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cynical but understand the workings see

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Half past seven on this Thursday mornings OTB AM The Sports

0:35

Breakfast Show from Off The Ball with you live

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until 10 o'clock this morning loads to come

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between now and 10 o'clock We've

0:42

got Kathleen McNamee on the way at around 7.45 Live

0:45

again from Brisbane one week out from

0:47

the start of the World Cup Down Under Can't wait

0:49

for that 8 o'clock, a bit

0:51

of a treat Preview of the Dublin Monaghan

0:54

All-Ireland Semi Final No bias Shane, no bias Paul

0:57

Findlay, a hero of mine growing up I have to

0:59

say in Monaghan and J.O. Sherlock as well to

1:01

give the Dublin side ahead of that game I

1:04

just love that Paul Findlay, a hero of

1:06

mine growing up and then Jason Sherlock Let's

1:09

get it out there No bias Alan

1:11

Quinlan will be on the way as well at 8.25 to look

1:13

ahead to the World U20 Championship Final between

1:16

Ireland and France tomorrow evening with the Sports News at 8.45

1:18

or so and Eric Lawler, the

1:21

comedian, his you had to be there on the way around 8.55,

1:23

9 o'clock as well So

1:25

a load of great picks from him, Darren O'Sullivan Colin Boyle by the way

1:27

from last night's show writing off Monaghan's

1:30

chances against Dublin this weekend they'll

1:32

be on the way

1:33

from 9.30 similar to Colm O'Rourke by the

1:35

way Dublin v Kerry final is inevitable

1:38

I don't want to talk about that because I don't want to get annoyed on a

1:40

Thursday morning but Colin Boohey, good morning Hi,

1:42

how

1:42

are you? Johnny Ward, good morning Good morning Shane How

1:45

are things, are we keeping? Well, what

1:47

you do I knew you were going to ask

1:49

me You want to know if I've seen the WAM documentary?

1:52

I can't believe you I still haven't watched it Do you

1:54

know what happened? Sorry, can I tell you? I went

1:56

on Today FM yesterday afternoon to talk about Wimbledon That

1:58

was the invite, to talk about Wimbledon

1:59

and he ended up, let me guess. And not alone

2:02

that,

2:02

Ray Foley was like, oh, club chop kind of is

2:05

an amazing song and played the whole thing.

2:07

Right? Right. Fair enough. But if you listen to that

2:09

song, it starts very slowly for the first 60 seconds.

2:12

It's a guy getting out of a car. It's a guy getting

2:14

out of a car. It's not even musical. And then the bass starts.

2:17

Right. So that took over. And then people started

2:19

commenting in being like, yeah, it's amazing. And Brian

2:21

Wise, huge fan of the show, Kirk,

2:24

my who lives in Toronto, watch swam. Brian

2:27

doesn't even like music. Oh, right. I have

2:29

no doubt. I have no doubt. I love the documentary when I watch

2:31

it. It's just that I

2:32

haven't had time this week to watch it, but

2:35

I will watch it. Do you know? Why

2:37

didn't you give me some advance warning about

2:39

the WAM chat? Did you watch it? No.

2:42

I didn't even know it existed. Johnny, this

2:45

is Thursday, right? So the fourth day of the week, I

2:47

get given out to my producer column here. If

2:49

I have a tangent of 20 seconds and

2:51

something random, right? It's the fourth morning

2:53

in a row that he's brought up this WAM documentary.

2:56

Oh, and some mornings it was

2:57

borderline seven, eight minutes of conversation.

2:59

It's taken over Netflix. You'll love, you will

3:03

love, you will love the WAM documentary. A

3:05

comment in here from Roy Dahmer. Paul

3:08

Finney did my garden in Mannehan. Fun fact.

3:10

That's Tommy, Tommy Freeman did my attic

3:12

in Monaghan.

3:13

So like Monaghan legends, it's all

3:15

intertwined. Paul Finney is some football

3:18

now in fairness. I'm looking forward to that. And your man Sherlock.

3:21

You did send me a great clip during the week

3:23

about an Irish guy in the sixties. I

3:25

mean, I'm going to, I've sent that

3:27

around the circuit and there's

3:29

a great reaction. I've seen this one. I can't believe

3:32

I never sent it to you. Yeah. And there's a documentary

3:34

there. There's

3:34

a documentary there, but I mean, that's. Tell people

3:36

in so we don't want to be too vague for people who haven't seen us. What are we

3:38

talking about here? David Attenborough meets this guy

3:41

who basically lives in the wild. But

3:43

there's a backstory. It's like, how did he end up out here? So he's

3:46

living in the wild in what was an old kind of abandoned

3:48

town almost in Australia. Yeah. Northern

3:50

territory. He's clearly an Irish accent,

3:52

but like, it's kind of hard to know where he's from in Ireland.

3:54

It turns out he's from Kerry. Cause he's called a little bit of research.

3:57

But he comes out with these unbelievable.

3:59

like profound

4:02

and kind of like erudite

4:04

lines about life and just

4:06

living on his own and David Attenborough

4:09

was like you have no money you've no one you go so why would I need money

4:11

for it you know I'm happy like I always want to see

4:13

what's over the next hill yeah I thought that was a lovely line

4:15

and in the sense of because I mean half

4:18

my what's up chats now seem to be on

4:20

about the climate but I think we were talking about the climate and you sent

4:22

that back to me and it was like this man knew in the 60s

4:25

how to live yeah and we didn't need to live

4:27

this mad life of just the guy who

4:29

was asked about

4:29

are you lonely and he was talking about the books

4:32

yeah yeah he's on the W what's and he

4:34

was like I read a medical book if you know I thought

4:36

I had every disease under the Sun and he

4:38

was a part-time prospector looking for gold and

4:41

whatnot and then Dave Amber said well

4:43

if you find that we become really wealthy

4:45

like wouldn't you be delighted yeah and he said no no it's not

4:47

about that I'm prospecting for contentment

4:50

what do you type in on YouTube people who are unfamiliar

4:52

what did you have what would you type in that about 1963 Jack

4:55

Mulholland Jack Mulholland also

4:58

Attenborough was a dish like what a handsome he

5:00

was a handsome he was a really

5:03

was yeah it's so weird seeing

5:06

a young David Attenborough and a good interviewer cuz not really

5:08

good animals that's so true that's

5:10

a really underrated takeaway from the video is

5:12

that he's a brilliant interviewer yes I

5:14

took away from it as well there's only like

5:16

one species in the world that recognizes money

5:19

right the rest are getting on fine without money don't even know

5:21

what it is this lad was getting on fine without money

5:23

as a human and but but there

5:26

was a backstory as well so that without giving the

5:28

way I think I'm gonna do a documentary on Jack

5:30

Mulholland it's so fascinating it's mad

5:32

it's the guy how we ended up there presumably he's long

5:34

gone

5:35

Jack Mulholland yeah like he's about probably in his

5:37

50s in that video and that's what I can breath like Attenborough

5:40

isn't have

5:43

Zodograph David Attenborough

5:46

it's framed on the on the it's in my bedroom at

5:48

home in Monaghan and it's framed it's on the

5:50

on the desktop David Attenborough the Giza that was on the moon

5:53

yeah all of them yeah Paul Finley

5:56

I actually did have a jersey

5:58

signed with Paul Finley back in the day still have

5:59

a I probably do still have

6:02

it. It was as you Paul Finley provided the moment Anthony

6:04

Moyles and we'll bring this up with Paul today 2005 Division

6:07

two National League final meter two points

6:09

up Ref is ref tells Paul Finley who's 30

6:12

35 meters out from goal with ball in his hand There's the last

6:14

kick of the game and he's like we're two points down.

6:17

So Paul Finley nonchalantly

6:19

Lovely left boot drops the ball into

6:21

the square thinking right someone just try

6:23

and knock it in Mark Ward the media defender

6:26

and man and fans will know exactly what I'm talking about here Banti

6:29

was the man manager and Sean Boylan was the media manager

6:32

and Mark Ward Sorry Mark But he

6:34

tries to fist the ball over the bar

6:36

so that it's only a point and meet win by a point because they all

6:38

Know there's the last kick, but he put

6:41

directly Punches it into his own goal

6:43

kind of vaguely remember this the mord name into vain

6:46

as a random Moni and the word name It is in but

6:48

a monotone civic reception. This is before modern

6:50

had any sort of success really Of

6:53

this this era obviously in the 80s the plenty

6:55

of success but not just to title lots

6:57

of tannoyes But that does remind me of like the best

6:59

like last ditch goal I've ever seen in gaily football

7:01

Which was against the man's County beside

7:03

me Declan me in against car and

7:06

it was it was the ultimate tragedy of Declan

7:08

means inter-county career that that

7:10

was the last kick Of the game. It wasn't enough for goal. He

7:12

never will not earn him a call away Yeah, despite the

7:15

unbelievable talent of the man and the family

7:17

and But that goal and

7:19

I remember like didn't like did about 20 people

7:21

on the line car But he still

7:23

found a way to a bright corner how did

7:26

how is this not like to clinch a game like like

7:28

that? So they were but they must have been four points down door or

7:30

down and the ref blew it up after It

7:33

one of the best players to never win in Ireland. Oh,

7:35

like he was Obviously

7:37

in the conversation Like

7:39

in fairness absolutely and he was the

7:41

I know Joe canning was

7:42

on with them or Ali canning rather was on

7:44

with John Duggan recently Ali and

7:46

decor me and more our the Galway for

7:48

me anyway the two greats that didn't win all I come And

7:51

Michael me say Michael me and an Ali can yeah, yeah,

7:54

two greats and but I'm sure Michael

7:56

and I met him recently He's doing a little bit of underage

7:58

coaching at home with his job

7:59

and he's he's um he

8:02

did alright with Caltra as well so I think he's happy out Jesus

8:05

yeah there's there's a some list of players that never won

8:07

one wasn't there? The German early

8:09

was German early senior

8:10

that never won one as well Yeah he wouldn't have won all-iron because Roskammern

8:12

had won since what the 40s or something? Yeah

8:14

they got to the final in 1980 was it? Certainly

8:17

the early 80s They were comfortably

8:19

up against Kerry and kind of knew it Yeah

8:22

he was he was a great footballer and then

8:25

I'm sure it's actually that'd be a good thing to have people

8:27

go on to win the best ground ever to win all-irland I'm

8:29

obviously

8:30

gonna lie in the Conor McManus camp here but there

8:32

are a lot of names there that you'd be like Jesus Conor

8:34

McManus is a chance though this is the thing

8:36

Is this the chance this year? Not according to most of the papers this

8:39

morning There's

8:41

a chance That's

8:44

his goal last night 94th minute Mark Doyle

8:47

What? In the back of the papers there If

8:49

you can see it Doyle keeps saying to

8:51

life Mark Doyle celebrates after scoring some bats injury time

8:54

goal there two under feet to f91 diddling

8:57

in the first leg of their Europe at conference league first qualifying

8:59

round two this is in Luxembourg last night I'm not

9:01

sure if the photographer is reference there I

9:03

don't know I know the odd photography Jerry Schmidt from sports

9:05

first So I'm sure photographers

9:07

at times they probably get annoyed

9:09

that their photos don't get great recognition there was a photo

9:12

from pats and cork the other night I was at that game

9:14

and it was Tunde

9:17

Olabi being manhandled

9:19

by Sam Curtis who

9:20

was 17 like literally had his hand on his throat

9:23

but it wasn't even free it was just one of these physical moments

9:25

of the amazing photo but that photo makes

9:27

it look like it was in a proper stadium because this was in a really

9:29

little tiny little grounded looks were

9:31

effectively up on a hill and it was

9:34

just such a massive moment I think

9:36

for Mark Doyle and also for John Daly

9:39

because John Daly made four substitutions I'm just

9:41

looking 70 minutes he brought on two

9:43

players he brought on Jason McKellen

9:45

on 81 owned oil was the marquee

9:47

sign and that hats made it a

9:49

couple of years ago and Mark Doyle

9:51

his namesake sort of came in around the same time a little

9:54

bit unheard of but he's done very well and this

9:56

goal I think Shane could be massive because like I was

9:58

I watched it in in Chacor and Rascal as well

9:59

I might as well mention this sponsor our

10:02

league of iron podcast. It was lovely to go up with Pat's fans

10:04

and watch it on The big screen is that okay? Just Put

10:07

it out there that like I'm not it's not it now

10:09

anyway So and craft beer and all that is

10:12

is great and but watch this anyway there

10:14

other craft beers are available So they put on the big screen

10:16

and and people had sort of stops

10:19

They almost like giving up on the game a bit. Yeah and

10:21

tune it down. He gets this cold last kick and It

10:24

almost changed the whole League of iron in Europe narrative I

10:26

was a teller the night travel crovers were so

10:28

poor like yeah, I was bitterly disappointed

10:30

with them And I know they'd like the

10:33

essentially they played 352 with two wing

10:35

backs who had no pace or two wing backs are injured

10:37

But they were so one dimensional from get from the get-go

10:40

against Icelandic opposition that are okay But they

10:42

really should be beaten in my view and if Pats

10:44

had lost to nil last night against team Another

10:46

team that they were expected to beat this is disappointing,

10:49

but

10:49

mark Doyle's goal completely changes that out of

10:51

and now we have Darian the nock

10:53

and action the scene so progression will guarantee 550,000 euro

10:57

when you pay for prize money, so this could be a huge

10:59

goal like 350 Pats fans

11:02

I'm reading here travel through London and Brussels to this small

11:05

Luxembourgish suburb It's that

11:07

that'll be a huge game and look if they can return

11:09

Them back to Dublin and get away into that game and half

11:12

a million is not to be sniffed out for the League of Ireland No, no,

11:14

it's it's huge and you know Pats

11:16

went on a good run in Europe last season and

11:18

culminating that game against Sophia

11:20

in Tala where they were really unlucky and beat them away

11:23

Which is a brilliant brilliant achievement and it's all about

11:25

momentum as well Shane like this This was not

11:27

a good path to performance really they they were lucky

11:29

very very lucky to come away with the one goal deficit

11:31

Yeah, but it changes everything and I kind of would fancy

11:34

them to do the job in Dublin This team is out of season

11:36

and so it's only another week for them patch in the middle of

11:38

the season They've

11:39

had a lot of momentum in the league. They've good players

11:42

and but it really did change the

11:45

The way you know League of Art like because we're

11:48

never that far half an Irish football from an existential

11:50

crisis And I think the all of the

11:52

League of Ireland WhatsApp groups last night would have been the League of

11:54

Ireland is actually crap We were over we're over

11:56

egging us rovers were rubbish. They haven't scored Pats

11:59

look like they weren't going

11:59

score against Luxembourg opposition. Mark

12:02

Doyle changed everything I hope. Yeah. Some

12:04

comments coming in the YouTube keep it coming in by the way between now and

12:06

ten o'clock the best player to never win an all Ireland.

