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sports breakfast show from Off the Ball.

0:32

Yes,

0:32

indeed, half past seven on this Friday morning's OTB AM.

0:35

The sports breakfast show on Off the Ball. Myself,

0:37

Shane Hannan, and it's Aisling O'Reilly alongside me this morning.

0:40

Good morning, Aisling.

0:41

Good morning, Shane. How's things? Good, you keeping? Colm

0:43

Buhig is also here. Good morning, Colm. Hi,

0:45

sir. You were just singing Wham there. I was, yeah.

0:48

I feel like I have to mention Wham because you've done it the last four mornings,

0:50

and this is to complete

0:52

the Grand Slam of the week. He's talked about Wham. Have

0:55

you seen this new documentary?

0:55

We were just literally getting a coffee there in the kitchen,

0:58

and he asked me, and he said, I've mentioned it every week. He's a plague.

1:01

He's a plague. He won't drop it. I

1:04

didn't have time yesterday evening. We don't

1:07

have time in the modern world. What

1:09

were you doing? You'd make time if you wanted to make

1:11

time. Maybe. What were you doing

1:13

for an hour and a half otherwise? Something to last

1:15

a while. Were you? Perfect thing to watch it with.

1:18

Unbelievably. I said to you yesterday, tomorrow's the

1:20

last chance we can do this. I can't

1:22

do this Monday. I know. I know.

1:24

Well, look at this. Look, Emma Carroll writing in.

1:27

First comment. You've had a week, Shane. Yeah.

1:30

You have had a week. Not angry, just disappointed. That makes me

1:32

feel worse. The worst line. See, I've

1:34

been watching Black Mirror. You can't just watch everything. Black

1:37

Mirror will be there for you next week and the week after. But

1:39

so will the Wham doc. No, Wham Bam. It's done this week.

1:42

It's not actually, though, is it? It is, yeah. No,

1:44

you just made that up. Discussion-wise, it is. Oh,

1:46

discussion-wise. OK. Right, but

1:48

not, it'll be there for me to watch.

1:49

Ray Forney played the intro to Club Shopper Canada, and this guy won't

1:51

even watch the documentary. He already got the trailer out

1:53

of him. Actually, I watched the trailer this morning, and it looks great.

1:56

Monaghan

1:56

are in the All-Ireland semi-final. There

1:58

is no time. There's plenty of time.

3:54

this

4:00

and I was like as a grown man sporting

4:02

results should not impact me the way that they do and I agree

4:04

with Mick entirely here like I get

4:07

impacted so much same on and win

4:09

I'm buzzing for days if they lose I'm

4:11

so sad for days it's like it

4:13

just impacts your mood and sports shouldn't do that

4:15

but it's also that's

4:17

what sports about isn't it? Yeah that's why you love it yeah That's

4:19

why you love it, that's why you love Ann Hidders

4:22

but yeah there's just something about it that

4:24

just sticks with you for days and days

4:26

and days so after this weekend we'll see what mood I'm going to be

4:28

in but looking forward to the weekend generally speaking

4:30

keep the comments coming in on the YouTube by the way I

4:32

think I'm going to go through Dublin Manningham game Oh yeah I

4:35

think so That'll be the best atmosphere I think of the weekend because

4:37

the Potaltenkopf I know will have a decent crowd beforehand as well you'd

4:40

imagine I think

4:42

it's a set out Yeah Nearly sure

4:44

it's a set out or close to it obviously the Kerry

4:46

Derry game should be a decent match

4:47

as well Calvin Cullors says Patrick Hickey

4:49

they're not Calvin Cullors although they could be misconstrued

4:51

as that Manon for Sam says Maslafunk

4:55

Wham

4:56

what a show What's

4:58

the Wham documentary it's excellent says Noel Cattle What

5:00

great taste Noel has Yeah yeah It'll

5:03

be over by half time Patrick Hambleau says

5:05

Hallelujah this is the last day of discussion of Wham

5:08

Well if you're going to have that attitude about Patrick it

5:10

won't be the last day Yeah fair A

5:12

Shane says it'll be over by half time do you mean the Tatlen Cup

5:14

Final? I don't know Certainly

5:16

I know you don't mean the Dublin Manningham match Greg Caffrey

5:19

up down

5:20

and Hudds says good morning up the Kingdom keep

5:22

the comments coming in who you're supporting this weekend here's what's on the way

5:25

by the way between now and 10 o'clock this morning on the show

5:27

we've got plenty of build up to both of those

5:29

games including the Kerry

5:31

Derry match from 8 o'clock Mike Frank Russell the former Kerry

5:33

star and Patty Bradley Derry

5:36

legend was also involved with the Donegal backroom team as well this

5:38

season so get his views at 8.25

5:40

we'll preview the Tatlen Cup Final in more depth with Mickey

5:43

Burke the former Medestar and Danny Hughes the

5:45

ex-Down player as well we of course did Dublin Manningham

5:47

yesterday with Jason Sherlock and Paul Finley to get that

5:49

back on the podcast or the YouTube we've Brian

5:51

Dowling who has departed as the Kenny Kamoagie

5:54

boss on the show at around 50 Louise

5:56

Shanahan the athlete the Irish athlete previewing

5:58

the Morton games with us around 10 o'clock 10 past nine and then a Detleboke

6:01

who was on the show last night with Nathan

6:04

at around half past nine previewing the weekend's football.

6:07

Guys, I guess the big

6:08

story yesterday in world sport

6:11

certainly in football was Delhi

6:13

Ali's interview that he did for the overlap with

6:15

Gary Neville.

6:16

This was an incredible 40,

6:20

45 minutes, wasn't it? It's

6:22

unbelievable. When it's

6:24

popped up in the time when yesterday morning, I knew nothing

6:27

about this. Did you? There was no promo or

6:30

throw a head to it. As

6:33

soon as I saw the thumbnail of Delhi

6:35

and Gary talking, I was like, I'm going to be all over this

6:37

because I'm

6:38

endlessly fascinated by that guy's career. Because

6:41

when he, I

6:42

suppose, correctly burst onto the scene

6:44

like to quote Mick Richards,

6:47

he was phenomenal. I hadn't really seen

6:49

a player like Delly too much because he was a strange

6:52

one. He wouldn't really put him in any particular position. I'm like, I

6:54

know he played midfield or I suppose

6:56

he was best suited to supporting Harry Kane

6:58

in a deeper role, but he didn't exactly

7:00

dictate games in midfield, but at the same time he'd be

7:02

up and down and he was a flare player, but

7:04

he would fly into tackles. But

7:06

he did a great knack of scoring really important goals and

7:08

some spectacular ones as well and helped

7:11

out with his fair share of assists. And

7:13

like you said, one of the many brilliant quotes

7:15

in the interview was like, people used to say, I was

7:17

fearless. It's like, I'm not fearless and it's brave.

7:20

And that's kind of how you would have described them. And

7:22

in the drop off was just like nothing you've ever really

7:25

seen in modern football anyway. So

7:27

then I was just fascinated by like, what's happened to this

7:29

guy? Like, has he just completely lost all

7:31

motivation ever since Mauricio Pacittino

7:34

left Tottenham? And then there's that like, probably

7:36

the most famous thing that's happened to Delly in the

7:39

last few years was the Amazon documentary

7:41

clip with he and Jose Mourinho.

7:43

Mourinho saying like, you're what is

7:45

it 21 today tomorrow you'll be 50,

7:47

believe me. Told him lazy, didn't he? No, it wasn't.

7:50

Told him lazy. No, but

7:52

then you see as Delly alludes to in the interview

7:54

with Gary Neville, a week later Mourinho

7:56

apologized, but Amazon didn't include that in

7:59

the documentary. So. He felt he had an unfair

8:01

edit, but that was about the only finger pointing

8:03

that Daddy did in the entire three quarters of

8:05

an hour with Gary Neville. But it's like just a stunning

8:08

example of honesty. And

8:11

we were saying beforehand, it's like, I just don't think he would

8:13

do that with a journalist. No. It

8:16

was, you know, it was the fellow pro

8:17

in Gary Neville, who I know is a media person

8:19

now rather than a foot punter, but was still like, you're going

8:21

to get this, you'll understand. But then the other

8:23

side of it too is like, Daddy's saying, look, this

8:26

is probably too early for me to do this interview. He's only three

8:28

weeks out of rehab

8:30

in the six weeks since in America. And he said,

8:32

I think he said, ideally it'll be another three weeks before he do

8:34

it. But he felt under pressure to get his story

8:36

out there before the tabloids did, as he put

8:38

it. That's so sad. Yeah, that he

8:40

felt the need that he had to come out and say like, imagine

8:42

the tabloids, the rags going to his agent

8:45

saying, we're going to publicize this. You need

8:47

to do it like to be forced into something like that

8:49

is disgusting. But also he dealt with it so well

8:51

in the interview, like even when he's talking about, you know, going

8:54

to training with Mourinho. And as he said, he doesn't

8:56

blame Mourinho for any of this, but looking in the

8:58

mirror at 24 and asking himself, you know, I just can't

9:00

retire. I love, I love if Gary asked him

9:02

about what did he feel in that one on one meeting

9:04

where Mourinho wasn't critical of him. Really

9:07

like he was quite constructive. Actually, you seem

9:09

like I actually raised you very highly, but you

9:11

need to make sure that you maximize your potential

9:13

and talent. And I

9:15

think Neville started asking that and

9:17

then kind of went on to a different question in the same question.

9:20

So I would have been interested to hear what he thought about that. But

9:23

I was asking my brother-in-law as a season ticket holder

9:25

at Spurs. Yeah. Obsessed

9:27

obviously. And he was saying with Delhi, even

9:29

though he always seemed like a popular fella and he had like

9:31

loads of friends in the Spurs camp

9:33

in England, he said there was always kind of a

9:35

lonely last vibe to him. Even

9:38

in the peak of his form in 2016-17, there

9:40

was always something not otherworldly

9:42

about him, but he seemed almost distracted at times that he would

9:44

just look into the distance. And it wasn't even hindsight.

9:47

That was when he was being linked at Real Madrid. By

9:49

the way, very fairly linked at Madrid. Like this

9:51

guy was the real deal. He's the equivalent of,

9:54

I think, Martin Samuel compared to Jude Bellingham now. That

9:58

was the reputation he has. And

10:01

like a spectacular player, like no more so

10:03

in that goal, at Cetera's Park against Crystal Palace. Yeah.

10:05

Flick over the head. Malatissier style.

10:07

But then this crucial goes to like we go to Stanford

10:10

Bridge and against Manchester United. And he

10:12

was brilliant in the air. He's quite tall. And

10:15

he just had a bit of attitude about him. He didn't really care about

10:17

reputation. Like there was a lot to like about him. He's

10:19

like, he's yeah, exactly. A maverick. But

10:22

the interview was incredible because this

10:24

time yesterday, I don't think a lot of people had

10:26

much time left for Delhi. Mm. And

10:28

now he's like everywhere.

10:30

But it all makes sense now. There's a moment and most

10:33

people will have will have seen it. I understand that some

10:35

people won't have. But there's a moment

10:37

in the middle of in the middle of it all where Gary just

10:39

asks him what

10:40

what's the story here? And he just lists off

10:43

the childhood that he had. And yeah, at age six,

10:46

molested at age seven, he's whatever

10:48

smoking smoking. Yeah. Like

10:50

Africa as well, by the way, at age seven for discipline.

10:53

So to think that he came from all of

10:55

that and went on. Do what he's done

10:57

is just incredible. Like

11:00

it's it's mind blown that he was able to do that.

11:02

Unbelievable. Like he's a raw talent like that's

11:05

evident in his play. But my

11:07

God, just the mentality to be able to do

11:09

that and everything that he's been through. I

11:12

just think Gary did so well in

11:14

that interview, just the way he handled it and he

11:16

had such patience. And you often forget,

11:18

I think, Gary as well that he is this ex

11:20

footballer and he's had this incredible career

11:22

at Manchester United. But

11:23

where we is an unbelievable broadcaster

11:25

as well. Because Gary didn't look at it's

11:27

one of those type of interviews where you wouldn't need it, but

11:29

he didn't have any notes in front of him. It was just a

11:32

conversation between two people to clearly

11:34

know each other from the time with England. Yeah. And

11:36

he was just so he

11:37

listened to Gary like, you know, you

11:40

got the sense that it was that Delhi was opening

11:42

up to him. And maybe you might know, as you say, opened up

11:44

to anyone else. Certainly not a journalist, clearly

11:47

skeptical of the media and journalists. And

11:49

probably rightly so. And you see the things like, you

11:52

know, being forced to come out and talk about this when

11:54

he was only in rehab three weeks ago.

11:56

A tough life to be in as well, like in football,

11:59

the way it's, you know.

11:59

It's so uncertain. Yeah. Feels

12:02

like he needed a bit of stability, and that's when he thrived.

12:04

And maybe moving clubs when

12:06

managers left, that had such an effect on

12:09

him, it felt like.

12:10

The sleeping pills thing was

12:12

I didn't realize the extent

12:14

to which sleeping pills were used in football. Even Gary

12:16

seemed like, oh, this is

12:18

footballers naturally are offered maybe

12:20

sleeping pills by staff a night before a big game

12:22

or whatever to get to sleep. I hadn't even considered

12:25

that as something that they might need. But

12:27

as he described it, like, yeah, sometimes maybe you'd

12:30

have so much energy the night before a game, and you have to sleep, because

12:32

otherwise you're not going to perform the next day, that he would take

12:34

sleeping pills. But then when he says he was taking pills,

12:36

he didn't put a number on it. But at 11 o'clock

12:39

in the morning, and just to get him through the day and

12:41

on his days off, oh, to remove himself from reality,

12:43

like from 11 AM. That's insanity.

12:47

Yeah, but it probably made a lot

12:49

of sense to him at the time, like, which is the worst thing about

12:51

it. He kept saying he was just numb. Yeah.

12:54

People tried to help, or his family,

12:56

when he said they were in a room, literally crying

12:58

to him, begging him, telling

13:02

him how important he was to them, everything, what

13:04

he could do. And he just said he was numb to it all. But

13:06

it's all he's heard as well, is how much of a waste

13:08

of talent he's been. So Gary Neville interviewed

13:10

Alex Ferguson not too long

13:12

ago for Lad Bible, I think. Yeah, I remember that. He

13:14

had the typical questions of, like, other player you regret not

13:16

signing. His answer was Paul Gascoigne. And

13:19

there are parallels there.

13:20

And then he said,

13:23

one of Gary's questions was, what player do you

13:25

think is going to be a star? Ferguson

13:28

said, I thought that he was going to be,

13:30

and I don't know what happened there.

13:32

And that's, like, the godfather of British

13:34

football, saying that. And then

13:37

that's magnified by a million,

13:39

because it's happened to him all the time, like, all

13:41

the time. But the Gascoigne thing is interesting.

13:44

He said in his own book, the one that came out in about 2004, the

13:47

one he wrote, Gascoigne, when he was just finishing up playing. And

13:50

he said, like, people call me a waste of talent. He's

13:52

like, it's remarkable how much I achieved

13:54

considering my upbringing in childhood. Just look at the other. Gascoigne,

13:57

he is an awful incident, too, where he.

14:00

was babysitting one of the neighbours and

14:02

the neighbour was knocked down by an ice cream and

14:05

killed. Jesus. And

14:08

he was blamed first and he never got over that. And

14:11

then he has trauma that he's only dealing with now. So

14:13

he's saying, you know, he got young player of

14:15

the year twice in a row, I think.

