don't think you're gonna look at the shooting

1:13:57

efficiency and think I should give you the money.

1:13:59

major, major concern, but look at

1:14:02

if you're nitpicking and you're looking at aspects where you

1:14:04

can improve, of course, you're going to look at that. And

1:14:07

I think when you look back to 12 months ago, especially

1:14:09

in the first half, Kilkinney,

1:14:12

I think, to

1:14:14

the best of my knowledge, we'd only one white, maybe two whites,

1:14:16

right? And then down the other side,

1:14:18

we were hitting with a lot of uncharacteristic

1:14:21

whites. Kilkinney's

1:14:23

shooting efficiency was just off the charts

1:14:25

in the first half. Now, look in the second half, we would

1:14:27

have beat them in the second half, but obviously

1:14:30

it wasn't enough. And this will come out and be at

1:14:32

those 12 points. So yeah, when you get into Crow

1:14:34

Park, you know,

1:14:36

as we've seen this season, it's just such

1:14:38

fine margins and it's a ball

1:14:40

here, it's a ball there, it's a point here, it's a point there. So

1:14:43

when

1:14:43

you're looking at Everton and all these fine margins,

1:14:46

when it comes to shooting efficiency, and Brian alluded

1:14:48

to that after the monster final as well against

1:14:50

Limerick,

1:14:51

that it just wasn't good enough. And

1:14:54

you're looking at Everton, it needs to be on point on Sunday.

1:14:57

Yeah, going into the game, Brendan, how does

1:14:59

it feel in Clare? Like, what's the buzz like?

1:15:02

I suppose talking to people, they would think that Clare are

1:15:04

maybe our slight favourites going in. They've

1:15:06

been the team of the championship so far, I would

1:15:08

say. What does it feel like in Clare? Are you

1:15:11

confident?

1:15:12

I think wary more than multinational,

1:15:15

like you have to be realistic here as well. And

1:15:18

I've said it numerous times here in the last 10 minutes

1:15:20

about the fact that Kilkinney beat Clare

1:15:22

last year by 12 points in the

1:15:48

net, we were up

1:15:50

there last year but we didn't win either of those games.

1:15:52

And the last time we won was back in 2013. So

1:15:55

there's a reason why Brian and the management team

1:15:58

look for the monster final if we play it in the Gaelic. And

1:16:00

that was because of the familiarly

1:16:03

wish, the gated grounds, the order, the

1:16:05

date, the routine, eating times,

1:16:08

etc. Those can you buy the well

1:16:10

used to travel to Cole Park and it's just,

1:16:12

it's different for Claire. It's different

1:16:15

for Claire going up there and I just hope we have

1:16:17

learned from the experience of going up there last year

1:16:19

and playing another in the final and hopefully

1:16:21

can rectify the rounds this time around. But

1:16:23

really I asked you to answer your question,

1:16:26

yeah, confident but really, really wary.

1:16:28

Playing a team like you can, you won't be beating them once ever

1:16:31

in championships. So yeah, that's where

1:16:33

it is. Kieran, it was never going to be an easy

1:16:35

job coming in off the back of Brian Cody's tenure

1:16:37

with Kenny Mcderrick Ling has certainly so far

1:16:39

this year done a fairly decent

1:16:42

job but has to be said. You would have been involved

1:16:44

when Derek was selector under Brian. So

1:16:47

I guess no surprise that he's come on leaps and bounds

1:16:50

and

1:16:50

I guess taking over that mantle with ease.

1:16:54

Yeah, I suppose. Yeah, look, absolutely. You know, he

1:16:56

stepped in and obviously, you know,

1:16:58

there hasn't been a massive change in the sport in

1:17:00

the panel, I suppose, yes, in terms of the rebuilding

1:17:02

piece. But yeah, look, Derek can have a

1:17:05

good relationship on top of a lot of them guys. You know, he's obviously

1:17:07

involved under Brian there for a number of years.

