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the ball

0:32

Welcome back

0:33

to the OTB football podcast stream where we hear the voices of the background

0:41

waffling away. We're joined by our producer extraordinaire Colm

0:43

Bowie. Good morning Colm. How are you saying that

0:45

right now? And what a treat this is. Wow wow wow. What

0:48

a treat this is. Co-host, chair this morning,

0:50

the wonderful Sarah O'Donoghue. Good morning Sarah. Good

0:52

morning lads. Welcome.

0:54

Wow. I'm a little bit disappointed

0:57

lads. No warning, no hair, no

0:59

makeup. Where's the budget?

1:01

Yeah. We don't. I

1:03

would love you to do a camera appeal to the company

1:05

to do hair and makeup. It would be fantastic. I

1:07

don't know how well you would look. Can you imagine how much it would elevate

1:10

us to the next level? I mean this is how you're going to look

1:12

without the hair and makeup. No, this is sans makeup

1:14

like. Can you imagine with makeup?

1:16

A 5.30 start deserves some powder. It

1:18

deserves some help on the

1:20

way. It's unnatural for us. I

1:23

was up at half four this morning.

1:26

You're a lunatic like. Your love of

1:28

Mannequin knows no bounds. The guy, he drives from Mannequin

1:30

on Monday morning. Sometimes. Not

1:33

every week. Yesterday the minor finals. Most people go

1:35

down the night before like. But he's like just squeeze every

1:37

last drop of Mannequin juice. Just

1:40

pour it into my soul basically.

1:42

The more Mannequin I can get into my body on a Sunday. It's a

1:44

risky game. Like anything could happen with your car. Anything

1:46

could happen with you. It has happened with my car before

1:48

as you well know. I just

1:50

said, Stephen

1:51

could actually jump in there so there's no fear. I

1:55

think all dulcet tones could actually jump in. It's

1:57

fine. Replace the Monaghan once. That's

1:59

true. I have a question for you

2:01

if you don't mind. Oh, fire head. How

2:03

did your bleep test go on Friday? Ah. Get

2:05

a bleep test.

2:06

Pretty good compared to an average. So

2:09

like 12.5. That's

2:10

good. Which is good. It's

2:12

good at the start of the season, I think. So

2:14

for context Shane had the start of

2:16

his pre-season training with his beloved football club and his

2:18

team captain. So his attendance

2:21

was crucial, it was imperative because Shane

2:23

did have a social engagement booked for Friday

2:25

afternoon and he had to cancel as a result of his bleep test.

2:28

Yeah.

2:29

A bleep test is the thing that sends

2:31

fear into every single

2:33

person who's ever played sport. Oh

2:35

yeah. Solid.

2:38

Solid outing. For the start of a season. Now

2:40

it's not an Owen Cody 1.5 in Croke Park

2:42

style effort. No, no, no, no. Because as team

2:45

captain that's the kind of effort that you need to put

2:46

in. Yeah. I know. You

2:49

can set the standards. But Owen Cody's at the peak of his season. I'm just, you

2:51

know, pre-season job here. This is like, I get there. I'd

2:53

like to think in four weeks if I did another bleep test I'd be. Sixteen.

2:57

Much approved. We'll see. How

2:59

are you a bleep test?

3:00

Horrendous. Back of the pack. Did

3:02

one with David Herrity in 2017

3:05

and I was so bad that I knew that I was

3:07

never going to see time game time and it was

3:09

deserved. It was deserved. I'd say he went,

3:11

oh sweet mother of divine.

3:13

It's the noise at the start of the bleep test. You

3:15

know, the few beeps that it does to warn you that it's about to start

3:17

and then it's like deep. And then everyone, everyone's

3:19

laughing and joking. They're jogging back and forth.

3:21

It's like, oh, it's easy. But there's some people who start

3:23

jogging pretty fast at the start. You're like, it's

3:25

stupid. You're an idiot. But it's

3:28

done on a basketball court. So it's not,

3:29

it's not even game relevant.

3:32

We used to do a pee in school. How sick is that? I

3:34

know we did as well. Yeah, yeah. Sick

3:36

like every so often. It's like, why are we doing

3:38

this? It's sadistic. It was very

3:41

sadistic and fastest in the wrong syllable.

3:43

I love it.

3:43

Do I not remember Bernard Brogan doing

3:46

one on the Late Late? Did he? Yeah.

3:49

I don't think he's broken actually. That's the worst part of all day. Did

3:51

one on the Late Late. Jesus. That

3:53

is an emergency. I think live coverage. That's

3:56

9.25pm. We have

3:58

cancelled digital out and did something.

3:59

Look, we'll get into the hernia

4:02

kamowi because Sarah, you are all over Crow Park all

4:04

over the weekend. However, you sent me

4:06

a text last night and I lolled.

4:08

You don't loll much from a text. You don't

4:10

actually say loll much in your early 30s. When you actually

4:12

loll. You had

4:14

some great company beside you at Crow Park

4:16

yesterday.

4:17

So two random Americans parachuted

4:20

in just as the ball

4:22

was thrown in for Claire and Kilkenny

4:25

and they gave me life.

4:27

They gave me life. There were two young lads from Kildare

4:29

next to me and the three of us

4:32

had the best 75 minutes of

4:35

hurling.

4:37

It's hard to explain. The

4:39

two American lads were so enamored by the

4:41

sport. One was going

4:43

for the cats and the other guy was

4:45

going for banner. Go banner. Go

4:48

banner. No, the banner was just banner. They

4:50

wanted to know what the, what

4:53

mascots were in place and if these

4:56

were the Claire Eagles and

4:58

I said no, we have no mascots

5:00

in place. Big on penalties. They

5:03

were like, when is, how do you get a penalty?

5:05

They

5:05

must have watched Madden game there. And

5:07

defensive. That was a really good defensive

5:10

display. Yeah. Wow,

5:12

that's Kilkenny offense today man. Offense,

5:16

defense. Cody. Yeah.

5:18

Cody. Bro, Cody. And

5:21

there was a collision at one point. What was the description?

5:23

Richie, so actually Dear Madryon

5:26

on Richie Reads. Oh yeah. The two

5:28

lads nearly came out over the seat and they were like, God,

5:30

he really

5:30

trucked him. That's a freaking truck.

5:33

Yeah. Yeah. They

5:35

were brilliant. So

5:37

they're actually going to watch the final

5:39

from the US in two weeks time. I

5:42

gave them the Gaggle link. I spelled it out for them.

5:44

I was like, go. Okay. You'll

5:46

have full access. You know,

5:49

and they were like, 50 bucks. I was like, yeah, 50 bucks

5:52

for the ticket lads. They wanted to know why we weren't professional.

5:55

Oh yeah. They wanted to bring it stateside.

5:57

Should have got them on the shoulders there. There

5:59

were a lot of questions. answered there I'd imagine over

6:01

70-75 minutes. And you know the worst part

6:03

is they got absolutely cleaned so they obviously had

6:06

a bet on you know they both picked a team. They

6:09

were against each other they both had bought the

6:12

hats, scarves and headbands out the front and they reckoned

6:14

they got cleaned out by the lad

6:15

at the top of the road. Oh I would say they definitely

6:17

did. He saw them coming a mile away.

6:20

For their strings. A mile away. What part of America

6:22

were they from? You

6:23

know? Good question. Shout out to

6:25

them regardless. I hope they're listening. By

6:29

the way if you ever get the time to

6:32

write and everyone out there listening, the

6:35

WAM documentary on Netflix

6:37

is sensational. I saw it popped up on me the other day. I'm on Black

6:39

Mirror the minute. You can

6:42

drop Black Mirror. It's only cost you an hour and

6:44

a half of your time and you'll be happy you spent

6:46

it. What's so good about it?

6:48

Tell it to me. George Michael's a genius like an actual

6:50

genius, a writing genius

6:52

and the two of them like and they just took on the world

6:54

and they were just school buddies. So George Michael

6:56

joined he joined the school at

6:59

like a age 11, 12. Who's the other one in

7:01

WAM? Andrew Ridgeley

7:04

I think is it? Oh my god his name escapes

7:06

me now just as I literally watched documentary

7:08

because he's gone missing. Must have been a good documentary if you can't remember

7:10

his name. That doesn't matter though it's not about the people. It's Andrew

7:13

Ridgeley I should have backed myself there. He

7:15

was in school and he was like the cool kid, papa kid.

7:17

George Michael came in and he was like real awkward

7:20

when he was young for it. He wasn't like what he became.

7:22

And then the teacher was

7:24

like this is George Michael and his real name.

7:26

Who's going to look after him?

7:28

I look after him. And

7:30

they ended up creating WAM together.

7:32

I mean that's not on the label. So basically I didn't realize

7:34

this like they were just kind of taking the mic of the whole

7:36

time with WAM but like George

7:39

was just an incredible songwriter. So

7:42

Andrew was the more popular one and the kind of more charismatic

7:44

one at the start. Then George writing all the songs

7:46

and then he just ended up being this incredible

7:49

songwriter to the point where Ridgey took a

7:51

back step

7:52

and Careless Whisper was

7:55

released as a single by George Michael not WAM

7:57

even though he was sitting in WAM. But Andrew Ridgeley

8:00

like you'd almost be well enough with

8:02

pride. There were such good friends and Ridge was like

8:04

you should go for it. You should do your solo. You should do

8:06

your solo career. And he ran off into the sunset.

8:09

Never ready to be seen again. You went so corked

8:11

there. Never ready to be seen again. You were

8:14

not in the sunset. Never. Never. Never really be seen again.

8:16

Perfect. Never ready to be seen again. Whoa.

8:19

Multimillionaire surfing in Cornwall.

8:21

Right. What a man like. And doesn't really do media.

8:24

If we get them on the show too, you have to be there. Be amazing.

8:26

Doesn't really do much. And

8:29

you just. Was it an interesting sport? Hadn't

8:31

made that might be fair enough.

8:33

No, it would be good I'd say. Oh tennis. He

8:35

likes tennis, doesn't he? Who? Andrew Ridgeley. No, I thought

8:37

you'd talk with Joe to Michael. Sorry. I know he's there. Yeah, I know, but

8:39

he liked tennis. Sorry, past tense. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's what

8:41

he used to be saying in the Royal box, wasn't he? I think so,

8:43

yeah.

8:44

Where did you get the time? It

8:46

was only an hour and a half Saturday night. I

8:49

wouldn't even have that time. Oh no, I did watch a couple episodes

8:51

of Black Mirror which were similar length. Yeah, same thing.

8:55

But anyway, I have my 2023 playlist

8:57

on Spotify

8:58

and I update songs that go and I have three wham

9:00

songs that are on there. Because of Saturday Night documentary.

9:05

Honestly though, Steven Doyle put it on to me and

9:07

I was on Steven Doyle afterwards as I was like, thank

9:09

you. Maybe

9:10

that is actually the detox that I need. Honestly.

9:12

As in 13 hours in Croke Park over two days.

9:15

And all you can see is the stewards, you

9:17

know, directing you in there. So maybe that's

9:19

actually what

9:20

I need to do today. You got burned yesterday. You'll see the, look

9:22

at the state of this farm is tiny. You mightn't be able to see that too well on

9:24

camera, but I went to leave the house

9:26

yesterday for the athletic rounds in Armagh. For the All-Arden

9:29

Minor Football Final. Monaghan losing to Derry

9:31

unfortunately for Monaghan. By seven points,

9:33

Derry

9:34

brilliant by the way. Dominant and possession. The

9:38

biggest downpour I have seen in years. The

9:40

heaviest rain, thunderstorms, thunder enlightening

9:42

leaving the house like literally soaked on the run

9:44

to the car. And it's not a long run to the car.

9:47

And then I mean literally then just

9:50

the sun came out. It was roasting

9:52

hot got burned in my face and my arm. I was like, this

9:54

is ridiculous. Just couldn't

9:57

predict what weather it was going to be yesterday around Armagh Monaghan

9:59

area.

9:59

Monaghan Lost regardless. I don't know did they

10:02

miss a trick yesterday because I don't remember

10:04

them announcing in Croke Park even the winner of that game. Like

10:07

these games are supposed to be connected. This is a community.

10:09

Yeah, and I was

10:11

there from one o'clock yesterday till There's

10:13

no... You don't follow your man's social media

10:15

to be honest. And to be fair part of there was

10:17

a lot of talk in the build up But these minor lads should

10:19

have been allowed the opportunity to play in Croke Park in the final But

10:22

I but when I was there yesterday like the place was

10:24

packed. It was an unbelievable atmosphere So

10:27

I kind of understood the rationale.

10:28

I don't even think it's it's not even

10:30

the issue with where it was played It's the fact that it wasn't

10:32

connected in so even if at halftime

10:35

they had flashed up with the report from

10:37

the game Yeah, this big screens in Croke Park

10:39

You would have just connected the 50,000 people that were

10:41

there to the

10:41

game. Usually the minor football and hurling finals are

10:44

fairly Well publicized obviously that's

10:46

kind of changed. I don't know is the hurling final down for

10:48

Croke Park I'm not sure I figured that out.

10:51

On the way between the minor hurling final.

10:53

That's done and dusted. Was

10:55

it in Croke Park? Yeah,

10:57

see like I get I get the rationale behind

10:59

the provincial grounds From

11:00

a fans perspective, but it would be nice for those

11:02

players to have the experience of Croke Park maybe

11:05

once off. I Never got to play in Croke

11:07

Park myself So maybe it's just my living my dreams

11:09

vicariously through these young players on the way

11:11

between now and 10 o'clock the performance Vikings in just a

11:13

second. Seamus Hickey would join us from 8 o'clock

11:15

to give us the limited perspective Limerick

11:17

obviously in a fourth final in a row 8 25 a.m.

11:20

In Tige Fogarty I

11:23

did call him Tiger D about 14 times the last time

11:25

he was on So that's the the laughs in the background

11:28

Tige will give us the Kenny backdrop

11:30

after yesterday's performance They have any parts

11:32

from around here at 50 give us a League of Ireland Of

11:34

course heading into a European break now for the League of

11:36

Ireland Alan Quinlan then from 10 past 9

11:39

the Irish under 20s into The world championship final where

11:41

they will play France and then a classic crappy

11:43

quiz on the way for you from half past 9 But

11:45

it is time at 741 a.m. On this

11:47

morning mornings O2 p.m. For the

11:50

performance rankings You know that

11:52

wasn't in all our winning performance probably should have won

11:54

the game based on a second half problems Is it a step

11:56

to our stage the performance so far of the World

11:59

Cup maybe not?

11:59

TVA's performance rankings. I'm

12:02

scratching my head. But performances with just

12:04

like that intensity. OK,

12:08

Sarah, 13 hours in Croke Park. And we're going to start

12:11

in the red with a couple of losing

12:13

performances from the weekend.

12:14

Sure. OK.