14:17

Linked around Madrid when at the time it made

14:19

total sense. That were a couple of 2018. Started for England

14:21

in 2018 and that was probably just past his

14:24

peak. And that Tottenham side

14:26

in the middle of the last decade, the one that came second

14:28

to

14:29

our third to Leicester in

14:31

2015-16

14:32

was a brilliant young talent side.

14:34

It was kind of like the Leeds team of the turn of the century

14:37

and he was very much prominent in that side. So

14:39

he went, so he was sky high, right? So

14:42

what he's achieved is remarkable considering

14:44

what he's done. So it totally flipped

14:46

now in a narrative. As I say, this time yesterday,

14:49

people are saying, what a way is there.

14:50

Oh, come on. That was all the

14:53

headlines. Yeah. Party boy.

14:55

Yeah. That's in the comments here. And he

14:57

says, I think the Delhi interview is a massive lesson for

14:59

us all, be it when we judge people in sport or just in everyday

15:01

life, you never know what anyone is going through. That's

15:04

a fair point. I think we all probably at some point judge. I don't

15:06

want Daniel Harris tweet attached like everyone

15:08

does. I mean, I think everyone knows that, but you do forget it.

15:10

You do take it for granted and you do take people at

15:13

face value. So it is a

15:15

reminder that people have stuff going on behind the scenes

15:17

that they'll never let you in. Bobby Dwyer,

15:19

I know is a big Spurs fan, says, I'm 34

15:22

and in my time supporting Spurs, one of

15:24

the most naturally gifted players we've had in my time. Absolutely

15:27

heartbreaking interview. Hopefully this is when the weight

15:29

has lifted off his shoulders and he can get back to his best on the

15:31

pitch.

15:31

That's it. He's 27. Yeah.

15:34

I was excited by listening to how we finished the interview and

15:36

how positive he was and how he wants to be back

15:38

better than he was

15:39

before. It's interesting. Bobby said

15:41

that like a resident Spurs fanatic.

15:44

I actually thought it was a positive interview. Oh,

15:46

yeah. I thought the details were harrowing, like I'm

15:48

really sad, but I think it's uplifting at the end

15:50

because he's like, it's a weight off his shoulders. And

15:53

I think whatever he does now, it's not quite a

15:55

bonus, but I think it will be better. Like

15:57

he hit an all time low, like when he went to Everton.

16:00

as we know now, he wasn't really present at all.

16:03

I remember Frank Lampard when he was managing them

16:05

talked about him in press conferences

16:07

and people asking like, where's Delly? What's the story with Delly? And

16:09

he'd be quite curt and short being like, Delly

16:12

needs to kind of commit to football. So that

16:15

line itself would add to the idea that this guy

16:17

didn't care. And then he goes off to Bechsigtas

16:20

and then, I remember myself and Feligian talking

16:22

about him one morning here in the office saying,

16:24

oh, did you see Delly got booed off the pitch by

16:26

Bechsigtas fans and he was taken off in the first half of the

16:28

game by the manager. And he's supposed to be the star player

16:30

in the number 10 position. And he's trotting off

16:33

and he's just his head down and he's looking into the distance.

16:35

And everyone's thinking the same thing. This guy does

16:38

not care. Yeah. It turned

16:40

out he really,

16:41

that was the caring was not the problem for Delly.

16:43

He says he's in such a positive place now. And he

16:46

even, even Gary asked him about his, about Everton

16:48

and you know, he wants to go back. He's got a year

16:50

left in his contract with Everton, but he, he's not putting pressure on himself. work

16:54

out. Yeah. But

16:57

I feel great. Who knows what the future holds for

16:59

him, but I feel like it's not just football.

17:01

Yeah.

17:02

You know, he kept talking about hoping that this

17:04

will help us one person and having a bit

17:07

more of a purpose and stuff. You kept mentioning things

17:09

like that. So I think he'll do so

17:11

much more than what just football now.

17:13

I know that

17:15

faster family must be really, it must be

17:17

the most amazing group of people, like you said, because

17:20

like

17:20

he speaks so well.

17:22

Yeah. He's so thoughtful. He's still

17:24

really young. Like even at 27, like

17:27

you're still kind of a baby at that age and life

17:29

experience. Like it's only 15 years ago that he

17:31

was adopted. Like, you know, absolutely. That's

17:33

such a good point because the way he got that story across, you

17:35

know, that's not easy to articulate in your

17:37

emotions and everything that goes with it. And

17:40

he was amazing in the interview if you actually

17:42

think about it that way. Yeah.

17:43

Just the way he's so,

17:46

he's kind of philosophical really for a young

17:49

man. Like, but he's lived two lives, like you said there.

17:51

He's unbelievable. So I'm looking forward to seeing what happens

17:53

to them. I don't know if his future

17:55

is at Everton. I don't even know if it's in England.

17:57

Well, I know. I think he'll play.

17:59

He will play football again. He'll play, yeah.

18:02

He has to bear in mind too, what you forget is that he's injured, like

18:04

he's physically injured. Yeah. So

18:06

who knows how fit he's going to be when he comes back. And

18:09

he may not be the same player he was. He may have

18:11

peed very early in his career. But

18:14

I think if he does play for Everton next

18:16

season or a Premier League side, the

18:18

ovation he's going to get in that first game you'd

18:20

imagine would be very positive. As the season

18:23

goes on, if he does play the whole campaign

18:25

next year in England, he will have times where

18:27

fans are going to use that interview against him. And

18:30

he's probably ready for that. They're going to call him all sorts of things. That

18:32

is horrific. But they will. And

18:34

you know what they will. When time moves on, people are going to start

18:36

using that against him. But I genuinely don't think

18:39

he'll care about that. I don't think so. And

18:41

that just helps. So I hope we see him on the pitch because,

18:44

as Bobby Doer is alluded to there, what a talent.

18:47

Yeah. A raw talent. I

18:49

actually miss the footballer, Daddy, but now the person that

18:50

is sky high. Oh, big time. So keep your comments coming

18:52

in. Greg Caffrey says, some of the British press are disgraceful,

18:54

forcing someone to do that per chap. But he's coming

18:56

right. I fully agree with you there. Michael

18:59

saying, unfortunately, currently media culture doesn't allow the

19:01

human aspect of professional sport. There are many more like

19:03

Delhi behind the scenes, but rarely acknowledged. Yeah,

19:07

it's true. And like, keep those comments coming

19:09

in because as Shifty Lad says here, his

19:11

style of playing just made it look like he didn't care too much. Hopefully,

19:13

Lad has a great career ahead. Yeah. That

19:16

was the thing as well. That's also pretty good point. The

19:18

language style. Yeah.

19:19

Kind of like, oh, still heavy. Yeah.

19:22

Add it to it. But it worked. Worked

19:24

for him. Yeah. People used

19:26

to praise him for that. I encourage anyone who hasn't seen the interview,

19:28

by the way, to give it a look on YouTube

19:30

or wherever you watch it. It's all over the back

19:32

page. It's like, I mean, what's like, what an impact on interviews had like

19:34

fair play to kind of it's unbelievable. Yeah. Fair

19:37

play to him and to Delhi as well for coming out and talking about it as well.

19:40

And a few other bits of the other two-hour slopes in action

19:43

in Europe last night, Derry City

19:45

frustrated beginning their Europe conference league campaign

19:47

at HP Tushavn. Nill they'll draw.

19:49

Didn't play well by all accounts. Done dark

19:51

as well. The Heat being a major issue for them

19:53

and a lot of chances for their opposition. One

19:55

of the best team names, by the way, another score to straw here

19:58

against Bruno's magpies in the.

19:59

Europa Conference League first qualifying round that was a Victoria

20:02

Stadium, Nill Nill. Bruno's Magpies.

20:04

I think that methanom was on the show talking about them a year ago.

20:06

Bruno's Magpies. Yeah. Sound

20:08

like a great pub team. Anytime can I say that? They

20:10

may be a pub team. They might be actually, yeah. I

20:12

want to know more about Bruno's Magpies.

20:14

Do we know where they're from? They're a Gibraltar

20:17

team. Gibraltar. What's the word

20:19

there? How do you say it? Gibraltar.

20:22

Gibraltar.

20:23

We'll go with it. The football team for Gibraltar,

20:25

yeah, playing with Gibraltar National League. Formed in 2013,

20:27

they're 10 years old. This

20:30

is how they were formed.

20:31

As a group of friends who drank at the Bruno's Bar

20:33

and Restaurant bar in Gibraltar. I love them.

20:35

Right. So now they're now

20:37

just in the last 10 seconds they've become my new favorite

20:40

team. Yeah. Group of Magpies drinking.

20:42

There you go. In the first two seasons they were

20:44

mid table in Gibraltar second division.

20:47

Then they kind of moved up.

20:48

This is amazing

20:50

that a real estate agent in Gibraltar came on board as sponsors

20:53

in 2015-16. Started to move to

20:55

professionalize the whole thing. This is incredible.

20:58

What a story. Meats just going drinking and

21:00

setting up a football team and now they're playing in Europe and

21:10

probably disappointing week generally. Yeah.

21:13

You're at Tala Stadium.

21:14

Yes, at the Shamrock Grovers game. Yeah,

21:16

disappointing performance. I think the first half they

21:18

just lacked energy altogether.

21:21

They're playing Brideblik from Iceland.

21:25

Yeah, and they're a really good side. They'd scored 12

21:27

goals before, you know, in

21:30

the preliminary round. So they were well able to score

21:32

goals and you could see that their press, their

21:34

attacking type of play. It

21:36

was tougher for Shamrock Grovers to deal with.

21:39

And yeah, they came out in the second half a little bit more

21:41

urgency about them. But yeah, in the

21:44

end, it wasn't enough. So they're away to

21:46

Iceland now next Tuesday for the second

21:48

leg. So it's going to be a big ask. Huge

21:50

game for Grovers, that one. Wimbledon

21:53

yesterday lived up to expectations. Brilliant.

21:56

Vandra Solver is the story now, is she? Marchetta Vandra

21:58

Solver has always kind of been there. They're about

21:59

very kind of skillful left-hander.

22:02

So that final against Ann Jabour tomorrow will

22:05

actually be a battle of the counter-press nearly and

22:07

the skills so it won't be a kind of a power display.

22:11

So that's what Jabour's been up against

22:13

now for her last three rounds. So she

22:15

beat Reena Sabalenka yesterday in three

22:17

sets. Brilliant, she was a set in four, two down

22:19

in the second set. Incredible. And

22:21

I was watching her, you could see in her face like Jabour,

22:24

like last year's finalist beaten finalist. She

22:26

was like not this again. And now it's, you know,

22:28

stage earlier. And she looked positively

22:31

like fed up four, two down. Yes.

22:33

With Sabalenka in control. And she said afterwards

22:36

she was like, I just didn't care anymore.

22:38

I was like, all I want to do is break

22:40

Sabalenka, just break her, serve.

22:43

And even if I lose in straight sets, fair enough, but my ambition

22:46

is to break her. Yeah. And she went,

22:48

she won, I think, 13 of the last 16 games after

22:50

breaking her. Right. Incredible, right?

22:52

So Jabour's like known as the most naturally gifted

22:55

player on the women's side. She's incredible

22:57

array of shots. The thing that she's done this year,

23:00

like this is her grand slam final in 12 months, thing that she's

23:02

done in the last year is that she's kind of put

23:04

all that to a side. A bit like Cristiano Ronaldo

23:07

when he first signed for United was kind of remember

23:09

all tricks and Ruth Van Esteroy would be rage and just

23:11

get the ball in. And then he, Ronaldo ended up being

23:13

the most direct player known to football. Yeah.

23:16

So Jabour's taken a bit of that and is just ratty for rally

23:18

now and just hitting winners and forgetting about

23:20

the flair. She brings out the flair whenever she wants.

23:23

It was so often. So she should be a grand slam champion

23:25

by now. She's added that ruthlessness to her game. But

23:28

she was in danger yesterday of getting knocked out. She

23:30

was in danger in the quarter finals of getting knocked out

23:32

against last year's winner, who she lost to in the final,

23:35

Rabakana, Elena Rabakana from Kazakhstan. And

23:38

Jabour was ahead in both tie breaks of both

23:40

first sets in the last two rounds and last them.

23:42

So her capacity to come back

23:45

with talent is amazing.

23:46

She works a lot on her mental side of the

23:48

game as well. Because even before she went out, she's

23:51

there speaking to her coach. I don't

23:53

know if her a psychologist or what it was, but they were

23:55

just talking about it in commentary. And they

23:57

said, this has been a massive part of her

23:58

game. Yeah, they were really tight.

23:59

coach and set up, she's one of the subjects

24:02

of the Breakpoint documentary. So

24:04

her husband is her trainer and then she is another

24:07

guy. I think it's a very tight knit group, but you

24:09

can tell that they're genuine,

24:11

all close and friends. So

24:14

I think everyone's hoping that she beats

24:16

van Drusseva unless you're in that camp. But

24:18

van Drusseva is actually the favourite here because she's beaten Jabbar in

24:20

the last two times they've played. She was a German fighter

24:22

before. Van Drusseva, not a surface grandson.

24:25

That's what I'm saying, she's always been there, thereabouts,

24:27

she's never done it really in the biggest

24:29

stages, but she has a winning record or

24:31

she won the last two times they've played. So

24:34

Jabbar mentioned that in the post-match interview.

24:37

So it's going to be a really good final and

24:39

if Jabbar wins, she's already the most successful female

24:42

Arab tennis player ever. But if she wins a Grand Slam,

24:44

she'll probably be an absolute

24:46

hero in the continent, let alone Genizia. Still

24:48

lost to Jenny Tlaffey years ago. Six love,

24:51

six love. I'm going to point that out. Jenny, if you're

24:53

watching, we've got your back. The men's semi-finals

24:55

are today. So Novac Jokovic against Janik

24:57

Sinner.

24:58

Sinner's interview, by the way, after his quarterfinal

25:01

win was hilarious. He was like, do you mind who you draw

25:03

in the semi-finals?

25:04

He was like, yeah. Jokovic

25:08

would preferably avoid Novac Jokovic. Yeah, he used

25:10

all the times in the world, but this is his first Grand Slam semi,

25:12

which is hard to believe, Sinner. And then the

25:14

Karasal Kras against Daniel Medvedev is the other

25:16

semi-final. So it's really, really

25:18

high quality on paper. All

25:20

remaining games, actually. So the two

25:22

semis today, the final tomorrow and the final Sunday,

25:25

will on paper be high, high quality versus

25:28

at the start of the tournament when we were missing so many star

25:30

names.

25:31

So it's redeemed itself big time

25:33

from the actual play, rather than the names. I look

25:35

forward to those two semi-finals today. Did

25:38

want to turn attention back to matters Gaelic

25:40

football and the comments are coming in on the Gaelic football as well. Mullerby

25:43

says, Shane is surely in the dark, blood

25:45

red in the power rankings, performance rankings, do you mean,

25:47

on Monday when Manon and Luz and for failing to

25:49

watch the Wound Duck, even if Manon and Luz,

25:52

look, you still got to get behind your team. What's

25:55

the point of me going to Croke Park tomorrow without belief and hope? It's

25:58

probably mainly

25:59

hope. the hope is going to kill us. Kenny

26:01

the dad says today we learned the chain has convinced himself of a Monaghan

26:03

win this weekend. Of course I have.