1:17:10

So his management style is a little bit different

1:17:12

to Brian. You know, he's probably more talkative

1:17:15

to the players and that kind of stuff in terms of interactions

1:17:18

and I suppose the next way, I

1:17:20

suppose, how management is kind of going and

1:17:23

obviously, he's got a very good background team. You know, it's a lot of experience

1:17:25

there on the background team. You know, you've got Peter Barry

1:17:27

there, you know, he's a very,

1:17:30

very good coach even at club

1:17:32

level, James Stevens there, you know, he's seen him in highly

1:17:34

regard there for the last number of years and obviously,

1:17:36

Michael Reis, you know, we all know Michael Reis since, you

1:17:39

know, pedigree with Kenny as well. So a lot of them

1:17:41

guys came in fobsy from the under 20s scene

1:17:44

and I suppose they kind of broke the back in terms

1:17:47

of winning an Ireland with the under 20s because, you know,

1:17:49

the last time we actually won an Ireland under 20s, I was

1:17:51

playing. You know what I was, I think it was 2008. You

1:17:53

know, we'd last three finals since and

1:17:55

that was kind of a, in Kenny was kind

1:17:57

of unusual, you know, so that

1:17:59

was. kind of a great kind of what had

1:18:02

moment of both kenny again people underage

1:18:04

or certainly not drinking again acting

1:18:06

than obviously progress into the senior rank since you

1:18:10

dare you know and it with the particular

1:18:12

common hopefully we will be that uh...

1:18:15

my school but at the moment you know he's he's

1:18:17

he didn't get the most out of the

1:18:19

team that he had to manage and uh... do you know the order

1:18:22

co-op which is which is important as well you

1:18:24

know we have been kind of piquing at the right time and

1:18:27

and i thought that's what i can you do you know we're

1:18:29

very good at that you know peak for semi finals

1:18:31

finals you know at fitness level

1:18:34

at intensity level you know and you can

1:18:36

go up through the gears and that's what they look like they're doing

1:18:38

at the moment and you know if we have a full strength panel and

1:18:40

a full strength team and you know pick the starting fifteen

1:18:42

that we want you know i think we'll be there fingers

1:18:46

crossed that we get that

1:18:47

it feels that a very dangerous

1:18:50

prospect to have a kenny team going

1:18:52

into an all-irland semi-final as maybe

1:18:54

slide underdogs

1:18:56

yeah well actually we'll

1:18:58

take that we love being called underdogs uh...

1:19:01

so we will but uh... no absolutely actually

1:19:03

you know and i think the mood in kenny

1:19:05

is you know we all know that last year's

1:19:07

game you know it won't be that way we all know look that

1:19:09

clear probably you know the most championship

1:19:11

that come true you know they are a very wetter

1:19:14

team you know they are you know physically wettered

1:19:16

as well you know in terms of some of the games and even you

1:19:18

know the games at limerick as well as the intensity you

1:19:20

know some of those games i suppose we haven't seen i suppose

1:19:22

for a year you know has kenny experienced that

1:19:24

yet we probably haven't we know we had games

1:19:27

to live there against gallway so you

1:19:29

know that's probably the one the one thing you

1:19:31

know that you'd say you know has kenny been really

1:19:33

tested like player have been tested yet uh...