12:16

I'm starting with Claire. OK.

12:18

Kill Kenny, right now,

12:20

won't come out winners 125 to 122. But

12:25

for me, Claire, Brian

12:27

Lowen potentially could be the one in the red as opposed

12:29

to Claire. That

12:32

first half, that decision

12:34

to play Shayna Moray as a sweeper, trying

12:36

to explain that to American lads, midst

12:39

game. And explain it to the country with. Yeah.

12:42

And before Christmas, lads, I was in Croke

12:44

Park with you guys for Ballyhoo Charm

12:46

Rocks, Ballygonner and Dunloy matches,

12:48

right? And Richie Reed had

12:50

the run of Croke Park that day, and he was pinning

12:53

passes around Croke Park. And I was so adamant

12:55

with Ashina Riley that I couldn't figure out why they'd give

12:57

Richie Reed the run of

12:59

Croke Park. And Brian

13:01

Lowen did the same yesterday and it allowed

13:04

Claire,

13:05

or sorry, it allowed Kill Kenny

13:07

to have such good restarts and

13:09

allow them to pick out pockets of space. And

13:13

it continued for 35 minutes. So

13:16

it clearly wasn't working and

13:18

Brian Lowen didn't make the change. Yeah.

13:21

Took too long to to do something

13:23

about it, didn't it? Yeah. But see, Moray was

13:25

just so adrift. He wasn't getting across. And

13:27

I know I'm being very technical here now, but

13:30

my point is

13:31

it was glaringly obvious for 35 minutes

13:33

that this sweeper system that wasn't

13:35

necessary, yeah, shouldn't

13:38

shouldn't have been in force.

13:39

And Claire played into Kilkenny.

13:41

Yeah, like Claire changed how they've been playing

13:43

the championship. But presumably because they were spooked from what happened

13:45

last year.

13:46

Like they were absolutely hammered a half time. There

13:49

was only five points in at this time. Like was the sweep

13:51

was the choice play more in the sweeper system?

13:53

Was that the losing of the match? Because it was only five points in it at

13:55

half time. And then Claire and the rock go on two points ahead.

13:58

A bit of a two to second half. This wasn't.

14:00

This wasn't the team that played last year. This was

14:02

a different team that Claire had. This

14:04

is my frustration with it. Dave McInerney

14:07

looked to be flying fit. John Conlon was available.

14:10

You had David Fitzgerald, Kyle Malone, you had Ryan

14:12

Taylor, you had Mark Rogers. This

14:15

was a different Claire team. They

14:17

shouldn't have been looking backwards. They shouldn't have been looking

14:19

at what happened last year. Claire had come on

14:21

leaps and bounds from that. Every commentator

14:24

to this point this season had said this is a different

14:26

Claire team. So to be spooked by

14:28

what happened against Kilkenny last year was

14:30

naivety beyond the extreme and Brian

14:32

Lohan is in the red. Not Claire. But also when

14:34

they went man for man in the second half, much improved.

14:37

But Kilkenny still won the game. So why is that, do you think?

14:42

The goalkeeper's yesterday were incredible. Both

14:44

of them, yeah, brilliant. But Iver

14:47

Quilligan made a massive error

14:49

and it was punished immediately by TJ

14:52

Reed and finished off expertly

14:54

by Unkody. So

14:57

as much as you can say

14:59

that Kilkenny worked

15:02

ice in the veins, ultimately

15:04

Claire made too many mistakes to

15:06

win an all-out and semi-final. Yeah. And

15:09

like Owen Cody you mentioned, even in that first

15:11

half, that battle with Rory here is the three points

15:13

from play in the first half. You're thinking this guy is

15:15

on form today and just go,

15:18

like everything about his performance yesterday, including

15:20

the second half. And there was a moment in the second half yesterday, I think it was

15:22

when Claire went two up, where every little foul,

15:25

everything was getting the fist pump, it was getting

15:27

the crowd on side. And you're thinking,

15:29

right, momentum here massively with Claire.

15:31

But then the goal happens. Exactly. You know,

15:33

so my issue, I suppose, is that

15:37

in that first half,

15:38

Claire were getting blocked down. Kilkenny

15:40

were working so hard. Actually, the Connor

15:42

Fogarty save happened

15:45

right in front of me. Right in front

15:47

of me. You know,

15:50

everything, don't get me wrong.

15:52

Kilkenny absolutely fully deserves the

15:54

win. But

15:56

Claire made too many mistakes. And when I say too many,

15:58

they probably made too, too many mistakes.

16:00

to deserve to win the game.

16:02

You see, I think Galloway fully deserved to be in the

16:04

red and we'll get to them, but I think even

16:06

low on like, he corrected the mistake

16:09

at halftime. Like, I don't know if he should

16:11

be in red because he, they were absolutely

16:13

annihilated in this game last year. No, no, no, no, no.

16:15

It wasn't Tony Kelly didn't score last year. And he was like, we need to

16:18

do something here. Tony Kelly scored a

16:19

point today. At one stage in the first

16:21

half,

16:23

Mikey Butler took off and Tony Kelly

16:25

was marking Mikey

16:25

Butler. Yeah, yeah. And stop it lads. Like

16:28

that's a really strong number. A number of the league point

16:30

obviously. But Brian Cannon was deep for Galloway on Saturday

16:32

and he performed very well. Like, you know, there was ways

16:34

around it. I see, I thought Claire would go, I thought

16:36

they played very well yesterday and but for,

16:39

and what the most extraordinary say for everyone to see

16:41

a Crow Park, they could have won that game.

16:43

That's the body first. Yeah, but the

16:45

second half. Yeah, but that, like what

16:48

I'm saying in the first half was the position that we

16:50

had behind the goal

16:51

where Girid was so obviously free, there

16:54

was too many bodies inside there. This was

16:56

the issue. Shayna Moore is up the other end. There

16:58

was way more space in the Kilkenny

17:01

inside line. So it wasn't even working.

17:03

Claire weren't even clogging up the space on the

17:06

other side. But

17:07

from the vantage

17:09

point of Shayna O'Donnell, he had so little space

17:12

because Richard Reid was playing that position so

17:14

well. So I think Brian Lohan didn't get

17:16

it right. And we'll come to Limerick later on what they did well.

17:20

Limerick were in trouble after 25 minutes. Nikki

17:23

Quaids, pulled the fast one and

17:26

Canark gets the message in.

17:28

Limerick go from six points down to

17:30

one point down before halftime.

17:32

So Claire could have made a switch 20

17:36

minutes in. It was 20 minutes

17:38

in. The first three minutes of the second half didn't score three

17:40

points. First quarter, they outscored Kilkenny,

17:43

I would say, one eight to three points in the first 18 minutes of

17:45

the second half.

17:45

They were relentless in

17:48

that third quarter. So why couldn't that have

17:50

happened 20 minutes in? It was as plain as

17:52

a nose on my face.

17:52

Can I ask you, I know you're both core people. The referee

17:55

yesterday was from core column lines. And

17:58

there was a moment in the second half where Duggan makes the catch.

17:59

the ball in, they scored the goal to pull

18:02

back for the advantage in a three. That wasn't

18:04

the only maybe, Steve

18:05

Yes.

18:27

We were yesterday on with ourselves saying like, if the ref didn't blow

18:29

for that three and the ball went in as a 50-50 challenge,

18:31

then the Claire fans would have also gone match if Brittany had

18:33

won it. So I think it's easy to say in hindsight.

18:35

And also there was a long, long way to

18:37

go after that. But that's not the issue. I

18:39

think, I think yesterday, my frustration

18:41

with, with Lions was constantly

18:43

putting up the hand and then putting down the hand and putting up the

18:45

hand and putting down the hand. The game wasn't

18:47

allowed to flow at one stage in the first half,

18:50

Mikey Butler and Tony Kelly

18:52

share like a moment. We'll

18:54

say, you know, one's on top, the other's on top, one's on top, and

18:56

then the free is given out. Mikey

18:58

Butler gets an opportunity.

19:02

Tony Kelly should have had, you know, should

19:04

have been allowed to win the ball and play

19:06

the ball. Instead, Mikey Butler gets

19:08

a free out. That was a massive momentum change because the frustration

19:11

on Tony Kelly's face at that moment, it

19:13

was clearly the wrong decision. There was a charge

19:16

on John Conlon. He's on the ground.

19:18

Yeah, he's, he's flat on the ground.

19:21

And, you know, the decision

19:23

wasn't to change the free. It was for, for TJ

19:26

Reed to pop over a handy free.

19:28

But clearly

19:30

John Conlon had been injured. There was so many instances

19:33

in the game where column lines didn't seem to be in control

19:35

of the game. Did you think Kilkenny got too many soft

19:37

frees or were most legitimate? Because

19:40

TJ Reed doesn't need help. Like that was the one pity in

19:42

the game, actually, that TJ Reed had so many frees that

19:44

it was that we would love to see the frees taken away.

19:47

And these two sides go head to head.

19:50

My issue was that I felt column

19:52

was misjudging kind of the stuff

19:54

that was going on in the background between

19:56

Claire and Kilkenny. Kilkenny are well able to

19:59

leather it into teams.

19:59

and do it covertly,

20:02

we'll say. And he was just

20:04

very technical on what Claire were doing to Kilkenny,

20:06

but he wasn't astute enough to

20:08

see that Kilkenny were masters

20:10

of the dark arts yesterday

20:12

off camera. I'm just waiting for before

20:14

we move on, but we have to highlight the two most amazing

20:16

moments you're ever likely to see, like the Peter token,

20:18

as you call it, the Vadi shot at the end, and

20:20

Owen Murphy's save. I was watched on TV

20:22

and I just made this involuntary noise,

20:25

like, ah, how do you

20:27

do that? I just tried to hit the bar directly. And

20:29

then Shane O'Donnell's goal.

20:31

Yeah, I mean, what, 63 minutes? He

20:33

loves that, his 16th end, doesn't he? And even

20:35

his high feeling in the first half, but that goal, like, pfft.

20:38

The goal, the save I saw go afterwards, that the goal is actually

20:40

the second big highlight.

20:42

For me, like, everyone in

20:44

the stadium

20:45

was enthralled for the last 10 minutes. I

20:48

know I said I was in Croke Park for 13 hours yesterday, but if it

20:50

had gone to extra time, You wouldn't have minded. I

20:52

would have held onto my feet. I'd have taken my feet

20:54

home. Like, I was, yeah,

20:57

and when the volley,

20:59

right, happens, right, you're like, okay, that

21:01

is inch perfect. There is nobody

21:03

stopping that, that is.

21:05

And then there's this, the whole stadium

21:08

goes silent.

21:09

Really weird, definitely silent. It's like,

21:12

where's the ball?

21:12

Eerily. Eerily silent, and

21:14

then, Owen Murphy,

21:17

cat-like, flicks the ball

21:19

up over the bar,

21:23

and we have a moment for the

21:25

ages.

21:25

It was like, remember being at the Cork lyrics in 2018,

21:27

wasn't it? With Nicky Quays. That's it,

21:29

from the state. Why are you bringing that up today? Yeah, sorry to run that up, guys.

21:32

And surrounded by two Cork people. Why

21:33

are you bringing that up today? All

21:35

this. Yeah, first day I just have to say Peter

21:37

Duggan's volley. Yeah, amazing

21:40

piece of skill. Stunning piece of

21:42

skill, and I thought he was excellent. All

21:44

through the game, some massive catches yesterday,

21:47

dog at work rate, finding spaces when

21:49

there wasn't genuinely space to be got. But

21:51

to be

21:52

undone by Owen Murphy, and

21:54

that Kilkenny performance. Ridiculous. We'll

21:56

talk about Kilkenny later, because needless to say, they're in the green.

21:59

They are. from the red what do we say

22:01

about Galway? Like same

22:05

old same old like it can't the game kind of went

22:07

as expected but although in the first half Galway I guess

22:09

would be pretty pleased with how things were

22:12

we're playing out but Limerick's intensity was just on

22:14

another level. So in that first 25 minutes

22:17

and Willow Dunna who's sitting back centre back

22:20

and he's clearly struggling

22:23

the communication piece isn't working. Barry Nash

22:25

is having a figure behind him.

22:28

Barry Nash doesn't know where to stand and all I can

22:30

think of in that moment is why hasn't the camera

22:32

panned to Declan Hannon because surely he

22:35

is going absolutely

22:37

bananas saying lads I've

22:39

been with you for so long now surely one of you noticed

22:41

what I do again because it was so obviously

22:45

not what was required

22:47

from that position. Credit

22:49

to Willow Dunna who? Second half difference. Well 25

22:52

minutes in massive massive massive change

22:55

and they went I suppose the

22:58

work rate did increase massively you

23:00

know they

23:01

there was a number of things that changed after

23:03

that I suppose first horrendous 25

23:06

minutes but from

23:09

Galway's point of view they

23:11

looked like they ran out of petrol

23:13

lads midway through the second half they

23:16

around the 50 minute mark and

23:18

I thought Kean Lynch actually was impeccable

23:20

for Limerick and

23:22

it took him a while to get into the game but

23:25

in that third quarter

23:26

I sound very American in that third

23:28

quarter he was exceptional the amount

23:30

of ball that he picked up.

23:32

When you mentioned Brian Lohan in the red like is there an

23:34

argument Henry Schefflin so Clark

23:36

had the two men inside and then I

23:38

think Limerick maybe just scored two points in a row

23:41

I felt there was nothing really to worry about just

23:43

a couple of quick Limerick points in a row and then he changes

23:45

to the one up on

23:48

the inside line and then the game

23:50

just changed. I'm not sure Schefflin

23:52

got his in game management right.

23:55

Two weeks ago I spoke about him having his best

23:57

day in the Galway jersey or Galway management

24:00

against Iberari and I felt like the

24:03

template that he played against Iberari he seemed

24:05

to try to apply to Limerick which

24:07

was probably the naive thing to do because even

24:10

you know Glennon for Galway

24:12

playing for you know 40-45 minutes and then

24:15

them bringing in Tom Monaghan it was just

24:18

it was very Groundhog

24:20

Day same same and

24:22

predictable massively predictable

24:24

and then you know Jason Flynn's not available he's injured

24:26

so there wasn't that

24:28

Walter Walsh style presence coming in later on

24:30

to give Limerick any kind of pressure

24:32

and then the third part was obviously the

24:36

bench. Shefflin

24:38

had nine months to

24:41

deliver a bench for Galway and

24:43

we had spoken in the Championship the London Championship

24:46

about how they were kind

24:48

of at their ease finding these players

24:50

to come through to come on.

