Kerry fire early warning
Just in case there was any doubt about Kerry’s desire this season, the near ever-presence of the Kingdom’s twin pillars – Seán O’Shea and David Clifford – during the National Football League campaign clearly demonstrates a statement of intent.
Rather than wrapping themselves up and resting through the early season rigour, the duo have instead reported for duty throughout.
O’Shea started all seven matches and kicked the equalising score in the final two minutes of Sunday’s draw against Armagh at the Athletic Grounds. Clifford started five matches, featured in six, and missed only the trip away to Donegal. He scored 10 points at the weekend, including a couple of two-pointers. Clifford registered Kerry’s first score of the league and O’Shea book ended the group stages with his late point on Sunday.
Essentially, the pair have led the line for Kerry throughout an impressive league campaign. In togging out and turning up, a message was hammered out.
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“I know in the hunger they’re showing, they’ve literally played every minute,” said manager Jack O’Connor of his star turns.
“I know David was off for the Donegal game, but Seanie has had some campaign. It’s just their consistency and their hunger and their desire that’s just contagious and it rubs off on the other players.”
The duo are expected to maintain their availability for next Sunday’s league final against Donegal at Croke Park – though O’Connor has indicated Paudie Clifford and Tony Brosnan are unlikely to feature due to injury. – Gordon Manning
Galway hit their stride
Somebody will lift the cup in the Gaelic Grounds on Easter Sunday, but the National Hurling League has many winners and losers. Against all odds Galway came within a goalmouth scramble of reaching the final on Saturday night, but that is immaterial now: no county gained as much from the hurling league as the Tribesmen.
Micheál Donoghue has transformed his side since last year’s championship and made them hugely competitive again. The team that started against Limerick on Saturday night had just seven survivors from the corresponding league match at the Gaelic Grounds a year ago. That night they lost by 12 points – one of three 12-point defeats they suffered during last year’s campaign.
Not all of this year’s breakthrough players made their debuts this spring, but Cillian Trayers and Joshua Ryan have established themselves now having had a taste of it last year, while Jason Rabbitte, Cian Daniels and Aaron Niland have made a massive impact in a very short time. Rory Burke and Darragh Neary have put their hands up too.
Since the turn of the decade Galway have consistently been either the oldest or the second oldest squad in the championship and they desperately needed an injection of youthfulness and pace. They have that now.
One of the extraordinary stats on Saturday night was their 80-per-cent shooting efficiency in the second half. Compare that to the opening round against Tipperary when, according to Eoghan Cormican, they converted just 50 per cent of their chances, rising to 56 per cent against Cork a week later.
Cork and Limerick had different needs from this year’s league, and one of them will be crowned champions, but Galway were the biggest winners. – Denis Walsh
Cool, calm and collected Lyster
Michael Lyster was cool as Clooney, suave as Pitt, and still and all, country as Big Tom. That’s what made him so relatable – that easy-going rural Ireland way of his that assured everyone around him that everything was grand and that it was just a bit of television they were doing. Nothing to get overly fussed about.
He was best known for The Sunday Game, his bouts of refereeing in the middle of Brolly, Spillane and O’Rourke and so on. But one of the best bit of telly he ever did was during the 2012 Olympics when he was on the morning shift and Antrim’s Hannah Craig was going in the K1 kayak. She had done well in qualifying but there was an appeal over a two-second time penalty for hitting a gate.
Kayaking is one of those sports that nobody outside a tiny band of enthusiasts gives any thought to beyond one day every four years – one day every eight if Ireland doesn’t have a representative at a given Olympiad. So when the RTÉ analyst on duty with Lyster, Ike Jacob, said he’d been in touch with the team manager in London to get a sense of what was going on, it didn’t sound unusual.
In a world as small as that, of course he’d have the contacts to go right to the heart of the matter. Nor was it out of the ordinary for the manager, Karl Dunne, to give him a ring to ask his opinion. What made it stand out – and the reason it springs to mind now – is that Lyster saw the phone light up across the desk and told Jacob to take the call.
It meant that for 30 seconds or so, viewers watched on as Jacob was being asked for his take by the kayak team manager on the ground in London, when all we could here was one side of a phone call, with Lyster chipping in a couple of times to narrate the action.
Any other presenter would have been staring daggers, or throwing to a break, or hitting the button to set off the fire alarm to clear the building. Lyster just basically smiled his way through it, completely in command, thoroughly unperturbed by it all. What a man.
Sleep well, Michael. – Malachy Clerkin
The pure drop
Páraic Joyce was asked his reaction to staying in Division 1 after Sunday’s win over Dublin in what was largely a relegation playoff.
“It’s very important, people say it’s important to try and win it [the league]. We’re always trying to win it, but it’s very important to stay there. You look at the crowds there. With respect to Division 2 – it’s very strong; there’s a lot of good teams down there – Division 1, you see the crowds and the games you have there.”
So, after a campaign blooding new players and juggling injury, Galway are thrilled to have survived for another year.
Dublin counterpart Ger Brennan was making the best of it.
“[It’s] not the end of the world, being in Division 2. It’s quite competitive as well. Armagh have won [the All-Ireland] coming out of Division 2, Dublin have won coming out of Division 2 ...”
Does he have a point about not being defined by your league status?
Maybe, but when citing Dublin’s 2023 feats, it is as well to remember that within six months of losing a relegation battle to Monaghan in 2022, Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion had ended their intercounty exiles. Stephen Cluxton would eventually follow suit.
The county may harbour hopes that Brian Fenton could decide that his career also has a second act, but overall, it doesn’t look as if the cavalry will be arriving on this occasion. – Seán Moran
Wexford’s consistency pays off
Much has been made of the extraordinarily freakish finish that earned Wexford the most dramatic of wins over Westmeath last weekend. The Lake County will certainly have regrets as to how they managed the last minute of the Division 3 promotion decider while Wexford deserve huge credit for banging at the door right until the final hooter. Seán Ryan’s last-gasp goal was the difference in the end, but on closer examination Wexford’s consistency in the league for several seasons now is the bedrock on which their ascent has been achieved.
Over the last three years, Wexford have played 21 regular-season league games – winning 17 and losing only four (to Laois and Leitrim in 2024, and to Limerick and Down this year). It is an extraordinary level of dependability. Indeed, Wexford were only denied promotion from Division 4 in 2024 on the head-to-head metric against Leitrim.
John Hegarty’s side won all seven of their games in 2025 to top the basement division (though they did lose the subsequent divisional final to Limerick). And Wexford put together another consistent campaign in Division 3 this season to secure back-to-back promotions. They are one of four Leinster teams promoted across the divisions – along with Meath, Carlow and Longford.
But of the eight divisional finalists, only two counties also featured in last year’s league deciders – Kerry and Wexford. – Gordon Manning
