Month: September 2021

HENRY SHEFFLIN WILL take his Ballyhale Shamrocks team into action against the reigning champions Dicksboro in the quarter-finals of this year’s Kilkenny senior hurling championship.

Shefflin is in his first season managing Ballyhale Shamrocks and saw them win convincingly in the first round last evening, 3-22 to 1-12 against St Patrick’s Ballyraggett.

Their reward is a last eight fixture against Dicksboro, who claimed the Kilkenny senior hurling shield on Saturday and ended a 24-year wait to lift the county senior title last October.

Click Here: vodacom bulls rugby jersey

Last year’s beaten finalists James Stephens, who triumphed in the senior hurling league final on Sunday, will have to wait for their quarter-final opponents with Erins Own taking on Carrickshock in a first round replay next Saturday. The losers of that game will face Danesfort in this year’s battle to avoid senior hurling relegation in Kilkenny.

Elsewhere there will be a meeting of recent champions at the quarter-final stage as 2016 kingpins O’Loughlin Gaels meet 2015 victors Clara. The clubs met in that 2015 decider when Clara triumphed.

The remaining quarter-final involves Bennettsbridge against Mullinavat, both clubs promoted from the intermediate grade in successive years in 2014 and 2015.

2018 Kilkenny senior hurling championship

Saturday 29 September

First round replay
Erins Own v Carrickshock, Clara, 2pm

Sunday 30 September

Quarter-finals

O’Loughlin Gaels v Clara, James Stephens Park, 12pm
Bennettsbridge v Mullinavat, Thomastown, 2pm
Dicksboro v Ballyhale Shamrocks, John Locke Park, 4pm

Saturday 6 October

Quarter-final
James Stephens v Erins Own/Carrickshock, Venue TBC, 2pm

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

ALL-IRELAND CLUB finalists Na Piarsaigh are two games away from retaining their Limerick senior hurling crown after sealing a semi-final spot with victory in their last group game yesterday over 2016 champions Patrickswell.

The win sees Na Piarsaigh advance to the last four stage along with Doon, who overtook last year’s finalists Kilmallock yesterday when they defeated them 0-17 to 0-10. 

Na Piarsaigh, who supplied six players to Limerick’s All-Ireland winning squad this year, are bidding to reach their sixth final in eight seasons while Doon, who had four players in John Kiely’s triumphant county setup, last reached the decider in 2000.

The semi-finals are scheduled for Sunday 14 October but both Na Piarsaigh and Doon will have to wait to discover their opponents.

The Limerick senior hurling championship has operated under a new group stage format this year. The top two sides from Group 1 advance straight through to the semi-finals with third and fourth placed in Group 1 advancing to the quarter-finals along with the top two from Group 2.

Kilmallock and Patrickswell advanced from Group 1 to the quarter-final stage while in Group 2 South Liberties and Murroe-Boher bagged the quarter-final spots on offer.

Those knockout games will take place on Sunday 7 October in the Gaelic Grounds with Kilmallock meeting Murroe-Boher and Patrickswell taking on South Liberties.

Limerick senior hurling championship

Click Here: parramatta eels jersey

Quarter-finals
Sunday 7 October
Kilmallock v Murroe-Boher, Gaelic Grounds, 2pm
Patrickswell v South Liberties, Gaelic Grounds, 3.45pm

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

KILDARE FORWARD JIMMY Hyland has been crowned the 2018 EirGrid U20 football player of the year following the county’s All-Ireland triumph last month.

Jimmy Hyland celebrates after the All-Ireland final win

Source: Gary Carr/INPHO

The Ballyteague ace hit 10 points for Davy Burke’s side in the decider win over Mayo in Croke Park, bringing his total tally to 4-45 over eight games in the summer. 

He posted 0-8 in the Leinster final win over Dublin, while he also won the penalty for the game’s only goal.

Kildare team-mate Aaron Masterson and Mayo’s Ryan O’Donoghue were also nominated for the top prize, but Hyland topped the polls on the official GAA social media channel with 593 votes.

Hyland and Materson were two of six Kildare players to make a selection of the top 20 players of this year’s competition with Aaron O’Neill, Mark Dempsey, Mark Barrett and Brian McLoughlin also making the cut. 

Beaten All-Ireland finalists Mayo had four players included while Derry (3), Kerry (3), Dublin (1), Roscommon (1), Armagh (1) and Cork (1) make up the remainder of the EirGrid 20 U20 Awards.