26:05

I mean, 36 hours out, whatever it is, I

26:07

have fully convinced myself that we're going to do it. But

26:10

the game that precedes that one is the Taitlyn Cup

26:12

Final. Meath versus Down. The

26:14

big one. The big one, the huge one. Three

26:16

o'clock. Yeah, three o'clock for that game at Croke

26:18

Park. And yeah, we did want to kind

26:20

of look ahead to it and get some preview and build

26:23

up from Coudie Down this morning from Gaff.

26:26

Colin McGinn joined us on the line this morning. Good morning, Colin. How

26:28

are things?

26:29

Good morning folks. How are you keeping? How's

26:32

the build up

26:33

fairing in Down at the minute? Fever pitch?

26:36

Yeah, all good. I suppose there's

26:38

a lot of bumping and flags and all up at the minute

26:40

and people are always getting ready. All

26:42

excited.

26:43

Ashley, does this man look familiar? Yeah, I might know

26:45

him. Yeah, I'm looking at him going, maybe.

26:49

Yeah. For people who are nervous, more to

26:51

the bragging rights, like we're underneath. This

26:54

is your debut on Off the Ball, I think. I think I'm right.

26:56

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, wouldn't really be Colin

26:58

Singh. So yeah, fair play, Colin. For people

27:01

who wonder what the hell is going on here, Colin and

27:03

Ashley,

27:04

our future husband and wife, they

27:06

are engaged. Oh, look

27:07

at this. Future Mr. O'Reilly.

27:10

Future Mr. O'Reilly, it says on

27:12

the screen here, Colin, just in case you're wondering. But

27:15

has this led to awkwardness in the

27:17

McGinn-O'Reilly household at the minute? Because obviously

27:19

there's the Down-Meeve

27:21

rivalry that probably goes back to the early 90s to

27:23

be fair. But I mean, in your Gaff, it's

27:25

going to be a little bit awkward this weekend. Yeah,

27:28

well, I suppose the 90s were playing in

27:31

the Sam of Fire. This time it's due sort

27:33

of New Year, but both counties

27:35

are where they are at the minute. But

27:38

Ashley and his family, WhatsApp group, has been relatively

27:40

quiet, so I'd have to look after that. I think

27:43

after that. There's a lot of slaggin' that goes on.

27:45

You know, they love this. Obviously, we're

27:47

in a final against her. 1991 was

27:49

the last time. Me and Colin don't remember

27:51

that, you know, when we were young. But we're

27:53

always been told about it. So it's nice

27:56

now to be back in a final against

27:58

each other. But yeah, there's a lot of slaggin'. that

28:00

goes on isn't there, Cottom? My brother actually went

28:02

in to watch the semi-final, what

28:04

Cottom?

28:04

All right. How does

28:06

that go? When

28:10

Downscored their fifth, sixth goal

28:13

in the second half of the Leafs game, you just could have walked

28:15

out a bit of thin enough. So I

28:18

think the conference is slowly, maturely

28:20

draining from them but no one sees how it

28:22

goes. I was going to say when the team scores, like

28:24

when they get to your goals actually in the semi-final

28:27

you have to be thinking as a Mead fan,

28:29

I know Leesh weren't great but

28:31

that's pretty convincing stuff

28:34

from Downscored. Big time, like

28:36

the only way you can look at that is that Leesh weren't

28:38

at the races at all so you feel that

28:40

maybe Mead had the better test and preparation

28:43

but at the same time it just looked like Downscored

28:46

were let loose. Cottom, that was something we spoke

28:48

about just how Downscored maybe Sucral

28:50

Park?

28:52

Yeah, I think Connor's

28:54

brought a team in that's sort of nearly

28:56

designed and such to play in Crook Park. They're the

28:59

wee small fellas who just are full

29:01

of running, full of pace. Usually seeing

29:03

Gaelic football boys running at one

29:05

and twos coming off the shoulder but they seem to be going

29:08

at threes

29:09

and at that level they can get away with it as well

29:11

in the Talcen Cup because

29:13

with Crook Park just being

29:16

as big as it is, I've seen them beating

29:18

Leesh well last time but I didn't think it would

29:20

have been as big as it was but

29:23

I think they might just have too much against Mead

29:25

as well. That's the thing as well, Colin isn't it?

29:27

Like Connor Laverde's team, a lot

29:29

of these lads would have I guess played with them on an under 20

29:32

level and you look at the spine of that team, there's

29:34

a lot of 23, 24 year olds so like these

29:36

lads would have run all day for you.

29:38

Yeah, there was a big clear

29:40

out and such last year, I think Downscored,

29:43

Calvin and also Championship last year and

29:45

the whole county was in disarray, there was off

29:47

the field stuff. There

29:49

was only one or two hundred Down fans I

29:51

believe at Bradney Park that day but

29:54

he's came in and he's just

29:57

changed the county for the better, everybody's

29:59

bought in.

29:59

There was always a big issue

30:03

with clubs up all, the rivalry, and

30:05

it seems that

30:07

just got everybody as one unit

30:09

now and they're all going the same direction, which

30:11

is good. You'd have played club level under

30:14

a certain down Supremo, call

30:16

him Mickey Linden?

30:18

Mickey, yeah. Back

30:20

to the 90s, Mickey and the Lexi James

30:22

chart and stuff was the type of

30:24

people you always grew up looking to support

30:27

and looked up to and, oh. I

30:29

remember my club, Durgath,

30:31

were a small rural parish

30:33

intermediate level and Mickey

30:35

came to his fourth trade and there was maybe about 60 boys

30:38

there. So that sort of tells

30:40

the level of what

30:43

were people

30:46

around the country, even, you know, Mickey Linden was sort

30:48

of ice only and

30:49

the Lexi James McArton and Ross

30:52

Killar. So yeah, if them boys

30:54

get anywhere close to that, they'll be going

30:56

well. What was Mickey like in training?

31:01

He was a gentleman. He never spoke

31:04

about himself. He

31:06

already talked to you about how he

31:08

got prepared for games, but when he trained

31:11

with us in his mid-40s, early-50s and he was

31:13

still the fastest in the team and

31:15

he always dropped the shoulder of his trademark and

31:18

put it over the bar 45 yards out. So

31:20

yeah, he was unbelievable. I know

31:22

if my girlfriend was from Dublin, say,

31:25

for example, this weekend, and she was big into the GAA

31:27

and after the match Dublin won, I would not

31:29

be able to speak to her. So like,

31:31

are the two of you the same? What will be, presumably

31:34

you're both going to the match?

31:36

No. You're not going? So I know

31:38

this is... See, I didn't go to the Irma and Ehrmajen

31:40

game and I was getting criticized for that. I can't go. I'm

31:43

working at a different game. Fair, okay. Yeah, I'm

31:45

at Irma and Cork and the women's game

31:47

on Saturday and then... That's work.

31:49

Column has a wedding, a friend's wedding.

31:50

Oh my God. So he's two of us.

31:52

Wow, wow, wow. We're both separated, but maybe

31:54

that's the best. Will it be off? Will

31:56

it be... Will you genuinely

31:59

have five minutes?

31:59

to kind of decompress when you first see each other

32:02

if one has battered the other in the match. I'd

32:05

like to know, Colum, who will take the

32:07

defeat better in your honest opinion?

32:09

That's a better way of putting it.

32:11

This is easy. Well, that seems very competitive, so I'd

32:13

say you can rub her up very easily, yeah? Thanks, Colum.

32:16

I like

32:19

her brother, but her cousins even texted me this

32:21

morning saying what I'm doing for the game and stuff,

32:23

so it's more I'm able to show

32:25

my face around Ritoth than me in the

32:27

next few weeks. That's all I worry about. I want

32:29

to tell you, you've put yourself on camera now

32:32

and off the ball, so you'll be getting potentially

32:34

stopped a little bit more, you'd imagine. The

32:36

amount of messages that I'm even getting me like, I

32:38

hope you're shouting for me, Dash, and I'm like, I'm living

32:40

down, yeah, but like, come on, my heart

32:42

is me.

32:43

That's even more, that's more of a reason to shout

32:45

for me, I guess, living or not. Yeah, of course.

32:47

Yeah, it's one of those awkward ones, I think, that

32:50

hopefully you're both smiling and still friends

32:52

and still going to get married at the end of all of this. We

32:55

hope so. We hope you're okay. I'm pope-y

32:57

smiling. You're the hush-be-loser here. I knew,

32:59

Ashley, I met you, Collum, at the

33:02

Tri-F-I, was it last year, the year before? That's right,

33:04

yeah. In the build up to that, I knew there was a sense

33:06

that Ashin was

33:07

probably after myself the second most comp- no, you're

33:09

probably more competitive than me, to be fair. Really? I'm

33:12

pretty competitive, but like, the smack talk that was going

33:14

on, Tommy Rooney was involved in all this as well, but

33:17

I just knew, so Collum, you have

33:19

my utmost sympathy this weekend. Yeah,

33:20

Collum is very calm, you won't let much faze

33:23

him. Yeah, maybe I show it a bit more. I

33:25

feel like down lads are all like that. Down

33:27

lads are cool, calm, composed,

33:29

they always have been. I think that's my cut-up. I

33:32

was like, on the go. Yeah,

33:35

I should have been always, ever. Just even that 2010

33:37

team, just like Marty Clark and all these,

33:39

the largest co-starner in the pitch, there was just something about them,

33:41

there was an aura to that down. You probably remember that 2010

33:44

final, Collum, do you?

33:45

Yeah, I did indeed, yeah. It was

33:48

sort of, I was

33:49

actually in the sand,

33:51

I wasn't born for 1981, and 1994 came too early,

33:55

so 2010 was probably the only down 10

33:58

that we can look back nearly.

33:59

falling memories because it's

34:02

not kidder stats. The last 10, 15 years,

34:04

well since 2010, it's been sort of poor.

34:07

There's a lot of more emphasis on the clubs nearly,

34:10

so

34:11

hopefully the touching cup here might sort

34:14

of change the direction for the batter. Absolutely.

34:17

Well, let's see.

34:17

You would know Brendy McVey who played in

34:19

goals. I think he works with Brendy. He's only after

34:21

Paxton. He's tuning in here. The

34:25

techs are going to start rolling in now, you call them.

34:27

There's a shadow. I just have to clarify.

34:29

Column, are you column? Column,

34:32

yeah. Column. C-O-L-M,

34:34

yeah. That's the proper way to

34:36

say it, isn't it, Column? Yeah. We're

34:39

both the same spelling, but we're very different pronunciation.

34:41

That's what you get from each end of the country. But I would

34:43

always say... It's the beauty of it, really. You gave out to me before

34:45

because I'm from Ireland, obviously, so I'd say Column as well, C-O-L-M.

34:49

Yeah, but that's wrong. You cork, lads, but you're Column.

34:51

Column. You don't know how to say your name,

34:53

Column. Column sounds like

34:55

C-U-L-L-U-M. Well, that's a pronunciation,

34:58

but the spelling is the same as Column McGinn. Yeah, but why don't you

35:00

say Column? It's supposed to be Column. But I could never

35:03

call Column McGinn, Column McGinn, because

35:05

I wouldn't be genuine to myself. But he would never

35:08

say

35:08

Column Buig. Column. But

35:10

he's at... It is Column. Yeah, another way of saying

35:12

it, like you have Rory. It is, but

35:15

it's not. Rory and Rory. Yeah,

35:17

yeah, yeah. Oh, but they're different spellings. But this

35:19

is the same spelling, right? So it's only...

35:22

It's a monster pronunciation, basically.

35:24

And you know who else says Column? Who?

35:27

Nathan. And he's male. See,

35:29

them lads over there are not... No, he's just doing that for you, because you've given

35:31

out to us. He would be the last person to do that for

35:34

me if I give out to him. But yeah. This

35:36

is Doherty Doherty.

35:38

You know? You lads, Doherty's down in Cork.

35:40

This is the problem. You have to pronounce it forever. Sorry,

35:43

you basically have to pronounce it. Someone

35:45

says, I swear to God, I thought he was about to ask him, did he watch

35:47

Wham? So this is a running joke on the show that all

35:49

this week Column here won't

35:51

stop talking about Wham. I never

35:53

thought it'd be on on a Friday morning talking

35:55

about hope for next week. Yeah. It's

35:58

like a fever dream, I'd say. Listen, the

36:00

best team wins the long game. I hope the two use the

36:02

shot. On the royals, huh? On the royals and on the mornmen.

36:05

But call them thanks a million. I'm gonna start saying call them

36:07

now. Call them thanks a million for happening on. Brilliant folks, thanks very

36:09

much. Thanks, Callum. See you later on. We

36:13

will preview the starting cup in more detail a little

36:15

bit later as well with Danny Hughes and Mickey Burke.

36:18

That's an experience for you, Ashley. Oh, delighted,

36:20

yeah. That was great. Fair play to him.

36:22

It's not normally a thing that we do and I was

36:24

delighted when he said he wanted to do it. Sorry,

36:27

he's brilliant. He's a good analyst. He honestly

36:29

knows everything about sport

36:32

inside out. I've been so impressed. He

36:34

knows a hell of a lot more than me. He's been this evening.

36:37

He's looking for a time. He's a brilliant person. So

36:40

we will preview that in more detail of course with the

36:42

two lads, Patty Bradley and Mike Frank Russell

36:44

are upcoming in just a second as well to preview

36:46

the Kerry Derry All-Ireland Senior Football

36:48

Semi-Final. That's on Sunday. OTB

36:50

AM. The Sports

36:53

Breakfast Show from off the ball.

36:56

8.09 AM on this Friday morning's OTB AM. The Sports

36:59

Breakfast Show on off the ball. Myself and Ashley

37:01

are with you through until 10 o'clock this morning.

37:02

Time to turn our attention to stick

37:04

with Gaelic football but to the All-Ireland Senior

37:06

Football Championship Second Semi-Final on

37:08

Sunday afternoon. It is the matter of

37:11

Kerry versus Derry. Delighted to say we'll have

37:13

Patty Bradley on the line with us in just a second. We do

37:16

have Mike Frank Russell, former Kerry legend, on the

37:18

line with us this morning as well. Mike Frank,

37:20

how are things? Morning, guys. Thanks for hopping

37:22

on. What's the feeling in Kerry

37:24

ahead of this one? Because I guess Derry,

37:27

you know, Ulster Champions two years in a row, not

37:30

many teams get to do that. So you

37:32

can't, I guess, get too confident ahead of this one. Although

37:34

after the quarter-final performance, there

37:36

must be an air of confidence in Kerry.

37:38

Yeah, I think there's a lot

37:40

of premature talk really, I suppose, going by the

37:42

two semi-finals, Kerry Dublin. There's a lot of

37:45

talk about Kerry Dublin final already. But I think

37:47

there's been a lot of disrespect shown towards Mona

37:50

and Derry, to be honest with you, you know, Derry, they're

37:52

back-to-back Ulster Champions. They're

37:55

back in a semi-final from last year. So look, it's going

37:57

to be a new puzzle for Kerry.