12:08

Maddie Ford says Joseph Comerford. Kieran

12:11

McDonald says Spectacore. My brother

12:13

Dara Hannons in Vietnam right now he's commented greatest

12:15

player to never win one was Parchi Sung. Sorry Lee

12:17

Keegan. Lee Keegan, I was just gonna say Lee Keegan.

12:19

Yeah. Lee Keegan and Kieran

12:22

McDonald talent wise was... Remember

12:24

that? That was bad. Which? Which

12:26

is a? Parroch versus Lee.

12:28

Well it was... I was gonna stand by it. It wasn't even

12:30

a debate. I just compared Lee to Parchi Sung.

12:32

Too brilliant. Lee Keegan? Yeah.

12:35

Because I said they're both big game players. And one all Ireland

12:37

like. Well no. Both. Well

12:39

Parch didn't win an all Ireland either but both big game

12:41

players

12:42

both came up like both were the the man

12:44

marker so Parc would have man marked Andre Pierlo

12:46

and had lads in his pocket in big games. Lee

12:49

Keegan, I can't believe I'm doing this again. Lee Keegan would have been the

12:51

same against the doves he would have had to mark you know the big

12:53

lads. One found it disrespectful

12:55

to Lee Keegan's talent. Some people found it disrespectful

12:57

but it was intended as a compliment massively. Yeah.

12:59

Both very fit. Both remark. Like by all

13:01

accounts Parc G Sung at that period was the fittest

13:03

person in the United squad and Lee Keegan by all accounts

13:06

the fittest person on that Mayo team. So it was

13:08

met as a compliment. So people can take it whatever

13:10

way they want and they will. Watch your luck.

13:12

Load of kimeshes as well.

13:14

Columnists I have to say on WAM. Kieran

13:16

McGree and this WAM documentary is pushing the OTE scandal

13:19

for the most talked about topic this week. You're not wrong there.

13:22

Mark Goldbridge is my favorite bridge says Hank Schrader.

13:25

Not Hank Schrader from from Breaking Bad I'd imagine.

13:29

Someone else says J.P. Wright voice actor you're

13:31

always anti-Manahan bias J.P. Come on. More

13:33

chance of Andy going back to Shawshank than Dublin not winning

13:36

on Saturday. No I'm

13:38

not having that. Welcome to Manahan FM he says tune in for

13:41

all things Manahan. Yeah Channel 047

13:42

which is the Manahan telephone code 2 they did

13:44

there. Channel 047. 047. No sorry

13:47

North Manahan telephone code 042 is

13:49

for South Manahan so. No disrespect to South

13:51

Manahan of course as well. G.A. go

13:53

did not get consumer watchtower clearance inquiry opened

13:56

as controversial online service was only approved for overseas

13:58

viewers and not for Irish audiences.

13:59

So we had a GAA

14:02

goal discussion in the arachnid yesterday, we had the future

14:04

of football discussion in the arachnid yesterday.

14:07

So sport is

14:09

turning to the front pages. Yeah, I think the future of football

14:12

one's an interesting one to talk about because all hands

14:14

are on deck with the GAA goal stuff. Basically,

14:16

I mean, it was about sports broadcasting

14:19

and the future of it, but obviously that is what dominated.

14:22

Yeah. The one big takeaway is that they might consider

14:24

reducing the 12 euro one-off price for a

14:26

GAA goal match, but a season ticket is very valuable

14:29

and sorry, good

14:29

value for money. Now, the

14:32

AON, AON are either on side of this, he

14:34

went into the dial and was talking

14:36

about funding for football in

14:38

Ireland. And it's something you've been talking about for a long time when

14:41

it comes to the city. Yeah, like in fairness

14:43

to AON, like again, without plugging our podcast,

14:45

we had him on and he was very, very good. He spoke really

14:47

well. And as much as there are probably,

14:51

you know, political points to be scored for him,

14:53

I do think that he's very genuine in this. But

14:55

it's weird that like the most participation

14:58

sport in this country that's been like

14:59

really, we've been absolutely

15:03

immersed in football since Italian 90s, since I

15:05

was a kid. And I can't speak for earlier than that, that

15:07

it feels like a second class citizen in this country for so

15:09

long. And I think there are a myriad of

15:11

reasons for that. But I did like Dan's line at

15:13

the end where he's like,

15:16

this included Michael Lowry seizing a window to

15:18

defend horse racing, Danny Healy, Ray

15:20

wishing Kerry all the best against Terry in this weekend's

15:22

All Ireland, and Matthew McGrath raising

15:24

John Delaney's name in the context of offering condolences

15:27

and the recent death of his father, Joe. A leech,

15:29

self-serving time wasting is a feature

15:31

of the political game at this level. Football

15:34

challenges capitalize on an opportunity to

15:37

effectively work the back channels. And it's

15:39

a good kind of summation of the rubbish of Irish politics.

15:41

You remember John Delaney when he was before the Rocks Committee

15:44

and the Healy Ray love for him

15:46

at

15:46

a time when football was crumbling.

15:48

And it does feel that

15:51

we're a second class citizen. I do feel a sea change

15:53

though. I mean, Michael Martin was on with Joe here a few

15:55

years ago. And I think that was the first sign where

15:57

actually the League of Ireland might have some friends

15:59

in power.

15:59

And I think in terms of the next election

16:02

as well, with what looks

16:04

like a Sinn Féin-led government, I think football

16:06

is going to be in a better place. But we've a long, long way to

16:08

go. Yeah, it's hard to care about everything, but

16:10

a lot of politicians seem to care about so little. And

16:13

from what I've got this week is that there are a few

16:15

who are really good at questioning and

16:18

really do have clear passion for what

16:20

they're talking about and what they're

16:22

debating. But so many of this, and you

16:25

saw it in the RT stuff there on Tuesday too,

16:27

with Ryan Thobberty and Kelly,

16:29

is that

16:29

you don't even care about these questions you're

16:32

asking. I'm talking about the deputies now, I'm not talking about Thobberty.

16:35

And they just want to be seen to be doing this. And

16:37

also I'm thinking this is pure pageantry.

16:39

This is just all performative. Nothing's

16:42

going to come for this. It's just, well,

16:44

at least we did it, we were transparent about it that we asked these questions.

16:47

And I have a huge amount of time for

16:49

the fact that Aeon Arirang brought this to

16:51

the Dailia Strait. But it's very difficult, there were screen

16:53

grabs of the extremely low attendance figures because

16:56

it was clashing. So

16:59

it's a

16:59

beautiful synapses actually of the treatment

17:02

of football in the country and that we're a football mad

17:05

loving country that we don't actually

17:07

treat it as such when it comes to it. In

17:09

these or act as debates and committees, I'd have respect

17:11

for the politicians who asked short questions

17:13

because they obviously are using up less time for the

17:16

answer. And also the questions that, so Thobberty

17:18

obviously made the point in the OTE one very

17:20

early on, he said, this has nothing to do with my

17:23

leaving the job. And whether you believe him

17:25

or not, he said that at the start. So every

17:27

politician going back and asking him that question again,

17:29

it's like,

17:30

he's not going to say anything. Yeah, you can edit your

17:32

questions and also ask one at a time. Exactly.

17:36

It's just a waste of time. So yeah, it is a good

17:38

kind of mirror into Irish politics

17:40

at times, particularly a lot of rural politicians are like, how

17:43

did you get elected? But there is a rural, there

17:45

is this card out there that like, it's also

17:47

against Dublin and like, I'm going to come up with stuff

17:50

like, you know, we're abandoned and which carry

17:52

the best in the all Ireland. One other piece, one other

17:54

thing I should mention as well, which is significant,

17:57

Sinn Féin, Luca Reardon would have a

17:59

Sinn Féin, but

17:59

connection I think would be very helpful in

18:02

terms of getting Sinn Féin on the side of the League of Ireland.

18:05

Sinn Féin's spokesperson Chris

18:07

Andrews followed up correctly pointing out that a large number

18:09

of football clubs cannot apply through

18:11

the existing sports funding mechanisms championed

18:14

by Thomas Byrne

18:16

because they don't own their facilities and that's a

18:18

big big problem. So you can't, you actually

18:20

don't qualify because and you'll

18:22

have a lot of football clubs around the country that are

18:24

kind of you know they're living hand

18:27

to mouth don't own their facilities and they can't apply

18:29

and that's a large large minority as far as I'm

18:31

aware and you know one

18:33

of the things just when Chanuk Rovers played that crowd recurvect

18:36

the other night they have an amazing

18:38

sports facility in Iceland like and I was

18:41

looking at these players all part-time all Icelanders

18:43

who were in a country of a population of what 300,000 were

18:45

well able to compete with

18:46

Chanuk Rovers and an awful

18:48

lot of that is down to when Iceland did well in the

18:50

Euros they pumped money pumped

18:52

all the proceeds back into facilities in

18:54

Icelandic football didn't happen in Ireland because the FBI

18:57

was broke. Clearly bearing the fruits of that

18:59

now the Icelandic clubs versus the Irish teams certainly

19:02

at 7.49am approaching on

19:05

Thursday morning's OTBM the sports breakfast show all

19:07

off the ball. Time to dial

19:10

in to Brisbane Australia because Kathleen McNamee

19:12

host of the Koi Gig Party standing by. Morning Kathleen.

19:15

Morning guys. Still no proof you're in

19:17

Brisbane you could be anywhere there. If

19:21

I can if you gave me two seconds

19:23

I can show you out my window if I could work out actually how

19:25

to change the blurriness on the background

19:27

of this I won't show you my slightly dodgy hotel.

19:30

I trust you I trust you. Thankfully Kathleen has a lot

19:32

of b-roll for us too a lot of footage of Frisbee in training

19:34

so you should go. Look at Ash look at

19:36

Ash wow we think Kathleen for

19:38

the most we think so yeah yeah

19:41

I tell you I would. I will mention

19:43

where Kathy. It might be too bright but you can see the

19:45

general skyline there behind me. You

19:47

can. Oh yeah yeah yeah. That's like the

19:50

central business district.

19:51

Oh class. No we're talking. Which is where

19:54

I see it. The

19:56

moment there is

19:58

honorable mention to Paul Taylor of Sloane. Sligo is

20:00

a really good player who never won all Ireland.

20:02

Unbelievable footballer now as young. It's

20:06

because Kathleen's on the line and Sligo came into your mind. Exactly. That's

20:09

the link.

20:10

Well, I did love whenever I was getting set up with Johto

20:12

outside and all I could hear was Shane talking about

20:14

Monaghan and Aspen Gods for nearly a week since I

20:16

heard anything

20:17

about Monaghan. Oh, yeah. Good morning. Yeah, exactly.

20:20

It was always going to happen. Listen, Monaghan are playing

20:22

a big semi-final in two days time. It's going to, I'm sorry,

20:24

I'm going to know you for the next week. Yeah, I'm going to have to find

20:26

somewhere to see if anywhere will show it out here. I

20:29

think it'll be okay. I think it's New South Wales and GAA GO. A few Irish,

20:31

yeah, a few Irish bars in Brisbane. Should I show the two matches? I'd say,

20:33

yeah, I'd say should be the top in the cup as well. I

20:36

have to

20:36

say guys, I went to watch the

20:40

Origin series, the final third game last night.

20:42

What's all this about?

20:44

So it's Rugby League and it's

20:46

between New South Wales and Queensland

20:49

was the series. And so

20:51

Queensland did won the first two and this was

20:53

basically like New South Wales had to kind of come out

20:55

and show up, which they actually did. But

20:58

I was watching it in a bar and it was like a free to

21:00

air channel. And so every time

21:02

someone scored, so whenever they

21:06

scored, it went straight to ads. And then whenever

21:08

they were taking the conversion, there'd be

21:10

ads before the conversions and then ads again

21:12

after the conversion. And I was given off

21:14

about this on Twitter because it just like

21:16

totally took you out of the game. And someone was saying

21:19

that the A-League, here's like the Soccer

21:21

League, if you watch it, they actually

21:23

delay taking set pieces so that

21:25

they can go to an ad. Not only is

21:27

it affecting the people that watch TV, it's

21:29

affecting the people in the stadium as well.

21:32

And I know, like I was following a little bit of

21:34

the Diego stuff yesterday during

21:36

my jet lag sleep. And it just

21:39

made me think I was like, God, we

21:41

actually I know there's a lot of issues with Diego

21:44

and we have things to fix there, but we actually don't

21:46

realise how lucky we are in terms of

21:48

our free to air TV, that that's

21:50

what it could be. And I know you can't go to the worst

21:52

possible example, but no, that's really

21:55

that's mad. Do you remember like in USA 94 around that

21:57

time?

21:59

like, soccer as it was, they

22:02

were trying to get it to take off in the States,

22:05

watched a couple of games. And at that

22:07

time, they were, because they

22:09

were from the US, the ads during

22:11

the whole game were constant, constant across

22:13

the screen, ads for this, ads for that. And I

22:15

was like, is this going to change now where basically

22:18

you have a massive advertising potential during live

22:20

football to basically have loads of ads. But

22:22

I've never heard of Anthony as extreme as that, where a player

22:24

is literally delayed to get an ad in. It'd

22:26

be like doing an ad for, I don't know, Craft Beer in the middle

22:29

of a conversation, call

22:29

them wouldn't it? What was the

22:32

craft beer? What's the reference to you?

22:34

Pernis, there's a connection to these ads as

22:36

well to be fair. I understand. But

22:39

it's like, you know, whenever, before like, say

22:41

the Six Nations and stuff, before they kick off the game,

22:43

they go straight to an ad break. And I always hated that.

22:45

So I think it's really stupid. And then this game

22:47

was just like constantly that.

22:49

But actually, it was, it was a very good

22:51

game. New South Wales won. I was with

22:53

the, ended up talking to the only New

22:56

South Wales fan in the entire bar. Every

22:58

bar in Brisbane was like absolutely packed

23:00

out for this game. I was just trying to find

23:02

a bit of food after the opening training session and

23:06

got chanced to this guy turns up, he was my grandson's

23:08

cousin. And I was like,

23:09

well, small world, small, small

23:11

world. Wow. Wow. What are the chances? The,

23:14

the World Cup is one week out, one weekend,

23:16

what? Two, three hours, three hours for

23:18

Ireland. Ireland. Yeah. Well, I presume it's

23:20

an opening game. There's an opening game before

23:23

that. Apologies. Sorry. Of course. And in their

23:25

second fair enough, but first for us, most

23:27

important. How are you feeling the week

23:29

out, Kathleen?

23:31

Yeah, good. It was quite nice today.

23:33

Got to go out to the stadium

23:36

where Ireland will play their third game. So that's

23:38

an Nigeria one here in Brisbane. So we had to pick

23:41

up our accreditation from there. So

23:43

myself and Emma Duffy from the 42 went for a little

23:45

wander around Brisbane. Kind of,

23:47

it still feels a little bit like it's not

23:50

happening, but I also think that's partly because

23:52

the fans haven't really descended on Brisbane

23:55

yet. I'm curious about tomorrow evening

23:57

because France are playing Australia in their

23:59

final game before the World Cup actually

24:01

starts. That's in Melbourne and it's

24:04

the biggest ever crowd for a game

24:06

here. Until next

24:08

week when we play them of course and then that record

24:10

will be actually smashed but I think

24:12

it's about 50,000 tickets sold. It

24:14

was just an answer to set up today. So I'm kind of interested

24:16

to see if I do a little wander around tomorrow

24:19

evening what the atmosphere is going to

24:21

be like. But yeah,

24:23

team looks really good last night at the Open Training.