24:52

Two options came on yesterday for Galway in scoreable

24:55

options Connor Cooney and Liam Collins

24:58

neither of them was effective so maybe

25:00

Henry and

25:01

Brian

25:02

deserved to be in the rest. I think so. The post

25:05

match they're trying to give Shefflin a lot of credit actually

25:07

to his face and he was he was actually turning down

25:09

the credit saying no it doesn't feel like progress

25:11

it feels really disappointing and like another highlight from the

25:13

week Connor Monaghan's goal was to bring the pass, Cooney's

25:15

pass inside to Monaghan and the goal from the

25:17

tight angle. He should never have tried that shot

25:19

you know. I was thinking this is this is a low percentage

25:22

effort like to take your point. What a goal.

25:24

It was a stunning goal. Great first 25 was

25:26

you saying? Yeah

25:27

great first 25 minutes but I actually

25:29

an interestingly

25:32

tough tough question put to Joe Canning on

25:35

the panel after the game. He

25:37

was asked you know does he back Henry Shefflin

25:39

to stay on next year and

25:41

Joe said Henry Shefflin is the greatest player of

25:44

all time. Of course we want him in charge. I

25:46

think that's a big statement from somebody

25:48

of Joe Canning's

25:50

caliber in Galway. It probably

25:52

takes the pressure off a little bit

25:55

in that Henry knows that he has that kind

25:57

of backing. It would have been a different scenario.

25:59

If Joe had said maybe he's

26:01

not the play He's not the manager for us It could

26:04

be a bit premature to say that he needs school like you're

26:06

playing against a generational team here Oh, yeah, one of the

26:08

best sides ever Yeah So interestingly

26:10

the Galway team that lost the minor

26:12

all Ireland this year was heavily

26:14

fancied from under 12 my sources say

26:17

right? Big shock that Claire

26:20

undid them right? But

26:22

if that team has been together for

26:24

the bones of six seven years and there's

26:26

real quality there

26:28

Those are the players that need to come true to under

26:30

20s and those are the players that you'd be hoping to see in the

26:32

next Two years and no better person than Henry

26:35

Shefflin to work with a group that is in it

26:38

on equivocally talented Yeah, and and

26:40

you know that's I suppose what the bonus is and we'll talk

26:42

about the under 20 Europe team later And

26:45

what's coming through but in the same breath

26:47

if Henry hangs on and this group of players Delivers

26:51

in the way that people say they can

26:53

Maybe it's not all doom and gloom for Galway this morning

26:55

despite being in the red I've been there at this one also

26:57

in the reds. We have the Kenny Kamogi one point

27:00

defeat cork

27:01

I'm wearing my cork top

27:03

this morning. Notice that yeah,

27:06

well you're wearing maroon column, but yeah close enough look

27:09

yesterday in croak Park I

27:12

Spoke the the manner of the victory probably

27:15

summed up kill Kenny season. I've been watching them

27:17

since February

27:18

I was in Parnell Park at the start of the year when

27:20

they played Dublin in the league They

27:22

weren't motoring that day. They

27:24

weren't motoring against Wexford in the first round

27:26

of the championship this year and Wexford

27:29

came back from 10 points down to draw level They

27:32

only managed to draw against tipperary last

27:34

week their

27:35

season never kicked into gear and

27:38

Yesterday when they needed a kick

27:40

against Cork, they didn't get it and

27:43

the refereeing yesterday for Cork was an issue

27:45

as well So Cork had

27:47

two penalties denied yesterday

27:51

Referee got out of dodge yesterday because if kill

27:53

Kenny had won that game There would have been

27:55

massive issue with the fact that Cork were denied

27:57

two penalties, especially so late on I

28:00

would say from Kilkenny's point of view they'll look back at the

28:02

season overall not just at

28:05

that game yesterday and say we

28:07

weren't at our pitch and

28:09

We deserve to be in the red. There's obviously heavy focus

28:11

put on the protests at the moment in

28:14

the Kamoghi and the ladies football especially

28:16

and Certainly in this game.

28:18

It was

28:19

highlighted. I think it's about as they Sarah

28:22

bit of confusion at the start of the game So

28:24

the two teams were given the option to

28:26

come out with the unite

28:28

for equality t-shirts on Puck

28:31

around before the game with them on so that they'd be visible

28:33

For the TV and then they were given the option

28:35

of either staying on the pitch and taking off

28:38

the t-shirts on the pitch Or

28:40

going back into the dressing room to take off the t-shirts Cork

28:43

chose to go into the dressing room kill Kenny's

28:45

chose to stay on the field and have their chat

28:48

at pitch side But

28:51

what it looked like because an explanation

28:53

wasn't forthcoming beforehand it looked like

28:56

they weren't united for equality and Suppose

28:59

there was a lot of conversation on Twitter and there was a lot

29:01

of conversation on the airwaves and

29:03

on the commentary That you know

29:06

was this a break from the protests? Mm-hmm,

29:08

and I suppose the clarification was given by the GPA

29:10

after no this wasn't a break from the protests Both

29:13

sides were given the opportunity to decide

29:16

At what point they would go into the pitch or what point

29:18

they would stay, you know on the pitch. So

29:22

kill Kenny unfortunately, I

29:24

Suppose have are unlucky in that

29:26

they've been tarred by a communication error Yeah

29:28

on the part of the GPA because I suppose we're

29:31

unsure as to whether or how

29:33

this protest is going to escalate and And

29:36

on Saturday, we thought there was going to be a bigger protest.

29:38

We thought the girls were going to turn up to croak park wearing

29:41

Shorts instead of squirts. Yeah,

29:44

I imagine explaining that one to the Americans and

29:47

And they didn't you know, they they had kept Quite

29:51

I suppose a formulaic in what

29:53

they've done in the last few weeks. Yeah, so the

29:55

You're asking me about the protests and whether they're

29:57

effective a lot of

29:59

everyone's United. But I

30:02

suppose they are United, you know, it's just

30:04

they were given two options and one went one went.

30:07

Yeah, less options the better. Yeah, but

30:09

I suppose my point on Saturday and

30:11

I was in the studio on Saturday

30:13

with Joanne Cantwell and Joanne had asked

30:15

me,

30:16

you know, what are you looking

30:18

for? And I explained what the minimum standards that

30:20

the teams were looking for. And then she

30:23

looked down at the stadium and she said, the

30:25

place is empty. This is the first time Antrim

30:27

are in an all Ireland court final in 40 years.

30:30

Why aren't women supporting women? Yeah. And

30:34

she's right. My issue

30:36

is that the spectacle isn't

30:39

as good as the hurling spectacle right

30:41

now. And I suppose women are choosing

30:43

to go to the hurling games that are on at the same time as the camogie

30:45

matches. And it's

30:47

just another issue altogether. The timing of the

30:49

games. Yeah. But but if there was 10,000 women

30:52

in Croke Park yesterday watching the men's hurling,

30:54

and we've all paid 50 quid a pop.

30:57

So that's half a million euros. I think if you polled

30:59

every woman who went out of Croke Park yesterday and said,

31:02

you had a great day in Croke Park today, you've given 50

31:04

quid. Do you mind if the GSI

31:06

wins off a percentage of that to the

31:09

improvement of women's sport? I think

31:11

we would you'd be hard pressed to find a woman in Croke

31:13

Park yesterday who wouldn't say, Jesus, of course, give

31:16

the women a few pop. You know, I can't

31:19

play hurling, you know, so I can't benefit

31:21

from the GAA. But I've

31:23

given my 50 quid yesterday. And,

31:25

you know,

31:27

if we integrate, is that not what's going to happen anyway?

31:30

Yeah. So if 2024 is the year to do

31:32

it, and the money is there,

31:34

then maybe we need a bit of forward

31:36

thinking. Yeah, fully agree.

31:38

It was a strange one, certainly at the weekend with that game.

31:40

And at one point defeat, as we said, for Kakeni against

31:42

Cork onto the Amber, we have

31:44

the tennis.

31:46

Right. A

31:48

little snippet there, Liam Brody

31:50

talking about his mom not being able to watch

31:53

the games. And I'm wondering, parents

31:56

put so much time into these games.

31:57

And then they

31:59

can't even watch the games for the nerves. But

32:01

he coolly says, mom, don't worry about it,

32:04

like 80,000 euros this week, or 80,000 pounds.

32:06

Yeah, that's classic. Yeah, in the back pocket.

32:08

Huge for players like that, like who are low ranked. That's

32:10

massive money. Like that helps them stay on the tour

32:13

for another while. Can you explain to us why women is in the

32:15

amber, as opposed to green or red? Yeah, amber,

32:17

well, the amber, the negative reason is there's

32:19

a lack of star quality this year. So you have

32:21

like no Raphael and the daddies in your privacy. Roger

32:23

Federer and Serena Williams have retired in the last year. Andy

32:26

Murray got knocked out Friday night against Stephan at City

32:28

Pass. Naomi Osaka's on maternity

32:30

leave, and Emmeral Khan, who was injured as well.

32:32

So all the biggest things Nick Kiriass pulled out the night

32:34

before the tournament. So literally the biggest stars

32:36

in the world with the exception of Novaczakovic

32:38

aren't playing. Having said that, you've had some great

32:41

matches in the last week. Coco Gaff against Sofia Kenin,

32:44

two city patches matches in a row against Dominic Team, and

32:46

then Murray. And then yesterday was

32:48

unbelievable on the women's side. Remember that Iga Šviantek, world

32:50

number one, saved two match points against

32:53

Blinda Bench, and she won the Olympics. First

32:56

time she's ever got through a quarterfinal of Wimbledon, but even

32:58

her not even though she's won number one in a four-time Grand

33:00

Slam winner. And then probably

33:02

the highlight then was Alina Svitolina from the Ukraine

33:05

against Victoria Azarenka from Belarus. Last

33:07

night in court one, Svitolina won that

33:09

in a final set tiebreak. She said before

33:11

the tournament started, she won't shake the hands of anyone

33:13

from Belarus or Russia, not against the people,

33:16

but it's because of the war. Azarenka after

33:18

the match just gave her a thumbs up to save the awkwardness,

33:20

and then Azarenka got booed off the court by the fans who I

33:22

think misunderstood the situation, and

33:25

Azarenka was actually doing Svitolina

33:27

a favor. Also Svitolina gave

33:29

birth to her first child only last October, so it's

33:31

a phenomenal achievement to win that match against Azarenka,

33:34

former Grand Slam champion. Svitolina's been

33:36

to

33:36

two Grand Slam semi-finals, but she said

33:38

this was the highlight of her career, because of everything

33:40

that came with it. So look, it's a mixed bag, lack of star

33:42

quality, so the casual fan might not be that interested,

33:45

but the matches are actually very good. I made the argument

33:47

when we were texting yesterday for the former strikeouts that the Derry Miners

33:49

should be on the green, so just, we'll

33:51

put that forward, the Derry Miners were brilliant yesterday in that All-Arn

33:54

final in the athletic rounds. Limerick

33:56

and Guggeny I know our way over time, so maybe we'll

33:58

get back to them very shortly,

33:59

We have Sio Mhsiky standing

34:02

by very shortly, we have Taigi Fogarty as well to dive

34:04

deeper into the Limerick and Kilkenny performances. But

34:07

Sarah, the Irish in the 20s in the rugby, brilliant.

34:10

31-12 victory, four tries,

34:13

Richard Murphy must be absolutely delighted with the team.

34:16

A little gutted that Brian Gleeson chose rugby

34:19

over hurling. Another guy gone

34:21

to the dark side, we lost Darren Sweetnam

34:23

a number of years ago and Tomás O'Leary. So

34:26

yeah, I think for this group

34:29

and with what's coming with the World Cup in

34:31

October, there's a real momentum with Irish

34:33

rugby and it's going

34:36

to be incredibly exciting for that group of players

34:38

to know that there's a pathway

34:41

for them to play world-class rugby and

34:43

they're now delivering on a world-class stage

34:45

before that point.

34:46

Yeah, 100%. And it's amazing, I was actually

34:48

watching the French and English semi-final. England went ahead

34:51

very early on in the game and then France came back and stormed

34:53

back. So it's going to be an Ireland-France final in

34:55

that under-20s. Just the second time

34:57

as well Ireland have been in the World Rugby Under-20

35:00

Championship final. That was an emphatic

35:02

win against the hosts of South Africa. So yeah,

35:04

very patient and mature display from them and

35:06

deservedly in the green. That is your

35:08

performance rankings for this Monday morning.

35:10

OTB AS Performance Rankings.

35:14

Yet just gone, 8.05am on this Monday

35:16

morning's OTB AM, the Sports Breakfast Show from Off

35:18

the Ballot. Myself and Sarah O'Donovan this morning, Colin

35:21

Boohick as well with us there. And

35:23

Braeburn Coffee, I should say as well, is your official coffee

35:25

partner of OTB. Braeburn Coffee is coming to an Apple

35:27

Green near you. New Braeburn locations

35:30

are popping up every month. So visit applegreenstores.com

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forward slash Braeburn to find your nearest

35:35

Braeburn Coffee experience. Up next, we'll have Seamus

35:37

Hickey talking Limerick. OTB

35:40

AM. Yeah, 8.08am

35:43

on this Monday morning's OTB AM, the

35:44

Sports Breakfast Show on Off the Ball with myself,

35:46

Shane Hannan and Sarah O'Donovan on this Monday morning.

35:49

Delighted to welcome to the show now to dive deeper

35:51

into the weekend's hurling, the former Limerick star,

35:53

Seamus Hickey. Good morning, Seamus. How

35:55

are things? SEAMUS HICKEY. Good morning,

35:57

folks. Good, thanks. Thanks for coming on.

36:00

We'll get to you on Saturday's game, of course.

36:03

2.24 to 1.18 victory for Limerick over Galway. What

36:07

was the turn-point in this one for you, Seamus? I mean, I

36:09

guess we were chatting this morning about the 25th minute. Nicky

36:12

Quaid takes his little mini timeout. I'm not exactly sure

36:14

what the injury was. I'm sure he was

36:17

very badly hurt, but it just allowed

36:19

John Kylie, I suppose, some instructions onto his half-forward

36:21

line at that point. So was that the moment at which

36:23

the tide turned?

36:25

I don't think so. I think it was probably

36:27

when Mike Casey stopped the ball

36:30

on the line and Galway had a really,

36:32

really good call chance. There were two 12 to

36:34

one six up. There

36:36

were six points up. There were one 12

36:39

to one six up at that stage. And

36:41

Mike Casey's intervention for me was huge. You

36:45

know, Galway got nine points ahead at that stage. You're

36:47

talking about testing the result of the Limerick team that,

36:49

you know, to that point hadn't looked,

36:52

anyway, cohesive. So that

36:54

to me was huge. Yet, no, Nicky, I

36:56

believe that

36:59

was important to kind of count things down. I think Galway

37:02

really were on

37:05

a string of pushing

37:08

the gap out to six at that stage was big. But

37:12

for me, even with that, if

37:15

Mike Casey didn't get his early there, it

37:17

was the last man on the line. So Seamus, can I

37:19

just ask, right? I was saying earlier that for

37:22

the first 25 minutes, we'll have done who looked very uncomfortable.

