A magic week for Shamrock Rovers, which saw the club bag a 1-0 win in their first-leg Conference League clash against Molde through 16-year-old Michael Noonan, came to an abrupt end on Sunday, Bohemians pulling them right back down to earth from their perch on cloud nine by winning the latest instalment of this storied Dublin derby.
Not the start Stephen Bradley and his lads would have been hoping for, but at least they went down in style, their first outing of the new League of Ireland season taking place in front of 33,208 – marking a new LOI attendance record – under the bright lights of the Aviva Stadium.
A goal from Ross Tierney was enough to earn Bohs the win, but the real winner may have been the league itself. “The League of Ireland provided clear evidence to non-believers and the Government that it is transforming into a sustainable entity,” Gavin Cummiskey writes. But Rovers manager Bradley struck a wary tone. “It’s a good occasion and shows what can be, but we’ve got to be very careful not to run away with ourselves either,” he said after the game. “This is great, but this is not going to happen every week ... Today shows potential but we’ve got to be careful not to take our eye off the ball.” Pun intended?
Sticking with the Rovers v Bohs game, Ken Early surmises, “As a showcase of the growing mass appeal of Irish domestic football, Sunday’s game was a tremendous success.” Take that Heimir Hallgrímsson, who Bradley blasted after the game for supposedly disrespecting the league by suggesting players go abroad to have a chance to play for Ireland. Relationships between the national and club systems clearly at an all-time high then ... However, Early puts some stock to the Republic of Ireland manager’s comments, “Maybe the reason nobody challenged Hallgrímsson on that point is that the logic of what he was saying was so obvious.”
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Ahead of the Republic of Ireland’s upcoming Nations League fixtures against Turkey and Slovenia, Mary Hannigan has been keeping a close eye on the club outings (or lack thereof) of Carla Ward’s squad members, finding eight of the 23-player squad saw no game time this past weekend, “either because they are without clubs, it’s their off-season, or they were unused substitutes.” But it’s not all doom and gloom. Amber Barrett played a blinder for her club, Standard Liege, on Saturday, scoring twice in their 4-1 win over Out-Heverlee Leuven in the Belgian Cup semi-final.
Away from the glitz and glamour of Irish football, Denis Walsh takes a look at Mark Hughes’ journey to struggling League Two club Carlisle United, over 20 years on from Roddy Collins’ departure. What joins their tenures together? “Now, just like then, Carlisle are lying in the gutter, looking up at the stars.”
Now, for anyone who had withdrawals over the lack of Six Nations rugby at the weekend, fear not, Ireland are back in action this Saturday, travelling to face lowly Wales in round three. One of Ireland’s standout performers thus far in the tournament has been the indomitable Andrew Porter. Johnny Watterson speaks to Ireland’s head of athletic performance, Aled Walters, who describes the Leinster prop as a “unicorn”, and says he has no concerns over the age profile of the Ireland squad.
And finally, following the death of 24-year-old jockey Michael O’Sullivan 10 days after a fall while racing at Thurles, Brian O’Connor looks at the remarkable successes of the Cork man’s tragically short career. “Maybe in time there will be some sliver of consolation for Michael O’Sullivan’s family that he packed so much accomplishment into his tragically short life,” he writes. “Perhaps too there will be some solace in how his fatal injuries were sustained doing what he loved and chose to do.”
TV Watch:
Three-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar is among the field in the UCI UAE Tour which gets under way on Monday, with coverage on Eurosport 2 (from 10.50am). There’s also the Presidents' Day triple-header in the TGL, with Rory McIlroy in action with his Boston Common team in the last of the three matchups, all of which will be shown on Sky Sports Golf (6pm, 9pm & 12am respectively).
