0:00

Off the Ball, cheering on

0:02

the Girls in Green. I've followed the

0:04

Irish women since 1983. 82,000 people,

0:08

that's going to be something else. There'll be a hell

0:10

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

0:12

a game as well. Love Off the Ball, I really do love

0:14

Off the Ball. OTB

0:17

AM. The Sports Breakfast Show

0:19

from Off the Ball. What a moment

0:22

for the Republic of Ireland. Off the Ball, supporting

0:25

the Girls in Green down under this

0:27

summer. It has been a fight,

0:29

a

0:29

fight every step of the way

0:32

for so many Irish women

0:35

over the last half a century when

0:37

it came to Irish football.

0:38

I'm honestly speechless. I mean, we're

0:41

going to a World Cup, but it's what dreams are made

0:43

of. Counting down to more moments like

0:45

this. Lily Agge scores

0:48

one of the most important goals they

0:50

have ever scored.

0:51

I hope someone's got the champagne on. I

0:53

didn't know what I've just done. I don't know what we've just

0:55

done. Barrett for Ireland, into the area,

0:57

top of it, goal! And when you think

1:00

back to Liberty Hall in 2019 and

1:02

the stand that was taken by the woman

1:04

beside me and so many players

1:07

out on that pitch, it changed the course

1:09

of Irish football history. I can't believe

1:11

it. We've finally done it. 82,000 people,

1:15

that's going to be something else. There'll be a hell

1:17

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

1:19

of a game as well.

1:20

They are going to the World

1:22

Cup finals.

1:28

Yeah, let's go straight to Australia. Cathy McNamee,

1:30

good morning to you. Morning

1:32

guys, how are we? Oh, totes emotional.

1:36

I know, Emma sent me that little preview.

1:39

She was like, if I send it to you beforehand, you

1:41

may not cry live on air. What

1:43

a day. You can see behind me the stadium.

1:45

Just before we came on air, I could hear the band

1:47

inside practicing a rendezvous. It's

1:49

a whole song. And I was standing here

1:51

and I had like a little moment of just being like,

1:54

wow, this is really happening. We're really

1:56

here. We're hours away from kickoff

1:58

with all the excitement and all the building.

1:59

up and brought us here. Have

2:03

you bumped into people today? Are you seeing people? What's

2:06

your sense of how much of

2:08

a takeover we might be able to affect?

2:11

Definitely Central Sydney

2:13

was majority made up of Irish people today

2:15

when I was wandering around. I was over

2:18

at Sydney Opera House and I was chatting to Sans.

2:20

There was one woman who had been 17 members

2:22

of her family to fly over from Connemara. She's

2:24

been based here for a couple of years. Other people

2:27

were just getting in yesterday morning. I

2:29

was over at one of the big Irish pubs,

2:32

the Mercantile and that was absolutely

2:34

popping. It was funny, I went there last night and it was very

2:37

quiet. There wasn't really anyone around and then today

2:39

they had massive screens outside. Everyone

2:42

was singing, there was chanting. It

2:44

was just a really really good vibe. Everyone was really excited.

2:47

A lot of people who were based in Australia

2:49

but maybe not Sydney. So a lot of people have

2:51

flown from Melbourne, some have come from Perth,

2:53

some have come from Adelaide and

2:55

yeah here at the moment actually I have to say

2:57

there isn't all that many Irish people and I suspect

3:00

it is because they're probably still enjoying

3:02

the pubs and the life that

3:05

Sydney has to offer. Maybe in the next couple hours

3:07

we'll see a few more of them. It's mostly Matilda's

3:09

but definitely from what I've seen around Sydney there's going

3:11

to be a lot of people today.

3:12

How's the weather, Kathleen? Is this going to suit us?

3:16

The weather is nice at the moment. It's been very

3:19

warm all day and then the night

3:22

intends to get quite cold so it was quite similar yesterday.

3:24

It was freezing by the time it hit eight o'clock

3:26

so nothing that we aren't going to be too

3:28

used to I think will be all right. I've

3:30

got some Irish fans giving me a big thumbs up here as

3:33

I watch by as well. Bring

3:34

them over there. Bring them all over. So

3:36

they're streaming in now so it's

3:38

a nice colour contrast. Green versus yellow.

3:41

It's going to stand out on my road. We'll be able to do the counter afterwards.

3:44

Gavin comes to you reporting this morning Kathleen about 75,000

3:47

expected rather than the 83,000. Do

3:50

you have any idea of the breakdown?

3:54

From what I've heard I think it's probably

3:56

going to be

3:57

pretty much the expect around. 25,000 Irish

4:00

and that's not, that's

4:02

including obviously. But that's including

4:04

people who are over here already. So like people

4:07

who are kind of like bought tickets, threw clubs

4:09

and stuff. I've met so many people

4:11

who are Irish living here who

4:15

have either got family to come over for this in

4:17

particular or have literally gathered all their

4:19

friends together no matter what part of Australia they're

4:22

in. Treating this as like almost a massive

4:24

St. Patrick's Day party and an opportunity to

4:26

gather, get together and really enjoy

4:29

it. So that was the upper figure that I was poached in. It

4:31

could be, I'd say it was probably closer to maybe

4:33

like 17, 18,000 but you never know.

4:37

Well, all very capable of making

4:39

a lot of noise. And like

4:42

in New York in 94, one

4:45

of the big things was this kind of intake

4:47

of breath from the team and they got out and they were like, hang on a sec,

4:50

we've taken over the stadium, giant stadium. So

4:52

if we can have a similar moment like that in advance of

4:54

kickoff, where suddenly the

4:56

Australians are like, oh, this

4:58

is not what I expected. That might be a little

5:00

bit healthy because

5:03

it's been, as we've been talking about, it has

5:05

been quite the roller coaster and for

5:07

the last couple of days, people have been like, oh no, what's gonna

5:09

happen here? This could go pear-shaped

5:10

and then the day is here and we have the stupidity

5:13

of fans. We're like, actually, you know what? Maybe

5:16

we'll do a little things today. There

5:19

was a lot of optimism around the place

5:22

whenever I was speaking to people. And like in

5:24

fairness, these are the hours where you sink

5:26

into your optimism, you sink into the history

5:28

that you're witnessing, you sink into the absolute

5:31

joy and pleasure that it is, getting

5:33

to see people so far away from home,

5:35

celebrate all the great things that it means to be Irish and

5:37

celebrate this team as well. I mean, you know,

5:40

people, it was quite funny when

5:42

I was at the Irish pub, I was kind of just like standing outside

5:45

their outdoor area, then really

5:47

like, hand-side-hand, then I was gonna go up and ask the people

5:49

for an interview and pulled out the off the ball mic and

5:51

it was so funny. It was like an instant reaction. Everyone

5:53

was like, all the problems here, all the problems here. I

5:55

wanna go on off the ball. And like, a

5:57

lot of the people have been over here for... between

6:00

two years to 10 years, but having that

6:02

connection to home, they automatically

6:05

are like, come on, I want to chat

6:07

to the lads. I also very

6:10

fondly ran into a lot of Monohim people,

6:12

including our very own Shane Hannon, his

6:14

coach who dropped him as captain, who

6:16

was over here at the moment. I don't think

6:18

he even told Shane he was a coven. But

6:21

yeah, this Monohim man just came up to me

6:23

and said, you know, I'm best friends with Shane

6:25

Hannon. So

6:27

there you go. I know he's not there today. I

6:29

was very upset. I was like, well, perfect opportunity

6:32

to bring Monohim literally everywhere

6:33

we go. But you cannot escape it. Wait,

6:35

now, Kathleen, did you say he's best friend with

6:37

Shane Hannon, but he also dropped him as captain?

6:41

Also, he told me. So I don't know how

6:43

good the vibe actually was between the two of them, but

6:46

yeah. So they're very close.

6:48

Well, Shane's taking this in an hour's time from down

6:50

the country. Ex best friend. Yeah,

6:53

exactly. Yeah. So

6:56

apart from our expectation there, the atmosphere is going to

6:58

be absolutely amazing. Tell us what

7:01

has the last 24 hours given you

7:03

in terms of your thinking about how the game

7:05

will go and what we should expect in

7:07

terms of game flow. Like we were

7:10

previewing the game yesterday and

7:13

the Australians are a world-class counter-tacking team.

7:15

There's not going to be too much counter-tacking that they're doing in terms

7:17

of they will control possession. They

7:19

will control the flow of the game today. And

7:21

maybe the low block is the thing that will frustrate them. Well,

7:25

I think if you look at even one a lot

7:27

of the international media taking your green glasses

7:29

off or saying that this Irish team will probably

7:32

frustrate Australia for a while, but

7:34

eventually Australia may crack us. I'm

7:37

still slightly pessimistic about today. I'm predicting

7:39

a 3-1 result for Australia. I

7:41

think we can hold out for a little while, but I do think

7:43

that the Australian team, as you say, is just

7:46

they have that little bit of edge in skill and quality

7:48

that I don't know what we have in depth

7:51

in our team. I do think they

7:53

are a little more diffracted in coming to the European,

7:55

considering how they performed and say that

7:57

they have

7:58

been past the drills like last 20 years.

7:59

out. Also I hope you can hear all the little

8:02

Matilda fans behind me screaming

8:04

and having getting their Aussie

8:06

tears in. So yeah I think it's

8:08

going to be a really tough day. The

8:10

team seemed to have been preparing

8:13

nicely. They went for a wander around Sydney

8:15

Harbour earlier and then I heard

8:17

that a few of the other ones were just kind of chilling

8:19

among themselves and just making sure that

8:21

they were enjoying and soaking

8:24

up the atmosphere but also not letting you get to them

8:26

too much. So tomorrow or tonight

8:28

is going to be very interesting. I mean I walked out onto

8:30

the pitch yesterday and I was like whoa

8:33

this is a lot bigger than I expected. So

8:36

hopefully them being able to walk around the pitch

8:38

last night means that they're not too overawed

8:41

by it when it comes to it. Not to get

8:43

too analytical now because we're in a party mode

8:45

here but like Australia's forum this year Kathleen

8:47

beating England, Spain, Sweden scoring 26, conceding

8:50

just five. You say you have an air of pessimism

8:53

around you maybe a 3-1 defeat. Like day

8:55

of the game what do you think Ireland can

8:57

do or need to do to upset

9:00

that prediction?

9:03

Realistically I suppose.

9:06

I think realistically it is going to be

9:08

that

9:09

low block. I think it's going to be making

9:11

sure that we are defensively completely solid.

9:14

I think we need to make sure we don't just focus on

9:16

Sam Carr because there are so many attacking threats

9:18

in that team and

9:20

also taking our chances when they come. One of the things

9:22

that we talk about with this team so much is like

9:25

where the goal is going to come from, where are we going to get the scores.

9:27

So whether it's a set piece or

9:29

whether it's a break and play where

9:31

we manage to counter ourselves we

9:34

need to make sure that we are plentiful in all

9:36

those situations if we're ever going to get out of here

9:38

with the results.

9:40

Okay you mentioned that you

9:43

caught up with some fans, we have some of the video of that.

10:05

Just an average Friday night out in Sydney. See, I've

10:08

never been but... It's

10:11

funny,

10:11

I actually just coming here guys,

10:13

where I am. So this is the family

10:15

that I interviewed earlier today.

10:18

I don't know, can you see them there in the distance? Just

10:20

about. They're a family of 17. They're

10:22

just walking in like

10:24

a proper little troupe. They're singing, they're chanting,

10:27

providing some of the Irish vibe. Are they

10:30

coming over too? I think

10:31

around here. Are they coming over too? It's like 28

10:33

days later, isn't it? They're kind of coming in a big pack.

10:36

It's a nice

10:38

three hours before kickoff as well.

10:41

Yeah, that's the thing, there still is quite a lot

10:43

of time to go before kickoff. So I think people are probably

10:46

enjoying things a bit more. There

10:49

is actually quite a lot to do around here. There's

10:51

lots of food venues. There is very awkwardly

10:53

a concert happening just behind me. And there's

10:55

one guy rapping and playing. So

10:57

two people sitting on a bench and he's like giving us

10:59

socks on the stage. And there's just two people watching.

11:02

And then we have like a bar area. There's

11:05

lots of opportunities to kind of like play games, you know,

11:07

with footballs. And then of

11:09

course they have like the FIFA story is absolutely jammer.

11:12

And so we talked a little bit about it on the World

11:14

Cup show last night. The fact how hard it

11:16

is it comes to get memorabilia. Not an issue

11:18

in Sydney. Everywhere you go is front

11:20

and center. Matilda's merchandise.

11:24

Various other countries as well. And then we have another in

11:26

Ireland's group and they're playing in Sydney. And

11:28

plenty of people stands around the place.

11:29

So it's great to see. Okay.

11:32

You've been covering this team for many years at

11:34

this point. It's all coming up to two,

11:38

three hours and 20 minutes before the national anthem rings

11:40

out. Like it's very difficult

11:42

for us to fully encapsulate the

11:45

distance the team has traveled. How

11:47

are you feeling? Emotional.

11:51

Like I woke up this morning

11:53

and it was strange. It didn't feel real. I was

11:55

sitting with Emma Duffy downstairs and

11:57

you know, we're probably in the

12:00

written press pack and then the broadcast

12:02

and those like, we've kind of been one of the few

12:04

women along the Seyash leg who've been following

12:06

this team. Oh, can I hear the national anthem? Let's go

12:08

again in the background.

12:11

We're one of the few women who've been covering this team

12:14

constantly and for us in particular,

12:16

it's just so massive today.

12:19

We were just sitting there having our breakfast,

12:21

looking at each other being like we're actually here, we're

12:23

in Australia. Today is such a momentous

12:26

day for the team but it's also a momentous day

12:28

for everyone who's followed them, everyone who's loved them, everyone

12:30

who supported them. This is a day that I'm going

12:32

to look back for the rest of my career and be like, I was

12:35

there. Even talking about it now, I feel like I'm getting

12:37

choked up a little bit but I'm here

12:39

in Sydney about to watch this

12:41

team become the first ever Irish women's team

12:44

to compete in an international

12:46

tournament and it's just, I don't actually

12:49

think warriors can describe what I feel right

12:51

now in terms of the pride of Ireland,

12:53

the pride of this team and just

12:56

the fact that they've fought so hard to get

12:58

here. It's never been an easy road and there are so

13:00

many legends that we

13:02

have to pay tribute to in that journey too. There's Emma

13:05

Byrne who's on the Co-opening Podcast, there's your Karen

13:07

Duggan, there's Olivia O'Toole.