24:25

They're chatting to a few players afterwards

24:28

and they said by the jet lag they were feeling

24:30

pretty good. It was very competitive. You

24:33

could see from the 11-a-side

24:35

that they played that Vera seems

24:37

to be sticking with that same team that we saw

24:40

for the France game. I thought it was interesting.

24:43

They kind of switched it then to

24:45

five-a-side for a little bit and whenever

24:47

Amber Barrett wasn't playing she was over

24:50

at the other goal taking shots and

24:52

she was kind of the only player doing that that I noticed.

24:55

A lot of the other players were just kind

24:57

of stretching and keeping themselves warm by

25:00

running up and down the side where she was practicing

25:02

her kicks. So yeah, still vying

25:05

for that spot on Vera's team

25:07

sheet definitely. But yeah, team

25:10

looked good. No injury

25:13

concerns as of the moment. Katie

25:15

is absolutely fine. Abby Larkin got a bit

25:17

of a knock last night but all the word from the

25:19

camp today is that she was grand. They just didn't

25:21

train her for the last 20 minutes

25:23

just to kind of make sure she was fine.

25:25

Got some good

25:28

advice from Denise O'Sullivan and Nifahi

25:30

on how to beat the jet lag. So I was

25:32

just like if you guys...

25:34

What's their place? Well,

25:37

see they have a whole plan in place

25:39

that's like experts.

25:41

Everything from they were given special sunglasses

25:45

to they were like they have their nap times

25:47

and everything told to them. So someone they just get a text

25:49

being like you have to go for a nap now and they just go

25:51

for a nap.

25:53

So I was kind of joking with them. I was like, can I

25:55

give you my number? And you just text me and be like, oh, nap

25:57

now Kathleen.

26:00

But yeah, they were just talking about the

26:02

different bits of exercise and the timings

26:04

of when they did the exercise in terms of making sure

26:06

it helped you sleep. I didn't wake

26:08

up at 2am last night. I only woke up at half 3

26:11

and I managed to get back to sleep after an hour. So

26:13

maybe it helped a little bit. I

26:16

put a bit more of it into work today.

26:18

So hopefully I'll finally get

26:20

a full night's sleep

26:21

since being here. And does it seem that there

26:23

aren't any injury concerns at the moment? So you just mentioned

26:25

McCabe is able to play away, reach a little chance,

26:28

take it full match. There's

26:30

nobody who's kind of had it taken easy on them

26:32

with the exception of Amabarats doing shooting drills, but that's

26:34

a good thing obviously, is not to do with fitness.

26:36

Yeah, no, that was literally just because there

26:38

was like a certain, they were like rotating

26:40

who was playing at the time. So she was just

26:42

like one of the players that was subbed off at that stage

26:45

and was just taking

26:47

the opportunity to put a few shooting drills

26:49

past Grace Maloney because Courtney was

26:51

on the pitch. But yeah, I was actually

26:54

quite surprised at the intensity of the game last

26:56

night. They just definitely weren't, well,

26:58

they were obviously holding back a certain extent, but

27:00

there was quite a few tackles

27:02

going in. They

27:04

seem to be looking really good. So they

27:07

had that game against Columbia. Well, it was

27:09

tomorrow evening for me

27:10

now, it'll be tomorrow morning for you guys around

27:12

8pm local time. That's

27:15

behind closed doors at the moment, but hopefully we'll

27:17

get a few bits of information out

27:19

about it just to see how everyone comes

27:22

through the other side. But

27:24

yeah, like

27:25

not as good as you could kind of expect them to

27:27

look at this stage and there was a nice crowd

27:29

there supporting them on as well. Presumably,

27:32

Vera Pei was going to play everybody against Columbia

27:35

at some point to get as much as possible

27:37

from them and see as much as possible. Do you expect

27:39

them, even from the little bit of training you've seen so

27:41

far, do you expect her to alter from

27:44

the set formation that she has now, regardless

27:46

of the personnel?

27:48

For the Columbia game or for tomorrow? For

27:50

the Columbia game. Or for the next week. Just

27:53

to test it out shall we? I'd say

27:55

she'll probably start with the same squad because

27:58

realistically that's the squad that's going to start.

27:59

start in a week's time. And we've talked about

28:02

it a lot on the show, the fact that there's

28:04

still players coming into that team who haven't

28:06

been there for all that long. And they do still

28:08

need that time. Like we saw glimpses of what

28:11

Kira Kurusa and Marisa Shiva could do

28:13

when they were linking up together. But you

28:16

know, they have like that was

28:18

only her third gap. So there's

28:20

still a little bit of time for those players

28:22

to develop the relationship. So I definitely think from the

28:25

start, it will be the classic

28:27

start in 11. But I do think it will be a situation

28:30

of rotating. Like I think there

28:32

was some sort of talk that it would

28:34

be first

28:35

half, one side, second half, different

28:37

sides for both teams. But

28:39

I don't have that confirmed or anything. That was just something

28:41

that had been talked about around the training

28:43

pitch yesterday.

28:45

So I think it'll be as much about

28:48

giving those players the opportunity to cement those

28:50

relationships on the pitch and then also giving

28:53

people a run out and making sure that if

28:55

we need it, touch wood, not for

28:57

any injuries and so it would all be tactical. If

28:59

we need people to come in that they are a match

29:02

fit

29:02

and match ready. Just on that, Kathleen,

29:04

like she's quite rigid in terms of her team

29:07

selection and so on so forth. Like but

29:09

tournaments like this, it is a squatting, you

29:11

know, you think of goals that players have

29:13

scored for Ireland and World Cups coming off the bench.

29:16

Like does Vera have the

29:18

person management in her to have?

29:21

And we spoke about this with the other

29:23

day about like coming off the bench.

29:26

Does she have the motivation skills in her

29:28

to keep these players on the fringes motivated

29:30

to come on and feel that they're part of

29:32

this rather than that they're going to be on the bench for three games?

29:36

I get this sense

29:38

with this squad that it actually

29:41

wouldn't even matter all that much if Vera

29:43

didn't have those skills. Like

29:45

all the players are so individually

29:48

motivated that I think that's actually more

29:50

of a big thing at this moment in time than it is

29:52

how well Vera handles

29:55

it because if you look at like how the team has changed

29:57

over the last year, year and a

30:00

There hasn't really been up until

30:03

the last six weeks, or six months,

30:05

it was a pretty set squad and then all of a sudden these

30:07

major changes happened. But

30:10

also the players that have

30:12

been left out have been relatively dealt

30:15

with in that, if you look at, say, the likes

30:17

of Jamie Finn, that was a massive

30:19

loss for the entire squad. And I'd say that

30:21

probably took more managing for Vera than

30:24

the current squad that are there at the moment.

30:26

Jamie is in the 26th, she's not in the 23. And

30:31

if you talk to some of those fringe players as well, say the

30:33

likes of Pierre Grant, I remember

30:35

speaking to her after the Zambia game where she had

30:38

the assist for Amber Barrett's

30:40

goal. And she was saying, you know, I think

30:43

I did as much as I can do tonight

30:45

to play my way onto the plane. But also,

30:48

I've always been that fringe player. I've always been

30:50

on the sidelines and come on when

30:52

it mattered and showed up. So I think a lot

30:54

of those players kind of know themselves

30:56

what their role is within the team. And

31:00

I think as well the fact that this is our first World

31:02

Cup,

31:03

first major tournament,

31:05

that's such a massive motivating factor

31:07

for this team. If anything, I think it will probably

31:10

make more of a difference going into, say, the Nations

31:12

League and the Euros qualifiers

31:15

later on in the year. And if

31:17

Vera's contract is extended, how

31:19

she manages things past then rather

31:21

than this tournament in particular, because

31:24

the individual motivation is

31:26

so high.

31:27

We'll catch up again tomorrow. Kathleen, how does

31:29

your next 24 hours look?

31:32

Well, I'm off now to a soiree

31:34

with the Irish Australian Embassy,

31:38

which is being held in the players' hotels. I'm not entirely

31:40

sure if the players are going to be there. I assume they are.

31:43

It's a non-recording event, but

31:45

I might bring the mic along and see what I

31:47

can pick up. Just

31:49

like pull someone into the lobby and see how it goes.

31:53

And then we have Columbia Game tomorrow,

31:55

so hopefully find out a little

31:57

bit about that. I'm going to go into town and watch a lot

31:59

of games. Australia France and see if I can talk

32:01

to some Australian fans to see how

32:03

they're feeling ahead of next week. Because

32:06

the ones I've talked to so far are pretty confident,

32:08

but need to get them on camera. So hopefully we can show

32:11

them up. And then I have a few

32:13

Irish families who've contacted me who

32:15

I'm going to see some of the sights with hopefully

32:18

over the weekend. And then the Queensland

32:20

Championship semifinals are happening on

32:22

Sunday morning in Wollotong. So

32:25

I'm heading out to those as well to cheer on

32:27

some of the local Irish people here who

32:29

play

32:29

with the various different GAA

32:32

teams around Queensland. Jealous. Very

32:34

jealous. Some great names of places in

32:36

Australia. Yeah. Wollotong. Wollotong has just gone top

32:38

of my list. Fantastic. Kathleen,

32:41

we'll catch up again tomorrow. Sorry. Go on ahead.

32:44

Oh no, I was just going to say it's generally all the

32:46

non-colonial names that are excellent. And then you

32:48

have random places named Ipswich and

32:50

stuff. Yeah,

32:52

I prefer the Wollotongs of the world than Ipswich. Thanks

32:54

a million, Kathleen. We'll chat to you tomorrow. Thanks,

32:57

guys. Have a good morning. Great stuff for you too, Kathleen. You might be

32:59

there. I was going to say good morning to yourself as well. But again,

33:01

it's what is it? Nine hours

33:03

ahead? We discussed this yesterday. Yeah,

33:06

I think it's about nine. Yeah, we'll go at nine. Someone

33:08

correct us in the comments. It's five o'clock. Yeah, I'm

33:10

just distracted. There's a ridiculously

33:12

vague, like, witness protectiony

33:14

name in Australia for a place by Cairns.

33:17

Witnessy protection name? It's like they came

33:19

up with it at five to six in a Friday evening because they couldn't think

33:21

of a name. Oh, it's the cards. Have

33:24

you been to Australia? Yeah, I lived there for a year. Did you?

33:26

How did you like it? I loved it. Loved it.

33:28

Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. It's culturally,

33:31

yeah. It was good to me. It was culturally

33:34

very similar to

33:35

here. You seem like you're

33:37

settling very well in Australia. Loved it, yeah. I

33:40

have a lot of people I know over there and family

33:42

that settled there

33:43

went over in the 80s. They got over

33:45

in the 80s to Australia. Like, you know,

33:47

there's no dialogue there. Like, there's no... That's

33:50

a phone call once a month that will cast you on. White apps,

33:52

right? Yeah. So, what's the HEP say? White

33:54

apps. So, that name... The

33:56

home of the way was... It was a TV when I

33:58

was younger. Like, you felt like...

33:59

Home in a way that was a national obsession. I went to visit

34:02

Home in a Way. Set? Yeah. Did

34:04

you even watch the show? You did one. I did one. Neighbors

34:06

in Home in a Way, glued to it growing up. My

34:08

mother had remote control. Jesus. Terri

34:11

Bui dictated.

34:12

Fair, fair. Speaking of dictates, Wimbledon,

34:15

it's

34:17

really good now. With a lack of star power

34:20

name on paper,

34:22

you have men's game.

34:23

In both games. Right. Because like, Serena's

34:25

retired, no Naomi Osaka, Emma Radikhanu,

34:28

fair. You know, so not just the men,

34:30

but it's been really good, actually. It started

34:32

slowly with the rain, interrupting a lot of play. But

34:35

today you have two excellent semifinals

34:37

in the women's side. So the story of the championships

34:39

for the women, Alina Svetlina from Ukraine, 28,

34:42

gave birth last October for the first time. She's

34:45

been stupendous. And I think the

34:47

narrative here for those who are just watching

34:50

it and passing is that she's

34:52

every chance of winning the semifinal

34:54

today against Marchetta van Drusova.

34:57

More to the point, she could play Arena

34:59

Sabalenka on Saturday, which would be

35:01

Ukraine against Belarus. That would be no handshake.

35:03

That would be kind of unprecedented, no handshake in the final

35:06

of Wimbledon. And the speeches afterwards on

35:08

court would be fascinating to hear. Now, obviously,

35:10

Svetlina has no problem with Sabalenka personally.

35:12

It's Ukraine against Belarus. Just look at

35:14

the men's side. So Jockvitt's

35:17

favor. But he's not like this is a formality

35:19

favor. Yeah, it's because he's dropping

35:21

a set here and there. But does he know what he's doing? He's

35:24

kind of like, yeah. There's just no

35:26

chance he's going to third

35:27

gear. Just no chance he won't win this an

35:29

equal ratchet federer's A. No chance, he's A. And

35:31

the only way is if he does something. Like

35:33

at the US Open, when he got himself disqualified. Yeah.

35:37

And I'm not saying that the men's side is very strong. He

35:39

plays Yannick Sinner, who's a brilliant Italian young

35:41

fellow, one of the stars

35:43

of the future. And then a star of the future

35:45

and a star of the present, Karyllis Alkaraz, who's the youngest

35:48

Wimbledon semifinalist on the men's side since

35:50

Jockvitt in 2007. He plays

35:52

Daniel Medvedev, who beat Chris Eubanks

35:54

yesterday. Chris Eubanks, like

35:56

we've talked about already this week with Jen Claffey, he

35:58

was five points from victory. yesterday. He

36:01

was two sets to one up, a fourth set tied

36:03

to one up at the start of the tie break and from

36:05

there Medford have took control unfortunately. Eubanks

36:08

became tired but if you look at the prize money at

36:11

Wimbledon that's a game changer for Eubanks now.

36:13

That's I think over $400,000 and

36:16

he's already booked in for commentary for the

36:19

rest of the summer on the tennis channel. So you may have to think

36:21

twice about that now. So was he just taking on the

36:23

commentary because he didn't think he was of a level to do this? He was

36:25

making enough money. If you're outside the top 200, tennis

36:27

is absolutely brutal for those who don't make consistent

36:30

money. And if you're outside the top 200, it's

36:32

the equivalent of being ... Any

36:35

industry like it could be like an out of work freelance journalist or something

36:37

like that where it's what you do with your passion, it's your

36:39

vocation which you're not getting paid. Outside the top 200

36:42

you could win events but you're not like ...

