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The Sports Breakfast Show from Off

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The Ball.

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Alright, you're very welcome along. It's Monday morning. We've got

0:35

a full house. And we're very, very, very impressed

0:37

by what Limerick are doing. If you want to get in touch with us this

0:40

morning, we'd love to hear from you. YouTube.com

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forward slash Off The Ball. You can text us

0:44

on 0879 180 180. That's the

0:46

WhatsApp number. Or of course you can leave a comment

0:49

or a tweet at us. At Off The Ball AM. Shane, good morning

0:51

to you. How are you? Morning, how are things? Colm, how are you?

0:54

Sure, hello. So, what

0:56

was the most impressive thing about Limerick?

1:00

The fact that all

1:02

year the third quarter has been consistently unbelievable. Like,

1:06

when the chips are down, and to be honest a three point deficit at half

1:08

time is hardly chips down, but you just know that they're going to come

1:11

back. Like, you know that they have something

1:13

left in the tank. I don't know, is it fitness?

1:15

Is it just sheer willpower or desire?

1:18

But whatever they're doing

1:19

in that camp, they're outrageous. It's

1:22

not physicality in size, I know that's what we can

1:24

kind of use across the year, but they're just unbelievable. The

1:27

most impressive thing is they scored 21 points in the

1:29

second half. They had one wide. They

1:31

were both five points and six points down respectively in this

1:33

match. Five points in the second half after

1:36

Kilkenny's second goal. They had six

1:38

different players Limerick that scored at least two points. They

1:40

had 11 different scorers in total.

1:42

Peter Casey, who was I would say very quiet

1:44

to anonymous in the first half, ended up being the player

1:47

of the match because of his last 10 minutes display where

1:49

he scored about the same point five times. Jimmo

1:52

Burns scored eight from wing back, seven

1:54

threes. One absolute monster point.

1:57

Flanagan was afforded to be quiet. Hegrity

2:00

wasn't outstanding. Kean

2:02

Lynch stepped up as captain when they were 6.7 in

2:04

the first half and brought other players into the

2:06

game for Dan Marissey. Was it his only point in the

2:09

game? Did I just buckle up in the first half? I think Kean Lynch was man

2:11

of the match. Incredible. There's so many reasons. Nikki

2:13

Quaid's buckled eventually.

2:15

Dan Marissey being quietly brilliant. The

2:17

crushing of the little county pocket in the second half. I

2:20

think that the, like,

2:23

Kean's scored a goal that broke the net,

2:26

right? That was amazing. Like, quite literally,

2:29

yes. It should be one of those

2:31

stories that everybody hears forever

2:33

and ever. But I think maybe we'll forget about it because the

2:36

game ended up being such a washout for the last 15

2:38

minutes, 10 minutes.

2:41

Some of the skill from Owen Cody, the dummy in the first half,

2:43

it's actually Kean Lynch's dummy. It's like one

2:45

of the best reactors

2:49

in Irish sport ends up being the victim

2:51

of a dummy in the first half. You're like, wow. But

2:53

it was, there was an incredible

2:55

catch by TJ that he ends

2:58

up winning the free from. We

3:01

should save this for the performance ranking. There

3:03

was one moment where when the ball burst through

3:06

the net

3:07

and there was incredulity in the commentary, but

3:09

it was actually an amazing moment to watch on TV rather than being

3:11

at it, I'd say, because it was, it's gone

3:13

through the net. No, we didn't know. Nobody

3:16

thought it was a goal until the umpire goes and gets the

3:18

green flag and everybody's like, At the match. Yeah, you

3:20

could tell because there was just kind of a weird

3:22

silence. Yeah, you could see the Cagli players pointing to the

3:24

net as in pointing to the umpires going, that was in.

3:27

So at the point I was like, The Olympic

3:29

players kind of just turned around as if like no big deal.

3:31

Yeah, yeah. No, it was no big deal because they

3:33

got a back blink of an eye.

3:37

Yeah, all right. Do you want to just ignore this and get into...

3:40

You do the coming up if you like. Right, here's what's coming up. The

3:44

performance rankings are coming up imminently. We're

3:46

going to have Seamus Hickey with you from eight o'clock. Sarah

3:48

Doolittleman giving us her thoughts from eight to 25. We've

3:52

got the sports news with Carl talking

3:54

about the Open.

3:56

It was grand. It was fairly obvious what

3:58

was going to happen. And then...

3:59

Nothing else happened apart from what was fairly obvious from Saturday

4:02

on. Sarah Rose going to join us

4:04

to talk to us about football. She's back

4:06

down under. We'll also

4:09

be over and back this morning to is it

4:11

the Woodlands Hotel? Is that where we are? Peace out.

4:14

In Limerick, it's the winning hotel

4:16

for the fifth time in six years.

4:20

We are now talking about all time greats. I was talking

4:23

to Anthony Nash on Friday and he was like, Oh, they're

4:25

the greatest team of all time. No, you can't. You

4:28

can't win this game and then we can start having that conversation. And

4:30

then I met him afterwards and he's like, well,

4:33

now you're going to believe me. Right. I was

4:35

like, OK. Fair enough. It's very

4:37

difficult now not to make the case that

4:40

they're slightly ahead

4:42

of Kukeni, Dakhlukeni team.

4:44

Oh, didn't you tell me what

4:46

you thought of that by Aisling afterwards yesterday? And

4:48

he's a very different eras. And it's true.

4:51

How can you compare different style of game?

4:53

It is true. It's a different game. It's also mad to think

4:55

that Limerick had won on Ireland between the 1940s and 2018 and

4:58

look at him now, people say they're the best ever,

5:00

possibly. And next year, they could be the best ever. Tommy

5:03

did also say when Henry

5:05

has 10, a lot of us have nine. We

5:07

thought we'd never get caught, but Jesus, that's going to do

5:09

it. It looks like so. Oh, I think I

5:11

think the Dublin football team are

5:13

suddenly like feeling

5:14

a little bit hard on the call. Yeah. Oh,

5:17

but these guys might be about to become the greatest team

5:19

in World Time. Not a big event. The weekend to just be

5:21

not before we get into performance rankings. Barbie, very

5:23

good. Ryan Gosling.

5:26

Unbelievable comic actor. Yeah.

5:28

Yeah. The guy has it all. We

5:30

both we both watched it separately. We weren't together. Worth

5:33

a watch, I think. Good message. I've seen the other one that everyone's

5:36

talking about. A lot of pretty people. Just it's

5:38

good to just watch them,

5:39

you know. Oh, you were just getting your

5:42

rucks off, were you? Well, I think everyone

5:44

in the point of it. Sorry. Well, yeah, it's

5:46

just a lot of good looking men and women. No.

5:48

So is that much of the violence? There's more to it. There is

5:50

more to it. There's deeper meaning. I love Adam Mcags. No,

5:52

there's a big. No, it's a it's a lovely.

5:55

It's a lovely message at the end. It is. Yeah. Yeah. And

5:57

I don't look down that now. I'm not looking down. I'm just looking

5:59

down on YouTube.

5:59

for like, Shane's review is, hmm, hot people. And

6:04

you're like, oh no, no, no, hang on, there's a bit more to it. The

6:06

actor was a cosplay. Oh yeah, very talented.

6:09

The articles were great. When you see the gusting in Drive

6:11

to the gusting in Barbie, what

6:13

an actor. Sorry, the

6:15

Ken character is a bit dense. He's

6:17

the gusting in... He plays dense, he's dense very

6:19

well. In Drive,

6:23

not just him looking good. No.

6:26

Really? Pensive, very serious,

6:28

does he smile once? Maybe, maybe.

6:30

Does he speak? 846 words. He

6:33

cries in the notebook. In the whole film. And

6:35

he took out his own dialogue. Right.

6:37

There you go. Look, I'm not saying he's not a smart guy, I'm just

6:40

saying that I think that the performance

6:42

of Vassie overrated in the movie was in the end,

6:44

shite. No, no, no, it's a good movie. Barbie,

6:46

no, no, Drive, it's fancy. Barbie, Barbie, it's

6:49

good, I haven't seen Oppenheimer. Drive. I'm

6:51

gonna see it this weekend. And I need to see the deepest breath on Netflix.

6:54

Right.

6:54

Monday morning recommendation, apparently that's

6:56

X-Men Sumer, if he put me onto it. Another friend of mine over

6:58

the weekend said, you gotta watch this one hour, 50 minutes,

7:00

can't wait. Made by mode of television, not his company. What?

7:04

The

7:04

deepest. Deepest breath? Yeah.

7:06

Go on. Oh really? No

7:08

way. Oh, very

7:09

good. Well, another reason. Premier

7:11

was on double here. I surely missed the tour, I was away. All right, okay.

7:13

Anyway, 7.37 this morning. This

7:16

is OTBAM, the sports breakfast show from off the

7:18

ball. It's time for the performance rankings. You

7:21

know, that wasn't an all-around winning performance. Probably should

7:23

have won the game based on the second half performance. Is

7:25

it a step too hard to say there's the performance so

7:28

far of the World Cup? Maybe not. OTBAM's

7:30

performance rankings. I'm scotching my

7:32

head. I've got performances with just like

7:34

that intensity.

7:37

Boom.

7:38

We're right in the sink, Kakeni's last alarm was 2015. 15, yeah.

7:41

So Cats of Nine Lives, it's gonna be nine years next

7:44

year. I just made that up on the spot. Isn't that good?

7:46

Anyway, Kakeni,

7:48

like you mentioned that on Cody Little Jink, past

7:50

Kain Lynch, that was the 25th minute. The

7:53

run and the stick work. The following minute, Nicky

7:55

Kuede pucks it out straight to Richie Reed, points.

7:58

The following minute, Barry Nash.

7:59

Overcarrying,

8:01

TJ pops over the free. Those three points in a row I'm

8:03

thinking,

8:04

this is a lovely little period for Kakeni.

8:07

And then obviously don't piss off Limerick, because

8:09

that's exactly what happened. And was

8:13

there ever a moment we thought Kakeni were going to win the game? Possibly.

8:15

Yeah,

8:16

half time I was like, this is a very real probability.

8:18

Then Limerick, I think the first couple of scores,

8:21

the second half, but then Kakeni of course push

8:23

on a little bit more, get a goal. The

8:25

goal that breaks the net. And that's

8:28

all she wrote, really, isn't it? There was

8:30

a moment at the start of the second half, you're waiting for that

8:33

famous third quarter from Limerick. And funny, they

8:35

had the best second half they probably had in this John Keighley era,

8:37

but they actually were slowing off in the first five minutes of the second

8:39

half. Tom Feeney went on this great solo

8:41

run

8:42

and should have passed it to TJ.

8:44

In hindsight, of course, should have passed it. And

8:47

that could have helped the cause. You could argue,

8:49

well, Golan had a chance at the first 30 seconds of the second

8:52

half. If his touch was a bit off, it was fired

8:54

into him. And if his touch was good, that was almost

8:56

a certain goal. So those

8:57

chances either end. The biggest question you have

8:59

to say is how much does it cost to

9:01

change the wedding venue and days?

9:04

And is it worth doing that? If your wedding is going to be

9:06

on the same day or same weekend as an

9:08

all iron vital, because that is tough to do both.

9:11

What's he going to do now? What's

9:12

both are you going to do now? Have a honeymoon

9:14

and think about Jesus, was that all worth it? I'd

9:18

say a lot of fun. Like,

9:21

yeah, that was the timing was terrible. I think I'm sure

9:23

they blocked it a couple of years ago before the schedule

9:26

and the calendar. A few pictures was changed. They

9:28

booked it this year, but then didn't

9:30

realize that. So this, the all iron finals

9:32

a week earlier this year. Of course. Anyway,

9:35

it's not going to be somebody making the point that it's not going to go back

9:37

that much further next year because Coldplay have already

9:39

been booked for 2024 for the last two

9:41

weekends of August.

9:43

So maybe it's only the last weekend. Anyway, yeah,

9:45

29th and 30th. We'll talk about this later. The fixtures

9:48

and the scheduling and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. The positives

9:50

from the Kennedy's point of view, the intensity, they were

9:52

scoring from turnovers in the first half. Q Lawler was having

9:54

a good game. I think the Kenny are in the red here because

9:57

they did about as well as they could possibly

9:59

have done.

9:59

and they got blown out in the last 10 minutes.

10:03

It didn't feel like a nine point game. It

10:05

really didn't. However, in retrospect

10:07

now, that was what we were saying last night. Now it feels

10:10

like there was an inevitability

10:12

because they started to lose everything

10:14

at the start of the second half. They started to lose

10:17

in their half back line. They started to lose in midfield.

10:19

They started to lose in

10:21

the half forward line as well, even though they were playing

10:24

about as well as they could have done. There's a

10:26

few wide in the first half when they have opportunities. Walter

10:28

Walsh, I'm sure,

10:29

if he had his time back, would pass into

10:32

the inside forward line and try and create something slightly

10:35

different than taking on the shots that he took on. Actually,

10:37

it's often general play. He did okay. Like,

10:39

you know, Kyle Hayes certainly

10:41

wasn't dominating at the start the way Kyle Hayes did

10:43

dominate later on. Now I know they moved him off him relatively

10:46

quickly, but I don't think there's

10:48

much more of a kind he could do. A few players could play way

10:50

better, like Adrian Mullen, I think the lack

10:52

of hurling over the course of the season caught up with

10:55

him yesterday. But other

10:57

than that, like, they don't

10:59

have much else that they can point to and say, we're

11:01

gonna be better for this experience. We're gonna be better next

11:03

season because like next season,

11:06

TJ's a year older, Richie's

11:08

a year older, Richie Reed, I'm talking about, with

11:11

Richie Hogan in the back, I'm not sure, like

11:13

after that,

11:15

there's probably a few others that I'm just not thinking that's up my head.

11:18

And in the first half, they got to puck out really right.

11:21

In the second half, they couldn't do anything about it. So that's

11:24

why I'd have them in the red because this is about as, this

11:26

might be as good as it gets for them.

11:28

It was a point too, it was just before halftime, Kenny

11:30

were four points up. Keown,

11:33

I think, hit the post with

11:35

an easy enough chance for a point, but it was

11:37

actually far too, this was it came down to Owen Cody. And

11:40

he tried to replicate his goal again, but it was an extremely

11:42

tight angle, he put it across goal. But had he scored

11:44

that, that was seven points,

11:46

just before halftime. Instead, they

11:48

went down the other end and Maris got his point,

11:50

yeah. Now TJ had a free after that, which is central,

11:53

and he put it wide, and immediately scored a free afterwards.