13:09

This is for every player who's ever put on the

13:12

green jersey and this is for

13:14

every person in Ireland who knows

13:17

what it means to be Irish, who loves sport. Even if you

13:19

don't love sport, it doesn't matter, it's a great day. I

13:21

actually

13:22

think it's not just going to be a day you remember

13:24

for the rest of your career, it's a day you're going to remember for the rest of your life

13:26

and like football is the game of the

13:29

people on a global level and it's not the euros

13:31

we've qualified for, it's an actual World Cup.

13:33

We're one of the top 32 teams

13:36

in the world. It's an incredible acceleration

13:39

of the process and you really, really hope that the opportunity

13:41

here isn't missed and we're starting

13:43

to see corporate Ireland wake up to the value

13:45

of supporting the team. I really hope the government

13:48

actually row in and give more than a half million

13:50

that they've promised to the women's

13:53

grassroots game in particular and there seems to

13:55

be movements towards

13:56

backing football properly because it really

13:59

is the sport of the people.

13:59

and, you know, this

14:02

is the start of something hopefully.

14:05

Definitely. I think when you talk to any of the

14:07

fans out here or the people who have traveled

14:09

an insane amount to

14:11

be here, you talk to them and they're like, where

14:14

else would you want to be right now? I mean, like

14:16

the vibes are incredible. You get to

14:18

say you were a little part of history. You get

14:20

to say that you watched Katie McCabe lead

14:23

an Irish team out in front of 70, 80,000 people. Like

14:27

that doesn't happen. That has never

14:29

happened for this team. And like it's one of

14:31

the biggest moments in Irish history

14:33

is just a few hours away. And as you say,

14:35

I really hope the team can grab it. I hope they can enjoy

14:38

it. I think it'll probably be a while before they'll

14:40

actually let it sink in. But yeah,

14:43

it's a it's a sensational place to be

14:45

right now. And I feel very fortunate to be witnessing

14:47

it.

14:47

Well, look, we'll let you go off and mingle. Thanks a million

14:49

for helping to set the scene. Three

14:52

hours from kickoff. Two hours. Chat to you later.

14:54

Go on.

14:55

See you. We are going to talk to

14:57

Luke Conley, Megan's brother, also a

15:00

quark footballer.

15:01

Linda Gorman is going to join us in studio. She was

15:03

one of the pioneers played in the first international 50

15:05

years ago. An incredible woman. We'll

15:08

talk to her as well to soak

15:10

up the atmosphere a bit. Shane has been down in

15:12

Kilkenny talking to the great

15:15

and the goods of Kilkenny. Hurling and.

15:19

There's some brilliant stuff that he's already got. And

15:22

we'll bring you some of that. She was going to preview the final

15:24

for us from a limerick perspective. Phil's

15:27

going to join us to give us his considered

15:29

views on what's going to happen today. That's just after

15:31

nine o'clock. We'll play out with Van Larkin and Joe

15:33

Hennessy. Joe Hennessy is my favorite. I don't know

15:35

as a kid. So I'm very excited about that piece. I'm

15:38

good. Do

15:39

you ever enter you? I don't

15:41

know. I don't know. Maybe once. This

15:45

is like the Leaving Cert today. It feels

15:47

well, the exams, you know, there's a big exam coming.

15:49

It feels different, you know. Well, I didn't have to study.

15:52

But they're like you didn't start. But

15:56

it's amazing. So, come here. I found a jersey

15:58

in the wardrobe last night.

15:59

Oh look at the humble brag, what is the jersey?

16:03

So 21 years ago,

16:05

this is the last World Cup, so poignant if anything.

16:07

The state of jerseys back then, like this fits

16:10

me now.

16:11

It was 21 years ago. I mean, that's the

16:13

humble. Why did they make jerseys like extra large?

16:16

Oh, okay, they were big. For kids. I

16:18

was 13. It's skin

16:19

tight. It's skin tight now, like, but at the time

16:22

it was a dressing gown. I'm

16:25

glad that they have found jerseys, I'm not mad about the shiny

16:27

material. Do you know when I look at this, I think apres

16:29

match, three boys. Yeah.

16:33

And then I think of the disaster air cam shares of 2000. Okay,

16:38

did you have some? No, personally not.

16:40

Did you? No. That's

16:43

what I think of it. And as Raoul, or McArrel

16:46

said before and

16:48

the jersey that Raoul Hakeen never got to wear. Did

16:51

you have a name and number in the back? No, not this.

16:53

No, I never did for an Ireland jersey.

16:54

I only ever had the, I

16:56

had Paki Bonners jersey for a battalion 90 and

16:58

this, I mean, two Ireland jerseys.

17:01

Was that yellow? Oh, and Father Dougal McGuire's. That

17:03

one. Oh, is that not that one? No,

17:05

that was from the mid-90s when we

17:07

weren't qualifying. It was after 94, I think it

17:10

was, you know, 96, where I got 98 time. Okay.

17:15

Yeah. So I was happy, I saw it in the water. Jesus, it already

17:17

fits, does it? There you go. Yeah,

17:20

I caught him. He's refusing to

17:22

accept the humble brag, but it's totally like, look, this is

17:24

a flex. I can see it when I was 13. It's

17:26

the same, it's the same size. I'm amazing. Well

17:29

done. kids

17:32

back then. Well preserved. We should talk

17:34

about some, I'll show you the back page headlines to try and give you a sense

17:36

of what's, what the media are saying

17:38

this morning. High of the Tigers, Vera

17:41

convinced the opener can be because her

17:43

Tigers are going to take it to, this is

17:46

the back page of the sun, are going to take it to the Aussies.

17:49

The back page of the Herald is power

17:51

ready to step into the unknown. And it's a

17:53

picture essentially of Denise Sullivan using

17:56

the, the bands to prepare

17:58

and show that she's fit.

17:59

and ready to go. It's gonna

18:02

be a big night for Denise O'Sullivan. Just

18:05

go for it. Power to her Ireland players to embrace

18:07

the occasion and show no fear.

18:09

Stepping onto world's big stage

18:11

is the back page of the Irish

18:14

dependent but they're also the front page. And that's Denise

18:17

O'Sullivan doing our stretching. Date with Destiny. Ireland

18:19

look to live the impossible dream in World

18:21

Cup opener. It's been a bit slow getting

18:23

here but I think the build up has finally

18:25

taken off. Yeah.

18:28

Man awesome. It's the back page of the

18:30

Daily Star this morning. Australia

18:32

versus Ireland 11am on telly. The

18:36

front of the examiner's sports section this morning has

18:39

them

18:39

at the stadium last night looking around

18:42

soaking it all in. Katie McCabe

18:44

singular looking off into the distance

18:47

visualising sticking in the top corner hopefully.

18:50

First wall. Showtime is Ireland look to tame

18:52

the Matilda's in historic World Cup opener.

18:55

Do I have any more Irish papers? I do. I have

18:57

the Irish Times.

19:01

And it's the picture of Denise in action. Ireland

19:04

out to make golden memories in historic showdown. So

19:09

you'd be concerned Australia they do

19:11

be good at the old football. I know. Well

19:13

they're more exciting than we are now like you

19:15

know. It's like before you start a job you're

19:18

never more in demand before day one.

19:21

Is there a go on? And this is

19:23

the most exciting part but like look the optimist

19:25

in all of us says that it could get even more exciting that

19:27

this is simply Christmas Eve like

19:29

and Christmas Day is going to happen later on in a few hours

19:31

time. When you eat too much and feel a bit sick and

19:34

you have to have a little snooze. Yeah and the turkey. They

19:36

put you to bed and the turkey. The turkey and ham

19:38

translates to a one all draw or possibly a two one win.

19:40

Who knows.

19:41

No it

19:43

felt like if it does feel like

19:46

or it did feel like the longest build up to

19:48

anything. I don't think it wasn't

19:51

helped by the allegations and then the

19:53

Columbia match and then if you're

19:55

having to answer those questions all the time

19:58

both those questions and then Kenny McCabe. before

20:00

they flew out saying, thanks for asking about the World Cup. So

20:03

I think, and also another point is that

20:05

Vera Powell said the day that she named the squad was the worst

20:07

day in her career. You know, things like that, that it was again

20:09

very emotive and very kind of wow, this is

20:11

taking a toll on everyone. But now that I

20:13

think it's completely different this week and especially

20:16

today, and particularly what Kathleen just said there

20:18

outside the stadium, it was like, that was all

20:20

nonsense and it's all worth it for today

20:23

before we get there, because it's 50 years in the

20:25

making. And in the history this year, we're going to hear more about that from Linda

20:27

Gorman later on, about

20:29

just how far this team has come and

20:31

particularly how far it's come since 2017.

20:34

And today you could easily pass by, you

20:36

know, that you could just take it for granted. It's hard

20:38

on playing on the world stage, great, but it's like, it

20:40

is truly momentous.

20:42

And today feels like genuine positivity

20:44

around the place. That

20:47

book that I was reading, The Football Man, really

20:51

makes the point that football in England, particularly

20:53

in the 50s and 60s, was the sport

20:55

of the people. And it was like this really

20:58

embedded part of the

21:00

culture that was, you know, that whole, it's not

21:03

a matter of life and death, it's more important that like, that was like,

21:07

I'm not doing justice to this, but that it was

21:09

a thing of the people for the people. And

21:13

football at its purest,

21:14

even though the Premier League has completely

21:16

corrupted that notion, is

21:19

still the single most simple,

21:21

popular game in the world. And

21:24

everybody plays it, every country plays it.

21:26

And here we are on the world stage in the top 32, ready

21:28

to go. And maybe

21:31

we're deluding ourselves, but believing that we've got

21:33

a chance of doing something magical

21:35

in the group. Totally. We probably

21:37

felt the same before Spain,

21:40

Italy and Croatia. Euro 2012 though,

21:42

it is a big group of Dettie. Yeah, yeah. Like

21:45

we got out of class then because their

21:47

football culture in those countries was

21:51

tended carefully and minded and

21:54

like there's a power in what

21:56

these women have done to get

21:59

the support that they've got to.

21:59

to get to this point, but it's not finished.

22:02

And that's why this is so

22:04

hopeful,

22:05

that actually the legacy isn't

22:07

qualifying for the World Cup. The legacy is insisting

22:10

on more funding and insisting on coaches

22:13

in schools and insisting on being

22:16

able to fill Tala and then move

22:18

to D'Aveva for that friendly, go back

22:20

to Tala and turn into a fortress. Like, you

22:23

know, it just feels

22:25

like we're on the verge

22:26

of a breakout if

22:28

people get behind the team. And that's everybody

22:30

has to get behind the team. Like, that's

22:32

the fans, that's the media, that's like

22:35

the administrators, that's those people who

22:39

know their way around a grant application.

22:41

Like, they're gonna be some of the most important people in our

22:43

sport over the next while. Other sports

22:45

are really good at that. Football has not traditionally

22:48

been good at that because it hasn't always appealed to those people,

22:50

but they're like,

22:51

you know, there's a lot that they could do for you. You

22:54

can really work hard for your country if

22:56

you fill out a grant application for your

22:58

local girls team to get toilets. Like, that's

23:00

a,

23:01

maybe people don't feel like that's enough to

23:03

volunteer, but that's really, really important. Like, if

23:05

you can fill out forms, you could be some of the most important people

23:08

in the FAI over the next 12 to 14 to 24 months. Yeah,

23:12

that's the administrative aspect that we're not going to see

23:14

that most people won't see, but that needs to be done, because if

23:16

it isn't, it won't happen. But the other side, the front-facing

23:19

aspect, the easiest part of all of this is

23:21

to simply keep talking about it because people will

23:23

forget otherwise. So if you keep talking about normalizing

23:25

the fact that this is now a thing and it's not

23:27

a novelty,

23:28

then it becomes part of the social norm. And also,

23:30

you mentioned those friendlies at the Aviva, like, that should

23:32

be a celebration and a homecoming of

23:34

what's going to be achieved down under. And

23:37

like, that again is the optimist because you don't know what's

23:39

going to happen there. And the Euro 2012 comparison,

23:42

that first game against Croatia, we thought we had a chance

23:44

because that was the easiest of the three. This time,

23:47

Nigeria is on paper the easiest of the three

23:49

and it's last. So we're going in here full

23:51

of trepidation, full of nerves, but an underdog

23:53

tag that suits Ireland, just like it did a Euro ACA

23:56

in Natalia 90.

23:58

Yeah, exactly. That was the...

23:59

We'll do them for you today. That's a

24:02

Joey McCarthy says, come on, Ireland.

24:04

Adam Hetherington. Good morning to you, Adam. Morning.

24:07

All I had a nightmare. So I've been up since 5 a.m. No

24:09

more meanies, crisp sandwiches before bed. Maybe

24:13

try it again. See if to sometimes sometimes

24:16

the dream is actually amazing. It's 50

24:19

50, whether it ought to be a nightmare or so. I

24:22

would say keep going. Have a bit of blue cheese for bed.

24:24

Live a little.

24:26

Come on, and smash them up, says Hanoi

24:28

Tripper. Best looked all involved today. Looking

24:31

forward to the game, says Michael. Bookies have us a 10 to 1

24:33

for the win. I didn't check the prices.

24:35

10 to 1 is a big price. So

24:38

just like in the good old days under Jack Defendwell, Nick 1 from

24:41

a set piece. Exactly. 541 low

24:43

block and Caruso Nick 1 on the break

24:45

from a diesel sort of untrue. Well, we take that. We take

24:47

that. Put your hand off of that. Adrian

24:51

Kelly says, Kathy is great. Great to see young journalists being empowered

24:53

to report on major events. Meanies, Adam.

24:55

I thought they'd long gone, says Ty Carroll. No, they still exist.

24:58

You still get meanies. There's multiple

25:00

variations of meanies. Oh, we remind you of our business in the office

25:03

a few weeks ago and Tejo Meanies came in. Yeah. In

25:06

the actual crisp form, but pickled onion

25:08

flavor. So, you know. JP

25:10

Wright, good morning to JP. Huge achievement qualifying for World

25:12

Cup Regardus. How we do today. Great

25:14

show and it's not all about Monaghan lands. I know, there's been

25:16

too much Monaghan on this bloody show. Far too much

25:19

bloody Monaghan. I really thought we'd get away

25:21

without mentioning it.

25:23

Without mentioning Monaghan, especially because the body itself isn't here.