37:59

They got over Tyrone the

38:02

quarter-final, very impressive, but Derry to

38:04

me had something about them and

38:06

they've been knocking on the door with a couple of years with these

38:08

miners coming through so it is

38:11

going to be a big task again and just mentally

38:13

for Kerry I think it's more the mental thing this time

38:15

because they had a history with Tyrone But this

38:17

time Derry there's no history between

38:19

them as such So it's a new

38:22

puzzle to try and start for them

38:24

to get their heads around It's gonna

38:26

be tough for Jack O'Connor to get the players up again

38:28

So it's gonna be tough to ask I think, you know

38:29

The set-up Kerry

38:32

very well gave Tyrone the kick-out in the quarter-final

38:35

and it worked perfectly Obviously

38:37

that strategy was something that they'd planned and

38:39

built on Do you stick to that sort of plan for

38:41

Derry or do you change things up?

38:43

Yeah, I was talking to one of the Kerry

38:45

players last week and the word he used was patience

38:47

because I was like jumping to Tyrone

38:50

game and they gave him the kick-out but I think it's gonna

38:52

be the same because

38:54

Paddy Tally's coming in as a coach for Kerry and their

38:56

beginning is protected to

38:58

start goals and Derry have got a goal

39:00

in all their games this year apart from the money

39:02

game and the Tyrone Robin So Kerry

39:05

are going to set up to start Derry getting goals because I

39:07

think Derry are going to need two or three goals to beat

39:10

Kerry I can't see

39:12

Derry scoring 17-18-19 points So

39:15

I think Derry are going to have to get two

39:17

or three goals So Kerry are

39:19

going, let's be honest, Kerry and Dublin

39:21

they're saying traditional things but they can

39:23

play the fences as well, which they did against Tyrone

39:26

Kerry will be trying to protect that D again against

39:28

Derry Yeah,

39:29

that was probably one of the most impressive

39:31

things about Kerry In that quarterfinal,

39:34

they scored 1-11 from turnovers

39:36

They probably did what Tyrone normally do

39:39

to Kerry and that's probably the influence

39:42

of Paddy Tally in there as well

39:44

Absolutely, yeah, he's really

39:47

come in and solidified the D, but

39:49

Piedmont is sitting in front of the D, can

39:51

Derry occupy Piedmont and Sunday

39:54

can they drag him out of there and

39:56

try and open because I think Kerry

39:58

will try and hunt for goals

39:59

If Kerry can protect

40:02

that, I think there will be a great chance. But

40:05

for me, Kerry will have to get two if

40:07

not three goals to be Kerry.

40:10

And even the midfield battle, that's one in particular.

40:12

I think there'll be a lot of eyes on. We talked a lot about

40:14

it against our own as well. And just look

40:16

at the performances that Kerry went on to have.

40:18

Diermaud was unbelievable in the middle that day.

40:20

He picked up the man of the match. Obviously, with

40:23

Derry, people say that it's one of the best

40:25

midfields in the country. That's probably going to be

40:27

one of the main parts of the game, the winning and losing

40:29

of it.

40:30

Yeah, Conor Conor O'Connor and

40:32

Brendan Rodgers, I mean, they're going up with big scores.

40:34

But the last day, Diermaud O'Connor, I suppose,

40:37

for most Kerry people watching him, he became

40:39

a man. He became of age. We knew

40:41

he had this potential, and he just really

40:44

took over the game. And so it's going to be fascinating.

40:47

A big step up now, another step for Diermaud. Can

40:49

he go again? Against probably the in-form

40:52

between the last two or three years, Conor O'Connor. So

40:54

it'll be fascinating. Yeah, it's going

40:56

to be very interesting. Brendan Rodgers has

40:58

to be watched as well, because he's gone upscoring freely

41:01

as well. And he's a big weapon on

41:03

the attacking side for him as well, you know. So Jack

41:05

Berry will have to be able to track him as

41:07

well.

41:08

It's an unchanged team from Kerry for this

41:10

one as well, Mike Frank. And I know Killian Spillan,

41:13

I think, is one of the Spillans certainly left

41:15

out of the panel. But the fact that he's gone to the unchanged

41:17

team, albeit we kind of sit

41:19

and wait in Croke Park. Press boxers

41:21

waiting to see whether there'll be any changes before throw in.

41:23

But even looking at that Kerry half back line,

41:25

the importance of them, Paul Murphy, Tyke Morley, Gavin

41:27

White, have been brilliant. And

41:30

they've been a crucial cog in this Kerry team the

41:32

whole year.

41:33

Yeah, I'm actually surprised

41:35

Killian Spillan, his back training, has

41:37

made the panel. I'm a big fan of Killian. And

41:39

the last number of years, I suppose he's been labelled

41:42

now as an impact sub, super sub. But

41:44

he's always produced and he's come on. So I think

41:47

when you come to this stage, the championship, he has that bit of

41:49

experience. So to

41:51

me, I think on Sunday, I personally think

41:53

it's going to go down to the last 10, 15 minutes. And

41:55

you're looking at Kerry's pinched in possibly, the

41:57

likes of Kini's family. He's not there at all. Tony

42:00

Braz and these guys. Both, yes,

42:02

that's just one thing. We're going back to the half back line.

42:04

They've been playing very well, especially Kevin White. He has

42:06

pace, he's counter-attacking, he's bringing

42:08

the ball up the field. So

42:10

the three half forward line are going to have a busy,

42:13

a busy day tracking them. But on the flip side,

42:15

the three half back line, Garrett

42:17

McInless, these guys, I

42:21

suppose the four teams left, they're probably the pacest

42:24

counter-attacking team in the country, in my opinion. They're

42:26

transitioning very quick. So can we

42:29

have a forward line, I'm going to have,

42:29

keep tabs on them also. So there's a

42:32

flip side to it, you know?

42:33

Declan Bogue was on

42:35

the show last night with Nathan. He was making the point.

42:38

He feels Shane McWiggan is more important

42:40

to this dairy team than David Clifford

42:43

is to the Kerry team. What he means by that is,

42:45

I guess Clifford has a lot of star power

42:47

around him. Sean, he was shared chips in at the scoring as

42:49

well, obviously from play and from

42:52

place balls. But would you go along with that? That McWiggan

42:54

maybe is more important to dairy than Clifford

42:56

to Kerry.

42:58

That's the answer, I nearly agree with

43:01

that. Because as I said already, I think

43:03

to me on Sunday, dairy, I think they

43:05

need to bring just something different. I'm

43:08

going to be looking at like, the Kieran McFall, Eaton

43:10

D'Arty's, Nyl Toner's

43:13

candy, help Shane McWiggan to

43:16

chip in with an extra two or three points. Because when

43:19

you get to this stage of the championship,

43:21

Clifford has a support cast, which is absolutely

43:24

brilliant. And same with Doug McConnell,

43:27

can Shane McWiggan get some help on Sunday?

43:30

Just because he's going to be a mark

43:32

man, these guys, these markly forwards. But I

43:34

think that dairy have to bring something

43:36

different in forwards on Sunday to help Shane McWiggan

43:39

but to see how important he is absolutely.

43:41

Yeah, at the start of the season, I

43:43

wondered can Shane do it in these big

43:46

games? And my God, literally

43:48

every game he has stood up for them. I think he's still

43:50

top scorer now at the minute. But probably

43:53

the fear there for dairy is that David Clifford didn't

43:55

have his best performance the last

43:57

day. Yes, he had this unbelievable.

43:59

kick from the sideline, what a pass, but

44:02

he probably wasn't at the heights that he's normally at

44:04

and that'll probably be one of the factors of

44:07

the game. Who do we think will pick him up? Probably

44:09

Chrissie McKay.

44:11

It's fascinating,

44:14

I know I suppose you're coming to expect Dave

44:17

enough to be scoring off the charts, but I

44:19

actually thought he played well, he drew

44:21

a lot of attention. There were two or three drawn towards

44:23

it the whole time, so it freed up a lot of

44:25

the Shawnee and she is in these guys. So I

44:28

think if Kerry win the next day and Jagger Connor,

44:31

David Clifford has done a job of attracting attention

44:33

and the other fellas get loose, so be

44:35

it. Kerry would be happy to take that too. But

44:37

yeah, the matchups will be fascinating, I think. What

44:41

we're hearing is that Chris and Patty

44:43

might know more about it, but it looks like Chrissie McKay

44:45

is going to pick up David Clifford. What

44:49

I like about the stereo team too, they're very adaptable.

44:51

If you go back to the Shawnee club team, Brendan

44:53

Rodgers played fullback, Chris McClay

44:55

used to pay a centre back and pick up Deon McConaughey for

44:57

St Vincent's. So are Derry

45:00

going to throw academy on the pigeons

45:02

and change a few positions around? But

45:05

at the moment what we're hearing is going to be Chrissie McKay

45:07

and David Clifford, so that would be a fascinating drill. Connor

45:10

McCluskey

45:11

could be picking up Shawnee O'Shea, Pardre

45:13

McGrogan and Pardre Clifford. But

45:16

Derry and their defense, they're adaptable,

45:18

they switch positions, so are

45:20

they going to throw a court ball and try something different, you

45:22

know? We do have former

45:25

Derry star forward, Patty Pradley on the line as well, Moan

45:27

and Patty. Mike Frank was making the

45:29

point there at the outset that there's been a lot

45:31

of disrespect afforded towards Derry

45:33

and Manahin in the advance of these semi-finals. A

45:35

lot of the papers and a lot of the pundit opinions being

45:37

that it's already essentially a Dublin-Kerry

45:40

final. Has that attitude

45:42

been picked up in Derry? Is this a siege mentality

45:44

thing that might be used by these teams,

45:46

by both Derry and Manahin? I

45:48

wouldn't say it's necessarily a siege

45:50

mentality thing, but yeah, I suppose everybody up

45:52

with us, part of the contrary. I

45:55

suppose luck's at it that yeah,

45:57

everybody's saying that Kerry and Dublin

45:59

is going to to make the

46:01

finals and that's the final that everybody wants to see the two

46:04

I suppose start lineups but they

46:06

haven't been out here without a chance up in Senate all week

46:09

make Frank's hit the nail on the head a little other things there

46:13

but I think they definitely will have learned

46:15

from the experiences of playing the All-Round

46:17

semi-final last year whatever I thought they played really

46:19

really well in the first half but

46:23

just didn't take their chances they're a more

46:25

experienced bunch they're

46:28

a better squad now I think

46:30

a couple of players and a couple of clubs that makes a lot more

46:32

you can come on you come on last year and

46:34

go against Collie

46:36

late in the game I think he's a better player that can make an impact

46:39

and look the likes of Christian McKay and a few of these

46:42

lads will know it's maybe their their last chance

46:44

maybe to get to an All-Round final so look they're going down

46:47

quietly confident luck here obviously favorites

46:49

All-Round and champion starts to the lineup but

46:52

three of the All-Round shiders I give them more

46:55

more than more than a chance than most.

46:57

Yeah, Patty you felt like last year a lot of talk

46:59

around Derry was that did they have the firepower

47:02

up front

47:03

to go on and to go all

47:06

the way basically maybe that was a question mark over

47:08

it do you feel that Derry are in a better

47:10

place now than they were at this time last

47:12

year? I

47:13

think they are but look a

47:15

lot of hinging the performance should use already makes it up

47:17

shame you should just

47:20

LX in he's one of the top forwards in the game he's top score

47:23

probably been off the boil in the last couple of weeks the best

47:25

ground he hasn't been playing his

47:27

best but he's gonna be double team,

47:29

triple team I

47:32

think you know Sunday's gonna see the best of them but

47:35

he is gonna need a bit of a sport cast like

47:37

Mike Frank again mentioned that Kerry, forward

47:40

line you know if you tie up Clifford in

47:42

any way you know he's got four or five hours

47:44

to do the jobs we're gonna need Derry, the likes of Niall,

47:46

Lachlan, Derry, those are very very talented footballer and

47:49

he's well able for scoring like in club

47:51

football around here and Derry, Niall

47:54

Lachlan, he scored regularly,

47:57

Paul Castee is another player who's you know

47:59

really really burst onto the scene game alive

48:01

this year. He should pace the burn, he can go over to

48:03

another one. We're going to need these guys to step

48:05

up and really help see in terms of putting the

48:08

scores on the board. I also agree with Mike

48:10

Frank and the fact that we're

48:12

going to need to hit two, maybe three goals to win this

48:15

game but I do think they have the ability to do that.

48:18

One thing that has impressed me about the day I came in the last

48:20

two or three years is whenever

48:22

there's a 50-50 chance of a goal at all, they

48:24

go for it. There's no such thing as taking

48:27

these jobs and pop all over the bar. I think there's

48:29

any way of engineering a goal at

48:31

all. They're always trying to go for that and you know if

48:34

they do goal chances do your eyes at the weekend or 50-50. If

48:36

they have a chance for goals do your eyes at the weekend,

48:38

they're going to have to be climbing and going to have to pop them away. This

48:41

is the thing Mike Frank as well about this

48:42

Derry team that Kerry are going to have to match I guess

48:44

is work rate and certainly

48:47

against Tyrone you could see Tyrone's energy sapped

48:49

as the game wore on and Kerry's work rate was very high

48:52

but even in the Derry Cork match, albeit

48:55

it probably wasn't as convincing as Derry would have liked but

48:57

still it's not only quarter-final they got over the line did the

48:59

job and it was a bit of a swirling breeze in

49:02

Croke Park that day as well. That

49:04

intensity, that work rate, that's something that Kerry are going

49:06

to have to match because you know the Derry are going to bring it.

49:09

Yeah absolutely especially on the centre of the field

49:12

with the two boys Connor Glass and Ben

49:14

Rogers. Most midfielders

49:16

have one runner and one fellow sitting but the two legs

49:18

they are going up, they're scoring, they're just relentless,

49:21

they're fabulous. Look what is two boys and they're so

49:23

adaptable you could play them in the forward you could

49:25

play them in the halfback so

49:39

you

49:53

can go back. There are a lot of talents

49:55

in this in this

49:56

Derry team that I guess Kerry have to

49:58

be wary of and the other

49:59

thing is and actually mentioned it like you probably are

50:02

in a better position than last year even from a strength and

50:04

depth perspective like maybe there's a couple of lads now coming

50:06

off the bench that maybe last year you looked

50:08

at one or two players but there seemed to be more talent

50:10

coming off the bench than last year.

50:12

Yeah look one of their strengths

50:14

is they're attacking from deep you

50:17

mentioned Conor D'Arte good goal the last day also

50:19

good goal against Donny Gull obviously

50:21

in Ballagafey, Gareth McInnelas a goal that day too

50:23

Potty McGrogan, them

50:25

three boys in particular come from the half background along

50:28

with Conor McClossy give Gary Sias some participants in the back

50:30

it's been well documented

50:33

strengths of Bretton Rodgers obviously he's been

50:35

that off the leash this year going out to midfield even

50:39

from a Donny Gull point of view we try to set up

50:42

you know obviously to try and stop Bretton

50:44

but he's so so hard to defend against he

50:47

breaks lanes he makes ground

50:49

he sucks men in an off-load ball shooters

50:52

or he's well able to pick him a shot himself like

50:54

how many times have you not seen Bretton

50:56

Rodgers and this is something I wouldn't have you know

50:58

put him down for it has been a long distance shooter but

51:00

you know this championship alone he's maybe kicked

51:02

six or seven points from you know 45 yards

51:04

away on a key player for Darragh

51:06

at the weekend for me he's gonna be Kieran McFall obviously

51:09

Kieran must have started the championship when he was in America

51:12

they're playing him in their corner forward and they sort of been

51:14

giving a three-year-old but to me a lot of football

51:17

he's played has been on the periphery has been on the fringes

51:19

to me Darragh needed to become a central figure before

51:22

he went to America last year he was center half back

51:25

you can't disrupt how you things will own that defense because

51:27

you know that's probably man for man it's as good

51:30

a defense as there is in the contrary but I think Kieran

51:32

McFall if he put him at 11 and try

51:34

and put a lot of ball through him like yeah

51:36

he can't go into containment mode here at the weekend

51:38

I think at times they're gonna have to defend

51:40

with 15 men but at times they're gonna have to

51:42

keep the carry defenders on us

51:45

keep Shane McWiggin post at high up the field and

51:47

maybe try and post Kieran McFall at 11 and play

51:49

as a link and trying it early ball into the two

51:51

men because you know if they want

51:53

to containment mode the 15 men behind the ball yes

51:56

they'll make it very very hard for K but

51:58

I think K has a experienced

52:00

and it's good if football is there, we'll figure that out

52:02

and it'll just be a thousand cuts. So I'd

52:05

like to see Derry in the early stages and say maybe

52:07

post them a little bit higher, they'll execute on McFall, shame

52:09

it, we're going to try and go at Kerry early doors.

