My club football championship choices for 2024
Bobby Nugent and his St. Brigid's team-mates are being tipped for Roscommon senior football championship glory. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
The curtain went up on the Roscommon club football championships last weekend. They will be the bread and butter for players and supporters over the next 12 weeks. Tulsk, Creggs and St. Barry’s stole the show with great wins.
This week, I’m predicting who I believe will climb the steps of Dr. Hyde Park next October to collect silverware at senior, intermediate and Junior A championship levels.
Senior: St. Brigid’s are hotter favourites than the temperatures in Spain last week.
Their biggest enemy will be themselves. If they aren’t fully tuned-in, a team like Pádraig Pearses, with a full crew on board, could catch them in a quarter-final or a semi-final.
It's asking a lot of Boyle to come to the party for a third year in a row and challenge the Kiltoom men. Roscommon Gaels have a lot of good young players who are well capable of reaching a semi-final at least. Clann na nGael’s biggest problem is backing up one big performance with another. In my view, they lack the consistency to be considered real challengers.
As for the destination of the Fahey Cup, it’s impossible to see the silverware leaving its current residence in Kiltoom.
Intermediate: The front runners are Strokestown, but a good lawyer could make a strong case for either Éire Óg or Elphin.
It will be a big surprise if two of those three do not make it to the county final. Fuerty, despite last weekend’s defeat to Éire Óg, will be aiming to sneak in the back door if the top three mess up.
While they have ground to make up, Nigel Dineen will have Elphin ready for battle. If they can gather early momentum, they could be hard stopped.
A local derby against their Black and Amber neighbours would be tasty if it was to end up on the county final menu.
The cycle of previous years that saw beaten county finalists from the year before, Oran, Tulsk and St. Dominic’s, return the following year to win the title was broken in 2023 when Éire Óg fell short for the second year running. Could it be a case of third time lucky?
I’m sure manager Pat Doory will be happy as Éire Óg thrive on being written off. With the hurt and experience from last season’s defeat to Castlerea stored away, surely they have the motivation for another tilt at winning the Jimmy Murray Cup.
But I have a strong fancy for Elphin who will be defensively solid.
Junior A: After coming down from intermediate, the obvious choice is St. Aidan’s to catch the return flight.
Kilglass Gaels and Ballinameen will be in the hunt. Clann na nGael are like going on a blind date — you never know what might turn up.
St. Barry’s produced the win of the opening round with a convincing victory over St. Ronan’s, which has raised a few eyebrows. For St. Aidan’s, the journey began back to greener pastures with a narrow victory against Western Gaels.
Over the past decade, clubs like Michael Glaveys, Oran, Tulsk and St. Dominic’s found themselves trying to negotiate the tricky waters of this championship, which has provided some great excitement over the past few seasons.
I’m backing the Ballyforan crew to get the job done.
Away from the glamour and glitz of operating at the top level of the English WSL, a woman with County Roscommon blood flowing through her veins is working with bricks and mortar in the third tier.
Marie Hourihan’s grandparents, Nancy Guihen and Mickey Beirne, hailed from Arigna in North Roscommon. Marie’s mother Marian is a first cousin of former St. Ronan’s player, Joseph McGuire, known as The Bomber, who won an intermediate football championship with the club in 1986.
Marie is currently preparing for the start of the new soccer campaign with Stoke City in the third tier of the English Women’s League after retiring from international duty with 24 Irish caps two months before Vera Pauw’s Ireland qualified for a first World Cup finals.
In 2022, at the age of 35, she retired from the domestic game in England, having won two Women’s Super League titles with Chelsea and Manchester City and three Women’s FA Cups with Birmingham City, Chelsea and Manchester City.
Marie took her first steps into management with club side London Bees before being appointed Stoke City boss in July 2023. It was the Potters’ first campaign as a semi-professional outfit. In her first full season in charge, they finished fifth in a 12-team league.
Who knows what might happen down the line when Eileen Gleeson steps away from being the Irish women’s international manager. At the moment, a coach with Roscommon connections is busy building her own managerial CV.
Having represented her country as a goalkeeper, a future role as Irish women’s team manager might be more than just a pipe dream. The good folk from Argina might have a national star sowing the seeds for a rich harvest in years to come.