11:55

It was a different sense than Kenny were targeting goals. And I

11:58

guess that the narrative in advance of the game

11:59

They're going to need goals to beat this limerick team because limerick are

12:02

gonna probably hit 30 points exactly what we

12:04

expected them to hit Like

12:06

they probably needed leaders in the second half Adrian

12:09

Mullen you mentioned didn't really step

12:11

up in the second half TJ Reed probably I

12:14

Mean TJ's performance in second half wasn't

12:16

fantastic, but then none of the Kenny players could really get out

12:19

get it get out of there the second

12:21

or third gear in the second half like

12:23

They completely control that limerick

12:25

half back line in the first half which was really

12:27

really impressive because it just isn't very regularly

12:30

done But I mean when it was 11

12:32

limerick players scored from play at 11. Yeah, like

12:34

that's You can't legislate

12:37

for that and you can't control that and can

12:39

you?

12:40

like No,

12:42

it's limited. They just have somewhat so much shooting

12:45

talent across the pitch I know a lot of yeah early teams

12:47

at the top top tier do but like

12:49

They were winning their battles in the second half limerick all over

12:51

the pitch And then the first time you could say he lawler was on top

12:54

of Galan There was other battles that maybe were going Kenny's

12:56

way But I don't Murphy's buckets were

12:58

working as well, but

13:00

that didn't last and I don't even think it's a fitness

13:02

thing It's just limerick almost

13:04

switching the gear when they want to I'd say the

13:07

the class 2023 between Kilkenny and Galway

13:09

should go on a night out and just

13:11

discuss the post-traumatic stress of what Limerick

13:14

duty in the second half because they put both

13:16

sides in the semi-final final respectively put

13:18

so much Intensity into their performances

13:21

and they ran out of steam and that's when limerick got going it's

13:24

like fighting a heavyweight boxer

13:26

where you give it your all and

13:28

Then

13:29

that's not enough and you get knocked out. That's

13:31

the feeling playing limerick Derek Derek Ling mentioned

13:33

the decisions At the end after

13:35

the match. He said we didn't get the 50-50s There's a couple of other

13:37

decisions on on 58 minutes that there was that moment

13:40

where there's what point or two minutes and

13:42

the 65 Kenny should have had a 65 today

13:45

It was definitely it definitely touched the limerick man last

13:48

definitely I only saw one replay of it now

13:50

and it looked like no a hundred percent. It's

13:53

fair enough. Yeah Yeah, I know I think it was 65

13:55

like it

13:56

did appear to start still a red lad and then he

13:58

let it go Thinking it was a Kenny lad last touch,

14:00

but the last touch for me was a limerick all

14:02

day long. They scored straight

14:04

out the puck out. Yeah. Two point swing.

14:07

Two point swing. It was mad, but

14:09

look, I understand where Jared Ling is coming from. I don't think it changed

14:11

the... I think it's delaying the inevitable, really.

14:14

Yeah, possibly. But look, they're in the red, so

14:16

we should explain why I suppose they're justified.

14:19

Like from the 28th minute onwards they scored

14:21

1-7

14:21

compared to Limerick's 25 points. But on

14:23

the other side... They're

14:25

in the red because it's not getting any better than this. How

14:27

would you evaluate Ling's first year? Or if it's nothing

14:30

to do with Ling because of Limerick? I

14:33

think they were like...

14:34

They provided a different challenge. I

14:37

think they

14:40

got a lot right in terms of setting

14:42

up the first half to try and take stuff on in the

14:44

second half, but they couldn't get the

14:46

short puck out of their way in the second half. And

14:49

so you're bombing balls down on

14:52

the tallest, biggest half back line in the

14:54

history of the game. And

14:56

what's going to happen?

14:58

You're going to get the ball straight back at you, straight over your

15:00

head, do it again, straight

15:03

out again. It's like, oh my

15:05

God. So

15:05

whatever it was that they were able to do in the

15:07

first half, they couldn't in the second. Now, I'm going

15:10

to talk more with Anthony Nash about this on Friday.

15:13

But he was making the point after the game that

15:16

the wind had a really significant impact in the first half

15:18

in that it was holding up Nicky Quaid's puck

15:20

out. And so that was allowing Kilkenny to push

15:22

on and explode into it when

15:25

in the second half, Limerick could do

15:27

that

15:28

to the Kilkenny puck out

15:30

that was game over. At

15:32

halftime, one of the pundits in the studio was talking

15:34

about the fact that Limerick need to do something different here. They

15:36

might need to just completely change something. But then I was

15:39

also concerned in the second half, and this has been pointed

15:41

out in the comments as well, I would have liked to have seen

15:43

a little bit of shit-housing from Kilkenny in the second half

15:45

when things were going. I don't think they had any energy left to

15:48

be a shit-house. As Corky says in the comments, can't understand

15:50

how no Kilkenny player hadn't a contact

15:52

lens issue in the second half. It certainly needed to

15:54

be done to try and start the juggernaut.

15:56

But I didn't see anything

15:58

different or unique. had his issue

16:00

he knew that Limerick had so much storage

16:03

to fall back on whereas like you

16:05

can delay the inevitable like we're saying you

16:07

can go down and waste a bit of time

16:09

but you still have to get up and play on you still have

16:11

to be proactive and I'm not sure they had anything left to

16:14

give like and yet still this game was pretty

16:16

close up until the last 15 minutes. I

16:18

mean 30 scores. That's why they're in the red they did

16:20

as well as they could and they got blown out at the

16:22

end that which is the most frustrating thing that

16:24

I don't think there's anything in those 50-50s conversation

16:28

like there's nothing that you can say is a Coconi person

16:29

today and go if we had just

16:32

done this this and this

16:33

like it could have been different it could

16:36

not have been different the best team won by a mile. I'm

16:38

not sure I agree with you there that this is the

16:40

end of this Coconi team that's where they're in the red. I

16:42

don't think that I don't think that they can close the gap on this Limerick

16:44

team is the point it's not the end of the team I think

16:46

next year they'll be back and very very likely they'll

16:49

be in an all-around semi-final because you know

16:51

what's going on in Galway I don't know but more

16:53

than likely it's going to be Coconi in an all-around semi-final

16:56

against the second best team from

16:59

from Munster because the way the system

17:02

is is set up and there's

17:04

every chance they'll be back in an all-around final next year but what are

17:06

they going to do differently?

17:08

Yeah I think Limerick have a tougher and

17:10

monster than they do in the back end of the all-arndons

17:13

like they seem

17:15

to have Galway and Coconi's number

17:17

but Claire on a good day you never know Tipp on a better

17:19

day maybe

17:20

but that's what you're kind of clutching

17:23

at straws really at the same time you know also

17:25

the Coconi had kind of an inability

17:27

to deal with Kean Lynch moving up to centre forward

17:30

yeah the last seven minutes of the

17:32

first half

17:33

so Midfield he was doing all right and he seems to do a lot more damage

17:35

and he switched it really man of the match in the all-around final is

17:37

a big deal they should have given him Kean Lynch like

17:39

our Burns we'll come back to this or

17:42

Burns I think because Burns in the first half wasn't

17:44

as good as he was in the second half no

17:46

but you're right when Coconi were like there were six

17:49

points ahead I know that's not a mountain lead

17:51

against this hurling size

17:54

but there were six here

17:56

and you have to think like if it was for Kean

17:58

Lynch yeah who knows

17:59

What would have happened like it's it was the only man who stood

18:02

up. It's a dominant display When

18:04

the team are struggling and that's the

18:06

hallmark of absolute quality. So anyway

18:09

That's my only quibble. Yeah,

18:11

we'll go back to the record We move on into the other red

18:14

this morning and Irish golf very harsh

18:16

very hard We have very hard to be here Well,

18:18

we shouldn't be lumping them all in so the way I'll explain

18:21

the weekend from an Irish perspective Brian Harmon, of course

18:23

Winning bit of a I guess procession

18:25

towards the finish line for Brian Harmon his

18:27

first major title a six-shot win for him Won under

18:30

end of 70 yesterday nice and easy

18:32

for him 13 under the

18:34

John Ram among those players and joined second with

18:36

seps track at Tom Kim and Jason day from

18:38

an Irish perspective, so

18:40

Four players missing

18:42

the cut Darren Clark on eight over Alex

18:44

McGuire ten over Seamus power and Shane

18:46

Lowry both on four over All failing

18:48

to make the weekend project I've done slightly better weekend

18:51

made the cut and

18:53

I guess the reason we're talking about This is is Roy

18:55

McElroy type of six

18:58

and Power better for every single round

19:01

As he said afterwards, he was quite happy obviously

19:03

not to have not won and the drought

19:05

major drug continues into a decade Yeah, yeah,

19:08

yeah, yeah Started

19:10

the final round yesterday very strongly three birdies

19:12

from the third hole on but then the heavy

19:14

rain came in meant momentum was lost and I

19:17

think he's playing really well. It's got a show

19:20

open last week has highlighted that

19:22

And he can be pretty proud of himself. Of

19:24

course, he has

19:26

Once again not won a major and I see your smirk chair,

19:28

but I Don't think

19:30

Roni McElroy has earned a place in the

19:32

red after his performance the weekend This

19:35

content driven man like you

19:37

either win or you lose according to Turgo Roy.

19:40

Oh win the open You

19:43

can improve you can play well

19:45

It doesn't necessarily mean you're right you can't put

19:47

McElroy in the same color as Shane

19:49

Lowry Missed the court and smashed

19:51

his club or actually didn't smash it He

19:54

kind of just bent it very smoothie and

19:56

calmly kind of sociopathically like and it just snapped

19:58

right there He's walked away

19:59

with no emotion in his face. You

20:02

can't lump him in. Well, sorry.

20:05

How many majors did they both win this year?

20:07

Oh my god. This is the end of the major season, right?

20:09

So it's not just the British Open we're talking about here.

20:12

Like, Rory's season was built around winning

20:14

one of the four, particularly the Masters, and then, okay,

20:17

I'll make do with my open victory that

20:20

stops my 10-year drought. And

20:21

last week,

20:23

and I was the one arguing to put him in

20:25

green last week because he was sensational, and

20:28

he's going to have a brilliant rest of the season. It's

20:30

very likely he might end up winning again both

20:33

of the tours, right? And it'll be a great

20:35

achievement. At the end of his career, he looked

20:37

back and thought, yeah, I was the dominant golfer outside

20:39

of the majors for those

20:41

years. And he will feel not great

20:44

about himself not winning the majors. Like

20:46

Rory's in the red because Rory would view himself

20:49

in the red. He might say, I'm doing great. You

20:51

know, so my pudding is like Harrington is like,

20:53

if he can't put like this and win a major, he

20:55

just can't. I don't know if you saw on Saturday,

20:58

he opened up and he was ripping the course apart.

21:01

At that stage, John Ram had just ripped the course

21:03

apart. And it looked like this is going to be one of the

21:05

all time great opens because you assumed harm was going to come back

21:08

to us. But

21:09

he missed the birdie putt on

21:11

was it to go birdie par birdie

21:14

birdie. And

21:15

it should have been birdie birdie birdie

21:17

eagle, but he missed two puts

21:20

and you're like, oh, that's just, they're

21:22

slipping away and then hit every

21:24

green in regulation for the first nine holes. And then the drive

21:26

went a little bit wayward in the back nine and

21:29

the whole thing frittered out. And he couldn't buy a putt.

21:31

And even yesterday, even yesterday,

21:33

when it starts to get going, he just couldn't

21:35

get the puts to drop to start making

21:38

the crowd be noisy and

21:40

to make harm and be sitting there going, oh,

21:43

but he could do it because his pudding is not

21:45

good enough at the moment. You won last week with this pudding

21:47

exactly like this. No, his pudding wasn't exactly like this last

21:49

week. Some of the puts dropped the puts

21:51

dropped in 17 and 18 last week that weren't dropping

21:53

this week. And that's the problem with

21:56

McElroy is like absolutely sensational,

21:59

but he's such a streaky.

21:59

putter that it's either hot or it's absolutely

22:03

ice cold and it was ice cold on Saturday and ice

22:05

cold on Sunday and he doesn't want

22:07

to be in the amber, he doesn't want to be patronised by

22:09

you two. No, I'd love that. Oh Rory, well

22:11

done. You got a top ten on him

22:13

mate. He wouldn't want to as a coach

22:15

or a conferenceee because you're telling him he's this big loser

22:18

because he hasn't won a major in ten years. It's not

22:20

that. Would you rather be patronised in amber or disrespected

22:22

in red? He's being disrespected being put

22:25

in red, to be honest with you. Like, tied

22:27

for sixth at the open. Friends don't bullshit you Shane.

22:29

No, of course

22:29

they don't and he should be winning majors but he

22:32

did not play badly at the weekend. He

22:34

played great but he can't buy a putt and

22:37

that's why he can't be in amber. It's like three quarters of my

22:39

game is great. Driver's show.

22:42

Put for dough. You

22:44

can't, you just can't put him in red. This

22:47

time yesterday we were building up and

22:49

it was like maybe he could do it. And then a few hours into Sunday

22:51

we were like, Jesus he started off quite well

22:53

and you never know McElroy. You never

22:56

know McElroy. You do. It

22:58

was gone on Saturday. And he knew

23:00

it coming off and his face knew it on the back nine

23:02

on Saturday. It was over on Saturday. There wasn't

23:05

a hope and hell he could have shot a 63 yesterday

23:07

and it still wouldn't matter because it was over.

23:09

He was gone. There's no way McElroy thinks he's in

23:11

red.

23:11

McElroy thinks he's in amber, right? Because if he thinks he's in red

23:14

he's never going to be in contention again. If he goes by

23:16

your attitude where this guy is putting, he's letting

23:18

him down, he's three quarters of his game, he's just not good

23:20

enough anymore. If he doesn't fix his putting he's never going to

23:22

win another major.

23:23

He said himself after the round, right? He says every

23:25

time I tee it up I'm right there. I can't sit here and be

23:27

too frustrated. It was a solid

23:29

performance, not spectacular. That's

23:31

the definition of the performance right against Amber.

23:34

It was solid but not spectacular.

23:36

He has literally told us to put him in amber.

