THE GAA DO not plan to replicate last year’s inter-county blanket coverage on the GAA Go streaming platform, after attendance restrictions have been lifted for sporting events around the country. The 2022 season steps up a gear next weekend with the opening round of the Allianz Football League, followed by the hurling equivalent the following weekend. Three Division 1 league matches will be broadcast live this weekend across RTÉ and TG4 with the television partners the main focus of the live coverage this spring. Advertisement The 2021 leagues, which only began last May due to the delay that the pandemic caused, saw 54 matches streamed from the football and hurling…

Updated Jan 25th 2022, 1:14 PM KERRY STAR JAMES O’Donoghue has announced his inter-county retirement. The 2014 Footballer of the Year and two-time All-Star confirmed his decision on Off The Ball’s The Football Pod. O’Donoghue, 31, revealed he made up his mind when he stepped away from the panel last year, though the news was kept quiet through the Kingdom’s run to the All-Ireland semi-final, where they fell to eventual champions, Tyrone. Doubts had been cast over his future, O’Donoghue having struggled with injury in recent years — though the 2014 All-Ireland winner confirmed his exit today. “It’s all over, it’s all over bar the shouting,” he told OTB’s Tommy…

JOE O’CONNOR IS set to be named the Kerry senior football captain for 2022. It’s understood that Austin Stacks put the midfielder’s name forward following a meeting of the club executive last night. O’Connor picked up a knee injury in the recent Munster club final defeat to St Finbarr’s. A cruciate setback was feared, but Kerry boss Jack O’Connor ruled that out at a media briefing on Monday evening.  “It has been confirmed that it looks like cartilage problem more than ligaments so that is good news and that is about the best news that he could have got,” he said. Advertisement An official announcement unveiling the identity of the…

FOR ALL THE titles they’ve accumulated over the past decade, it’s the pain of defeat that turned Ballygunner into a ruthless winning machine.  The club won Munster in 2001 and endured four final defeats before they next claimed provincial honours in 2018. For the then five-in-a-row Waterford champions, getting over the final hurdle in Munster turned into a team crusade. They finally shook off serial tormentors Na Piarsaigh three years ago and it was then that their sights turned to the All-Ireland. Just as Clarinbridge had done in early 2002, Ballyhale Shamrocks ousted them at the semi-final stage. Ballyhale won by five points in a game that swung on Eoin…

WEXFORD BOSS DARRAGH Egan has hailed the addition of former Ireland and Leinster rugby player Gordon D’Arcy to the county’s hurling setup. D’Arcy has joined Wexford as a member of the backroom team, which also features Billy Walsh, the current USA boxing coach that formerly served in that role with Ireland. Tipperary native Egan is in his first year as Wexford manager and saw his team at the weekend qualify for the Walsh Cup final next Saturday against Dublin in Croke Park. The 35-year-old is pleased to be able to lean on experienced sporting figures like Walsh and D’Arcy. Advertisement Click Here: “It’s vital for me number one, I was…

THE GAA HAVE announced the fixture details for the six All-Ireland club finals that will take place in Croke Park next month. The finalists for the three hurling deciders were confirmed over the weekend with six football semi-finals down for decision next Saturday. The centrepiece will be the senior finals on Saturday 12 February with Ballygunner playing Ballyhale Shamrocks in the hurling showdown, while St Finbarr’s, Kilcoo, Kilmacud Crokes and Padraig Pearses are the four counties left in the hunt for football honours. Advertisement The intermediate and junior finals will take place over the course of the weekend of 5-6 February. Here is the full fixture details for the Croke…

THE GAA SEASON steps up a notch next weekend with the start of the 2022 football leagues and with key games in the concluding stages of the club championships, there are six live matches to take in. The action commences on Saturday afternoon with a triple-header of club games on TG4. Cork’s Mourneabbey and Galway’s Kilkerrin-Clonberne battle it out for the right to be crowned All-Ireland senior club ladies football champions. Advertisement That’s followed by the All-Ireland senior club football semi-finals with Cork’s St Finbarr’s playing Down’s Kilcoo, and then it’s Roscommon’s Padraig Pearses going up against Dublin’s Kilmacud Crokes. That night the RTÉ cameras show Dublin and Armagh in…

WHEN DESSIE HUTCHINSON left a career in professional soccer behind him to resume his hurling career with Ballygunner and Waterford, he surely dreamed of days like yesterday. He fired over four points as Ballygunner advanced to their first ever All-Ireland club hurling decider, setting up a mouthwatering showdown with Ballyhale in three weeks’ time.  Having already appeared in an All-Ireland final with Waterford, to reach the showpiece game with his club represents another milestone on his remarkable journey.  “There was a lot of sacrifices made and things like that,” he remarked after the win over Slaughtneil. “When you know you’re going to Croke Park in three weeks, it’s worth it…

TJ REID HAS conjured up plenty moments of brilliance in his hurling career but it’s difficult to think of something more sensational or dramatic as his intervention today in Semple Stadium. TJ Reid with St Thomas manager Kenneth Burke after the game. Source: Laszlo Geczo/INPHO The Ballyhale Shamrocks dream of landing three-in-a-row in the All-Ireland club hurling championship was on the verge of ending, when Reid sized up a free deep into injury-time with his team two points down. Just like he had less than ten minutes previously from a penalty, Reid found the net with a powerful strike, this time clinching a narrow win as Ballyhale dragged themselves clear…

DUBLIN BOOKED THEIR place in next Saturday’s Walsh Cup final with victory today over Offaly. Dublin ran out 2-23 to 1-20 winners in Birr and will now play Wexford next weekend in the final of the Leinster pre-season hurling competition. Mattie Kenny’s team trailed 1-13 to 1-9 at half-time but took charge in the second half. Donal Burke chipped in with 0-7 while Kilmacud Crokes player Ronan Hayes and St Vincent’s Rian McBride both bagged the goals for Dublin. Fergal Whitely also hit 0-4 for the winners. Eoghan Cahill shot 0-11 for Offaly with Brian Duignan scoring the only goal of the game for Michael Fennelly’s side. Advertisement Click Here:…