37:25

Right. And I said there

37:27

was no shot, you know, panned to deck

37:29

and hand and, you know, was can you

37:31

imagine hand and sitting there going, lads, you

37:34

know, what have you done? I've played this role.

37:36

Has anyone ever watched what I've done? You

37:39

know, he must have been jumping out of his

37:41

seat with frustration.

37:42

I listen to it. So in the after 20

37:45

minutes in the first step, so I took I took my three

37:47

kids up there. I thought I was sitting there and my

37:49

stomach was in not after 20 minutes because

37:52

I just felt that this team, the team,

37:55

the way it just it wasn't settling.

37:58

Keen Lynch was getting on board and it just was.

37:59

stick into his hand, it was fun out of

38:02

it. We've got all hitting him wide, wide

38:04

come from seven different players

38:06

in the first half.

38:07

And even Diermaud Burns, I thought Diermaud was

38:10

getting more consistent as

38:12

a ball striker as time has gone on. He had missed

38:14

a free that I'd have expected him to

38:16

score. So

38:19

after 20 minutes, it was not a comfortable place to be.

38:21

I think Willow Dunahou as

38:23

six, I think he genuinely gave everything he had.

38:25

There was one instance

38:27

in the first half, Keenan Fati just took

38:30

off

38:30

from the centre on a puck out and found

38:32

himself on his own under the

38:34

Cusick stand. He was picked out by

38:37

Anna Murphy. And I just, you know, that to me, I

38:39

was like, well done, Keenan Fati for

38:41

knowing that Willow Dunahou

38:43

doesn't play six for Interaculte

38:45

earning. So for me, I

38:48

thought Galway were superb in

38:50

the first half. I really do. I thought

38:53

Branken Khan was an exception around the middle. I thought they

38:55

got their tactics right when they withdrew the man.

38:57

Limerick

38:57

were trying to mark

39:01

Carl Wieland with two people and it ended

39:03

up with neither of them. Yeah, because

39:06

Barry Nash was the issue there. Yeah, did

39:08

you I felt Barry didn't know his role when

39:11

Declan wasn't there either.

39:12

Yeah, so it's to me,

39:15

the experiment should very obviously be very Nash,

39:17

I think. And

39:19

when I saw my case, he was trying

39:22

to play Carl Wieland from the front. And then you

39:24

had either Dan Morrissey

39:26

trying to pay him from behind or Barry Nash. It was

39:28

to me, it looked wrong.

39:31

And it looked like a team when they

39:33

were spare men, not knowing what to do with it. And that's unusual

39:36

for Limerick. They've had it before. I

39:39

just think they were probably very nervous and

39:42

rightly so about Carl Wieland and his influence

39:44

on the game too.

39:45

You spoke about Keenan Lynch's influence,

39:47

right? And I suppose in the first half, I'll agree with

39:49

you. He was very, he

39:51

wasn't himself. But in the second

39:53

half, he seemed to sit much deeper. And

39:56

he came right back

39:58

into midfield and he was very comfortable.

39:59

there and he was picking up a lot of ball

40:02

and that was a very good tactical I suppose move

40:05

by by Canark to see that that's where he needed

40:07

to go to support Will.

40:09

It's funny that so Darrid Dunavon

40:12

shown for me in midfield yesterday

40:14

because Willow Dunne who wasn't there and

40:17

I think you know if you want to know what Willow Dunne who

40:19

brings to midfield you

40:21

probably saw the effect of that switch of Keene

40:24

who's probably a bit more attacking probably

40:26

set on the opposition 65 a bit

40:29

more I think I agree with you in the second

40:31

half he sat far more I suppose towards the limerick

40:33

goal probably on their own 65

40:35

and a bit further and that's and he

40:38

reveled in the physical exchange changes in the

40:40

second half really really loved it and

40:43

so Keene you know he's a he's a classmate

40:45

fielder he's a probably an all-star midfielder if he wants

40:48

to be but that Willow

40:50

Dunne who Darrid Dunavon pairing has been so

40:52

good

40:53

for so long that changing

40:56

anything means that you've to adjust and

40:58

there's a settling period for everything and I believe

41:00

that they'd settled in the first half I knew that

41:02

they would because this isn't 2019 2019 was

41:04

a very very different team and a more

41:07

inexperienced

41:10

team in the semi-final against Kilkenny

41:13

where they never settled into the game

41:15

and they were chasing it right up until

41:18

that deflected ball. You're talking

41:20

about settling into the game there right

41:22

and I suppose the two

41:25

weeks lead and we knew Declan Hannon wasn't going to

41:27

be playing various shoot move by John Kylie to put

41:29

him out front and center two weeks ago to say look he's

41:31

not on the table this isn't going to be a Connor Cleary

41:33

situation where he's going to be there till the last minute

41:36

you know is he or isn't he so

41:38

I'm surprised they took that long to settle because

41:40

they've you know this change was two

41:42

weeks in the making.

41:44

So this is where this is where the kind of the narrative

41:47

around the the infamous training

41:49

games you know the the best game in the country

41:51

is Limbix A versus Limbix B and

41:54

ten years ago it was Kilkenny's A versus Kilkenny's B

41:56

you know what I mean it's so this is where so you

41:59

you can do

41:59

your very best to replicate championship conditions.

42:02

But did they replicate

42:05

Brian Kunkannon in the middle of the field loose

42:08

for puck outs? Did they replicate

42:11

the space inside? And can you replicate

42:14

O'Connor Whelan inside the full fold? I don't think you

42:16

can. So like, in all the things you can recreate

42:20

in preparation, and you do have two weeks of

42:22

getting an individual playing

42:25

center back, but you can't perfectly

42:28

recreate or create the conditions

42:30

that you're going to be playing against, and especially the

42:32

team. So, you know, for me, the

42:36

first half, yes, Limerick didn't settle into the game,

42:38

but Galway were really, really good and

42:40

hitting the mark, really accurate, no wasted

42:42

chances in the first half. And,

42:45

you know, I was nervous as a Limerick

42:47

person. So,

42:48

yeah, it was it was

42:51

bizarre for me to see the second half

42:53

then go for an intense

42:56

competitive game in the first 10 minutes of the second

42:58

half where it was really physical.

43:00

We had seven line balls that are all

43:02

because it was

43:05

like both teams trying to find touch. At some

43:07

stage, they thought they were playing the other 21 combats, but it was

43:09

bizarre for me then

43:11

to

43:13

see that that Galway fell

43:15

away because they were they were posing such a threat

43:18

and a genuine challenge. Definitely

43:20

was very odd in the second half when

43:22

they really did just follow it. Did

43:24

something change Seamus with Limerick's

43:26

approach to Aina Murphy's puck outs? Because like

43:29

they were obviously working early early doors, but then in the

43:31

second half, I don't know is it just intensity? But

43:34

I'd say from Aina Murphy's perspective, he was like looking

43:36

out onto that pitch thinking,

43:37

where are where are my teammates? Because

43:39

it just looked like there were maybe 20 Limerick players

43:42

in the pitch. So for

43:44

me, a lot of it was the shape that

43:47

was a like the so it makes me feel

43:49

sitting deeper. Limerick's

43:51

half forward line, I would say

43:53

didn't give the half back as much

43:57

latitude or space. So Manion

43:59

was was was was pushed up on. I

44:02

think the channels then that Al Murphy was trying to hit so he was

44:04

intercepted by Tom Marcy and Tom

44:06

Marcy two wides in the space of two and

44:08

a half minutes, which was bizarre.

44:10

But like, just the channels between

44:12

between half back center, or sorry,

44:15

half back center back, and the midfield

44:17

channels were really, really well

44:19

closed down on second. And in the first half,

44:22

with the spare man out there,

44:24

limerick, sixes and sevens, I thought I didn't

44:26

know what space to close down, who

44:28

to push up on man to man who to actually leave in space.

44:32

And, you know, for me, it wasn't

44:34

great in the first 2025 minutes. But yeah,

44:38

and roughly didn't really look like he had a great

44:40

option in the second half is it looked like every

44:42

option was bad when he went down in the second half,

44:44

he was destroyed as well. So it's

44:47

hard to know. It's hard to know what, from

44:49

a government perspective, changed so dramatically.

44:52

I do know that limerick up the ante in

44:54

terms of Kyle Hayes was played superb in second half.

44:58

And even Jeremy Burns, so

45:01

for me,

45:02

limerick definitely up the ante, but but I thought there

45:04

was still enough for a government to work with. You're talking

45:07

about Tom Marcy there, and

45:10

he was he was taken off right at,

45:12

I suppose, what a 50 55 minute mark. And

45:15

limerick introduced, I think it's called

45:17

O'Neill was introduced

45:18

for him. And another

45:21

manager, I don't think would have taken Tom off. I

45:23

was very surprised. Generally surprised that Tom

45:26

because because of the impact he's had this year, he

45:28

has been outside of the land, it's

45:30

been in the land and Tom Marcy who have been our most consistent

45:32

heroes this year. So, you

45:35

know, I would be I'm always in the path,

45:38

the mind of trust, your your most trustworthy

45:41

herders. So it was surprising for

45:43

me.

45:43

But it's funny, as soon

45:45

as Colin Hill came in, he made an impact. He was really,

45:49

really hungry to get it. He really

45:51

carried the ball on, carried a true contact.

45:54

And I'm not able to hit

45:56

the ball on the run from 65 17 metres out.

46:00

about it the way he did from the

46:02

right-hand side. That stunning score in the second

46:04

half. It was unbelievable.

46:07

David Reid had just scored

46:09

before him from a similar

46:11

spot, but David was standing up.

46:14

For me, it was a substitution at work.

46:16

I was surprised by it at the

46:20

time because again,

46:22

Tom means a lot to that team and he's a great

46:24

leader. But it's a really, really good sign

46:27

that Kyle O'Neill is making

46:29

strides in.

46:30

I think we've seen that already

46:32

this season with John Kylie not afraid to make

46:34

the changes. In the

46:36

game against Claire, crucial

46:38

moments. It was Reidy,

46:41

Adam English, Kyle O'Neill, in

46:43

that last spell that were integral

46:46

for Limerick to get them over the line against

46:49

Claire. Maybe it's no

46:51

surprise that he's bringing off the older guys

46:54

at this stage because he did it in the Monster Final in

46:56

a clutch moment. In

46:57

fairness, you don't give these guys time

47:02

unless you're actually going to trust them in the crunch because

47:04

you don't bring subs on in the first 10 minutes of

47:06

the game. You bring subs on in the last 10 minutes of the game.

47:09

If you don't give them the experience, and

47:11

they have been exposed like you said in the Claire

47:13

game, they've had in the Cork

47:15

game, you use subs off the bench. You

47:17

don't use them

47:19

unless you're trusted

47:22

or making an impact. Can I

47:24

ask about Shane O'Brien?

47:26

I was massively impressed with him in the league.

47:29

He was outside the 26th yesterday and

47:31

the chat was that he was left back to his club

47:33

to play a club game a few weeks ago. He

47:36

was a real standout in the league.

47:39

But I suppose we've seen with John Kylie that over

47:41

the last number of years, he

47:43

has taken a

47:45

formidable length of time to get players into

47:48

the championship side. Kyle O'Neill, case in point,

47:51

are you surprised Shane O'Brien has gone

47:53

off the boil?

47:55

Not so much because of the

47:58

position that he's going for.

48:00

is incredibly competitive.

48:02

So you had Michael

48:04

Mihal Hulen as well, done really well in the

48:06

league and he was really a man at

48:08

the moment earlier on

48:11

in

48:11

the year. We've had Colin

48:13

Coughlin is still waiting to

48:17

make a real

48:19

impact in the championship. And he

48:21

has shown snippets of what I'd

48:23

say, real potential when he's been in

48:25

there. But he's trying to break into probably

48:28

one of the best half-back lines in the country with

48:30

or without Declan. So that's

48:33

the kind of nature of the beast there. So you're

48:34

not putting much store on the league, based

48:36

on the performances

48:39

those players had? Yeah. Otherwise,

48:41

TJ Reid wouldn't be starting for Kilkenny and Billy Drennan

48:43

would. So that's

48:46

the way I see it. I'm amazed that Billy Drennan

48:48

hasn't featured more for Kilkenny. So that's

48:51

the nature of a

48:52

year and you plan a year and

48:54

you train for a year.

48:56

You don't train for a year, you don't train for

48:59

a year. You don't train for a year. You don't train for a

49:02

year. And I'm surprised that I've

49:04

got a lot of people who are going to the league, even

49:06

though some teams

49:08

do, and that undoes them. So for me, Shane O'Brien is just one of, like

49:10

Adam English, now

49:14

I'm surprised it's not to see him earlier yesterday because I thought

49:16

the game

49:16

was tailor made for a guy like him with his speed and the space that

49:18

was opening up around the middle. So

49:21

the options that are there are great, but the team that face

49:23

in the final have just answered

49:26

that question because you have to tell Marcy, floated ball inside

49:28

and what, five minutes and the second goal as well,

49:30

per port of mind, you know, another inadvertent

49:33

kind of attempt to clearance the leads to

49:35

a goal. But Golan was just supreme.

49:39

It's just, it's quite frustrating

49:41

for me. And I don't listen to everybody's

49:44

entitled to manage

49:46

the teams the way they want. But like, I don't know

49:48

why girl MacInerney is in full back there. I

49:50

don't know. And it's not a particularly

49:53

anything on girl because I think he's one, he's a superb

49:55

center back and has been improving it.

49:58

But Dolly Burke played really

49:59

yesterday said Travak and I just think

50:02

his influence would have been far better felt

50:04

at the edge of the square and

50:07

Ghislain is such a difficult guy to back

50:09

because he's got like he's

50:12

got the physical tools he's six foot two

50:15

he's you know he's exceptionally strong

50:18

and in the

50:18

air he's as tricky

50:20

as

50:21

Tommy Walsh was when he was playing wingback for Tregenny

50:23

like he's in the air Ghislain

50:26

is an absolute nuisance

50:27

because you can pin

50:29

down his hands and he's definitely

50:31

tried to influence you as

50:34

the ball is coming down and he's got a great focus then when the

50:36

ball arrives then just to snatch it so

50:38

playing him from the front is a very dangerous thing to do McInerney

50:41

probably found that

50:42

and even in the first half the first ball

50:45

of the game between Limerick and Claire I'm

50:48

trying to think was it the monster final or was it the the

50:51

group game and I think it was a monster group game it was monster group

50:53

game in Gator Grounds at the first

50:55

ball of the game was an on-ball at the plan he cut

50:57

it fell it off to Flanagan and Flanagan actually

51:00

he was saved well by Quillivian but

51:03

he does it on the regular so he's

51:05

a it's a threat his aerial threat

51:09

is probably one of his strongest

51:11

features and he uses it to great effect. There

51:14

was a point made by Ryan O'Dwyer I think was on

51:16

on off the ball across the weekend where he made the point that he

51:19

felt the goa players need to bulk up and I know this

51:22

always comes up on teams play Limerick

51:24

because they're clearly a very physical team they're a big team

51:26

and does he have a point there do you subscribe to that as well

51:28

Seamus that maybe there's there's maybe a lack of

51:31

physicality in that goa team?