25:25

Like,

25:26

then again, you know, go on. Good to see

25:28

such national pride and people celebrating the achievement

25:30

of reaching the World Cup finals, says Michael. Kathy

25:34

has got me more excited for this World Cup than all the promos from

25:36

our team. Big sponsor. She's brilliant. Koi Gigg

25:38

says Richard Milia. We would 100% agree

25:40

with that. And they'll they'll have 20 minutes. Hopefully

25:42

the players settle into the game and conference grows and then

25:44

it gets quiet. And then all of a sudden out of nowhere, there's

25:47

just a rumbling noise of Koi Gigg.

25:51

I mean, like building

25:53

a fan culture around tournaments is the other

25:56

thing that happens from qualifying

25:58

for tournaments. And so.

25:59

that means more people go to the games. And

26:02

that apparently has been a shortage of I've been away for the last couple

26:04

of weeks so I was unaware of this, but it's hard to get the

26:06

shirts. Yeah. You're finding it difficult

26:08

to buy the new Ireland women's

26:11

kit.

26:12

Very disappointing. That is the case. Yeah, there's been lots

26:14

of examples of Neil O'Reardon was talking about it. The first World

26:16

Cup show we had on the PM show last night

26:18

with Kathleen and Shane O'Carroll

26:20

Sinead was saying she's very disappointed with corporate

26:22

Ireland. It's actually a clip that's gone pretty viral

26:25

for us for that exact reason. Merchandise

26:28

wise, it's very difficult to

26:30

buy anything to do with this Ireland team.

26:32

And also the lack of bunting

26:34

around the place. It depends where you go, because if you're running

26:36

rings end, you'll see a lot of it. Yeah. That'd be a diagon,

26:39

but in other parts you won't. Very much depends where you go. Yeah,

26:42

I've seen a good bit of bunting. Ballybok

26:44

is festooned on the bus on the way in.

26:48

Again, there is always a bit of bandwagon

26:50

about all this stuff, right? And what

26:53

comes first, the chicken or the egg, the team has to perform.

26:56

And the team has performed to get to this point. But

26:58

any kind of a performance tonight,

27:00

anything scratchy, anything that's

27:03

like

27:04

interrupting the pattern of Australian dominance

27:07

that we can get behind. Yeah. Like Dandelene

27:09

puts it well in this comments here today.

27:11

All we want is that big moment, the

27:13

Wesgållig in Sweden type moment. We

27:16

want the one all, we want the two one. But we want that

27:18

reading in the air is where were you, Rani Whelan, Shindit,

27:21

Tapkarnar, Denise O'Sullivan from distance, Kitty

27:23

McKay marauding up the left wing from deep,

27:26

hitting speculative efforts Tapkarnar. That's

27:28

what you want. That's

27:30

what this is all about. That's what we're here for. Yeah. It's the

27:32

whole point. Yeah. Also, Shawnee

27:34

Riley, great getting up early for these games, a real field

27:36

of Japan Korea all over again. Very true. I

27:38

mean, it's not that early. It's 11 o'clock. Not really.

27:40

For some people, we've got the late. It's really not that

27:43

early. In two and a half minutes time, the tournament starts,

27:45

or it's due to for the first game. And

27:47

then here we are, like, what's that, three hours away? It's

27:50

going to be night in Australia, Ty Carroll. Every patty I

27:52

know is going to John Fitzpatrick, who was like, oh, tonight. And

27:54

somebody was like, the game is on 11 this morning. Fair enough.

27:57

And then the most important contribution

27:59

so far this morning.

27:59

from James Sweeney. Yeah, how's Colomone 34?

28:02

I'm 30. I look 10 years younger. You can fuck off

28:04

James. If you like said that.

28:06

Oh, whoa, it's 7.57 in

28:08

the morning and you're the producer. Send

28:11

a picture in. I love proof. I

28:14

mean, why you said it's so subjective and also untrue.

28:16

Picks or it didn't happen, I believe. Yeah, exactly.

28:19

Yeah, exactly James. Sit there and

28:21

there's couch, laptop down here. Okay, all right.

28:23

Type in the wage and all. Stop that. This

28:25

is a kid-friendly show. Come on now. Oh my God.

28:29

We'll fix it in post. 7.58. We're

28:33

going back to Australia. Luke Connolly.

28:35

Good morning to you. How are you? I'm

28:38

good, James. How are you? Yeah, we're very excited.

28:40

You must be beside yourself. Yeah,

28:43

yeah. I've been like a kid now

28:45

at the moment. So it's been long

28:48

since I put a jersey on over a jumper. But

28:50

yeah, we're in that state today. So it's yeah, it's

28:53

great. When do you

28:55

last have contact before a match

28:57

kicks off with your sister? When does she like send

28:59

the message to the team? Do you guys go on? Yeah,

29:02

I mean, the team is all about. She was, yeah, she

29:04

was sending tickets this morning. So it's a bit of an exception.

29:07

But yeah, it's been pretty much radio

29:09

silence though for the past five hours. So

29:11

I think she's, I think

29:13

they've kind of just locked themselves in now and they're focusing

29:15

completely on the game. So we've

29:18

stayed away as well. We haven't made too much of an effort

29:20

to not just let them drink it in. Yeah, that's

29:22

the good old fashioned GAA treatment

29:25

of sort the tickets out, but don't talk to me.

29:27

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

29:30

So it's well drilled in our family and we're that you do

29:32

it early and then you ignore every call after

29:34

that. So

29:35

and yeah, it was done done nice and early. When

29:37

did you guys get over to Australia?

29:39

We got here yesterday morning. So

29:42

after about 24 hours of travel, we

29:44

landed yesterday. And we

29:46

just about acclimatized to the jet lag and everything.

29:48

So

29:49

yeah, yeah, looking forward to the next

29:51

three weeks. Oh, it's going to be amazing. Like, so

29:54

it has been we were talking about how long the build up has actually

29:56

been. It has been a very, very long time. And here we are

29:58

two hours before kickoff now.

29:59

How are the Conleys feeling?

30:02

There

30:03

was a lot of pacing,

30:05

a lot of pacing around the hotel. As I

30:07

said, the camest of us is definitely

30:09

Megan today. I think she's definitely, yeah,

30:12

she's definitely calmer than the four of us, and

30:14

I can tell you that much. So, a

30:16

very jittery morning at one point. Was

30:19

that the case when Megan was watching the Scotland game with Chief Hamlin,

30:22

that she was the camest when the full-time was to end?

30:25

Yeah, 100%, no, as I said, no. I'd

30:27

always be more nervous watching Megan play anyway,

30:30

but yeah, she shows a lot

30:32

more composure than the rest of us. Yeah,

30:35

we kind of need to just

30:36

spit up and go our separate ways and camera

30:38

on some zone and then get back in.

30:41

Just for anyone who hasn't heard Luke, can you bring

30:43

us through what your dad did at Corinthians in

30:45

Cork, the club, just to get the girls

30:48

team up and running and the significance of that?

30:51

Yeah, I saw, look, I suppose he's got

30:53

great press over the past few days, so

30:55

he's delighted with that. But

30:57

no, it generally, like, look, Megan obviously started

31:00

playing with Corinthians with the boys

31:02

and

31:03

blew credit to the lads and

31:05

the coaches at the time, they were great at Megan.

31:07

She played, there was never an issue, you

31:09

know, and she held her own as well, which helped. But

31:12

obviously, it got to an age, under 11, under 12, where

31:15

she needed to move on to a girls team. Ideally,

31:18

it would have been with Corinthians, at the time there wasn't any

31:21

ladies facilities.

31:22

And so, Joe Mann, Luke

31:25

took it on upon himself. When

31:27

Cam Singh, printed flyers,

31:29

went to all the schools and managed

31:32

to draw up with the support, obviously then he got a street

31:35

league, that kind of stuff going. And from there, just

31:37

built it out, kind of got a group of 20,

31:39

25 girls and kind of kept

31:41

that together up until, let's

31:43

say, 17, 18.

31:45

Even after Megan left, he

31:47

still kept it going for a lot of those girls, and I think

31:49

a lot of them were very appreciative of that. But

31:52

look, the end of the game was to get Megan where

31:54

she is today. And, you know, there's

31:56

a lot of fathers do, a lot for the daughters. But

31:59

I can't imagine... a lot of them get the outcome

32:01

that we've had with Megan being here today,

32:03

like, so. As I said, when

32:06

it happened back in October in the qualified, I

32:08

think a lot of the drive was directed more at dad

32:10

than Megan, because this is really

32:13

a full circle moment for him.

32:15

And there was

32:17

a harmless bit of child labour going on as well at the time, was

32:19

there with the flyers being made at home? Yeah,

32:21

I liked the way they included that. So,

32:24

yeah, look, we all chipped in. I like to think that

32:26

I was a coach, but,

32:27

you know, the longer away from it, I realised I was just basically

32:30

there to pick up the confidence. So,

32:33

yeah, yeah, my coaching didn't start there as I thought

32:35

it did. You

32:37

do have a really deep

32:39

understanding of what the team has had

32:41

to go through to get to this point. Megan

32:43

obviously went to the States for a while, is now

32:45

playing in England, but like, you fully understand

32:48

that like, there wasn't that opportunity that

32:50

the next generation are going to have because Megan

32:53

and people like your dad were trailblazers.

32:56

100% look, I suppose we've

32:58

been there and we've been there to a

33:00

lot more difficult, you know, qualifying campaigns.

33:03

Obviously the one that's 6-0 is the European campaign

33:05

where they crashed early into Ukraine, you

33:07

know, with a free going goal,

33:10

you know, you could try 100 times again,

33:12

you wouldn't do, but yeah, look,

33:15

this is not, again, it's hard

33:17

to think the words, it's hard to kind of, I

33:19

suppose, quantify what this achievement means

33:21

to these girls, you know, and what they've done for,

33:24

I suppose, Irish soccer, but for, I suppose,

33:26

for women's sports and early themselves, you know, you

33:28

look at the rugby sevens, you look at kind

33:30

of what's all coming in behind this, you know,

33:32

obviously the J ladies, what they've

33:35

managed to achieve in the past few weeks with their stand. So

33:37

look, this is a bit of a cherry on the cake for what's

33:40

been coming in the past couple of

33:42

years. So yeah, look, a huge credit has to go

33:44

to some of those girls, particularly, you know, Louise

33:46

Crens, the Nia Fays, the audience who've been there

33:49

a long time, you know, and have put in a lot

33:51

of effort. So again, a small, powerful soccer

33:53

moment for the cohort in that team

33:56

that

33:56

this is as full circle as it gets.

33:59

is that they're literally from all over

34:01

the country, from the four corners.

34:05

Yeah, in fairness, look, we've been

34:07

trying to hang on to any Twitter

34:09

content or Instagram content the past few weeks

34:11

to try and get an insight of the camp. But

34:13

what you can really see is that they're an

34:15

exception to get a group. I

34:18

don't think anybody

34:21

sticks out of that group. Nobody who isn't

34:23

gets on well where everyone saw. And I think that's clear

34:26

and evident that there are 23, 30 players, the

34:29

girls who didn't make it. And even though

34:32

they handled obviously the squad being

34:34

caught that time, it

34:35

takes a strong group to

34:38

get over something like that and have those girls to support

34:40

them behind in the background. What will Megan's

34:43

preparation be like now knowing her, like

34:45

this is an unprecedented crowd that she'll be playing

34:47

in front of, but will that change the way that she approaches

34:49

the game?

34:51

I don't think so. Obviously

34:53

she's playing in double cell. She's been able to play against

34:56

big teams. And again,

35:00

it's hard to quantify what this will mean. We

35:03

were at Tyler for the France game. They called out

35:06

that there was seven and a half thousand and we said,

35:08

Jesus, this is great. And then we kind of said, again,

35:10

kind of a pinch me, what's 80,000 going

35:12

to look like? It's hard to even

35:15

imagine what that type of a crowd in the stadium

35:17

would look like. So, I think it can

35:20

only be excitement. There's only one

35:22

feeling you could probably have walking up front of a crowd like that.

35:24

And I

35:25

can

35:26

confirm that there is a lot of

35:28

green. So it will

35:30

look fairly home based, I would hope.

35:33

What jersey do you have on there now?

35:36

I have the white one. I have the white one.

35:39

We thought we'd be a bit under pressure. So

35:42

I went with a nice cam white color.

35:45

I didn't get the kindly six in grey

35:47

of the jersey that the rest of the family have. So I probably I

35:50

probably look a bit left out. Why not? I

35:53

don't know. I just go to waste. I think the

35:56

white jersey.

35:57

So I

35:59

said, that's the appearance. have their moment with the candy

36:01

on the back. It doesn't need four of us to find

36:03

out who we're here to

36:05

support. You

36:09

can get it for the next one. Listen,

36:11

we let you go and enjoy the rest

36:13

of the

36:14

pre-match stuff. What's your nervousness?

36:18

I'm actually not too bad now.

36:21

As I said, I don't enjoy making

36:23

these games. I go to all of

36:26

them, but I get zero

36:29

enjoyment on them. That's too nervous. But look,

36:31

that's a good thing. I

36:33

think the slacky game, that qualifier

36:35

is probably one of the most unenjoyable games I've ever

36:37

watched, which showed to be one

36:39

of their best results.

36:42

No, I'm not too bad now, but I'd say when we get into the

36:44

fans, I know it will start kicking in.

36:46

And final score prediction?

36:50

My strong

36:52

thoughts is that if we're in the game at halftime,

36:54

if we get in that little aisle, that we will nick

36:57

a result here. I think any

36:59

time they've played strong opposition like Australia,

37:02

once they've stayed the game to halftime, they have a good

37:04

chance. And obviously what Megan on set-pieces

37:06

look like,

37:07

I think a set-piece goal is definitely going to happen to me. Fingers

37:10

crossed it's for us. Luke, good stuff. Thanks a million. Enjoy.

37:12

Cheers. Thanks guys. Thanks.

37:15

Luke Conley,

37:15

Megan's brother, also a handy footballer

37:18

in his own right for a car.

37:19

I think the time capsule 2020

37:23

was my entry when Carc B. Carey,

37:25

Parkie Quieve, the Covid year, one

37:28

of the two Covid years, you remember his high ball

37:31

to Markeen, wasn't

37:33

it? Yeah. He was home from Australia.

37:35

Beautiful. I thought it was a great pass. I don't know if it

37:37

was a Hail Mary attempt at

37:40

a point, but I think he needed a goal at the time. He

37:42

did. You'd have to assume that he knew

37:44

the story. It wasn't. I just

37:47

take the points today. But it could have been Shane McWiggin. Sorry,

37:49

this is for sure too. Yeah.

