Author: THEJOHNANTONIOBLOG

IT’S BEEN A busy week of sport. Here’s a taster of how you reacted. Showbiz Babyy particularly enjoyed Lance Armstrong’s hasty exit after his superbly tense interview on Newstalk’s Off The Ball last week. Lance Armstrong’s heel turn was the greatest of all time Advertisement Source: Lorraine O’Sullivan/INPHO Iran’s football supporters faced a tricky balancing act…

WHEN DAVY FITZGERALD decided to step down as Clare senior hurling manager on 21 September, he could hardly have envisaged that he’d be a more than interested spectator at Wexford Park for tomorrow afternoon’s county senior hurling final between Oulart-The-Ballagh and Cloughbawn. But on the merry-go-round that is now senior inter-county management, Fitzgerald has hopped…

Paddy McBrearty at the launch of the AIB GAA Club Championships this week. Source: Sam Barnes/SPORTSFILE “WELL, I THINK 23 years is too long for Kilcar to not even be in a final, never mind win one,” declares Patrick McBrearty firmly. The Donegal talisman is speaking a few days out from county senior final day,…

ON SEPTEMBER 4, Michael Fennelly took his seat among the Kilkenny substitutes in the Hogan Stand. In front of him, he watched Tipperary wipe the Cats out after half-time to deny the Leinster champions a third-straight title. Source: James Crombie/INPHO “It just wasn’t a good day,” Fennelly recalls. “There was a sensation of feeling lost…

What club does Dublin star Paddy Andrews play for? St Brigid's Ballymun Kickhams Castleknock Cuala What club does former Hurler of the Year Tony Kelly play for? Clonlara Ballyea Sixmilebridge Newmarket-on-Fergus Aidan O'Shea is in action in the Mayo championship quarter-finals tomorrow, what is his club? Crossmolina Aghamore Breaffy Castlebar Mitchels Who does Galway star…

Ulster are put through their paces before Sunday’s clash with Bordeaux in Belfast. Source: Presseye/Jonathan Porter/INPHO Home Martin O’Neill has hit back at Everton manager Ronald Koeman by defending his right to select James McCarthy for Ireland’s last two WQ qualifiers. Ireland’s trio of Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley and Shane Lowry are all going well…

1. Tipperary v Cork – Munster SHC quarter-final It’s Tipp against Cork again in the Munster senior hurling championship. Source: Lorraine O’Sullivan/INPHO For the second successive year, Tipp and Cork will battle it out at the quarter-final stage in Munster. There’s now a huge incentive for Cork chiefs to get Páirc Uí Chaoimh ready in…

Kerry 2-17 Cork 0-11 AN UNSEASONABLY LARGE football crowd gathered in Killarney this afternoon for the latest demonstration of Kerry’s superiority in Munster. Kerry’s Paul Geaney and Cork’s Kieran Histon. Source: Bryan Keane/INPHO Free from the crowd restrictions that have hampered the GAA inter-county scene over the past two years, there was a spike in…

St Joseph’s Tulla 0-20 De La Salle 1-13 Páraic McMahon reports from the Mallow GAA Complex A SPIRITED SHOWING from the East Clare school in which they bossed the first and final quarter was sufficient to see St Joseph’s Tulla progress to the Dr Harty Cup decider for the first time at the expense of…

1.  Competing at the Saudi International can’t seriously be construed as professional golfers endorsing the regime or its practices, but it lays bare a reality that is no less dispiriting for being commonplace: that so many elite players can’t or won’t see beyond the perimeter of their wallets, that they consciously choose to ignore what…