51:33

I don't know that I don't know if I agree

51:35

with the I don't think that

51:37

I think to misconstrue

51:41

physicality with conditioning is

51:44

I think there are different things because

51:47

I suppose

51:49

why I particularly say that is Claire

51:53

have matched up particularly well with Limerick

51:55

in the last three years and

51:57

you know they've got you know Tony Kelly isn't

51:59

isn't a

52:02

colossus. You've got the

52:04

likes of Ian Galvin, you've got the likes of David

52:06

Reedy, you've got,

52:08

you know, in the middle of the field, you know,

52:10

they're playing a game

52:13

of the game. The cornerbacks for Claire wouldn't be particularly

52:15

tall either. Yeah. So like, yeah, particularly

52:17

Rory Hayes and Adam Holgens coming, he's

52:19

a bit taller as a quarterback compared

52:22

to what they've been using recently.

52:24

So, but in general, physicality

52:27

is basically the collisions. It's

52:29

the how close you can get to a team.

52:32

Who could, God

52:34

would be, I suppose,

52:36

fitter? Yes, I would say possibly because

52:39

of what has happened to the Malayton games, unfortunately,

52:41

from their perspective. But they did look out in

52:43

their feet after 45 minutes

52:46

yesterday.

52:47

They genuinely looked like

52:50

there was a breaking ball at one stage. And, you know,

52:52

there was a couple of, it was a

52:54

very physical time

52:56

in the game, but you know, you really had players doubled

52:59

over and trying to catch their breath. And

53:01

in terms of body language, if I'm the, if I'm the limerick team

53:03

reading the body language after that period of

53:05

time, I'm thinking we have them, you know,

53:08

so there is, there is something to be

53:10

said there, but I don't know if it's both, you know, I don't

53:12

know if that's the answer. I think it's,

53:14

conditioning isn't, isn't, isn't all about,

53:16

isn't all about, we'll say, physical presence.

53:19

We've got a YouTube comment in here from 91 Devo,

53:22

it says, Limerick lads in key positions and the right places,

53:24

the right times, winning majority of the breaks, go

53:26

any decent sports psychologists to be able to handle big

53:29

pressure games. Like, is there something in that that, you

53:31

know, when, when push comes to shove and these little moments

53:34

in an all-out until we find Limerick, I guess, I've been there, done

53:36

that in the last few years?

53:37

Yeah, John Miner, John Miner was a

53:39

former gunner manager and, you know, I think

53:41

the comment was made in the

53:43

lead up to the, you know, this is an inconsistent

53:46

scalware team from this year. Like, you know,

53:49

the, the performance varies from game to game. But

53:52

John Miner was saying like, that's not today

53:54

or yesterday, that that has been happening in Galway.

53:56

So, you know, I don't know, I don't

53:59

know what that's about. I think Mihal Dunne who had

54:01

them play consistently and had them play very well, I

54:03

do think there is a leadership element to

54:06

it in

54:09

the actual players themselves,

54:11

but also in the management team. I

54:13

could see

54:15

Shefflin's frustration after the game. He really,

54:17

really was frustrated with

54:21

the lack of progress that the group

54:23

has shown. This is a team that ran

54:26

Limerick to a single score in

54:28

the non-artissippi final two years ago.

54:32

A very only and late burst of points, Metis

54:35

was at four or five last year. It

54:39

must be frustrating because the

54:42

performances they've given this year have flashed

54:45

so much,

54:46

particularly in the

54:48

first half of the game yesterday. At times

54:51

against Wexford, they look very impressive in their

54:54

group. Leinster looked

54:56

very impressive in the Leinster final and against

54:58

K great

55:04

talent.

55:05

There's no maybe. Can I ask one

55:08

final question? Are

55:10

you relieved that it's not clear in the final? No.

55:14

Are you disappointed? No.

55:20

But it's like that, am

55:22

I relieved it's not clear? To see K

55:25

Kenny end the way they're playing, can

55:27

anybody tell me that K Kenny aren't a better team

55:29

this year than they were last year?

55:31

I think they are.

55:34

The prospect of playing K Kenny in the final isn't an appetising

55:36

one now. The

55:39

fact that Claire would have

55:42

been great in the final,

55:43

the only reason that Claire wouldn't have been great in the final is that playing

55:45

a team three times in the one year is a tough

55:48

prospect because there's games

55:51

within games there in terms

55:53

of players and man-racking.

55:58

And you're keeping tally of of

56:00

things that are going on for a long time. And this legend

56:02

that happened in the previous two games. Ah,

56:05

whatever about that and this legend, but you're

56:07

talking about

56:08

even just from the, you're

56:10

over-ending movements and actions

56:14

that happened in a game when you

56:16

shouldn't be the, so it's neither

56:18

really, because

56:21

I was watching the game yesterday and I thought

56:23

it was an exceptional game and I knew it was going to be a good

56:25

game. I knew it was going to be tight. I thought care would win. I

56:28

thought that they were coming with a bit of momentum

56:30

behind them for the last, and I'm talking about from three

56:32

years of momentum of finally trying

56:35

to get over the line and get to the learn final. But,

56:38

if any are incredible,

56:40

I mean, their consistency and their

56:43

ability to weather

56:45

the storms is exceptional.

56:48

And they really were well worth doing

56:51

yesterday. Yeah, going to be a cracking final in the

56:53

Mckinckney for sure. Seamus, thanks for having on this morning.

56:56

Thanks everyone. Seamus, thank you there,

56:58

former Limerick, a star. Can I ask you one, Sarah,

57:00

that struck me across the weekend? I was watching both

57:02

days on telly at home with my dad. The

57:05

hand pass, I know this is a- It's

57:07

a baron. It's a ball of contention that won't go away, but like- It's

57:09

a baron. I don't understand

57:11

it. I was in like, I can't tell when someone has

57:13

hand passed the ball or thrown the ball in hurling. Like,

57:16

how

57:17

can a referee- There

57:19

was

57:20

numerous occasions in both games where

57:22

the ball was thrown. Clearly. And

57:24

you can say that, oh, it's a really fast movement of

57:26

the hand, no, it's actually a throw.

57:29

And you'd be up at the ball wall and

57:32

you're practicing it. Yeah. And it

57:34

is a hard skill. So to be able to deliver

57:36

a ball 15, 20 yards, you know, quickly,

57:40

inevitably they're throwing the ball. And the referees

57:42

aren't pulling it up because there's so much else going on. But

57:44

at one stage, this over the head thing, go

57:47

all the way, this over the head pass, it's

57:49

horrendous.

57:50

I wonder, like, is it, because

57:52

as you say, it's not pulled up, I wonder do teams

57:54

talk about this in training where they're like, we're not going to get pulled

57:56

up in this. You're going to save a split second. And

57:58

these games are- marginal

58:01

games. So like it can come to

58:04

can you get the ball away at half a split second faster

58:06

than...

58:06

But I think it's the inconsistency of it. I think Cork

58:09

were pulled up against Clare if you remember in their

58:11

game and Cork

58:13

were also pulled up against Limerick for throwing the ball

58:15

a couple of times and

58:17

then it wasn't captured when Limerick

58:20

played Galway. So I

58:22

have a big issue with the inconsistency of the refereeing around

58:24

it and I think the players themselves need to tighten

58:26

up the skill. 100%

58:27

it was Kay Lynch did it a couple times.

58:29

The number of players I'm not to say... And he'll tell you that there's

58:33

a double movement there. There isn't a double

58:35

movement there. You have to see a separation of the ball from

58:37

that. I would love to see a slo-mo

58:39

of some of

58:41

the ones that were clearly thrown because I guarantee

58:44

there's no two movements. There isn't two movements

58:46

there. It's one of those awkward ones. We're not going to sort it out

58:48

this morning but it's one of those that will obviously rear its head

58:50

in the final again no doubt. At 31

58:52

a.m. on this Monday morning's O2B. The Sports

58:55

Breakfast Show and off the ball with myself and Sarah

58:57

O'Donovan this morning. We're

58:59

going to turn our attention to matters, Kilkenny, after yesterday's

59:02

brilliant performance in that semi-final win over Clare at the Lady

59:04

de Selythe former Kilkenny star, Aiden Tagy

59:06

Fogarty joins us on the line now. Morning Tagy, how are things?

59:09

Morning guys, things are all good. Thank God.

59:12

Yeah, a good one tomorrow and to be waking up to... I can

59:14

imagine, I can imagine. How are you feeling after that game yesterday?

59:16

It was a little bit nervy at some stages

59:18

in the second half when Clare got back and took that two-point

59:21

lead but

59:22

really just the intensity again, that

59:25

word that we've used for Limerick ratchet up a little

59:27

bit for Kilkenny then for that last quarter I guess.

59:30

Yeah, it was a strange look to

59:32

the old cliche. Shane and I talked to the game with two

59:34

halves really. First

59:36

half I didn't think it was a great game actually. I thought it

59:39

was a mistakes more so on the Clare side.

59:41

I think the way they set up on the first half with the sweeper system

59:44

didn't suit Clare at all. I was very surprised

59:46

that they actually did it. They didn't do it against Limerick

59:49

so why would they do it against Kilkenny? I can understand maybe

59:51

the reasoning

59:52

that maybe last year we got ahead of him in the first half and

59:54

got dropped back but

59:56

yeah, for me that's where Clare lost the

59:58

game and then the second half...

59:59

It just exploded. I don't

1:00:02

know whether you're there in Crock Park, but when

1:00:05

Claire went ahead, that first pint for me and Galvin,

1:00:08

I think the 50th, 51st minute, the place

1:00:10

just erupted. It had to have been four to one for Claire

1:00:13

up there in terms of support. And

1:00:15

I was saying, we are in trouble here. And the one

1:00:17

thing I was kind of saying, at that local radio, I

1:00:19

was saying, if Claire get their

1:00:21

tails up and get the crowd behind them, they're going

1:00:23

to be very, very hard to stop.

1:00:25

And I was worried at that stage of

1:00:28

the game. And I suppose you talk

1:00:30

about momentum swings and different shifts and

1:00:33

big cause in the game, we got a goal

1:00:35

and that stemmed our momentum. And that was a huge

1:00:37

turn of pint for any pint of you.

1:00:39

Well, it was that, I guess,

1:00:42

Shane Amore playing that defensive role

1:00:43

left the Claire forwards having to work probably

1:00:46

twice as hard, which only added to it.

1:00:48

Yeah, no, for sure. Like it just totally

1:00:51

stemmed the way even Claire played, I felt.

1:00:53

And first of all, Shane Amore, I didn't feel first

1:00:56

of all, he played the role well. And

1:00:58

I think it's after 25, 30 minutes, he

1:01:00

was actually changed and John Collins started playing the sleeper

1:01:03

role in that first half. I don't know how he's seen

1:01:05

it, but he was taken off and he was put

1:01:07

to be a man-mapping job and Connell was a spare

1:01:09

man. And I could just see like the likes

1:01:11

of maybe David McInerney looking up Ryan Taylor

1:01:13

kind of looked up Peter Dogen was kind of stem

1:01:16

looking up and there's only one man inside and Richard

1:01:18

Reid was in front. Shane O'Donnell was usually kind of man inside

1:01:21

and Julon was man-mapping him. And then they were kind

1:01:23

of trying to go lateral across the field and

1:01:25

it was just breaking down and was just totally

1:01:27

stemming

1:01:28

the flow of Claire. He's seen it maybe in the second

1:01:30

half or Claire just came right at Kakeni. The

1:01:32

intensity just totally, you know,

1:01:35

lifted and they're hitting that full forward line where

1:01:37

Galvin was inside. Mark Rogers started to play

1:01:39

really well. Shane O'Donnell obviously came into the

1:01:41

game got superb goal and the whole

1:01:43

tie just there just turned

1:01:45

and you can see in the first half,

1:01:47

it was just stemming their tide. We're looking to go on lateral

1:01:50

and Kakeni was just so ravenous in the tackle

1:01:52

and they were so clinical in what they were doing. They

1:01:54

were just breaking down that last pass was just failing

1:01:57

and then Kakeni were able to start

1:01:59

to mama.

1:01:59

and we had an out ball to O'Quadie.

1:02:02

O'Quadie was just a phenomenal farm. He

1:02:04

was just unmarkable. He was

1:02:06

getting good quality ball, but he's also winning

1:02:08

back ball and getting points on the scoreboard.

1:02:11

And that's just such a hard thing to do as

1:02:13

a corner forward. You see Golan maybe getting perfect ball

1:02:15

and sticking it over the bar, but O'N was working

1:02:18

winning ball back and showing it

1:02:20

over the bar. And as I said,

1:02:22

two halves, two totally different halves. And it

1:02:24

was very clear, let's say,

1:02:27

the cautious approach in the first half really,

1:02:29

really cost him.

1:02:30

So in that first half, Tagi,

1:02:32

I was sitting behind O'Murphy,

1:02:34

right? I was in the Daven stand. So Richie

1:02:37

Reed's looseness was very obvious

1:02:39

to everyone in the Daven stand and the option

1:02:41

that was, I suppose, given then in terms of the restarts.

1:02:44

We talk about Kilkenny not playing the short game

1:02:47

in previous years and they were excellent

1:02:50

at it yesterday. And I think that was probably

1:02:53

instigated by the fact that Brian Lohn decided

1:02:55

to play with the sweeper because I don't think Kilkenny would have

1:02:57

gone with a sweeper ever.

1:02:59

Would you agree? Yeah,

1:03:01

no, like we don't go

1:03:04

with sweeper. We weren't going to go with a sweeper

1:03:06

yesterday. That's for sure. It's not

1:03:08

our style. It's not our mantra. And

1:03:10

look,

1:03:11

it needs me need me like managing

1:03:13

our stupid and Derek is not stupid. Like if

1:03:16

you'd have to go with a sweeper, you go with sweeper. But this

1:03:18

Kilkenny team, I feel there's

1:03:20

an awful guy's there, but to stand up enough of

1:03:22

a kind of characters on the team, enough of experience

1:03:24

in the team

1:03:25

and enough of good players to go one on one.

1:03:27

So I feel like we can never go on a sweeper.

