With reigning All-Ireland football champions Dublin now out of the race a few other counties are fancying their chances of lifting the Sam Maguire Cup this year. By Sunday evening next we will know the identity of the two counties who will contest this year’s All-Ireland senior football final on July 28. It might take extra time and penalties, but we will definitely have a decision by Sunday evening, after Armagh have played Kerry on Saturday evening and Donegal have played Galway on Sunday afternoon.
Kerry supporters are not renowned for travelling to Croke Park for semi-finals and a throw-in time of 5.30 p.m. on Saturday evening certainly won’t encourage anybody from the Kingdom, who is unsure about travelling. Such a late start on Saturday will mean that Kerry supporters making the long journey home to the south-west will not be getting into their cars and buses until at least 7.30 p.m.
Armagh supporters have an easier motorway drive home. Back in 2005 when praising the decision to move the Ulster football final from Clones to Croke Park, former Armagh manager Joe Kernan said he could make it to Croke Park in 50 minutes from his home in Crossmaglen. Kerry are well used to semi-finals, but this will be Armagh’s first semi-final appearance since 2005 when current manager Kieran McGeeney captained the team in their one-point defeat to Tyrone, who went to beat Kerry by a point in the final. A few years back McGeeney brought in former Kerry star Kieran Donaghy to his backroom team and Donaghy should know a lot about the opposition on Saturday evening.
Let’s hope Armagh are not as negative as Derry were in their quarter-final defeat to Kerry. David Clifford has been curtailed in most games this season, but Kerry have other forwards to get the vital scores when two defenders are delegated to watch the main threat.
Donegal manager Jim McGuinness. [Inpho/
On Sunday, it’s a meeting of old college friends Jim McGuinness, now the manager of Donegal, and Padraic Joyce, who is the Galway boss. The pair have been good friends since they helped Tralee IT win the Sigerson Cup in 1998 and since then they have both played for and now manage their native counties.
If Galway’s star man Shane Walsh is fully fit I am going for a Galway-Kerry final.
TAILTEANN FINAL
On Saturday, we will have the third staging of the Tailteann Cup final, a competition that has been reasonably successful as football’s second tier. Westmeath were the first winners in 2021, while Meath won last year. I fancy Down to beat Sligo in Saturday’s final.
MCCABE OUT FOR
ENGLAND GAME
Republic of Ireland women’s captain Katie McCabe is suspended for the Euro 2025 qualifier against England at Carrow Road, Norwich on Friday night. The Dubliner, no doubt the star player in the Irish team, picked up a second yellow card in the away game against Sweden in early June. However, McCabe will be available for our final game in the group, against France at Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork on July 16.
In McCabe’s absence the experienced Denise O’Sullivan is expected to captain the Irish team against England. France currently top our group with 9 points, Sweden and England are level on 7 points, while the Girls in Green have no points from four games. We lost our leg 1-0 to France in Metz and England beat us 2-0 in the Aviva. Galway United midfielder Julie-Ann Russell, who has won 60 caps, gets a first call-up since 2020 and winger Marissa Sheva is also back in the squad. Ireland are certain to be relegated from their group, but having won promotion last year in the Nations League group they are guaranteed a play-off for Euro 2025 later this year.
HIGH-PROFILE BOSSES
QUIT HURLING TEAMS
Two of Ireland’s best known inter-county hurling managers Davy Fitzgerald and Henry Shefflin both stepped down last week. Both managers decided not to take up the option of an extra year with their respective counties. It was Fitzgerald’s second time to manage Waterford; he has also managed his native Clare and Wexford. Meanwhile Galway was Henry Shefflin’s first inter-county appointment, having previously managed his home club Ballyhale Shamrock in Kilkenny. A winner of a record 10 All-Ireland senior hurling medals with the Cats, some people thought that Shefflin should not have taken the Galway job, bided his time and wait for Brian Cody to step down in Kilkenny. But of course supporters don’t always know the full story and really it’s what the manager himself thinks not the public.
Now could we see Fitzgerald replace Shefflin in Galway, it would mean less travelling as his home is across the county border in Clare. Meanwhile Galway However, GAA Chairman Paul Bellew said the Cunty Board would favor a internal appointment. He said: “The vast majority of managers come from within and our preference is always to go inside. But you need the best candidate, too.’’