52:12

And Paddy, one thing that Derry will do

52:14

is obviously Oren Lynch will come out, that

52:17

could be a very risky thing against Kerry,

52:19

having the likes of David Clifford,

52:21

Shawny O'Shea, the speed that they have to get

52:23

in behind.

52:25

Yeah, I suppose, if you remember back to last year's,

52:27

all that and said finally was caught out of goals a few

52:29

times too. But I'm kind of still Oren,

52:32

he wasn't a keeper to begin with,

52:35

he's not orthodox, but I think he's

52:37

had a really, really good season and he's developed

52:40

maybe from the conference, maybe see

52:42

him in them, for example in the Ulster Final. I

52:46

had a question to him coming out to field as much as he

52:48

has done because I thought of times he looked a bit jittery,

52:51

even in that Ulster Final, early on in the game I thought

52:53

I nearly had him turn number two or

52:55

three times. But the more the seasons along

52:57

he's looked very much composed to direct, like

53:00

all it takes is one step up here and the likes of the

53:02

Kerry forward line will obviously punish you. So

53:04

as I said earlier on, they're going to need to get

53:07

to as he goes himself and they're going to have to keep the goals

53:09

out from the Kerry point of view.

53:10

Shawny O'Shea has been brilliant as well this year. Mike Frank

53:14

really picking up the flack and popping over

53:16

scores for this Kerry team. It's hardly surprising when you see the

53:18

accuracy of him, but how important

53:20

has he been to Kerry this season?

53:23

I think he came with a bit of pressure

53:25

after a month of championship against Smair. He's farmed

53:28

deep to base and the link

53:30

from the half-forward line today, maybe one day

53:32

or that day, but he's really picked

53:34

up now against Laut and Tyrone Lester. He's really

53:37

seems to be a different player, more

53:39

energy and they'll lead that against Sunday because

53:41

he's going to have to be tracking,

53:43

he's going to have to be linking the play. So yeah, and

53:47

at times they put him into the

53:49

full forward line as well the last day, so it's

53:52

something that he's played inside

53:53

of these clubs. He's played inside David Clifford

53:55

as well as a scorer. A lot of

53:57

people around the country would see him as a link to the half-forward

53:59

line. He's well able to sit post

54:01

up in the 4-4 line as well and playing

54:03

sorry with David. But yeah, playing well. So, you

54:06

know,

54:07

1-4 is very hard to do on his own. So

54:09

look, Kerry have 2-3 and I think you need

54:11

that before you get in the championship, you know, but

54:13

yeah, hopefully Shawn will continue letting on Sunday,

54:15

you know. Before we get your predictions,

54:17

I should ask you, Paddy, about the year just gone. As

54:20

you mentioned with Donegal, I know you're in the part

54:22

of the management team with, well with Paddy

54:24

Carr who stepped away and then

54:26

Aidan O'Rourke. It was a funny year

54:28

in Donegal, but how do you feel off the

54:30

back of it now? Because I guess there

54:32

were just a lot of complications for

54:35

you lads as a coaching team when you see what happened across

54:37

the year.

54:38

Ah, look, probably a lot of internal

54:41

issues challenging enough. Look,

54:44

as a management team, we tried to not let that affect

54:46

the dressing room. There's probably a note out that

54:49

it didn't some small part, but probably the biggest

54:51

prior to success was only all the series was

54:53

the amount of injuries we had in the amount of men that operated in

54:55

the panel for different reasons. I think I

54:57

said the other day, from the team

54:59

that played Gary and the

55:02

group stages compared to the team that played Gary in the

55:04

Ulster final last year, there was maybe nine or ten men

55:06

missing, and there's no county in the

55:08

stand that lost to players. The

55:10

good thing about Donegal, we went a bit over on, we just scored a

55:12

bit of a pride, maybe through the qualifier series.

55:14

It was very, very disappointing how we ended against

55:17

Toronto. I just felt we were very, very prone

55:19

tonight and sometimes that happens, but they

55:21

didn't hurt a few players, likes of

55:23

Keita McCollgan, Mark Kern,

55:26

Rolie O'Donnell, obviously Oceane Gallinga,

55:28

full year on, built injury free. And

55:30

if they are fitting in the players that are

55:32

injured, the likes of the Michael Lanyans, Jason Mcgee,

55:35

Zola McFadden, Ferries, Patter Mullins, the

55:37

two O'Dalls that went to America around Michoud, Donegal,

55:40

we've been in a very, very healthy position moving them to

55:42

McSain.

55:43

It's a strange county in

55:45

the sense that, we even spoke to Davey Burke

55:48

about this, Russ Common, for example, fans

55:50

absolutely love their football. In Donegal,

55:52

it's like fever pitch, isn't it? It's on another level. You've

55:54

got the radio stations, and I think you've referenced

55:57

this before, the radio stations, the newspapers, the

55:59

local...

55:59

columnists, everyone having

56:02

their say. So there seems to be a magnifying

56:04

glass on Donegal football every year. There's a lot of pressure.

56:08

Yeah, I look to their credit that Donegal

56:10

people are mad about their football and

56:12

I get that. I look

56:14

at it in terms of myself and Aiden, two outsiders

56:17

come into the crowd, Aiden's sport we receive is phenomenal. I

56:19

must say their sport at the match is

56:22

brilliant, like even in the bad times and throughout

56:24

the National League campaign, the people that were

56:26

coming to support the team and even coming after the

56:28

game to the players and that keep the head up. They're

56:30

brilliant people. That's just the ones

56:32

that Donegal people, everybody's well aware

56:34

of. But as you say, there's just so much script

56:37

in the players that sometimes, until

56:39

you've got unhelpful, it's like that. I'd

56:41

like to just stay here and die. We give one paper

56:44

the County Dairy Post, we don't need no honey. Radio station.

56:46

Whereas you go to Donegal, you boost your FM, you find

56:49

on radio. If the Donegal Democrat,

56:51

the Donegal times, they make sure they're all these

56:53

different papers and all these different columnists. And as

56:55

you say, if the voting has an opinion, everybody

56:58

has a different opinion. And that can be

57:00

a challenging enough environment

57:02

for players to sort of prepare them. The

57:05

players, the finest of them try and

57:08

not pick that on board. But

57:10

this year, just given all the other

57:13

stuff going on in the background, with the County Board,

57:15

with the Academy, it's just a very, very challenging year.

57:17

And I'm sure it's one of the players that will begin to sort

57:19

of pop behind them and do one new regroup

57:21

and re-start off and try and get everybody back rolling

57:24

in one direction again next year.

57:26

That's prediction time. We'll go to you, Mike

57:28

Frank, first. Who are going to be the two All-Ireland

57:31

finalists, I guess, is the question at the end of this

57:33

weekend.

57:34

Well, Kerry is very nice. A tough

57:36

thing to finally come up

57:38

for sure. I think

57:40

Kerry will try to get ahead early in

57:43

the

57:44

term of engagement, but Kerry

57:46

will be trying to keep it tight, I think. You're 60,

57:49

65 minutes. And then I'd be worried, to be honest, if it's

57:51

tight because

57:53

Brendan Rodgers and Colin Lass are such good

57:55

footballers, they would maybe need one

57:57

opening and they could protect that lead.

57:59

then but I think you

58:02

have to look at Kerry's bench if it's tight and it's gone

58:04

down the stretch with 60-65 minutes, 20

58:07

browsers and these guys you know so look

58:09

I'm just I think Kerry by two or three

58:12

points but I'd be expecting the bench to get

58:14

us over the line that's hopefully it

58:17

will be Dublin or Manon playing them in the final.

58:20

Dublin you would think

58:22

but I think it very tough to be something

58:24

coming up there as well Manon

58:26

in the last four competitive games they've

58:29

beaten three or four times but Dublin

58:31

looked ominous against me so you

58:33

would have to fancy Dublin but maybe

58:36

just about. Pat are you going along similar lines

58:38

here or are you gonna change it up? No

58:40

I'm gonna you're gonna say it's my heart's real

58:42

on the head here but I'm gonna go for a shocking

58:44

guy to won this one with the smallest of margins unlike

58:47

what Mike Frank says I think they're

58:50

gonna come out of the blocks early here and try and get a bit of a lead

58:52

they're good front runners

58:55

whenever they do get a lead

58:56

they tend to shut teams on and

58:58

hit them in the brick I think

59:01

in terms of defensively I think they match up

59:03

really well against the Kerry Fords they

59:05

don't doubt that Kerry Ford on their day

59:08

can clean anybody but they just think they

59:10

will be defensively sound I think a lot will

59:12

hinge on the performance of obviously Shane

59:14

McWiggin here McFall up front but

59:17

I think the likes of Paul Caste and Ethan Doherty

59:19

provide lots of pace with pace coming

59:21

from deep obviously the likes of Glass coming

59:23

late from midfield Bretton Rogers I

59:26

think we have the ability to get goals and

59:28

I think we will go into an early lead down hopefully we'll

59:30

hold on to it.

59:31

And in terms of the Dublin-Mallon game?

59:34

It's very hard to

59:36

look past Dublin they were awesome in the second

59:38

half the last day and they really enjoyed that game the

59:40

first half it was never the top two teams

59:42

going hammering tongs but the way Dublin just lost

59:45

in the second half just to me it looks as

59:47

if they're coming to form at the right time and expect

59:49

them to own that game. Hopefully two crack

59:51

and semi-finals regardless listen lads Thanks

59:54

for standing by.

59:56

Back restored to legendiotary

59:58

forward and Paddy Bradley

1:00:00

obviously formerly Derry and Paddy should mention as well

1:00:02

as teamed up with AIB ahead of the All Ireland Football

1:00:04

Championship this weekend for updates on the match, exclusive

1:00:06

content and behind the scenes action from the Football

1:00:09

Championship. Follow AIBGA on

1:00:11

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

1:00:13

The comments are coming in as well Ash on the

1:00:15

matches. Someone says

1:00:17

PWGC says people of North pronounce Fion

1:00:20

as Finn,

1:00:21

the rest of Ireland pronounced Fion.

1:00:23

Shows her location effects, how Irish names are pronounced. I've

1:00:25

always said Fion. I'm from Fion.

1:00:28

Yeah. Yeah. I would always say Fion. Yeah. I don't think I

1:00:30

like I'm from Manon and I would always say Fion. So I don't know if that I

1:00:32

do find there's definitely different names. Like I mentioned Rory

1:00:35

and Rory. I rarely

1:00:37

meet anyone up North with Rory. Yeah. Rory

1:00:40

and then Cajal. Yeah,

1:00:42

but it's spelled the same way. What do you say

1:00:45

that call call but I haven't

1:00:47

met anyone up North. That's not Cal. I

1:00:49

always say Cal and the only person in the office who

1:00:52

when Cal Milani comes in, I call

1:00:54

him Cal and everyone's like it's Cal.

1:00:56

I'm like Jesus, I have to bend my mouth to

1:00:58

say Cal.

1:00:58

Yeah. I honestly have to think when

1:01:00

Calums friend is called Cal and

1:01:03

I always think about before I say it's the same

1:01:05

word Rory because I'd always go Rory. They're

1:01:07

like it's Rory.

1:01:07

Yeah. I have to change it up. It's

1:01:10

not an easy one. Keep the comments coming in the two

1:01:12

matches. How would you see these two games

1:01:14

going? Like are you going by the by the book Kerry Dublin?

1:01:17

I think yeah. Yeah. I

1:01:19

think my head is saying Kerry Dublin, but if

1:01:21

there's an upset, I yeah, I think it's in the

1:01:23

Derry Kerry game. You know, that's really

1:01:26

good point by Patty there that you know, Derry

1:01:28

did get these leads. They used to come out of the blocks

1:01:31

flying and get these early leads didn't

1:01:33

see it in the last game, but maybe that is going to

1:01:35

be a tactic and I think if they're going to be Kerry, it has to

1:01:37

be. It really does. But yeah,

1:01:40

the likes of the midfield is probably the big battle. Brendan

1:01:42

Rodgers going to midfield. Patty mentioned

1:01:44

it there. Like what a change that

1:01:46

has made to this team. You know, the fire power.

1:01:49

So yeah, I think it'll be close. But yeah,

1:01:51

if there was going to be an upset, I'd see it. Say it in that

1:01:53

game, but I can't see it happening.

1:01:55

No, I'm

1:01:57

like a lot of people are heading a lot. I know a lot of modern fans.

1:01:59

are heading to Crow Park with. It's not just

1:02:02

hope. There's a little bit of expectation in

1:02:04

there, which I like to see. Of course! They did phenomenal.

1:02:08

There's a chance that Monaghan, like again,

1:02:10

I don't know if Monaghan would be front runners as such,

1:02:12

but certainly if they can keep the game tight,

1:02:15

you know, get to 50-55 minutes with the game fairly

1:02:17

even, even a couple of points in it. And then you

1:02:20

spring lads on the bench, because Monaghan this year have a better bench than

1:02:22

they would have had last year. That's kind of been ignored by

1:02:24

a lot of factors in the media and

1:02:26

pundits as well in the build-up that are like, oh, look at Dublin's

1:02:28

bench. Monaghan's bench isn't half bad coming off the

1:02:31

bench. If you've Sean Jones bringing energy, Kieran

1:02:33

Hughes coming off the bench, Conor McManus will

1:02:35

be coming off the bench as well. Like, they've got

1:02:37

some kind

1:02:37

of a bet. Does he start or not? I know this was the chat

1:02:39

yesterday with Nathan, and

1:02:41

I just think he has to keep

1:02:43

doing the role he's doing. I think it's too effective.

1:02:46

And I think they're doing it for a reason.

1:02:48

They're not going to change it up now. They're in the All-Ireland semi-final.

1:02:50

I think Vinnie Corley, it was ballsy

1:02:53

for him to do that. Obviously, Club

1:02:55

made everything. He's been there with him, and he's the first one

1:02:57

to drop and reach a championship. But

1:02:59

it's working so, so well.

1:03:01

And they understand the danger of, you could say, oh,

1:03:04

one of Monaghan aren't in the game. If you leave him on the

1:03:06

bench and then at 40, 45 minutes, you

1:03:08

bring him in, but Monaghan are already basically

1:03:10

half the game lost. There is a risk there. But

1:03:13

I think Monaghan will trust themselves. If Vinnie Corley will trust these players

1:03:16

to still be in the game by that point. So then you're

1:03:18

springing McManus on the bench, doing what he does,

1:03:20

and a fresh pair of legs come off the bench. And

1:03:23

who knows?