23:38

Literally his post-round interview

23:41

yesterday was him going,

23:43

put me in amber. He's had the same

23:45

level of success in the major championships

23:47

this year as everybody who didn't

23:49

win. But that's like, okay, you're

23:51

just looking. It is binary for McElroy at this age in

23:53

his career. It is. It is. I'm

23:56

telling you. When he's going to walk

23:58

around with the wheelbarrow and they're going to... fill it with cash every

24:01

week between now and the end of the season and it's

24:04

great and I you know it's fair play to him and it's

24:06

really important for golf that

24:08

McElroy continues to be the one that

24:10

everybody wants to watch and I understand that but

24:12

at the same time it is binary now at this stage

24:14

in his career in terms of whether or not that was a good week or a bad week

24:17

he's not thinking that was a grand week because he didn't win

24:20

like he's gonna have loads of great weeks for the rest of the season

24:22

and I still think I actually think that this

24:24

got it open the way he managed to see that out

24:27

like I

24:28

think that's gonna be important to him into the future

24:30

and I do think he probably

24:32

will win a major but and

24:34

then the dams will open he's in the reds today

24:37

because he didn't get it done over the weekend

24:39

I don't think so did you hear his interview with Sky after

24:41

his round yesterday but they

24:44

all laughed at all the golfers lied to each other they've never

24:46

had a cup golfers have had the yips and

24:48

they're like no I don't have the yips what are you talking about if you heard

24:50

it go on go on I heard it he was very self-critical

24:53

in other performances this year in majors

24:55

even and he said no today wasn't bad this

24:57

weekend not so bad very disappointing not

24:59

to win

25:01

not the man who's talking about himself in the reds a

25:03

guy who's saying there's room for improvement a guy who's

25:05

saying I'm nearly there a guy who's saying I

25:07

know I'm still good enough I just need that little

25:09

bit more certainly not a guy who's

25:11

in the reds let me put it this way here an Irish golfer

25:14

yesterday Rory McIlroy secured his

25:16

20th top 10 finish in a major since

25:18

he last won one

25:19

that's pretty consistent I

25:21

mean the man to put some respect on his name this sport

25:23

is ruthless and brutal and doesn't lend

25:25

itself to performance rankings because there's only one

25:27

winner every weekend yeah yeah and golfers

25:30

it wasn't Roy this weekend he was in the green last

25:32

week when he won but

25:33

it was the season for that's

25:35

not a round that's actually wasn't that

25:37

would have been the finish on 17 and 18 last week was absolutely

25:41

spectacular brilliant yeah totally did we put him in the

25:43

green I

25:44

don't think we did we did I insisted

25:46

on putting them in the I don't remember

25:48

typing in Murray McIlroy last week most of

25:50

you on the schedule I think you might have mentioned it but I think was honorable

25:52

mention no I think it was there in the green

25:55

we'll go back and check someone

25:56

who's someone who knows well

25:58

we've only talked this

25:59

This is how we end up. We only talk about

26:02

Rory because Pottrick-Hainton had a decent weekend but then

26:04

the other Irish lads had howlers. Like Lowry

26:06

breaks his club off his neck.

26:08

Not as violent as that

26:10

sounds but kind of bent it around the back of his neck.

26:12

So I think he'd be disappointed

26:14

with his performance to Shane Lowry.

26:17

I mean a 6 over 77 on Friday

26:20

and then he lost in the

26:22

back nine to be honest. So his frustration

26:24

got the better of him. By the way, Pottrick-Hainton was

26:26

asked about it afterwards and he said, what do you make of Shane Lowry

26:28

breaking his club? He was like, well

26:30

golfers are allowed to lose their cool as long as they don't damage

26:33

the course. Yeah he didn't care. No he didn't give it back

26:35

to me. No fair mates. I think he's right. Lowry

26:37

wants to break his club. They're going to fix

26:40

that for him. They'll give him a new one. It'll be grand.

26:42

Yeah 100%. I mean you're allowed to show a bit

26:44

of frustration I think. And Brian Harmon, fairytale

26:47

week for him, 26th in the world. Just the third

26:49

left hander to win the Open lads. Bob

26:51

Charles in 1963 and Phil Mickelson

26:54

in 2013. Fun fact. It was very

26:56

underwhelming wasn't it? When he won,

26:58

absolutely buckling him down on a Sunday evening to

27:01

kind of polite applause from the crowd. I know. He took

27:03

it well and then he's just walking off into the distance and

27:05

I... It's Tommy Fleetwood also in the Amber

27:07

lads, is he?

27:09

Why? Because he went well.

27:10

I mean he earned a lot more money for himself in contention.

27:13

They don't care about the money. They're so rich they don't care about the

27:15

money anymore. He will win it. Unless it's live money.

27:17

I'm not far than golf like. You would

27:19

break these people's spirits. Why is Jordan Anderson not in

27:21

the

27:22

red? Do we miss an opportunity here? You know

27:24

you have an opportunity to influence these before him. I do,

27:26

I do. It's coming to me now. You know what

27:28

I mean? Why am

27:29

I nodding on the red? The glazers are just sticking

27:31

around. Do we miss this too? I love this energy

27:34

of a Sunday. Are you just suppressing this? This would

27:37

be great. Well look, this is what we went with and

27:39

I think it's fair. You can talk to me about it

27:41

if you'd like. We will.

27:43

We have a good Amber though.

27:45

The season is nearly upon us. We're like 10

27:48

days away from the... Community Shield.

27:50

Is it that close? It always

27:52

thinks up when you're the old community shield. Who's in it this year?

27:55

City and who won the cup?

27:57

City. City against the...

28:00

him second.

28:01

Presume Arsenal. City Arsenal. That

28:03

man you know that's from the finish. City Arsenal. Runners up in the cup though. I think

28:05

it's usually the Premier League runners up. It's Premier League runners up.

28:07

Second. You've met City Arsenal. That's not a sign of the correction. We'll

28:10

move on to the Amber. GAA coverage and

28:12

the GAA fixtures generally speaking. The Camogie

28:15

fixtures at the weekend went

28:18

a little bit under the radar. Not least because

28:20

it's all out at Herd on the final weekend as well. So you've

28:23

put water for Camogie in the green, right? Yeah, of course.

28:25

They're true, is it seventy something years? Seventy

28:27

eight years. Seventy eight years since they've been in and

28:31

the both all-art and semi-finals

28:34

pucker the ball in between the two

28:36

of them and the

28:40

LGFA semi-finals are next weekend but

28:43

they're getting almost no coverage at

28:45

the moment compared with

28:48

well the main bit of coverage about the LGFA

28:50

and women's football season, Gelly football,

28:53

have been about the non-strike strike, right? That

28:56

has been the significant thrust of the coverage as

28:58

opposed to analysis of the matches and

29:02

everybody knowing exactly what's going on. But there's been

29:04

big surprises or big name

29:06

teams have been going out and struggling particularly

29:08

in the football and in the hurling you've got this incredible bubbling

29:10

up

29:11

of Waterford who might be about

29:14

to win the All-in before the men's team

29:17

and it's getting almost no coverage. I just

29:19

think instead of

29:20

aping what the men did with their season, there

29:22

was a big opportunity for the

29:25

women to let the men rush through like okay you've made a bad

29:27

decision there, you've handed

29:29

the rest of the summer over to soccer

29:31

and whatever else is going on and they

29:33

could have sat back and gone well that leaves us free

29:36

for all of August and

29:38

the first two weeks of September and we're going

29:40

to have an all-in hurling slash camogie

29:42

final and the first Sunday in September like there always is, it's

29:45

just it's going to be the women's. I thought that was a fairly

29:47

obvious

29:47

thing to do. The split season

29:50

they don't own their own pitches and this is all part of the GEA,

29:52

you've got to do

29:55

what we're doing just in case everybody

29:58

realizes that these sports are amazing and you get all the coverage.

29:59

I don't know what they like. Anyway.

30:04

What's the rush?

30:05

Why are we flaking through this? Like

30:07

I thought I know. You're talking about the men's now, right? Everything,

30:10

everything. The last Intercounty fixture is Sunday

30:12

the 13th of August. It's just around the corner.

30:15

I know it's for the club game, but my argument is

30:17

club games too parochial for everyone to be interested in.

30:19

If you want to spread the game to the widest audience, what

30:22

are you rushing for?

30:23

This is great at the moment, like it's adrenaline rush. So

30:26

I now ran through football flying. It's brilliant. It's

30:28

very exciting, but like there's absolutely no

30:30

room to breathe or reflect.

30:32

I disagree somewhat on the club. Club

30:36

is parochial by its very definition, but I also

30:38

think club is only parochial because it

30:40

doesn't get the space to breathe, as you say.

30:42

It needs space to breathe in order for people to become interested. Does

30:44

it need that much space? Well, like, do you know

30:47

what? We were all interested in the Kilimancoat lens stuff last

30:49

year because it had a bit of room. But

30:51

that was an extraordinary moment. And it was obviously- It was nothing

30:53

to do with the fixture. Yeah, it was mental, but like

30:55

the club fixtures- So did Glenn

30:58

beat Kilcou in the Ulster final

31:00

or the Ulster semi-final? Ulster club final, yeah. Ulster club

31:03

final. Like, so

31:05

how many people were legitimately interested in that? Because

31:07

I would have been on your side, Shane, the whole way through. I

31:09

just don't feel like it has justified

31:12

the

31:13

handing over. So

31:15

Glenn played Kilcou if

31:17

memory serves and

31:20

very controversial.

31:21

On the field

31:22

afterwards, there's like, well, what they would

31:25

do is completely unacceptable.

31:26

And I was like, oh, this is very interesting, isn't it? But

31:29

like, it kind of was a tiny

31:32

little, just a little kind of bubble of a story

31:34

and then it disappeared. But

31:36

if anybody had, like, if that was

31:39

an inter-county game, we're on the field

31:41

afterwards, they're like, well, that's completely unacceptable. We

31:45

would still be talking about it. So

31:47

I'm not sure it has crossed over to mainstream. Yeah,

31:50

but it gives it a bit of time. Like, the

31:53

Dublin senior championship is very competitive. Kilcou

31:55

and Kilcou don't necessarily walk it. No,

31:57

but they don't play very interesting football. No,

32:00

they don't. There's a Black

32:02

Death element to some

32:05

of the club teams, for whatever reason. They

32:07

don't play the same swashbuckling style as the

32:10

county team.

32:11

I was in Galway last summer and

32:13

I went to a couple of Galway club championship

32:15

matches, just on a Sunday just

32:17

to watch it. And I had no affiliation with any of

32:19

the teams. But that's either

32:21

tourists passing interest in it.

32:24

Yeah, but is that not the type of people

32:26

they're trying to draw into the club game? I don't know. The

32:30

other county fans that have no interest in club until they actually

32:32

watch a match and they're like, oh, this is actually

32:34

really high quality. If you watch Glen Kilcou,

32:36

that's really, it's high quality football. A

32:39

lot of them are under-county players anyway. No, if the general

32:41

motivation, if the overall goal is to promote

32:43

the club game in a much better way, then yeah, this is

32:45

a huge success. But I also thought that

32:47

the GAs' mandate was to spread the game to the widest

32:50

number of people. And you're alienating a huge cohort

32:52

by doing this, in my opinion. Are you not

32:54

bringing in, you're giving the club game

32:57

space, how is that alienating them? We have seven months

32:59

to add this debate. Well, I don't know, but I'd be lucky

33:01

to stay there for a reason. Also, I know

33:03

we're going to talk to Seamus Icky here about Limerick and we're going

33:05

to do a lot on Limerick. I see one comment there

33:07

saying that we're not doing enough celebrating Limerick. But

33:09

one question I will ask is, John

33:12

Cady, 13 and 13 finals, 100% record,

33:16

is this Limerick side the best ever? Or

33:18

do they have to win it next year

33:20

to make the statistically... We're moving

33:22

on to Limerick and Green, yeah. Yeah,

33:23

we're probably finished. That

33:27

was the point I was making about the conversation with Nash

33:29

on Friday. It was like, can't

33:31

say that now. And hard not to

33:33

say it now, basically. That's... you know.

33:38

Obviously, if they win next year, it ends

33:40

all the debate. But I'm saying, I don't know,

33:42

that's just statistically, but are they

33:44

actually? So I think the conversation is now about

33:46

the greatest GAA team of all time.

33:49

And they're right there with the Dubs. Mm. Well,

33:52

hold on. Hard to compare it all. Are they right there at

33:54

the Dubs? Right there. They're Nip

33:56

and Tuck. Yes. They have to win two moral

33:58

items. They're right there at the Dubs.

33:59

it'll be five next year, but

34:02

it'll actually be six and seven.

34:06

And so they're catching up on

34:08

the dubs. The most mic

34:10

drop moment for me was the 30th point when it goes

34:12

over the bar, and Kylie and Canark just

34:14

embrace, it's like- Because that was their target. Yeah, it was obviously

34:17

very much a, there we go.

34:18

Like they didn't care about the 29th point, but the 30th point

34:20

was like, we've done it, we've reached. Like

34:23

so they're such just killers. They

34:25

don't hold back, lovely photo there on screen of John Kylie

34:28

and Joe McKenna.

34:30

Man, I gave a lot to Limerick Erling as well. It was nice to

34:32

see that little moment- Those eyes, Kylie's

34:34

eyes. Sorry, Kylie.

34:37

That five minute period when he was on his own up

34:39

there with his kids, they lifted a trophy together and then

34:41

he took it himself, and took it up to JP. They

34:44

actually went into a highlights thing

34:46

in the stadium for a couple

34:48

of minutes. And I was like, oh, they're gonna Mr. John

34:50

Kylie presentation here. And the highlights kept

34:52

going, but he was last,

34:54

right? And he was waiting for everybody else and loads of people that brought their

34:56

kids up. And he was like halfway

34:59

up when he was like, oh,

35:00

I don't have my kids with me. And so he legs

35:02

it onto the field. Like it literally kind of, some

35:04

of the cliquetti players are coming through the tunnel and he's kind

35:06

of gently waiting for them politely

35:09

going, well, hurry up, lads. And he legs it over

35:11

and grabs the two girls and then suddenly there

35:13

are like, the three of them are up there. And

35:15

then he lets them go. And then he has a little moment

35:17

where he has a dance.

35:18

And he's dancing for about two minutes, leading the crowd in the sing

35:21

song. And then he spots JP and

35:23

brings him down. And it's like, it

35:26

was the most celebratory. I haven't seen

35:28

all the trophy lifts now because some of you are just trying

35:30

to get out. But

35:33

massive crowd stayed as well. And

35:35

a lot of cliquetti people stayed. I

35:37

think they were appreciating what they'd seen. Yeah, I

35:40

was noticing that when they ran away with it at the end

35:42

of the game, I didn't see on TV anyway a lot of

35:44

cliquetti fans leaving. But that

35:46

five minute period or so where Kylie just went

35:49

into overdrive was magic.