36:44

It's really just covering your expenses because as

36:46

a tennis player you have to pay for everything yourself. So

36:49

it was a really clever idea to supplement

36:51

the income to do some commentary on games which

36:53

actually helped improve his own analysis of

36:55

matches and look at him now. So that's

36:57

game changing money. I hope he goes on from there.

37:00

He hated grass a month ago. Then he won his first ever

37:02

title in his career which was Anne Grass.

37:04

And here we are like quarter-finals at Wimbledon.

37:06

And that was his dream. They played that in the

37:09

news round last night, the lads. He's actually quoted ...

37:12

You can hear him say this in an American TV show. He's

37:14

like, most people's dreams at Wimbledon or whatever.

37:16

I actually just want to get to the second week

37:18

of Wimbledon. That would be amazing. So he's done it. Fair

37:21

play to him. Yeah, it's funny players still

37:23

playing and then coming out of it. It happens at the Snookers where Sean Murphy

37:26

and Mark Allen, these lads, commented while they're playing at the

37:28

World Championship. So it's an interesting one. You get it in racing

37:30

as well where you're kind of half thinking like,

37:33

is this a nod to your subsequent

37:34

career because there's a few points to be

37:36

made and ... Yeah, put in the door job. Well, it's

37:39

kind of galling as well where you have Ruby Walsh

37:42

going from a jockey

37:44

who obviously is one of the best jockeys ever to

37:46

presenting. Presenting like

37:49

Gary Lineker and being annoyingly

37:51

good at it. Genuinely, it's not easy to present

37:54

on TV from my perspective. I

37:56

don't find it natural at all. Do it very

37:58

sporadically and Ruby just ...

37:59

like that. So

38:02

Davey Russell I think, Barry Garrity, lots

38:05

of media roles to them going forward as well. For

38:07

sure. 8.08am on this Wednesday, Thursday.

38:09

I've done it again. Thursday morning's OTBM,

38:11

the sports breakfast show from off the bar. Are you

38:14

just totally, the modeling game has thrown you into

38:16

this. Big time. Don't want to eat these anymore.

38:18

Can't wait to talk about it just a second. It's going to be exciting. But I should

38:20

mention before we do, Braver & Coffee is the official coffee

38:22

partner of OTB. Braver & Coffee is coming

38:25

to an Apple Green near you. New Braver

38:27

locations are popping up every month. So visit AppleGreenStores.com

38:29

forward slash Braver and define your nearest

38:32

Braver & Coffee experience up next. It is Paul Finley

38:34

and Jason Sherrock. OTBM

38:39

off the ball cheering on the girls

38:41

in green. I followed the Irish women

38:43

since 1983. 82,000 people. That's going to be something else. There'd

38:48

be a hell of a lot of Irish in that and it'll be a

38:50

hell of a game as well. Love off the ball. We really

38:52

do love off the ball. OTBM.

38:57

The sports breakfast show from off

38:59

the ball.

38:59

All right, 10 minutes past eight on this Thursday

39:02

morning's OTBM. The sports breakfast show from off the ball.

39:04

Must have Johnny with you right through until 10 o'clock

39:07

this morning. We'll turn our attention to Gaelic football now. Time to

39:09

preview the first of the All-Ireland Senior

39:11

Football Championship semi-finals. It's half past five on

39:13

Saturday evening in Croke Park. The dubs,

39:15

the all-conquering dubs against Monaghan.

39:18

We have Paul Finley, former Monaghan star in studio. Morning

39:20

Paul. Morning James. How are things? And we love Jason

39:22

Sherrock there on the line as well, the former Dublin star Jason.

39:24

How are things? Good,

39:26

Shane and you? Keep it well. Keep it well. Thanks a

39:28

lot for joining us. We'll get to

39:30

the chase here, Jason. He's the man in our middle. Is he

39:32

one of the illustrious list of the

39:34

greatest players not to win All-Ireland? He's

39:37

definitely in that category. All right. He

39:40

certainly had a cultured left peg anyway. That's

39:42

for sure. Still has a cultured left

39:44

peg. Yeah, yeah. Jesus is still playing away with Fanny

39:46

Beaumont and Senior Champions at the moment. Paul,

39:49

I have to mention the back pages. Back

39:52

pages of the newspapers here. And we'll get to you and this Jason

39:54

as well. So, column O'Rourke, back page of the

39:56

Irish independent Dublin Kerry final is inevitable.

39:59

Meet manager O'Rourke.

39:59

consists cream wheel rise to the top with Kroger

40:02

set to sell out. Colin Boyle on off

40:04

the ball last night as well saying similar things, is

40:07

it a straight forward as that Paul? Well

40:09

it's exactly what Monaghan people want to hear and

40:12

it's exactly what the Monaghan team want to hear Shane to be honest.

40:15

It's understandable how that sort of talk

40:18

is going around to be fair. Dublin,

40:20

Kerry, they look like the farm teams, they're

40:22

really peaking you know coming into the right time of

40:24

the year. But from a Monaghan

40:26

perspective and from a Derry perspective these

40:29

guys can only concentrate on what

40:31

they can bring on the day and

40:33

that's where their preparations will be. But you

40:35

know if you are outside of either Derry

40:38

or Monaghan that's the way it looks. Jason,

40:41

I guess it's Monaghan one of those teams

40:43

I know it's all league form but certainly

40:45

they all have decent battles in the Allianz

40:48

leagues. Division one I think Monaghan have won

40:50

three and drawn one new for the last four games against

40:52

the Dubs. Then you have to park that

40:54

I suppose for championship because it's a whole different ball game.

40:57

Yeah well I think when you look into this game the

41:00

starting point would be that league game, their last

41:02

league game where obviously Monaghan had a great

41:04

victory and Dublin got relegated. And

41:07

I think although it was league football

41:09

it was very very soon it was

41:11

very close to a championship last year.

41:14

Obviously Monaghan season didn't go

41:16

the way they would have liked and when

41:18

you look at Dublin they're probably a different team now

41:20

and who knows they mightn't be the team they are now

41:22

without that defeat by Monaghan at that time.

41:25

But we've seen already in this year's

41:28

league Derry beating Dublin but

41:30

then they get to Crow Park and it didn't translate.

41:32

So yeah that's going to be a big challenge for Monaghan.

41:34

The one thing though from a Monaghan perspective they've

41:37

played really well against Dublin and Crow Park

41:39

and there's not many teams that have that experience

41:42

going into these big games and I'm sure

41:44

that's something that Vinny and the players will be

41:46

kind of reinforcing that they have been here before

41:49

and they have performed very well against Dublin.

41:52

The start of the second half in particular

41:54

Jason against Mayo I guess is why everyone is

41:57

really bigging up the dubs at the moment. I guess

41:59

over the last few

41:59

year or so. There have been ups and downs

42:02

like the Gildare games. Maybe

42:04

weren't the best of performances and there are a couple of other games you could

42:06

say, well Dublin weren't at their best, but certainly

42:08

that third and fourth quarter against Mayo would leave

42:11

Manon fans a little bit concerned I guess.

42:14

Yeah and like when you look at the game

42:16

and all Ireland semi-final Dublin are where they wanted

42:18

to be and I just say

42:20

it was, there were some really good

42:23

parts of the performance against Mayo and

42:26

it was very similar to the Dublin Mayo game and

42:28

I think it was 2019 where the third

42:30

quarter Dublin got on top and

42:33

again when you look at the origin and

42:35

the source of that it was from the kick out situation

42:38

and Dublin certainly pressed up on

42:40

the Mayo kick out in that game. It's something

42:42

they've tried and we've tried to do against

42:45

Rory Beggin who for me was probably

42:47

the hardest opponent when it came to against

42:50

pressing up on a kick out so that would

42:52

be a challenge for Dublin on Saturday.

42:55

But as you say Shane I think it's been a strange,

42:58

it's been an unusual season obviously it's a new

43:00

season, but it's been a very strange graph

43:02

in terms of Dublin and their progression and

43:04

I suppose that's what kind of gives a lot of opposition

43:07

hope because Dublin haven't consistently

43:09

performed as well as they have in years

43:11

gone by but at the same time

43:14

they're in an all-island semi-final they

43:16

look to be peaking at the right time a

43:18

lot of names a lot of familiar names in the

43:20

Dublin squad and I think the challenge

43:23

that the Dublin management team have

43:25

is having the right 15 on the team on the

43:27

pitch at the right time and sometimes

43:29

when you have so many players that can be a challenge

43:31

in itself so it'll be interesting to see

43:34

how that plays out on Saturday. You've

43:36

had that experience Paul of playing with Rory

43:38

Beggin and a couple of Ulster Championship winning

43:40

teams with Monaghan and against them at club level those

43:42

great battles between Ballyby and Scotts Town. How

43:45

important is he on Saturday because

43:47

as Jason says those kickouts the way

43:49

Dublin pushed the male kickout was probably key in

43:51

winning that game for them but Beggin's

43:53

kickouts are another level so that

43:56

he would be a crucial cog on Saturday. No

43:58

doubt about it Rory's been huge.

43:59

for Monaghan, as you say, for Scotts Town also.

44:02

I know coming up against him with Bally Bay, he's

44:05

such an influential player for Scotts Town.

44:07

Not alone in these kickouts, but kicking these booming

44:10

points from 60m and beyond is a

44:12

serious advantage. So, yeah, it's

44:14

going to be crucial. You would expect

44:17

that Dublin will press up on Monaghan's

44:19

kickout and really put them to

44:21

the pin and look out right from the start. So it's really

44:23

going to be hectic in that first 10 or 15 minutes.

44:27

It'll be for cool heads and thankfully Rory

44:29

has a lot of experience under his belt. There's a

44:31

lot of experienced players out the pitch.

44:33

He has Darren who I'm thinking

44:36

is going to start this match out the middle of

44:38

the field. But they've

44:40

played a lot of football. They've played in Crow

44:42

Park a lot. The good open space is to

44:44

try and find a man. So even though it's going to be difficult,

44:47

we have a good man in Rory to try and

44:49

get it going. You say the cool heads,

44:51

Paul. The first 10 minutes,

44:53

what is the Monaghan self-belief there and

44:55

the sense that because there will be a lot of fear as well.

44:58

If this goes wrong early, where are we at? They

45:00

have a big game attitude.

45:03

They've been in big games before. A lot of the players,

45:05

there's a few new guys that wouldn't have seen

45:07

this level before. But the experience

45:10

in the group is huge. It's huge coming

45:13

into these big games and the prep for these big games

45:16

and letting these guys know what's expected

45:18

and how these games can pan out in

45:21

the first 20 minutes.

45:24

The first 20 minutes I feel, the first half in particular

45:26

is huge for Monaghan this weekend. They'll want

45:28

to get their game going very early, get

45:31

scores on the board very early, try to be

45:35

annoying for the want of a better

45:37

word against Dublin. Just

45:39

not letting them get into their stride. That's

45:42

the most critical part for me. If

45:44

they can do that, get

45:46

in at half time, still be well

45:49

in the game and then see what the second

45:51

half can bring.

45:59

And I'm familiar with some hoping they were kind of saying that

46:02

maybe pace or lack thereof in the Dublin

46:05

backline is one area that Monaghan could exploit,

46:07

especially if you have the likes of Conor McCarthy and Carlo

46:09

Connell bombing forward from half back

46:11

into that attacking zone. Is

46:14

that an area that Dublin

46:15

maybe could be targeted?

46:18

Yeah, well, I think the psychology of the

46:20

game is really important. And as

46:22

Paul said there, I think from a Monaghan perspective,

46:25

getting into half-time is crucial. There's

46:28

a balance between going out to win the game

46:30

versus going out not to lose. And

46:32

I think if you look at Monaghan's best performance,

46:34

in my opinion this year, it's been that second

46:36

half against Tyrone. And why

46:39

was it good? Because they demonstrated

46:41

urgency that they pressed up and

46:44

they committed to going forward. Now,

46:46

that's a very hard thing to do in Crow Park

46:49

against Dublin because you know if you

46:51

overstep the mark, you could be exposed

46:54

at the back. But certainly from a Monaghan

46:56

perspective, if you're

46:58

looking to kind of look for weaknesses, yeah,

47:00

there's always question marks about the Dublin

47:02

backline. But I think that's more to do with their structure.

47:05

They generally play man-to-man,

47:07

which obviously gives teams opportunities

47:10

and generally Dublin forwards at forwards. So

47:13

if you've got backs that can put them on the back

47:15

foot, that gives opposition an opportunity

47:18

as well. But again, it's the psychology

47:20

of that first half. What is the intent?

47:23

Are we going out here to create

47:25

history? Are we going out to kind of put

47:28

our footprint down and get to an all-arland

47:30

final? Or are we going out to contain

47:32

and to stay in this game and hope that

47:35

we have a chance for 10 minutes to go?

47:37

Yeah, like if you're an opposition manager, Jason,

47:40

trying to set up to play this Dublin

47:42

team. Like we had Davey Burke, the Ruskam manager

47:44

in studio with us there a couple of weeks ago. And

47:46

they got a lot of criticism for the drawn game and the group

47:48

stage in Crow Park for the way in which they played.

47:51

I think at one stage they had the ball for six minutes

47:53

before popping off a score. But

47:55

his point was, why would we go

47:58

toe-to-toe with this Dublin team? Why would we try and play for the

47:59

football against them when they're clearly a better

48:02

footballing team. So is that how you

48:04

set up against the Dublin Crook Park? You just try and keep the ball

48:06

for as long as you can?

48:08

I wouldn't say it about Dublin.

48:10

I would say it about any team you're playing. The one

48:13

thing, if you're setting up your own team,

48:15

you cannot control what the opposition

48:17

do. So you have to respect

48:20

what they do. And I think Dublin obviously

48:22

have encountered that over numerous years

48:25

and have come up with, I suppose, solutions

48:27

for that situation. So I'd remove

48:29

it away from Dublin. I'd remove it away

48:32

from Davey Borcon, Ross Common. It's about

48:34

a team that has the tools and capabilities,

48:36

one, to understand what the challenge is. And then

48:38

secondly, have the tools to kind of break it

48:41

down. And like you

48:43

can have a kind of a

48:45

style of play. And obviously, Monon

48:47

will want to get the ball inside, they want

48:49

to get their halfbacks moving forward. Likewise,

48:52

Dublin, as they've shown this year, they want to

48:54

kick the ball. They want to get the ball in.

48:56

And I suppose a big challenge for Dublin on

48:58

Saturday will be can Carmen Costo,

49:01

can Colin Battschiel continue the form

49:03

that they've shown? But probably to do

49:05

that, they need space. And Armon

49:07

and going to give them that space. And so

49:09

so, yeah, that's that's that I know for some people

49:12

from a spectator's perspective, it can be challenging

49:14

now. But that's the kind of game within

49:17

the game that as

49:18

well, people that are involved in the game appreciate

49:21

and understand and accept. So

49:23

if you if you are looking at the game on

49:25

Saturday, it might be worth looking out to see

49:28

what what type of style both oppositions

49:30

are playing. Jason, has there been a correlation between

49:33

the performances of the old boys, which has obviously been

49:35

well touted after the Mayo game and

49:37

the return of Cluckston? I'm

49:40

not sure it's a correlation.