37:52

A fine player, lovely player. I was actually on to our

37:54

own Tammy Rooney yesterday being like, how would you analyse

37:56

Luke Conley, the footballer,

37:58

and the adjectives in return?

37:59

like it's what you want to be described as right

38:02

curial

38:03

skillful

38:04

innovative street footballer

38:07

all right great he wears a well yeah

38:10

yeah I can only imagine how exciting it must be to

38:12

have

38:13

your sister playing today and like

38:15

but specifically the journey that a

38:17

family on because he's the older

38:20

brother and all the stories were this and

38:23

Megan would follow him around and idolize him and wanted

38:25

to play with him and so you know he definitely

38:27

would have helped by playing football with

38:30

his sister to get her to the standard where she was holding her own

38:32

with the boys and then they set up the girls team and

38:34

then as he says his dad is paying it forwards and

38:38

training other kids as well so that's the bit that

38:40

is the force multiplier and all

38:42

this yeah where you suddenly

38:43

have multiple coaches and

38:46

getting the mums involved and inspiring

38:48

them to become coaches is the next big step as well

38:51

and you know it's still predominantly

38:53

male coaches and that's something

38:56

that we

38:56

need to work on yeah

38:58

and there's loads there's loads

39:00

of loads of room for growth

39:02

but like that story is it's

39:05

just so captivating because it was

39:07

entrepreneurial that family what they did because

39:09

no one was doing it for them and then like

39:11

name checking the coaches in that examiner

39:14

article like I remember those coaches and they were all always

39:16

so supportive but like when I was playing

39:18

it

39:19

was a few years before making the cut started and

39:21

like every Saturday morning there would be seemingly

39:23

hundreds of boys on

39:25

the green pitch like in the training

39:27

pitch not a sign of a girl at all

39:28

and the girl might be driven home after the Sun you

39:31

know is dropped to training so that's how quickly

39:33

a change and McConnelley was a huge part of that

39:35

so like perfect to have Luke

39:37

on the show there that they have because they

39:40

did so much but look their story is just one

39:42

of the 23 like you know yeah and they're getting there

39:44

early they're definitely get to

39:46

say them early which you

39:48

know you should do look there is something that we haven't

39:51

spoken about on the show yet this morning

39:53

as column as you said

39:55

the game in New Zealand has kicked

39:58

off there was a little bit of doubt about that because overnight

39:59

There was a shooting in Auckland two people

40:02

were killed and the gunman six

40:05

six of the people were injured and the gunman Was

40:07

also killed so three dead

40:10

in total the Initial

40:13

fears obviously were that this was you

40:15

know, potentially a terrorist act but it turns out that

40:17

they identified the shooter very quickly he had

40:20

a Monitoring

40:23

bracelet on him because he was on release

40:26

for domestic violence charges, but

40:28

was going to a construction site where he was working and the

40:31

incident happened at the Construction

40:34

site and the police in

40:36

Auckland are describing it as a standalone incident

40:40

so There was a history

40:42

of domestic violence There

40:44

the

40:44

early reports a hastened out there the early

40:47

reports coming out of Auckland And so there was some initial

40:49

concern that perhaps this might have been a terrorist attack And so therefore

40:52

there might have been an impact or knock-on impact

40:54

On the game with the game has kicked off this

40:56

morning after a minute silence for the

40:58

victims of that shooting And obviously we'll

41:01

bring any more details on that that are relevant for

41:03

you This morning. It's 10 minutes

41:05

past eight. Yeah two anniversaries.

41:07

They're just a touch on before we

41:10

move on

41:10

Roy Keane signed to Manchester sounded 30 years

41:13

ago

41:13

this week yesterday and Renal Diene

41:16

was signed for Barcelona 20 years ago yesterday

41:19

You

41:19

change football big day. Yeah, and It's

41:22

easy like obviously we talked for Roy Keane and nauseam

41:24

on the show which is fair enough But we're now Dean know how we change

41:27

football as well good light. I can't believe

41:29

that's 20 years ago the story of course was he was supposed

41:31

to sign for Manchester United and

41:33

Allegedly demanded

41:35

a helicopter to

41:37

bring him over to sign and they were lying out.

41:39

I have a Nash and who did they sign instead? I

41:43

I

41:44

Was 20 years ago. Yeah, this for the future

41:47

right? Yeah, two hundred and three cuz I'm

41:49

both course I know twelve and a half million

41:51

dollars a lot of money at the time But 20

41:54

years ago Jesus hard to believe for two or three years

41:56

that guy was joked like Renal Diene Yo,

41:58

football was a joke to him

41:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know what I

42:02

mean? And 30 years ago, I've gone from right,

42:04

and now you go up, so that's the axis. It's also going to be,

42:07

in 20 years' time, people are going to be going, oh, this is the

42:09

week that Jordan Henderson signed

42:11

for Aletyfak.

42:13

We're going to have to learn the names of these teams. I'm

42:17

undecided about whether or not I'm going to pay any attention

42:19

to this at all. Like, I

42:22

can't see myself watching any of it. Oh, I do like watching Real Maris.

42:24

He's like, one of those players I really enjoy. Yeah, that's it. Like

42:26

Maris also gone. Quite a cheap player. Real

42:28

Maris must be thinking, I'm actually

42:31

better than Jordan Henderson.

42:32

Why am I getting half the money he's getting?

42:34

Is he? He's getting 370 grand. All right. That's

42:37

worth 700 grand. So, 700 grand.

42:39

Have you done the maths on 700 grand?

42:42

Not yet. 120 million in three years.

42:45

Tax free. Netto, as

42:47

Rude Huluk would have said. You understand

42:50

the appeal. Do you think in the next five years' time that

42:53

your kids or kids around the country will be asking for Saudi

42:55

clubs, jerseys,

42:57

because they're going to continue to attract some serious

42:59

talent? Maris, I think, is a step above. Like,

43:03

you know, you could argue Maris is in and around

43:05

his peak, falling slightly out of favour

43:07

in the Man City side, not really getting into the

43:09

team later in the last season. So understandably,

43:11

he wants to move to play with his quality. But

43:14

to go to that league, like, he could play at

43:16

a very good club at any of the top five European

43:18

leagues. He's chosen to go there. All

43:22

of the outcry from the

43:24

anti-Chelsea brigade who were like, oh, Chelsea,

43:26

you're just using this as a way of washing

43:29

their books. They've all showed up now.

43:31

They're like, oh, we don't really need to investigate this anymore,

43:33

because all the clubs

43:35

are benefiting from offloading

43:37

their

43:38

highest earners. And Jordan

43:40

Henderson was two years into a four-year deal that didn't

43:42

look great. Three quarters of the way last season, people

43:45

were like, oh, he's not going to be in the team anymore.

43:48

Doesn't deserve to be in the team. They needed a slight uptick

43:50

in form, as the team had a slight uptick in form

43:52

over the final five or six games. Sorry,

43:55

over the final

43:57

two months of the season. They're like, OK, he

43:59

can play.

43:59

again, he's back to something happened, he's back

44:02

to where he should be. And now, I don't

44:06

know what's what's the Liverpool fans think of this? Because

44:09

like Jordan Henderson has had one of the all

44:11

time great Liverpool careers like,

44:15

restore the team to title winning, wins

44:19

the Champions League.

44:21

It's as good a it's as good a career as

44:23

any of those like, when you

44:25

come back after a famine

44:27

and you win something, there's even you're even more

44:30

cleaved

44:31

to the bosom of a fan

44:33

base. But it

44:39

doesn't matter. It what happens

44:41

next doesn't matter to the fans or doesn't matter. Does

44:43

this somehow damages

44:46

legacy with the Liverpool fans? Because if you're not a Liverpool fan, like,

44:49

you're gonna say, oh, he's just taking the money.

44:52

Yeah, I think Henderson

44:54

took people aback, that move. Because,

44:58

you know, he was a big advocate

45:00

of LGBT rights.

45:03

And then we've gone over to Saudi Arabia. And

45:05

we all know the problems there with that.

45:07

So I think people were a bit like, I

45:09

guess the word you use to describe is disappointed

45:11

that he went. But then he like

45:14

you just mentioned the eye watering figures.

45:16

And everyone has their price.

45:18

Now you could argue, I'm sure he will

45:20

say playing under and being reunited

45:23

with Stephen Gerrard, his idol, the

45:25

player that he was supposed to replace at Liverpool and eventually did

45:28

was an attraction.

45:29

But other than that, it's very hard

45:31

to justify it beyond the financial package.

45:34

And I think people expected from certain type

45:37

of players, let's say, to go over there,

45:39

but not Henderson. And I think that's the turning

45:41

point for people. And people will look at him a bit differently.

45:44

If you're asking me if I think his legacy will be affected

45:46

like slightly, yeah,

45:49

I'm like generally, I don't

45:51

really care too much about what Cara has about stuff. But

45:53

he was very, very strong

45:55

in June. It was June,

45:57

and that potential for Bernardo Silva

45:59

moving there and how you know they

46:02

need to investigate this he's in his peak

46:04

years, started taking over golf big boxing fights

46:06

now they want to take over football this sports watching

46:08

needs to be stopped at Premier League at UEFA

46:11

does it still need to be stopped now

46:13

that Fabinho getting 40 million

46:15

for Fabinho getting 12 million

46:19

for Jordan Henderson that's good money that's

46:21

half your Alexis McAllison money back

46:23

but like in terms of wages it's

46:26

it's good good money so

46:28

what does everybody think about this if you are a Liverpool

46:31

fan or if indeed if you're five one of those other teams? Do you

46:33

remember I took off in China a few years ago they signed

46:35

and some clubs signed, do you remember

46:37

the Brazilian game at Vicelli and he was

46:40

at Hulk as well I think went to the Brazilian striker

46:42

and people thought oh jeez like this is the end of football

46:45

but it seems to be a bit of a fad I think

46:47

with the number of players that

46:49

the Saudi League is signing in such a short space of time

46:51

since Cristiano Ronaldo went there last winter

46:54

is a bit frightening for the rest

46:57

but maybe it will be a case in 10 to 15 years

46:59

time that Saudi football will be the

47:01

equivalent of the Premier League now and that's where everyone's gonna

47:03

be watching their football and they leave the morality aside

47:05

that's kind of the danger in this

47:07

absolutely very

47:09

potentially that is the the outcome and

47:12

the difference between the Chinese money and

47:14

this money is that that wasn't state-sponsored

47:16

as much there was certainly some club

47:19

ownership some state ownership involvement

47:21

in China but you can tell that like the

47:23

PIF have a lot of money

47:25

we know they have a lot of money we know they're

47:27

printing money on a daily basis they're pulling out

47:29

of the ground faster than they can actually count it

47:31

so that money isn't isn't about

47:33

to dry up in our lifetimes particularly

47:35

as we continue to be completely reliant

47:38

on oil.

47:39

Hello? Maybe it won't

47:41

be at some point maybe it is finite well

47:44

I mean maybe it truly is

47:46

yeah but not in our lifetime no

47:48

your kids kids well

47:51

there will still be a planet for our kids kids who

47:53

knows

47:54

right the myself

47:56

and the two kids with jerseys on here very excited says Nigel

47:58

Gallagher all we

47:59

You said the weasel goal great getting up

48:02

early for games already done that one and Hey,

48:05

yeah, sorry James Sweeney

48:08

and somebody else was like I was just as arrogant at 34

48:10

says Brendan Gannon I don't know if he's not about you or he's not

48:13

about

48:13

your opponent No, I opponents 30 so it

48:15

must have been me but I was just defending myself That's

48:18

all just home from work in the quagmire. That is

48:21

Rizal interchange at inner West Sydney

48:23

a 10 to 1 I'm throwing on a ton

48:25

says Coleman O'Brien

48:27

Bear responsibly Coleman

48:28

and heading to the game. Enjoy that that's gonna

48:31

be fairly sensational And then we're just getting loads of coy

48:33

gig coming through I think

48:35

I feel a bit of food poisoning coming on here at work They'll

48:37

kick in fully around 11 a.m. 11 a.m.

48:39

A morning in the jacks for me says 91 Devo No,

48:43

no just insists. This is a national

48:45

moment and you're putting the telly on And

48:47

that's it. It's like we're gonna have the telly

48:49

on we're all gonna watch this it is Yeah as

48:51

a nation that's

48:52

kind of the excitement of it being on in that morning of a workday

48:55

Isn't this

48:56

it's kind of a bit homework off feel to it like

48:58

John Smith says Kathy and walk by us

49:00

and didn't interview us devastated mostly because

49:02

we're wearing rugby jerseys Come

49:05

on, John get yourself together and

49:07

not me he'd Ian full voice this morning says Brendan Gannon

49:11

Yeah,

49:13

is it yeah will be The

49:15

condoms from not me any not any so solvents

49:17

right? Yeah Come on, Arlen

49:19

can't wait for kickoffs to Sarah Corbett. I'll be kicking them cheering

49:22

them on from Madrid I love seeing Kathleen's report. It got

49:24

the emotion running all more a Colini Yeah,

49:27

so here we go 19 minutes past 8 this morning We'd

49:30

love to hear from you if you want to get in touch. Oh, it's 7 9 1 80 180 is

49:33

the whatsapp number a Reminder

49:35

Breyburn coffee is the official coffee partner of

49:37

off the ball Breyburn coffee comes with Apple

49:39

green store near you new Breyburn locations are

49:41

popping up every month Make sure you visit Apple green stores

49:44

comm forward slash Breyburn to find your

49:46

nearest Breyburn coffee experience Here's

49:48

Kathleen talking to conno mara fans by the

49:50

stadium. So Siobhan we are here We're in

49:53

Sydney. You are an Australian resident,

49:55

but you actually come from Galway and you have 17

49:58

members of your family Not all here. Yes

49:59

but there's quite a few. We have the Gaula gang

50:02

from Connemara. Hi

50:04

Kevin and Margaret, hi mum and dad! Tell

50:08

me, what's it been like having everyone coming over for the World

50:10

Cup? Just an amazing opportunity

50:12

really. My family were going to come over and then Ireland

50:14

qualified and then the timing

50:17

was just perfect. They were actually supposed to be here this time last

50:19

year, the pandemic kind of threw that

50:21

out. Then the World Cup was

50:23

this year, they qualified, they

50:25

were coming anyway so just icing

50:27

on the cake and to get tickets

50:30

in February when they moved it to the big stadium was

50:32

just absolutely unbelievable.

