Ciarán Murphy: What the GAA can learn from the FAI Cup final It’s not in the GAA’s nature to create the sort of noise and chaos we saw in the Aviva on Sunday, and that’s a pityThu Nov 16 2023 - 06:00
Corofin had the freshest ideas in football for a spell and we might be learning from them againThe fact remains that there is a cohort for whom coaching itself is a vocation. We can’t all play forever and for many people, training teams is the next best thingThu Nov 09 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: Shane Walsh, Andre Onana and Harry Maguire all see light at the end of the tunnelNo matter how much sportspeople say otherwise, criticism from outside takes its tollThu Oct 26 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: Kilcoo’s outrageous behaviour demeans the club’s standing in the GAAWeak Down County Board should have faced down Kilcoo's successful bid to dictate who referees a county finalThu Oct 19 2023 - 06:00
John Kiely and Dessie Farrell going again proves how hard it is for GAA coaches to walk away Finishing on a high is far easier said than done, as top jobs prove hard to give upThu Oct 12 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: Is there such a thing as having too many intercounty players on your club team?Despite their gifted personnel, Patrickswell will be fully aware there’s nothing easy in the modern Limerick senior hurling championshipThu Oct 05 2023 - 05:45
Shane Lowry’s Ryder Cup experience allows him a taste of the team sports he grew up withLowry’s commitment to team golf is taken as a fait accompli because this son of Offaly grew up playing team sportThu Sept 28 2023 - 06:00
People from good GAA families can have bad charactersThe GAA’s greatest asset is its members. But that doesn’t mean they all have great characters, To presume otherwise is pointless, and in fact dangerousThu Sept 21 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: This Is the Life - a book inspired by the everyday heroes of the GAASeán Brennan lost a hand in a catastrophic accident in 1964, but then went on to captain Milltown to their first county football titleSat Sept 16 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Ballygunner a classic example of a club setting targets others can only dream ofDynastic club sides all over Ireland know that hard work alone is not enough if the biggest prize is to be wonThu Sept 14 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Split season’s shortcomings leave GAA space to tend to local grassrootsLocal club fare fills the void for GAA fans as Premier League, international football and the Rugby World Cup claim most sports fans’ attentionThu Sept 07 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Anyone who plays sports knows injury is a risk - but it still comes as a shock when it happensAs I join the line-up of people with sports injuries at the clinic on a Sunday afternoon, I’m feeling a little ashamed I’ve only got a bruised armThu Aug 31 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Jim McGuinness’s return is exciting news – not just for DonegalGaelic football is stuck in a bit of a rut and Donegal’s new boss has shown before he is one of the most innovative coaches in the game’s historyThu Aug 24 2023 - 02:00
Ciarán Murphy: ‘The reality of what I’d volunteered for began to creep up on me. Senior football? At my age!’ ‘The unvarnished reality of what I’d volunteered for began to creep up on me. Senior football? At my age!’Thu Aug 17 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Kerry’s attempt to end long wait will be well worth watchingKerry have not won the women’s All-Ireland final for 30 years, an anomaly they aim to correct when they face Dublin on SundayThu Aug 10 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: The tightrope true inside forwards walk can prove tricky – even for David CliffordThe Kerry maestro had the chances to put Dublin away last Sunday and whatever post-game criticism he received is just indicative of his huge standing in the game’s firmamentThu Aug 03 2023 - 05:00
In the battle for All-Ireland final tickets, you’ll always find a few chancersWhen a rigorous ticket allocation system only brings you so far, into the margins pour the wise guys and the wheel-greasersThu Jul 27 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Young Kilkenny fan in Croke Park reminded me of my magical first visit in 1991Image of the weekend and Tailteann Cup final clash between Down and Meath sparks treasured recollections of the memorable 1991 All-Ireland final clashThu Jul 13 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Percentage play a nailed-on failure to fire up GAA fans Unlike Test cricket, ‘what we want from the GAA as supporters is not to sit on the sport’s riverside and watch it inch past’Thu Jul 06 2023 - 05:00
Football championship: Lack of drama in Dublin and Derry campaigns may be a disadvantage The other counties in the quarter-finals have shown an ability to bounce back from setbacksThu Jun 29 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: Time the GAA treated women’s teams with respect and equalityThe country’s top football and camogie players are simply demanding the basics – things like mileage expenses, medical services, and playing gearThu Jun 22 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: At least the GAA is safe from the pernicious influence of Gulf moneyIt has been a banner month for nation states and their sporting playthings as the PGA Tour follows European football down a dispiriting roadThu Jun 15 2023 - 05:00
Read all about it, at last: the Tuam stars who lit up football in the 1950sA new book chronicles the extraordinary careers of Seán Purcell and Frank StockwellThu Jun 08 2023 - 05:00
Could a shot clock solve the boring malaise that Gaelic football has fallen into?It might be time for a shot clock, or a restriction on how many players you can have inside your own half, or restricting the use of the handpassThu Jun 01 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: The championship has lost a familiar feeling, and gained more drama The evidence so far suggests every team is flawed and we can expect thrillsThu May 25 2023 - 09:49
