Indo GAA

Kerry are the 2022 football league champions with a fifteen point hammering of Mayo over the weekend but it was David Clifford’s magic that once again set the game apart.

Donnchadh Boyle and Dick Clerkin joined Sinéad Kissane on this week’s Throw-In podcast to discuss all the football action and while Clifford’s 1-06 was breathtaking, it’s the rest of his game that really makes him special says Clerkin.

“He is so creative, not just with himself, and to me that almost sets him apart. He just does so much damage to a team - again not just from his own boot, but from his own hands and vision - you could probably associate at least a goal and fifteen to him directly yesterday. It's just a phenomenal return for one player in an attacking unit that you know I've never seen myself, but I guess we're just privileged to be watching it at the minute.”

Roscommon collected the Division 2 title with an injury time goal to seal the win over Galway while Cavan took Division 4 with victory over Tipperary and in Division 3 Mickey Harte continues to work his managerial wonders with Louth’s win over Limerick that sees the Wee County return to Division 2.

Meanwhile, in the hurling, John Mullane joined Sinéad and Donnchadh to look back on Waterford’s fourth hurling league title after the Déise beat Cork by six points and 2022 could be a special year for the county he says.

“They went up, collected the cup, took the congratulations, took the pats on the back and it was a case of we move on, Championship in two weeks’ time and that's a sign of a really, really good team and what possibly could become a great team. They know what they want to achieve and I think everything's in place for them to go and possibly achieve the ultimate this year.”

Every Monday the Throw-In brings you the best insights and analysis from all the weekend GAA action.

Listen and follow on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more visit the show page at:
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The Throw-In is in association with Allianz.

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Dublin relegated to Division 2 was just one of the many storylines from a fascinating and enthralling final round of football league games, but did the GAA miss a trick in not maximising the audience for an incredible, frantic day of football? Will we see the introduction of Friday night football as a way to whet people’s appetites even more?

Ciarán Whelan joined Will Slattery and Michael Verney on the latest Throw-In podcast to discuss all the main talking points from the weekend with Dublin’s relegation dominating.

“They can't complain,” said Whelan. “Their performance throughout the League was just far too patchy at times and it looked like they were getting a bit of structure back over the last two weeks but that wasn't prevalent in the first half yesterday and again they looked very, very disjointed, particularly from a defensive perspective.”

Elsewhere, there’s special mention also for Kerry and Mayo who meeting in the Division 1 final, and for Roscommon’s return to the top flight, plus Limerick and Louth’s promotion to Division 2.

Meanwhile, in the hurling, John Mullane was on the show to discuss the stunning statement of intent from Waterford in their 19-point mauling of Wexford in the League hurling semi-final.

“I think this Waterford team now are at the peak of their powers,” said Mullane. “I think they're ready to do something special and unfortunately for Wexford, they just came across a juggernaut yesterday.”

The Déise meet Cork, who beat Kilkenny in the other semi-final, in a final to savour. Will this be the year of something big for Waterford hurlers?

Every Monday the Throw-In brings you the best insights and analysis from all the weekend GAA action.

Listen and follow on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.
For more visit the show page at:
www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-throw-in/

The Throw-In is in association with Allianz.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With a second win in-a-row, have Dublin now steadied the ship? Philly McMahon joined Will Slattery and Michael Verney on this week’s Throw-In podcast and he thinks there’s now a calmness to their play and a leadership that was previously lacking which are all good signs for the months ahead.

Philly also discusses Kerry’s top of the table form and believes their dominance means they are now more in the heads of the players from the other counties.

On David Clifford and how to stop him, Philly remembers the 2019 All-Ireland final when he he was marking Tommy Walsh but was still keen to get in Clifford’s ear.

“I'm sure Walsh was looking at me going 'you're marking me, why are you talking to him?' But there was still bits where he bit - you know you could say 'fair play to him for standing back up to you' blah, blah, blah but he bit and that for me was something that I always wanted to test. I would have definitely, in the last two managements, had conversations before games that I wanted to get a chance to mark him.”

