Professional sport, writes Gordon D’Arcy, is a constant cycle of “review, evaluate and improve”, and that applies to coaches as much as players. On that front, then, he reckons Ireland’s selection for the game against Italy – “six changes to the starting team and five more on the bench” – suggested “a slightly different tack than before”. Having previously been “comfortable with stability”, most notably at the World Cup, this rotation, D’Arcy says, creates more competition in the squad and “underlines that Ireland are continuing to evolve, something that bodes well for tougher propositions ahead”.
Gerry Thornley maintains that theme in his chat with Jack Conan, 12 of whose last 16 caps have come off the bench. But the days of “replacements being treated as secondary to starting players” are gone, “this Irish squad has long since cultivated a one-for-all, all-for-one mentality”.
In Gaelic games, Gordon Manning talks to Austin Gleeson who is taking a year out from the Waterford hurling set-up, and even though he insists he won’t change his mind on that decision, he realised just how much he missed it when he couldn’t bring himself to go to their league game in Walsh Park last Sunday. “It was probably the hardest day I’ve had so far since I stepped away,” he says, ending up watching the game on TV.
The jammed nature of the calendar for players was one of the reasons Gleeson concluded that he needed a break. “There are some players who could maybe be on the road four years in a row, non-stop with only a week or two off here and there,” he says. “You have no life really.” That’s an issue Seán Moran touches upon in his piece on the many challenges facing the GAA, high on the list the cost of funding intercounty teams. And those costs have risen due to the seasons being condensed into smaller time frames, intensifying the need for injury management and for bigger panels.
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In swimming, Ian O’Riordan hears from a “gutted” Mona McSharry after she finished fifth in the 100m breaststroke final at the World Championships on Tuesday, when she had high hopes of a medal. The Sligo woman has, of course, the Olympics to look forward to, and Swim Ireland is one of the many beneficiaries of the record high performance investment announced by Sport Ireland on Tuesday. The total investment in the Paris Olympic cycle, Ian reports, has risen to €89 million. “Things have come a long way over the last 20 years,” he writes. The total funding for the 2004 Athens cycle? €5.3 million. That’s inflation for you.
TV Watch: UCD and the University of Ulster meet in this evening’s Sigerson Cup final in Tralee (TG4, 7.30pm), while there’s more Champions League action in the shape of Lazio v Bayern Munich (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 1, 8pm) and PSG v Real Sociedad (TNT Sports 2, 8pm). Daniel Wiffen chases a medal in the 800m freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships this afternoon (Live stream available here).
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