Great NARRATIVE All-Irelands:
Wexford 1956 hurling
Down 1960 football
Dublin 1974 football
Offaly 1982 football
Dublin 1983 football
Cork 1990 hurling
Down 1991 football
Donegal 1992 football
Clare 1995 hurling
Wexford 1996 hurling
Offaly 1998 hurling
Galway 1998 football
Armagh 2002 football
Tyrone 2005 football
Tipp 2010 hurling
Clare 2013 hurling
Limerick 2018 hurling
Cork 2024 hurling potentially
Genres of wides.
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The “I’m finished” wide.
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The “yis can throw yer feckin’ hats at it” wide.
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The “tantalising” wide, the wide you rue forever. The wide that could and probably would have changed everything had it gone over. Happens late in games, the biggest games. Bonus points if these wides happen in never to be repeated historical situations or if the person and/or team that hits the wide never gets to redeem themselves.
Examples:
Shane O’Brien of Limerick v Cork in 2024.
Aidan O’Connor of Limerick v Cork in 2024.
Conor Gleeson of Tipperary v Clare in 1997.
John Bubbles O’Dwyer of Tipperary v Kilkenny in 2014 (significant negative points for 2016 and 2019)
John Bubbles O’Dwyer of Tipperary v Galway in 2017 (negative points for 2019)
Ray Cosgrove is ineligible but is also the winner of this category of wide. Cillian O’Connor runs him close.
Great Olympic double-barrel names:
Florence Griffith-Joyner
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Valerie Briscoe-Hooks
Shaunae Miller-Uibo
Shelly Anne Fraser-Price
Zac Stubblety-Cook
Debbie Flintoff-King
Suzy Favor-Hamilton
Mary Decker-Slaney
15 household sporting names from the late 1980s whose 2020s equivalents are unknowns to the general public.
Heike Drechsler
Captain John Ledingham
Sean Kerley
Steffi Graf
Greg Louganis
Alberto Tomba
Daley Thompson
Viv Richards
Frank Bruno
Liz McColgan
Sergey Bubka
Jahangir Khan
Ellery Hanley
Pedro Delgado
TJ Kearns
Eric Vanderaaarden
Arthur Lanigan O Keefe will be bitterly disappointed
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An incomplete list of the greatest/most dramatic/my favourite Olympic track finals:
1972 Men’s 800 metres - Dave Wottle of the USA came from 10 metres behind to win on the line. He never looks like he’s going to make it but he always does. I think this is the greatest ever Olympic race.
1996 Women’s 10,000 metres - Fernanda Ribeiro somehow chased down and beat Sonia’s nemesis Wang Junxia. I was fanatically cheering on Ribeiro in this.
2004 Men’s 1500 metres - Hicham El Guerrouj’s deliverance.
1988 Men’s 100 metres - the most famous/infamous race.
2000 Men’s 10,000 metres - Gebreselassie v Tergat - phenomenal.
2000 Women’s 400 metres - Bruce McAvaney’s call of Cathy Freeman’s victory is spine tingling.
2024 Men’s 1500 metres - up there with the greatest races ever run.
1992 Men’s 10,000 metres - the greatest ball hop of all time by the Moroccan back marker.
1984 Women’s 3,000 metres - The Fall.
1992 Women’s 10,000 metres - Liz McColgan was blitzed by Elana Meyer of South Africa, and then Elana Meyer was blitzed by Derartu Tulu.
1988 Women’s 4x100 metres relay - it was all about the brilliant and clean Evelyn Ashford.
1988 Men’s 5,000 metres - I got up in the middle of the night to watch this. John Ngugi nonchalantly raced away from everybody else a few laps in and never came close to being caught. Domingos Castro of Portugal got punished for being the only man to try to catch him when he blew up in the last lap and was caught by the peloton and was knocked down to fourth.