In the hurling, the League semi-final match-ups are confirmed with Cork v Kilkenny and Wexford v Waterford next weekend and John Mullane joined Will and Michael to give his run-down of each county’s chances and why he’s rubbishing talk as to whether teams should be saving themselves for the Championship soon after.

“Waterford's opponents next week, Wexford are going to go all out to win it. I would take it Kilkenny will go all out to win it and I would be thinking that Cork, home advantage by a home following, will go all out to win it. So, I think from a Waterford point of view, I think they should go all out next weekend, get to a League final. A League final is a League final.”

Every Monday the Throw-In brings you the best insights and analysis from all the weekend GAA action.

Listen and follow on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more visit the show page at:
www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-throw-in/

The Throw-In is in association with Allianz.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The football league action dominated over the weekend but it was off-pitch that was generating much of the headlines with Tom Parsons saying the GPA were prepared to take further action in the players’ stand-off with the GAA over expenses.

However, Dick Clerkin, who joined Will Slattery, Sinéad Kissane and Donnchadh Boyle on this week’s Throw-In podcast believes that a conversation over player welfare needs to take precedence over expenses first.

“What are the GPA looking for in terms of a sustainable model for the intercounty game?” he asked on the show. “Because I don't think anybody could agree that it should be ok that a county team should be asked to train seven days a week around the Championship season and that can be funded carte blanche because that's effectively what Tom Parsons was saying. If it is the case with the county teams now that it's the norm to be asked to train five to six times a week, that's not sustainable, that's not fair and it's not sustainable.”

Back to on-pitch matters, Dublin finally got their first league win of the year with a victory over Tyrone in Omagh, albeit against a very poor Tyrone performance and it begs the question will the defending All-Ireland champions even get out of Ulster at this rate?

In Tralee on Saturday night, Kerry edged out Mayo with a last-minute free but the panellists were predicting this could be the dress rehearsal for something bigger in Croke Park come the summer.

Meanwhile, in Division 2, Cork’s footballers are staring relegation in the face after another defeat, this time at the hands of Meath, and the question everybody is asking is, what has happened to Cork football and how can things improve?

Every Monday the Throw-In brings you the best insights and analysis from all the weekend GAA action.

Listen and follow on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more visit the show page at:
www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-throw-in/

The Throw-In is in association with Allianz.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With Wexford’s hurlers making it four wins from four in the League and booking their semi-final spot, Martin Storey joins Will, Michael and John Mullane to discuss the rise of his county under Darragh Egan and how 2022 could pan out for them.

“We need some sort of silverware in Wexford to get the ball rolling again and get everyone totally flying and get everyone in the county jizzed up,” says Storey. “It's the players that were improving gradually I think, they won three U21 Championships so it was a natural progression for them to start coming to their peak at 24, 25, 26 years of age to see are they able to compete at the top level in Ireland and they are competing but we still need to get a little bit more to be winning.”

Martin also discussed his club’s disappointing defeat in the camogie final on Sunday with Sarsfields beating Oulart 3-12 to 4-5 and had nothing but high praise for the commitment and skill on show by both teams and management.

Elsewhere in the hurling, Waterford laid down a marker with their ten point win over Tipperary with promising signs for the summer for Liam Cahill’s men, while Limerick’s winless League form continues as they drew with Clare in Ennis.

Should John Kiely be worried about the champions’ form as they focus on the three-in-a-row? John Mullane believes so, especially with a tough opening game down in Cork to come.

The Throw-In will have new episodes every Monday bringing you the best insights and analysis from all the weekend GAA action.

Listen and follow on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more visit the show page at:
www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-throw-in/

The Throw-In is in association with Allianz.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Philly McMahon joins Sinéad Kissane and Conor McKeon on this week’s Throw-In to look back on the main football league action and with the Dubs fourth loss in a row the big talking point.