50:34

So I had a few of them online at the

50:37

same time in the middle of the night. We were all trying to

50:39

get tickets together and we managed

50:41

to get tickets so we're all heading out there

50:43

this afternoon and excitement

50:46

levels are pretty much through the roof I think. I was

50:48

going to say the big day is finally here. It feels like we've

50:50

been talking about it for so long. How have you found

50:52

the atmosphere around Sydney since you've been here? A

50:55

little bit subdued I think. We've seen a lot

50:57

of Irish people, saw them at the airport on Tuesday

50:59

morning, a few Aussie

51:02

supporters but I think the Irish seem

51:04

to have been the ones that are standing out the most and clearly

51:06

we're the first match up so I

51:09

think the Irish are definitely the ones that are

51:11

standing out the most and making the most noise

51:13

so yeah it's fantastic. And

51:15

as someone who's been based in Australia, what's your

51:18

prediction for this evening? I do

51:21

think that the Irish will give a great performance

51:23

but I think it might be a 2-0 win

51:26

to Australia. I have a feeling

51:28

Sam Kerr might stick one in,

51:31

maybe Kate, I don't know there might be a couple

51:33

of goals I'd say yeah. And do you think

51:35

we could get a come on you girls in green from your crew

51:37

before we go? I reckon. Can

51:40

we get a come on you girls in green from the family?

51:44

Ready, steady.

51:52

And the sports breakfast show from off

51:55

the ball.

51:56

So the kids obviously did manage to

51:58

stop it and he's not in Australia but...

51:59

but he'll be doing the last word today,

52:02

I think. Yeah, he's been doing it this week, though. Yeah,

52:04

so make sure you tune into it. It's 22 minutes

52:06

past eight this morning. We have living legend Linda Gorman

52:08

with us in studio. Linda, how are you?

52:10

I'm very well, thank you. Very excited, can't

52:12

wait. What are your nerve levels like?

52:15

My nerve levels are quite controllable.

52:17

Right. You know, it can get into the zone, you

52:20

know, but the idea is to manage

52:22

our anxiety and your stress

52:24

levels coming up to it because you don't

52:26

want to expand excess energy and

52:28

then have nothing for the pitch.

52:29

That's the thing, and it's such a new,

52:32

overwhelming experience. My point to

52:34

this is, though, that Australia must be feeling the same thing as

52:36

well.

52:37

Well, obviously they're not... Or more. Yeah,

52:39

well, I suppose the pressure is on them,

52:41

you know, to perform really,

52:44

really well today. Again, it's a showcase for

52:46

them in front of the home crowd and

52:48

wouldn't surprise me if half of them were

52:51

of Irish ancestry as well. And

52:53

so there's, you know, a lot of pride

52:56

in them, but then certainly a lot of pride in

52:58

us.

53:00

Yeah. Like, it's

53:02

such a momentous day, but can you just maybe

53:04

give a synopsis to everybody of how

53:07

far this team has come in the last 50 years since that

53:09

first international against Wales that you were involved in yourself?

53:11

Well, the striking difference

53:14

is that when there's proper coaching

53:16

structures in, proper management

53:19

and proper...

53:22

..resources

53:24

that

53:25

you can do amazing things. And this team

53:28

has shown that, particularly in the last five

53:30

or six years when the FAI

53:32

got behind them, when the country got behind

53:35

them. And they've just... And of course,

53:37

the media coverage has set it all because

53:40

we didn't have that. So when

53:42

we went and played in Wales in the first game,

53:45

so nobody knew that we'd played in Wales.

53:47

We just came home and that was part of it. When

53:49

we played in Dublin the following month, nobody

53:52

knew. When we played in Wales

53:55

in October of the same year, 73. Now,

53:58

that was completely different.

53:59

different because by that time we

54:02

had had a proper coach in Kevin Healy.

54:05

We had been training extra

54:07

for the Dublin girls. So to

54:09

go out and play against a formidable

54:12

French team who had beaten us in part

54:15

of Prince 1973, to go then in 1978,

54:17

having had all this coaching, really

54:24

proper structured coaching, we knew what

54:26

our job was, to go

54:28

out and draw with him in

54:29

Talcott Park was phenomenal

54:32

in terms of they were hopping

54:35

mad, absolutely hopping

54:37

mad. I have momentum

54:40

from them in terms of their best

54:43

player, I think her name was Michelle Wolf, she

54:46

was a massive player but

54:48

I happened to be marking her and

54:51

quite a few really crunching

54:53

tackles but one she got

54:55

me on the hip and is sliver. I was

54:57

going to ask, were you giving it to her or was she going to? Oh no,

54:59

listen, let's put it this way, she

55:01

wasn't getting any joy with me so she

55:03

went across to the other side and

55:05

of course barely the Cassidy was

55:08

equally as aggressive so she really

55:10

didn't get a look in but she certainly left a mark

55:12

on me because she chipped

55:15

sort of sliver of my hip bone.

55:18

But I mean these things happen, you

55:21

have to be brave and fearless and passionate

55:23

and give it your all and that's what our girls are

55:25

going to do today. There

55:26

is the Australians

55:29

talking about us being a physical side and

55:31

our physicality being something that they are prepared

55:33

for and I'm sure they are going to

55:36

be equally physical but you need to make

55:38

sure it doesn't boil over because referees

55:40

in the opening game of World

55:42

Cup can frequently be like, I'm going to lay down a marker

55:44

here and I'm going to make a name for myself

55:47

and try and get a game later on in the tournament as well. So

55:49

how do you manage that?

55:50

Well I suppose the referee will set the tone

55:53

of the game, you know, but you

55:55

have to try, you have to go in with your crunching

55:57

tackles and your will to win the ball.

55:59

an

56:02

80-20 ball, you have to go in with everything. So

56:05

again, you have to test the referee as well

56:07

to see what they're going to allow. I mean,

56:10

we are a physical team, but there are,

56:12

you know, the African teams are quite physical as

56:14

well. The French

56:18

are quite physical. You mightn't think it, but

56:20

they're very good at using their body. Yeah,

56:21

yeah. They were very good against us in

56:24

Tallah a couple of weeks ago as well. There

56:26

was a couple of things that

56:28

went wrong for us, but Vera had assured us that

56:30

they were going to be rectified. Yeah. And

56:32

I think Katie McCabe came off

56:34

with like a precautionary injury

56:36

after half an hour as well. And there

56:39

is a significant difference. I think especially

56:41

in the pre World Cup friendlies where

56:43

the team, we know the team basically, it's

56:45

been fixed. The team that was named for that team is going to be the

56:47

team we think that we'll be getting news of

56:49

in the next hour or so. And

56:52

I can only imagine how, if you're named in

56:54

that team, you're like, I'm not, I'm not playing the World Cup. Definitely

56:57

going to try and get injured tonight as well. So there's just a bit,

56:59

whereas I'd say France had proper competition for places

57:02

in some sections as well.

57:03

I would agree with you there, but if you went

57:05

out and I've never done it myself ever, ever in

57:07

any game, go out with the thought

57:10

that maybe you will get injured. You

57:12

know, you can't have that thought in your

57:14

head at all.

57:15

You know, and Katie was absolutely

57:18

right to come off. A friendly like France

57:20

is not,

57:22

it doesn't make any difference to

57:24

us. So it's better to be cautious

57:27

and to have our strength in coming

57:29

to the World Cup as opposed to finishing

57:31

out a game.

57:32

We beat Australia in a friendly

57:34

in 2021. And at that stage there

57:36

was, there'd been a really bad run of results.

57:38

Now against some of the better teams, there'd been

57:40

a bad run of results. And there was some

57:43

murmurings about Vera, but that

57:45

result turned around. And then we went on a run of winning

57:47

games and confidence

57:50

surge. And all of a sudden here we are making

57:52

history today, qualifying for a

57:54

World Cup and playing in the World Cup. It has been a

57:56

real roller coaster. Well, my.

57:59

interpretation of that game. They

58:02

had come to Ireland on the back of having played

58:04

in the Olympics. And

58:07

then what happened was they

58:09

probably had jet lag. I never saw so many

58:11

passes that went wrong. I mean,

58:14

Care was hardly in the game. She hardly

58:16

got anything. Their touches weren't great.

58:19

So you don't know what else was going

58:21

on with them. You know, it happens to

58:23

us, it happens to all teams. And I

58:25

was delighted to hear that Fira

58:27

was having games over there because you

58:29

need to shake the cobwebs off. You

58:32

need to be able to play in some

58:34

type of realistic game, you

58:36

know, to get all the cells

58:39

in your body ready because

58:41

it's quite a journey to travel

58:43

over there. And then the exhaustion

58:45

of fans that are great with the fans

58:47

and then the media. So you have to

58:49

get into a zone.

58:50

Tickets. You're sorting out tickets for

58:52

friends and family as well. Like it's it's

58:55

all a new experience. It is absolutely.

58:57

Now they would be used to an extent,

58:59

particularly recently in the run up to the World Cup

59:01

because the publicity

59:04

they're getting and the demands on them, you

59:06

know, you manage that type of stuff. Not

59:08

in our day. Like they have sports

59:10

psychologists, you know, you have your routines.

59:13

We didn't have anything because we were going to work

59:15

and we were saying, you know, next

59:18

day is work and let's go, you know,

59:20

and train for the next

59:23

match, but you also trained with your club. So

59:26

it's completely different our day.

59:28

I'm not sure about the sports

59:30

psychologists work, but you

59:32

also have to have something in you

59:35

as well.

59:36

Well, they're working with the raw materials you have. That's

59:38

it. It's like they can help you shape

59:41

the thing that the inner drive. And

59:43

like so we were talking about this yesterday.

59:46

Katie McCabe was working

59:48

in Nando's, wasn't particularly fulfilled

59:50

by it and then got the opportunity to go full

59:52

time professional. But like she was ready for

59:55

it, you know, and even then there

59:57

was a she had to overcome at one stage.

59:59

like they were going to send her out in Loam, but she

1:00:02

got named the Ireland captain and like

1:00:05

that inner drive that she has, even though she'd

1:00:07

never captained other teams, has led

1:00:09

her to the point where she's ready for this today.

1:00:11

Absolutely. She's a fantastic

1:00:13

leader and I mean, it shows in the way

1:00:16

she performs and that's my measure of

1:00:18

how somebody is. And you saw against

1:00:20

the French game, she was badly missed when

1:00:23

she came off. Now, it's not necessarily

1:00:25

that they depend on her,

1:00:27

you know, in terms of their

1:00:30

dependency is on our leadership and

1:00:34

not what I say, it's what I do,

1:00:36

that type of leadership. It's the moral courage

1:00:39

thing that John Giles always talked about. It's like she'll show

1:00:41

for a ball and she'll

1:00:44

be in the 80-20, but she'll be the 20 and

1:00:46

still come out with it. And all of a sudden that just gives the team a lift.

1:00:48

Yeah, but you need that. You see, you need people

1:00:51

who are willing to put themselves on the line, you

1:00:53

know, come what may. But don't think

1:00:55

that it's not a calculated thought,

1:00:58

like when she's making a move for a ball to win

1:01:00

a ball. It's all very much calculated.

1:01:02

Can I win it? But your determination gives

1:01:04

you that extra half yard.

1:01:06

Are you a fan

1:01:08

of Vera Powell's set up for the starting 11?

1:01:11

I'm not quite sure what the full

1:01:14

starting 11 is. I sort

1:01:16

of hope that Katie McCabe

1:01:18

is not going to be in the defence because

1:01:20

she's such an asset in midfield.

1:01:26

Denise O'Sullivan for me is the

1:01:28

real playmaker because of the position

1:01:30

that she holds. In terms of

1:01:32

when she passes a ball,

1:01:35

it's the type of ball that she passes.

1:01:37

It's always like there's a second ball

1:01:40

going to come from that. So it's much the

1:01:42

same as snooker. When you're playing the white

1:01:44

ball, you want it to land and set you

1:01:46

up for the next. So she looks

1:01:49

as if she's that type of player. I

1:01:52

hope

1:01:53

that we're not going to be stretched. I

1:01:55

hope that we're going to stay tight and compact

1:01:58

and read the game a little bit.

1:01:59

better than we read the French game

1:02:02

because we stood off them too much. And

1:02:04

I was worried like

1:02:07

if people didn't know their

1:02:09

responsibilities because in the system

1:02:11

we played, if I was left

1:02:13

full anything that came into this

1:02:15

area was my territory and

1:02:17

if I lost the ball I had to win it.

1:02:20

So it was sort of a different mentality and

1:02:22

they play a different type of style.

1:02:24

Yeah, I hope that's a psychological

1:02:26

thing where they were just a little bit off because

1:02:29

there was so much going on whereas today it's

1:02:32

like absolutely the day of your life. Well

1:02:35

staying away from media and all that and getting

1:02:37

into the zone and being a group and

1:02:40

knowing that the final starting

1:02:42

line is only just going to enhance

1:02:45

it. And then when you think you have players on

1:02:47

the bench who you

1:02:49

know like they would come

1:02:52

on and give us a bit of strength and because

1:02:54

they're just ready you know some players

1:02:57

are better coming on than starting.

1:02:59

Amber Barrett's record off the bench is sensational. Yeah, six

1:03:01

and seven goals are off the bench. Yeah, because

1:03:04

if you think of it like she comes on as if

1:03:06

she's played a half a game, she's straight into

1:03:08

it. And what I love about her is

1:03:11

she's goal orientated. That's what

1:03:13

she sees and I see that with Anya

1:03:15

or Gorman as well. Like her first

1:03:18

thought is

1:03:19

forward pass can I find somebody forward

1:03:21

if I can't find them I'll go to side if I can't find

1:03:23

that I'll go back you know but it's always

1:03:26

this planning and thinking.

1:03:28

It's Nillah by the way in the open game so far

1:03:30

after half an hour it's New Zealand, Nill, Norway,

1:03:32

Nill, I think Norway are favourites for this game. But

1:03:36

after half an hour if we were Nillah after half an hour

1:03:38

we'd be like okay that's it half an hour the world cup in

1:03:40

everybody take a big deep breath let's go.

1:03:42

I come

1:03:44

from the mindset of best

1:03:47

form of

1:03:48

defence is attack. Right. And

1:03:50

you need the whole team to do that. So

1:03:52

when I talk about that I'm talking about if

1:03:55

you put pressure on the person on the ball the

1:03:57

other players around you have to be

1:03:59

able to read the game so they're

1:04:02

cutting out any potential paths.

