The IRFU last week announced a change to the central contract system that has underpinned Irish rugby’s success in the professional era, with provinces now expected to foot 40% of the salary bill of players on central contracts, with the IRFU saying the money saved will go towards investing in the three provinces outside of Leinster.

On this week’s podcast, Sinéad and Gavin discuss the IRFU’s policy change, and whether its an admission the central contract system has failed. To what extent have the IRFU placed a thumb on the scale to further help Leinster, or is Leinster’s dominance an inevitable result of Irish rugby finding the best way to success? Are Leinster’s advantages unfair to the rest of Irish rugby, or should the other provinces pull up their socks? Have Joe Schmidt and Andy Farrell been wrong to pick so many Leinster players for the Irish team?

What kind of problems will arise across Irish rugby if the inequalities are not addressed? And does this policy change go far enough - or is something more radical needed?

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This week’s episode of The42 FM is brought to you by An Post Money

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Rory McIlroy has entered an exclusive club: the subject of back-to-back episodes of The 42FM. Oh, and he’s also become the first Irish golfer to win the Masters and the first European golfer to win the career Grand Slam. Having spoke last week of McIlroy’s years-long quest to win the Masters, Sinéad and Gavin this week reflect on how we he went and did it.

They relieve their experiences of one of the most astonishing and tense nights in the history of Irish sport, and discuss how, exactly, so many people became invested in McIlroy’s story.

How did a golfer manage to bring the whole country together to live the drama? Why has McIlroy been so open with his emotions on his journey to the Masters, and should we expect that of all sportspeople? Was his wildly inconsistent performance simply an exhibition of human genius? And what does McIlroy’s victory say about sport and, in turn, about life?

Get in touch - [email protected] and [email protected]This week’s episode of The42 FM is brought to you by An Post Money. 

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On this week’s podcast, Sinéad and Gavin dive into the epic quest that has become of Rory McIlroy’s efforts to win the Masters. Why does winning the Masters mean so much to McIlroy, and why has he struggled so often at the tournament? And how have all of his heartbreaks and near-misses changed how the Irish public think about McIlroy? Why is he more popular now than when he was winning, and the dominant golfer in the game?

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This week’s episode of The42 FM is brought to you by An Post Money.

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One of five kids in Ireland drop out of sport when transitioning from primary school to secondary school, and the average age at which a child drops out of sport is 11. On this week's podcast, Sinéad and Gavin discuss the consequences of this drop-out, and what can be done to stop it.

Research and anecdotal evidence suggest the single biggest reason behind kids' waning interest in sport is its competitiveness from too early an age. What role do coaches and parents play in creating this overly-competitive environment, and do the media create problems by celebrating winners and champions, thereby promoting highly unrealistic career paths for kids?

Is streaming according to ability the right or wrong thing to do? Also, what is sport without competition? At what age point does sport need to stress the importance of competition and winning/losing over providing equal opportunities for everyone to play?

Sinéad and Gavin also discuss their different experiences: Sinéad continues to play sport while Gavin dropped out years ago. How have these decisions shaped them, and what are their regrets?

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This week’s episode of The42 FM is brought to you by An Post Money.

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Conor McGregor caused a national jolt by turning up at the White House on St Patrick’s Day, and McGregor has since doubled down on his intentions to run for President later this year. On this week’s show, Sinéad and Gavin discuss the prospect of McGregor running for president. Sinéad explains the criteria around running for president, and how McGregor may plot a route to the ballot paper. They also discuss the role of Elon Musk: why is he so interested in McGregor, and Ireland? Is Musk in fact now one of the most powerful people in the history of the world?

They also ask why the Trump White House are so closely associated with MMA figures like McGregor, and why the Trump administration is changing what we understand of ‘sportswashing.’ Trump has already bagged the mega events like the World Cup and Olympics, but is showing little interest so far in their organisation, and using them as vehicles for soft power. Instead he has become more closely aligned with combat sports, as through them he exerts a more obviously hard power.

Get in touch with the show - email [email protected] and [email protected]

This week’s episode of The 42FM is brought to you by An Post Money.

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On this week’s episode, Sinéad and Gavin discuss gambling in sport, and Ireland’s drawn-out means of tackling it. First they illustrate the extent to which the gambling industry has captured sport, to the point that it’s now some fans’ primary means of experiencing the sport. They explain how and why this has happened, and delve into some of its frightening consequences.

More than a decade after it was first proposed, the State this month enacted its new legislation aimed at regulating the gambling industry. Sinéad and Gavin take a look at what the law now says and what will change, analyse what aspects were watered down by industry lobbying, and forecast how the new laws may change certain sports. They also delve into the long delay in passing the legislation, explain why there are going to be still more delays before the general public see substantive changes in gambling advertising and visibility, and then ask if we are far too late in addressing the problem.