35:50

Love seeing that. Oh,

35:52

even before he was on TV. Absolutely loved it. No

35:54

inhibitions like just went for it. Yeah. And

35:57

that is like apparently cliche. That is what it's all

35:59

about.

35:59

But like that is just brilliant to see why

36:02

do you think it was a corner? I'd say

36:04

it's relief because it was before the semi final in scholarly

36:06

He was getting a bit rowdy with media felt it

36:08

was a bit unfair to get at his players

36:11

in a squad and the Perceived

36:13

unfair advantage that they have and he obviously

36:15

disagrees and he said to put a lot of work into it This is all very

36:17

natural stuff. I think it's the release of energy

36:19

Yeah, and the start of the year was that there's a softening

36:21

up going on against us So like it had been

36:24

this

36:24

low steady build Like the

36:27

monster championship they as somebody in the

36:29

comments as they needed Tipperary

36:31

to screw up for them to be able to win the competition

36:34

and winning that competition gave them the time off Yeah,

36:36

work on stuff and get everybody back fit as opposed to

36:39

playing an extra game You know, I

36:41

think monster might be more of a challenge for them these days

36:43

than the latter part of well That's that

36:45

was the consensus among the people I was speaking to yeah

36:48

Just get out of monster because they're nine points every

36:50

final victory nine point final victory I

36:52

mean, just are a crock-pack team

36:54

like all the cliches like the great teams

36:56

like well They really do come alive in crock-pack. They

36:59

seem to understand The geometry

37:01

of the stadium better than any team has ever played there.

37:04

It's also like the limerick support There

37:06

should be a word of the limerick support because ashing already spoke to a few

37:08

ones in the outside crook park and they actually Said the

37:11

interest in this team has reached fever pitch Like you think in

37:13

the first year this will be at its highest

37:15

but every year that limerick get better and better And

37:17

I met hammy dawson a limerick superfan down in limerick

37:20

last week They lose the heads over this team like

37:22

and rightly so they're unbelievable. He can

37:24

only live 21 years of age comes off the bench and But

37:27

he does as well like the future. It's

37:29

not the end of this team either, which is scary I

37:31

know the age profile is good. But at the same time monster

37:33

was a real struggle for them like Claire

37:36

right there with them Oh Claire Claire must be

37:38

kicking themselves What the hell do they have to do to

37:40

people Kenny because I think

37:42

Claire would have had more in the tank

37:44

in the last 10 minutes I don't know

37:46

if they just understand a bit more or if they're less in

37:48

all this limerick team because they play them more often I don't know. I

37:51

don't know Let's talk about that with shimasiki

37:53

in a moment. There's one more left water for them We're gonna do this in more detail

37:55

with Sarah Donovan. Yeah, I think we should mention definitely waterford

37:57

after the weekend of course Cork progress into the

37:59

All-Ireland Kamoge final as well with a 15 points to 2-6

38:02

win over Galway but yeah it was really all but water

38:04

if it wasn't it. 78 year

38:06

gap bridged, started

38:08

out of the blocks pretty slowly in that semi-final

38:10

as well but I mean came into it and in

38:13

the end it was a 1-12 to 1-11 win over Tipperary. That

38:17

slow start, 1945 was their last appearance in

38:19

a final. Beth Carton, player of the

38:21

match but other players stepped

38:24

up to the mark as well. Vicky Faulkner in defence, Lorraine

38:26

Bray as well. It was Carton the player

38:29

of the match because she gets 8 points, half

38:31

of them from play. Tipp

38:33

probably would be kicking themselves a little bit, they had chances but

38:36

Waterford certainly, the story of the

38:38

weekend. It was a seriously slow start wasn't it? They

38:40

were 1-7 to 3 points down Waterford

38:43

after 25 minutes.

38:44

So to come back from there and for Tip to

38:46

only score 4 more points like the unbelievable

38:48

performance after the 25th minute onwards. But

38:51

yeah like you say we'll talk to Sarah about it but 78

38:53

years and waiting. Here

38:54

we go, two weeks time.

38:56

Right, that's this week's performance

38:58

rankings. OTBA's performance

39:00

rankings. 8 minutes past 8 this

39:03

morning, Braeburn Coffee, the official coffee partner

39:05

of OTB. Braeburn Coffee is coming to an Apple Green near you.

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New Braeburn locations are popping up every month so visit applegreenstores.com

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39:15

After the break, Seamus Heakey first,

39:17

Tommy Walsh speaking with Aisling at full time. Aisling,

39:20

it is impossible, they're just

39:22

an outstanding team even if they don't ever win another

39:24

All-Ireland they'll go down as one of the best teams ever. You

39:26

know I thought when we, you know Henry is 10, there's

39:29

a good few of us at 9, many more

39:31

with 8 All-Irelands. I thought

39:34

that no one ever catches you know but it

39:36

looks like these lads are more than halfway there now

39:38

so maybe they'll go on

39:40

and win many many more. You know whether

39:42

they do or not it's not all about titles like just

39:45

as players that can play the game like you look

39:47

at the fundamentals of Ireland to be able to win your

39:49

own ball

39:50

is one. They can do that and can do it

39:52

very better than most. Fitness,

39:55

sure they're one of the fittest teams I'd say has ever played the game. Heart,

39:58

you know, mindset.

39:59

They seem to be the best of all aspects

40:02

of the game. But probably a fundamental

40:04

of the GAA, which was never there before, was to play around with

40:08

the ball, five yard, 10 yard passes.

40:11

That was always frowned upon in Ireland. You

40:13

know, the traditionalists, I probably

40:15

wanted them, you know, never got great

40:17

enjoyment out of that, but

40:20

thereafter taking that now to a new level. So now

40:22

if you want to, I suppose, take down

40:24

this team or even, you know, win

40:26

all Orleans now, I think that's a fourth

40:29

fundamental that

40:29

we come into it. You may learn whether you like it or

40:32

not. OTP

40:36

AM. The sports breakfast show

40:38

from off the ball. All

40:41

right, it is 10 minutes past 8 this morning. I'm delighted

40:43

to say Seamus Hickey is with us. Seamus,

40:45

congratulations on being from Limerick because, you

40:47

know, you guys are kings of the world.

40:50

Listen, it's hard to believe.

40:53

It's incredible to believe, for

40:55

Niro, it has actually happened in Limerick.

40:58

It's

40:59

been as, and together the likes of Tommy Walsh

41:01

talking about it and the likes of the Kikeni

41:03

players that have had eight out of Ireland.

41:06

It's just, it's wild

41:09

to think that Limerick are in the same

41:11

conversation. Just considering

41:13

what we've endured, what

41:15

we endured in the 90s for such incredible

41:18

teams, like really, really talented

41:20

teams couldn't do it. We

41:23

had a goal in the 2000s and

41:25

I suppose the teams, but

41:27

like this team, they're just phenomenal. And

41:31

then I was standing there with my hands in my head the

41:33

full time, yesterday, just really,

41:36

really taking it in and just trying to appreciate

41:38

how lucky we are to be represented

41:42

by the group of men

41:44

and women in the Limerick set up. They're

41:47

just, they're an exceptional

41:49

bunch and you're just incredibly

41:51

proud of them. It's

41:53

funny, but generally when any

41:55

sporting team or person exerts

41:58

such dominance over their role,

41:59

There's like a brooding sense of, oh,

42:02

we're sick of this. But actually, I don't really feel that

42:04

from the general public yet. I mean, I'm

42:06

sure TIP fans maybe might feel a little bit

42:08

different than some Claire fans and some, but even the Kilkenny fans,

42:10

I was like, what are you? We

42:13

didn't nearly beat them. We weren't, we weren't like, it

42:15

wasn't like something happened. They were like, oh, we're so

42:17

close to them. It was just, it

42:19

was an, and it was a big Kilkenny crowd who stayed

42:21

particularly on the Hill to watch the presentation, which

42:24

is unusual. I think, I mean, I don't remember

42:26

it, but there's just this kind of, everybody

42:28

wants to soak in the level of achievement

42:29

and greatness we're seeing.

42:32

So that was, that was a credit to

42:34

the performance. The second half performance

42:36

yesterday was, was worthy.

42:39

It was, it was incredible. And

42:41

then obviously the huge crowd

42:43

that stayed around, it was history. It was

42:45

history for like the only, there's only three teams

42:47

that have done this to win four in a row. And

42:50

one of them was in the forties. So you

42:52

know, you're talking about that incredible

42:55

Kilkenny team from all six to all nine

42:57

and what it took to stop them

43:00

in 2010 from Tipperary was, you know, arguably

43:02

the greatest other than fine

43:04

that we'd ever seen. So you know, Limerick

43:07

are now

43:08

in that conversation and I think it

43:10

was respect for the performance. It was respect

43:12

for the history that probably

43:14

brought that about. Like I've, you know,

43:18

I've

43:18

followed the media cycle for

43:20

the last couple of years around this Limerick team. There's

43:23

fatigue. I, there's no doubt

43:25

about that. Like I know that people

43:27

would, would, would prefer, you know,

43:30

something different than change is good in sport.

43:33

You know, for, for supporters like ourselves,

43:35

we're really just trying to appreciate it less. But

43:38

I really do think that it was, it was the performance. It

43:40

was the second half and just the

43:42

sheer, the sheer class of it that,

43:45

you know, it's exceptionally difficult to

43:47

do anything. I would

43:48

sit back and appreciate the quality

43:50

and the skill and the mental fortitude

43:53

to be six points down in the first

43:55

half and to produce what they did in the

43:57

second half.

43:59

It's right. I think it's

44:01

only right that you sit back and you you applaud

44:03

that. Could you have possibly foreseen this, Seamus,

44:05

in the couple of years before, say, 2018? Because

44:08

I was chatting to him in Cregan last week and he referenced

44:10

the Lift in the Treaty Academy that was set up, the

44:13

Mary Eiwin in 2016, the first

44:15

ever Mary Eiwin skipping cup win. And

44:17

at that point, I think, Eamonn Cregan did an interview in 2016, where

44:19

he said it's an absolute disgrace, the gap between 73

44:23

and then. Could you have seen this

44:25

around the corner? Like in all these players, that the Lynches

44:27

and the Hayeses were

44:29

coming

44:29

around the corner. But did you ever think this would

44:32

come about? So

44:35

I don't know anybody

44:36

who could possibly predict this

44:38

level of dominance. As

44:41

good as Seamus, and in 2018,

44:44

I knew that there was something incredible

44:46

brewing in Emory. So we had this exceptional

44:48

talent pipeline. We had just

44:51

had Kyle Hayes coming to the panel, just at 18

44:54

years of age, had come in from an

44:56

Ireland minor win. Winning Ireland minor

44:58

titles was still brand new to us, like,

45:01

in Limerick. The lifting Limerick

45:03

strategy headed by Joe McKenna was

45:06

starting to bear fruit

45:06

underage and okay, great, there's green

45:10

shoots coming. And

45:12

when we won in 2018, I said, you know, it's

45:14

going to be impossible to stop this team. And so

45:17

I retired at the end of 2018, fully

45:19

aware that I

45:21

was sitting out on

45:24

Ireland with this team

45:26

that was there. And it's a combination of the

45:28

exceptional talent.

45:29

Paul Knurk, I mean, Kean

45:31

mentioned in his speech yesterday, he's just

45:34

hurling knowledge, he's

45:37

training, his ability

45:39

to convey, you

45:41

know, just the importance of

45:44

discipline, structure, shape, and

45:46

how he wanted the game

45:48

played, and then the strengths of the players

45:51

then were able to execute it. John Kylie's

45:53

ability to just,

45:55

I suppose, to lead the ship be an incredible

45:58

figurehead. make good

46:00

decisions and trust the players.

46:04

It's a whole package. And I

46:06

mentioned this over the weekend, that

46:08

continuity and

46:11

I suppose it can't

46:14

be taken for granted. I suppose

46:17

the commitment and the effort that's required to sustain

46:20

this. And you saw with Jim Gavin in

46:22

Dublin, the personal sacrifice

46:25

you have to make to lead

46:27

a group. And

46:29

as special as the group is,

46:31

it doesn't lessen the burden. And

46:34

that's what Limerick have had. And to say that you could have

46:36

foreseen this, I couldn't have foreseen four in a row in no

46:38

way because the standard of hurling

46:40

I felt was on the up

46:42

in 2018. I thought there was far more competitors.

46:46

I thought there was far more teams coming. They're

46:48

particularly at Cork where they really

46:50

looked like they were coming in 2021.

46:53

Chief after a great start this year,

46:55

I thought with Limcahal were going to be in the shakeup

46:58

and Kilkenny after Kilkenny. So I couldn't

47:00

have seen this dominance. And it's

47:03

an incredible reflection on the Limerick

47:05

team that they've just found a way every single time.

47:09

The semi-final and final

47:11

victories over the last couple of

47:13

years.

47:14

So last year's final, obviously,

47:16

it ends up quite close, but it did feel like Limerick

47:19

would certainly the better team on the day.

47:22

The

47:24

difference between the Croke Park games and the

47:26

Munster games is it feels quite pronounced.

47:30

Certainly some Munster hurling people

47:32

that I was talking to last night were like, one second at a Munster

47:34

next year. That's all they need to look after from this

47:36

point forward because that is such a dog fight.

47:39

So then this is, and I think you

47:41

mentioned it just before break as well. So to

47:44

get to a Munster final means you get

47:46

a break, you get two

47:48

weeks to prepare for a Munster final. Then

47:51

you come out of the Munster final. If you win the Munster final, you

47:54

get three weeks to prepare for an honor and semi-final.

47:57

Otherwise, it's the turnaround of two

47:59

weeks. to a quarter point. But in the

48:01

monster championship, it's week on week

48:04

with a break we thrown in there in the middle.

48:06

And it's exceptionally tough to

48:08

like the Limerick player game in the Gaelic

48:11

grounds was an evening game. It

48:13

was for Claire, it was six

48:16

days after they played Tipperary in

48:18

Ennis. For Limerick, it was an absolute

48:21

dogfight against one of their most

48:24

fiercest rivals over the last four years.

48:27

And to recover from that then again in

48:30

a six or seven day span and play

48:32

another team, it's just

48:34

a really difficult thing to do. And

48:36

the monster championship is, you know,

48:39

and there has been a little bit of eye rolling

48:41

and the romanticizing of the monster championship.

48:44

But it's just it's just that difficult. When Kenny

48:46

won their four in a row,

48:48

sometimes it was a sleepwalk through the

48:51

monster championship. And it was a

48:53

peak for the All Ireland series of a semi

48:55

final and final.