1:19:35

and that and you know that'd be that'd

1:19:37

be common in in the semi-finals you know will

1:19:40

it be up for it absolutely you know hopefully

1:19:42

we'll just have the legs and we'll have the mentality

1:19:45

to you know match that intensity that we think

1:19:47

clear is going to bring briefly lads before

1:19:49

we let you go we should get the predictions and start

1:19:51

with yourself brendan tell us who the two

1:19:53

finalists are going to be with will uh... you can tell us the winner

1:19:55

of gallway limerick

1:19:56

as well sure uh... Yeah,

1:20:01

so look at like it's the probably won't be a pokeball

1:20:03

between Between dollar limits

1:20:06

probably won't pokeball between clear and click any if

1:20:08

I was to pick the dollar wanna probably Probably

1:20:11

say limerick. I probably say limerick by a couple of points

1:20:16

Just because they have a know-how they

1:20:18

know how to eke out results and

1:20:22

You can win limerick at it when limerick

1:20:24

gets co-power They're just doing

1:20:26

serious out with so I'll probably go for limerick in that one

1:20:29

With our one it's it's a

1:20:31

lot more difficult because as I said

1:20:33

I'm just hoping

1:20:35

that clear bring up performance that has

1:20:38

Bundles of energy like they have shown in

1:20:40

the monster championship and I do believe that

1:20:43

We

1:20:43

didn't bring that last year and if we can bring

1:20:45

that this year I do believe we'll be in with a chance

1:20:47

But you'd have to say I don't know

1:20:49

where they're coming up with clear as I've been

1:20:51

favorites for this game We can hear a little answer

1:20:54

championship the last night in our line final last

1:20:56

year by by less than a pocketable ball Like

1:20:58

it's it's and and the be clear about 12

1:21:00

points last year So I think the bookies

1:21:03

if they're putting clear as favors, they've got it. I've

1:21:05

had a chat to John there about the odds Yeah,

1:21:07

yeah I think that I

1:21:09

think they've gotten well around bush and yeah,

1:21:12

I think if we can deliver

1:21:13

performance I will be I'll be hopeful that

1:21:15

we'll be there there about this bush. Yeah

1:21:17

sure look at if I pick it I'll go clear in

1:21:19

America. Lovely. You're off that fence

1:21:21

Karen with yourself

1:21:23

Yeah, both as well

1:21:25

used to go on on the fence But

1:21:29

no look I think good to call

1:21:31

a limerick game, you know I suppose we

1:21:33

haven't seen the level of consistency you call it to say that

1:21:36

you know Can they stay with limerick,

1:21:38

you know for 70 minutes? I don't know, you know, we

1:21:40

just don't know You know, we're going way they could take

1:21:43

one day and it could be any team in the country You know

1:21:45

that they then you know the show against that I put this consistency

1:21:47

not there But you know, we do know what you ever

1:21:49

have they have consistency. They've shown that you out So that's

1:21:52

why you know, I would see limerick Would

1:21:54

be the favors there. I'd see limerick probably coming through that on

1:21:58

the other side Claire

1:22:00

Krikeni, I do think it

1:22:02

would be an awful lot more closer game. I

1:22:05

think obviously for Krikeni to win, we need to score goals.

1:22:08

And that's the big thing that's

1:22:10

obviously for us, we have been

1:22:13

scoring goals, Massey Keown, I suppose we had a hamstring

1:22:15

issue there. So work

1:22:17

from the campus, everyone's fully fit and able to

1:22:19

pass from the care, without for illness reasons. But

1:22:23

I think if we have to fully start for 15 that we want,

1:22:25

that have to start and the experience

1:22:27

there, I think it's going to

1:22:29

be a fantastic battle. Even the corner

1:22:31

backs for Rory Hayes and Hogan are

1:22:34

two exceptional corner backs for Claire. And

1:22:36

the battles there are going to have a Massey and an own

1:22:38

code, they're going to be brilliant.

1:22:41

So that's the key battle. If

1:22:43

we can get on top in a couple of key areas,

1:22:45

I think we will win it. I

1:22:48

think obviously for us, it's

1:22:50

obviously stem to tide. If we get

1:22:52

to match ups with

1:22:54

Toni and Mark Rogers and

1:22:57

Ian Galvin, he came on and had a

1:23:00

massive impact there last day. So if we

1:23:02

can curtail a couple of those key men for

1:23:04

them, Krikeni will doubt the game out.

1:23:07

So I would say Krikeni by three.

1:23:09

Krikeni by three, okay. Interesting. So

1:23:11

a Limerick Krikeni final for you, Keown. And a Limerick Claire

1:23:13

final for you, Brendan. At least your arses aren't sore anymore,

1:23:16

you're off that fence. Fair bettias. You're

1:23:18

not sitting on it anymore. Well done. We

1:23:20

got you there eventually, lads. Fair play, Kieran. Brendan,

1:23:22

enjoy the match of the weekend. Thanks a million.

