Unless it’s an All-Ireland semi-final replay between Kerry and Mayo.
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Literally the only time Limerick has ever been a good neutral venue for a match.
Ennis can’t be the essence of Munster
Some people would say it’s in Connacht. My oul’ fella always said Clare should be in Connacht.
Some people say Limerick City above the Shannon is in Clare. If this was true would also be true that the Ennis Road at Limerick is in Connacht.
If it was true. Which it’s not.
Clare and Ennis is the essence of the round robin Munster Hurling Championship.
Keith Fahey and Keith Treacy
Matthew Tierney and Matthew Thompson
Paddy Smyth and Paddy Doyle
Brian Hayes (Dublin) and Brian Fenton
I think it was Paul Flynn or Murph on the free Second Captains pod who made this mistake recently. I was wondering when Matthew Thompson had come home from his scholarship in America.
But it’s Clare’s second home ground?
Earliest dates teams have been eliminated from the senior championships since 1987:
Tipperary hurling -
Knockout era (up to 2001): May 29th, 1994
Second chance era (2002-2017): July 6th, 2013
Round Robin era (2018 to now): May 17th, 2026
Cork hurling -
Knockout era: May 26th, 1996
Second chance era: July 9th, 2011 and July 9th, 2016
Round robin era: May 28th, 2023
Kilkenny hurling
Knockout era: June 2nd, 1996
Second chance era: July 8th, 2017
Round robin era: May 24th, 2026
Galway hurling
Knockout era: August 4th, 1991 and August 4th, 1996
Backdoor era (1997-2001): July 26th, 1998
Second chance era: July 5th, 2014
Round robin era: May 26th, 2024
Limerick hurling
Knockout era: May 23rd, 1993
Second chance era: June 26th, 2004
Round robin era: June 21st, 2025
Dublin football:
Knockout era: (up to 2000): June 15th, 1997
Second chance era: (2001-2017): July 5th, 2003
Bullshit era: (2018 to now): June 28th, 2025
Kerry football:
Knockout era: June 20th, 1993
Second chance era: July 31st, 2010
Bullshit era: July 13th, 2024
Tyrone football
Knockout era: May 17th, 1992 and May 17th, 1998
Second chance era: July 8th, 2006
Bullshit era: June 5th, 2002
Mayo football:
Knockout era: May 24th, 1998
Second chance era: June 26th, 2010
Bullshit era: June 15th, 2025
It appears another one of your ancestors believed this also…
“In the period from 1568 – 1578 the Lord Deputy, Sir Henry Sydney, subdivided the existing shire of Connacht into the counties of Clare, Galway, Mayo and Sligo. Clare, which in a physical sense, belongs more to Connacht than to Munster, was carved out of the mediaeval territory of the O’Brien’s of Thomond. It was returned to Munster in 1639”
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The Matthew Thompson Twins
Did AI provide you with that information
The AI inside my brain provided it
People who have the same names in different languages:
Anthony Crosse (Tipperary hurling full forward 1993) and Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Germany)
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40 best World Cup stadiums in the POST-WAR era
1 Azteca Stadium, Mexico City
2 Sarria, Barcelona
3 Maracana Stadium 1950, Rio De Janeiro
4 Monumental, Buenos Aires
5 Jalisco Stadium, Guadalajara
6 Sanchez Pizjuan, Seville
7 Benito Vilamarin, Seville
8 San Paolo Stadium, Naples
9 Stade Velodrome, Marseille
10 Bernabeu Stadium, Madrid
11 Rose Bowl, Los Angeles
12 Giants Stadium, New York
13 Stadio Della Favorita, Palermo
14 Stadio Delle Alpi, Turin
15 Goodison Park, Liverpool
16 Olympic Stadium, Munich
17 Mendoza, Argentina
18 Leon, Mexico
19 Westfalenstadion, Dortmund
20 Fritz Walter Stadion, Kaiserslautern
21 Cotton Bowl, Dallas
22 San Mames Stadium, Bilbao
23 Estadio Luis Casnova, Valencia
24 Stade Lescure, Bordeaux
25 Kashima Stadium, Ibaraki
26 Soccer City, Johannesburg
27 Wankdorf Stadium, Berne
28 Wembley Stadium, Middlesex
29 Rasunda Stadium, Stockholm
30 San Siro Stadium, Milan
31 Parkstadion, Gelsenkirchen 1974
32 Daegu Stadium, Daegu in Korea
33 Greenpoint Stadium, Cape Town
34 Luigi Ferraris Stadium, Genoa
35 Adolf Hitler Stadium, Nuremberg
36 The Villa Park lookalike, Cologne
37 Ellis Park, Johannesburg
38 Nou Camp, Barcelona
39 Loftus Versfeld, Johannesburg
40 Olympic Stadium, Rome
Hierarchy of helmet colours for different teams
Tipperary
Yellow
White
Green
Blue
Black
Red
Kilkenny
Red
Yellow
White
Black
Green
Blue
Cork
Green
Black
White
Red
Yellow
Blue
2026 World Cup Stadiums Power Rankings
1 Azteca Stadium - the world’s greatest sporting venue
2 Estadio Guadalupe Monterrey - a fine venue for Holland v Morocco, would have been better in the daytime
3 Imposter Stadium, Guadalajara - it’s in Mexico
4 Seahawks Stadium Seattle - best US venue by a distance
5 Arrowhead Stadium Kansas City - second best US venue by a distance
6 BC Place Vancouver - a rare indoor stadium that doesn’t look horrific
7 BYO Field Toronto - it’s not in the USA
8 49ers Stadium San Francisco - sunny
9 Lincoln Stadium Philadelphia - adequate
10 Mets Stadium New York - meh, it’sopen air at least but inferior to its predecessor
11 Foxborough Stadium Boston - looks like a car showroom
12 Hard Rock Cafe Stadium Miami - not nice
13 Astrodome Houston - impressive enough looking seating bowl but indoor and dark and forbidding and depressing
14 Wi-Fi Stadium Los Angeles - plastic looking
15 BMW Stadium Atlanta - dark and depressing
16 Jerryworld Dallas - horrific, the sort of place you’d jump off the stand and commit suicide just to escape it
Each Tour De France has its Queen Stage. The stage that sorts the 60% men from the whiskey, amphetamines and sugar cubes lads. Usually including Alpe d’Huez and the Col du Galibier.