49:42

I think Dublin, typically, they

49:45

like to obviously have their best performances towards

49:47

the end of the year. Obviously, having a player

49:50

like Steven Cluckston in goal is for

49:52

any team is a big boost.

49:55

But ultimately, like it that's

49:57

great on paper, and they have

49:59

not been tested. suggest and ultimately that's

50:02

where we'll

50:04

know whether these guys having these guys

50:06

around are a good thing or a bad thing

50:08

and I suppose that's the challenge that the

50:11

opportunity might have at the weekend

50:13

is can they put

50:15

Dublin on the back foot, can they challenge

50:17

what's going on because ultimately we don't

50:20

know obviously those guys

50:22

that didn't start the last day they might have picked

50:24

up a couple of injuries as well so we

50:26

don't know who's going to start and who's going to finish

50:29

but certainly

50:29

from a Dublin perspective it's

50:32

great to see those names but it

50:34

won't be until the last quarter of a game where

50:36

the game is in the melting pot so we really

50:39

know if they still

50:41

have the ability to finish out again. Can

50:43

you bring in that Paul? These interests

50:46

they haven't been tested yet so that's

50:48

almost an implication that Mayo just didn't perform

50:50

that they were probably tired or whatever so does that

50:52

give you a bit of hope?

50:53

I'm not sure I think

50:55

that was a cracking quarter final

50:58

for long periods. Do you mind an hour

51:00

if that Mayo were tired or Dublin were just amazed? Well

51:03

I think there's a bit of both. Mayo certainly

51:05

did bring it to Dublin in the early stages of the game

51:07

and we're right in it all through the first half and

51:10

they had a couple of

51:12

mistakes you'd have to call them. Was it down

51:14

to tiredness? That's

51:16

up for question but

51:18

they certainly brought it to them. Mayo

51:21

played that similar type of game that they always

51:23

do, that chaotic sort of open

51:25

game and it sort of lent to Dublin

51:28

be able to go and do their thing for

51:30

that second half and they certainly finished

51:32

that second half amazingly liquid.

51:35

Some key players coming off the bench and they

51:37

just look really really strong. So Manahin

51:40

won't want the game like that. Manahin will

51:42

do anything to stop the game falling into

51:44

that sort of thing but you have to expect that Dublin's

51:46

going to come after Manahin a lot more than the

51:49

teams have done you know like RMA

51:51

or even Kildare. That was sort of a mirrored

51:53

approach on what Manahin was bringing. Dublin

51:55

will go after Manahin, they'll push up and

51:57

you'd have to think that it's going to be difficult.

51:59

difficult for Monaghan to withstand that. Are they

52:02

prepared for that? Well, they have to be. They

52:04

have to be because that's what Dublin will do. They won't sit

52:06

back and let Monaghan have possession for

52:08

long periods of the game. They'll push

52:10

right up at them, put serious pressure,

52:13

put serious heat on all those guys that

52:15

like to have time on the ball coming out of defence. So

52:17

I can only hope that Monaghan have prepared

52:19

for that and they'll

52:22

be ready to deal with it. And

52:24

they can break those lines. Carlo Connell, Conor

52:26

McCarthy, Conor Byle, you know, if you've

52:29

seen it all, Ryan White,

52:29

can come forward and break tackles. And,

52:32

you know, but at the end of that,

52:34

the Monaghan will not sustain that for 70 minutes. So

52:36

they'll look to have a more measured approach

52:39

where they can. Conor McManus, we

52:41

have to talk about him. Like he just, when

52:43

he came off the bench against Armagh and we

52:45

were re-lashing O'Reilly in the studio last week, she was down by the

52:47

sideline and she said he looked agitated on the sideline,

52:49

ready to get in and clearly had a mark of

52:51

the game straight away. And nerves of steel

52:53

with that free kick to even win it at the end.

52:57

Do you start him against Dublin or do you do what

52:59

Vinny Corey has been doing all year and kind of bring him off

53:02

the bench with what, 35 to go? I

53:04

think ideally we hold onto him. From

53:09

me looking in, that's what Vinny has been doing

53:12

this year so far. And I don't think

53:14

they'll change tack now. They'll hope to

53:16

get a really strong, just the way modern

53:18

football is, it's just hectic for that

53:20

first 35 minutes. The pace

53:23

is unbelievable. And

53:26

then you

53:27

look to Conor in the second half and just

53:29

to come in and do what he has been doing. He's

53:32

just been, it's off the charts, really that introduction

53:34

against Armagh. We've seen

53:36

it down the years. I've played with him, played against

53:39

him. He's

53:41

a go-to guy, any time you need a score

53:43

he will pop up and look for that responsibility.

53:46

You're a 40 now. How hard is it to maintain

53:48

that at the level that he's asked into

53:52

the latter half of his 30s? I

53:54

don't, you see with my designs as well,

53:57

maybe it depends

53:59

on your life. outside of football, but it's an

54:01

insane achievement from my perspective to be

54:03

playing at that level. Yeah, it's amazing.

54:05

It doesn't get any easier, I can tell you, from

54:08

experience. You've got to change your game

54:10

a bit as well, obviously. Of course, and it's

54:13

well documented. The difficulties Conor's had

54:15

with injuries and his hips, etc.

54:18

But he's managing that really well. He's managing

54:20

that for a long time now, and he's looking after

54:22

himself as good as

54:24

ever. He's in as good a shape as you'd ever see him.

54:26

So that's credit to him. But I suppose

54:29

mentally it gets

54:29

difficult every year that passes

54:32

and everybody's expecting you to retire. There's

54:34

something eating away at you inside.

54:36

Should I actually be here? These

54:39

doubts come into your mind, especially standing over

54:41

pressure free kicks like the way he did. So

54:43

it's clearly not affecting him, and that's what

54:45

makes him a really special player. Jason,

54:48

the strength and depth has never been a concern for

54:50

the Dublin team, but when you saw the lads coming off the bench

54:52

against male, the likes of

54:55

Rock and Small and for the Kenny, would

54:58

you expect any of them like Keiran and Kenny

54:59

comes to mind and Jack McCaffrey comes to mind as well? Would

55:02

you expect either of them to start or will there

55:04

be very little in terms of changes from Desi Farrell?

55:06

Would you expect?

55:08

It's hard to know. And I

55:10

suppose we're all interested. And we love

55:12

as everyone is the home

55:15

of expectation 20 minutes before a game,

55:17

because yeah, as I mentioned earlier,

55:19

the management

55:22

seemed to have an embarrassment. The riches there.

55:24

It was obviously a big surprise not to see Keiran

55:27

and Kenny start the game because he's been

55:29

such a key performer for Dublin

55:31

over the last number of years. On Morten,

55:33

as I mentioned, got injured coming

55:36

off in the second half and to see

55:38

him come off was a worry. But

55:41

I think just to build on your last point,

55:43

and it applies to Dublin as well. You mentioned

55:45

Mick Fitz. You look at the performance of James

55:47

McCarthy the last day. You look at the

55:49

likes of Darren Hughes. You

55:52

look at the likes of Charles McConnel.

55:55

I've obviously seen Conor McManus

55:57

and I got to chat to him earlier this

55:59

year. Like to

56:01

see those older players and to see them still

56:03

performing at the level they are, they're

56:05

a credit not only to themselves as footballers

56:08

but also as people. And to be able

56:10

to still continue to care as much

56:12

as they do and to commit what they do to

56:15

perform, it's really kind

56:17

of inspiring and obviously no matter

56:19

how the game goes, you want to see those guys

56:21

having their day in the sun and going

56:23

out to perform really well. Is it the fear

56:26

of the afterlife, J.O.? It's like once this

56:28

is done, it's done. Do you know what I mean?

56:30

It's like I know it's hard, you have to motivate

56:32

yourself for another winter of this, but once it's done,

56:34

I won't hear the roar of that co-par crowd again.

56:37

Yeah, you think that, Johnny,

56:39

but to be honest, if that's your mindset,

56:42

you're probably doing it for the wrong reasons. And

56:44

I think the one thing, and I know

56:47

obviously the Dublin lads and I got

56:49

to know Connor a bit, they care about their

56:51

counties a lot. They care about

56:53

where they are. And obviously, Monon

56:56

had a couple of years where they've underperformed in the

56:58

championship. And I'm sure if

57:00

Connor was asked to be wheeled out for a minute

57:02

to kick a free for Monon this year in the championship,

57:05

he would have done it because he's had

57:07

a lot of challenges and a lot of injuries

57:10

to get to where he is. So

57:12

no, I think the more

57:14

team-focused players they see

57:16

that their care to the dressing

57:18

room and the people that they're playing with, but

57:20

also to the pride that they have in their

57:22

counties. I think as well, when you see the Saudi Arabia

57:24

and the money and where these lads are going to go now in football,

57:27

that's a lovely, lovely thing. That's what J.O.

57:29

says there, that I never

57:31

played into county football. I wouldn't for a minute want

57:33

to put in that commitment. It's unbelievable. And

57:36

for them lads to be

57:37

doing it for the love of the county, it's a rare,

57:39

rare thing in sport at that level nowadays.

57:41

The lure of management as well into county,

57:44

Jason is always there. And but there

57:46

is, as Johnny says, there's the commitment issue there as well. I

57:48

think the Monon and Donegal jobs took months and months

57:50

after the championship to fill. I know your name

57:53

was one that was quite strongly linked with the

57:55

Monon position. And I had the J.O. Sherlock

57:57

posters bought for the bedroom. I thought this was a done.

57:59

I know, I know you'd

58:02

imagine how close was that was adjacent

58:04

to the bottom position because it seemed to be it seemed to be reasonably

58:07

close I know you were probably considering it

58:09

And well certainly I had conversations

58:12

and it was something and it was something that

58:14

I did reflect upon and consider Obviously

58:17

it's worked out a lot better anyway And

58:19

obviously Vinnie is a top guy and delighted

58:22

for him and the team to

58:24

have got what they were they are I think from

58:26

my perspective on delighted where man in there, but

58:28

I'm not surprised And when you look at

58:30

the performances and the players that they've had over

58:33

the last number of years Like

58:35

they are playing to their potential and the

58:38

one thing from the experience and

58:40

I would have my father-in-law Who passed away a

58:42

few years ago? He worked with Monaghan

58:44

Co for all his life practically

58:46

So that was a big part of the appeal

58:49

to kind of get involved with Monaghan But the

58:51

one thing that I did learn about the Monaghan

58:53

people is how much they care about

58:55

their football up there And there's a lot of

58:57

great people and I'm delighted to see some

58:59

of the people that I spoke to Involve

59:02

with Vinnie and the setup so as

59:04

I said, I'm delighted that they're there But I'm

59:07

certainly not surprised and I

59:09

think they come

59:09

into Saturday with a real good shot

59:12

of upsetting Dublin What does Vinnie have?

59:16

Just out and out leadership quality

59:18

he had it as a player all during the years

59:22

He's

59:23

big on discipline and you can

59:25

see that in the way the team are playing He

59:28

never was phased when he was playing

59:31

either and he can see that again on the line He's

59:33

just totally in control at

59:35

all times But you'd have to be just very

59:37

happy from a Monaghan perspective and a supporter

59:40

now at the stage that the way the team are Playing

59:42

they're just putting every last bit of themselves

59:45

into the into each and every game that they play

59:48

And you know, what more can

59:50

you ask for from any manager like that?

59:52

You know the teams when the teams playing like that and you

59:54

know tactically astute, you know that they've

59:57

had to adapt and really

59:59

poor

1:00:00

performance result against Derry

1:00:02

back in the Ulster Championship and you

1:00:04

know they go meet them again and there's lots of changes

1:00:06

and there's lots of tactical manoeuvres

1:00:09

to try and counter the problems that

1:00:11

they had so you know that that's all you can ask

1:00:13

for in any management team and Manan have that

1:00:15

in Vinny and his team and they've done brilliantly. We

1:00:17

can sometimes read too much into backroom teams maybe

1:00:19

in the GAA but they are still massively important

1:00:21

and Vinny made the move of bringing

1:00:23

in Porek Duffy who we saw celebrating you

1:00:26

know as I think it's logistics liaison manager

1:00:28

is his official title I don't know what it was. LLL.

1:00:30

Yeah basically but like how

1:00:33

important could that be because I know he was involved with teams in the 80s

1:00:35

under Sean McCaig and look his experience in

1:00:38

the administrative side as director general he's been at the top

1:00:40

of the game loves Manan football obviously

1:00:42

I'm sure that's an important aspect of the backroom.

1:00:45

Yeah it's not something that was too widely

1:00:48

talked about or publicized but

1:00:50

you know having somebody like Porek in there is just brilliant

1:00:54

like him being from Manan and the experience that he has

1:00:56

in the game and just being a presence

1:00:58

he has to be a presence in there for all those

1:01:00

lads to see him you know he's certainly

1:01:02

adding something but not just Porek like what Derek

1:01:04

McArdle played with him for years like another

1:01:06

deep tinker about the game an excellent man

1:01:08

to have in your corner and you

1:01:11

know a lot of talk about Martin

1:01:13

Vinny's brother you know and I know Calvin weren't too

1:01:15

keen on letting him go

1:01:17

from from there to ranks so highly

1:01:21

regarded coach and then Gabriel Banning

1:01:23

and a huge experience in the game as well so

1:01:25

just built a really solid team having

1:01:27

the like a Porek Duffy and all of those guys mentioned in

1:01:30

there just makes it a really strong ticket. Just

1:01:32

off to you then Joe the Gilleroy thing same question

1:01:34

pretty much. Yeah

1:01:36

to be honest

1:01:39

I wouldn't know much I wasn't involved with Pat for

1:01:41

very long he got rid of me in 2009. Yeah

1:01:46

yeah probably so from a

1:01:48

Dublin perspective obviously it's a

1:01:51

new voice it's a voice that had had

1:01:53

relative success in the past so I'm

1:01:55

sure it's been a positive

1:01:57

from a Dublin perspective but again it's

1:02:00

just shows you and I go back to that Monaghan

1:02:02

game in the league, things changed from

1:02:04

a Dublin perspective that day. So I

1:02:06

suppose the Dublin

1:02:08

will certainly have, Monaghan will

1:02:11

certainly have the attention of Dublin

1:02:13

going into Saturday. As to to Monaghan, let's hope

1:02:15

any of the Monaghan forwards get on the Dublin team.

1:02:17

Yeah,

1:02:20

that's a good question. Dublin

1:02:22

have an embarrassment of riches. Not on a bench,

1:02:24

like this is insane. All would start from Monaghan, 100%. All these, the

1:02:28

Barkey bench bearers. Without a doubt,

1:02:31

you talk about Conor, but Conor

1:02:33

at the stage of his career does he even get

1:02:36

into the Dublin squad, I'm sure that

1:02:38

the Conor of old and back in his

1:02:40

A day, of course he does. There

1:02:44

is, Mihal Banigan has been playing very well for Monaghan,

1:02:47

he has great pace.