1:23:24

Thanks a million. Good stuff, lads. Kieran

1:23:27

Joyce, former Kenny Herler and Brendan Boogler, of course, formerly

1:23:29

of Claire. You kind of have to predict your

1:23:31

own county, don't you?

1:23:32

So it's coming, eventually. Eventually

1:23:34

they'll get there. They'll obviously play up the other team. Yeah.

1:23:37

Then they'll say, oh yeah, but I think we'll win. Yeah. But

1:23:39

even on the point though, Brendan was saying, I don't know where they're getting these

1:23:42

odds and how Claire are these life favourites.

1:23:44

But Paul Murphy, former uncle

1:23:46

Kenny Herler, on the Herlin

1:23:48

pod, he said that, you know what, the next year,

1:23:50

whoever comes through a monster will probably

1:23:52

always be slight favourites because everybody

1:23:55

looks at them to say they've had the harder games,

1:23:57

the harder way through. You know, they came through a monster.

1:24:00

So maybe that's always the way it's going to be, whether

1:24:02

it's Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, whoever it is

1:24:05

that will be there next year, whoever's the Leinster

1:24:07

winners, it'll probably always be that way. But

1:24:10

yeah, I know Kilkenny going in as maybe Underdogs

1:24:12

is dangerous.

1:24:12

It already happens in a semi-final. We were

1:24:15

chatting in our post-show production meeting

1:24:17

yesterday and saying that the conversation

1:24:19

all year has been the dominance of the Munster Championship over

1:24:21

the Leinster Championship. I mean, how

1:24:23

funny and ironic would it be if Kilkenny

1:24:25

and Galway progressed to the Ireland final this weekend?

1:24:28

So after all that talk about Munster's dominance

1:24:30

over Leinster, you never know. It's unlikely,

1:24:32

but both slide underdogs, I guess, with

1:24:34

the bookies. Who are you going with?

1:24:36

We have the quick picks, the GAA quick picks later

1:24:38

on this morning that I have to pick, which I'm currently leading,

1:24:40

by the way. Sorry, I don't know how I'm not in them. I

1:24:42

was up there last year. I

1:24:44

think I came second. Right. Well,

1:24:47

Tommy E. T. is. First loser. Me and

1:24:49

Will. So y'all have that chat with Colin Behoog after this, yeah.

1:24:51

You see, I'm doing so... You see,

1:24:53

I picked Manah. I was the only one to pick Manah last weekend, which

1:24:56

was, again, you have to up for your own county. Fair

1:24:58

play. I'll probably be the person who opted for Manah against

1:25:00

Dublin as well. It's just one of those. You

1:25:02

can't... I can't possibly predict against my home county.

1:25:06

This weekend I'm thinking,

1:25:07

look, I'm half Galway.

1:25:09

I'd love to be opted for Galway. I just think this is

1:25:12

possibly the end of the road. One score game, I think it will be,

1:25:14

but Limerick for me and

1:25:16

the Kakeni Tower game.

1:25:18

Very tough. I can't call that one. Yeah.

1:25:21

I'm slightly edging towards Kakeni, which

1:25:25

might surprise some people, but yeah, I think maybe possibly

1:25:27

a Limerick Kakeni final. Yeah, it's hard to look

1:25:29

past Kakeni. I think, you

1:25:31

know, obviously going off experience, TJ

1:25:34

Reed, everything that goes with it, but yeah,

1:25:37

I don't know, was it written in the stars to have Limerick clear,

1:25:39

Paul Ireland final?

1:25:40

Yeah. Look,

1:25:42

I'd be happy with any of these finals because regardless of the outcomes this weekend,

1:25:44

the final is going to be a cracker because

1:25:46

either of those outcomes is going to be brilliant. Yeah.

1:25:49

We move on. 8.55am, 8.56am

1:25:51

now on Friday mornings, O2Bam, the sports breakfast

1:25:53

show from Austin Ball and Ashleen live

1:25:55

with you until 10 o'clock this morning. Time

1:25:57

to turn attention to Robbie. You should

1:25:59

mention.