1:03:30

And you mentioned that they're at Kilkenny

1:03:32

this year. They're used to the ball is a lot, lot

1:03:34

better than it has been over the years. Now it has been coming into

1:03:36

the team in fairness. No, Brian was bringing it into

1:03:38

the team, but I just think in the

1:03:40

big game scenarios, it's okay when you're 10,

1:03:43

12 points open a league match or maybe, you know, first

1:03:45

round championship, you know, where there's not, it's not knockout. But

1:03:47

we've seen it with the Kenny, maybe in our iron findings and semi-finals

1:03:50

where they kind of panic and they start

1:03:52

to lump ball down on the full back line

1:03:55

or on our full forward line and we're

1:03:57

losing out there. But yesterday, you know what

1:03:59

they were taking that. 50-50 pass,

1:04:01

whether we're going last word or finding the man in the best position

1:04:03

and our delivery into the forward line was

1:04:06

excellent. You know, I thought it was really, really good. We

1:04:08

were hitting Billy Ryan, we were hitting Owen Cody

1:04:11

and we're avoiding their sweep of Shadnamore,

1:04:13

you know, and as I said, he probably didn't play the sweep

1:04:15

well, well, road well. He probably is not used to

1:04:17

it and, you know, he wasn't finding himself

1:04:19

in the better position of cutting out them balls. But

1:04:22

we were definitely more confident in that

1:04:24

playing the short role under the

1:04:27

massive pressure of an Ireland semi-final and

1:04:29

we stuck to the plan. No, we didn't

1:04:31

seem to panic. If anything, the panic came from Clarence

1:04:33

Marver.

1:04:34

You know, the role obviously Adrian

1:04:36

Mullum played yesterday, you know, there was a lot of doubt about whether

1:04:38

he would start, but evidently

1:04:40

he was critical to what Kilkenny

1:04:43

did right yesterday, pink boots aside.

1:04:45

But he was certainly,

1:04:48

you know, the instigator of all of that,

1:04:50

I suppose, really clever play around the middle of the field

1:04:52

and chipped in with two points. He'd probably agree

1:04:54

that he was kind of one of the mainstays

1:04:57

yesterday in terms of getting Kilkenny over the line.

1:05:00

Yeah, he is, yeah. I don't know if you're wearing pink boots

1:05:02

and buying quality style. I

1:05:04

think they all go, they all go and cop

1:05:06

black and white ones that say, you

1:05:09

know, where are you going? Very brave.

1:05:12

Very brave. Yeah. So that's what

1:05:14

Derek has brought to it, you know, players can do kind

1:05:16

of a bit more freedom on the pitch. But

1:05:19

Adrian Mullum is a huge, cognac of the Kenny team and

1:05:21

has been for the last couple of years and

1:05:24

him to play and he was in my field. He was on,

1:05:26

you know, Dave Fisher was on him. He picked up a couple of them

1:05:28

all at Milona times. But he got a

1:05:30

score on the sideline, just a phenomenal

1:05:32

score, putting all the bar on his left hand side,

1:05:34

but his walkway, you know, but even talking to the guys

1:05:37

there, like he'd be in training, he's going, like

1:05:39

when you're sprinting, you're going like a hundred percent.

1:05:41

He's going 95% all the time. So

1:05:43

he's making runs even off the ball and he's sprinting

1:05:46

and you might even see it and he might even get the ball, but he dragging

1:05:48

the player with him and then he's just getting in

1:05:50

tackles. He's getting in big hits. I haven't

1:05:53

seen the game back now, but I see one hit he gave

1:05:55

John Conlon and left him on the ground with the Watson

1:05:57

really caught the ball is not the field, but these

1:05:59

are massive hits. and he's just such a strong

1:06:01

player, a real leader. And

1:06:03

what he's kind of doing now, he's doing a job, kind

1:06:05

of like maybe a kind of folk or the kind of thing that he's work

1:06:08

rate is huge, but he's chipping in with them two or

1:06:10

three points. And if you leave him isolated in the middle

1:06:12

of the field, he will put them over the bar and

1:06:14

that, and lads have to kind of go to him then and go,

1:06:16

right, we have to pick up Adrian Mullen. And that leaves another

1:06:18

gap up front for the opposition team. So a huge

1:06:21

cog in the team. He was getting strapped. I was

1:06:23

worried about him. He trained them

1:06:25

the week coming up to it, but we

1:06:27

come up to Germany kind of poking around. And you're not doing

1:06:29

a whole lot of physical activity. So he was getting strapped

1:06:32

beforehand. I was worried about him, but no, look,

1:06:34

a great game. And to miss out on so much,

1:06:36

you could probably do the running, but in that match intensity,

1:06:39

to come back after kind of four or five weeks and get into

1:06:41

it straight away, he's

1:06:42

a great player.

1:06:43

Back to Kenny's strength and depth as well, Taghi, like it's

1:06:45

probably one area in which they've improved and caught

1:06:48

up to Limerick as well. In some regard, like

1:06:50

you look at the bench, Yastrik Buckley,

1:06:53

Waterwatch, Richie Hogan, Billy Drennan, Kean

1:06:55

Kenny comes in as well. Like they

1:06:57

have some serious, serious options there.

1:07:00

Yeah, excellent options. Look,

1:07:03

I think Derek O'Melan this year has married this

1:07:05

kind of team very, very well. He's

1:07:07

kind of rejuvenated the kind of the

1:07:10

older states, but he could have came in and made a big statement

1:07:12

and dropped one or two guys and said, I mean, this is

1:07:14

my team, my panel, but he didn't. He came in and

1:07:17

he kind of, if anything, he's rejuvenated

1:07:19

the older guys. Well, if you look at Connor

1:07:21

Fogarty's stuff yesterday,

1:07:23

I think Owen Murphy thought he was gonna save the

1:07:25

ball and Fogarty's in before him. That's

1:07:28

the discipline and the drive that's there in

1:07:30

that setup. So Fogarty would probably

1:07:32

be a player to talk about there.

1:07:33

Fogarty, Waterwatch coming on the last day,

1:07:36

Richie Hogan even coming on yesterday. Obviously

1:07:39

caught for a little bit of pace, but just that little bit of

1:07:41

cuteness. As a quill, Kilian Buckley, Kilian

1:07:43

Buckley hasn't seen a whole lot of game time in the last two or three

1:07:45

years, nevermind this year. He's been in and out,

1:07:48

he's been in and out of injuries, but

1:07:49

he came on at the bench and that's

1:07:51

another day. He's getting married today for an hour. I don't

1:07:53

know what's gonna happen there. Jesus Christ. That

1:07:56

was a bad mistake. You talked

1:07:58

about John Condon's brother again.

1:07:59

getting married, but I think

1:08:02

he's down for the Saturday before, so that's what happens.

1:08:04

It's crazy. But

1:08:07

yeah, he has a dream and then he slipped in like the

1:08:09

day of Blanchfield, he slipped in the likes of Tom

1:08:11

Thiebhan there into wing forward without

1:08:13

any kind of fuss, you know, Billy Drennan

1:08:15

and stuff to come on, Timmy Clifford is on the panel. And,

1:08:18

you know, and

1:08:19

I won't say the guys are nearly happy to come off the

1:08:21

bench and do a job, but they seem to be

1:08:23

coming off the bench and making an impact. And that means

1:08:25

they're kind of happy, you know, happy in

1:08:28

say coming on and making a difference. And it's about the panel,

1:08:30

it's about the spirit. And I think

1:08:32

the lens of fine was after helping that immensely,

1:08:35

the manner in which they wanted, the last time I seen a

1:08:38

Kilkenny management team jumping around after winning the lens

1:08:40

of fine was a long, long time ago. And I think that really

1:08:42

brought them together in terms of spirit, in

1:08:44

terms of like, you know, obviously they enjoyed it, Monday

1:08:46

enjoyed it. I think it really, really brought them together. You

1:08:49

know, so as a panel, I think they're

1:08:51

really, really together, I think they're really, really

1:08:53

good spirit to come up against a juggernaut

1:08:56

now in two weeks time. Yeah, for

1:08:58

me, the bench, big difference yesterday towards Claire's

1:09:00

bench, you know, Brian Lohan took a long

1:09:02

time there before he made changes. Derek was making

1:09:05

changes 10 minutes into second half because he knew

1:09:07

they were coming at us, you know, but on water Walsh,

1:09:09

as you said, Kaley Buckley, Parig

1:09:12

Walsh, Richard Holgan, you know, and they

1:09:14

all, Kilkenny came on, got a pint. They

1:09:16

all made a bit of a difference. That was one key factor,

1:09:18

you know, and a lot of key factors yesterday, all Murphy's

1:09:20

save lads, I don't know. It's

1:09:23

one of the greatest things I've ever seen in crawl power. Just

1:09:25

phenomenal. First of all, for

1:09:28

Peter Doggan, who actually played very well yesterday in Fairness

1:09:30

Dome,

1:09:30

when he just volleyed, I was there, oh,

1:09:32

go straight away. That's

1:09:34

a goal, it has to be. Because even

1:09:37

the manner amount of players that was in front of Owen

1:09:39

Murphy, you know, even the time to get to see that

1:09:41

ball, and then his athleticism just to kind of

1:09:44

jump off the ground and get it, and

1:09:46

not even stop it, not even get a hold to it. Yeah, if

1:09:48

you look at it back, you got a little flick to his wrist

1:09:50

to even flick it up that little bit more higher

1:09:52

just onto the crossbar.

1:09:54

And, you know, it just, it was the

1:09:56

save. I've been said it was very safe for the ages. It

1:09:58

was just an O Murphy, like, gee.

1:09:59

He's just you can send the all-star

1:10:02

in the post to Glenn Moore at this stage country. Oh,

1:10:04

look it's there Yeah, no 100% it's

1:10:06

in the back pocket I know I know a better man

1:10:09

and a lovely chap as well And

1:10:11

that was one said I nearly meant another brilliant save

1:10:13

as well in the first half He after a member

1:10:15

as well and you know and he's poke outs

1:10:18

everything any catch him ball There's a ball

1:10:20

going over the bar and he caught it and it

1:10:22

was drops It looks like drop start but he actually caught

1:10:24

it was going over the boundary and he just left off his feet and

1:10:26

caught it Just super but that's

1:10:29

that that's that's they've I've never

1:10:31

seen that I'm like it one of the best days I've ever seen a crop and

1:10:33

in them in the context of the Game

1:10:35

of where the match was at In

1:10:38

the normally of the match itself semi-final

1:10:40

it had it had everything I

1:10:42

was saying to the lads that in that

1:10:44

split second the whole stadium went eerily

1:10:46

quiet because no one knew

1:10:48

where the ball was after Peter Duggan

1:10:51

had volleyed it and

1:10:52

Then it went in nearly into fast

1:10:54

forward when they realized that he'd done this incredible

1:10:56

thing But aside from

1:10:58

the incredible save and something that's probably gone under

1:11:01

the radar is TJ Reed is now all-time

1:11:03

top scorer With another incredible performance

1:11:05

yesterday and a real battling performance

1:11:09

Yeah for sure. And I suppose that was another

1:11:11

aspect maybe of the win how clinically

1:11:13

can he wear? The big players

1:11:15

are stood up or morphine the goal

1:11:18

TJ Reed

1:11:19

On quality stood up Adrian Mullen,

1:11:21

you know Connor Fogarty These lads were just

1:11:23

immense but T. J. Reed lads what I seen him doing yesterday

1:11:26

The man is 36 years of age next year and

1:11:29

he was on the 14 yard line clearing balls getting

1:11:31

fouled He was catching ball. He

1:11:33

was bringing players into the game. He was winning

1:11:35

freeze He was scoring unbelievable

1:11:37

freeze like it just looks so easy for him, but

1:11:39

he was on his own 65 He was below

1:11:42

he was on the 70 yard line And

1:11:44

he's putting balls over the bar and the man was

1:11:46

just rolling back the years Just so humble

1:11:49

As a person himself It's just second

1:11:52

nature to him now to be turned up into these games and doing

1:11:54

what he's doing So that's it if an animal at 12 points,

1:11:56

I think in total sideline cuts then you

1:11:58

can show it in for a bit crack there towards the

1:12:01

end to go two points off. It

1:12:04

was absolutely phenomenal what he did. All

1:12:06

time scorer now, no better

1:12:08

man deserves the better. At the

1:12:10

beginning of the year, he was kind of

1:12:13

struggling for a bit of fitness, but we knew that

1:12:15

the more matches he gets into him, the better he

1:12:17

will get, and we needed a massive one for him, honestly, in two

1:12:19

weeks' time. But just in, yes, his performance,

1:12:21

he was just absolutely phenomenal. And then the

1:12:23

lab beside him, it's hard to believe a small

1:12:26

club like McKinney, like Ballyhade, and they're producing a TJ

1:12:28

Reed, and a Ron Coady, and an Adrian Mullen. Like,

1:12:30

that would take massive stopping at any club scene.

1:12:33

I thought Ron Coady was just phenomenal, one-five from play. You

1:12:36

know, everything, the goal, even they got.

1:12:39

And they talk about work, they talk about, I

1:12:41

suppose, at the breakdown of the

1:12:43

game, and the

1:12:45

way they set up, matchups, Mikey

1:12:47

Butter did a great job on Tony Kelly once

1:12:49

again.

1:12:50

But you talk about

1:12:52

the things that we can match, and I suppose managers

1:12:54

would talk about hooks, blocks, possessions,

1:12:58

winning their own ball. The

1:13:00

cliche stuff, really, and the easy

1:13:02

talk about stuff. But that goal came from Billy

1:13:04

Ryan, who was probably not having a

1:13:06

brilliant game up front, but was doing

1:13:08

his job in terms of getting flicks. He got that

1:13:10

little flick in. And albeit a

1:13:13

risky mistake from Rory Hayes to

1:13:15

come out with the ball and try to run it out. But

1:13:17

what do you do? Do you lump it long and be given out to

1:13:19

just hitting aimless ball down the field? Or do you stick to

1:13:21

your game plan and try to run it out and just got caught?

1:13:24

And that own Coady didn't have enough of time,

1:13:26

but buried in the back of the net. And

1:13:28

if you look even at the Galway game, they don't like

1:13:30

to go in front of the Kenny game. The smallest

1:13:33

of marriages and the

1:13:35

smallest of teams wins matches.

1:13:37

If you look at the save on Morphy Med, came

1:13:40

off the cross power, and Hugh Lauder

1:13:42

got a bit of a hit to clear

1:13:45

the lines more so. Got it out enough so

1:13:47

the goal wasn't done. Manion, yes, they

1:13:49

got a flick. Saturday even, sorry,

1:13:51

got a flick. Wasn't. Didn't

1:13:53

even look to where he was hitting it. And it came to Glenn,

1:13:56

buried in the back of the net. And then the goal, Chance,

1:13:58

maybe Conner Hill, missed.

1:13:59

as well as more of a save made it more so for a Ma-Kasey.