1:02:47

Kieran Hughes

1:02:49

is coming in and out of the game, his ability

1:02:53

is unquestioned, but he

1:02:55

is playing a different role for the team right now. Stephen

1:02:59

O'Hanlon, they all bring different traits, and this is what's

1:03:02

good about Monaghan, that some guys are in there for

1:03:04

scoring, Jack McCarran, like we think about... What kind

1:03:07

of brilliant performances against Dublin, when you think the last

1:03:09

two, was it 2-5, maybe one set before?

1:03:11

Without a doubt, but the challenge for Monaghan is

1:03:14

bringing it at this stage, and Vinny has

1:03:16

mentioned it, about beating

1:03:17

a top tree side at this

1:03:19

stage of the championship is where it's at for Monaghan, and that's

1:03:22

the challenge. But they have lots of quality

1:03:24

within their forward team, do any of those guys

1:03:26

get into the Dublin squad,

1:03:29

everybody is going to have a different opinion on that,

1:03:31

but I'd certainly be happy

1:03:33

with the spread of scores

1:03:35

and threatening players

1:03:38

that they have, and look, you'll always look

1:03:40

for more. It's a very good political answer, but it does sum up

1:03:42

how difficult the challenge is, because

1:03:46

the bench as well that Dublin have, you're talking about

1:03:47

not 6 forwards, it's more

1:03:50

like 10 forwards.

1:03:52

So you can't win this game going toe to toe,

1:03:54

so Vinny has to find some way of, and

1:03:57

I fear for both semi-finals, I really do.

1:03:59

football is in a place where it would not be good for

1:04:02

getting football if these were two washouts and I

1:04:04

do fear that but I'm hoping

1:04:06

for some love from the Monaghan Lads that it's not going to happen. Prediction

1:04:09

time? Jason, how do you call it?

1:04:11

Well obviously

1:04:12

from my perspective I'd be hoping Dublin

1:04:15

continue the form that they showed

1:04:17

against Mayo. It's likely

1:04:19

if the game is going to be won early it's likely that

1:04:21

Dublin can kind of get that momentum as Paul

1:04:24

alluded to. Monaghan have

1:04:26

played teams that have mirrored each other. The

1:04:29

last game I think that it was a drawn game 13 times

1:04:32

so I think Monaghan

1:04:34

whether they can encounter

1:04:37

how they deal with when Dublin kind of

1:04:40

create that bit of chaos and get a couple

1:04:42

of points in a row it'll be

1:04:44

interesting to see how Monaghan deal with that. I

1:04:47

think I would love if the game got to the final

1:04:49

quarter for both teams. I think it'll

1:04:51

test Dublin and it'll be interesting

1:04:53

to see how they deal with that but

1:04:55

also if it gets to the last quarter you would expect

1:04:58

Monaghan to be at their strongest because they like to

1:05:00

Conor McManus will be on the pitch and

1:05:03

then it'll be a case of whether they really believe

1:05:05

so yeah I'd love it

1:05:07

to get into the final quarter and if it does

1:05:10

with the game in the balance and if it does

1:05:13

in my opinion it could go either way. Paul?

1:05:15

Yeah

1:05:17

I think it's a case of

1:05:19

what version of each team

1:05:21

brings to the day. If Dublin

1:05:23

bring their absolute best that we've seen in the second half against

1:05:26

Mayo it's going to be a really difficult task for Monaghan.

1:05:29

If Monaghan can bring absolutely

1:05:31

something that is really at the top

1:05:33

of each and every one of their game and

1:05:36

even above that which is possible

1:05:38

in these big matches you come and

1:05:40

you get going and there's something just

1:05:43

you know something comes upon you as a group

1:05:46

and you really perform above yourself I think that's what it's

1:05:48

going to take

1:05:49

to topple Dublin

1:05:50

plus with Dublin you know be knocked

1:05:52

out of the comfort zone and not being able to get to

1:05:54

the pitch that they really want so those

1:05:56

are those are the couple of things that's going to happen that have to

1:05:59

happen for a Monaghan victory.

1:05:59

but you would have to say that if Dublin are

1:06:02

bringing their best, you know, it's going to be a really difficult day for Monaghan.

1:06:04

Can I briefly ask you before we let you go, we mentioned

1:06:06

at the start of the show, we had Adri Moils in that seat

1:06:09

last week, and I think he was talking about the 05 Division 2

1:06:11

League final in Crook Park. To Monaghan Lee, one

1:06:14

of my best memories ever as a child,

1:06:16

I have to say. Well, I was 12 or 13, I'd say. What

1:06:18

are your memories of that? Because the referee tells you there's, what,

1:06:21

last kick of the game, Monaghan, two points down, and you just laugh the ball

1:06:23

in, and a per mark award if he's watching, won't

1:06:25

like to see it back, but

1:06:26

chaotic. Yeah, brilliant scenes

1:06:29

from Monaghan. That was probably back, you know, Banti

1:06:31

had us and he lifted us up. You

1:06:33

know, we got to that division, I think it was 2A

1:06:35

final, so we were pretty low in the leagues, you know, Meade wouldn't

1:06:37

have been happy with where they were either, but

1:06:40

it was huge for Monaghan. You know,

1:06:42

we hadn't won a trophy in Crook Park

1:06:44

for years, if ever, even

1:06:46

at that, you know, if I'm right in saying that. And,

1:06:49

yeah, it was crazy. The ref

1:06:51

definitely did tell us that it was the last kick. When

1:06:54

I let that ball go, I'm thinking I've hit it too hard.

1:06:56

I think it's going

1:06:56

to drop over the crossbar, and,

1:06:59

you know, what the hell are you doing? You know, but it

1:07:01

just, you know, unfortunate for Mark, but,

1:07:03

you know, brilliant for Monaghan, and the scenes after it

1:07:05

were amazing. And to this day, it

1:07:08

reminded me of often enough, Joe Sullivan, my

1:07:10

own club mate, reminds me, puts

1:07:12

a post up every March

1:07:14

or April, whatever it was, on social media, and

1:07:17

it gets a nice few hits. So, look,

1:07:19

it's a nice memory anyway. You're still going strong as well. Yeah,

1:07:22

still trying to put the boots on.

1:07:24

It's great to be able to do that. We did fantastic

1:07:26

here

1:07:26

last year with Bally Bay, winning our county

1:07:29

title. You

1:07:31

know, it's a case of

1:07:33

being able and everything being right in

1:07:36

my life, thankfully at home and work,

1:07:39

and just having that opportunity. And, yeah, I'm blessed

1:07:41

to not have too many injuries that

1:07:44

allows me to do that, and trying to enjoy it.

1:07:46

Well, Paul, thanks, Monaghan, for coming in. Listen,

1:07:48

thanks for hopping on the line as well, and listen,

1:07:51

lads, enjoy the match. I made the best team win.

1:07:53

No, I think that reminds us of masking.

1:07:57

I bloody will hold, Nod, if

1:07:59

you're from Monaghan.

1:07:59

I wish for thinking we'll

1:08:02

see. We'll see. Keep my cards close to my chest.

1:08:05

Sure, Johnny, isn't it? I'm recording

1:08:07

to the back pages anyway. 8.40am on this Thursday morning. I'm

1:08:10

going to be eating his bonnet this morning. Yeah.

1:08:13

O2B and the sports break are showing off the ball. I should say as well,

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don't miss all the action in Rugby Daily today in your O2B

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1:08:29

Mr Alan Quinlan joins us on the line this morning. Quinlan,

1:08:32

how are things? Very good, lads and yourself. Keeping well,

1:08:34

keeping well. We had

1:08:36

Keith Wod on the show yesterday and we

1:08:38

were remarking and remembering a certain try

1:08:41

you scored against Argentina in the World Cup back in the

1:08:43

day.

1:08:44

What are your memories? Because I watched the back

1:08:46

in advance of chatting to Keith. And you're looking

1:08:48

serious discomfort. You dislocated your shoulder to

1:08:50

kind of score this try.

1:08:53

Yeah, my memories obviously

1:08:55

was better to get injured

1:08:57

scoring the tried than the other and

1:09:00

it to happen I suppose in a training session

1:09:02

or something like that. Obviously it was bitterly disappointing

1:09:05

at the time. I

1:09:08

was in probably the best shape ever. Mentally

1:09:11

it was in a good place. I

1:09:14

wasn't being picked on the back

1:09:16

of a few injuries in the back row so

1:09:18

everyone was pretty much available and I kind

1:09:21

of thought my way into the starting

1:09:23

team and it was incredibly exciting

1:09:26

to go and play Argentina given what happened

1:09:29

in 1999 in the World Cup. So scoring

1:09:31

the try was nice. I just wish I

1:09:34

had maybe another half

1:09:36

an hour to pace and I wasn't tackled by

1:09:39

the Argentinian fullback and obviously

1:09:42

what happened to my shoulder

1:09:45

was a pity because it took me a long time

1:09:49

to kind of get back and

1:09:51

be able to play properly again with the

1:09:53

shoulder. It did affect me for

1:09:56

a long time. I had to kind of change

1:09:58

the way I trained in the gym. gym and stuff like that

1:10:01

because

1:10:04

it took a fair bit to

1:10:06

get the flexibility back and all

1:10:09

that kind of stuff and build up the shoulder again. It took a long

1:10:11

time but probably

1:10:13

seven or eight months later I was in South Africa on

1:10:15

an Ireland tour and came off the bench twice

1:10:17

there for that.

1:10:21

I got back in the green jersey again but

1:10:23

certainly it was disappointing. It

1:10:26

was great to score as I said and for

1:10:28

Woody to be giving me a compliment it's nice. I don't

1:10:30

often get too many compliments from

1:10:33

former teammates. They're usually

1:10:35

giving out about how annoying I was but

1:10:37

it was nice to hear that from you. In

1:10:40

terms of your pain that you encountered

1:10:42

during your career, how was that up there in terms of actually

1:10:45

like this is sore? Very

1:10:49

indescribable Johnny if I'm

1:10:51

being honest. It was

1:10:53

pain that was like this

1:10:56

isn't stopping and it's phenomenal

1:10:59

really. If you get a banger,

1:11:01

a knocker, I've

1:11:04

broken a good few bones. I broke

1:11:06

my thumbs and fractured my

1:11:09

jaw up

1:11:11

to that point, broke fingers, things like

1:11:13

that which are quite sore, dislocated my

1:11:15

thumb as well but

1:11:18

that pain was just a searing

1:11:20

pain that wasn't really stopping until

1:11:25

we got into the dressing room and the

1:11:29

medics for the Irish team and there was

1:11:31

a few other medics there who

1:11:34

eventually got the shoulder back in place. Once it popped

1:11:36

back into place, the pain literally

1:11:38

stopped. It was like turning off a tap and

1:11:41

I went off to hospital, got an x-ray and

1:11:45

got back right at the end

1:11:47

of the game and Ireland had won the game

1:11:49

so that was probably the most important thing in the day

1:11:51

because there was so much pressure in us going into that game.

1:11:53

It

1:11:56

was kind of bittersweet memories as

1:11:58

I said. Held

1:12:00

on to this that scenario of

1:12:02

at least I scored in a big game you know because

1:12:05

these things happen in training to players in all sports,

1:12:07

you know to get injured behind closed doors and It

1:12:11

felt like that it was an important try and

1:12:14

At least it was something out of that. But obviously

1:12:16

if I had my time back I would have preferred

1:12:19

not to had the I got injured and dislocated

1:12:21

a shoulder because I missed the rest of the World Cup and

1:12:24

I I missed the six nations where I

1:12:26

won a triple crown a couple of months later

1:12:28

as well for the first time in 2025 years,

1:12:30

so

1:12:33

It was yeah bittersweet But

1:12:36

nice to hear woody sense up nice about me as I

1:12:38

said, I don't know too often get many

1:12:40

compliments Yeah, it's saying it was like

1:12:42

it was 16 15 Maybe the final score in that one But what

1:12:45

he was the one who who lays the ball off

1:12:47

to you you're coming through at absolute full

1:12:49

tilt And as what he said yesterday like it was the

1:12:51

pass had be perfect, but also your run There

1:12:53

was no stopping you you you you were literally

1:12:56

there was only one split second in which you could get that ball

1:12:58

Yeah, you don't really and I

1:13:02

Didn't really think much about it to be honest.

1:13:04

I

1:13:05

You know just gotten his shoulder and

1:13:08

he truly told me and then the pass and Carlito

1:13:10

the fullback for Argentina, you know,

1:13:13

he's he's a very quick physical

1:13:15

player and Even

1:13:18

from a pace point of view I suppose I was I was in

1:13:20

really good shape going into that World Cup and had

1:13:23

a few setbacks before that as regard

1:13:25

selection and just Understanding what it was like

1:13:27

to get to that level the sacrifices you make

1:13:29

and all that standard stuff. So Yeah,

1:13:32

it was great to score it. I kind

1:13:35

of

1:13:35

I claim it, you know, I

1:13:38

think Scoring to try,

1:13:40

you know There was a bit it always a bit of a joke

1:13:43

with with guys who played in that match I

1:13:45

saved Irish rugby that it was so important to

1:13:47

try and I

1:13:49

was kind of claiming that I saved the Irish few a lot of money

1:13:51

that we wouldn't have to qualify for the next World Cup

1:13:53

and we were going to come out of the pool and

1:13:58

And get into the quarter finals and stuff like that

1:14:00

but Paula Connell was always kind of back

1:14:02

at me saying that well you know

1:14:05

Rodge or David Humphries would have got a drop

1:14:07

goal or a penalty to win it. The try

1:14:10

didn't really matter but Sam. So in some respects

1:14:12

if Ireland win the World Cup this year it is sort of

1:14:14

down to you really.

1:14:15

Well a lot of success

1:14:18

in recent times Johnny would be down to me I'd

1:14:20

say because that's 15 million

1:14:23

that I saved the Irish field

1:14:25

back then in qualifying and

1:14:28

so yeah. It's not like a related

1:14:30

chain. Money

1:14:32

helps. Money helps. I'll tell you what would

1:14:34

be a lovely little lift for the country and

1:14:36

rugby in Ireland would be a win over France

1:14:39

tomorrow evening 20, 6 o'clock in the World

1:14:41

of the 20 championship final and

1:14:44

in fact win over South Africa at Atalone

1:14:45

Stadium as we talked to you earlier in the week in the semis.

1:14:49

This French team,

1:14:50

Ireland getting just over the line against them in the Six Nations

1:14:53

but they are

1:14:54

possibly favourites heading to this one France?

1:14:57

It's probably what Paul was saying there beforehand

1:15:00

about Dublin, Monaghan. It's a little bit like that.

1:15:04

Ireland are strong

1:15:06

underdogs here you know and I think

1:15:09

it's not nothing really to do with the

1:15:11

Six Nations. Ireland can look

1:15:13

back and obviously take a laugh.

