WHEN THE MOURNEABBEY ladies football team reconvened for the 2016 season, they knew they had to park the hurt of the previous year before a new campaign could begin. A second All-Ireland final had come and gone without the silverware coming back to Cork and thoughts about another shot at All-Ireland glory were understandably in their minds. But they knew they couldn’t indulge those notions yet. And as they look towards a third consecutive Munster final today, team captain Bríd O’Sullivan assures The42 that their focus remains firmly on the provincial championship. “We kind of spoke about it at the start of the year,” she begins, “and we knew that we were…

UNFANCIED NICE AND Mario Balotelli currently top France’s Ligue 1 table, and Robert Duggan White says it makes a nice change to the tragic stories coming out of the city after the Bastille Day attack earlier this year. I was in Nice on holidays this year. Any sport shop I went into was all Marseilles and PSGg shirts. Couldn’t find a nice jersey at all. Love to see them win the league. A little lift after the shite the city went through recently.” We did a (slightly belated) player ratings from the All-Priests Over 75s Challenge match this week, which gave Irishoversea the perfect opportunity to recall a Fr Ted classic.…

FOR THE FIRST time in the county’s history, the Clare men’s football team reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals this year. Indeed, they previously qualified for the All-Ireland semi-final as Munster champions in 1992 but this is the furthest the county has advanced since the introduction of the back-door system. The Banner’s Niamh O’Dea had two brothers (Cian and Jack) involved in that impressive run and she also played a pivotal role in steering the Clare ladies to an All-Ireland Intermediate final against Kildare this year. Later today, she’s back on club duty as the Banner converge on Mallow to battle it out for a senior Munster title. Standing in their way,…

Home Source: John Locher Mayo’s Lee Keegan has been named GAA/GPA Footballer of the Year and Waterford’s Austin Gleeson Hurler of the Year at the All-Star awards. Gleeson was also named Young Hurler of the Year and Mayo’s Diarmuid O’Connor Young Footballer of the Year at tonight’s ceremony. Seven players from Tipperary’s All-Ireland winning team were named in the All-Star hurling team. World football’s governing body, Fifa, has charged the FAI over wearing a political symbol to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, during March’s friendly against Switzerland. Ireland 7s captain and Lansdowne club man Tom Daly will make his debut for Leinster against Zebre tomorrow. Former Dundalk midfielder Richie Towell looks set to play his…

Tipperary’s Seamus Callanan with Galway’s Daithi Burke Source: Donall Farmer/INPHO SEVEN PLAYERS FROM All-Ireland champions Tipperary and four from beaten finalists Kilkenny have been honoured in the 2016 GAA-GPA All-Star hurling team. There are two winners apiece from beaten All-Ireland semi-finalists in Galway and Waterford. Kingpins Tipperary have winners in Cathal Barrett, James Barry, Ronan, Padraic and Patrick Maher, Seamus Callanan and John McGrath. Kilkenny’s recipients are Eoin Murphy, Padraig Walsh, Walter Walsh and Richie Hogan. Daithi and David Burke are honoured from Galway while Jamie Barron and Austin Gleeson are the successful players from Waterford. 7 from Tipperary and 4 from Kilkenny – the 2016 All-Star hurling team Previous…

FOR THE FIRST time in the history of the All-Stars, both the Footballer of the Year and Hurler of the Year have come from counties who didn’t win the All-Ireland title the same year. Mayo defender Lee Keegan and Waterford star Austin Gleeson picked up the highest individual honours in the game at the GAA/GPA All-Stars tonight at Dublin’s Convention Centre. Only five times in the past did the hurling and football champions fail to produce the Player of the Year, but that figure now rises to seven as Keegan and Gleeson claim the big awards. Keegan beat off competition from Brian Fenton and Ciaran Kilkenny, both of whom played…

MAYO’S DIARMUID O’CONNOR and Deise star Austin Gleeson were honoured with the prestigious Young Player of the Year awards at tonight’s GAA/GPA Opel Allstar bash at the Convention Centre in the capital. 21-year-old O’Connor picked up his second straight Young Footballer of the Year and now stands level with big brother Cillian as two-time winners of the award. The year ultimately ended in defeat for O’Connor and Mayo after their narrow All-Ireland final replay loss to Dublin in October. However, O’Connor did lead the Mayo U21s to All-Ireland glory back in April. Advertisement He enjoyed another fine year in the green and red of Mayo, scoring a wonderful goal against…

NESTLED IN NORTH Cork, just off the Mallow-Cork road lies a close-knit rural ladies football team with a huge drive and hunger to succeed. Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO Mourneabbey is a club of many successes, but it’s the All-Ireland heartbreak that often overshadows them. A small community wounded by many other heartbreaking events over the past few years but bonded through sport. The Clyda side have come out on the worst end of the past two All-Ireland senior finals, losing to Termon and Donaghmoyne respectively. This year, the side are hoping it’s a case of third time’s a charm. Having beaten rival club St Vals by a single point in the…

CASTLEKNOCK, A WEST-Dublin club only in its late-teens is not the most likely candidate for supremecy in the highly competitive Dublin senior football championship. Source: Tommy Dickson/INPHO And yet, remarkably, the club which finds itself nestled beside powerhouses St Brigid’s and St Oliver Plunkett’s is just one game away from lifting the biggest prize in Dublin club football. How did they get here? As is often the case in Irish life, a meeting in a local bar was the starting point. Johnny Corcoran, Fergus Hamill, and John Conway agreed in Myos Bar in April 1998 that the influx of young families to the area required a local GAA club. The…

Home Dundalk’s Chris Shields. Source: Mikhail Kireev/INPHO Stephen Kenny’s Dundalk once again won plenty of admirers but were beaten 2-1 away to Zenit St Petersburg in the Europa League tonight. Joe Schmidt has named Rob Kearney at fullback for Ireland’s clash with New Zealand on Saturday while Garry Ringrose and Joey Carbery could make their international debuts from the bench. Six players from Dublin and four from beaten finalists Mayo have been included on the 2016 GAA-GPA All-Star football team. It looks like in-form Ireland U21 defender Tommie Hoban has played his last game of the season after the Blackburn Rovers defender dislocated his shoulder in training. New Zealand head coach…