1:04:05

And sometimes if we stand off too much,

1:04:07

they're going to, they're so technically

1:04:09

good, they're going to just

1:04:12

walk around us. Haven't said that when you

1:04:15

look at the experience of those

1:04:17

Australian players. I mean they were all

1:04:19

on the underage

1:04:21

international teams and their debuts

1:04:23

were a very, very young age. And

1:04:26

so they have, some of them have 200

1:04:28

experience of the underage tournaments. Yeah,

1:04:30

yeah, but the age where they made their debut,

1:04:33

I mean 15 for care, you

1:04:36

know, 18 is the average. And

1:04:38

then when you look at the team and you see the

1:04:40

countries they play for now in the regular

1:04:43

seasons, I mean up

1:04:45

to the first five

1:04:47

ranked countries, you

1:04:50

know, the US is a plane there.

1:04:52

Yeah, yeah. So they're a very good side. Yeah,

1:04:55

technically very good, technically very

1:04:57

good. We need to be cautious. With your philosophy

1:04:59

of attack as the best form of defence, regardless

1:05:01

of the personnel that get picked here,

1:05:03

are you in favour of the back three

1:05:05

that Vera Powell seems to play for Ireland? And

1:05:08

to actually mention one person, Katie

1:05:10

McCabe, quite deep as a left wing back.

1:05:13

Is that getting the best out of her and also the team? Well,

1:05:16

I saw them playing, I saw Katie playing left

1:05:18

for one of the American

1:05:20

games and she was making great

1:05:22

passes, and she was

1:05:25

making excellent passes. But the passes

1:05:28

couldn't be supported because they

1:05:30

were long passes. Do you know what I mean?

1:05:32

Now she was to play in midfield and

1:05:35

look for openings that the two forwards

1:05:37

can get in behind them. Yeah. That

1:05:40

would be wonderful, you know. Vera

1:05:42

obviously feels that the

1:05:45

Australian attackers are

1:05:48

very, very strong, you know, and

1:05:50

I mean they're prolific goal scorers.

1:05:53

They have huge amount of talent

1:05:55

and that's one of their assets, that they are goal scorers

1:05:58

and they wait for the opportunity.

1:05:59

And again with Katie's

1:06:03

experience that might lend a hand. But

1:06:06

Louise Quinn is quite experienced

1:06:08

as well. Yeah,

1:06:09

no, totally. The age profile is kind

1:06:11

of exactly what you wanted. Has some

1:06:14

old stages who know exactly what it

1:06:16

means to be in these games and then it has a

1:06:19

sprinkling of youth and some inexperience

1:06:21

in terms of the setup but new

1:06:23

blood that has come in and kind of freshen things up as well.

1:06:26

Well, that's very important anyway

1:06:28

for the development of the game at that level. And

1:06:30

you have to remember we're going into the Euros in September.

1:06:33

So that's a great, you know, and Abby Larkin

1:06:36

is just shining now for such

1:06:38

a young player. You know, she did

1:06:40

really, really well against France.

1:06:43

So she's potentially, you

1:06:45

know, a wild card from the bench as well. Yes. Linda,

1:06:48

before we wrap this up, we've been talking

1:06:50

obviously about the game specifically, but in

1:06:53

terms of a legacy for the tournament, right? I

1:06:56

think it's fair to say that the FBI didn't capitalize

1:06:58

on Ireland qualifying for Euro 88 and Italian 90. We

1:07:02

kind of like just let that happen. And

1:07:04

we didn't build academies and we

1:07:06

didn't build facilities and we didn't make

1:07:09

the case that football should be getting

1:07:11

funding at a level commensurate

1:07:14

with the popularity of it. And also the potential for jobs.

1:07:16

Like you can literally create hundreds,

1:07:18

if not thousands of jobs in the football industry if we had

1:07:21

one. What do you hope comes out of

1:07:23

this team qualifying for the World Cup? My

1:07:26

biggest, biggest hope is

1:07:29

that we will now be able to measure ourselves

1:07:31

technically against the best teams.

1:07:34

And my belief is

1:07:36

that we have to match them technically.

1:07:39

Facilities, you know, they're

1:07:41

wonderful to have, but it's the ability

1:07:44

to be able to have an arsenal of skills at

1:07:46

a high level that you can execute in

1:07:48

speed to match the other

1:07:50

teams. And also that you have

1:07:53

enough leg,

1:07:54

you know, enough in your legs for

1:07:56

quite an amount of speed on the pitch.

1:07:58

Now I'm talking about all out.

1:07:59

because in games

1:08:02

everything is 100%. You give everything 100% in

1:08:04

your runs. So

1:08:07

that needs to be matched off. So maybe we need

1:08:09

to escalate the amount

1:08:11

of speed work that we do.

1:08:13

So that's strength and conditioning and coaching

1:08:15

is kind of what you were talking about as a legacy. Absolutely. And

1:08:17

I'm talking about footsock, that type

1:08:19

of stuff, cover. I'm talking about that. That's

1:08:22

so, so important at a young age, and

1:08:24

that's where we need to be looking at, the young

1:08:26

age.

1:08:27

You mentioned Davey for Ireland 50 years

1:08:29

ago, obviously, in the first ever fixture. You're

1:08:31

still playing football now. I am. I love it. I

1:08:33

had the game at the guys yesterday up in Abbottstown.

1:08:36

And they're one of the groups I play with. I always play

1:08:38

with the boys. I'm heading off there now to watch

1:08:40

the game with some of the ex players. And

1:08:43

yeah, and I absolutely love it. And

1:08:46

if I could say anything to any of the girls to

1:08:48

encourage them to come back, it's

1:08:51

the question that I get asked all the time

1:08:53

by the girls is, are you not afraid to break a bone?

1:08:55

And I say, when I went out to play football,

1:08:58

I never thought

1:09:00

I was going to be afraid or never entered

1:09:02

my head if I was going in for a tackle that I knew

1:09:04

I'd no right to get. But

1:09:07

I got.

1:09:08

You play it's walking football, is it? I

1:09:10

listen, don't use the word walking. You want to see

1:09:12

me bruises? And that's all in my hands. I

1:09:15

want to use in the description used when you were inducted into

1:09:17

the FA Hall of Fame last November, and you

1:09:19

were talking about how you played two or three times a week,

1:09:21

four times a week.

1:09:23

Yeah, I played down in Cherries Street, Olivia

1:09:25

tools. That's really skillful. Olivia

1:09:28

tools, I wouldn't have the foots on and all that,

1:09:30

but I have think of

1:09:33

say that I have

1:09:34

a good reading of the game and my first

1:09:36

touches go to my first pass passes

1:09:38

are good, but only because as a young

1:09:41

girl, there's a tree outside my house

1:09:43

that was planted. And in the morning before

1:09:45

I went to school, I got the ball on my

1:09:48

own, on the green and just tried

1:09:50

to hit the tree.

1:09:51

No, that type of stuff.

1:09:53

I think there's an argument that Cherries Street might be the most

1:09:55

important road in Irish football.

1:09:58

Why do you say that? like about 15 Ireland

1:10:01

nationals have come from it. That's what

1:10:03

you know of. You should see

1:10:05

the skill down there. And the only way

1:10:08

I could explain it to you, the

1:10:11

70s and 80s, World

1:10:13

Cups, Brazil, and Argentina,

1:10:16

and you'd see someone, oh, Christ,

1:10:19

a skill. That,

1:10:20

God, that's amazing. And

1:10:22

I can guarantee you, 24 hours later, that would

1:10:25

be mastered in Sheriff's Street, mastered

1:10:28

to a T. And the measure of it would

1:10:30

be that it would be used in the game.

1:10:33

So I went out to see

1:10:35

Sheriff playing another Sheriff team. Players

1:10:39

have moved to different teams, and a skill

1:10:42

at the over-35s was the reason.

1:10:44

Right. Right. Oh, fabulous.

1:10:47

Well, Linda, enjoy the game today. Who are you watching with? I'm

1:10:49

watching with Rita Handlin. She

1:10:52

scored first goal at

1:10:54

home against Northern Ireland. I'm

1:10:56

playing with

1:10:57

Bernadette Cassidy, who was

1:11:02

named man at the match against France in 1978, Katrin

1:11:06

Bourne, who played international both

1:11:09

at underage and also

1:11:11

a senior who went off and

1:11:14

had a career in America, and

1:11:17

a few other friends.

1:11:18

Listen, Hall of Famer, Linda Gorman, always

1:11:20

great to spend some time in your company. Thanks a million. Enjoy the game. Thank

1:11:22

you very much. It's 8.41. I

1:11:24

said scoreless, still 38 minutes gone

1:11:26

in the game between New Zealand and Norway. Up next,

1:11:29

Shane Handlin live from Kilkenny. First, here's

1:11:31

Kathleen Chatten with Emma Burnsmates.

1:11:33

We are here on the steps of Sydney Opera

1:11:36

House with some Irish fans. Guys, you just came

1:11:38

in this morning last night. So

1:11:41

tell me, where did you come from? I'm Monaghan.

1:11:43

Dub. Shocking. Shocking. Yeah. Up

1:11:46

the dubs. I'm Kildare. And I'm Leecham.

1:11:48

And what has he traveling to the other

1:11:51

side of the world? I mean, there's not all that much happening at

1:11:53

the moment, is there? History, really. You know, it's

1:11:55

the first time any Irish name really is in a major

1:11:57

World Cup, but part of women's history,

1:11:59

really.

1:11:59

Yeah, I've grown up playing football with a few of the girls, Amber

1:12:02

Barrett had played at Ulster schools with her so coming

1:12:04

over to Sporty Gardens that you've grown up with all along, it's come

1:12:06

here, you have to be part of the moment, don't you? It's amazing.

1:12:09

Even the vibe in the places. It would have been the same from

1:12:11

home, you know? It's just, it's

1:12:13

just, Ian's okay though, it's Mononahairon,

1:12:16

I guess in sport, I guess it's just so good. He's

1:12:19

more Jashina than Mononahairon, couldn't sport

1:12:21

the image so yeah, so much unsause to that and

1:12:23

so. Absolutely. And Louise

1:12:25

Quinn, who's got school in the school, I teach him

1:12:27

lesson and so, yeah. And

1:12:29

what was the atmosphere like then in Blassington before

1:12:31

you left? So excited, all the kids were just buzzing

1:12:34

in the school, really excited to see Louise playing,

1:12:36

you know? Just like the girls said, witnessing history,

1:12:38

seeing Ireland here first time. And

1:12:41

how have you found the atmosphere around Sydney since

1:12:43

you've been in? Ah, quiet last night

1:12:45

but this morning, now we're walking around in Ireland jerseys,

1:12:47

everyone's stopping us along the way. If anyone has a touch

1:12:50

of green at all in them, I think you're a pair to Ireland

1:12:52

today, that's so true! There's

1:12:55

really good vibe around it, anyone who is, like look at

1:12:57

Ireland or Sydney here is half Irish anywhere

1:12:59

to

1:12:59

be honest, and anyone, we met a man from

1:13:01

Matlone there, he didn't even luckily keep us from Matlone! He's

1:13:03

a head-off! He told us he was from Matlone!

1:13:06

It doesn't matter what county you're from, once you're

1:13:08

Irish you know you're welcome here with a flag. Yeah,

1:13:11

no it looks, it's great, looks like it's amazing

1:13:13

to even be standing like with that behind

1:13:15

us. Sorry, that's just amazing. Never

1:13:18

travelled down this far

1:13:19

before so it's cool to be here

1:13:21

in part history. And what's

1:13:23

his result going to be tonight? Oh, Ireland's going to

1:13:25

win, Northern Ireland. I'm taking it out for a win! I

1:13:29

think if we can aim for that one, if we can aim for that one, then

1:13:31

I'll be amazing.

1:13:32

EYRABOO!

1:13:37

Yeah, they're having the crack, it's

1:13:39

going to be either the crack for Limerick

1:13:42

or the crack for Kilkenny on Sunday as well. Seamus

1:13:44

Hickey is with us. Seamus, good morning to you, how are you?

1:13:47

Morning, Jack, I'm good, I'm nervous,

1:13:49

I'm nervously anticipating the weekend but I'm good. What

1:13:53

has you nervous as a matter of interest, specifically

1:13:55

about Kilkenny?

1:13:56

If I was to sum it up very simply, right, so 12

1:13:59

months. ago, same teams met. I

1:14:02

think the Kenny have gotten better. I think they're

1:14:04

a better squad. I think

1:14:06

they're a more rounded team. And

1:14:08

I'm not sure Limerick are better. I'm

1:14:11

not sure, especially with the losses of Sean

1:14:14

Finn, Declan is, you know,

1:14:16

Declan Hennen, centre back, is,

1:14:19

you know, given every chance to play, but, you

1:14:20

know, in terms of fitness, in terms

1:14:22

of level performance this year, I'm just

1:14:25

not as confident. But,

1:14:28

you know, I definitely think you're Kenny or a better team.

1:14:30

Was the game a bit weird last year in that Limerick

1:14:32

kind of let Kukenny get back into it

1:14:35

and that maybe they won't do that this year?

1:14:38

No, I think last year was a bit strange because

1:14:40

I do think Limerick or

1:14:42

the better team, it's just that Kukenny had a knack of

1:14:45

hanging around the game where I would say

1:14:47

they really couldn't get

1:14:50

ahead of Limerick at any stage. Limerick

1:14:53

were just not able to separate themselves. I

1:14:56

don't see this final going the same way. I really

1:14:59

do, you know, I would probably

1:15:01

see Kukenny as more of the aggressors this

1:15:03

time. Like, considering what Galway

1:15:06

did in the first half against Limerick, just

1:15:08

to kind of destabilise them, kind of

1:15:10

really attack their puck out,

1:15:11

you know, really

1:15:14

get to grips with the middle third. Kukenny

1:15:16

are really well equipped to do that.

1:15:18

And I think, especially

1:15:20

with on Cody playing the way he is, Adrian Mullen,

1:15:23

really operating well now around the middle after his injury

1:15:25

troubles early in the year. On Cody's

1:15:28

boots, I've been moving faster than ever. I'm a

1:15:30

big fan of those. So, but it's just, I

1:15:33

do think they're a better team and TJ is giving

1:15:36

them what TJ does. Really, really

1:15:38

good leadership, good decision making, ability

1:15:41

to win dirty ball. He's not burning

1:15:43

pace, he's not getting into space as much as he used

1:15:45

to. But absolutely,

1:15:48

as dangerous under a high ball and his

1:15:50

ability to distribute. So, you know, for

1:15:52

me, they're really daunting proposition for

1:15:55

this

1:15:59

and final does seem particularly relevant. In

1:16:02

the first half in particular one of the things that kept

1:16:04

Kilkenny in it was TJ's freeze and

1:16:07

maybe don't fail as much this year. I realize it's very easy

1:16:10

for me to say that and I'm not involved but might

1:16:12

be a good idea to just talk about that and try

1:16:14

and plan for it.