1:15:15

You can take a fair bit from that and it's a massive

1:15:18

achievement to win the Grand Sam like they did

1:15:20

this year and last year. France

1:15:24

have improved a lot. They've added a couple of players,

1:15:26

the pace,

1:15:28

the power that they

1:15:30

have and you know they are strong favourites.

1:15:32

They've scored I think it's 29

1:15:36

tries in four games which is a hell

1:15:39

of a return isn't it to score that many tries

1:15:41

they've only conceded 11 so it's

1:15:45

very hard to stop them Shane from scoring.

1:15:47

If you look at the semi-final against England they're 17-0 down.

1:15:51

England got a brilliant try early

1:15:53

on. They got a penalty then got a brilliant team

1:15:56

try then they get an intercept and score

1:15:58

again under 17-0.

1:15:59

up and

1:16:02

you think France are rattled a little bit here,

1:16:07

they respond and half time is

1:16:09

24-14 to England and

1:16:11

you think God this is an upset on here

1:16:14

and this is good for Ireland because

1:16:18

they're stopping France from playing here effectively

1:16:20

and Ireland, I'm thinking in my head,

1:16:24

they can take England, England

1:16:27

is a better team from playing the final, a better chance

1:16:29

maybe and the response

1:16:31

in the second half was phenomenal. It was

1:16:34

24-14 and then 20 minutes

1:16:38

later it's 52-24, England scored

1:16:40

the last, scored a try at the end. Just

1:16:42

that performance

1:16:46

in that second half was a reminder to everyone

1:16:48

of how strong they are. I mentioned

1:16:51

I think in Monday about their number eight, we

1:16:53

talk a lot about Brian Leeson but their number

1:16:56

eight, Marco Ghazati is a wonderful

1:16:58

player as well and Baptiste

1:17:01

Janu, the scrum half, he

1:17:04

makes everything pick for them between forwards and backs,

1:17:07

he makes a lot of line breaks,

1:17:10

he's just a phenomenal player, he's

1:17:13

always on the inside and making

1:17:15

breaks, popping the ball off the fellas

1:17:18

and they're hard to stop so

1:17:21

how do you stop them? I'm not really sure, I think

1:17:23

for Ireland they probably need a

1:17:27

perfect performance here and

1:17:30

maybe to cut out mistakes and errors

1:17:33

and try and get a complete performance. Are

1:17:36

they capable of it? Yes, Ireland's ambition

1:17:38

in attack and

1:17:41

the way they've played throughout the Six Nations

1:17:43

this tournament, they attack a lot and

1:17:45

that's kind of in their

1:17:47

make-up. I think Ireland

1:17:50

can score tries against France, yes, but

1:17:53

they've got to defend really well and they

1:17:55

can take a lot of heart probably from the defence against

1:17:58

South Africa last week.

1:17:59

week in the semi-finals but

1:18:02

as I said a near perfect performance is

1:18:05

required if they are to win us but up to this

1:18:07

point they've done remarkably well Ireland. How

1:18:09

important is a game like this psychologically for

1:18:11

a player of that age 20 where like

1:18:13

if you look at say New Zealand and England they guess

1:18:16

former credit will get battered by 21 points

1:18:19

say if Ireland lost by similar or worse or

1:18:22

more significantly just weren't in the game. How

1:18:25

damaging is that psychologically as a young player

1:18:27

if you're like I'm just not good enough for this?

1:18:30

Well I think yeah it's a good question

1:18:32

as regards you know obviously in

1:18:34

any sport if you if you get a heavy

1:18:37

defeat particularly in a

1:18:39

final people remember it don't they you know they

1:18:41

remember that so

1:18:44

but I think up to this point with these players

1:18:46

they've they've they've

1:18:48

achieved a fair bit you know winning the Grand

1:18:50

Slam it's it's

1:18:53

it's a big tournament it was a fantastic

1:18:56

performance is true right throughout the

1:18:59

tournament getting to a final

1:19:01

here

1:19:03

given the start they had when they drew against England

1:19:06

the way they responded everything that's kind

1:19:08

of happened around the tragedies that have affected

1:19:10

the squad psychologically

1:19:14

will it damage them yeah yeah if you get a big

1:19:16

defeat of course you'll remember that

1:19:19

the flip side of that is if they were to

1:19:21

you know be close

1:19:23

here in with 10 or 15 minutes ago

1:19:26

I think they'll and they've shown

1:19:28

that they've incredible belief this team because

1:19:31

they've had a fair few setbacks aside

1:19:33

from the off the field stuff that's

1:19:35

that's been incredible to deal with there

1:19:38

are side that really respond after they make

1:19:40

a mistake or two they just seem to dust themselves

1:19:42

down and that's probably the most impressive

1:19:44

thing for me they're they're very calm

1:19:46

side they're quite patient in what they do and

1:19:49

that's down to good coaching as well but it's it's

1:19:51

you know Richie Murphy's done a remarkable job and

1:19:54

but it's also a lot of kind of mature leaders

1:19:56

in the group so I think they know

1:19:58

what's coming Johnny and and I don't think

1:20:00

anyone will focus on the

1:20:03

reality as France have

1:20:05

shown in the tournament. There is evidence to say

1:20:07

there that they are incredibly

1:20:10

powerful, they are after improving a lot

1:20:12

since the Six Nations and they

1:20:14

are capable of putting up a big score on anyone. They

1:20:17

don't seem to panic because their captains

1:20:19

after the game was talking about

1:20:22

the 17-0 down that they

1:20:24

were very controlled and calm. They

1:20:26

are 10 points down at half time. It

1:20:30

is easy to say when you do go out and score

1:20:32

loads of tries and win the game, but he was saying that

1:20:35

they were very relaxed. They seemed to believe

1:20:37

that if they just get themselves right

1:20:39

here they are going to score tries against England and win

1:20:41

the game. Ireland have

1:20:43

to ask questions of them and be really physical. I

1:20:48

really hope, obviously we all

1:20:50

hope they win, but there is a little bit

1:20:52

of a worry here if France get their tails up,

1:20:55

they are capable of pulling away. I

1:20:57

just think this team

1:21:00

deserve

1:21:02

a real shot at it and hopefully they

1:21:05

can bring a performance that keeps them in the game.

1:21:09

I really believe if they are in the game with

1:21:11

15-20 minutes to go and it is tight

1:21:14

that a little bit of momentum may

1:21:16

swing with them, but France are very very dangerous.

1:21:19

It is a delicate balancing act

1:21:21

for Richie Murphy as well. We have to play our

1:21:23

game.

1:21:24

You have to have some middle ground between we have to

1:21:26

play our game, but also be conscious of the fact that we

1:21:29

need to have a 10 out

1:21:31

of 10 performance and we also need to somehow suffocate

1:21:34

France in the sense of make this as close

1:21:36

as possible for as long as possible. You

1:21:38

have to inculcate a lot of belief, but at the same

1:21:41

time we can't get ahead of ourselves here.

1:21:43

I think it

1:21:46

is probably my own mentality from being out

1:21:49

there on the field and playing. The

1:21:51

worst thing anyone can do sometimes is

1:21:55

you see it in football where somebody

1:21:57

scores a goal against a run of play and you shut up

1:21:59

shop for the day. and you bring back, bring

1:22:01

on an extra defender and all that stuff. Doesn't

1:22:04

really work in rugby unless the conditions

1:22:06

are absolutely horrendous. And maybe

1:22:08

it's only just penalties that

1:22:10

are winning the game and handling

1:22:13

is really difficult. I think

1:22:15

Ireland have to focus on their own performance.

1:22:18

And I think they're capable of causing

1:22:20

France problems in attack. And

1:22:23

that's where they obviously have

1:22:25

to really kind of have

1:22:28

their mindsets that they've got to play rugby

1:22:30

and back what they've done in this

1:22:32

tournament and in the six sessions because, you know,

1:22:36

last week they defended for long periods in

1:22:38

that semi-final and then scored three great tries

1:22:40

in the second half. So they've

1:22:43

got to front up and speak the very physical

1:22:45

side. So, you know, it's

1:22:47

not a case of trying to contain France, because

1:22:50

if you do that, I think you run into problems. They

1:22:52

have to be brave and go for it as well. And I think they will

1:22:55

be. I think from Richie

1:22:57

Morphy's kind of listening

1:23:01

to him in the press

1:23:04

even before the semis. And

1:23:06

this week again, they've got to

1:23:08

kind of back themselves. And I think they will. I

1:23:10

just think where they need to be really

1:23:12

miserly is is is

1:23:15

just around penalties,

1:23:18

handling and, you

1:23:20

know, really get their line out and and

1:23:23

and kickoffs right, because

1:23:26

when we talk about that nine or nine

1:23:28

out of 10 performance that you probably need in

1:23:30

these in these situations, it's

1:23:32

the small errors that really come back to kind

1:23:35

of haunt you. And France typically their

1:23:37

mentality never changes, same as the senior

1:23:39

side. If they get their kind of flow going

1:23:42

and somebody drops a ball and one of the French

1:23:44

guys picked it up in a twenty two, you

1:23:46

know, all French sides will try and believe, you

1:23:48

know, they'll think they can go to Linterfield and score.

1:23:51

In those moments, it's Ireland. I've got to be really rock

1:23:53

solid and kind of strong defensively and

1:23:56

and just shrewd in their game. So their kicking game

1:23:58

is really important as well.

1:24:00

I should mention as well that the team use Richie Murphy

1:24:03

is from the semi-final the only change is

1:24:05

the return of James McNabney to Blindside

1:24:07

Flanker. He was suspended of course for high tackle

1:24:10

earlier in the tournament. James McMangan moves

1:24:12

then for Blindside Flanker to second

1:24:14

row. Your prediction briefly, Quinny,

1:24:16

for that one? How do you think it's going to go? Oh, I

1:24:18

don't know. I think it's, look, it's France

1:24:21

or it's going to be difficult to stop them.

1:24:24

And on the base of what we've seen,

1:24:27

France probably are

1:24:28

that little bit better. But there's

1:24:32

a side of me then that thinks that everything

1:24:34

that's happened, the under 20s

1:24:36

have become really, really tight. And

1:24:40

I'm sure that,

1:24:42

I'm sure they do themselves proud but I think France

1:24:44

probably just win this on the basis of

1:24:46

what we've seen. We should mention before we go, we've got a comment

1:24:49

in from Pascal Jacob who says on YouTube, are

1:24:51

you not even going to mention those Canterbury abominations?

1:24:54

So people might have seen this, the New Irish Jersey for

1:24:56

the Robbie Workup. We have a few images up on screen

1:24:58

there. I don't know if you've managed to see these Quinny

1:25:00

but it's the New- Is it that bad? Well,

1:25:03

no, that's just what they- See, jerseys are so subjective.

1:25:05

I actually think they're lovely. It's not abominable.

1:25:08

No, it's definitely not. I mean, I don't know. The

1:25:10

Jersey is said to be, quote, the most technologically

1:25:12

advanced ever produced by Canberra and

1:25:15

officially launched alongside the kids sponsors. We Go Together

1:25:17

campaign calling Irish fans

1:25:19

across the world to unite in support of the team.

1:25:21

So I like- It's challenging Quinny's like

1:25:23

intervention in terms of if Ireland do win the World Cup, it'll

1:25:25

be down to the Jersey pretty much. True. Have you seen

1:25:27

these jerseys yet, Quinny? Yeah, I saw some shots

1:25:30

online. Yeah, I think they're nice. I'd

1:25:33

obviously like to see it kind of up close

1:25:35

and see what the, kind of a brighter

1:25:37

green, aren't they? Yeah,

1:25:39

definitely not as dark as the O7. Initially,

1:25:41

I thought it was a t-shirt that's Peter

1:25:44

Romani, Ian Henderson and

1:25:47

who's your player yesterday?

1:25:49

It's, yeah, put it

1:25:51

up there again. Oh, Ross, Rossbarn, Rossbarn.

1:25:53

Yeah, I think they're going for that

1:25:55

look as well, Quinny, like Rossbarn could be just showing up

1:25:57

in like a boozer involved bridge there and like-

1:25:59

It's like, oh yeah, whatever, you look well. It's

1:26:03

a great shot. You know, the first thing I thought of is

1:26:07

none of the three of them know what a razor

1:26:09

is used for, because they all have this kind of, this, beards

1:26:13

on them and stubble and stuff. Nobody shaves anymore,

1:26:16

do they? No, I need to make myself, Johnny, don't clearly

1:26:18

either. No, no. Handsome lad

1:26:20

know to be fair, though. This is it, yeah. This is it.

1:26:23

Also, also the three rugby lads. What

1:26:25

was the question again? That's right,

1:26:27

that's right. Great

1:26:29

stuff as always, thanks a million.

1:26:31

Cheers, thanks, that's brilliant stuff. Felling Quinton on the line. I'm

1:26:33

having that, yeah, I think they're quite nice. I like it.

1:26:36

It's weeb at soccer-esque, maybe. Maybe a bit, uh.

1:26:38

Rugby fans will hate that. You all must remember

1:26:40

when rugby jerseys were grossly

1:26:43

oversized, and I think it was a

1:26:45

thing that coaches are like, it's a

1:26:48

lot harder to grab a player if we actually have tight

1:26:50

tops here. That wasn't that long, boys. No, it's

1:26:52

true. Scientific. Makes sense, have them tight

1:26:54

as tight as you can be. 8.58 AM

1:26:56

on Thursdays, O2B. Here are some highlights coming up at

1:26:59

the OTP podcast network for you today. We've got Gavin Cooney

1:27:01

from Last Night's Show, Football Daily as well,

1:27:03

and the F1 Pod. We had a great episode

1:27:05

recorded yesterday. After the break, we'll have comedian Eric

1:27:08

Lawler, so you had to be there. He was so unexpected. It's

1:27:10

one of those you had to be there moments. You

1:27:12

had to be there. It's subsequently, genuinely dead

1:27:14

changed everything about my life. You

1:27:16

had to be there. Yeah,

1:27:19

two minutes past nine on this Thursday morning's O2BM.

1:27:21

It's the latest episode that you just heard there in the sting of

1:27:24

You Had To Be There. Delighted to welcome the comedian

1:27:26

and actor all around her, Eric Lawler, in the studio. How are you,

1:27:28

Eric? I'm very, very excited to be here, lads. Thanks for having

1:27:30

me. I'm a Bose fan.

1:27:31

I mean, Bose fan. Was that that obvious? Yeah.

1:27:34

This is an absolute gem of it. It

1:27:36

is the Dublin Bus jersey. It is, yeah. It's

1:27:39

one of many Bose jerseys that's caught the attention of

1:27:41

people, but this one in particular, I think, stands

1:27:43

out because of its, well, it's like this to a Dublin

1:27:46

Busy, and I have sat on the Dublin Bus with this camouflage.