48:57

If you can get to the semi final and I thought,

48:59

and that's what I was really unsure about this year with

49:01

Limerick, was the road that they'd have to go, whether

49:03

it be a qualifier route, whether it be a

49:06

qualifying route, they just benefit. They benefit

49:09

from being together longer. They

49:11

benefit as a team for gelling in

49:13

terms of game plans and planning that

49:16

the time that the extra time they're able to give it for

49:18

the semi final for the final and

49:21

they're more in the tank. So it means

49:24

a lot when you get to that the latter stages and

49:26

you just have a bit

49:27

of breathing space. So and

49:29

it makes a huge difference. I

49:30

think Keon Lynch referenced the squad of 37 in

49:33

his speech, Jastre Sheamus. And when

49:35

you look at like, if you said before the game,

49:37

Hagerty would have a quiet enough game by his

49:39

standards like Gilane as well, Flanagan, compared

49:42

to what we're used to seeing them perform at. And

49:44

then this is a team without Sean Finn and Declan Hannon as well.

49:47

Like, that makes it all the more remarkable. Like,

49:49

they're players who weren't involved maybe in previous years of

49:52

games and they're just stepping up. That

49:54

really struck me after. So especially after

49:57

the semi final. So I was I was

49:59

of the opinion definitely the

50:01

last four years that Limerick's half-forward line were

50:03

absolutely crucial to everything that we did in

50:05

terms of retention of Puck out,

50:08

in terms of the physicality around the middle,

50:10

and Tom R.C. and Garrood were like orchestrators

50:14

in chief of the destruction around the

50:16

middle. Third, Limerick were so dominant there for,

50:19

I would say, the previous three years. This

50:22

year, Tom R.C. has been fantastic

50:24

for the Monster Championship, really, really carried the line,

50:27

I would say, when Key and Garrood

50:29

weren't doing so well. But, you

50:31

know, for Limerick to find

50:33

a way, they have found a way in every

50:36

single game when questions have been asked in tight

50:38

games, in games when they've

50:40

been against six points down against

50:42

Galway, they could have been nine points down with

50:45

a goal chance for Galway. You know, Vkenny

50:47

had two goal chances outside

50:49

of the two that they got. O'Kodi

50:52

flashed the ball wide in the first half, that could have gotten

50:54

the fair post. He really did look sharp in

50:56

the first half. You know, so

50:58

they're masters of finding a way. And

51:01

this third quarter kick is

51:04

phenomenal to behold. It's like

51:06

the talk about the power that they

51:08

bring, what Kyle Hayes and David

51:10

Burns did from the half back line was

51:12

immense in the 15

51:14

minutes after halftime. And

51:17

just, they continually,

51:20

they're like problem solvers. And

51:22

John Kylie, in all fairness, he's exceptionally

51:24

humbling. He defers a lot of credit to the players.

51:26

But to be fair, the players are

51:28

masters at finding solutions

51:31

to problems, finding a way around

51:33

the, I suppose,

51:35

the strategies and the different

51:38

things that other teams throw at them, whether it was three

51:40

around the middle at different times for Kkenny yesterday, or in

51:43

the same with Galway. Galway withdrew half forward

51:45

to midfield, cluttered up. You know,

51:47

just find a way. And

51:49

then Peter Casey, you know, what an arc to see him complete

51:52

that kind of that comeback after

51:55

his five point performance

51:57

in 2021 against Cork, and then to do

51:59

his

51:59

crucial and then to come back and then five

52:02

points from play in the second half yesterday. Like,

52:04

you

52:05

know, I always felt that with you all are

52:07

going to be on, on Golan that we needed somebody

52:09

else to contribute. But I thought it was going to be maybe Seamus Flanagan.

52:12

But Peter Casey looked like he was coming in the semi-final

52:15

against Galway two points from play.

52:18

And then, you know, what he did yesterday was

52:20

like, it was ridiculous. He threw Mikey

52:22

Butler off him on the Hogan stand

52:25

and on the move, floater

52:27

ball over. And he's, he's not a big striker,

52:29

but he just, he was incredible.

52:33

And, and it was getting different

52:35

people have stood up at different times. It's

52:38

truly a team sport. But,

52:40

you know, it

52:43

is the 37 that Ian

52:46

referred to it as

52:48

a player and a former player. I know

52:50

the training that they've done. I know, I

52:53

know how important it is to, to

52:56

have good, a good panel of players where you're,

52:59

you're 17, 18, 19 on

53:01

the, on the B team, we'll

53:03

say, and I'm playing the A team and pushing them and

53:05

pushing them for their places, keeping them honest.

53:08

And I know, I know that the under 20

53:11

successes that we've had in the last couple of years as well, that,

53:13

that does bode well for the future. And the cuddle

53:15

of needs impact when he came on, had him English, you

53:17

know, there's lots of guys. So

53:20

we're very, very fortunate.

53:22

We should talk a little bit about the first half, because I

53:24

actually think Kenny did really well

53:26

that like, if you were going to be drawn up

53:29

a template for causing limbic

53:31

trouble, it was being able to

53:33

effectively have a short puck out, which

53:35

meant that you can then, you know, movie

53:39

move limbic around the place, they were hunting impacts,

53:41

they were absolutely voracious in

53:43

appetite and application. And a

53:46

lot of their players, most of their big players were

53:48

playing quite well, they get an own coding into the game early,

53:51

and he's having success.

53:52

And that was maybe slightly different from the previous

53:54

year that started. Well, they hadn't

53:57

allowed Gerod Hegarty to rampage through and score an

53:59

all time.

53:59

goal and I

54:02

thought some of the

54:05

passing that Limerick had in that first

54:07

half in particular, the radar was just slightly off, the touch

54:09

was slightly off, they looked a little bit flat,

54:12

almost lethargic and maybe it was to do with the

54:15

setup from Kilkenny, maybe it was to do with defending

54:18

the wind the way they had to and maybe it was just a little bit

54:20

of like, okay, let's wait

54:22

and see exactly what happens here. But in the midst of all

54:24

that, Kean Lynch's performance was

54:26

as good I think in the first half as it was in the second half and

54:28

that's why I would have made him out of the match, we're nitpicking

54:31

here. Me too, 100% agree. So

54:34

to

54:36

your point then about how Kilkenny made him

54:38

uncomfortable, it

54:41

really was the way Kilkenny set out their stall. You

54:44

could see a lot of the,

54:47

like Tommy, Tommy Watts referred

54:49

to the short pass and that Limerick do and

54:52

that sometimes as a traditionalist it's hard

54:54

to watch. I find it hard to watch at times, some

54:57

of the short pass they do around the middle, it

54:59

does open them up to turnovers and especially

55:01

on a rainy day and the elements

55:04

against them. Kilkenny's

55:07

presence, they funneled everything into the

55:09

middle third, Limerick didn't get a chance to

55:11

get a wide match at all and even

55:13

when they did, Tom Marcy and Kyle Hayes

55:15

linked up for a ball before Aaron Galan's

55:17

first point but they had to take three

55:21

collisions before they could even deliver a ball

55:23

to Galan and they did well. So

55:28

it was an exceptional

55:30

execution of going

55:33

after the midfield and

55:35

then half hour like now listen, if you're

55:38

going to do that against Limerick, you need to do that at the third

55:40

quarter. It's more important to do it the

55:42

second half than it is in the first half. As Galway showed

55:45

you, Kilkenny showed you,

55:48

it's playing against the breeze in the first half, but

55:50

it's just work, go and go. Unlike

55:54

the previous

55:55

two years where you would see fierce

55:57

movements in the Limerick half

55:59

very static. Really, I noticed

56:02

that. So Jeremy, Jeremy, David Reedy, Keene

56:04

Lynch, Tom R.C. and Garroa

56:06

Hagerty, they were standing under puckers

56:09

in the first half. And it's just it's just not gonna, you're not

56:11

gonna do that against quality teams. And

56:14

then Kilkenny's set up

56:16

for breaking ball, they won all the breaks, I would say in

56:18

the first half. So just they were hungry. They

56:20

were they were physical. And

56:23

they played really, really well. Tom Phelan, I thought was

56:25

exceptional.

56:26

Really, really, I was really nervous watching

56:29

his performance in the first half, particularly, he's

56:31

got a super point in the second half as well.

56:34

But

56:34

I suppose where Keene

56:37

gave us an anchor was his

56:40

ability to retain possession. Like

56:42

it's it's I don't know how I don't

56:44

know how you describe his ability to get the ball from

56:46

the ground into his hand in

56:48

traffic in a mess of situations. He's

56:51

just a magician. And he

56:53

did it yesterday at times crucial times

56:55

when we were really struggling to get a foothold. He

56:58

was there on the getting possession taken

57:00

tackles. He's the one man that for

57:02

Limerick particularly was able to kind of navigate

57:04

the mess. The point

57:06

he set up for Tom Marcy going into halftime where

57:09

he was able to

57:09

dance between five Kilkenny players

57:12

they'll get a hand pass over to Tom, Tom

57:14

got the score was three points down at halftime.

57:16

That was big. So you're only one score down at halftime

57:19

instead of in four points down, or even six,

57:22

as they were four minutes earlier. So, you

57:25

know, I do think he is critical. His

57:27

vision is next level. He gave the

57:29

Darragh Donovan scored a point in the second half to go three

57:31

points off for Limerick. And Keene couldn't

57:34

get a hand pass to hand. There was

57:36

just too many people around him. So he literally just flung

57:38

it back 10 yards behind

57:39

him to where he knew there was green shirts and

57:42

split to any players and then Darragh was able

57:44

to put it over. He in

57:47

Declan's absence, I thought his leadership was

57:50

huge. And it was necessary because

57:52

Kilkenny were really threatened to

57:55

stretch away in the first half. yourself

57:57

and Jeragree on Keene Lynch's man of the match. I think

57:59

the official man of the match last

58:02

night on telly. I think

58:04

the Sunday game panel opted for Kyle Hayes as

58:06

their herder of the year. Seamus, who would

58:09

your own pick for herder of the year be?

58:11

I think it's, I think, I

58:13

think it'd be very, I think very

58:15

hard to take it off aren't you know. I

58:17

listen, I love Kyle Hayes. I love

58:20

how he plays the game. I think he was again exceptional.

58:24

He's been a nominee for her year, I think twice

58:26

in the last in the last four years as well. But

58:29

when Limerick weren't playing great, Aaron

58:31

Galen from all

58:33

the way through the Monster Championship was exceptional.

58:37

Against Galway, he was exceptional.

58:39

I don't know

58:42

how you take it off of Aaron Galen

58:44

because he really was the, like,

58:47

in such a tight Monster Championship. If Aaron

58:49

doesn't play as well as he does, if he doesn't

58:51

score the goals he does, Limerick

58:55

don't make it out of that. So

58:57

from a full year's perspective, I

59:00

think Aaron, but when you look

59:02

at Kyle's performance yesterday, in closing

59:05

out his performance against Galway,

59:07

he's a special, special talent.

59:10

But if

59:12

it's a Limerick man at the end of the day, for me it's

59:15

a good decision. I'm

59:19

almost loathe to ask this final question to

59:21

you because everybody from Limerick was just

59:24

enjoying the moment. And it's

59:26

very important that

59:29

we do all slow down and take a breath. However,

59:32

the team is so good, it's impossible not to think

59:34

about the history and

59:36

where they could go and to just have

59:38

a little daydream about this might not stop

59:40

for a while. So what's

59:42

the ceiling? Are they chasing a

59:44

five? Are they chasing the dubs?

59:47

So there is no ceiling because the reality

59:50

is, Aaron Galen is 26. Kyle Hayes is 25. A

59:57

lot of the key figures in this Limerick team are

59:59

nowhere near 30.

59:59

So, you know,

1:00:02

the reality is that I'm

1:00:05

guilty of being nervous and

1:00:07

been slightly doubtful and been kind

1:00:09

of scared by Limerick history and it was nearly too good

1:00:12

to be true for so long and, you

1:00:14

know, anybody that asked me before the game yesterday,

1:00:16

I was nuts because,

1:00:19

you know, again, Monster had been come so hard

1:00:21

and because we were being brought back to the pack

1:00:23

in a lot of games and playing

1:00:25

to the level, I would say, of the opposition rather

1:00:27

than how we were capable of

1:00:29

and injuries, etc, etc. I didn't

1:00:32

know, I didn't see, I didn't believe

1:00:34

that that performance in the second half was possible against

1:00:36

the team as good as Kilkenny. So,

1:00:40

you know, when they produced what

1:00:42

they produced on Sunday, you know, it's hard to say

1:00:45

that, you know,

1:00:46

anybody's going to stop them until they're stopped. And

1:00:49

that's one of the, I suppose, the most honest

1:00:51

things I can say is until

1:00:53

they're beaten, they're the best. And

1:00:56

you know, for me,

1:00:57

the limit is

1:01:00

endless really until somebody gets it together,

1:01:02

whether it's Kilkenny or whether it's Claire or

1:01:05

it's Tipperary or Cork or Galway,

1:01:07

you know, someone has to take them down and

1:01:10

Limerick have shown that they're very, they're

1:01:13

very adaptive. So it's

1:01:16

really, it's good to dream Limerick. Yeah, exactly.

1:01:19

Enjoy the daydreams, but enjoy the reality too because the reality

1:01:21

is pretty awesome. Thanks,

1:01:24

thanks, shame mistake you there enjoying

1:01:27

every second of it. Off

1:01:30

the wall coming to the Cork Podcast Festival on

1:01:32

Sunday, the 27th of August in the Cork Opera

1:01:35

House, Jimmy Barry Murphy in the house,

1:01:37

plus a few other famous faces to be announced for tickets

1:01:39

go to Cork Podcast Festival.ie forward

1:01:42

slash off the ball. Speaking of Cork, Sarah

1:01:44

Dunlop joins the studio. Good morning, lads. How

1:01:47

are you? I'm devastated. It's all over.

1:01:50

I know. That's one side of it, isn't it? I

1:01:52

have club Kamooke training tonight. The club isn't the

1:01:54

same. You're not

1:01:56

buying it? Ah, look, I

1:01:59

absolutely loved every. of the last six months

1:02:01

it's been a roller coaster helped

1:02:04

by the fact that Limerick's season has been

1:02:06

so mistake-laden and

1:02:08

yet

1:02:09

they cruised to finish yesterday. Best to last.

1:02:11

Yeah. Like

1:02:14

they're obviously not such a croc park team because

1:02:16

they've gone everywhere but they're like they're an amazing

1:02:18

croc park team. What

1:02:22

they managed to do yesterday and what we looked for during

1:02:24

the week was Kilkenny you know

1:02:27

a performance a reaction. Yeah.