1:27:50

and

1:28:00

they're hoping to raise 75,000 euros as well for

1:28:02

these vital services for more than 400 families nationwide.

1:28:05

That apparently is the equivalent of over 4,000 hours of

1:28:07

in-home nursing care and respite support. So I

1:28:10

guess it just goes to show you, Jack, that the money here

1:28:13

clearly goes a long way. Yeah,

1:28:15

definitely. At the launch, the

1:28:18

other day we were up in St. Stephen's Creed in Dublin.

1:28:20

I had the privilege to meet Grayson, who's

1:28:23

a child, who's availing all

1:28:25

the services with Jack and Jill. And I was just speaking

1:28:27

to his mother and she was like

1:28:30

on the way to St. Stephen's

1:28:32

Creed that morning he had had two seizures.

1:28:36

And she kind of spoke to us about, I suppose,

1:28:39

what Jack and Jill means to her. The

1:28:41

fact that he spoke about their then

1:28:43

couple hours that she can get, whether it be to,

1:28:46

you know, get an extra couple hours

1:28:48

sleep, whether it be to go and get her nails done, her

1:28:51

hair done. It's kind of

1:28:53

them small little things in terms of

1:28:55

the breathing space she gets that allows her to,

1:28:57

I suppose, to be at her best for Grayson.

1:28:59

So yeah,

1:29:00

it's been a massive

1:29:02

honor to be involved and looking forward to

1:29:05

continuing and helping in any capacity I can.

1:29:07

And Jack, how do people get involved? Can it be any

1:29:10

hill, any mountain? Is it up to yourself? Yeah,

1:29:13

Anthony, there's nothing too big or too small.

1:29:17

I suppose if there's anyone

1:29:19

in the go area when we're going to do it,

1:29:22

I'm probably setting something up on Twitter

1:29:25

or Instagram in the next couple of weeks, and hopefully

1:29:27

we can get a good number of people out.

1:29:30

If it's someone, it could even just be a walk. I

1:29:32

know there's a man in Loughrey

1:29:34

this weekend. He's pushing a hospital,

1:29:37

probably 30 kilometers to raise awareness

1:29:39

as well. So

1:29:40

I know there's some children building

1:29:43

kind of bun hills as well. So

1:29:46

the more innovative it is, the more kind of outside

1:29:48

of the box it is, I think is anything

1:29:50

to do with it and that it helps is be great.

1:29:52

So what was the hill after you played Monster

1:29:54

Lake? We

1:29:56

did Diamond Hill out in Galway. Fair

1:29:59

play. So how far is that?

1:30:02

Pardon? How far is that?

1:30:04

It's about an hour's drive out and then

1:30:06

when we got there

1:30:09

It was about an hour up

1:30:10

an hour and a half up an hour but down so actually

1:30:13

it wasn't too taxing the year before and the

1:30:16

year before when I kind of came involved Foolishly

1:30:19

I'd left it to

1:30:20

kind of the last few last few weekends

1:30:23

in October and again It was the day after

1:30:25

we played scarlets and didn't do any

1:30:27

planning So I highly recommend that people

1:30:29

plan so they're trying out to Cunamara. I was like

1:30:32

trying to find the hills of this parrot On

1:30:34

the side of your ogle and then hop to fence and

1:30:37

ended up being up to my knees and in bogs

1:30:39

So I think if anyone is planning on doing

1:30:41

something to the equivalent of that I think planning

1:30:44

And obviously going with a couple

1:30:46

of people don't do what I did. Bring the waddies as

1:30:48

well Yeah Good for you to tell me that story Wadders

1:30:50

The wadders yeah How

1:30:53

do you feel about the season now Jack that it's all done

1:30:55

and dusted I guess there I'm thinking back immediately

1:30:57

to kind of season you think of the Famous

1:31:00

win against Ulster up in Kingspan Stadium in Belfast

1:31:02

and your 15 points from the route that day

1:31:05

Taseela a very famous win

1:31:07

and that one of the highlights of the season. How do you reflect generally

1:31:10

in the season?