1:16:15

Yeah but so like

1:16:17

Limerick's discipline has ebbed and flowed. Like

1:16:19

the first half against Galway, Evan

1:16:22

Nylund scored seven points for freeze

1:16:24

and it really was key to Galway pushing

1:16:27

Limerick to the brink say

1:16:29

you know with a six-point lead and a goal chance

1:16:33

after 20-25 minutes. So you know if

1:16:36

Limerick's tackling

1:16:38

is frenetic, if it's not composed,

1:16:41

well then Limerick are actually a free machine.

1:16:44

They give away a lot and I want to completely

1:16:47

do John Keenan now is ref

1:16:50

in the game. His first I'll learn in the final. He

1:16:52

typically lets play flow typically and

1:16:55

calls you know are typically well

1:16:58

earned I would say with John Keenan so maybe

1:17:00

maybe that's a good thing for Limerick but

1:17:03

it really is you have to get your discipline right and

1:17:06

especially against Kilkenny because you know

1:17:09

I would say even this year their

1:17:11

I think their scores from play have been far better

1:17:13

they've been far more efficient from

1:17:15

play up around 65% their

1:17:18

shots are actually going over the bars compared to Limerick is

1:17:20

about half you know it's about

1:17:23

50-55% so Kilkenny's efficiency from play

1:17:25

is better but

1:17:27

Tije is still automatic so if you're given away

1:17:29

a freeze from your own 45 up

1:17:32

the field then you're probably

1:17:35

given them an opportunity so it

1:17:37

is worth talking about and you can talk about those things

1:17:40

but ultimately composure is entirely

1:17:42

about how you handle

1:17:44

the circumstances and how they

1:17:46

change in a very pressurized environment and there's

1:17:48

nothing more pressurized than the game coming Sunday.

1:17:51

And like it shouldn't matter but it

1:17:53

clearly does that there's

1:17:56

history on the line with a four in a row

1:17:58

like how do they deal with it?

1:17:59

deal with that? How do they, I mean, obviously we know Caroline Kurds,

1:18:02

they talk about her all the time, so

1:18:04

she'll be her under corn this week. But what

1:18:06

can I actually do?

1:18:07

So to me, it's funny,

1:18:10

the history side of things from just for

1:18:12

a pure Limerick's perspective, it hasn't really been spoken

1:18:14

about from a Limerick in a Limerick

1:18:16

context and Limerick public. It's not

1:18:18

really a topic conversation. Most of the topic conversation

1:18:20

this year was

1:18:22

are we going to make it out of monster? Are

1:18:24

we, you know, the Galway semifinal,

1:18:27

considering how tight it was last year, we've

1:18:29

got a bit of confidence from the monster final against Claire

1:18:32

and actually pulling out a result. But it

1:18:34

really is getting,

1:18:36

you know, survive and progress is really

1:18:38

the has been the Limerick team for

1:18:40

the last two years, even last year in the three in a row.

1:18:43

Some of that three in a row talk was was damped

1:18:45

down by the fact of these

1:18:47

games are super close. And, you know, we're

1:18:50

really just trying to survive in a lot of these games. And,

1:18:52

you know,

1:18:54

I think this year, they have gotten into more of

1:18:56

a rhythm than, say, at times last year,

1:18:58

really, really was a struggle, really

1:19:00

was from the monster championship, monster

1:19:03

final. And then the other

1:19:05

semifinal against Galway last year was it was a struggle.

1:19:07

And then top it off then. I nearly got

1:19:09

sick in the Hogan stand last

1:19:11

year. It was so nervous and so tight.

1:19:15

I'm not great to watch games at best times. But to

1:19:18

say, are the players feeling the same? I mean,

1:19:20

you know them very well.

1:19:21

They're not feeling they're not feeling that what

1:19:24

they're basically like, particularly,

1:19:26

you know, when it's when it's on the field, it's very

1:19:28

easy to play these games than it is watching. So

1:19:30

watching and supporting you've got you've got the

1:19:33

ability to and particularly from a sports psychology

1:19:35

side of things as a player, it's next ball.

1:19:37

It's it's, you know, putting

1:19:40

the last either positive or

1:19:42

negative thing behind you. And

1:19:44

you know, you're affecting the game in the next

1:19:46

ball that comes your way. So, you know, there's a far

1:19:48

more element of control for a player.

1:19:51

And even with the heads and flows of games,

1:19:53

momentum and different things, you

1:19:56

still have that element

1:19:58

of affecting the outcome. So.

1:19:59

You know,

1:20:01

I can only, I can only shout it all out. But

1:20:04

so it's the, for me, this

1:20:06

time, when how do you manage this? Karen

1:20:09

Kurt is constantly preaching same. It's

1:20:12

constantly, and you see this in sports, in

1:20:15

sports media, especially like you've got players are

1:20:17

just, it's a monotony. And

1:20:19

they get into a groove of, next game

1:20:22

of concentrate on the one minute at a time,

1:20:24

and don't get ahead of ourselves, respect the opposition.

1:20:27

You know, that you actually become hypnotized

1:20:31

to that. And you end up saying things that, you

1:20:34

know, you don't necessarily believe, but

1:20:36

you're like, it's been out, it's going to get me through

1:20:38

this. And for my mental

1:20:40

focus, I'm just going to say

1:20:42

these things that don't affect me either way. So

1:20:45

like, I'm not going to sing there. I'm

1:20:47

not going to put them down to give them

1:20:49

an edge. I'm going to

1:20:52

talk them up. I'm going to, you

1:20:54

know, you end up saying a lot of stuff you don't believe. Like

1:20:56

you just get into that automatic,

1:20:59

automated space. So, and

1:21:01

from a sports psychology, it is, it's routine. It's

1:21:03

rhythm. It's keeping things the same.

1:21:05

You're approached the same, you're preparation the same. And

1:21:09

does four in a row have an extra stake for

1:21:11

this limery team? I don't think so. Cause I genuinely don't

1:21:13

think, and then known the players, they're not obsessed

1:21:15

with history.

1:21:17

Okay. They're obsessed with winning.

1:21:19

Well, let me, let me do something slightly different

1:21:21

then. It's so difficult to do four

1:21:23

in a row because by the end of that third

1:21:25

slash fourth year, everybody has seen

1:21:28

every second of you. And the piranhas

1:21:30

are biting as you go along the

1:21:32

carcass of your dreams. And

1:21:34

so maybe that's the four in a row might not

1:21:36

be a psychological thing. It might just be that it's so hard

1:21:38

to do because you have to be perfect

1:21:41

four years in a row to get there.

1:21:43

A hundred percent. And what I absolutely love, and

1:21:45

what I really, really

1:21:46

thought that, you know, John Kylie and Parker

1:21:49

Knopf was forced by circumstance, but

1:21:51

the Willow Donaghu moved to center back last,

1:21:53

like the semi-final against Galway. It was,

1:21:55

it was a complete change because limery have

1:21:58

been prepared for by opposition.

1:21:59

pretty much the exact same way since 2018

1:22:02

because it has been much, it's

1:22:04

pretty much been the same 15 more or less, give

1:22:07

or take, you know, Mike Casey got hurt, Barry

1:22:10

Nash came in, Richie English was in there and

1:22:12

you know,

1:22:13

changes maybe around the full backline sometimes

1:22:15

change in the full forward line, depending on whether it's Peter Casey,

1:22:18

or you know, whether it's Graham Ocahi. So there's been

1:22:21

small change, but largely,

1:22:22

the blueprint is the same and teams prepared for limerick,

1:22:25

they're pretty much the same way and it looked like last

1:22:27

year and this year, that team were finding a way

1:22:29

to tame them and

1:22:33

to kind of bring the fight down to close

1:22:35

quarters, whereas in 2021, really, it was limerick

1:22:38

blew out everybody by

1:22:41

large margin. So, you

1:22:44

know,

1:22:44

this year and forced by

1:22:46

circumstance of a key player at centre

1:22:48

back and I didn't like it, you know, I was nervous enough

1:22:50

about decking me now, but trying something different,

1:22:53

even something as simple as Keene Lynch

1:22:55

to midfield

1:22:56

and Willow Dunneau back

1:22:58

to centre back, how effective will

1:23:00

was at centre back, we can talk about it, I

1:23:02

think he grew into the game in the semi-final, but the first

1:23:04

half, it really didn't look

1:23:06

comfortable, but that in itself

1:23:08

has changed the way the opposition now has to prepare.

1:23:11

They don't know whether Declan's going to start, they

1:23:13

don't know whether Keene Lynch is going to be 11 or 9,

1:23:16

they don't know whether Willow Dunneau who is, you know,

1:23:18

imperious around the middle, whether he's going to

1:23:20

be hoofering up the breaking ball and, you know,

1:23:23

give additional collisions around the middle or

1:23:25

whether he's actually going to be holding at 6 and whether you can actually

1:23:27

drag him around. So, you actually do

1:23:29

have to prepare for them a different, you know,

1:23:31

because of the personnel and

1:23:33

to me that's, that

1:23:35

has positives insofar as it keeps the opposition guessing,

1:23:38

but, you know, the negative is obviously that

1:23:41

I would argue that limerick are far more stable

1:23:43

and better organised

1:23:46

with decking at 6. So,

1:23:48

but that unknown, that guessing, like

1:23:51

for us in 2007, we played Keene, it was

1:23:53

the expectation

1:23:56

of the six forwards of Henry Schefflin at 11.

1:23:59

ends up at 14 at the edge of the square,

1:24:02

Eddie Brennan goes into the corner instead of the wing,

1:24:04

and in the first 10 minutes they

1:24:07

had two goals because of,

1:24:09

say, the disturbance and

1:24:12

the unpreparedness for the change. And

1:24:15

if you don't plan for all the eventualities, you

1:24:17

can get caught by one. Yeah,

1:24:19

it did feel a little bit like

1:24:24

it sounded like they were back in Willard-Donohoe

1:24:27

learning experience to be better. That was

1:24:29

certainly the interpretation during

1:24:31

the week from what Giancagli was saying to Aisling when

1:24:34

we carried on. She was like, oh, that might have been the cat

1:24:36

creeping gently out of the bag, that

1:24:39

he'll be a better player for that experience.

1:24:41

A hundred percent. Yeah. So

1:24:44

I don't think we'd be surprised if Declan didn't make it this

1:24:46

weekend at this point, but it obviously would be a blow. Yeah,

1:24:49

I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't make it

1:24:51

because the

1:24:53

knee injury sustained is one of those

1:24:55

things where if you have a

1:24:58

four-month season and

1:25:00

you've got six weeks to recover and then

1:25:03

get game time to prepare yourself

1:25:05

for the latter stages, you've got a chance. But really,

1:25:10

the other final is your testing

1:25:12

ground. I don't know

1:25:14

how you go into that, particularly

1:25:17

with the position as important to centre back, guessing.

1:25:21

Now, if they pick him, it means they're sure. But

1:25:23

also if they pick him,

1:25:25

he might not start.

1:25:28

So that's the gamesmanship. And Limerick haven't really

1:25:30

been traditionally known for that in the last four

1:25:32

or five years. And maybe that's an ace in the scene.

1:25:35

Yeah. One last thing is

1:25:37

Derek Lincolkenny also a different challenge

1:25:39

from Cody's and that it's the start

1:25:42

of something. And so you come automatically

1:25:44

with just fresh ideas and innovations

1:25:47

and some of them will work and some of them won't. But whatever

1:25:49

about it, it's certainly a different challenge as

1:25:51

a result of it just being a new voice and a new

1:25:54

plan of action.

1:25:56

I personally don't think it's that different.

1:25:59

I don't think that... the Derek Link, if any,

1:26:01

is much different to the to the to

1:26:03

the Brian Cody. Now what I will say

1:26:06

is that the dynamic and it looks like

1:26:08

the the the bond

1:26:11

and the and the team dynamic seems to be

1:26:13

better. So you know you can argue that

1:26:15

that's different but fundamentally in terms of tactically how

1:26:17

they play the game I haven't seen anything dramatically

1:26:19

different. You know

1:26:21

even they might set up for they set up a pocket

1:26:23

slightly different in terms of their defensive

1:26:26

setup for opposition puck outs but it's

1:26:28

not dramatic. I

1:26:31

don't see Kakeni has been that different a hurling

1:26:33

proposition. What's different is confidence,

1:26:37

unity and and how they play the game.

1:26:39

I think it is it just flows better this year

1:26:42

than it did last year and and part of that

1:26:44

is just because of the really good balance

1:26:46

that he's got between the incredibly

1:26:48

experienced bench that he has, the younger

1:26:50

players that he's given opportunities

1:26:51

to and then the leaders

1:26:53

that are emerging from you know likes the Cody's

1:26:55

and the Mullens to take the

1:26:58

burden off TJ. So it's really really good balancing

1:27:01

that Derek has done and it does seem

1:27:03

like light touch leadership

1:27:05

that is you know that is good for the whole. Yeah

1:27:08

this rivalry is now a classic

1:27:10

like this is this this has become

1:27:13

obviously Limerick and Clare over the last couple of years

1:27:15

has been a classic but it's the hallmark of a great team

1:27:17

you can have more than one rival and if

1:27:20

they win they cement themselves. I know the history isn't a big

1:27:22

thing but it is like this will be they're they're on the

1:27:24

brink of being an all they're already a really

1:27:26

great team but this is all-time greatness that awaits

1:27:29

them.

1:27:30

Yeah like the whole run started in 2018 in

1:27:32

the quarterfinal by beating Kakeni by a point in

1:27:34

terms like so ask anybody about 2018

1:27:37

when when it was that we actually believed we could

1:27:39

do something and it was that game. It

1:27:41

was it was beating Kakeni after all

1:27:43

the close calls the near misses the heartbreaks

1:27:46

in 14 and 12 you know

1:27:49

go back to 2007 what happened you know

1:27:52

so it really was a case

1:27:54

of you know the

1:27:55

breakthrough happened in Turles that

1:27:57

day when Tom Marcy scored an incredible score.

1:28:00

from the sideline under

1:28:03

the new stance. So like,

1:28:04

yes, I do think that K

1:28:16

when

1:28:26

we thought we were one place in 14. Yeah.