1:02:30

For we're gonna say 28 minutes 29

1:02:32

minutes yesterday Kilkenny had them on

1:02:34

the ropes and that's probably epitomized by Tom

1:02:37

Feelings performance against Deirwood Burns and

1:02:39

Tom Feelings every time you won the ball and every time you

1:02:42

know the ball goes over the barrier going he's

1:02:44

giving this fella serious hassle and then

1:02:46

it's Deirwood Burns tracks

1:02:48

him down like Terminator and

1:02:51

turns him over and then that starts the

1:02:53

resurgence.

1:02:53

Yeah. It was incredible. Yeah.

1:02:56

It was that quick turnover wasn't it? Those

1:02:58

three Kilkenny points as we mentioned earlier 25, 26, 27 minutes

1:03:01

I think they were like starting with the own Cody

1:03:04

run the unbelievable stick work and

1:03:07

ending with the the Brian Ash overcarrying the TJ

1:03:09

Reid free but then from then on.

1:03:10

Yeah I suppose what if you when

1:03:12

you panned out from the it was the Richie

1:03:14

Reid point and you see Tom

1:03:16

Marcy seven eighth

1:03:19

yards behind him and he's really struggling

1:03:21

to get anywhere near him and

1:03:23

you're going okay if Tom Marcy's struggling

1:03:26

here this means yeah Limerick are in big

1:03:28

big trouble and then

1:03:30

the Deirwood Burns

1:03:31

run dispossession

1:03:34

and then they start to motor. This is at the end of the first

1:03:36

half. Well this is the start

1:03:39

of the second half what I'm saying is that the performance

1:03:41

of Deirwood Burns in the first half you

1:03:44

know yes wasn't up to par

1:03:46

and then in the second half

1:03:47

it's all time great again it's all time great again the

1:03:49

thing is right because

1:03:52

like it felt like a Kenny were

1:03:55

much further ahead

1:03:57

on the field then on the scoreboard

1:03:59

at halftime

1:04:00

And it felt like the last couple of minutes of the

1:04:02

first half, Limerick started to be able to

1:04:04

do some bits and pieces that were like, oh no,

1:04:06

we're still Limerick, don't worry about

1:04:08

it. But Keigh and Lynch started to do some bits and pieces.

1:04:10

He had some support from, there was

1:04:12

a bit of Kyle Hayes, there was one of the points

1:04:14

there that Seamus Hickey was talking

1:04:16

about. At the end of the first

1:04:18

half, they got a couple of points to bring it back

1:04:21

from six to three, and it was

1:04:23

like, oh, it was just a little bit easy.

1:04:24

Yeah. And Ghislane, the

1:04:26

cuteness, the composure, Ghislane

1:04:28

in the first half, you could say he's chasing

1:04:31

earlier in the year. Owen Cody is

1:04:33

tearing up a storm at the other end of the pitch. There's

1:04:35

possibly a tendency when you're chasing earlier in the year to do

1:04:37

it on your own. And Ghislane pulls out,

1:04:39

goes, no, no, I'm not the option here.

1:04:41

Lynch is a pun and through, pops it up for him. Lynch

1:04:44

puts the ball over the bar. And it's that process

1:04:46

piece, process, process, process

1:04:48

that they stuck to. Everyone has referenced

1:04:50

it afterwards. And I know they're

1:04:53

playing down this four in a row and

1:04:55

that they weren't chasing it, but when

1:04:57

you're in the middle of a process and you're doing it for

1:04:59

the fourth year in a row, you have to believe that

1:05:01

what you're going to do is going to be unbelievable. Yeah.

1:05:04

And chasing four

1:05:04

in a row is unbelievable. Because it must get a bit boring

1:05:07

unless you spice it up somehow. And

1:05:09

now- There's the carrot. Yeah. Now

1:05:12

they're spicing it up with a bit of all-time history.

1:05:14

Chasing the dubs. It's a magical thing in five.

1:05:16

But here's the best part about the five is that actually they

1:05:18

can chase the dubs instead of chasing five in a row. Right?

1:05:21

They can't just ignore the five in a way and

1:05:23

still have something to go for as opposed to-

1:05:26

And that's what makes the process so

1:05:28

worthwhile as a group. But

1:05:31

you're looking for that same,

1:05:34

I suppose, energy to go into next year. You're

1:05:36

looking for the players to be fit

1:05:38

enough to do it. But it's

1:05:39

so difficult, isn't it? Because Monster is such a

1:05:41

dogfight. Like there's a possibility they don't get out of Monster

1:05:44

next year and we don't actually get to see them have the opportunity

1:05:46

to do the five in a row.

1:05:48

We say that. But they've found a way.

1:05:51

And in every game, a different crop

1:05:53

of pairs has stepped up. So in the Monster

1:05:55

Championship, I thought it was Tom Morrissey. It

1:05:57

was Dan Morrissey. In the Monster,

1:05:59

flying.

1:05:59

It was Galan, but it was David

1:06:02

Reedy in the last 10 minutes with Adam English and Kyle

1:06:04

O'Neill Semifinal against Galway

1:06:06

it was Galan and Darryl Dunavon. Yeah,

1:06:08

and then in the final different

1:06:10

players again, Diermaud Burns, Kyle

1:06:13

Hayes, Casey,

1:06:13

Keen Lynch Here's the thing

1:06:15

they haven't had Keen Lynch properly this season No,

1:06:18

and they probably will have them hopefully fingers crossed from a

1:06:21

Fitness perspective next season for the whole thing and maybe

1:06:23

that's the difference

1:06:23

his best game this season before

1:06:26

that was the league final where he gave

1:06:29

Galan every single ball

1:06:31

that it was pin perfect and

1:06:34

that was the league final which didn't matter in You know

1:06:36

in the grand scheme of things But that was the last time he I suppose

1:06:39

patched together as a kind of a near

1:06:41

perfect 60-70 minute performance So

1:06:44

for him to take that long

1:06:45

and then obviously to Pekin on the biggest day

1:06:48

another big story It is incredible like

1:06:50

it we're we're

1:06:52

not taking it for granted. I don't think but You

1:06:55

know him and Declan Hannon

1:06:56

direct roles reversed from last year the

1:06:59

two of them with trophy lifts and

1:07:02

it being so

1:07:05

Obviously sincere like

1:07:07

I don't do they have notes

1:07:09

it didn't look there was something in front of them I think might just been the

1:07:11

list of people but like down though Yeah, no,

1:07:14

it was just so like here. I'm gonna talk about

1:07:16

everything that's really important And

1:07:18

but if you're four years or five is it they're

1:07:20

actually six years in the setup right because they've won

1:07:22

five of six And you're meeting the same

1:07:25

guys coming in out the door at you for six years It's

1:07:27

very easy for them to flash in front of you

1:07:29

on the biggest stage So I think he did a brilliant job yesterday

1:07:31

Yeah And that's the sincerity that you're talking

1:07:33

about he's thinking about every single fellow tapped him on

1:07:35

the back for the last six years In every

1:07:38

training ground and every pitch that he's

1:07:40

been through

1:07:40

we're not a team or a family through

1:07:42

thick and thin and especially on the

1:07:44

good days Like

1:07:47

unfortunately this be just has to be so long so many different people

1:07:49

to thank now, but it was them it was

1:07:51

really special I thought and the the

1:07:54

celebrations that Kylie had with his family and Taking

1:07:56

the moment afterwards and then just gone completely mad.

1:07:59

I completely

1:07:59

Bananas! Great. Very

1:08:02

un-Jim Gavin-esque. Yeah. So if you want

1:08:04

to, what did you say, diversify in

1:08:06

terms of what the managers

1:08:08

do, Jim Gavin has a way and John Kylie

1:08:11

has a way.

1:08:11

Yeah. And

1:08:13

I thought John Kylie's way was Jim Gavin. Like

1:08:15

for the first couple of years, not quite on the same

1:08:17

level, but like, you know, he was quite

1:08:20

reserved in a celebration. A little bit more controllable

1:08:22

yesterday, he just went.

1:08:24

Yeah, off the chair. I was brilliant to see it. Yeah. They

1:08:26

obviously felt pressure because you think back to the start of the year when we were

1:08:28

earlier, there's a softener up going on.

1:08:31

And then it was

1:08:32

like, we're not getting enough credit. It's like, hang on. You

1:08:34

were telling us. So their narrative

1:08:36

had to change and their response to it had

1:08:39

to change. And they've managed to think their way through

1:08:41

all of the

1:08:42

challenges. At any point this year, what was the closest

1:08:44

they were to being in trouble? Was it Claire? Or

1:08:47

Claire, their true rivals at the moment? I'm

1:08:49

going to say Cork because they had

1:08:51

to win that game and they couldn't, I suppose,

1:08:54

worry about

1:08:55

Tip and Watford and what was happening on the other

1:08:58

side. And in the Cork game,

1:09:00

Cork asked lots of questions of them,

1:09:02

but for a couple of mistakes and obviously the

1:09:04

penalty that went against Cork, Damien

1:09:07

Cailland's, you know, freeze against him,

1:09:09

they got a bit of luck in the Cork game.

1:09:12

And Tip obviously were

1:09:15

undone by Watford on the other side. And that allowed

1:09:17

them to parachute into a monster final. And all

1:09:19

of the Limerick fans descend on the field going, oh my God,

1:09:22

the legacy is back on. We're going

1:09:24

for five in a row. That shift in 10 minutes

1:09:27

in that game in the Gaelic rounds was the turning

1:09:29

of their year. Yeah.

1:09:31

Those scenes

1:09:32

celebrating

1:09:33

the monster as well, the whole pitch is totally

1:09:36

full. Like that's the other thing about

1:09:38

the Limerick fans are just enjoying the moment.

1:09:41

And we're the ones who are talking about

1:09:43

the five and six. Do you know?

1:09:46

They're present. Yeah. But I, for all

1:09:48

of

1:09:48

a sudden, look, obviously, Seamus referenced it. You

1:09:50

know, he understands, you know, you'd like to see

1:09:52

change and he'd like to see something different. But if

1:09:54

they keep achieving these new things, then it makes it interesting

1:09:56

for us because there's such a jeopardy in

1:09:59

going for four.

1:09:59

for five, going for six. That's

1:10:02

where it gets exciting for the

1:10:04

pundit or the media talking about it.

1:10:05

The players there present too though. I

1:10:07

think Caroline Curred was mentioned at the end by Kean

1:10:10

Lynch, but clearly the players just like, I'm

1:10:12

a maternal figure, she'll be delighted. Yeah.

1:10:15

That's the least sexy thing

1:10:17

you could say about it. Sometimes. Yeah,

1:10:20

sometimes. But I'm sure her influence

1:10:22

in the team and the players mentioned her for a reason is significant.

1:10:25

Yeah. Obviously we don't have

1:10:27

an insight into how involved she

1:10:29

is, but inevitably she's very

1:10:32

important and that performance coach piece,

1:10:35

very few teams in Munster and there's been a lot of,

1:10:37

I suppose, jest about the different performance

1:10:39

coaches who've been brought into the different teams to

1:10:41

try and emulate her and

1:10:44

it hasn't worked.

1:10:45

No, I'm sure there's only one winner, right?

1:10:47

So, but like our track record is

1:10:49

pretty good. We had Emil Che on Friday and he was talking about

1:10:51

the backroom team that they had. Kean and he was

1:10:53

there strength and conditioning and Caroline

1:10:55

Curred was there to stop the five

1:10:58

in a row. So she's seen the

1:11:00

opposite sides of what the opponents

1:11:02

are going to be trying to do to Tipperary next year.

1:11:04

My current manager actually, or my current coach,

1:11:07

Mikidad in the club, she was with

1:11:09

Kagg Tool in 2011 when they won

1:11:11

their first County Championship completely against

1:11:13

their own play. And

1:11:16

he's got some great insights, which he promises

1:11:18

he's going to tell me about when I'm finished

1:11:20

with Dr. Vaughan. Yeah, fair. So

1:11:24

maybe tonight I'll try and get a bit out of him tonight. Shifty

1:11:27

Lad says, good morning, lads. Referee was great as well.

1:11:30

Yeah. So John Keenan of Ocrum in

1:11:32

Wicklow, 50 years of age,

1:11:35

final all Ireland season, 50 next year.

1:11:37

We're already aging them. Sorry, John.

1:11:39

It's very important. That's how you understand. It

1:11:42

means you can't referee the final next year because he will be 50 next

1:11:44

year. Yeah. And he didn't get

1:11:46

any big games after last year's Munster final,

1:11:49

which everybody says is like literally one of the greatest games

1:11:51

of all time. But he got punished for missing

1:11:53

a few calls. I don't even remember what he missed.

1:11:55

There was a bit of hacking there in the first half when... Right.

1:11:58

Slidging. Yeah.

1:11:59

But yesterday he

1:12:02

was incredibly passive,

1:12:04

which is what you want from a referee. We'll reference

1:12:07

the Waterford Tip game later in the Camogie and I thought Liz

1:12:09

Dempsey in that game did very well and I can be

1:12:12

quite critical of her in other games. So, referees

1:12:14

overall had a decent game this

1:12:16

weekend. He, I suppose,

1:12:19

Derek Link suggested he missed a couple

1:12:21

of calls. I don't

1:12:23

think that was enough. The lads

1:12:25

thought this was a 65 that was nailed on. Definitely

1:12:27

a 65. There was. It was a two point

1:12:29

swing. That's fine. That's the umpire's fault. That's

1:12:32

not John Keenan's fault necessarily. It's

1:12:34

not actually a full two point swing either though, right? Because

1:12:37

Kenny had the opportunity to defend from the puck out. It

1:12:39

wasn't like it was a free from the position and, you

1:12:42

know, like, so...

1:12:44

The only other thing that I still

1:12:46

can't cope with is the throwing. And there was a fair

1:12:48

bit of that yesterday. At one stage,

1:12:50

Jan is running alongside Kean Lynch and Kean

1:12:52

Lynch softly. Like, he's

1:12:54

just, it's not a threat. It's not a

1:12:56

head pass. And Jan's running alongside him and I'm

1:12:58

like...