1:31:11

Yeah, I think so look and I

1:31:13

think after we played in South Africa

1:31:16

I think there was a massive level of disappointment

1:31:18

to think it was an opportunity that we That

1:31:20

we had missed. I think that was the general consensus

1:31:23

amongst the group. I think what? The

1:31:25

the Ulster game has given us is that confidence and knockout

1:31:28

games And all there was quite a few up until

1:31:30

that point where we hadn't got over the line

1:31:32

and to get over the line

1:31:34

Albeit not being at our best when we actually played

1:31:36

up in Ravenhill and

1:31:37

You know it's a massive shot in the arm

1:31:40

for us starting this year We got we started back on Monday,

1:31:42

so we're back into back in the thick

1:31:44

of it already and And yeah

1:31:46

great welcome. I'm gonna a couple new faces in all some

1:31:49

There

1:31:49

was a smirk on your face there, and you said we're back on last

1:31:51

Monday like Hi, I imagine

1:31:53

that smirk doesn't convey your true feelings about being back,

1:31:55

but this time of year I'd imagine

1:31:57

is fairly tough preseason Usually

1:31:59

not enjoyable? You

1:32:03

know what, speaking to a lot of fellas

1:32:06

here, we obviously had five weeks off and

1:32:08

obviously most of

1:32:10

us have been in this rugby environment for quite

1:32:12

a long time and your creatures are a habit and

1:32:15

the missing out routine, that's

1:32:17

something that a lot of lads were longing

1:32:19

to get back to. But yeah, you're right. As

1:32:21

you said, the running

1:32:24

and the up downs and whatnot, it's obviously

1:32:27

a shock to the system initially but

1:32:29

it's going to be all well worth it, obviously Pete and

1:32:31

then

1:32:32

the new backroom team are there. So

1:32:34

getting into grips with the new

1:32:37

ideas that they have and the new players

1:32:39

that we have as well. So

1:32:40

it's a lot of familiarity but then there's obviously

1:32:43

a lot of new things as well.

1:32:45

Yeah, it's probably something a little bit different. It's not having

1:32:47

Andy Friend around anymore, obviously five

1:32:49

years there and he's quite a close relationship

1:32:52

with him. What's it like to not have

1:32:54

him there anymore?

1:32:56

Yeah, I was actually only speaking to my sentiment

1:32:58

text when we started back on

1:33:00

Monday and I was just like, look, we're

1:33:03

starting on another journey. I hope you're enjoying

1:33:05

yours. I think he sent me, I think it was in

1:33:07

Switzerland or Austria, he was, it was a picture

1:33:09

of the side of the lake. He's

1:33:12

having a great old time regardless but

1:33:14

yeah,

1:33:15

obviously there's the

1:33:17

coaching side of it and the mentor side of it

1:33:19

that Andy provided to us but also the

1:33:22

friendship when he

1:33:25

left, I went out for a meal

1:33:27

with him and his wife, Kerry and you're

1:33:30

lucky enough to come across different personalities

1:33:32

when you're playing rugby and there's obviously some people,

1:33:35

you know, you're not going to be able to keep in contact

1:33:38

with everyone but Friendy's definitely

1:33:41

one of the people that the majority of us

1:33:43

will stay in contact with whether that be when

1:33:45

we go down to Australia and meet him or when he

1:33:47

kind of comes back. He's due to come back in November

1:33:49

so it'll be great to catch

1:33:52

up with him again.

1:33:53

He seems to have changed the attitude around

1:33:55

contact as well, Jack, like even

1:33:58

just his connection with the fans.

1:33:59

players as well but I know you would have taken these out

1:34:02

to different camps in Ballina and Gordon across

1:34:04

the province as well. So it wasn't just a Galway focus,

1:34:07

it was very much a connect with you

1:34:09

know, Connick fans across the province as well which was

1:34:11

great to see.