1992 Men’s 4x100 metres relay - it was all about Carl Lewis who had failed to qualify for the individual 100 metres.
2004 Men’s 5,000 metres - The race that catapulted El Guerrouj from an Olympic champion into an Olympic all time great. Clash of the titans v Bekele.
2008 Men’s 100 metres - Bolt.
2012 Men’s 5,000 metres - probably the most charged up crowd ever for an Olympic final. London came to a standstill for it.
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And his rival Jansher Khan
I remember an article in Victor annual with the pair of them
The Khan brothers, up there with the Baggio brothers.
Was there a reason she wore the full body suit? Be it cultural or religious? Or was it just a new fangled trend that never took off?
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Aerodynamics
Why did they not catch on? Can’t recall another elite runner wearing one since
I think it was a Nike marketing gimmick around the time. A load of shite as it turns out. They’re humans, not F1 cars
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You’d wonder if the long hair and big heavy gold necklaces would slow them down a fraction?
A list of glorious sporting defeats:
Ireland finishing 4th at the women’s 4x400 metres relay at the 2024 Paris Olympics
Tom Barr’s 4th in the 400 metres hurdles final at the 2016 Rio Olympics
Mayo v Dublin - 2017 All-Ireland football final
Meath v Down - 1991 All-Ireland football final
Tipperary v Kilkenny - 2009 All-Ireland hurling final
Ireland v Australia - 1991 Rugby World Cup quarter-final
Geelong v Hawthorn - 1989 VFL Grand Final
Coventry City v Manchester United - 2024 FA Cup semi-final
Japan v Belgium - 2018 World Cup
Ireland v Spain - 2002 World Cup
Cameroon v England - 1990 World Cup
Wales v South Africa - 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-final
France v New Zealand - 2011 Rugby World Cup final
I’m bored. Really really bored. I even listened to second captain’s but your man with the American accent like a golfer from the midlands who went on a J1 was too annoying.
The plane WiFi won’t stream the maroon and white podcast and all the films are rubbish. I’ve had three glasses of red wine and I Cannae sleep.
Long haul travel is for the birds.
Bring melatonin the next time and download your podcasts before you go. You need to prep properly and lay off the grog as you’ll get dehydrated
Who’s the American accent fella?
No idea. Having a coffee at Zimbabwe airport now. Beautiful weather.
Was looking at the Ireland vs England match from Saturday and how hopelessly one-sided it was. There is such a gulf between the two teams now. The last time Ireland reached a world cup was 2002 so I had a look at both squads* from that tournament to see how they compare.
Of our 2002 squad, I reckon two of our players are definite starters for England. Damien Duff would have started for England as they were badly stuck for a player on the left, and Roy Keane obviously gets in over Owen Hargreaves too. Beyond that, you could also make a case from any of our plethora of right-backs getting the nod over Danny Mills, Shay Given getting the nod over the dusty remains of David Seaman, and Robbie Keane over Heskey (England messed around a bit with their strikers at the tournament). Lets say,conservatively, three Irish players get in the England team. The squad is harder to pick, as we had players who were past their best (Staunton and Quinn) and lads who would become class but weren’t there yet (Richard Dunne and Steve Finnan). It’s hard to tell but I reckon, out of a 23 man squad, you’d have 6 Irish players getting in.
Lets say Ireland get the mother-and-father of lucky draws and reach the next world cup, and somehow John Bruton’s dream comes true and Ireland and England were to be merged, how many English players would have to die before a single Irishman made the squad? Who would even be the front-runner for a place? Nathan Collins maybe? A prime Seamus Coleman would knock on the door, but England have such insane depth at right-back that they usually try to shoe-horn about three of them into their team. I’d honestly think England are at least 4 players in every position superior to us.
*squads being the key word here as it’s a little known fact that one of the Irish squad didn’t end up participating in the tournament
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Was saying the same to someone on Saturday. If they picked a 100 man squad none of our lads would make it in. Even 150 million pound Real Madrid target Evan Ferguson @neilld