1:27:49

Somebody actually sat in your lap because he didn't see you. Yeah,

1:27:52

exactly. And like, ticket inspector, you can get away with a

1:27:54

free ticket, no problem. I do. There's

1:27:56

nobody there. I like those glasses.

1:27:59

That's hovering. Yeah. Amazing.

1:28:03

They had a few though. The Bob Marley one, there's

1:28:05

been a multiple number of those jerseys.

1:28:07

The most recent one is the moon that grabbed the headlines

1:28:10

very recently, which they've attributed to Christie. That was a

1:28:12

great idea, wasn't it? It was a nice moment. In

1:28:14

the three days, they raised over 140 grand for St.

1:28:16

Francis Hospice, which was amazing. They

1:28:19

sold like 3,500 jerseys in three days, which

1:28:21

is incredible. And all the credit

1:28:24

with the jersey goes to Dan Lambert, the COO of those.

1:28:26

He's the genius behind all the days. He likes to downplay

1:28:29

it all the time, but he is.

1:28:29

He is a socialist Jeff Bezos.

1:28:33

He would be a multi-billionaire if he

1:28:35

put his mind to it. He's a socialist, but he embraces capitalism

1:28:37

very well. But that Aslan thing,

1:28:40

honestly, I thought that was such a... The

1:28:42

difference I would make to a hospice, you can slag bows

1:28:44

all your own. I thought that was a beautiful gesture. It

1:28:46

really was. And of course, the Palestinian jersey

1:28:48

that was out there at Eastley as well, the Bob Marley. There's

1:28:51

so many now. We get so excited when there's a new jersey,

1:28:53

virtual launch, we go, I wonder whose piss

1:28:55

we're going to boil today. Exactly.

1:28:58

I was going to introduce

1:28:59

you as Actor Committee. I was going to introduce you as Fair

1:29:02

City villain. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I

1:29:04

mean, it must be lovely to play a villain. Oh, it's the best

1:29:06

crack ever, you know, because you could be having

1:29:08

a bad day. And you go into there and

1:29:10

you don't have to pretend that you're doing good for them. You just put

1:29:13

the scale into your performance and they go, they're

1:29:15

like, oh, my God, he's a nasty city. Yeah. When

1:29:18

I got the part in Fair City, my mom's a big fan, you know, as

1:29:20

I told her, she was like, oh, my God, I can't believe she was

1:29:22

delighted. So proud. Never been prouder

1:29:24

of me. Like, you know. And then... I

1:29:27

said, man, no, it's just when you see the character playing, he's

1:29:29

an awful,

1:29:29

an awful soul. So I said, I don't

1:29:32

care. I don't care. I've

1:29:34

got a text op. You know, don't ever come out to my house. That's

1:29:36

not my song. Awkward Christmas dinner after that. Jesus.

1:29:40

Yeah. Well,

1:29:42

this is it. This is the other Johnny Ward. There's obviously

1:29:44

the Fair City Johnny Ward. Yeah. Johnny's just got

1:29:46

ready there. Yeah. There

1:29:49

was a headline and it was Johnny Ward Weds,

1:29:51

right? And I blocked everything else out. And the sister was like,

1:29:53

you've got to give me a bit more information here. The actual

1:29:56

headline was Fair City in Love, Hate

1:29:58

Actor Johnny Ward Weds, Stunning Bright

1:29:59

the Murphy but that bit you know was

1:30:02

left out but there's a lot of Johnny Ward's

1:30:04

out there. Yeah, there you go. There's

1:30:06

a geyser that travels around the world as well. He's

1:30:09

very well known, like he's Irish and he's a world

1:30:11

explorer so he's number three of the list.

1:30:14

Right, are you number one on the Google search? Oh yeah, how are

1:30:16

you? You're omnipresent. By

1:30:18

this stage you're everywhere, there's a few Johnny Ward's. Love hate.

1:30:21

Yeah, love hate. Yeah, there you go. How

1:30:24

difficult was the, you had to be there selection for

1:30:26

you because it stresses a lot of our guests out, I have to say,

1:30:28

Eric. It was very difficult

1:30:29

because you know I'm

1:30:32

a big sports fan, I go to a lot of sporting events

1:30:34

but then when you're told, yeah, but is

1:30:36

there a performance from an individual, that

1:30:39

really kind of puts the nerves on you

1:30:41

and I had to really dig deep into the memory bank because

1:30:43

I forget a lot of the matches I've been at. I know the results but

1:30:46

I can't remember who played particularly well that day.

1:30:49

There might be substances involved you know which

1:30:52

would explain that. Yeah, yeah. So,

1:30:55

yeah, but also it was great as well, it

1:30:58

was almost therapeutic going back into the memory bank and looking

1:31:00

up and going, oh yeah, why was that

1:31:01

that much? And then remembering, then things started

1:31:03

to come back and I even gone back in through me phone and seeing all

1:31:06

photographs and videos from said matches

1:31:08

like you know. So although it was

1:31:10

tough, I got there in the end and

1:31:12

it's nowhere near as impressive as Conor Morse by

1:31:14

the way. Conor Morse with his Madison Square

1:31:16

Garden and his Masters. Tiger

1:31:19

Woods is lumped in there, yeah. And we're

1:31:21

talking with Ali Q with the Aviva. There's

1:31:25

still brilliant picks I have to say. I don't know which one I prefer

1:31:27

to be at by the way but there we go. We'll

1:31:30

get into them, the first one is if we get into

1:31:31

the order I guess of which they happened. May 23rd 1987, this is Lansdowne

1:31:33

Road. Ireland

1:31:36

against Brazil, 1-0 victory for Ireland and

1:31:38

Liam Brady's performance, I mean iconic. Oh, it's you

1:31:41

know and if you remember back, I'm

1:31:44

showing my age here now, but at the time Jack you

1:31:46

know had come on the scene and suddenly

1:31:48

we had a team to be proud of, a team that was shaking

1:31:51

up Europe, cause unfair, very hard to play against

1:31:53

and Brady was kind of pushed to

1:31:55

the side a little bit because we played a very direct

1:31:57

style of football and he was this maister on the mid-foot.

1:31:59

field, we wanted to get it down and we played and quite

1:32:02

often he was left out at the team. This

1:32:04

was May 87 so we were well

1:32:06

on our way to qualify him for Euro 88.

1:32:10

He started that game against Brazil and

1:32:12

I think he's even said to this day that was his favourite

1:32:14

international goal. I

1:32:16

think he only scored 9 or 10 goals in Ireland.

1:32:18

It's the disguise as well. It was outrageous

1:32:20

wasn't it? You're thinking because Brady,

1:32:23

we've seen him do it so many times bend

1:32:25

and balls into the top corner and

1:32:27

he had the keeper and the whole Brazilian defence convinced

1:32:30

that's what he was going to do and then just dragged it near

1:32:32

post. Eric, what was the land zone like in

1:32:34

days like that? You

1:32:36

look back on it now and I've a very rare

1:32:39

collection watching it. What was it like?

1:32:43

It was great. It was such an old

1:32:45

style stadium, really old, falling

1:32:47

apart but an amputator all the same

1:32:50

and a lot of history. I remember as

1:32:53

a kid growing up on Saturdays with that, especially

1:32:55

when the Five Nations was on at the time.

1:32:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Ireland playing at lands, they were

1:33:00

all going, I'd love to go there sometime and then like

1:33:02

rugby, I liked rugby but I was never like, I have

1:33:04

to go see Ireland play. Rugby football was my game so

1:33:06

I started going to Irish Internationals.

1:33:09

I remember I was at Jack Charlton's very forced

1:33:11

match against

1:33:13

Wales,

1:33:13

was a friendly. I remember Neville Southall

1:33:16

broke his ankle in the game. We lost one, the

1:33:18

Aline Rushguard and Ray

1:33:20

Houghton and John Aldridge made a debut and it was like

1:33:22

the start of the new era. Yeah. James,

1:33:25

these names. In 1986 and you're like, it

1:33:27

was particularly in the Havelock

1:33:29

Road End, the noise, there was

1:33:33

a big wall of Irish fans and it was real.

1:33:36

It's like a throwback to the old days, like there's

1:33:39

a lot of talking out the hill in Crow Park

1:33:42

at the moment. People don't want seats

1:33:43

there, they want to stand there and they add to the atmosphere.

1:33:46

Dublin was very poor as well at that time. Oh yeah. Ireland

1:33:49

was very poor. So sport meant something so much more. It was a

1:33:51

release. We'd

1:33:53

never seen Ireland qualify for a major tournament. We

1:33:55

always had plucky teams who were

1:33:58

unlucky with dodgy refereeing.

1:33:59

and all that kind of thing. And will

1:34:02

we ever get to a major tournament? And

1:34:04

obviously Jack coming in, a controversial decision

1:34:06

at the time to appoint him, but Jack coming in changed

1:34:09

everything.

1:34:09

Um, I still don't think we fully

1:34:12

capitalized on the whole Euro 88 Italian 90

1:34:14

thing. I still don't think we did. We're still talking

1:34:16

about it today. But, um, it was a very

1:34:20

special time. As you say, it was, it was tough times. It

1:34:22

was the late eighties. Dublin was, was

1:34:25

decrepit. It was on the back. Bleak looking and videos.

1:34:27

Like he's really in the years, five years after Euro 88,

1:34:30

we're talking about, um, you know, headlines of soccer,

1:34:32

trying to make a case for itself in the doll. I know. I

1:34:35

get five minutes with your office after the G, G

1:34:37

A go controversy.

1:34:39

It's madness, but it was, it was when you,

1:34:42

as I say, really in the years, you look at the images of Dublin

1:34:44

back then in the late eighties, it's, it is

1:34:46

bleak looking, but this, but there's something about this

1:34:48

match even when you watch it back, the vibrancy of

1:34:50

the yellow Jersey, it wasn't

1:34:52

the greatest Brazil team probably of all year is, but

1:34:54

I think, uh, Ramario made his debut maybe that day.

1:34:57

You're very young. He had, he had Joshy Marr, uh,

1:34:59

who was such a star at the 86 world

1:35:01

cup and he had Muller

1:35:03

who was another star of the 86 world cup. Now, in

1:35:05

fairness, the rest of the Brazilian lads, I wasn't too familiar

1:35:07

with, but Ramaria was on the bench. I think he came on. Yes.

1:35:10

Um, but to say, sorry, that's what I meant to say.

1:35:12

Ramario's debut. That's why I picked that one.

1:35:14

What was your name again? Young

1:35:18

lad, Ramario. Yeah. But it

1:35:20

was, it was such a great moment for Liam Bradient

1:35:22

and I was thrilled that he had that memory to take

1:35:25

away, you know, his favorite goal for

1:35:27

Ireland is scoring against the most iconic team on the

1:35:29

planet. Let's be honest. You watch the documentary, the

1:35:31

Brady documentary.

1:35:33

Where's that? It was brilliant.

1:35:35

Like, was that, was that like two months ago? It was over visits,

1:35:37

Tardelli in Italy. Yeah. Where

1:35:39

have you been? Oh, wait, he's a lot of Dylan

1:35:41

and he's a lot of music and all that. Yeah. Like

1:35:44

he's still revered in Italian seconds, isn't he? The

1:35:46

UVA fans, the Insta fans, Askaly,

1:35:48

Sampdori, they all hold him a high esteem.

1:35:50

And, and like not many Irish

1:35:52

earnings players were doing well in Syria. Yeah.

1:35:54

And he left Arsenal and

1:35:56

went to the Juventus and was like, didn't he win the

1:35:59

title? were

1:36:00

the penalty of the last minute of the last game. Unbelievable

1:36:02

stuff. Off the bench. Yeah. What

1:36:05

was your Land's Down the Road match day experience? Because everyone

1:36:08

seemed to have their routine going to a match at Land's Down the

1:36:10

Road even when I was a kid before. It was changed over. We

1:36:12

used to always get the dart from Kaleister, our cousin's house, and you get in

1:36:14

and stay for the autographs after the match. But

1:36:17

Land's Down the Road means something different to so

1:36:19

many different people. So what was your match day routine?

1:36:21

Well back at that Brazil game, I wasn't

1:36:24

old enough to drink. So I

1:36:26

only had two. And then they left two little in the back. Stuck to

1:36:28

the lager. Stuck to the lager. Like

1:36:30

Delroy and

1:36:32

the mother like, you know, time to go home, school in

1:36:35

the morning.

1:36:35

No,

1:36:41

it was very much that. It was the dart. And

1:36:44

we would get out really early just

1:36:46

to even get a hot dog or a hamburger

1:36:49

beside the ground and just soak up the atmosphere and getting

1:36:51

so excited. This was way

1:36:53

before Sky and all that kind of stuff, you know. And

1:36:55

then seeing the team arrive on the bus. And like

1:36:57

me and my kids, so excited. I'm just watching the

1:36:59

players going, oh my god, there's Pachy Bonner and all

1:37:02

this kind of stuff. And yeah, so

1:37:04

the routine obviously changed

1:37:05

the older I got. But back

1:37:07

at that game, when we were kids going

1:37:09

to Land's Down the Road, that was the thing. We get there as early as

1:37:11

possible, sample as much of the atmosphere as possible, have

1:37:14

burgers and then get in and pick a seat,

1:37:16

whatever. I know you were assigned to a seat, but quite often

1:37:19

you didn't when you were a kid. You got away with more than

1:37:21

you wanted. I was sitting there half and half scarves

1:37:23

weren't there. Because that would be a brilliant one. I

1:37:25

don't approve of half and half scarves always, but Ireland and Brazil 87 would

1:37:27

have been a, I don't even know if they were on sale back then,

1:37:29

probably not. No, I don't think so. I don't think

1:37:32

so. That was a thing that came in the 90s with Sky and all that.

1:37:34

The half and half scarves league, you know.

1:37:35

And even the match day programs

1:37:37

and stuff, that would be a brilliant one to have for It

1:37:40

really would. It's a sad thing the programs are really,

1:37:43

really struggling at the moment. And it will, like if you have

1:37:45

a program from, like I was even looking

1:37:47

back at programs late here, like it's like games

1:37:49

you can't remember was I at that game. And

1:37:52

it sparked something. It's like I remember that now. And just

1:37:54

having that match program, this is, I'm talking like mid 90s

1:37:57

and match programs are just beautiful. It'll be sad

1:37:59

if they go.

1:39:55

in

1:40:00

that stadium for such an iconic

1:40:02

football fixture in the new camp. I was at the new camp

1:40:04

a couple of years before that on a tour

1:40:06

in an empty stadium and I was going, oh I'd love to be on a match here

1:40:08

sometime. And then to go to a match and for that to be out

1:40:10

class ago was just... Oh, easy

1:40:13

to get tickets actually or? It was solid

1:40:15

out but I think we paid slightly

1:40:17

over the odds. We were happy to do that though. You

1:40:19

were coming in. Oh yeah. Now we were

1:40:21

up in the gods. Yeah, new camp. You were Freddie

1:40:24

Hay up there. Yeah, still, you have a perfect

1:40:26

view of the match. What's always funny about

1:40:28