There was, says Darragh Ó Sé, some consolation for Galway’s footballers after they were beaten by Dublin at the weekend. As he suspects their manager Pádraic Joyce might have said to them, “it could be worse, lads – we could be Mayo!” On top of that, the game will help them become “battle-hardened” for the challenges ahead, Dublin, Armagh and Donegal all “stress-tested” too the past few weekends. “When you hear fellas saying Kerry must be laughing at all these other counties killing each other, I honestly think it might be the other way around.”
“Football is having a great season to date,” writes Seán Moran, enough to create “unease in the heart of Hurling Man”. The Football Review Committee’s tweaks having made the game better for players and spectators, the championship producing three “riveting” provincial finals.
The hurling hasn’t been half bad either, especially in Munster, Jeffrey Lynskey analysing Limerick’s “devastating” display against Cork. Dublin and Galway could do with a performance of that quality when they meet in the decisive final round of the Leinster championship on Sunday, Gordon Manning looking ahead to the “Micheál Donoghue derby”.
Gordon also heard from the Dublin camogie camp ahead of tomorrow’s Special Congress vote on the skorts issue. “If one girl gives up this sport because of a skort, that’s one too many in my opinion,” said Dublin manager Gerry McQuaid.
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In rugby, Gordon D’Arcy laments the decision of the IRFU to scrap its men’s Sevens programme, but “although that choice may feel like a step backwards, it is a pragmatic and ultimately necessary one in today’s economic climate,” he writes.
If that decision hasn’t gone down too well in some parts, neither has the picking of a Thursday for Ireland’s opening 2026 Six Nations game away to France. David Gorman brings us some of our readers’ reaction to that scheduling, one suggesting that “if you were planning on turning off attendees from the sport you couldn’t have devised a better scheme than this farce of fixtures”.
In soccer, Gavin Cummiskey heard Republic of Ireland manager Carla Ward reaffirm her commitment to the job, revealing that she turned down the offer of a job in England’s Super League a few weeks ago. “When I say I am in, I am in,” she said at the unveiling of her squad for the Nations League games against Turkey and Slovenia.
Johnny Watterson, meanwhile, talks to former boxing world champion Bernard Dunne about his RTÉ radio show in which he has revealing conversations with some of the biggest names in Irish sport.
And in cycling, Shane Stokes previews the 70th edition of the Rás Tailteann which gets under way in Drogheda today, former champions, a very young Irish team and 13 squads from abroad among those competing in the event.
TV Watch: Ireland play the West Indies in the first of three one day internationals in Clontarf (TNT Sports 2 from 10.30am). This evening, Kilkenny and Dublin meet in the Leinster under-20 hurling final (TG4, 7.25) and Spurs and Manchester United square up in the Europa League final in Bilbao (Premier Sports 1 and TNT Sports 1, 8.0).
“This is 16th against 17th in the Premier League, a battle of two sides who have won one of their past 10 league games,” writes Jonathan Wilson. But? It offers the winners the not inconsiderable prize of a spot in next season’s Champions League, with all the financial benefits that will bring.
