By Patrick Sharkey,
Episode 56: Westmeath aim to raid Orchard and send Saffrons packing – The GAA Zone podcast
Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada will host the TG4 LGFA All-Ireland Senior Quarter-Final between Dublin and Donegal.
Louth limped out of the TG4 All-Ireland intermediate quarter-final against a more-rounded Roscommon side in a game to forget at Kinnegad on Sunday afternoon. A similar thing happened higher up the ranks.
Playing Gaelic games at the inter-county level is costing players an average of €1450 per month.
Armagh captain Kelly Mallon has been selected as The Croke Park/LGFA Player of the Month for May. Tipperary players would feel lucky that they did not have to face Armagh in the league, but they did fall short to Kerry on the first day and their former captain Samantha Lambert spoke about it on episode 45 of the GAA Zone podcast saying: “I suppose they had a mixture of a league campaign.”
The Ladies Gaelic Football Association is delighted to confirm Zu Car as the new title sponsor of the All-Ireland Ladies Minor Football Championships. This shows further progress in the ladies’ game and the belter of a game when Laois beat Tipperary earlier in the season by two points when Lambert said: “Yes, I suppose we might have gone in not knowing Laois too much. I know over the years we played them in challenge matches but not too much in competitive games in the last couple of years so. Maybe they weren’t aware of the threat Laois put up. So, I suppose losing to Laois put them under pressure for the rest of the league. I know the game against Clare then they were under serious pressure if they would be in a relegation game not knowing if they were going down or not.”
Goal-hungry Antrim booked their place in the semi-finals of the All-Ireland Ladies Football Championship as they demolished New York at a sunny and windy Davitt Park on Sunday afternoon.
Clare’s ladies’ footballers went in search of a place in the semi-finals of the All-Ireland intermediate championship on Sunday afternoon. It was a bounce back from finding themselves in a relegation playoff in the spring thanks to Tipperary and Samantha looked back on it saying: “Yes that was extremely important. Look, Tipp are without a fair few of their important players, yes and I know to look you can’t talk about key players who are not there, but you must talk about the players who are”.
Armagh GAA club Clann Éireann has issued a statement, condemning online attacks on one of their players, Tiernan Kelly, who was the focus of much of the criticism after Sunday’s brawl during the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final between the county and Galway. While the Mayo senior men played last Sunday after that infamous brawl, the Mayo ladies had a convincing win over Tipperary to start their All-Ireland championship campaign and the teacher talked about it saying: “Yeah look, they were put into a tough pool. No matter what pool you were put into in the ladies’ football championship this year or any year in the last couple of years because the standard has been so much. It’s not going to be easy, and Mayo was our first game. 1-16 is a fair bit of scoring by Mayo themselves and look they are a team that has gelled over the past number of years, whereas I suppose we are going through a big transition at the minute, and I think they learned a lot from that game. Mayo has a few players who are very, very senior, whereas Tipp has a very young team. Plenty of potential but as I said they learn from every game they played.” The report says the vilification of Kelly has been unjust.
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