With the World Cup put to bed, now it’s time for the real footballing stars to take centrestage as Jack O’Connor’s Kerry look to retain the Sam Maguire Cup against Andy Moran’s Mayo.
O’Connor named his team for Sunday’s decider last night, nary a change from their semi-final win over Dublin. Moran named his team this morning and there is one change from the semi-final win over Louth, with Conor Loftus coming in.
Among the Kingdom’s starters on Sunday is Diarmuid O’Connor. Currently on summer holidays, the secondary school teacher told Ian O’Riordan about the need for structure to keep a clear head facing into what will be his sixth All-Ireland decider.
In the other dressingroom at Croke Park on Sunday will be Jack Carney. Kevin Egan heard from the Kilmeena man, who said Mayo are focusing on the process in the hope it will earn them a long-long-long-awaited win, “and there is no obsession over history”.
Darragh Ó Sé’s player-by-player guide to Kerry’s starting team for the All-Ireland final
Stephen Rochford’s player-by-player guide to Mayo’s starting team for the All-Ireland final
Kerry v Mayo: TV details, throw-in time, team news for All-Ireland football final
Why has a clip of David Clifford, viewed over 38 million times, gone around the world?
After their Connacht semi-final defeat to Roscommon back in April, few in Mayo would have been booking the train to Dublin for this weekend, and yet here they are. In a converse approach, Cork side Ringmahon Rangers put the cart before the horse in deciding to hand Bohemians a walk-over in the FAI Cup second round as they foresaw the fixture would clash with last weekend’s All-Ireland hurling final. Gavin Cooney looks at the additional factors the contributed to the sorry saga and how “Irish football remains hopelessly cloaked in the GAA’s long and imposing shadow”.
In post-World Cup news, Jurgen Klopp has been appointed head coach of the German national team. The 59-year-old former Liverpool manager was on German TV for the tournament working as a pundit, where he delivered some critiques of then coach Julian Nagelsmann. You’d have to imagine German channels are currently reaching out to Nagelsmann to ask if he fancies being a pundit for some of Klopp’s games. What goes around comes around, and all that.
As the Tour de France peloton whizz their way around the Alps, Ian O’Riordan has the tale of the “incomprehensible, intriguing and enigmatic” Mick ‘The Iron Man’ Murphy, while in rugby, Matt Williams looks back at the opening rounds of the Nations Championship, which left him rather deflated as to Ireland’s place in the international pecking order.
And should Monday roll around and you find yourself rudderless as the sun begins to set on our sporting summer, fear not – Brian O’Connor previews the Galway Races Summer Festival which gets under way at Ballybrit on Monday.
TV Watch: Sky Sports Golf has coverage of the Women’s Scottish Open from 9.30am with Leona Maguire, Lauren Walsh and Anna Foster in action. Later, the Tour de France has reached the lung-busting Alpe d’Huez for stage 19 (TG4 and TNT Sports 1, 1pm), while LOITV has coverage of St Patrick’s Athletic v Dundalk in the Premier Division (8pm).