It’s too easy and too lazy to blame the manager or the players he tells Sinéad when trying to explain the Dubs’ defeat to Kildare.

“It's complex, it's a collective shift of mindset that's needed right now. I think there has to be a spin off of you know this is what you've been fed in terms of information from outside that's impacted on the pitch, so what I'm saying basically is in a nutshell, the players are performing what they are thinking, right? You essentially are what you think.”

The panel also discuss the other Division 1 games including Mayo and Kerry leading the charge while, looking ahead to the Dubs’ next game against Tyrone, it’s a battle, says Philly that he would have relished and should be a challenge to excite the players.

Meanwhile, John Mullane was on the show to look back on the weekend hurling action and he’s excited by the performance put in by Cork with their defeat of Limerick.

“It's the first time I really thought to myself, Cork, back when Ó'hAilpín and Gardiner, the Rock, that team we came up against, it was the first time I said to myself this Cork team really mean business. They've been knocking on the door the last couple of years, they got to the All-Ireland final last year, but if you're a Cork supporter waking up this morning, you'd be some way excited of what you seen yesterday and I thought they were magnificent.”

Plus, Mullane and McKeon discuss Dublin’s victory over Tipp giving manager, Mattie Kenny, a level of consistency he’s been looking for from his team, while Wexford are also coming in under the radar with three wins from three.

The Throw-In will have new episodes every Monday bringing you the best insights and analysis from all the weekend GAA action.

Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts from.

For more visit the show page at:
www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-throw-in/

The Throw-In is in association with Allianz.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s Throw-In, Donnchadh Boyle, Dick Clerkin and Angela Walsh join Sinead Kissane to look back on the weekend’s football league action.

Dublin’s third loss in a row came at the hands of Mayo on Saturday night, and Dick Clerkin feels they are going to be in a dogfight to remain in Division 1 next season.

‘’There's no question about it, the pressure's on and they're in a place that they've never been having to fight for survival, so how that impacts on their squad and performance remains, well, I wouldn't say remains to be seen, it's not looking good at the minute, because I say they were in that going into the Mayo game, that sort of mindset and it didn't get them a whole pile further in terms of performance and obviously not in the result.’’

Kerry put on a dominant display on home soil in Killarney, with Donegal struggling to find any foothold into the game. Are Donegal facing into a similar battle with relegation as Dublin find themselves in? Donegal will be finding themselves under pressure to put in some good performances if they’re hoping to stay up.

This weekend also sees the GPA take their motion to the GAA congress to expedite integration of the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association. Angela Walsh feels there are still some questions to be asked around how this will look in practice:

‘’The Ladies Football have come on so much in years. And obviously it's all about the players but also, that association they have done so much work and they are really progressive. And I suppose what I would like maybe is, definitely more integration but at the same time I think the Ladies Gaelic do need a level of autonomy themselves, to be able to make their own decisions and you know as I said I'd like to see the fine print.”

The Throw-In will have new episodes every Monday bringing you the best insights and analysis from all the weekend GAA action.

For more visit the show page at:
www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-throw-in/

The Throw-In is in association with Allianz.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Croke Park has seen some history and dramatic days and the 2022 club finals at the weekend delivered in spades with Kilcoo’s heroics and Ballygunner’s history-making.

On this week’s Throw-In, John Mullane and Vincent Hogan join Will and Michael to look back on another pulsating weekend of GAA action.

The first club hurling title in Waterford’s history will be a boost to the county for the coming year says Mullane.

“This is coming a long time. Ballygunner have been knocking on the door for long enough. They've been getting to Munster club finals, it's well stated now their dominance in Waterford hurling and they got their just rewards on Saturday. I think it's going to have a massive, massive knock-on effect for Waterford hurling going forwards.”