1:14:02

That the hand pass, it was just maybe three seconds

1:14:05

that little bit high. It looped up and Connor

1:14:07

Wheeling had to wait for it to come down, allowing the defense

1:14:09

to get back and kind of cover. If that hand

1:14:12

pass was just like Navy T.J.'s, just inch

1:14:14

perfect, that could have been a goal, you

1:14:16

know? And there are the fine margins of win matches. And there

1:14:18

are the things maybe that Claire missed out on

1:14:21

yesterday was that the clinical of

1:14:23

Kilkenny taking their, the

1:14:25

right option at the right time, you know, there was, there

1:14:27

was wide, they only drove nine wide, but still

1:14:29

Kilkenny only drove six wide. No, they talk about

1:14:31

such fine margins and big games. Yeah,

1:14:34

I think Claire had 23 wides in

1:14:36

the same fixture last year. So clearly different from

1:14:38

that perspective. Shane O'Donnell, brilliant

1:14:40

game as well. Tagging in properly, unlucky,

1:14:42

you know, when someone has a performance like that in Croke Park

1:14:45

in a semi-final and they're on the losing side, it's

1:14:47

disappointing. Were you

1:14:49

surprised on 70 minutes to see Aaron Shanahan

1:14:52

coming into the fray so late? Obviously,

1:14:54

I don't know if he was carrying a knock, whatever, I don't think he was, but

1:14:56

some of the decision-making, from that regard by Brian

1:14:59

Lohan. Has put him in the red in the performance

1:15:01

ranking. That's why, yeah, yeah, yeah. But were you surprised

1:15:03

to see that, Taggy?

1:15:04

I look, it was, yeah, it really

1:15:06

was. I taught a few changes.

1:15:09

I taught first of all at half time that, look, they had to

1:15:11

change their whole system, and they did. They

1:15:13

went away from

1:15:14

the sweeper system. I was very surprised that they

1:15:16

didn't

1:15:18

bring dads off the bench. I couldn't

1:15:20

understand it.

1:15:21

Aaron Shanahan for me is a kind of either comes

1:15:23

on and he's a target. And

1:15:25

if you're looking for goals and if you're looking to win the matches,

1:15:28

if you had Aaron Schauer and Peter Duggan in there, that's

1:15:30

definitely an out ball. He's done it in the

1:15:32

past. He's got big goals.

1:15:34

He's a ball winner. He can create havoc

1:15:36

in that football. And just to bring in something different, just

1:15:39

to shake it up because, you know, Claire were

1:15:41

getting to grips at the game, but Kenny kept coming back at him. And

1:15:44

they weren't really getting

1:15:46

that two, three points ahead. So why not make

1:15:48

the change? And if you look at the flip side,

1:15:51

Terry Pate changes very, very quick. He entered the bench,

1:15:53

he was five subs. I think they

1:15:55

clearly used two, maybe three subs yesterday. I'm

1:15:57

not too sure. But look, it goes

1:15:59

on.

1:15:59

training, I suppose, as well, guys, you have to

1:16:02

see, was he going well in training? Was he not?

1:16:05

Was it just kind of pluck him out of the stand for the sake

1:16:07

of it? But I wouldn't put Naran Charing on just

1:16:09

for that out ball. And if they're looking for a goal and they needed

1:16:11

a goal towards the end of that game, they weren't

1:16:13

going to win it by getting pints. He was the

1:16:15

man to put on. So

1:16:17

maybe decision making there was

1:16:19

a bit slow. We've seen it in the monster final where

1:16:21

Hayes on Galan, like it should have been changed for me after

1:16:24

20, 25 minutes until he was left on. But look, it's

1:16:27

easy me talking on a Monday morning when

1:16:29

they're in the heat of battle. And I find sometimes

1:16:31

when they're on the sideline,

1:16:33

for me anyway, it's actually very hard to see kind

1:16:35

of sometimes what's going on in the pitch. I like to be like 10

1:16:38

seats up with a bit of

1:16:40

height so I can kind of have an overview of the match.

1:16:42

So definitely changes there.

1:16:44

Shouldn't have been made, I felt.

1:16:46

I was asking Jackie Tyrrell on Saturday how

1:16:48

he deal with Galan, right? And

1:16:51

he basically put out, took out a copybook and tried to draw

1:16:53

a diagram. Okay. He was going to play

1:16:55

him from the front, from the side, from the left, from the right. There

1:16:57

was a fellow coming behind. There's

1:16:59

only one of me, Jackie Tyrrell, to play

1:17:01

Galan now. And I think we know what that would

1:17:03

be. He'd try and solve more of a rest like that

1:17:05

every minute he'd get. And

1:17:08

I'd say he'd still love the chance. Yeah. I could

1:17:10

see him itching to get in. But the

1:17:13

shift now focuses

1:17:15

to Limerick, doesn't it? And

1:17:18

I suppose what he

1:17:20

can do to suffocate the likes of

1:17:22

Galan. And

1:17:25

would you be worried? Yeah.

1:17:28

I'm worried about Galan. I'm worried about Flanagan.

1:17:31

I'm worried about Hagerty. I'm worried about Eileen Lynch.

1:17:33

I'm worried about 18

1:17:35

or 19. But he's there in a green

1:17:38

journey, to be honest. Look, I go into

1:17:40

it and Jackie's just clear one anyway for at least 24 hours.

1:17:43

And I might sit down and think about it

1:17:45

tomorrow, but no, no, Galan. I

1:17:47

think Galan is in for earlier of the year.

1:17:50

I think with oncody, I think whoever wins the

1:17:52

Ireland, we'll probably end up picking it up. It depends

1:17:55

on the other farmers, of course, but two boys are

1:17:57

in serious

1:17:57

form.

1:17:58

Galan is unmarkable.

1:17:59

He's getting quality ball

1:18:02

in. I think he has

1:18:04

to stop at that source. Easier said than done.

1:18:07

He says to stop at that source. He saw the goal. He got against

1:18:10

Galway. He cut the ball over Dahi Bor. Not

1:18:12

an easy thing to do. That was a 50-50 ball,

1:18:14

realistically. And that's Galan coming in,

1:18:16

just being cute and catching it.

1:18:18

The man's on fire, but I still think he is

1:18:20

making that Limerick team tick, not

1:18:23

just because of the Max on Saturday

1:18:25

night. If you're long-winded, that Limerick maybe hasn't

1:18:27

been going as strong as they were. He was

1:18:29

the out guy. He was keeping him ticking

1:18:31

over when they weren't playing that

1:18:33

well, and he was getting scores. The man

1:18:35

is phenomenal. One of the greatest corner forwards I've

1:18:37

ever seen. I

1:18:39

suppose I've clipped bed corner forward myself, but his

1:18:41

ability

1:18:42

just to have one touch into the hand in three

1:18:44

steps, and it's either a goal or over the bar.

1:18:47

That's serious, serious, horrid.

1:18:49

And he's collecting the ball around

1:18:51

the 21. I like to play

1:18:53

corner forward, and he must be starting literally

1:18:56

on the end line then, and he must be timing his run

1:18:58

so much because when you're a corner forward,

1:19:00

you're making a run, and sometimes the ball is delayed maybe

1:19:02

three or four seconds. Next thing you're on the 21, and you're

1:19:04

collecting the ball around the 40. That's

1:19:06

no good, really, because you're out to field and trying to get

1:19:08

the score in is just harder.

1:19:10

So his timing of the run,

1:19:12

his latter kind of running of which,

1:19:14

and his ability to know, and this is just playing

1:19:17

with a team for so long, the ability he's

1:19:19

going to know where that ball is going to be, it's

1:19:21

just all in sync at the minute. It's just all

1:19:24

for him.

1:19:25

Taggie, he's starting his run on the goal post.

1:19:29

His ankle is touching the goal post on some instances,

1:19:32

and this season I've had the pleasure of

1:19:34

watching a lot of Monster Championship games in

1:19:36

the stadium, and his run is so deep.

1:19:39

I had said that to Jackie as well, and he said, well, sure, look,

1:19:42

he's making so much space for himself because as you

1:19:44

said, if you're starting your run on the 21 and you're going

1:19:46

out to the 40, you're eating into the

1:19:48

space that you're trying to create for yourself. So

1:19:51

that goal post start is a game

1:19:53

changer.

1:19:55

Oh, absolutely. Or Morphy now, he

1:19:57

wants to be strapped into that goal post if he couldn't. prevent

1:20:00

and his friends in his runs, but that's it. He's

1:20:02

starting from so deep and he's collecting the ball in

1:20:04

the danger area of the 21

1:20:06

and his first touch is immense. He's brilliant

1:20:08

in the air. He's a very, very, very strong

1:20:11

guy. He's heard, I think, a 32

1:20:13

inch, 33 inch. He's nearly unhookable.

1:20:15

He's bringing guys into the game.

1:20:17

He's seen his death touch there for Flanagan

1:20:19

there, just one touch until Flanagan bang

1:20:22

over the bar. So as a unit, they're

1:20:24

playing very well. I look, Limik

1:20:26

are just a different juggernaut altogether. They're actually,

1:20:28

they got so much better in that second half. They

1:20:31

were actually getting more physical. They were getting stronger.

1:20:33

They were getting more confident. I'll be at the

1:20:35

golf game for the last 15 minutes completely,

1:20:37

but still look at that. They're just a different,

1:20:40

different animal and they're going for four in a row.

1:20:42

I suppose just to whet the appetite is more than, where

1:20:44

the last team has done the four in a row

1:20:46

once again, and no, you can't even really

1:20:48

are there than now. And they won't want a Limik

1:20:51

team to match the record of four in a row. So

1:20:53

a little bit of motivation or a little bit

1:20:55

of

1:20:55

media. That's the chip on the shoulder that

1:20:58

Cody was talking about yesterday. I think you're

1:21:00

feeling very hard done by there up in Lindster with all

1:21:02

of your anti Lindster bias.

1:21:04

I think that, yeah, look, I think it came out

1:21:06

a little bit in all on speech, maybe about the talk about

1:21:08

Munster hurling and now the alerting is Limik

1:21:11

and Kilkenny again. But look, the Munster

1:21:13

championships was just brilliant. Like it

1:21:15

was point for point. And you know what, it was

1:21:17

just phenomenal. It's just a standard of the teams

1:21:20

in Munster are a little bit better

1:21:22

than the standard of the teams in Kilkenny. But when you come

1:21:24

down to the Kakenny's and the Galway's, they can definitely

1:21:26

compete with Munster teams. And you see no, they're

1:21:28

a small bit already kind of in between the

1:21:31

lanes. If you read between the lanes, you could see you coming out with a

1:21:33

small bit. There

1:21:34

was no lines, Taggy. There's no lines. Can

1:21:37

I finally ask you before we let you go? From

1:21:40

a Kilkenny perspective, what did you make of the referee in performance yesterday?

1:21:44

I thought it was relatively

1:21:46

good. Obviously the big call

1:21:49

was the goal that was this allowed.

1:21:51

But I felt I was looking at, I felt that

1:21:54

the given the ball was hit in, you'll

1:21:56

honor. Yes, he was, he caught

1:21:58

the ball and dropped it. and the whistle was

1:22:01

blown. And I just felt that the whistle was

1:22:03

gone that millimetre of a second before

1:22:06

he latched onto it and before the goal. I felt

1:22:09

even Lala maybe stopped his run slightly

1:22:11

because he just, whether he heard the whistle or

1:22:14

he just felt that they were going to get the advantage and was a

1:22:16

free.

1:22:17

So that's obviously a big talking point. I know

1:22:19

Lala came out and he was kind of giving out, but referee

1:22:21

and things like that.

1:22:22

I thought overall, his display

1:22:24

was relatively good. Yes, we won the game.

1:22:26

If we lost the game, I would have said the same to be honest.

1:22:29

Fair. Okay. I believe you. I believe you. Taggy,

1:22:33

great stuff as always. Thanks a million. Thanks, Taggy. Thanks,

1:22:35

lads. All right. Thank you. Bringing stuff in Taggy

1:22:37

Fogarty, former Kakeni Hurdler there with us at 8.55am

1:22:40

on this Monday morning's O2BM. The sports breakfast

1:22:43

show from Off the Ball with myself, Shane Hannon and Sarah O'Donovan

1:22:45

on this Monday morning with you. Everyone

1:22:48

turn our attention now to Matters Football and I

1:22:50

did say if any Perth joins us in studio, morning,

1:22:52

Vinny.

1:22:52

Morning. How are we doing? Morning. Well, well, good.

1:22:55

It's good to talk with someone Hurdling. Have we so often?

1:22:57

Yeah, absolutely. We've had a literally... Not

1:22:59

that everyone here agrees. No, no, no,

1:23:01

not everyone agrees. Take me back to Krogback immediately.

1:23:04

Yeah, yeah. We can hear you. Yeah, we've been talking Hurdling from the start of

1:23:06

the show and it's deservedly gone. It's got

1:23:08

its juice on. Oh, what a weekend. It's brilliant. Even for

1:23:10

the new trip like myself. I loved it.

1:23:13

It's just brilliant to watch. Yeah, I love the good look

1:23:15

even for us. I'm on him and I'm looking forward to it this weekend as well.

1:23:17

I know you're a dub, so you'll disagree. But

1:23:20

Lee Carsley,

1:23:22

future Irish manager, the way he's going, he's

1:23:26

after a clinch and an extraordinary win for

1:23:28

England over Spain with a 96-minute penalty

1:23:30

as well, just drama. Yeah, no, it's

1:23:33

an interesting one because as soon

1:23:35

as England won, I said that will be the sort

1:23:37

of hype triangle start, which is

1:23:39

a little bit unfair on, you

1:23:41

know, Stephen Kenio would say to you because look,

1:23:45

Lee Carsley has done a really good job. They've won the tournament

1:23:47

and they haven't conceded a goal, I don't think, and it

1:23:50

was excellent from them. I

1:23:52

watched a couple of the games and it was really good. But

1:23:55

he's dealing with probably the most talented

1:23:57

under 21 squad in the world.

1:23:59

just another tick in the box of his

1:24:02

career and his development. And,

1:24:05

you know, we always look at stuff with green tinted

1:24:07

glasses here when it comes to football, but what

1:24:09

I will say about it is, you

1:24:13

know,

1:24:14

his own personal development, we don't know what

1:24:16

that looks like and to come over

1:24:18

to Ireland and manage Ireland, if that job

1:24:20

comes up, what's the salary? What

1:24:22

salary can he get in the UK? What's his own

1:24:25

development? He'd probably earn more money in

1:24:27

the Championship Club for argument's sake. So

1:24:30

it's a long way down the road. Less

1:24:32

pressure, less taking time to play. Yeah,

1:24:35

and you look at the players he's dealing with,

1:24:37

I mean,

1:24:38

Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones,

1:24:41

two household names from any Liverpool

1:24:43

fans, I think they play week in, week

1:24:45

out for Ireland or when we got together. So yeah,

1:24:49

look, he's done a really good job. Anthony Gordon

1:24:51

was the main centre forward or played up

1:24:53

front for them. So tactically, he got some

1:24:55

stuff right as well that worked, but

1:24:57

they've got some extremely talented players

1:25:00

in that group. And

1:25:01

yeah, he's done what was probably expected,

1:25:03

like not winning the tournament would have been

1:25:05

deemed as failure.