Over the course of the season, I will be keeping an eye on the progress of Marie and Stoke City in the English WSL Division Three, which starts at home against Nottingham Forest on Sunday, August 18th.
Imagine Marie walking out for a home game some weekend and a Roscommon flag flying high at the Emerys Stadium in Stoke-On-Trent.
In a week that saw two rowers from Cork grab the attention of the nation, I had lots of participants on the water hoping for glory.
Apart from Galway in 2024, can you name the last county to reach the All-Ireland SFC, LGFA and camogie senior finals in the same year? It was Cork in 2009.
Fr John McManus, PP Castlerea, was first to strike gold, with QPR, Frenchpark; Liam Dooley, Ballyhaunis; Michael Scally, Ballaghdeereen; Murt Hunt Ballyhaunis; John Wynne, Kilteevan; Cathal Corcoran, Galway City; John Croghan, Bundoran; Paddy Conlon, Taughmaconnell; Mary Gilfillan, Kilmore; Bernard Duffy, Longford/Loughglynn; David Callaghan, Castlerea; Pat, Sligo; Paddy Boland, Youghal; Kevin Flanagan, Dartford and Michael Kearns, Clapham also challenging for a podium finish.
This week’s Teaser. Can you name the only player to have played in an All-Ireland SHC final and a Joe McDonagh Cup hurling final?
Answers by e-mail to willieefc@gmail.com or by text to 086 8356227. This week’s teaser comes from London.
If there was an interprovincial football championship for trophies won this season, then Ulster would have romped to victory.
If it was a boxing match, it would have been stopped after a few rounds, such was the dominance by northern teams in the 2024 GAA football world.
All-Ireland SFC (Armagh); All-Ireland U-20 (Tyrone); All-Ireland minor (Derry); Tailteann Cup (Down); NFL Division One (Derry); NFL Division Two (Donegal); All-Ireland senior club (Glen); All-Ireland intermediate club (Cullyhanna); All-Ireland junior club (Arva); Sigerson Cup (UL) and Hogan Cup (Omagh CBS) — all these titles will spend the winter in Ulster, with six of the nine counties claiming at least one trophy.
The only two trophies missing for a clean sweep were the Division Three and Four NFL titles, with Down losing the Division Three decider to Westmeath.
Unique All-Ireland winners in both codes The All-Ireland winning hurlers from Clare and the footballers from Armagh have done something that no other county has ever done since the start of the championships back in 1888.
No player on either the Clare or Armagh teams, that won an All-Ireland medal this year, has ever won a provincial championship medal.
It’s the first time this has ever happened in the history of the GAA since the provincial championships were first introduced 136 years ago.
Star pupil: Conor Hand who scored 0-5 from play for St. Brigid’s during their routine championship win over Michael Glaveys.
Crucial win for: Tulsk who scored a dramatic injury-time win over Oran, courtesy of Kieran Donoghue’s goal.
Much do better: It was so unlike Pádraig Pearses to be caught by a late sucker punch against Clann na nGael, conceding 1-2 in stoppage time to leave Frank Canning’s side with work to do.
Spot of bother: It’s still impossible to work out how the judges came up with their scores in the Paris Olympics, as boxers Aoife O'Rourke and Daina Moorehouse found out to their cost during the week — it was so obvious that both fighters should have won.
Weekend highlight: I’m really enjoying the Olympics Games from Paris.
There’s so much variety and sporting brilliance from so many outstanding athletes in numerous events. I have to say that Irish badminton player Nhat Nguyen really caught my eye. The speed and skill required in the sport are unbelievable. The gold medal mixed doubles final between China and Korea was sensational.
The swimming and men’s gold medal tennis final between Novak Djokovic and Carlo Alcaraz were also outstanding.
What a cracker: Sligo Rovers hosting league leaders Shelbourne in the Showgrounds this Saturday night is like a Supermacs advert — tasty and tempting!
“The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs, one step at a time.”
The 2024 Paris Olympics will feature 329 medal events, the second most in the history of the Games (there were 339 at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics).
It’s all down to camogie as players competing in next weekend’s finals will provide the closing ceremony for the last of the four All-Ireland finals, which have taken place on successive Sundays in Croke Park.
After losing the senior men’s and ladies’ football finals, Galway will want to avoid an unwanted three in a row of All-Ireland final defeats in three different codes.
But they are facing a formidable Cork outfit that have been the standout team all season.