View this post on Instagram

Kildare forward Jimmy Hyland has been crowned the 2018 EirGrid U20 football player of the year following the county’s All-Ireland triumph last month. The Ballyteague ace hit 10 points in the final win over Mayo, bringing his total tally to 4-45 over eight games this summer. #GAA #Kildare #Awards

A post shared by The42 (@the42.ie) on Sep 24, 2018 at 5:58am PDT

EirGrid 20 U20’s

Goalkeepers

Aaron O’Neill (Kildare)
Patrick O’Malley (Mayo)

Defenders

Mark Dempsey (Kildare)
Mark Barrett (Kildare)
Paul Lambert (Mayo)
Cathal Horan (Mayo)
Stefan Okunbor (Kerry)
Daniel O’Brien (Kerry)
Nathan Doran (Dublin)

Midfielders

Aaron Masterson (Kildare)
Diarmuid O’Connor (Kerry)
Oisin McWilliams (Derry)

Forwards

Jimmy Hyland (Kildare)
Brian McLoughlin (Kildare)
Ryan O’Donoghue (Mayo)
Callum Brown (Derry)
Ben McCarron (Derry)
Ross McQuillan (Armagh)
Chris Óg Jones (Cork)
Cian McKeon (Roscommon)

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

Click Here: f1 racing suit for sale

JP MCMANUS HAS donated €100,000 to every GAA county board in Ireland to distribute among their clubs.

JP McManus in the dressing room after Limerick’s All-Ireland hurling success in August.

RTÉ is reporting that the horse racing magnate will hand out a total €3.2million between all 32 counties with the instructions the figure is to be divided equally among their local clubs. 

A letter to each county board states the money is for the continued development of Gaelic Games in the country.

The multi-millionaire has long been a financial backer of GAA in his native Limerick. He decided to make the gesture on the back of the Treaty’s Liam MacCarthy Cup victory last month.

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

Click Here: ospreys rugby jerseys

THE DRAWS FOR the Clare and Wexford senior hurling championship semi-finals were made this evening, with a couple of fascinating ties in store in both counties.

In Clare, seven-time winners O’Callaghan Mills have been paired with 2016 winners Ballyea in the last four, while Kilmaley and Cratloe will go head-to-head in the other semi-final. 

Ballyea last contested the Clare final in 2016 when they won their maiden crown while Cratloe’s most recent appearance in a decider was when they triumphed in 2014.

Kilmaley last contested the Clare hurling showpiece in 2004 and O’Callaghan Mills have to go back to 1993 for their last outing in a final.

Meanwhile in Wexford, St Martin’s will continue the defence of their title with a semi-final clash against Rapparees, who made their last final appearance in 2001.

In the other tie, Gorey club Naomh Éanna have been paired with Oylegate-Glenbrien, who have endured a barren spell since they featured in the decider in 1963.

2018 Wexford GAA @PettittsSuperV senior Hurling Championship SEMI FINALS #Oylegate will play @NaomhEannaGAA and @RappsStarlights take on @StMartinsGAA pic.twitter.com/tj9X2LrlNm

— Wexford GAA (@OfficialWexGAA) September 24, 2018

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

Click Here: kangaroos team merchandise

LIAM SHEEDY IS back in charge of the Tipperary senior hurlers, eight years after he departed the post as an All-Ireland winning boss.

The Tipperary county board confirmed tonight that Sheedy has been appointed as their new manager on a three-year term. 

He fills the vacancy created by the departure of Michael Ryan, who had been at the helm for three years, in early August.

Sheedy was previously in charge of Tipperary for three campaigns between 2008 and 2010, after his exploits in guiding the county minor team to All-Ireland glory in 2006.

During his senior tenure, he steered Tipperary to the 2008 National League crown along with Munster titles that year and in 2009. His managerial highlight arrived in 2010 when masterminding Tipperary’s All-Ireland hurling final victory as they ended Kilkenny’s hopes of clinching five-in-a-row.

The Portroe man exited suddenly a month after that Liam MacCarthy Cup triumph, citing work commitments at the time.

Since then Sheedy has had roles as part of management sides in Clare club Newmarket-on-Fergus and the county teams of Offaly and Antrim. He was on the shortlist earlier this year to become the new GAA Director-General with Tom Ryan ultimately appointed to that position.

He has emerged as the choice of the Tipperary county board after current All-Ireland U21 winning manager Liam Cahill and 2012 All-Ireland minor winning boss William Maher had both been in the frame.

Sheedy will attempt to revive Tipperary’s fortunes in 2019 after a disappointing season this summer which saw them fail to win a game in the Munster round-robin series as they drew with Cork and Waterford in between defeats to Limerick and Clare.

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

Click Here: soccer jersey sale

AFTER AN EXHAUSTIVE recruitment process encompassing seven weeks and nine potential candidates, Paul Taylor has tonight been appointed Sligo’s senior football manager.

The former county player and U21 boss was recommended for the job by Sligo GAA’s selection committee last week, and was ratified at tonight’s county board meeting.   

Click Here: ulster rugby shirts

Taylor played inter-county football for Sligo for 14 seasons and was one of the county’s most prolific forwards during the 1990s, while winning six club titles with Eastern Harps.