1:03:23

And the buzz that brings in Crow Park and it'll

1:03:25

lift the energy. And tactically, I think

1:03:27

Vinnie Corley is really,

1:03:30

really sound like he is really, really good. We've

1:03:32

seen it throughout the championship. So

1:03:34

I think there's a good plan in place there. Maybe

1:03:36

they might play a bit safe to begin with

1:03:39

and yeah, maybe spring them off on

1:03:41

the bench then when they need it.

1:03:42

I don't know how many Monaghan fans I'd say. You'd probably have

1:03:44

about 30 odd thousand Monaghan fans, half the counting early. Where

1:03:47

are you sitting? Hogan Lower. Oh, God.

1:03:49

Right. And the tick of it. Right. The tick of it.

1:03:51

But I know that maybe me and even Down fans might

1:03:54

support, if they're staying on, I might support Monaghan.

1:03:56

Yeah. I'm sure me fans will be supporting Dublin. Me

1:03:59

fans support Dublin. Not a chance. Yeah,

1:04:02

like definitely that's true. There will be like

1:04:04

everyone loves the underdog. Completely. You

1:04:06

know, they do. And that's what sports about we

1:04:08

live for the underdog coming out on top, I think.

1:04:11

So yeah, there'll be lots of support there. Don't

1:04:13

worry, Shane. Have a great day in Crow

1:04:15

Park. Good to hear. We'll

1:04:17

look at the talent copy and further detail now because

1:04:19

we have Danny Hughes, former down star and former

1:04:21

meat footballer, Mickey Burke on the line. Now as well. Morning,

1:04:24

Danny.

1:04:25

Morning, Mickey. Morning. Thanks

1:04:27

Robin. Danny, why start yourself? We were

1:04:29

we were chatting to Colin McGinn a little

1:04:32

bit earlier. Ashleean's Ashleean's fella here about

1:04:34

the atmosphere and down. I guess after

1:04:36

the semifinal and when you

1:04:38

put eight goals past anyone, albeit a leash

1:04:40

team that just didn't perform in a day, the

1:04:43

hype train is going to really take off.

1:04:46

Yeah. And I think I suppose from

1:04:48

that game, I'm not

1:04:50

sure if it was a, it was

1:04:52

an accurate, how would

1:04:55

you say it? The leash, I

1:04:58

think going into the game leash had beaten

1:05:00

a couple of teams for my land stuff

1:05:02

and I felt they would obviously put

1:05:04

up a better shown for themselves.

1:05:07

But I think I don't think it was a true refraction of leash

1:05:10

and obviously the game was over after what 10

1:05:12

or 15 months. So it was,

1:05:14

it was very, very hard on nice, very hard and Billy

1:05:17

saying himself. And obviously he

1:05:19

felled after the game. Obviously he's quit

1:05:21

there as manager. So it gives

1:05:23

you an indication probably how

1:05:26

bad leash were on how pretty

1:05:28

they performed and down were absolutely

1:05:30

brilliant on the day. They were very, very mobile

1:05:33

and they took their goal chances. And that's the one

1:05:35

thing with Connor Laverde's teams and

1:05:37

the one thing that has, you know, that

1:05:39

kept them in the league right up until the last day

1:05:42

was the fact that they could get goals

1:05:44

and they're very, very strong, very mobile. And

1:05:46

if they get a half a sniff at all, they'll go for

1:05:48

the goal and not take the point. So,

1:05:52

you know, I suppose it would

1:05:54

be interesting to see how made set up if there

1:05:56

is open as the war against Antrim.

1:05:58

I can only see one winner. and that's,

1:06:01

I suppose, and that's going to be down.

1:06:03

It's funny, Danny, as well, because even though, and this might

1:06:05

sound ridiculous to say, even though they scored 8-16 at a 22-point win,

1:06:09

Carl Laverde seems like such a perfectionist that

1:06:12

even conceding two goals and 12 points against

1:06:14

Leish would have pissed him off a little bit.

1:06:17

It would, and that's just the way

1:06:19

he is. I suppose when you were looking at

1:06:21

it, when you look how far the war in front

1:06:23

he would have won a beat and by 30 or 40 points,

1:06:25

because that's

1:06:26

just, I suppose,

1:06:29

when you're at that level,

1:06:30

to concede that, to

1:06:32

concede the 2-12 or whatever they did, it

1:06:34

was really in the latter end of the match when you

1:06:37

were rolling people off the bench and stuff and

1:06:40

it was obviously a good opportunity for some to come

1:06:42

on to Croke Park, get the first experience of it, which

1:06:44

many of them were, and perform,

1:06:47

and perhaps with those

1:06:49

changes enforced or not,

1:06:52

then you would have been disappointed

1:06:54

maybe with one or two of the players that were introduced

1:06:57

that didn't do their jobs.

1:06:59

Yeah, just on that point, Danny, I looked

1:07:01

at Conor's reaction when Leish got

1:07:03

their first goal and Dan went

1:07:05

up the pitch on the next attack and got a goal back

1:07:08

and his reaction on the sideline was probably the

1:07:11

most reaction I'd seen from him throughout the whole game.

1:07:14

They scored eight goals, but when

1:07:16

they got that eight goal, because they had cancelled

1:07:18

out, Leish's goal, like he was fired

1:07:20

up and he was screaming at the defence

1:07:22

that they did well. I think that tells you

1:07:24

probably a lot about Conor Laverde too.

1:07:27

Yeah, it does. Listen,

1:07:29

with the experience of Kilcou behind

1:07:33

him,

1:07:34

obviously there's a fair

1:07:36

raft of the players on the panel as well

1:07:38

from Kilcou that won an All-Iron Club title. So

1:07:41

there isn't a perfectionist element there and you don't

1:07:43

win an All-Iron Club title if there's not

1:07:45

that kind of character

1:07:49

and approach to the game

1:07:52

where everything has to be perfect and

1:07:54

suppose you're dealing at the very, very top level,

1:07:56

these guys know what it takes to... to

1:08:00

close out a game,

1:08:02

to send a message out there, and

1:08:04

certainly down, I would hope that,

1:08:07

yes, they sent out a message, but they

1:08:09

will know that against me, given

1:08:11

that they played them in the league there,

1:08:14

the kick 16 or 17 whites,

1:08:16

sorry, they didn't play them in the league, they

1:08:18

played them in the group stages

1:08:21

in Parnell Park,

1:08:22

they will understand that this will be a

1:08:24

very, very different game, and it's a very different occasion

1:08:27

as well.

1:08:28

Mickey, a lot was made of that game, I

1:08:30

suppose, in the middle of this one, a

1:08:32

two point win for me, 111 to 119 in Parnell

1:08:34

Park, and a lot was made, as Danny said, about

1:08:36

the whites, the 17 whites from down, but I guess

1:08:38

the point is, and a couple of the down players mentioned this during the week,

1:08:41

those weren't just whites from anywhere. They were,

1:08:44

as a result of the media defending, because they pushed them out

1:08:46

into areas beyond the scoring

1:08:48

zone, so clearly the media defending worked that

1:08:51

day against down, and it's gonna have to be equally as good this weekend.

1:08:54

Yeah, I think, Everton, that Danny

1:08:56

said there is very accurate and very fair. I

1:08:59

suppose as a county, we were probably very slow to

1:09:02

maybe adapt to defensive systems and shape

1:09:04

like that, and there was a lot made of it, but when we played

1:09:06

particularly Dublin in the league this year in Navin,

1:09:09

we were, the full back line were very isolated

1:09:11

and maybe open, so a

1:09:13

lot of work has been done on our defense,

1:09:16

and I suppose the down game in Parnell

1:09:18

Park was the first day where you could really see that, where

1:09:20

we tried to get a lot of numbers back behind the ball.

1:09:23

Down still had a lot of

1:09:25

wides, but I think that was due to maybe Paul

1:09:28

Yarrigan's influence there, and his

1:09:31

coach and methods, trying to get more bodies back. I

1:09:34

think that's just the way the modern game is, and it's

1:09:36

a work in progress for us as a county, really. The

1:09:38

whole thing is a work in progress. It's a young side,

1:09:41

but

1:09:41

they're doing everyone proud

1:09:44

in the Toulton Cup so far.

1:09:46

Yeah, Miki, it feels like it is a work in progress,

1:09:49

and you look at the team, it's very young,

1:09:51

and there's some players that are coming on to the scene that are

1:09:54

really players to watch out for, like

1:09:56

say, Conor Gray there in the middle, what

1:09:58

a footballer he is. He's going to

1:10:00

have a big say in midfield at the weekend.

1:10:03

Yeah, I was really impressed actually with him actually

1:10:05

in the semi-final just probably that

1:10:08

old school mid-midfielder

1:10:10

who was probably not doing a lot of eye-catching

1:10:12

stuff. He kicked him fabulous point in the

1:10:14

second half but just a lot of tackles getting

1:10:16

back, doubling up, getting hits

1:10:18

in, winning primary possession and just shoveling

1:10:21

it off very simply. So I'm

1:10:23

very excited to him. He's a pig mobile man. I've

1:10:26

bumped into him a few times and

1:10:29

he's definitely one for the future and he's

1:10:31

really impressed at the moment and we're going to need him at the weekend.

1:10:34

Yeah, and there's probably, there's a lot of competition

1:10:36

in the middle as well for places, you know,

1:10:38

with the likes of Jack Flynn is in there as

1:10:40

well, Club Made of Mine, the

1:10:43

likes of Dahy coming on, you've

1:10:45

Ronan Jones. So there is a lot of competition and

1:10:47

these are big lads, strong lads, probably

1:10:50

a little bit different to what

1:10:52

Down have as well. Down are maybe a bit smaller

1:10:54

in that case but I think we need to use their physicality.

1:10:57

That's what they have.

1:10:59

To do, I definitely think, look,

1:11:02

Down looked extremely mobile in

1:11:04

the leash game. Very, very

1:11:06

slick. I think we have to pull numbers

1:11:08

back behind the ball. I think we have to keep it tight

1:11:12

definitely in the early stages of the game. Jonesy

1:11:15

there, another big man around the middle of the field. He

1:11:18

probably wants Donald Keogan and Paul Ricard

1:11:20

and two very experienced players like kind of man in

1:11:22

the backs, you know, helping the younger

1:11:24

guys out. We had regional trials

1:11:27

in the county at the start of the year and I

1:11:30

suppose that the net was cast, wide and

1:11:32

far to try and look at every footballer

1:11:35

from junior and intermediate level. And you

1:11:37

know, lads are on the bench there like Michael Flood

1:11:39

from St. Bridget's, probably not a

1:11:42

club that have traditional meet footballers

1:11:44

playing. Harry O'Higgins is

1:11:46

there. He's got the nod again for the weekend

1:11:49

seemingly from the team that's been released. So there

1:11:51

is a lot of younger players and like

1:11:53

I'm saying, it's a completely new meet

1:11:55

side but we do have lads

1:11:57

to come in off the bench. We're not getting a rule at the moment.

1:11:59

who would have been deemed the starters

1:12:02

in the last few years, the like of Killian or Sullivan and Don

1:12:04

Lennon and these guys. So

1:12:06

yeah, we do have a good bench.

1:12:09

And if it gets down to the latter stages,

1:12:11

one thing we have is a bit of pace there on the

1:12:13

bench to come on as well. And hopefully that might open things

1:12:15

up for us. Danny, what's

1:12:18

the attitude towards the Touton Cup being

1:12:20

in down this year? Because I

1:12:22

guess you look at the likes of Westmead winning last year,

1:12:24

and it was clearly a platform for them

1:12:26

this year in the All-Iron Championship, albeit they didn't get out of that

1:12:28

group, put in a draw

1:12:30

against her own, pushed

1:12:31

her out all the way, probably should have got to win or

1:12:34

something out of that game at the very least. So

1:12:36

I guess from a down perspective, is this seen as

1:12:38

a platform?

1:12:40

I would definitely see it as a platform. It's

1:12:42

a stab at stone. That's, I

1:12:44

suppose, as Mickey will tell you there,

1:12:47

not somewhere that as a player

1:12:50

you would ideally want to be. You want to be in the

1:12:52

main championship, especially with the structure

1:12:55

around a home and away and neutral fixtures

1:12:58

with a group stage. Obviously you're playing more games

1:13:01

the way the structure was as opposed to what we played

1:13:03

in.

1:13:05

But from a personal

1:13:07

perspective, the Touton Cup, the second-day competition

1:13:09

was never, ever

1:13:10

something I was enthused about. Funny,

1:13:14

we were at a breakfast last Friday morning. There

1:13:16

was a breakfast

1:13:17

for, you know, together

1:13:20

fundraising and stuff for the team. And there were 700

1:13:22

people at down supporters businesses and whatnot,

1:13:24

and Jollis Barnes was,

1:13:27

he

1:13:27

was more or less saying the same, that the second-day competition

1:13:29

wasn't something that he felt

1:13:31

was a good idea at the time. But I

1:13:34

suppose, given how it is

1:13:36

taken off, given how Westmeath

1:13:38

have progressed,

1:13:40

particularly this year with it, then

1:13:43

I would say it's something that

1:13:45

is definitely growing on me and growing on the

1:13:48

wider participants in it being

1:13:51

meath and down. But certainly when

1:13:54

you go back to 1991 and the repeat

1:13:56

of that actual game and the

1:13:58

whole buzz around probably. both counties, I

1:14:01

was about eight or nine years of age at the time. So

1:14:04

it definitely feels a

1:14:07

bit different, but in saying

1:14:09

that, as you say, it's established

1:14:12

on me to show the way, sorry,

1:14:15

Westmead showed the way, how they can build

1:14:17

on it and develop. But that's

1:14:19

no guarantee, but certainly it gives them

1:14:22

a certain entry

1:14:24

into the main competition next year.

1:14:27

And that's a good thing for both sets

1:14:29

of squads and both sets of players, because as we

1:14:31

know, even look at Calvin

1:14:33

this year, probably

1:14:36

favorites to win the competition

1:14:38

that I've only made down being there

1:14:40

as well and beating

1:14:42

in the quarter-finals, absence

1:14:44

of players and stuff. So listen,

1:14:48

it's a step in stone. It's not ideal where

1:14:51

we want to be, but Rob being a semi-final with Monaghan

1:14:53

and Dublin tomorrow, but it is what it is. It

1:14:56

does feel that it's taken people a bit of

1:14:58

time to come around to it. I still don't think everybody

1:15:00

has come around to it. It's probably the feeling.

1:15:03

Mickey, what do you think it's like in me? Are people back

1:15:05

in it?

1:15:07

I think it was probably slow, Aisling, at the

1:15:09

start to

1:15:12

even, I had actually met Barry

1:15:14

Callahan for a coffee. He just was

1:15:16

in front of me at the very start. It probably was a week

1:15:18

maybe after the off-league game and spirits were probably

1:15:21

low as a snake's belly as a county at that stage.

1:15:24

I

1:15:24

just asked him how he was things. He was in front of

1:15:26

me in the queue and he said, look, Mickey,

1:15:29

the off-league game was low. This

1:15:31

is not where we really want to be, but it's

1:15:34

where we are and we're going to do

1:15:36

our best in it. I think the lads have

1:15:38

shown that it's given us a bit of momentum.