Ciarán Murphy: I can’t believe the Camogie Association would stand over the withdrawal of KildareKildare might be the most important growth market out there for both hurling and camogieThu May 18 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: The market has spoken when it comes to broadcasting live GAAThe idea that GAA games should never, under any circumstances, be shown behind a paywall is an unreasonable stanceThu May 11 2023 - 06:00
Dublin’s farcical fixture advantage cannot be allowed to continueAllowing Dublin to play four of six championship group games at Croke Park while every other county can only get two matches at home would be a perversion - but it hasn’t been ruled outThu May 04 2023 - 05:00
Teams who exit the hurling round-robins aren’t unlucky, they’re usually terribleOnly Galway in 2019 can say they lost out in the round-robin unluckilyThu Apr 27 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Who dares challenge the finely balanced scale of risk and reward?In an effort to avoid the maligned turnover, goalkeepers become a Get out of Jail card – but at what cost?Thu Apr 20 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: How New York’s history-makers came together is the real romance storyThe Irish-born players on the team walked away from GAA teams to move to New York, where emigrating is never an easy decisionThu Apr 13 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: The west is awake, now Connacht teams can make dreams come true For people who grew up watching their counties lose as soon as they came up against decent Leinster or Munster sides, these are heady daysThu Apr 06 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: It’s not hard to do away with superfluous finals and increase drama Sponsors would still get a bang for their buck if emphasis was shifted to the final round of league fixturesThu Mar 30 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Managing at the top level a different ball-game from pundit’s chairResults suggest Meath boss O’Rourke may have to opt for a more pragmatic approach but McStay’s long-term hunch about O’Shea’s best position appears to be well-foundedThu Mar 23 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: What can we do with the hurling league to make it matter again?The games are a pale shadow of what hurling can be, but analyst and coach Jamie Wall has some ingenious ideas to revive the leagueThu Mar 16 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Dublin have the players to destroy teams but their winning aura has dissipated into thin airFootball seemed stuck, but now more and more teams are embracing a less risk-averse version of the game, and it’s Dublin who are stuckThu Mar 02 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: Jarlath Burns has the perspective to finally tackle players’ issues head onFormer Armagh captain is well versed in the challenges faced by the modern intercounty playerThu Feb 23 2023 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: After last weekend, spare us any more talk of TMO in Gaelic games From the Aviva to the Premier League and all the way to the Super Bowl, the flaws were there for us all to seeWed Feb 15 2023 - 19:00
Ciarán Murphy: Case of Galway minors to test if hurling counties can see beyond own self-interestCounty’s minor hurlers aiming to be included in either Leinster or Munster championshipThu Feb 09 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: No hiding possible from Kilmacud/Glen controversy How it will end nobody quite knows but the fallout from the recent All-Ireland final is definitely exercising the mind of the publicWed Feb 01 2023 - 19:00
Ciarán Murphy: The unsettling gap between the GAA rulebook and the GAA WayThe reaction to Kilmacud Crokes’s blunder at the end of the All-Ireland club final shows us, yet again, that tradition is a powerful thingThu Jan 26 2023 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Talented Ryan looks happy to remain Kingdom’s number one The Kerry goalkeeper showed his class outfield in the intermediate club final but is realistic enough to know his limitations on the bigger stageThu Jan 19 2023 - 05:00
Taking time and giving nothing: We need to talk about the National Hurling League‘Lookit, it’s just the league’ might as well have been the tagline of the competition for the last 30 yearsThu Jan 12 2023 - 05:00
I appear to be attending Dublin v Wicklow in Baltinglass ... I’m really not sure whyDublin won easily, but the real question is has a lack of intercounty action damaged my mental well-being?Wed Jan 04 2023 - 22:35
Anton O’Toole’s example permeates Templeogue Synge Street even after he’s goneO’Toole and Donal Colfer a lineage that joins Dublin’s two finest football teams of the last 100 yearsThu Dec 29 2022 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: In an age of winter World Cups, the GAA’s homespun aesthetic enduresAll Fifa’s tournaments may look identical now, but you can’t say the same of Gaelic gamesThu Dec 15 2022 - 05:00
Ciarán Murphy: Has any GAA player trashed their reputation as badly as Ronaldo?Raging against the dying of the light is no easy feat even for the great onesThu Dec 08 2022 - 05:00
What we are witnessing with David Clifford is a once in a generation reaction to a phenomenal talentHe now exists in that rarefied air of sportspeople that have a specific pressure only they have to bearThu Dec 01 2022 - 06:00
Ciarán Murphy: Let’s not hear it for the underdogs In the competitions that matter, victory for the underdogs is only positive if I’ve a dog in the broader fightThu Nov 24 2022 - 05:30
Ciarán Murphy: Reading too much into Westport’s wipeout is a fool’s errandThe Mayo outfit’s demolition by Moycullen of Galway last Sunday tells us little about the respective standards of the two counties’ club championshipsThu Nov 17 2022 - 06:00