He was involved with Sligo’s senior team as a selector in 2010 under Kevin Walsh, a year in which the Yeats county were beaten by Roscommon in the Connacht final. 

In 2017, Taylor guided the Sligo U21s to the provincial decider, where they were narrowly defeated by Galway.

He now succeeds Cathal Corey in the top job, following the former manager’s decision to step away after just one year at the helm.

Under Corey’s stewardship, Sligo retained their Division 3 status in the National Football League and went on to beat London in the Connacht SFC.

Provincial champions Galway sent them into the qualifiers with a 21-point win at Pearse Stadium before Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh ended their summer with a 1-19 to 1-13 victory at Markievicz Park.

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

EIGHT YEARS AFTER leading his native Tipperary to All-Ireland glory, Liam Sheedy will look to guide the Premier back to rarefied heights after last night being confirmed for a second stint in charge.

The 48-year-old’s stunning return to inter-county management was rubber-stamped on Monday evening, as the Tipperary county board appointed Sheedy as Michael Ryan’s successor on a three-year term.

Sheedy will take charge of Tipperary for the second time from 2019 onwards after a previous three-year stint, which included that All-Ireland crown in 2010, and he said ‘a burning desire’ persuaded him to throw his hat in the ring for the vacancy.

“I’m thrilled to be back,” he told RTÉ Sport. “To manage any team is an absolute honour, but to get to manage your own county is extra special.

“I’m really looking forward to it. One thing I can guarantee everyone is I’ll give 100% over the course of my term.

“Ever since I left in 2010, I always felt that someday I might be given a chance to come back in. I’m back working in Munster again with Bank of Ireland, that gives me a little more scope because I’m more local. When I got the chance last week to put my name into the ring, I jumped at it.”

Sheedy, who has held roles within his club Portroe and Antrim in the intervening years, continued: “You don’t realise it until you are gone. Being involved with the club, with Antrim and various teams, the love for the game never really goes away.

“I was fortunate enough to talk about it a lot of Sundays over the course of the years, so when I got the chance to come back in, I said ‘why not?’

“I’m really looking forward to it. I haven’t been as buzzed up in a long time. I’m full of energy and really looking forward to getting stuck in.

Click Here: Brazil football tracksuit

“There was a burning desire in me that just wasn’t going away.”

The return of Sheedy will generate huge excitement among Tipperary supporters and after his previous success in the role, the level of expectations will naturally soar heading into the 2019 season.

But Tipp endured a disappointing summer under Ryan’s stewardship, failing to win a game in the Munster round-robin series as they drew with Cork and Waterford in between defeats to Limerick and Clare.

Sheedy currently works for Bank of Ireland.

Source: Bryan Keane/INPHO

Sheedy knows the size of the task ahead, as he looks to manage those expectations.

“I was fortunate enough to win an All-Ireland title and any time a job becomes vacant inside or outside, when you are an All-Ireland winning manager, you are generally in the firing line and that is a good thing,” he said.

“I was honoured to be talked about in terms of the role. As time moved on, there was a burning desire in me that just wasn’t going away. I came to the table late, but I’m delighted I did.

“I’m looking forward to creating a similar scenario again, really just giving the boys a good set-up that lows them to express themselves and play to their full potential.” 

Sheedy will leave his role as a pundit on The Sunday Game as he combines his work commitments with Bank of Ireland and the Tipperary job.

His backroom team will be assembled and ratified in the coming weeks, with an announcement due after the Tipperary county board’s October meeting.

“I’m going to take the next two or three weeks to make sure I get the right people. Nowadays it’s all about the team behind the team,” Sheedy added.

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

JOSH VAN DER Flier makes it difficult to imagine that ‘dark days’ of injury lay-off really exist.

The flanker is relentlessly positive, ever-ready for work, eager to listen out for advice, jot it down and take the chunks that work for him.

Source: Bryan Keane/INPHO

Those bright personality traits ensured that he was ideally-skilled to put together that crucial element sportspeople need when injury is keeping them from their job, a support network. Along with friends, family, housemates and team-mates (categories which overlap in some cases for Van der Flier), the openside fell into the company of Dublin star forward Bernard Brogan.

“We actually got surgery the same day,” says the Wicklow man, who ruptured his ACL during Ireland’s Six Nations win away to France. Brogan suffered his injury in a training session and so their paths crossed in Santry.

“I didn’t even know that he was in. Ray Moran, who did the surgery, came in and said: ‘I just did Bernard’s there and you can be buddies!’

“It was cool to have someone to compare to along the way.”

The comparisons ended in the summer as Van der Flier was reined in from running while Brogan ramped up to make a return to Croke Park in August. There’s a hearty laugh from the 25-year-old when it’s suggested he might have felt the least bit bitter over Brogan beating him in the comeback race. There are a host of considerations that make the two athletes differ, not least their age profile and the impacts they must prepare for in their respective sports.