Meanwhile, Tipp’s win over Kilkenny has increased the unrest in the county under Brian Cody – should they have done a Tyrone on it by replacing a long-term manager? And with Henry Shefflin’s impressive start to his county management career with Galway, the spotlight will be on Kilkenny for the coming months.

Limerick was everyone’s tip for success this year but they have lost their opening two games and it is because the focus is firmly on the All Ireland says Vincent Hogan.

“I don't think winning the League is what matters to Limerick this year because bear in mind, the All Ireland will be over on July 17th. So if you're looking to win your fourth All Ireland in five years, which I think Limerick will be focusing on, that will be their priority.”

The Throw-In will have new episodes every Monday bringing you the best insights and analysis from all the weekend GAA action.

For more visit the show page at:
www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-throw-in/

Listen and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.

The Throw-In is in association with Allianz.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dublin’s woes continued in Tralee on Saturday night and Ciarán Whelan joined Will Slattery and Michael Verney on this week’s Throw-In podcast to look back on all the weekend football action.

“I really thought Dublin would have been set up with a little bit more structure defensively going into the game,” says Whelan. “And then particularly in that fifteen minute period where Kerry just ate them. There was no effort to stem the flow of that period and it just meant Kerry could control the game.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Division 1, Armagh beat Tyrone as the All Ireland champions saw four players dismissed in a remarkable game; Donegal picked up their first win over Kildare; and Mayo overcame Monaghan.

In Division 2, Andy McEntee’s troubles continue with Meath’s loss to Roscommon who are joint top with Galway and Derry.

The hurling Leagues also began over the weekend with John Mullane joining the show and the biggest surprise of all coming from Wexford’s three point win over Limerick, pointing to Limerick’s one possible weakness in their squad depth.

But, for Mullane, he reckons Waterford and Dublin are two counties to watch in this coming campaign.

The Throw-In will have new episodes every Monday bringing you the best insights and analysis from all the weekend GAA action.

For more visit the show page at:
www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-throw-in/

Listen and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.

The Throw-In is in association with Allianz.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There weren’t many positives for Dublin after their opening league defeat to Armagh in Croke Park and on this week’s Throw-In podcast, Dick Clerkin joined Will Slattery and Michael Verney to look back on all the league football action.

“There was nothing new or fresh and that's probably the concerning thing if I was a Dublin fan looking at them,” said Clerkin. “It was the same sort of style of play that they developed in Jim Gavin's later years, very methodical, not much creativity.”

It promises to be a pressure cooker of a game for Dessie Farrell’s team next weekend against Kerry in Tralee, and with the Kingdom struggling in their draw against Kildare, both Dublin and Kerry will not want to be no wins from two after their clash.

Elsewhere in Division 1, Donegal let their lead slip against Mayo with pundits wondering if their intensity and aggression levels have dropped from years gone by?

Tyrone and Monaghan also played out a draw in Omagh and every point is going to be hard fought with little between the counties in the top division.

John Mullane also joined the panel to look ahead to the start of the hurling leagues next weekend and the big question is, can anyone take down Limerick?

Mullane reckons John Kiely’s men will look to add another League title to their trophy haul before going for their All-Ireland three-in-a-row and it’s up to the others to try and catch them.

With Henry Shefflin in charge of Galway, the Tribesmen will be under the microscope and what of Waterford’s chances as Liam Cahill looks to build on the Déise’s ambition to pick up a trophy in 2022? With Ballygunner in the club final, it could be something to build on for the county for the year to come.

Plus, is there something building in Dublin under Mattie Kenny? The game of the weekend looks to be Dublin v Waterford with the Dubs coming off the back of their early season success. Could a Leinster title be on the horizon? John Mullane is tipping them for a big year.

The Throw-In will have new episodes every Monday bringing you the best insights and analysis from all the weekend GAA action.

For more visit the show page at:
https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-throw-in/

Listen and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.

The Throw-In is in association with Allianz.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.