Search Results for 'Gaelic games'

Cork 0-23

When the dealer threw the cards on the table last Sunday evening, it was Galway who got the joker in the pack - drawn to play against Kerry on Saturday in Croke Park at 4pm.

Anyone who has been up at Ballybrit during the week will know how difficult it can be to predict a winner. Likewise in the All-Ireland football championship there is no real consensus on who will be first past the finishing post on September 21.

Cork versus Kilkenny has always represented one of hurling’s great rivalries and now it’s heading for a new phase as they prepare to meet at the semi-final stage of the 2008 All-Ireland hurling senior championship.

Inter-county management is a tough station. The facts speak for themselves this season.

Kilkenny 2-21

Guinness, an official sponsor of the 2008 GAA All-Ireland Hurling Championship, is bringing hurling off the pitch and into specially built 3D perspex cubes this summer with a new 3-a-side hurling game, Guinness Hurling Cubed. And from today until Saturday, Kilkenny Castle will host Guinness Hurling Cubed for three nights. Endorsed by Kilkenny legend and last year’s All-Ireland winning captain, Henry Shefflin, he’s urging the Kilkenny people to enter a team into the event and to check out the new innovative 3-a-side hurling game. Kilkenny hurlers Tommy Walsh and JJ Delaney have also backed the game and will attend the city final on Saturday, August 2. Played with 21” hurleys and a soft touch sliotar, the game is a fast paced and exciting derivative of the real thing, which was developed by Guinness, with expert guidance from former Cork Manager, Donal O’Grady. Teams of three players compete for either three minutes, or until three goals are scored – in a blitz format – over the course of the night. The nightly winners will battle it out in the Kilkenny City Final on Saturday, with the four semi-finalists winning a trip to Dublin on the eve of the GAA All-Ireland Hurling final for the grand finale of Guinness Hurling Cubed.

With the final round of games played on Saturday last, the senior hurling semi-final placings went right down to the wire.

I said last week that a shock could be on the cards in Semple Stadium last Sunday. Okay it didn't pan out that way in the end, but at various stages of both quarter-finals it sure looked like happening. Cork and Waterford move onto the semi-final stages after cracking encounters with the former out to upset Kilkenny's 3 in a row dream on August 10. Over the last decade these two sides have stopped each other from completing this marvellous feat, it's a bit like the song Lanigan's Ball “one stepped in....", they will once again as in '04 relish the opportunity to repeat the trick and set up an All-Ireland appearance. Cork judging by their prematch get-together, obviously feel the world is against them. It's the first time I've seen everyone step outside the confines of the playing area for the National Anthem. They are well within their rights to do so but you're only bringing notice to yourself. Both the Clare and Wexford players were probably kicking themselves last Monday morning for letting a good chance slip by. You would have to acknowledge Cork's persistence to stick at it when all looked lost at half time. They once again proved that they have the bottle and they know how to both wear down a side and finish off a job - this is a trait that both Clare and Wexford lack.

Naomh Eoin-Miseal 4-16, Muinebeag 1-10