“We have been in touch a bit seeing where we were at because we had surgery at the same time. He beat me by a month and a half; 1-0 Bernard!”

“We just texted every few weeks. We seemed to be similar enough. (We’d text each other) like: ‘it’s sore running but grand doing other things.’”

Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

Van der Flier pushed his medical team’s boundaries to work his way back onto the field in the time-frame he did. His try-scoring return against the Dragons came seven months after he suffered what is generally thought to be a nine-month lay-off.

He now has a full season ahead of him, complete with all the rigours demanded of an international. And with less than a year before the World Cup, Van der Flier naturally finds himself looking on the bright side of his time spent out of the firing line.

Click Here: soccer jerseys

The old truism that rugby players are never really fully fit, but always carry some knock or issue doesn’t apply for Van der Flier just yet.

“You might have a sore shoulder now and then, or something’s bruised or even a bit sensitive.  One of my fingers used to get a bit sore – silly things like that that would never stop you playing – but I feel perfect now because you’ve had six or seven months of not having to tackle or do any of that sort of stuff.

“I’m feeling really good (and) the prehab stuff builds your robustness as well.

 ”I lost a good bit of weight at the start. I lost a lot of muscle just from the legs not being used and that sort of thing.

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

PAUL MANNION HAS quashed rumours that former full-back Rory O’Carroll will return to the Dublin set-up for their ‘drive for five’ in 2019. 

Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO

O’Carroll won three All-Irelands, two All-Stars and represented Ireland in the International Rules series before he packed his bags and headed for New Zealand in 2016.

His return to Dublin in recent weeks sparked talk that O’Carroll might be home for good, but his Kilmacud Crokes clubmate Mannion says the defender is only back for a wedding and will be returning to the southern hemisphere shortly.

“He was just back for a wedding last weekend,” says Mannion. “He’s going back off to Australia now next week or the week after.”

Crokes face St Sylvester’s this weekend in the Dublin SFC quarter-final, but Mannion doesn’t expect his old county team-mate to move home “any time soon.” 

“Maybe next year at some stage, I think,” he continued. “I don’t think football is at the front of his mind now. We’d love to have him back, especially with Crokes. 

“I don’t know what match fitness or shape he’s in at the moment, whether he’s match fit or not. No, I don’t think he was looking to line out anyway.

“He doesn’t talk much, so I don’t know myself exactly what he’s doing. Last I heard he was working in a female prison as, I’m not sure, not a prison officer, but doing social work there. 

“You’d probably get more out of him than me. He’s loving it down there. He doesn’t tell us much. I think he was playing football for a while but he’s obviously just enjoying himself.”

Dublin footballer Paul Mannion was at AIG Insurance’s head office in Dublin today to mark Dublin’s All-Ireland wins. AIG’s chosen charity for 2018, Aoibheann’s Pink Tie, also joined in the celebrations and were presented with a signed Dublin GAA jersey.

Source: Sam Barnes/SPORTSFILE

In Mannion’s debut year at senior club level as an 18-year-old in 2012, Kilmacud made it to the county final, but they haven’t been back since. Now aged 25, he’s one of the leaders on the team and hoping they can lift the crown for the first time since 2010.

“There are expectations there from the teams in the noughties that picked up a number of championships then. There’s still a lot of that team remaining. We’ve got a nice balance of experience and a lot of young lads coming through as well. 

“Definitely think we’ve got the team. Just probably have come up against some strong opposition in the last couple of years that are maybe a few steps ahead of us in development. 

“Look, we’re just trying to learn every year and the lads I think have picked up bits and pieces from those losses and hopefully we can just turn it into something good for this year. 

“I was only 18 when I first started playing. Now I’m now in the older third of the players on the team. You get older and get more experience and you slip into a leadership role in the team.

“It’s nice and I like doing it as well. There’s young and old leaders on that team with Crokes and Dublin so it doesn’t need to always be the older experienced guys.”

Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO

A five-time All-Ireland winner, Mannion looks on the verge of picking up his second All-Star later this winter after putting in another fine season.

He dispatched a crucial first-half penalty in the final win over Tyrone, which was satisfying personally given his missed spot-kick in the Leinster final. 

“There was a bit of relief,” he says. “I practiced a lot of that since the one I missed in the Leinster final. I was probably a lot more calm in the (All-Ireland) final than I was in the Leinster final.

“That was the first penalty I’d taken for Dublin. I’d still been practicing them a bit beforehand as well. When this one came around I was actually a lot more calm and just focusing on how I wanted to strike the ball and the part of the foot I wanted the ball to come off, body position and all these kind of things were running through my head.

“I was just reaffirming myself as well I guess and that’s it, I just followed through.”

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

Click Here: custom product design