1:25:08

And you compare their 21s to the Irish 21s, talking chase.

1:25:11

Yeah, completely. I don't know if we've been talking about

1:25:14

two years since the couple of Irish transfers,

1:25:16

Premier League transfers were completed in the last week

1:25:18

or so. Nathan Collins, of course, to Brentford

1:25:21

and Chidozio Benya to Luton Town.

1:25:23

Benya, in particular, came as a bit of a surprise. I didn't maybe

1:25:26

expect that he'd get a Premier League switch,

1:25:28

although we all probably in this country feel

1:25:31

he's worthy

1:25:32

of it. But two good moves. Yeah, two

1:25:34

really good moves. I think Chidozio is interesting

1:25:36

because you'd imagine Luton won't have

1:25:38

a lot of the ball at different stages as to go up to

1:25:41

the Premiership. And I think his sort of

1:25:43

pace and his ability to play

1:25:45

in a couple of positions mean he'll be one

1:25:47

that would be fascinating for us to watch from an Irish

1:25:49

perspective in terms of his counter-attacking

1:25:52

play, whether he plays as a wing-back or he

1:25:55

can play up front on his own at different stages

1:25:57

for Luton. So that will be a really

1:25:59

interesting move.

1:25:59

It's a brilliant

1:26:01

opportunity for him to sort

1:26:03

of one good season no matter how Luton do

1:26:05

would really put him in a good place and he

1:26:07

was a free agent as well so he's

1:26:09

been really clever and picked a really good move

1:26:11

for himself and so I'm really excited

1:26:14

to see how that one works out. Again, use

1:26:16

the language on the Irish team, green to the glasses.

1:26:19

We expect, we think really

1:26:21

highly these players but in England

1:26:23

they've seen them week in week out and it's it's

1:26:26

such a hard, like to be

1:26:28

a Premiership footballer now you've got to be an exceptional

1:26:30

footballer. I don't think that was always

1:26:32

the case like to be in to

1:26:35

be involved in any of the squads with

1:26:38

in the top six now you're you're not

1:26:40

far off world-class whatever that

1:26:42

word means but so

1:26:45

to be in that at league level is a huge move

1:26:47

from and particularly where he's come from. I remember

1:26:49

scouting for Limerick back in the day and we tried

1:26:51

to sign him at Dundalk and now he's a Premiership

1:26:54

player and it just shows you how football is so

1:26:57

and sport at the highest level is you

1:26:59

know. It's probably

1:27:00

a David Meijler kind of scenario

1:27:03

who ends up in the same situation.

1:27:06

Kevin Doyle is another good example from Cork

1:27:08

where I would have played against Kevin and to

1:27:10

be honest I wouldn't like he was good but he wasn't

1:27:13

and then all of a sudden he's 20 goals in the Premiership

1:27:16

within a year or two so football's like that. How

1:27:18

does that happen like you get a standout player sometimes

1:27:20

at the juvenile level or underage level even under 15-16s that

1:27:23

don't quite make it and then lads who are maybe

1:27:25

even considered the fifth or sixth best player on

1:27:27

their team at junior football level and then they end up

1:27:30

making it just late development maybe. It

1:27:33

is so it's

1:27:35

always something off script

1:27:37

while I was listening something who older

1:27:39

was Obama when he became president and Trump was 70

1:27:42

there's probably 20. Everyone's moment

1:27:44

comes at different stage in the league. You're right that was off script.

1:27:46

Yeah sorry everyone's moment comes at different

1:27:48

stages right so something

1:27:52

stupid that popped in to me phone yesterday.

1:27:54

That's a fair point. But so look

1:27:56

everyone develops and look you

1:27:59

have to be talented And you hear some people

1:28:01

criticise, I don't know, some players

1:28:04

like, you know, people

1:28:06

might have talked about John O'Shea,

1:28:09

who was only a bit part player, but you

1:28:11

can't be a bit part

1:28:13

player on average and spend 10 years

1:28:15

around one of the best club teams in the world. Yeah,

1:28:19

so look, it is just

1:28:22

the environment you go to, the manager you work

1:28:24

with, and football, like

1:28:26

you look at the, go back to the hurling

1:28:29

yesterday,

1:28:29

the save on the line in the game changes

1:28:32

the game and football is full, our sport

1:28:34

is full of, um, sliding doors

1:28:36

moments. Sliding door moments.

1:28:38

And it is. You look at Denise O'Sullivan with

1:28:40

Eastern Dash, her career is finished, she gets a

1:28:42

move, now she's a world class player. There are

1:28:44

these mad sliding moments in soccer especially

1:28:47

where you get the opportunity, you don't get the

1:28:49

same opportunity to transfer in hurling.

1:28:50

It's very rare. Rare. Rare.

1:28:53

I think that's what her needs. Some people try

1:28:55

to work out these even now.

1:28:58

In and out. But we agree

1:29:00

with you, like it's manager's environment and

1:29:03

these are two incredibly good moves this year

1:29:05

in a very competitive pool.

1:29:06

What I will say about Nathan Collins, one is

1:29:09

interesting, I think he needs to find, like I

1:29:11

remember being here a year ago and we were discussing

1:29:13

whether he was

1:29:14

good enough to go to a top six club

1:29:17

and just felt Wolf's was a great move from to go and

1:29:19

play, play week in week out. And it started

1:29:21

well from changing manager, didn't

1:29:23

help him but I think he needs a consistent run

1:29:26

in a club and somewhere like Brentford where he

1:29:28

just plays 30 odd games and particularly

1:29:31

centre half he can go on for another seven,

1:29:33

eight, nine years at the highest level and I just

1:29:35

think it's a really good move from in

1:29:37

the sense of

1:29:39

being able to play week in week out and

1:29:41

the manager at Brentford looks exceptional

1:29:43

as well and someone that you'd love to play for. Yeah, Thomas

1:29:46

Frank, definitely one of those managers that you'd be happy for the Irish

1:29:48

players to go and play under.

1:29:50

These European weeks for League of Ireland teams, there

1:29:52

must be strange enough weeks to prepare for as a manager

1:29:54

because I know Stephen Bradley was asked last week before the draw

1:29:57

again, you know, will you be playing your strongest

1:29:59

team?

1:29:59

course but he's obviously going to say that regardless.

1:30:03

But then again, you know,

1:30:04

Rovers missing the opportunity against Rada,

1:30:07

this bogey team that seems to have come out of nowhere

1:30:09

for Shamrock Rovers. But you

1:30:11

do have one eye on a European game, don't you? For

1:30:13

my players, the manager obviously doesn't.

1:30:17

I

1:30:17

mean, you look at Richie Tell, for example, there

1:30:20

was two young lads, Dara Noonan

1:30:23

and Nugent

1:30:26

both played and you see Richie Tell on

1:30:28

the bench and you're like, okay, what's

1:30:30

that about? Obviously, must have been

1:30:32

carrying some sort of an injury, they're missing a lot

1:30:35

of players at the moment and that was a really

1:30:37

poor result for I know people talk about bogey

1:30:39

size but it's just another draw and it's like not

1:30:42

putting the league to bed because Europe

1:30:44

is huge for Rovers in terms

1:30:46

of the finance of being a Champions

1:30:48

League team is just an

1:30:50

exception. So the Champions

1:30:52

route is huge, they would have made over three

1:30:55

million in prize money last year and

1:30:58

you can imagine any league of round club that's huge

1:31:00

finance in terms of building and sponsorship

1:31:02

and I'm building the brand which they've done so

1:31:04

well. So this is a huge week for them. For

1:31:07

the players, it's probably the best week of

1:31:09

the season. They absolutely love this. It's,

1:31:12

I mean, the Champions League music.

1:31:14

It might be round one but it's

1:31:16

such a good

1:31:19

moment to experience.

1:31:22

I'll never forget, like when we played

1:31:24

Leger Warsaw in the

1:31:27

playoff round for the Champions League, like the proper

1:31:30

centre circle had the ball, the stars

1:31:33

and the music and we were in the

1:31:35

Aviva and over in Leger was just

1:31:38

in the middle, like 40 odd thousand and then

1:31:40

you think you've made and I mean that

1:31:42

in a nice way but it's such a big moment. What

1:31:45

was your first Champions League game as manager? Well,

1:31:49

I had the couple but they were like

1:31:53

aside from Wales and then we went on

1:31:55

to the bigger toys

1:31:57

and Slován Bratislava would sort of...

1:31:59

to the biggest sort of toys from a Champions

1:32:02

League point of view but what

1:32:04

you'll find with Shamrock Roberts players is they get

1:32:07

a huge boost. They'll see the

1:32:09

opportunity to become a group stage team again

1:32:11

and being

1:32:13

at European level is everything

1:32:15

about it is better you feel better so it's very

1:32:18

easy for the players.

1:32:19

Puts them in a window as well an international window

1:32:22

to be you know picked up if

1:32:24

they have opportunity to progress. I think what

1:32:27

helps League of Orange clubs is it gives us national

1:32:30

recognition forced and foremost I think that was

1:32:32

the big change in 2016 that I

1:32:34

certainly noticed and I told

1:32:36

this story before I was working in

1:32:40

conjunction with Musgraves and remember

1:32:43

we played at the Champions League night and we beat Baté

1:32:45

Borisoff and the following morning I

1:32:47

was in the centre on Dame Street remember very

1:32:49

clearly and the electrician said I know your face

1:32:51

from

1:32:51

somewhere and it was a it came

1:32:54

off as break and he had the back of a newspaper

1:32:56

and it was a picture of me and Stephen Kenny hugging each other

1:32:58

so it gives you that but it gives

1:33:00

that that's the

1:33:04

stupid story of me but it gives these players

1:33:06

sort of national recognition so League

1:33:08

of Orange players are obviously fighting against fighting

1:33:10

the strong word but we're competing for

1:33:13

space with you look at the amazing

1:33:16

weekend that the Horne has just had and we'll

1:33:18

have

1:33:19

to fashion the pound we're going now. Yeah

1:33:21

well you actually start to make it easy for

1:33:23

us to be fair to the Horne they're starting to make it easy

1:33:25

because they disappear for so long and like

1:33:29

you can Jack Bourne is becoming a star

1:33:31

and then you look at Clifford I don't

1:33:33

think I've seen him play live this year. David

1:33:35

Clifford. Yeah or sorry not live even on

1:33:37

TV I'm not sure I have. Oh a lot of Kerry games

1:33:40

of G8. Yeah so you're like so this

1:33:42

is our opportunity from a soccer point of view with

1:33:44

the European stuff to go and

1:33:46

sort of build our own brand and

1:33:49

it is amazing

1:33:50

that the amount of people on the street that follow League

1:33:52

of Orange more when European stuff

1:33:54

so the casual football fan will certainly

1:33:56

have a huge interest in these results and big

1:33:59

week for over. was probably one of the total they played

1:34:01

in Icelandic side

1:34:04

who

1:34:06

will make it difficult for them and

1:34:08

it's huge getting true because said it

1:34:10

before when you lose when you're in the champions route

1:34:13

and you've got three competitions Champions

1:34:15

League Europa League and Conference

1:34:18

and once you as a champion once you lose

1:34:20

in the Champions League you go into the next round Europa League

1:34:23

I mean lose that you go into the next round of

1:34:25

conference so it's set up

1:34:27

to look after clubs like Sean McRovers to

1:34:30

hopefully have another group stage in them and I think

1:34:32

winning the first game is crucial it's probably

1:34:34

worth over a million pound easily

1:34:37

in terms of prize money this game so it's a huge

1:34:39

moment huge moment for the club and

1:34:41

for the league and we've got some good draws

1:34:44

this year we play teams from the Faroe Islands from

1:34:46

Gibraltar and from Luxembourg

1:34:49

in for the other three clubs all

1:34:51

winnable toys and I really

1:34:53

really hope that we can get four wins

1:34:55

this year and I think we're starting to get closer

1:34:58

to that and we're getting closer to a second team

1:35:00

in the group stage of the conference and we're

1:35:03

starting to we've got good coaches now who

1:35:05

know how to coach at European level I think that's

1:35:07

important and as I said it gives us that

1:35:09

recognition that we need.

1:35:11

Is there any concern and I know this is not Sean

1:35:13

McRovers fault as such but I was down at Roadstone

1:35:16

the Sean McRovers Academy there last week chatting

1:35:19

with Gavin Bazouno and like I

1:35:21

was so impressed with the facilities like really really good

1:35:23

facilities out there and you know same

1:35:25

they get a million quid prize money for getting to a group

1:35:27

stage or whatever. Is there

1:35:29

a concern that the gap between Rovers and the rest

1:35:32

only gets bigger because of their development

1:35:35

as I say look it's not their fault and they're

1:35:37

not to blame for progressing Europe and it's a brilliant thing for

1:35:39

Irish football but could the gap between Rovers and the rest get

1:35:41

bigger?

1:35:42

It's again it's I

1:35:44

take all that with a pinch of salt I mean when Dundalk

1:35:48

done so well in 2016 everyone said

1:35:50

that was it for years and you won over six

1:35:52

million and football sport

1:35:54

is so you get

1:35:56

things things happen at different moments

1:35:58

I mean. Where did the money go?

1:35:59

Well, that's a big question

1:36:02

and a lot of people have tried

1:36:04

to answer and no one has actually answered because don't know the facts

1:36:06

But that's a bigger story. So One

1:36:11

day we maybe I should write your book

1:36:14

and said other people but look what

1:36:16

I'll say to you is and these things

1:36:18

happen like in Harlan

1:36:20

Limerick are the best team and they're

1:36:23

gonna go on and dominate for next few years and just

1:36:25

something will happen where Comes in cycles. Yeah Place

1:36:29

enter back Yeah,

1:36:32

like we're gonna split the dubs in two Long

1:36:34

go and then people telling me dubs

1:36:36

won't win for another few years. It's yeah Look

1:36:39

Roberts is still ahead of everyone else the finance is

1:36:41

huge But we've got clubs like Derry City

1:36:43

now who are got good finance

1:36:46

and honor who's willing to put money in They're

1:36:48

European is run as crucial.

1:36:50

I think paths

1:36:51

and if they get through the next round their run

1:36:54

is crucial Everyone looks like they can make

1:36:56

some money and to be fair what rovers have

1:36:58

done this year in the league is they've proved They've

1:37:00

lost four and drawn eight out twenty

1:37:03

two twenty three games. Yeah, they're not that

1:37:05

far ahead of everybody So no,

1:37:07

that's not a concern of mine. That's just

1:37:10

I think that's I don't I

1:37:12

don't buy that

1:37:13