1:15:40

We need games. The

1:15:43

boys need games and need exposure to play in

1:15:45

championship games. It's amazing

1:15:48

what a bit of confidence and a bit of momentum can do.

1:15:50

Like Danny Wright said, they're looking at Westmead this year.

1:15:53

I've got a bounce-off, but

1:15:57

hopefully, mead supporters will come out

1:15:59

on Saturday.

1:15:59

and cheer the lads on. It's bringing

1:16:02

back memories of 91. Like

1:16:04

Danny said, I was too young for that as well really, but

1:16:08

very traditional counties and both

1:16:10

counties that love football and

1:16:13

I suppose it's very important for both counties to try and get a

1:16:15

win. Danny, the

1:16:17

pace in this down team is one thing

1:16:20

that's been focused on a lot in the build up. And rightly

1:16:22

so, and this is

1:16:24

the thing as well. At the average age of the team,

1:16:27

I don't know what it is, but a lot of the players seem to be 23, 24. The

1:16:30

average age is probably as low as a snake's belly as Mickey might

1:16:32

say. Why

1:16:37

do you compare my- Can

1:16:39

I say that again, Danny? Are you comparing

1:16:41

Mickey to a snake?

1:16:42

Yeah. Would never do that, I would never do

1:16:44

that. No chance. I'm just gonna use that for A's in my everyday life

1:16:46

and I was low as a snake's belly, I've never heard it before.

1:16:49

But that is something that we should focus on, Danny,

1:16:51

isn't it? Like the youth in this team, and we

1:16:54

mentioned earlier in the show, Connor Laverde, I

1:16:56

guess, has brought a lot of these lads through from 20s and

1:16:59

there is that youth. And I guess relative inexperience

1:17:01

of playing in Croke Park is one way to look at it, but also

1:17:03

just the absolute confidence of youth.

1:17:07

Yeah, absolutely. And there's

1:17:09

freedom with how, when

1:17:12

young guys come into the squad, I've seen it over the years

1:17:14

and it's now, think back to me coming

1:17:16

in at 20 years of age, there's a freedom and there's a,

1:17:18

you don't worry as much about

1:17:21

what people think, you don't worry as much about your

1:17:23

performances, for your performance

1:17:26

in a large way, especially people that's just onto

1:17:28

the panel, they're really not on the loose, unless

1:17:31

they're making a name for yourself.

1:17:33

And that's from a personal perspective now. You

1:17:38

have the crooks of

1:17:40

a large number of players that are on

1:17:42

the panel have been there last year

1:17:45

in bits and pieces, maybe the year before in

1:17:47

bits and pieces on the poly tally. So

1:17:49

there is a bit of experience there in terms of,

1:17:52

they know what it's like to be at that

1:17:55

top level,

1:17:56

and that elite level, what the environment's

1:17:58

like, what is expected.

1:18:00

And obviously you have the experience

1:18:02

now, the Killcoup players that have thrown

1:18:04

their lot

1:18:07

in with down now. So,

1:18:09

you know, Killcoup would have in the past,

1:18:12

it would have been said that they would have viewed their

1:18:14

setup as equally as professional as

1:18:16

any county setup. So you know, with

1:18:18

that in mind, there's certainly

1:18:22

a quiet confidence and

1:18:24

there's a quiet bit of experience

1:18:27

there that's been developed over the last number of years.

1:18:30

So, the pace is

1:18:32

a massive thing. For me,

1:18:35

they're going to have to close down the space as a croak park.

1:18:38

If they're going to make sure they're down, get the

1:18:40

gold down, we'll

1:18:43

play in very, very

1:18:45

small places. There's nippy

1:18:47

forwards and backs that will play between

1:18:49

the lines. And when you're playing between

1:18:51

the lines, you can be very hard to break down, particularly

1:18:53

in croak park. So while

1:18:56

Meath will have the physicality, they'll have the

1:18:58

size there, it's whether they

1:19:01

have the mobility to stay with the

1:19:04

down team, particularly the down

1:19:06

defense, who will end up popping up at the full

1:19:08

forward line at times. Like Caleb Dowling may

1:19:10

well start at Santa Halfbag, but

1:19:13

certainly not leather. I wouldn't think he will play

1:19:16

full forward, half forward, mid-field of things.

1:19:20

He's not a huge guy, but he's a very, very mobile

1:19:22

guy. So you'll

1:19:24

have all those type

1:19:26

of switches going on. And as well, a Meath

1:19:29

can make sure that there's no confusion

1:19:31

there. Because even against Anthem, they were

1:19:33

a wee bit leaky at times. And if Anthem had

1:19:35

to get their last pass right, they

1:19:39

could have had one or two more goals. So

1:19:42

I think Meath are going to have to work very, very hard

1:19:44

to close down the spaces to ensure that

1:19:47

down, don't get a run. And

1:19:49

those wee ticky-tacky passes

1:19:52

that can create goal opportunities

1:19:55

are prevalent throughout. So yeah,

1:19:58

it'll be interesting to see how Meath's doing. set

1:20:00

up. I'm certainly looking forward to that because Colmore

1:20:02

would have been very much along the line of a

1:20:05

traditional way of getting the ball forward, kicking

1:20:07

the ball forward. So it'll be interesting to see

1:20:09

how you kind of try to negate the pace

1:20:12

that down play was.

1:20:14

Nikki, I did a preview night last night with

1:20:17

Keen Ward and Tommy Dowd. And

1:20:20

Tommy was just speaking about the bond

1:20:22

with me then down and what it was like for them

1:20:24

when they were playing maybe through the 90s and the early

1:20:26

2000s. And I sort of felt that

1:20:28

as well that when I moved up to down that there was this

1:20:30

bond, people would stop you and tell you about

1:20:33

the teams and the battles through the years. I

1:20:35

don't know if it's something that you felt with the teams

1:20:38

in your years with Meade?

1:20:40

I spent a couple

1:20:43

of games trying to run after this lad on the line

1:20:45

before and Matty Clark and a couple of them. That was

1:20:47

about the only bond I was training. I was

1:20:49

training to get a hand on them. But

1:20:52

they're a county that I definitely would respect

1:20:54

from afar and would have had a lot of time

1:20:57

for. Even though, like I said,

1:20:59

I was a bit young for 91 and I

1:21:01

do have very vague memories of us and reading

1:21:04

up about it and hearing the old stories

1:21:06

and that. But it had to be a county that I would have huge respect

1:21:08

for and a huge tradition like ourselves.

1:21:12

So it's going to make, like I

1:21:14

said, Danny, he's been very honest there and

1:21:16

he's been very truthful. And I think it's very

1:21:18

accurate. I think if we,

1:21:21

if Colin was trying to play a very traditional

1:21:23

game at the weekend, I think we could be in trouble. It'll

1:21:25

just feed into downs. Down will get plenty of bodies

1:21:28

back. And if we're looking for long, accurate

1:21:30

kick passes into the full-forward line early doors,

1:21:32

I just think that's just, that's

1:21:35

going to fuel them with so much energy. And

1:21:37

I really

1:21:40

do hope we put plenty of men back behind

1:21:42

the ball and stay in this game for as

1:21:44

long as we can because

1:21:46

down are looking very impressive. But one thing I will

1:21:48

say is that we won't fear down. As a county, Meade

1:21:50

will not fear down and it's face versa as well.

1:21:52

Down won't fear us. So it's

1:21:54

very, it's an interesting

1:21:56

game, but it's going to be tough for us to get over

1:21:59

the line. And I think

1:21:59

I think I think me's board

1:22:02

lane is gonna obviously only to clear

1:22:04

a lot. I think they've a very very strong full forward

1:22:06

lane they're guys that are really

1:22:08

really good full pullers and It's

1:22:12

a if they can get the ball into their early

1:22:14

into the down into the downfall

1:22:16

backline and obviously the May full forwards I

1:22:19

think they that if

1:22:22

down don't have me and filter back those

1:22:24

May's guys May's

1:22:26

guys can do damage because You

1:22:29

know is just going on the anthem gamers again, and

1:22:33

I think it was almost a wee bit easier

1:22:36

for me the times Getting

1:22:38

the ball in so quickly that the wasted a few

1:22:40

chances But if the waste those chances

1:22:42

against down I think that could

1:22:44

come back to bite them So it's about

1:22:47

efficiency and attack I would say With

1:22:50

that May full forward lane as much as anything else

1:22:52

if they if they don't take their chances

1:22:55

or they give away the ball when down swarm

1:22:57

them then Again, that's

1:22:59

something me will there may come

1:23:01

back to hunter.

1:23:02

Yeah, hopefully above all I just hope

1:23:04

it's a great advertisement for the Titan Cup I'd love a really

1:23:06

really Cracking game high scoring tight

1:23:09

and I feel like it's gonna be that and even when

1:23:11

you see like a young forward like Liam care And the down

1:23:14

team scored a few goals the last day I think he's only 23

1:23:16

maybe and similarly in the mean sight Alexa Jordan

1:23:19

Morris Similar age as well like so

1:23:21

exciting to see these players in a final of this Magnitude

1:23:24

for them because I know it's not the final that maybe down and me

1:23:26

fans would want to be in but it's still silverware And croak Park

1:23:29

at the end of the day and how do you lad see

1:23:31

it final predictions

1:23:32

here might start yourself Danny?

1:23:36

I think I think I think well down

1:23:38

will win based on

1:23:40

Based on I suppose a wee

1:23:43

bit of nostalgia Based

1:23:47

on the fact that I seem probably supporting

1:23:50

me Yes,

1:23:53

Danny have that right?

1:23:58

in this

1:24:00

instance but no I think he'll be

1:24:02

smiling over the weekend. I think Down will win the game

1:24:05

because

1:24:08

they have

1:24:10

a brilliant knack at the minute to get goals

1:24:13

and I think goals wanted to say this contest

1:24:16

but listen, me they're

1:24:19

very very strong and definitely

1:24:22

very very strong way in the middle. I think they're gonna need

1:24:24

their physicality there but in

1:24:26

the world obviously I can't go against my

1:24:28

own county so I don't make any

1:24:31

problem either but hopefully I'll see them.

1:24:36

Yeah look I won't back against my own county

1:24:38

either I really hope the lads do it.

1:24:41

Obviously look there's still a few good mates of mine in there

1:24:43

and I'd love to see Donal Keogan and James

1:24:46

McConaughey, Paul Cairn and all them boys

1:24:48

getting a bit of success for all their years. But

1:24:51

like I said it's going to be very

1:24:53

very tough on us but I really

1:24:55

hope that we get plenty of men back behind the ball

1:24:58

at regular stages and try and hit down

1:25:00

on the counter. I think it's going to be downer

1:25:03

very pacey very athletic and look

1:25:06

if it gets down the home straight like I'm saying the

1:25:08

me boys won't fear down we

1:25:10

won't fear them at all so

1:25:13

I'm hoping that it's going to be a day

1:25:15

for the green and gold. Brilliant stuff

1:25:17

lads both going with their own car seat you

1:25:20

can't back against your own car seat that's fair and the same for manning against

1:25:22

Dublin tomorrow rightly or wrongly you can't

1:25:24

back against them. But listen lads thanks for

1:25:26

having on this morning Danny and Mickey. Thanks

1:25:28

lads. Thanks lads. Danny Hughes former down

1:25:31

star and Mickey Burke of course formerly with Meade

1:25:33

as well. How are you calling it like a

1:25:35

den? Well a lot of us are

1:25:37

involved our counties are involved in a lot of these games this

1:25:39

week it's funny so are you going with Meade?

1:25:42

I'm going with Meade because I'd absolutely

1:25:44

love love to see them do it and that's a

1:25:46

good point that Mickey made there at the end that some of those

1:25:48

lads that have been around a long time that likes to

1:25:51

don't like Yogan, Killianno sort of and don't

1:25:53

like him this would be incredible for them

1:25:55

to get a bit of silver where you know there's young

1:25:57

kids going to go to Crow Park at the weekend that have no idea what they're going to do.

1:26:00

if they're in the Sam

1:27:49

and

1:28:00

Rodgers back and yeah, he,

1:28:02

we saw what he did when he left. So

1:28:04

people are all back and running Rodgers. I was going to take

1:28:06

me a bit of time, you know, I'm going to have to see a few results

1:28:09

before I get on that train. Um,

1:28:11

but yeah, definitely with, with Ang, it was a lot

1:28:13

of disappointment. Knew he was always

1:28:15

going to go to the Premier League. That wasn't inevitable.

1:28:18

Absolutely. Like anytime we spoke, we always said

1:28:20

he was going to go, but I didn't think it would be this

1:28:22

soon. I thought there was another year. Yeah.

1:28:25

I thought champions league football do something

1:28:27

there. Um, but yeah, you

1:28:29

know, he obviously got a, an offer he couldn't refuse.

1:28:31

So nobody can, you know, judge

1:28:33

him for that or, you know, go and take

1:28:35

the money. And yet he wants to be in the, in

1:28:38

the top league and the minute that's the

1:28:40

Premier League, so yeah. Um,

1:28:42

good luck to him, but, uh, yeah, definitely

1:28:44

was annoyed at the time.

1:28:45

Spurs fans excited, no doubt to see what Ang ball

1:28:47

brings to. Yeah, they don't know what they have. There's not been

1:28:50

enough, but I'm like, you

1:28:52

just got it lucky here.

1:28:53

Yeah. I wanted all starts and the, they

1:28:55

see the style of play. I think they'll slowly

1:28:57

come on board or pretty quickly come on board rather

1:29:00

at 9AM and 901 AM on

1:29:02

this Friday morning's O2B AM. The sports break

1:29:04

for showing off the ball with myself and Ashley and with you until

1:29:06

10 o'clock this morning, I should mention off the ball is coming to

1:29:08

the Cork podcast festival. Join us

1:29:11

on Sunday, the 27th of August in the Cork Opera

1:29:13

House with special guest, Jimmy Barry Murphy. More

1:29:15

guests to be announced very soon, by the way. Don't miss

1:29:17

out on a great night of conversation and crack in the heart

1:29:20

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1:29:22

www.corkpodcastfestival.ie

1:29:23

forward slash off

1:29:26

hyphen the hyphen ball.

1:29:28

Easy. Turn our attention

1:29:30

to a commo. We're joined on the line by Brian Darling,

1:29:32

who was just recently departed as the Kenny

1:29:34

senior commo. You manage your morning Brian. How are things? Morning

1:29:37

Lance. How you doing? Keeping well. Thanks for happening

1:29:39

on. Um, this was a tough

1:29:41

decision. I'd imagine after five years.

1:29:44

Yeah, it was a tough decision. Um, I suppose

1:29:46

it kind of started started here that I'd give it one more, one

1:29:49

more year, whatever happened, one or last that I step

1:29:51

away. But, um, look, Chris was still a very

1:29:53

tough decision there to fully confirm

1:29:55

it on choose it wasn't easy. And it's been a, it's

1:29:57

been a strange week since to be honest.

1:29:59

When you look at the honours you've had as a manager,

1:30:02

so many titles, so much silverware, so

1:30:05

many happy days to look back on. I'm sure there's disappointment

1:30:07

after the one point defeat to court last

1:30:09

weekend, but a lot of really,

1:30:11

really happy days with this, like any side.