1:12:59

Call him. Yeah. So that's

1:13:01

the only criticism I have of Jan from yesterday. But

1:13:04

I don't think it's going to impact

1:13:06

the game because I think Glimerick were always going

1:13:09

to do what they did and cruise to that final

1:13:10

whistle. Should they do

1:13:13

this on a case by case basis or is it a hard

1:13:15

cut off of 50 the correct

1:13:17

thing to do? Would

1:13:19

there be better being a fitness test that if you

1:13:21

hit this level of fitness, you can keep going? Famously,

1:13:25

the Maldini project at Milan,

1:13:27

they were like, oh, we can keep Paulo Maldini for

1:13:29

an extra year or we can sign a kid, spend

1:13:31

four years getting him up to a level and he's never going to be

1:13:34

as good as Maldini is because of the experience he has. And

1:13:36

then, once a rugby embrace this and try

1:13:38

to keep their players for as long as possible because you can see the

1:13:40

value of it. He now has the experience of refereeing

1:13:43

this all-out in final. Apparently, there's a good young

1:13:45

Glimerick referee as well who's not getting games because,

1:13:47

obviously, Glimerick are so good.

1:13:49

This is Johnny Murphy that you're referring to,

1:13:51

I think. Yeah. So what do you do if you're the G.A.

1:13:53

when you come up to a situation like this? Like, I

1:13:55

understand why you have these rules. There has to be

1:13:57

some point where

1:13:58

they've moved on everything. they've ever wanted

1:14:00

to move

1:14:01

on. They can move on this if they want and if John Keene

1:14:03

is fit enough next year there shouldn't be an issue here. They've

1:14:05

changed the penalty because of

1:14:07

Nash. They've changed the game in every

1:14:10

which way. So let's not get,

1:14:13

you

1:14:13

know. So you think it should be

1:14:15

a fitness criteria as opposed to an age based

1:14:17

criteria? There's nothing going to change between now

1:14:19

and next January with John Keene and he's not going to go on the

1:14:21

beer for the winter. He's

1:14:23

not going to come back to his don't have beer. I doubt he will

1:14:26

but let's be honest, he should get a window

1:14:28

if he wants to be there. So it's

1:14:31

unfair to obviously ask but how many of your Orleans are they

1:14:33

going to win? One

1:14:36

more. Right. Not

1:14:38

the six. It's

1:14:43

the bodies lads. That high

1:14:46

impact physical challenging game that they play.

1:14:48

The bodies are

1:14:50

starting to break down.

1:14:51

So you need what, 17

1:14:54

bodies to do that repeatedly for six,

1:14:56

seven games in a microwave championship

1:14:58

as John Keene says. Jack McCaffrey,

1:15:00

Paul Mannion, the players eventually just turn

1:15:03

around and say, right, I have so many on Ireland

1:15:05

I can't, I have nowhere to put them anymore. So like, do you

1:15:07

just take your year off and is

1:15:09

that going to impact this little team down the line?

1:15:11

That's the only way I can see them losing. Losing lads to

1:15:14

Australia or America or... No. Having

1:15:17

so much

1:15:19

in the line of victories that they don't need anymore.

1:15:21

They're from months of shame. We don't understand this

1:15:23

as well. The age profile is different though. Mannion

1:15:26

and McCaffrey were 21, 22. These guys have gaggles

1:15:29

of kids around them now. They're holding three

1:15:31

babies. They're stuck. They're

1:15:35

not heading to Australia or America, just shit.

1:15:37

Or maybe they're

1:15:40

staying home dads and they want a bit more time

1:15:42

with their family. They might have lads for the dad cast. You'd never know.

1:15:45

There was a lot of them. The

1:15:49

second half, what changes

1:15:51

from their

1:15:52

mixed perspective? What does Canirk do

1:15:55

at half time? Because

1:15:57

Kylie says the players diagnosed what we thought

1:15:59

the issues were.

1:15:59

were and then

1:16:02

it

1:16:02

sounds like at halftime there's a very calm

1:16:04

conversation. We're

1:16:07

happy enough with that because we haven't really done what we were trying

1:16:09

to do. What are the problems lads? And they tell what

1:16:11

the problems are and Canark and Kylie are like

1:16:13

yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Okay, go

1:16:15

on, go and fix it. Because they didn't make any significant

1:16:16

changes. Well the problems are what

1:16:18

we kind of spoke about at the start that Richie

1:16:21

Reed point where Tom Marcy can't get close

1:16:23

enough to him. So it's not that it's Tom Marcy's

1:16:25

fault, it's that he needs support. So it's

1:16:28

like an accordion effect. They start to

1:16:31

contract and like they're literally

1:16:33

moving in and out as a group, the half backline

1:16:35

and the half forward line, squeezing Kilkenny

1:16:38

to put the pressure on them so that the short puck out isn't

1:16:40

an option. Kilkenny panic, start

1:16:42

to lump the ball long and then Limerick

1:16:45

are like let's go, like let's

1:16:47

batter it. And if you saw actually

1:16:50

the Limerick midfield in a couple of stages, all

1:16:52

they had to do was bat the ball down and next thing, Garrold

1:16:54

Hagerty's running at it,

1:16:57

Lynch is running at it and they're coming back

1:16:59

and turning

1:17:00

towards the Kilkenny

1:17:02

goal. It's literally like an accordion. The

1:17:04

lads are just going in and out, take the ball and

1:17:06

let's go again. And that's how easy it

1:17:08

was for Limerick to squeeze Kilkenny.

1:17:11

And I think one of the other things probably is that

1:17:13

the short puck out starts to malfunction

1:17:15

a little bit for Kilkenny to start a second half and then

1:17:18

they just lose the confidence in it. So

1:17:20

that's gone, they're lumping ball and Limerick

1:17:23

are like thanks very much lads. It

1:17:27

looked like they still had the confidence, you remember at the Hugh

1:17:29

Lawler ball to TJ Reid where it's just like Raiser

1:17:31

and TJ comes through with the hand and then they're moving. But

1:17:34

all Limerick did was dial up the pressure and start

1:17:37

to squeeze them in and instead of having

1:17:39

one guy running at you, he had a guy running at

1:17:41

you from behind, from back and

1:17:44

at you at both sides. Yeah, it was terrifying. Absolutely

1:17:47

terrifying.

1:17:49

Are Claire the second best team in the country at the moment? Yeah.

1:17:51

Why can't they be Kilkenny? Because

1:17:54

of that first half, because of that horrendous decision to go

1:17:56

with the sweeper. Have we seen it from the best teams

1:17:58

this year? There was a few

1:18:01

bit of period in the first half when things

1:18:03

were going well for Cook County that they actually did have one. I

1:18:05

was like, oh, this is interesting. But then immediately

1:18:07

afterwards for the next puck, I played six forwards

1:18:09

on six backs. So obviously you

1:18:11

can do a bit of it in games. But

1:18:13

you can't do it to the extent that

1:18:15

Claire tried and to do it for

1:18:17

the period of time that

1:18:19

Claire did. So I think they look

1:18:21

back on the season and go that first

1:18:23

that decision to do that in the first half was their

1:18:25

undoing. It had to be.

1:18:27

And the difficulty is that right, like

1:18:30

for them, the long winter is recurveation

1:18:32

as opposed to self confidence. Like, oh, we were so

1:18:34

close, we were so close again. Whereas

1:18:37

for Limerick, it's feasting on

1:18:39

everybody else's deficiencies. So who

1:18:42

is getting closer?

1:18:43

Well, and a lot is being made of the

1:18:45

fact that Dermot Burns, you know, is so efficient

1:18:48

yesterday from Place Balls, right? I know it's

1:18:50

not a big deal, but it is a big deal

1:18:52

because if you look at Claire, real

1:18:54

malfunction when we thought at the start of the

1:18:56

year that Aidan McCarthy was the solution and

1:18:59

they just weren't efficient

1:19:01

enough.

1:19:02

You have the basics, which is get your free takers

1:19:04

right, get your midfield right. I

1:19:07

don't think any midfield has matched up. Bar

1:19:09

Claire

1:19:11

in the

1:19:13

first, say the championship game. Yeah, that

1:19:15

that was the one game where. Yeah, yeah,

1:19:17

yeah. Like

1:19:20

Mullens and you didn't go well yesterday.

1:19:22

Obviously, Connor Fogarty had to go wing back because of

1:19:24

the injuries of David Blanchfield. Cork's

1:19:27

midfield.

1:19:28

I don't think it's a match for Darrow

1:19:30

Donovan and Willow Dunahue or Darrow

1:19:33

Donovan, Kean Lynch, you know, the combinations

1:19:35

that have been there. I think you need

1:19:37

your your midfield first and foremost and

1:19:39

a

1:19:40

full back. Like we've had big issues

1:19:42

with different teams. Cork don't have a full back.

1:19:46

They've given Callan, but I don't think he's the ultimate

1:19:48

full back right. I think he's been put

1:19:51

under pressure on different occasions. From

1:19:53

Claire's point of view, they lost Connor Cleary for two games

1:19:56

and they really struggled to fill that role. Dan Morrissey

1:19:58

for Limerick has been.

1:19:59

pitch perfect. So you need a full back,

1:20:02

you need a decent midfield, you need a

1:20:05

razor sharp free taker

1:20:07

and then you can go to Limerick and say, yeah,

1:20:11

absolutely.

1:20:11

It's a long shopping list. Yeah, big

1:20:13

time. And Keir Lynch, we were saying earlier, obviously stepped

1:20:16

up in the first half when those around him were maybe faltering

1:20:18

a little bit. Darryl Dunavon in the second half was

1:20:20

one of those players that stepped up massively as well. I've

1:20:23

been asked, obviously Seamus asked his

1:20:25

her of the year is Ghislaine being the

1:20:28

presumed bookies favourite, but for you who gets

1:20:30

the nod? Since I

1:20:33

suppose the stretch of the league,

1:20:35

I was so delighted when he came back. I think I was very

1:20:37

sad when he was out in the cold

1:20:39

playing soccer with that random team from Limerick. What were

1:20:42

they called again? I

1:20:44

can't remember. Craig FC or something, I don't know

1:20:46

or something. Anyway,

1:20:48

it's not. And actually we were chatting to

1:20:50

Adam Screening on Friday night. What

1:20:53

a cool kid. So burnt

1:20:55

the year off asking him what he thinks of Ghislaine

1:20:58

because obviously they're playing in the same

1:21:00

role and Ghislaine

1:21:01

has changed that corner forward role and

1:21:03

made that role really sexy because of

1:21:06

the way he manages

1:21:08

the game, manages the, I

1:21:10

suppose his runs, how exciting he makes

1:21:13

it. It's a case study in

1:21:17

management and we haven't seen that with a corner forward

1:21:19

in so, so long. Even tagging forward, he was saying,

1:21:21

look, you have to recognise that this lad is doing

1:21:23

something different inside there. He's

1:21:25

made the role his own and he's made the role his

1:21:27

own this year in 2023 and that's

1:21:29

why I think he's harder of the year.

1:21:31

There was a point, I think at

1:21:33

the start of the second half where the movement

1:21:35

of his feet was like a wide receiver,

1:21:38

just like catching a ball with

1:21:40

no space, but there's suddenly space because he's just

1:21:42

shimmy the hips, and the feet move and

1:21:44

it's against like an incredible

1:21:46

defender.

1:21:47

But he's making four runs and then on the fifth

1:21:49

he moves. So like he's literally, and

1:21:52

that's what we were saying with Adam was like literally,

1:21:55

it's the four, you're exhausted and you

1:21:57

still have to have the energy for the fifth run to actually win.

1:21:59

the ball. Yeah, otherwise he's just happened and

1:22:02

he's just happened it over and it looks effortless to him but it's

1:22:04

been set up. It's the

1:22:04

four runs previous to that so that's why he's

1:22:07

my hurler of the year.

1:22:07

So there's an incredible story brewing in the Kamoge

1:22:10

where Waterford had reached the Ireland final and

1:22:12

I was making the point a little bit earlier on the

1:22:14

opportunity was there for Kamoge to separate

1:22:16

themselves from the same

1:22:19

rotation of games as the hurling and

1:22:22

it

1:22:22

was like all of August and we

1:22:24

could have had an Ireland final, an Ireland hurling

1:22:27

final on the first Sunday in September. It would have been amazing and

1:22:29

we would be talking about that in loads of detail and

1:22:31

getting to know these Waterford players and getting to

1:22:33

see any of the controversies in the game against

1:22:35

TIP but instead it's swallowed by

1:22:38

the all-time great Limerick team

1:22:40

and so

1:22:41

I feel like that decision was a bad decision in the

1:22:43

first place. I'm not

1:22:45

quite sure why the Kamoge and the LGFA feel

1:22:48

like they need to tack on to

1:22:50

be on the same thing that's going to happen with their

1:22:52

women's football next weekend.

1:22:54

What's your instinct about this?

1:22:57

That August window was the window they should have looked at.

1:22:59

It's a real sweet point because obviously September-October

1:23:02

the club season

1:23:04

becomes players go back to college, players go back

1:23:06

to school, you're

1:23:08

competing with the men's club season in terms of pitches

1:23:10

and I appreciate all of that but that August window, that

1:23:12

sweet spot, that's still there. We don't have championship

1:23:14

until the 21st of August in the club so

1:23:17

even there's two more weeks there. I think the

1:23:19

Kamoge final is on the 6th of August. Even

1:23:22

if you'd pushed it out three weeks the final

1:23:24

there's still only two teams involved. The

1:23:26

rest of the country can slog

1:23:29

away. Moving it back

1:23:31

three or four weeks wouldn't

1:23:33

kill the game but it

1:23:34

would give us a window to breathe and then

1:23:38

brilliantly though on Saturday

1:23:40

we were in Nolan Park, seven and a half thousand

1:23:42

people in Nolan Park Saturday. Claire,

1:23:44

the noise, the colour. Sorry not

1:23:46

Claire, Waterford. Waterford, the noise, the

1:23:50

colour. They, oh my god, they

1:23:53

started chanting after Marie Power's

1:23:55

goal and they never stopped.

1:23:57

That Waterford team is a real...

1:23:59

success story in the Camogie because in 2020

1:24:02

they were relegated. We actually

1:24:05

relegated them. I was with Dublin that year

1:24:07

and it was a last-second free from

1:24:09

Dublin player Eamonn Flanagan and I was going, God, this is gonna be

1:24:11

really tough on Waterford. They're gonna go down to Division

1:24:14

1B, we might not see the group again. Three

1:24:17

years later, they're in an All-Ireland final

1:24:19

and I was at a wedding on Saturday night

1:24:21

with the Dublin girls and we were saying how sickened

1:24:24

we all were that Waterford had managed to do

1:24:26

this in three years and Dublin just survived relegation.