1:34:13

Yeah, definitely I think it's

1:34:16

across the world for me there. It's about like representing

1:34:19

and some people from outside of Connick

1:34:21

make and I see

1:34:23

Connick as a sport of Galway, 12 and

1:34:26

you know we're very proud of representing all

1:34:29

the counties we've for

1:34:32

our like mini groups now this season we obviously

1:34:34

split the group into six so

1:34:36

we've the five counties and then we

1:34:38

made the gale hook as our six so

1:34:40

we

1:34:41

were planning on doing a jersey day

1:34:43

so we've been trying to get through to Rusk Common

1:34:45

G8 to get 10 Rusk Common jerseys so hopefully

1:34:48

we'll get them in the next few weeks for us to

1:34:50

train with but yeah it's all about

1:34:52

connection with the province,

1:34:54

the fans, the people we represent and

1:34:57

I suppose it's not a thing that can be overlooked likely it's

1:34:59

something that you have to continually invest in, continually

1:35:02

look to grow. On Monday we

1:35:04

had the kids from Galway Bear Rugby

1:35:07

Club they came in and presented us with our

1:35:09

kit which you know you can see that there's

1:35:11

a massive bonus on it and usually

1:35:13

these things might in other places be done

1:35:16

kind of as token gestures whereas

1:35:18

you know here we're really trying to connect with our

1:35:20

fans and connect with our province.

1:35:22

Should have played bingo how long does it take Rusk Common

1:35:24

man to bring up Rusk Common G8? Didn't take

1:35:26

too long. We got maybe in the first

1:35:28

time. Harley was done. But like it's

1:35:30

fair like Jack to be honest we had Davey

1:35:33

Burke in studio twice just after he got

1:35:35

the Rusk Common senior job and a

1:35:37

couple of weeks ago or last week or two after

1:35:40

the season to reflect on it all and like he was telling a story

1:35:42

back in November about getting the job and

1:35:44

not realising how much Rusk Common people loved

1:35:46

Gaelic football and he was sitting at a petrol station

1:35:49

somewhere in Rusk Common and lad just literally

1:35:51

taps in the window and is just

1:35:52

mad to talk to him about Rusk Common football days

1:35:54

after he gets the job. I presume

1:35:57

you get to follow it fairly closely still you would have been a multi-sport

1:35:59

phenom back in the day. yourself?

1:36:01

Yeah, I remember my club

1:36:03

team St. Bridges were playing in all

1:36:05

our finals a couple of years ago

1:36:07

and we were up in Crow Park and

1:36:10

they had won. I

1:36:11

was walking out delighted and I remember

1:36:14

someone came up to me and he goes, I bet you wish

1:36:16

you played the gala football now. But

1:36:19

yeah, it is massively tribal like we have

1:36:22

here in Connacht myself, Niall Murray and Darren

1:36:24

Murray, we're all from the same gala

1:36:27

football club. Dennis

1:36:29

Buckley obviously from West Common via

1:36:31

Black Rock, so I don't know who he kind

1:36:33

of is shouting for Bush.

1:36:35

He had an immense pride

1:36:38

in where we're from and who we represent.

1:36:40

Even Jared Butler,

1:36:42

he's convinced us

1:36:45

he's a male man as well, so he goes around with male

1:36:47

jerseys. So I think there's a bit

1:36:49

of a crack being knocked out of as well, which

1:36:52

is a good thing.

1:36:53

Was it hard at all to maybe pick

1:36:55

between the sports? It

1:36:58

was, I actually did pick

1:37:01

rugby and then I actually didn't end

1:37:03

up subsequently getting into the Connacht Academy.

1:37:05

So it was a couple of months there for

1:37:08

where I was enjoying college life in Galway

1:37:10

and playing rugby with Buccaneers

1:37:12

back in that long. Nigel Carlin, who's the

1:37:15

is the attack coach with Glasgow now at

1:37:17

the moment, I remember he got in contact with me.