1:30:14

Yeah, there's a lot of happy days, but I suppose this week

1:30:16

has been, I'm probably thinking about the days that you

1:30:18

left behind and the matches that we lost and

1:30:20

stuff like that. And obviously, it's still fairly raw,

1:30:23

after losing the other and quite a fine by pint

1:30:25

on Sunday. So that's probably what's hurting

1:30:27

the most at the moment. But look, I suppose in

1:30:29

time we'll look back and we were

1:30:31

there as management group for four years in 1-2 all Ireland.

1:30:33

So I suppose he offered me that and I went in, I would

1:30:36

definitely took it. So look, we have huge memories

1:30:38

there and memories that we live for the rest of our

1:30:41

lives. Brian,

1:30:42

I know I spoke to you after the game and

1:30:44

you told me about the story of coming in in the first place,

1:30:47

that it wasn't really on your mind to come in and

1:30:49

you said no initially and then you decided

1:30:51

no actually. And you rang Anne back

1:30:53

and said, I'll come in.

1:30:56

Yes, I suppose Anne caught me on the hop. She

1:30:58

asked me to come in as a coach in 2019 and

1:31:00

I think the phone call lasted

1:31:02

about 45 seconds. I said no,

1:31:05

it just wasn't on my radar. I didn't know anything about Kamoagie to

1:31:07

be honest. But I'd watched the games and I

1:31:09

seen the Garazoos in the finals in 2017 and 2018 and I don't

1:31:13

know, something was just telling me that I had to give it a

1:31:15

go and I rang Anne back and thankfully the

1:31:17

option was still there. And I went

1:31:19

in in 2019 and unfortunately, I didn't get over the line that

1:31:21

year. We lost three-odd-round in the finals in

1:31:23

a row. I suppose I'll never

1:31:26

forget going back to the Red Cow Hotel

1:31:28

that evening and everyone was just crying, parents,

1:31:30

players. It was like these would never get over the line here.

1:31:33

And then Anne was after stepping away that day as well. So

1:31:35

I looked at the opportunity came then to take it on

1:31:37

as manager and I suppose I couldn't walk

1:31:40

away at that stage and I just decided to go

1:31:42

back in as manager and thankfully things worked out well

1:31:44

in 2020 then.

1:31:46

Yeah, you said you didn't know much about Kamoagie. So

1:31:48

that was the first time managing a women's

1:31:50

team.

1:31:51

What was that like?

1:31:52

Yeah, it was. I was never involved before. I

1:31:54

was after doing a lot of underage

1:31:56

coaching and my own club and school teams and

1:31:58

stuff like that.

1:31:59

I've been with Thomas down into me, the hurling team. So look,

1:32:02

it was completely different. And I think it takes you

1:32:04

a bit of time to adjust. You

1:32:06

know, it's different type of management, different

1:32:08

way of dealing with players and stuff like that. But look, I have

1:32:11

to say, I've absolutely loved it. I've

1:32:13

lived the dream the last five years been involved with this

1:32:15

group. They're really special.

1:32:17

The effort that they put in has

1:32:19

just been unbelievable. And, you know, thankfully they

1:32:22

got the rewards because they didn't get them in 17, 18 and 19.

1:32:25

And, you know, I suppose it was looking like

1:32:27

they were never going to get there. And it was just when that

1:32:29

final went in 2020, I suppose everything was worthwhile

1:32:32

and was just huge relief.

1:32:33

That must have been such a strange one, Brian, as well. That

1:32:35

was the COVID all iron in 2020. And nothing

1:32:38

was as per normal. Like

1:32:40

you must think back in it, it almost must feel like a dream

1:32:42

the whole thing because it was strange, but what an achievement

1:32:44

at the same time.

1:32:46

Yeah, it was really surreal. But looking

1:32:48

back, I probably think it was, it was

1:32:50

a good thing for us that, you know, the define

1:32:52

was really low key. You know, we

1:32:54

always go to DCU there in Jumkandra. And

1:32:57

I remember driving down, you know, we

1:32:59

were going to get a guard escort, but we actually

1:33:01

did get a guard escort. And I don't know why, because it was absolutely

1:33:03

nobody on the streets. The only person

1:33:06

we saw walking in was Ann Downey. She was

1:33:08

waving at us, both like a lunatic. You

1:33:10

know, it was just so weird. I met out in the

1:33:12

pitch for a walk around. And, you know,

1:33:15

I remember saying to the players, like, you know, what's the nervous

1:33:17

about here? This is like playing a challenge match at home. There's nobody

1:33:19

at it. You know, it was really weird. You could hear every

1:33:21

sound in Croke Park that evening. And then I just

1:33:23

think it took the pressure off us because there was huge pressure

1:33:25

on that final. I think, I

1:33:28

don't know where this team would have ended up. I think it could have

1:33:30

been the end of a lot of players. If we lost that final, it was four

1:33:32

all-irons in a row. I just don't see how

1:33:34

we could have come back from it. It just, I think it would

1:33:36

have been too much. So just, it was

1:33:38

a strange one. And obviously we didn't want COVID at

1:33:40

the time. And it was a strange latrine. And, you know, you're

1:33:43

watching yourself all the time. You know, you're dreading

1:33:45

every phone call from the doctor, where are you going to be having

1:33:47

players pulling out and stuff like that. But luckily we

1:33:49

got over

1:33:50

the line and it was brilliant.

1:33:51

You must've been thinking, Brian, Jesus, this management

1:33:54

crack is handy. You know, debut season,

1:33:56

all Ireland, Odufi cup in hand, like not

1:33:58

a bad start.

1:33:59

No, it wasn't a bad start, but I definitely didn't think it was

1:34:02

handy. You know, look, again, we

1:34:04

played well in the final in Scotland, but, you know, God,

1:34:06

we're a super team. We have great battles with him

1:34:09

over the last number of years.

1:34:11

And no, it was just I said, it was just more

1:34:13

relief. That fine was all about relief and just just

1:34:15

getting the job done and getting over

1:34:17

the line, you know, and look, it was probably an anti-climax.

1:34:19

After we had to leave the cockpit in Crow Park

1:34:22

that night. Got a couple of drinks

1:34:24

that eat that day on the way back from

1:34:26

the bus that night. I think we got back to Kenya about three

1:34:28

o'clock in the morning. And then the next day, I

1:34:30

remember just meeting up the management group for something to eat

1:34:32

in about three or four points. And that was it. That

1:34:34

was the end of the celebrations because of Covid. So it was

1:34:37

it was a really strange one. But look, I

1:34:39

said, we have great memories as well.

1:34:41

Just on your management team and the background

1:34:43

team, tell us a little bit about them like there's

1:34:46

a lot of all-earlim medals in there. You have Tommy

1:34:49

Shethlin as well as in there, Henry's brother.

1:34:51

So you have a really strong background team.

1:34:54

Yeah, look, she's a long heavy guard. I all say it to the

1:34:56

lads that, you know, the girls are easy to manage.

1:34:58

It's the management team is my tough work. No

1:35:01

luck. I was absolutely blessed to get such experience

1:35:03

was a relatively young manager going

1:35:05

into an inter-county job. So the

1:35:07

one thing I wanted was to get plenty of experience around me. And

1:35:10

Ray Chandler was with me in 2019. So

1:35:13

he, you know, he played it, raised it on with us

1:35:15

as well. And then got Tommy in as the main coach.

1:35:17

And Tommy's huge experience in Kalkeni. He's been

1:35:19

with Ballet Hill, he's been in Carrick Shock. And

1:35:21

his record speaks for itself. You know, he's great

1:35:24

energy, great drive. He's absolutely fantastic coach.

1:35:27

You know, I got Pat O'Neill and Phili Larkin who

1:35:29

both played for Kalkeni as well.

1:35:31

Pat would have came in late in 2020, but

1:35:33

Phili came in straight away as well. So, you know, the

1:35:36

huge experience and Shamus Kelly came on board this year.

1:35:38

So look at a brilliant backroom team. You

1:35:40

know, I was the youngest of the backroom team, which was strange

1:35:43

for a manager, but it was great to have that experience.

1:35:45

And I suppose it kind of took the pressure off me in a way that I

1:35:47

knew that, you know, I had that experience beside me and

1:35:50

that helped a lot for me.

1:35:51

I know you've been saying as well, Brian, that you've been taking a bit of walking

1:35:54

away the last maybe year or two, but the

1:35:56

homecoming you got after the all-out in last year,

1:35:58

maybe convinced you to stay off. I

1:36:01

suppose last year I don't know

1:36:03

when sports kind of wanted to walk away at the

1:36:06

highest moment but I suppose

1:36:09

I just couldn't walk away last year, I just felt

1:36:11

it was too good. I

1:36:13

mentioned a few times the homecoming was really special,

1:36:15

the crowd that we had out that night on

1:36:18

that Monday evening was unbelievable and just

1:36:20

felt the support from the Kenny people was great.

1:36:23

So I just probably changed my mind

1:36:25

and decided to go back and look and delight in my back

1:36:27

and I know we didn't win the All-Ireland this year. I

1:36:29

think if I didn't go back last year I'd

1:36:31

have regrets the rest of my life wondering would

1:36:33

we have done it again and I suppose back to back was always

1:36:36

there, it hasn't been done in Kenny since 1991.

1:36:39

But unfortunately look we didn't do it this year and that's

1:36:41

disappointing but look in time I know

1:36:43

that's what we'll think of the good memories. Yeah

1:36:46

I know you said that you had reservations about taking

1:36:48

the job, do you feel that you've got more

1:36:51

out of it than you ever thought you would?

1:36:53

Yeah definitely yeah 100% got so much out of it.

1:36:56

I'm going to really miss it, just

1:36:58

even going training and just connecting

1:37:00

with the players with a great bond between managing the players.

1:37:03

But that's probably one of the main reasons as well that kind

1:37:05

of step away now is things are good even

1:37:08

though we didn't win but still

1:37:10

especially bonding with the players and I think the longer you stay

1:37:12

there I suppose maybe things start

1:37:15

to drift away and stuff like that and maybe relationships

1:37:17

start getting broken down so the other ones going

1:37:19

to leave maybe when things are positive and hopefully

1:37:21

leave the Kenny Camogie in a good place.

1:37:24

I guess it's emotional leaving

1:37:26

a job like this Brian because it's not just the results or

1:37:29

whatever but it's the relationship you have with the players like

1:37:31

the dressing room moments as

1:37:33

Ashin said it was your first time taking a Camogie team but I'm sure

1:37:35

you've built up a rapport with the

1:37:38

girls in this team that you'll never forget.

1:37:41

No I thought it was extremely tough, I probably

1:37:44

wasn't going to do it this week I just woke up Tuesday morning

1:37:46

and it was in my head and I decided

1:37:48

I was going to go so I probably said why put it off

1:37:50

any longer but I spent about 45

1:37:53

minutes at the Whatsapp message written out for group and I couldn't

1:37:55

press send I knew once that was sent that was

1:37:58

it there was no going back and look

1:37:59

you're getting

1:37:59

and mess with some of the girls there during the

1:38:02

week. And it's really nice to get them,

1:38:04

but it's hard to read them at times as well because

1:38:06

you just know it's all over now and stuff

1:38:08

like that. So look, I think it's the right

1:38:10

decision to move on. I probably

1:38:12

didn't think I was going to be here for five years. It's a long

1:38:15

part of anybody's life, but look, I

1:38:17

don't regret anything. I have great memories

1:38:19

for life. My family have great memories as well. So

1:38:22

I'm just very grateful that Kenny Kamoga gave

1:38:24

me the chance to look after this brilliant team.

1:38:26

Yeah, and I think one thing that we talked about as well, Brian,

1:38:28

is the tragedy that has gone on in Kilkenny.

1:38:31

And sport really can help in

1:38:33

those times. And you spoke about that as well,

1:38:35

how you were really all there for each other throughout that.

1:38:39

Yeah, last year was really, really strange. I suppose

1:38:42

on the field, things weren't going great. And off the field,

1:38:44

we had tragedies. Obviously, Tommy's brother, Paul,

1:38:46

passed away suddenly. My own uncle

1:38:49

passed away in a house fire just before that

1:38:51

as well. And a couple of the guards lost their grandparents.

1:38:53

It all just seemed to happen in space at six weeks. But

1:38:56

look, we really, I know we did. The two Diodes sisters

1:38:58

were after doing a cruise shoot in that time as well. So

1:39:00

it just seems to be everything was going wrong. But

1:39:03

we just, you know, the girls started fighting and we

1:39:05

really backed each other and we just galvanized around

1:39:07

each other. And we drove it on. I suppose

1:39:09

it made it really special last year when we won

1:39:11

the All-Ireland. You know, all them people were

1:39:14

in our thoughts when we won. And it wasn't

1:39:16

easy during the year, but definitely

1:39:18

Kamoga definitely helped us through those tough times.

1:39:21

A lot of it was made this year, Brian, about

1:39:23

the LGFA and Kamoga Association

1:39:25

and the protests and calls for a player charter.

1:39:28

And I guess equality with the

1:39:30

male players. And

1:39:32

we've seen the protests before matches in both

1:39:34

the Kamoga and the ladies football. Has this

1:39:36

been an issue that's kind of permeated into your dressing room

1:39:38

across the year because it's clearly an issue that needs

1:39:40

addressing?

1:39:42

Yeah, look, I suppose it's not really a huge issue from

1:39:44

Kliqeni side of the view. We know, I must say, we're

1:39:47

extremely well looked after in Kliqeni. You

1:39:49

know, our county board is super led by Theresa

1:39:51

Edwards. You know, everything the guard is getting, or everything

1:39:54

we look for, we get it within reason. You

1:39:56

know, we have strict condition courses

1:39:58

there. from Bravo Fitness, you

1:40:01

know, the guards of access to the tree gym,

1:40:03

the spring head up, Court Hotel, the teacher, he came on

1:40:05

board this year as well, offering his services

1:40:07

to the gym, and Bravo Fitness gym as well. We

1:40:09

have dieticians, we have physiotherapists, you know, we get

1:40:12

food after every training, you know, food before

1:40:14

and after matches. So we're extremely well looked

1:40:16

after. So the big thing for me is the mileage expenses,

1:40:18

you know, we'd have a lot of people, seven recurs

1:40:21

there during the year traveling down from Dublin, and you

1:40:23

know, I think they get about 800 euro at the end of the year,

1:40:25

and that's it. Our County Board do try and help

1:40:27

out, but the money just isn't there for that. So that's

1:40:30

a big thing that probably has

1:40:32

to change at the mileage expenses. Where the money's going to come

1:40:34

from, I don't know. You know,

1:40:36

Matt Yatumi said, I think to yourself, after

1:40:38

a match on Sunday, that, you know, it's about

1:40:41

supporters coming into the matches. I've

1:40:43

said that for a while as well, like 100% degree.

1:40:46

You know, many people are at the match on Sunday, especially

1:40:48

females, and we actually went into the Kamoagie match on

1:40:50

Clickenny, you know, there's no point having

1:40:53

to go on social media. You know, people have to go

1:40:55

to matches. That's where the revenue will start. And,

1:40:58

you know, if people go to matches, there will be more revenue there to

1:41:00

give to the girls, I

1:41:02

suppose, for expenses. So that's something

1:41:04

that we'd love to see change in that, you know, we

1:41:06

play a championship match there and all that, and if you find you might

1:41:08

have two or three thousand at it, that's it.

1:41:11

You

1:41:11

know, so I really think you need to try and work on getting more

1:41:13

people into Kamoagie matches.

1:41:15

It's about respect for the players, isn't it, too, Brian? Like,

1:41:17

you're talking about the mileage expenses. The

1:41:19