1:24:29

That is the swings and roundabouts

1:24:30

in teams. But like

1:24:32

we should be doing 25 minutes on that this morning, I think. And

1:24:35

there is enough room in that and the quality

1:24:37

in it was exceptional. There's a

1:24:40

score from Beth Carton that is

1:24:43

all Lorraine Bray and if you get a chance to

1:24:46

see it over the week, go back and watch it because

1:24:48

she comes out of nowhere in the middle of midfield. She

1:24:51

flicks the ball off of the tip

1:24:53

player and she goes, she's

1:24:56

so direct and actually she'll be a real, I

1:24:58

suppose, star in that final when

1:25:01

she gets in space because Croke

1:25:03

Park is really going to suit Waterford. And

1:25:05

they played Cork last year in the semi-final, did

1:25:08

incredibly well

1:25:09

in the game and then, I suppose, Aisling Thompson

1:25:12

comes in and powerhouse

1:25:15

performance to overturn Waterford.

1:25:17

So,

1:25:19

big opportunity for Waterford in this final. All right,

1:25:21

Sarah, we'll leave it there. Good stuff. Thanks a million for joining us. Cheers.

1:25:24

It's 8.55 this morning.

1:25:27

You're watching OTB AM. Glad

1:25:29

to have you with us this morning. You can get us on youtube.com forward

1:25:31

slash off the ball or you can always text us 087 9180

1:25:35

180. I'm delighted to say Sarah Rowe is with us now. Sarah,

1:25:38

good morning to you all the way from Australia. How are you?

1:25:40

Morning. How are you? You're

1:25:43

playing Aussie Rules again, is that correct? Is that where you are

1:25:45

at the moment? Yeah,

1:25:47

back in Melbourne the last three

1:25:49

weeks now, back into pre-season. How's

1:25:53

that going? Yeah,

1:25:55

good. It's obviously, I've

1:25:57

been transitioning sports over the last year.

1:26:00

So I haven't gone back to soccer for six months

1:26:02

and going back into AFL again, you

1:26:05

know, there's always a transition phase with

1:26:07

that. But yeah, I had a great time

1:26:10

just going back to a sport that I love, a sport that

1:26:12

I grew up playing. And now I suppose I

1:26:14

was always in contract with Collingwood. So I'm back

1:26:16

into the business end of things. It's

1:26:19

our training loan has increased a lot and

1:26:21

the expectations of players over the

1:26:24

coming season is far

1:26:26

more than it has been any other seasons we now

1:26:28

train during the day. And then we do

1:26:30

two night sessions where it used to be all night

1:26:32

sessions. So like a few things have changed and

1:26:34

the expectations is definitely higher. So it's been,

1:26:37

yeah, it's been a tough three weeks going straight back in,

1:26:39

but yeah, enjoying the system

1:26:41

and just being back in a professional

1:26:43

environment. I think I remember hearing

1:26:45

you say before, Sarah, that you have to train your mind

1:26:47

a certain way to play these different

1:26:49

sports. And each time, I guess, when you're going back and forth

1:26:51

between different sports, is it tough or do you manage

1:26:53

to, is it almost like a light switch?

1:26:57

It depends how long you're hiding the game. Like

1:26:59

obviously with me being out from soccer for eight

1:27:02

years, like that was a real challenge. Like

1:27:04

in, you know, the first few weeks were

1:27:06

very difficult because you have an expectation

1:27:10

of yourself where you think you should be at in the

1:27:12

standard you hold yourself to. But like, really,

1:27:14

that was a version of you eight years ago. So

1:27:16

it's like, you know, being a nurse, being a teacher

1:27:18

or whatever, if you don't practice it, you

1:27:20

lose it. So for me, I felt like I

1:27:22

had to relearn a lot of things, like even the language

1:27:25

around the game, like the tactical aspects,

1:27:27

the technical aspect, and then obviously

1:27:30

the physical side, your touch. All

1:27:32

that stuff. So it really felt like I was learning something

1:27:34

again. But

1:27:36

Melbourne Victory was such a big help to me in

1:27:38

that because it was, you know, directly from Collingwood

1:27:41

into another professional environment. So

1:27:43

I was exposed to, you know, such great

1:27:45

education and great coaches. And

1:27:47

then obviously transitioning

1:27:49

them back to both was great because I needed as much

1:27:52

ease as possible to, you

1:27:55

know, get up to standard as quick as possible.

1:27:57

But then go back to family.

1:27:59

out this time around because I've only

1:28:02

been away from the game for six months, it doesn't feel

1:28:04

like as much of a transition. It's

1:28:06

just more so the strength side of the game. You

1:28:09

just need to adapt your body again and probably

1:28:11

put on a kg or two and then go

1:28:14

again. So it doesn't feel as hard coming

1:28:16

back this way. It felt a lot harder going back

1:28:18

to soccer.

1:28:19

Fitness wise, soccer, Aussie

1:28:21

rules, Gaelic football, how do they rank?

1:28:25

Yeah, they're very similar in ways

1:28:28

and

1:28:29

going across the three sports, you can,

1:28:31

I feel like

1:28:32

I can compete in every game

1:28:35

with the level of fitness that I have from say

1:28:38

AFL, transitions across the soccer and soccer

1:28:40

transitions across to Gaelic. But

1:28:42

there's small differences in terms

1:28:44

of like what we do with soccer. So you

1:28:47

might lift weights like twice a week in AFL,

1:28:49

you'll do three to four and

1:28:51

our runs are a lot longer.

1:28:54

It's a very powerful explosive game. So like

1:28:56

there is like differences and you definitely, I

1:28:59

think like our strength condition coach is like

1:29:01

to me, he's like, I'll get you back to where you need to be in four

1:29:03

weeks. And it's not a massive jump,

1:29:05

but there is a transition phase where

1:29:07

he's like, I need you to be this, this, this. So

1:29:10

we adapt and change my training from soccer

1:29:13

to AFL. So yeah, there's a bit

1:29:15

of a process with it, but it's not massive.

1:29:18

Like it does, there's a huge gaps.

1:29:20

Do you have the same GPS stats? Can

1:29:22

you compare and contrast like the number of sprints

1:29:25

you do in a AFL game versus

1:29:27

soccer versus a G.A.?

1:29:30

Yeah, like you would. It

1:29:33

is interesting to look at that side of things because like in

1:29:35

a soccer game, you might do say 11, 12K,

1:29:39

14K, including your warm up and

1:29:41

high intensity running would be anywhere

1:29:43

between like 500 meters to kind of 800 meters. But

1:29:47

then AFL, obviously the game is shorter

1:29:50

and you're rotating on and off, but you would

1:29:52

maybe do between nine and 10K. And

1:29:55

then your high intensity runner would be about

1:29:58

a kilometer, 1.2

1:29:58

kilometers.

1:29:59

So the high intensity running

1:30:02

seems to be a bit more in AFL than

1:30:04

it is in soccer. Obviously soccer is a lot more,

1:30:06

there's a lot of change in direction and short

1:30:09

steps. So that's

1:30:12

what I mean by there's just been really small

1:30:14

details, but when you know your

1:30:16

body so well, you go into

1:30:18

those environments and you know exactly what you need

1:30:21

to do. Like that when

1:30:23

I went from AFL to soccer, I was like, I

1:30:25

feel a bit heavy, I don't feel that light in my feet.

1:30:28

I need to get my short steps better,

1:30:30

I need to do more agility work

1:30:32

and I need to go into a power phase and

1:30:35

less of the strength phase. So yeah,

1:30:38

it does just take a small bit of time.

1:30:41

What's the World

1:30:43

Cup like in Australia? Because obviously you

1:30:46

know this Ireland team so well and you've kind of been

1:30:48

in Australia on and off over the last couple of years. How

1:30:51

big an event is it? Are you seeing it every day

1:30:53

or has it actually captured

1:30:55

the public's imagination just yet do you think? Yeah,

1:30:58

well I was up in Sydney last Wednesday

1:31:01

and I just stoked off the atmosphere

1:31:03

of all the Irish fans and it was just incredible

1:31:05

to see those green jerseys walking around

1:31:08

everywhere. It was just like

1:31:10

really and truly Irish fans are the

1:31:12

best fans in the world and just they go above and beyond.

1:31:15

So that was really cool to see and

1:31:17

then in Melbourne there's a

1:31:19

lot of stuff around the World Cup, like a lot of

1:31:22

the rugby teams,

1:31:24

soccer teams at Melbourne Victory, they've been kicked

1:31:26

out of their facilities because FIFA are

1:31:28

in with teams training in their facilities.

1:31:31

We have to park somewhere else for training because

1:31:33

you know the World Cup is taking place

1:31:36

at the moment.

1:31:36

So yeah, there's things like

1:31:38

that happening. There is an atmosphere around Richmond

1:31:40

area which is I suppose the centre of

1:31:42

sport in Melbourne. So you can really

1:31:45

feel it and you can see it never has talked

1:31:47

about the games. It's just so good

1:31:49

to see the way women and

1:31:51

sport of

1:31:52

the profile of it all has grown

1:31:54

so much. People are asking you, are you

1:31:56

watching the game tonight? You know that

1:31:58

they're talking about the women's game.

1:31:59

like you're not normally when someone asks

1:32:02

are you watching the game tonight it's generally

1:32:04

a men's game so

1:32:05

I think it's yeah

1:32:07

incredible to see. The Irish performance

1:32:09

Sarah in that opening game I guess pure

1:32:11

disappointment that they couldn't nick a goal at the end

1:32:14

and take something from the game but still

1:32:16

I guess it leaves us in a reasonable position

1:32:18

we think now we can potentially push the Canadians

1:32:20

get a result there. So it

1:32:23

was disappointing from a result perspective but performance wasn't

1:32:25

bad.

1:32:26

Yeah I thought the performance was really good I thought

1:32:29

the girls did really well and I think they

1:32:31

made it really hard for the Matildas

1:32:33

to play the style of football that they wanted to play.

1:32:36

I think they were very well organized and set

1:32:38

up and I think they were very unlucky

1:32:40

unfortunate to concede a penalty obviously

1:32:43

and you would have liked to have the ideal result

1:32:45

out of that game would have been a draw

1:32:48

and so yeah it's disappointing

1:32:50

in that way but I think the girls can hold their

1:32:52

heads up high and yeah

1:32:54

Canada is a massive game on Wednesday and

1:32:56

they really did a big performance. Were

1:32:58

you disappointed not to have made

1:33:01

the final I guess squad standby list

1:33:04

how close do you think you'd pushed it?

1:33:07

Yeah I think time was

1:33:09

a big factor for me as well

1:33:12

I think

1:33:12

getting back into

1:33:13

soccer was just like it was just so

1:33:15

enjoyable for me to go back

1:33:17

to it like I

1:33:18

had this itch to

1:33:20

go back for so long and well I

1:33:22

was on standby so

1:33:25

I was in a home base training

1:33:27

camp

1:33:28

just before the squad was announced

1:33:30

so I felt like I just ran out of a small bit of time

1:33:32

I think I needed a couple of more weeks to play

1:33:35

a few more games and then

1:33:38

get into a few more

1:33:39

squad training sessions I think I would have

1:33:41

probably a bit more of a chance then but no

1:33:43

it wasn't disappointed was loved

1:33:45

the process of soccer and

1:33:47

loved

1:33:49

going back to it in the first place so I

1:33:51

was and also the girls like

1:33:53

so many of the girls have worked so hard to get to where

1:33:55

they are like it's you know the squad that got picked

1:33:57

was a great squad and just so I was like I'm going to do it and I'm going to do it.

1:33:59

see girls like Megan Campbell,

1:34:02

you see the anchor and these girls

1:34:04

being left out of the squad

1:34:05

and Jamie Finn even

1:34:08

not being selected in the actual squad. So it's like

1:34:10

very disappointed for those girls. Whereas

1:34:13

for me, it was just a process of going back

1:34:15

to football

1:34:16

and to see where it would take me

1:34:19

and knowing that I was close and

1:34:22

was good just to know that I

1:34:24

could be in or out of the squad.

1:34:25

But yeah,

1:34:27

I was delighted for the girls who got selected. How do

1:34:29

you think we're going to do in the next two games?

1:34:34

I think, again, I think Ireland

1:34:36

make it really hard for teams to play because

1:34:39

they work really hard and they

1:34:41

just that never say I am to you that Irish

1:34:43

people have. And it's just something

1:34:46

that

1:34:47

you either have it, and I think we have

1:34:49

it in our blood, or you

1:34:51

don't. And I think that's what really gets

1:34:54

us across the line in big games. So I think

1:34:56

I'd love to see Amber Barrett come on. I'd love to see a

1:34:58

few other girls come on and get games around like Chloe

1:35:01

Mustaphi and maybe mix it up

1:35:03

as well.

1:35:05

But I think, yeah,

1:35:06

it's anyone's game. Obviously, like

1:35:08

in a world cup, anything can happen. I think

1:35:10

I'd like to see them beat Nigeria. I'd like to see

1:35:12

them get some sort of result out of Canada, either

1:35:15

draw or sneak a 1-0 win. But that's kind

1:35:17

of where I see it.

1:35:19

And when's your first game? When does

1:35:21

the season restart? Season

1:35:23

doesn't start until September. So we've

1:35:26

another five weeks of preseason and

1:35:28

left. Is that five weeks of misery?

1:35:32

Five weeks of misery. The first block

1:35:34

is like a strength block. The last three weeks

1:35:36

have been the hardest three weeks of

1:35:38

training I'd say I've ever

1:35:40

done, which is, yeah,

1:35:43

saying a lot. But it's been great.

1:35:45

That's what you want. You want to

1:35:47

be uncomfortable the whole way through. And then we're kind

1:35:49

of going into a bit more of a deload

1:35:52

week this week. And then we'll wrap it up

1:35:54

again for like three weeks, three

1:35:56

games, and then

1:35:57

we're into games. So yeah, it just flies.

1:35:59

We're over the worst block, but

1:36:02

it's still obviously everyone's competing for places

1:36:04

now. So it's never like

1:36:06

you can ever relax. All right. Did I

1:36:08

see you were training with Andrew Oma Abamadele

1:36:11

recently, Sarah, as part of the police season?

1:36:14

Yeah, I was. I was training

1:36:16

over in Portugal for a few days. And

1:36:18

there was a camp called the Radcliffe

1:36:20

Group, and there was a load of

1:36:23

soccer players filtering in

1:36:25

and out of the campus

1:36:27

gym. So

1:36:28

I just happened to be training there, and I got to talk

1:36:30

to a few coaches, and they were asking

1:36:32

what sport I played. And then they just said, do you want

1:36:34

to join in for a couple of sessions?

1:36:37

So joined in, it was great. It's always great to train

1:36:39

with boys, I feel like. It's

1:36:42