1:28:30

It was so for me, it is

1:28:32

a rivalry and for Limerick it means something. Seamus,

1:28:34

I hope the nausea isn't too overwhelming. Enjoy

1:28:37

as much the game as you can. Thanks a million.

1:28:39

Thanks guys. Seamus, take a give us a thought there.

1:28:43

Shane Hannon, you're in Tulkenni. Good

1:28:45

morning, Gerhard, how are things? Very good. Very good.

1:28:48

How are you? I'm flying

1:28:50

it. It's actually strange. I'm standing in the

1:28:52

familiar surroundings to yourself. Canal

1:28:54

Square. Usually this is the scene

1:28:56

of the post-Imro hangover

1:28:59

looking for a coffee maybe. So

1:29:01

it looks familiar, but it's the first time I've been perhaps

1:29:04

feeling normal at this time of the morning. Right. And sober.

1:29:07

Yeah. Yeah. It's also sunny.

1:29:09

What's going on? Oh, it's gorgeous. Literally,

1:29:11

we've got the River Norr behind me to my right hand side, the

1:29:13

River Coteau Hotel, and Matt the Miller's across the river. The

1:29:17

famous statue of the Hurlers. You've

1:29:19

seen this one before, dedicated to all who Hurl, Firchel,

1:29:21

Kenny. It turns out they like Hurl-ing

1:29:23

in K'e-kenny. I don't know if you knew that,

1:29:25

but it's gorgeous. Yeah, absolutely beautiful

1:29:27

morning in K'e-kenny. It is a central part

1:29:30

of the identity that they hoover up all

1:29:32

Ireland's, but they're in the midst of a little mini

1:29:34

K'e-kenny famine.

1:29:36

It's funny because I chat, I was speaking to

1:29:39

Fanlark and Joe Hennesey yesterday down

1:29:41

at the James Stevens Club of the village. Famous

1:29:44

club, of course. And like that famine seems

1:29:46

to be on the lips of everyone in K'e-kenny at the moment. Like

1:29:49

eight years. It's eight years. And I guess that

1:29:51

that's not really a famine to most counties, but to

1:29:53

K'e-kenny, that's an unbelievable

1:29:56

drought. And it's clearly, I

1:29:58

guess the 06, 09 thing has come up. lot as

1:30:00

well, the four in a row,

1:30:01

like if Kakeni could become that team to kind of stop

1:30:03

them, that seems to be the thing. And also

1:30:06

the fact that, and Joe Hennessy mentioned this

1:30:08

yesterday to me, the role of honor, Kakeni are

1:30:10

now kind of well ahead of everyone behind them in the

1:30:12

chasing pack, so this is a chance to

1:30:14

stretch that lead I guess. So all

1:30:16

of these things matter to Kakeni people here, turns out they're

1:30:18

board winners. It's funny how the role of honor

1:30:20

is something that is like a real

1:30:23

motivation, whereas like you know, you

1:30:25

and me are like, well you know, to win

1:30:27

just once lads. I hear you didn't even write

1:30:29

a song about that.

1:30:30

Literally, give me just one

1:30:33

please. But no, like the atmosphere,

1:30:35

considering Kakeni wins so often, I would say because

1:30:37

of that drought,

1:30:38

there is more of a buzz and more of a hype this week, like

1:30:40

you've got all the flags up. I was driving through, I

1:30:42

was in Martin Fogerty's house yesterday and driving

1:30:45

through Castle Comer and the

1:30:47

old Ballyraggart Road and like

1:30:50

there are plenty of flags up on it. I've heard people talking

1:30:52

about the likes of Kakeni and Kerry in previous years

1:30:55

where maybe there wasn't much of a build-up,

1:30:57

wasn't much hype. I agree. But

1:30:59

I think it's got to that point and

1:31:01

also there was a lot of giving out and everyone

1:31:04

I spoke to yesterday included

1:31:06

said like the two week build-up to a final

1:31:08

is

1:31:09

just a pity isn't it? It's too short. It

1:31:11

is too short, especially this year when it clashes

1:31:14

with the Open, which we haven't mentioned today,

1:31:16

with Ireland in World Cup action and

1:31:19

everything else that's going on as well.

1:31:21

Yeah and also the fact that I guess

1:31:23

in July usually it have the schools,

1:31:26

the trophy going around the schools maybe next week in either

1:31:28

Limerick or Kakeni

1:31:29

and you just don't have that when the schools are out. But I guess it's

1:31:32

gonna be going around the clubs, it'll be going around the towns and villages

1:31:34

of Kakeni. But I had a real

1:31:37

unbelievable experience yesterday just chatting to some of the people. I

1:31:39

got a nice beef burger from

1:31:42

Aiman Leighton,

1:31:43

shout out to him in Leighton. So I know Owen was looked

1:31:45

after well by them last year as well. So

1:31:47

like the scenes in

1:31:50

there I'd imagine on previous iterations

1:31:52

of all our weekend's win or

1:31:54

lose I guess. But it's just such an iconic

1:31:57

venue in John Street there and you just you

1:31:59

couldn't feel the hurling.

1:31:59

through the walls and Eamonn Lighten has been around

1:32:03

for generations and he's just an

1:32:05

amazing man and doesn't do many interviews. I was happy

1:32:07

to speak to him yesterday. Some

1:32:09

of the interviews I think, Gerhard, we'll be up

1:32:12

on YouTube across today but I'd encourage

1:32:14

anyone if you're a Herling fan,

1:32:15

not just a Gacchini fan, listen to Fan Larkin

1:32:18

and Joe Hennessey talk about the state of the game

1:32:20

currently.

1:32:21

Fan was calling for more

1:32:23

Hurleys to be broke over fellas, which

1:32:26

sums up Fan Larkin. He's

1:32:30

a 5ft 4 fan. I was touring over him and

1:32:32

to think of him as a feisty cornerback back

1:32:35

in the 60s and 70s and those Breaka County

1:32:37

teams, it's hard to imagine but he

1:32:39

took on lads so much bigger

1:32:41

than him and Joe Hennessey

1:32:43

agreed with him and to be fair Eddie Kerr was

1:32:45

playing that down a little bit more but I think

1:32:48

he expected it of Fan Larkin.

1:32:52

It's funny the way the old lads go on.

1:32:54

Well Eddie Kerr was nearly killed at one stage

1:32:56

on the field. So we actually

1:32:59

have some clips from these. So what's the

1:33:01

order here? Is it modern hurling

1:33:03

not a real thing? Well this is

1:33:05

the thing, I was chatting to Martin Fogerty and he was of course

1:33:08

the national hurling coordinator and

1:33:10

development officer for the last number of years. He finished up

1:33:12

in that role last year. The father of Connor Fogerty

1:33:14

as well according to me, that unbelievable block for the County

1:33:17

against Clare

1:33:18

in that semi-final a couple of weeks ago.

1:33:20

So

1:33:20

he's obviously nervous going to these matches but he

1:33:22

has a lot of views. He's an unbelievable brain

1:33:25

on hurling. So it was a pleasure to spend some time in his house yesterday

1:33:28

just outside Castle Comer. But yeah I

1:33:30

asked him about modern hurling and maybe his his

1:33:33

gripes with that. So that's the first clip I think we have here. The

1:33:35

term modern hurling ricks my head because

1:33:37

hurling is hurling and the

1:33:40

field is the same size. There's still 50 in

1:33:42

the side. The only thing that's changed is the later

1:33:45

ball which means that ball is travelling

1:33:47

faster and I

1:33:49

think it's going to come back along again.

1:33:52

The whole sweeper system

1:33:55

for a start is crazy.

1:33:57

I haven't seen anything else win with it. have

1:34:00

spoken to some friends of mine that used and said,

1:34:03

look at the games that you're willing with the sweeper, you're going

1:34:05

to win them anyway. But what people

1:34:07

don't realise is when they deploy a sweeper,

1:34:09

they're automatically creating one at the other side. So

1:34:12

if you take an Ireland Champions'

1:34:14

Ballyhale and the team says, if we're going

1:34:16

to beat these guys, we have to pull the sweeper.

1:34:18

And straight away they're leaving Owen Reid

1:34:21

or an Arroan, they're leaving Richie Reid loose

1:34:23

at the other end. And you know,

1:34:25

it's crazy. But you

1:34:27

know, other things then like trying to

1:34:30

short passing. Now, can

1:34:33

you work short passing as long as I can remember

1:34:35

back when I was a young fella and the short

1:34:38

pass if a long one is not on or if you're

1:34:40

under pressure. But

1:34:42

to insist on short passing that if I have a ball here

1:34:44

and you were standing 20 yards away and I am

1:34:46

instructed no matter what, I have to play it to

1:34:48

you. That's nonsense. That

1:34:55

full thing is actually available on podcasts already.

1:34:57

So who's next, Shane? Yeah, I

1:35:00

just love that. That's nonsense. That

1:35:02

term, modern hurly pisses foggity off so much. And you

1:35:04

kind of understand that these lads who came

1:35:07

up and

1:35:07

he was even talking with the Claire Puckert, the short

1:35:09

Puckert the last day. And you

1:35:11

know, he's querying why teams do

1:35:13

certain things and complicate the game. But yeah, that full

1:35:15

thing's up on YouTube. Was chatting to Kieran

1:35:17

Cuddy yesterday as well. Of

1:35:19

course, a news talk man, but also

1:35:21

a Kakeni man and Bobby Kerr down to

1:35:23

business, Chris Anderson. Bobby Kakeni

1:35:26

runs through his blood as well. And he was speaking to me yesterday

1:35:28

about

1:35:29

the great Eddie Kerr, who was a neighbour of his.

1:35:32

Were there players back in that era

1:35:34

that just really in the black and amber brought

1:35:37

it to life for you or how did your love start?

1:35:40

Eddie Kerr had a score of 35 goals

1:35:42

and 336 points. Now

1:35:46

outclassed by TJ Reed, but

1:35:48

he was a neighbour of mine. He lived about 200

1:35:51

yards from my house. He was a friend of my father's.

1:35:54

He worked in the bank and we

1:35:56

knew him just as Eddie, you know, and he was just,

1:35:58

and he.

1:35:59

He was a fine hurler. I remember

1:36:02

vividly the picture of him going up to collect

1:36:04

his medal, would have been probably

1:36:06

in the mid 70s with blood

1:36:09

streaming down his face and going

1:36:11

up and holding the cup. And again, he

1:36:13

was a fantastic hurler.

1:36:15

You talked to Eddie Carey as well.

1:36:17

Yeah, like Eddie was in superb form yesterday.

1:36:20

Looks unbelievable for a man in his early 80s as well.

1:36:22

I have to say he was playing golf the day before in a golf

1:36:24

classic.

1:36:25

And like he was even talking about Muhammad Ali

1:36:27

when he came to Dublin in 1972.

1:36:29

Eddie Carey's father was massively into boxing

1:36:32

and used to get Eddie around the wireless and listen

1:36:34

to some of the boxing fights across America.

1:36:36

And when Ali came to Dublin in 72, Eddie

1:36:39

Carey gets this call

1:36:40

to essentially meet up with him and pucker around with

1:36:42

him and show him how to play the game of hurling, which Ali

1:36:44

loved. And the two of them started

1:36:46

pretend battering each other with a couple of hurls, which

1:36:48

I'm sure Fann Larkin would have approved of. But

1:36:51

Eddie was in great form yesterday. Like what a legend. Obviously

1:36:54

before my time, but still.

1:36:56

There are amazing photographs

1:36:58

of Ali and Eddie Carey, which whenever

1:37:01

we put some of them up on social because they're

1:37:03

literally, I think there is a photograph of him

1:37:07

like threatening, of Ali threatening him with a hurl. But

1:37:09

there's also just like, there's just, and

1:37:12

obviously they're in the 1970s style, which

1:37:15

now looks unbelievably cool. When we were kids

1:37:17

like, oh, look at that. I can't believe that he looks so old fashioned.

1:37:19

And they're like, wow, such classical lines

1:37:21

and genius. By the way, big, big,

1:37:23

big break in use from the World Cup. The black ferns

1:37:25

are one nil up against Norway. This is totally

1:37:28

unexpected. So hopefully it's not a harbinger

1:37:30

of things to come. Maybe Arden can spoil the

1:37:32

party. Maybe it is a harbinger of things to come. Not

1:37:35

the home team, but the underdog. Yeah, there we

1:37:37

go. That's a, I fixed that one there in

1:37:39

real time.

1:37:40

The little hamster is like moving

1:37:43

very slowly this morning. Yeah, so one nil

1:37:45

to New Zealand. The crowd has

1:37:47

erupted and they've gone completely mad. Eamonn

1:37:49

Langton.

1:37:50

Yeah, Eamonn Langton, what a man. And I

1:37:52

hadn't realized, I thought Langton was linked to Herlin

1:37:55

essentially because of the parties afterwards. And

1:37:57

I know there was that link with Brian Cody over the years, but

1:37:59

Eamonn's.

1:37:59

uncle Jim

1:38:01

was an absolute legend Jim Leighton and when

1:38:03

I mentioned his name to Eddie Carey yesterday Eddie said

1:38:06

he was his hero growing up Jim Leighton so it

1:38:08

runs in the blood family wise that Eddie Carey interview will

1:38:10

be updated today on YouTube as well so that's well

1:38:12

worth the watch but him and Leighton I sat down with him yesterday

1:38:15

in the Leighton's hotel and he spoke

1:38:17

about his uncle Jim.

1:38:18

It's not just family linked to the

1:38:20

hotel but there's family linked to hurling yourself

1:38:22

as well I'm just looking at some of the stats here for your uncle

1:38:25

Jim Leighton so two

1:38:28

all Ireland's if I've got this right he's

1:38:30

got an all-star as well a left-wing

1:38:32

forward by all accounts and this is the incredible one 15 goals

1:38:35

and 146 points and I think

1:38:37

it was only surpassed then by the

1:38:39

great Eddie Carey years later so tell us what

1:38:41

you knew about your uncle Jim growing up. When

1:38:43

my uncle Jim

1:38:45

was much as

1:38:47

my mother used to say your uncle Jim is

1:38:50

what we need he put our name

1:38:52

forward he was an extremely

1:38:54

good holder on two all-irons 39

1:38:57

and 47 and as my mother said to

1:39:01

me one day don't ever fall out with

1:39:03

your uncle Jim. He was

1:39:05

that kind of character was the probably

1:39:08

the certain the same type of character off the pitch

1:39:10

as as on like those two all-irons that you mentioned

1:39:12

both beating Cork I think in the final would

1:39:15