‘TOLL’ ON PLAYERS
A FOCUS FOR GPA
The Gaelic Players Association will oppose any extension to the inter-county season that takes into account later dates for All-Ireland finals. At their AGM last week Tom Parsons, CEO of the GPA, said the association would continue to call for reform that takes into account the toll on players, which would be a “significant focus” over the next 18 months. Parsons said the GAA has continued to ‘‘squeeze too many competitions into an agreed window for inter-county players’’ and has again suggested the pre-season provincial competitions should be discarded because ‘‘we find it increasingly challenging to justify them with overlapping eligibility issues in January, which add to the player load.’’
Parsons said that support for the split season was running at 85 per cent among players while 63 per cent felt it reduced their time demands. The CEO added that they would continue to push for change across three headlines, a balanced fixtures schedule that addresses the condensed nature of games, the implementation of the agreed contact hours policy to ensure adequate rest and recovery periods, and a guaranteed off-season.
‘‘A shorter season and defined break periods for inter-county players remain an absolute priority. Expanding the season with increased playing demands is not a solution to protect amateurism or reduce the load on player, said Parsons, a former Mayo footballer.
Meanwhile the GAA’s Central Competition Controls Committee are looking at reforming the All-Ireland football championship and the existing calenda, but support to extend the championship window has been mixed. A vote to recommend moving the All-Ireland senior finals into August from next year is expected to take place at September’s Central Council meeting.
TOFFEES FOR SLIGO
Everton will visit Ireland later this month as part of their pre-season training camp and while in Ireland the Toffees will play Sligo Rovers in a friendly on July 19. That will mean a return to Showgrounds for defender Seamus Coleman. The 35-year-old from Killybegs was transferred from Sligo to Everton in January 2009 for a bargain £60,000 fee and he has now made a record 364 EPL appearance for the club, winning 72 Irish caps along the way.
DERRY’S SCULLION
JOINS RUTGERS U.
Former Derry under-20 goalkeeper Jack Scullion has become the latest Gaelic footballer to sign an American football contract after joining Rutgers University as a kicker. The Lavey clubman will head to New Jersey for the start of the new season where he will succeed Jude McAtamney, who has just agreed an NFL deal with the New York Giants. Rutgers had been looking for a new kicker and, after a formal visit to the campus, Scullion agreed terms to join the university. Already Scullion is in the U.S.. training with the Rutgers roster ahead of the new campaign and he will study quantity surveying alongside his playing duties for the Scarlet Knights.
DERRY ASSESSING
‘POOR’ SEASON
Seán Cavanagh, the former Tyrone footballer, who now works as an analyst, says there is no guarantee that his former manager Mickey Harte will be retained as Derry senior football manager for another year after what was very disappointing championship campaign for the Oak Leaf county. Cavanagh said: ‘‘I think if you ask anyone in Derry, winning a National League does not mean an awful lot when you go through a championship where you have lost four games, drawn one and beaten a Division 3 team. That is a poor championship season. With the personnel and quality Derry have in that group, and they also have a couple of really cracking minor teams coming through from last year’s All-Ireland winners and Derry are back in the minor final again this year. Ultimately it’s a decision for the Derry County Board.’’
Former Derry footballer Joe Brolly has been one of Harte’s harshest critics, saying: ‘‘I do not expect Mickey to do the decent thing. I don’t think it’s in his nature. The Derry County Board need to step in now and do what’s right and bring an end to this agony. That’s really what it has been, an absolute agony.’’
EARLY BUSBY BABE
WHITEFOOT DIES, 90
The death occurred last week of former Manchester United player Jeff Whitefoot, one of the original Busby Babes. The wing-half, who hailed from Cheadle in Cheshire, joined United straight from school, and was the club’s youngest league debutant when given his opportunity by manager Matt Busby against Portsmouth, aged 16 years and 105 days in April 1950, and was part of the Red Devils’ 1952 and ‘56 title-winning sides.
Whitefoot got one Under-23 cap for England before leaving Old Trafford for Grimsby, months before the Munich air disaster in February 1958 that killed eight of Busby’s players. He moved back up to the top-tier with Nottingham Forest was part of its 1959 FA Cup final victory and went on to play more than 250 league appearances for the club.
A squad picture taken on a trip abroad shortly before his United departure in 1957 of 14 players, including Whitefoot and manager Busby, shows six of the players who were later killed, including Dubliner Liam Whelan, and four others who survived, including Belfast’s Jackie Blanchflower, who never played again.
He then moved to Nottingham Forest, where he made more than 250 league appearances. Whitefoot, who was the last survivor from Forest’s 1959 FA Cup-winning team, later ran a greengrocer’s and then pubs in East Leake and Oakham.