The Queen Game of a major finals tournament is not necessarily the best game, it’s the game that is most historically significant, that leaves the longest impression, that stands above the others.
Queen Games of major finals tournaments in my lifetime:
Spain '82 - Italy 3 Brazil 2 - second group stage
Euro '84 - France 3 Portugal 2 - semi-final
Mexico '86 - Argentina 2 England 1 - quarter-final
Euro '88 - West Germany 1 Holland 2 - semi-final
Italia '90 - Italy 1 Argentina 1 - semi-final
Euro '92 - Denmark 2 Germany 0 - final
USA '94 - Romania 3 Argentina 2 - last 16
Euro '96 - England 1 Germany 1 - semi-final
France '98 - Holland 2 Argentina 1 - quarter-final
Euro 2000 - France 2 Portugal 1 - semi-final
Koreajapan 2002 - England 1 Brazil 2 - quarter-final
Euro 2004 - Portugal 2 England 2 - quarter-final
Germany 2006 - Germany 0 Italy 2 - semi-final
Euro 2008 - No real Queen Game
South Africa 2010 - Germany 4 England 1
Euro 2012 - No real Queen Game
Brazil 2014 - Brazil 1 Germany 7 - semi-final
Euro 2016 - No real Queen Game
Russia 2018 - Croatia 2 England 1 - semi-final
Euro 2021 - England 1 Italy 1 - final
Qatar 2022 - Argentina 3 France 3 - final
Euro 2024 - Germany 1 Spain 2 - quarter-final
Lasting impression: most Euros tournaments since 2004 have been awful dweeby affairs.
Euro 2021 is the only Euros since 2000 to properly DELIVER.
I am sure you know already but Astro turf gets its name from the Astrodome.
It’s where Astro turf was first installed.
The Houston Astros got their name from astronauts, as in, Houston, NASA, astronauts.
Astronauts got their name from the Greek words astron, which means star, as in the stars in sky, and naut, which means sailor.
Astronaut literally means star sailor.
Starsailor were the name of an early 2000s indie band which Tim Wheeler of Ash once went on stage and ridiculed.
Starsailor took their name form a 1993 song by The Verve, or Verve as they were then called.
The name of the album that song was on was A Storm In Heaven.
The discipline of studying storms is called astormony.
The Astor family of wealthy New York socialites took their name from this discipline, and when Mrs. Astor’s Fifth Avenue mansion was demolished 130 years ago, the Astoria Hotel was built. This later merged with the neighbouring Waldorf hotel to become the Waldorf-Astoria.
The Waldorf Salad was developed at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. The Waldorf Salad features in an episode of Fawlty Towers.
Fawlty Towers was the nickname given to the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Centre for a brief period between 2:03pm and 2:59pm on September 11th, 2001.
Wembley Stadium also had twin towers, and it also had a dog track. The first astronaut to orbit the earth was a dog, although it was a Russian dog, and in Russia they called astronauts cosmonauts. There used to be a US soccer team called the New York Cosmos, and they played on astroturf, rather than grass.
I’ll stop there because it probably sounds like I’m smoking grass. I’ve never smoked astro-turf, as somebody once said.
Power rankings of names of Australian sportsmen of Southern European heritage:
1 Smokin’ Joe Misiti
2 Ange Postecoglou
3 Tony Popovic
4 Anthony Koutoufides
5 Mark Bresciano
6 Tony Vidmar
7 Simon Prestigiacomo
8 Robert DiPierdomenico
9 Big Steve Alessio
10 Mark Viduka
11 Glen Jakovich
12 Big Anthony Rocca
13 Vince Grella
14 Mark Mercuri
15 Ange Christou
16 David Campese
17 Blake Caracella
18 Mark Philippoussis
19 Peter Daicos
20 Nick Kyrgios
21 Matthew Dellavedova
22 Tom Rogic
23 Jason Akermanis
24 Brendan Fevola
25 James Tedesco