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This week’s episode of The42 FM is brought to you by An Post Money.

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On this week’s podcast, and off the back of Sarah Healy, Mark English and Kate O’Connor’s medals at the European Indoor Championships, Sinéad and Gavin choose not to spend too long basking in the Ireland’s latest athletics success. They are joined by former 50km walk world champion and RTÉ pundit Rob Heffernan to look beneath the surface of the medals and ask: are these medals because of the Irish system, or in spite of it?

Rob explains what Irish athletics is doing well at an elite level, and what it must do better.

Having founded an athletics club in Cork, Rob is also well-placed to explain the challenges and opportunities at a grassroots level. He explains why the State needs to do more to improve PE hours in school, why investment in facilities is necessary, and why better talent ID is needed for Ireland to capitalise on its potential at a moment major medals has thrust the sport into the national spotlight.

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This week’s episode of The42 FM is brought to you by An Post Money.

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Gavin last week met our new sports ministers for the first time, who told him that the government’s promised funding for professional football academies is ‘not imminent.’

The comment caused despair in football circles, and the necessity for his money is the centre of this week’s episode. Sinéad and Gavin delve into the minister’s comments and wonder why they are so slow to follow through on their promises, before Gavin give the reality on the ground as to why the funding is already too late.

While there have been headline successes like Mason Melia’s record transfer from St Pat’s to Tottenham, the reality is the academy system is not close to replacing elite player development opportunities that have been lost to Irish kids since Brexit. Gavin has to stats to prove this, and they show that the question you should be asking yourself about our national teams is not ‘How have we become so bad?’, but ‘How are we still so good?’

Sinéad probes the broader questions: Is it really appropriate for taxpayer money to fund the development of a small number of elite athletes? And can the FAI be trusted with this money anyway?

Plus, there’s some listener feedback on last week’s topic of whether the sports media should play a role in helping the national team, and does Irish rugby get softer media coverage than other sports?

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This week’s episode of The42 FM is brought to you by An Post Money.

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The manner of the exit of Colin Healy from his role as assistant manager with the Irish women's national team has provoked intense criticism of the Football Association of Ireland, and the story refuses to go away. On this week's episode of The 42FM, Gavin and Sinéad explain the background to Healy's exit, why it has proved contentious, and the questions it raises around the competence of the people running Irish football, specifically the FAI's chief football officer, Marc Canham.

They also zoom out on the wider state of the game in Ireland, look at some of the fundamental problems holding the game back in Ireland, and analyse Canham's 'pathways plan' intended to fix many of these issues. Will the FAI's handling of high-profile issues like Healy's exit ultimately damage their plan to overhaul the sport in Ireland, and if so, does Irish football ever have any hope of fulfilling its potential?

Gavin and Sinéad also discuss the media narrative around Ireland's Six Nations game against Wales. Are we actually an arrogant people? And is it really the Irish media's job to stay on-message to the benefit of the Irish team?

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This week’s episode of The 42FM is brought to you by An Post Money.

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The amateur filling an 82,000-capacity stadium before returning to the day job on Monday morning is one of the sources of pride among GAA folk.

But how long will players be content to train as professionals and generate tens of millions in gate receipts and commercial revenue and go unpaid - while all around them are earning money? Perhaps not long if you go by what Limerick hurler Tom Morrissey wrote in the Irish Times at the weekend.

Everybody on All-Ireland final days, he says, from management teams to media to food vendors and security staff are professional. But the main actors are doing it for nothing but the honour of representing their county and a modest grant payment.

Morrissey cites a recent GPA-commissioned report which claims intercounty players generate €591 million annually for the economy and support more than 4,000 jobs but are out-of-pocket by an average of €4,500 each year.

The players union says this issue must be addressed urgently - which effectively means that the taxpayer has to make up the shortfall through grants and tax breaks. Is this fair to the exchequer, or should the GAA use their revenue to compensate players? But if that happens are we in a world of open professionalism, as opposed to the more covert kind which has existed for decades?

Gav and Sinead get into the details of the debate and try to work out the best Irish solution for this most Irish of problems.

Gav wonders if the GPA has gone full Flann O’Brien in their request for more money to preserve their amateur status. Just do away with the pretence of amateurism, which is long since dead, he says.

Sinead fears a Pandora’s Box if payments to players are regularised and argues that all-powerful county managers making unsustainable demands on amateur players need to be brought into line.

Also, in the name of economic impact reports - of the which the GPA is the latest purveyor - Gav calculates the considerable value to the Irish economy of this podcast.

Get in touch with the show: email [email protected] and [email protected]

This week’s episode of The 42FM is brought to you by An Post Money.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.