1:37:19

He was the first or second week in January. Rag

1:37:21

Week was about to go on the horizon

1:37:24

in Galway and he was like, if

1:37:27

you come back in, my attendance now, which

1:37:29

was I suppose voluntary at the time,

1:37:32

was really high at the start and then kind of dwindled towards

1:37:36

the back end of it. But he was like, look, it's

1:37:38

just a contract there for you if you want it and

1:37:40

what we need to get your attendance back up. He

1:37:42

was like, fine, just give me two more weeks of college. I need to

1:37:44

get this Rag Week truth.

1:37:46

First thing first, Rag

1:37:48

Week. Yes, priorities.

1:37:51

No, it was, yeah,

1:37:54

look, it was. I think it came

1:37:56

at a point you see kids nowadays

1:37:58

and there's a massive pressure on them.

1:37:59

them to choose and specialize

1:38:02

at an early age. And I

1:38:04

think there was at the time, it's probably

1:38:06

something that's not really spoken about, but the

1:38:09

work between Ross Common and Connick at the

1:38:11

time, Gary Wynn, who's

1:38:13

the coach and Nigel on how they managed

1:38:15

myself, Daniel Calder and Shane Layden

1:38:17

at the time in terms of not over training. And

1:38:20

there was no pressure from either side. It was

1:38:22

like, look,

1:38:23

you can play your daily football and your rugby

1:38:27

in the fact that knowing that in

1:38:28

two, three months time, you kind of have to make

1:38:31

a decision yourself. So

1:38:33

yeah, it'd be nice if that was kind of the model, because I think there's

1:38:36

an awful lot of pressure put on probably multi-talented

1:38:40

athletes or young athletes, boys and girls at this

1:38:42

juncture in their life when they're 15, 16, 17 to

1:38:44

kind of specialize

1:38:47

in something.

1:38:48

Sport and rugby in particular is obviously

1:38:50

a family affair as well, Jack, you know, your younger brother,

1:38:52

Luke is an out half with the USA

1:38:55

team as well, which is quite incredible. I don't

1:38:57

know if you probably haven't had the chance to play against

1:38:59

each other

1:39:00

so far, have you? No, no,

1:39:02

we haven't. We did train the end tutor quite a

1:39:04

bit when he was in Connick. And

1:39:07

I

1:39:07

remember he made a mockery one

1:39:09

day and everyone on the sideline shouted

1:39:11

and screamed and throwing their hats on the ground.

1:39:15

I haven't been fortunate enough to

1:39:18

play against them or with them. You

1:39:21

never know what the future holds. There's another couple of years

1:39:23

left in me. He's playing in

1:39:26

Chicago now and he's gone into American

1:39:28

camp on, I think it's the 18th of July.

1:39:30

He starts up. So wishing

1:39:33

him all the best.

1:39:34

And you could always retire a couple of years early and give Ross

1:39:36

Common a couple of years, maybe, possibly. There

1:39:38

you go. I went back

1:39:40

a couple of years ago and I did

1:39:43

a bit of preseason or just a bit of junior

1:39:45

and I wouldn't.

1:39:47

It's

1:39:50

a completely different fitness.

1:39:53

After about 30 minutes, my lungs are burning, legs

1:39:55

are gone. So I have a lot of respect

1:39:58

for the running off the ball.

1:39:59

than G.A. footballers do.

1:40:02

If someone like Davey Burke on the sidelines, I expect

1:40:05

you'd keep running no matter what. Yeah, you'd have to.

1:40:07

Or you'd be off. Exactly. I

1:40:10

was doing some laugh and reading a quote from you. There was

1:40:13

an interview done with one of the newspapers the last year or two. You were

1:40:15

talking about your competitiveness and

1:40:17

the thought has cropped into anyone's head if they're

1:40:20

ever in a spa. If I get into a sauna

1:40:22

and there's someone already in there, I will want to stay in longer.

1:40:24

So that kind of summed up your mentality

1:40:27

to me. No,

1:40:30

I remember I got a bit of slagging for this.

1:40:32

It would pop in the other. I don't know what

1:40:35