I WAS in Donegal last week and three different people told me – in absolute confidence (“Don’t mention my name Joe”) – that in their in house training games, Michael Murphy has been playing in goals. According to them, Jimmy has discovered a loophole in the no pass to the keeper rule, by not putting […]
Cometh the man, cometh the hour For long stretches of Glen’s All-Ireland final against St Brigid’s back in January, it looked like we were on course for an upset. It just wasn’t happening for the Watty Graham’s, but we all know what happened next: Conor Glass scored a fantastic goal and they ended up with […]
By Michael McMullan JIM McGuinness has revealed five players he will have as part of his plans for 2025. The high-profile addition has been the return from retirement of All-Ireland winning captain Michael Murphy. In an interview on Monday’s DL Debate, on Highland Radio, McGuiness outlined a further four players he can call on for […]
IT is a terrible irony that Jimmy McGuinness’s system won Michael Murphy an All-Ireland medal yet ruined his best years. As a young footballer Michael was so good it was cartoonish. Here was a real life Hotshot Hamish, fetching impossible high balls and driving them to the net like Tony Yeboah, the ‘keeper standing there wondering […]
JUST as I was about to finish this week’s piece the earth-shattering news broke that Micheal Murphy has returned to the Donegal camp. Rumours had been floating about for a number of weeks and I have to admit when I saw him on TV during the interprovincials last month, I noticed he has trimmed down a […]
2023 Ethan Doherty DYNAMIC Derry half-forward Ethan Doherty scooped last year’s Young Footballer of the Year award following an impressive showing all season with the Oakleafers. Doherty, who made his championship debut in 2020, has developed into a mainstay of the Derry team and made a particularly big impact in their run to last year’s […]
Sunday will be Donegal’s 11th Ulster final in 14 seasons. Michael McMullan spoke with All-Ireland winning captain Michael Murphy and former county chairman John McConnell to look into the foundations. DONEGAL didn’t place their long-term succession planning on the crest of the 1992 All-Ireland wave. John McConnell has the benefit of hindsight when outlining why they […]
It’s All-Star season, and Shaun Casey has sifted through the records to identify the most recent football All-Stars for Ulster’s nine counties Antrim: Andy McCallin ANDY McCallin is Antrim’s first and to date only All-Star and he earned the gong way back in 1971, at corner-forward. McCallin was a dual star for both the Saffrons […]
I touched a few weeks back on the different club championship models each county has and what may be the best. You just had to look at the drama in last weekend’s Tyrone Senior Football Championship to get a feeling of the excitement that surrounds that particular championship. Yes, a once off knockout game may […]
JUST when you thought it was safe, he’s back. Like Freddie Kruger appearing at the window. Or Jack Nicholson at the door with an axe, grinning, those dark eyes flashing. “Heeeeere’s Jimmy.” Having engineered the most extraordinary coup in the history of Gaelic football in 2012, then the greatest ambush in living memory (the 2014 All-Ireland […]
