As anyone with small children will know, making plans too far in advance can be a precarious practice.
We do at least have the scaffolding of the playschool or primary school calendar, but so many other factors – not least the Irish weather – mean that the whole operation is generally a week-to-week job, sometimes merely day-to-day.
You get used to being on the back foot, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any easier.
Maybe that’s why sport can be so comforting. If you support a team in the SSE Airtricity League of Ireland or follow one of the provinces in the URC and Champions Cup – or further down the chain in the Energia All-Ireland League – the unveiling of the fixture-list provides a bit more clarity to few months that follow.
You’ll know which grounds you’ll be attending, or at the very least have an idea of who you’ll be watching on television.
That’s why, even though we are only just into September – the time when the All-Ireland finals used to be played – the revealing of the draft schedule for the 2025 Munster Senior Hurling Championship provides a frisson of excitement.
In the old days, before any back door, a defeated All-Ireland finalist had to wait at least a year to gain revenge, hoping that they could once again come through their province – and that their conquerors would be able to retain their title.
Something that might soothe hurt feelings over the status quo regarding the schedule is the possibility of more live games on television next year
The GAA have made available two of the packages previously shown on the GAAGO streaming service – it will be interesting to see where they end up
Now, in an era when counties from the same province can meet with the Liam MacCarthy Cup on the line and when those same provincial championships are run on a round-robin basis, retribution can be achieved relatively quickly.
And Cork will hope that it turns out to be as quickly as possible, as they are set to travel to Cusack Park in Ennis to face the All-Ireland champions on the weekend of 19/20 April next year.
That the opening dates are in line with previous iterations of the championship – as well as the fact that, as you might have heard, Oasis are playing in Croke Park on August – means that the schedule will stay largely the same as it has been for the last few years.
20 July (hurling) and 27 July (football) are the dates that look probable for the two All-Ireland finals, which will disappoint some, especially as new GAA President Jarlath Burns had expressed the hope that the inter-county championships could be pushed back a week or two into August.
There is a sense that the longing for later finals is more a psychological one than simply being logical, and those making the decisions have to bear in mind that, while the county game brings in more revenue, the overwhelming majority of GAA players are club players.
Something that might soothe hurt feelings over the status quo regarding the schedule is the possibility of more live games on television next year – or at least more matches being available free-to-air.
The GAA have made available two of the packages that were previously shown on the GAAGO streaming service – it will be interesting to see where they end up.
Luck turns for Eddie Dunbar
Flashback to 2021 - Eddie Dunbar of Team Ineos during the senior men's road race at the 2021 Cycling Ireland Road National Championships in Wicklow. \ David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Well done to Eddie Dunbar on his big achievement in winning stage 11 of the Vuelta a España.
When it comes to matters cycling, Cillian Kelly (@irishpeloton) usually comes up with a worthwhile statistic and, after Dunbar’s late surge gave him victory, he summed up how well Irish riders tend to perform – in the past 20 years, only ten Irish riders have ridden a Grand Tour and six of them have won stages.
For Banteer native Dunbar, recent years have been frustrating as crashes have hampered him, none more so than in the second stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia, when he sustained knee ligament damage.
That he has bounced back in such fashion speaks to his character, but it comes as no surprise to Dan Curtin, one of Dunbar’s earliest coaches at O’Leary Stone Kanturk Cycling Club.
“It was always a trademark of ours, you go for it – don’t be sitting in there,” he said of Dunbar’s finish, as he streaked away from the rest of the leading pack.
“One thing he always had was that he was always cocky enough that way! There was nothing that he wouldn’t take on, he always had that mentality in his head – ‘I can be as good as anybody else'.”
Kanturk have sent five professional cyclists off into the world – and a former member, Josie Knight, recently won bronze at the Olympics, albeit for Great Britian – and the voluntary work by Curtin and others is of such value.
“It is possible to go far,” he said, “but you must put time into it.
“You need to put mileage in as you want to have a good base. Let everybody else be talking about monitors and this and that but I think that the monitors are holding up a lot of young fellas.
“It’s about hard work and that’s it,” he added.
Thomond Christmas cracker
While there had been some suggestions that Munster would be better off hosting their home URC game against Leinster on 27 December at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the province’s CEO Ian Flanagan was firm in his view that the financial reality of such a switch was not as lucrative as made out.
The match has been confirmed for Thomond Park, which will also host a game against an All Blacks XV in November.
One can see the rationale for Munster wanting to keep such events at their own home when it’s practical – a sell-out there makes for a better atmosphere than in a bigger ground that’s just over half-full.
As anyone with small children will know, making plans too far in advance can be a precarious practice.
We do at least have the scaffolding of the playschool or primary school calendar, but so many other factors – not least the Irish weather – mean that the whole operation is generally a week-to-week job, sometimes merely day-to-day.
You get used to being on the back foot, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any easier.
Maybe that’s why sport can be so comforting. If you support a team in the SSE Airtricity League of Ireland or follow one of the provinces in the URC and Champions Cup – or further down the chain in the Energia All-Ireland League – the unveiling of the fixture-list provides a bit more clarity to few months that follow.
You’ll know which grounds you’ll be attending, or at the very least have an idea of who you’ll be watching on television.
That’s why, even though we are only just into September – the time when the All-Ireland finals used to be played – the revealing of the draft schedule for the 2025 Munster Senior Hurling Championship provides a frisson of excitement.
In the old days, before any back door, a defeated All-Ireland finalist had to wait at least a year to gain revenge, hoping that they could once again come through their province – and that their conquerors would be able to retain their title.
Something that might soothe hurt feelings over the status quo regarding the schedule is the possibility of more live games on television next year
The GAA have made available two of the packages previously shown on the GAAGO streaming service – it will be interesting to see where they end up
Now, in an era when counties from the same province can meet with the Liam MacCarthy Cup on the line and when those same provincial championships are run on a round-robin basis, retribution can be achieved relatively quickly.
And Cork will hope that it turns out to be as quickly as possible, as they are set to travel to Cusack Park in Ennis to face the All-Ireland champions on the weekend of 19/20 April next year.
That the opening dates are in line with previous iterations of the championship – as well as the fact that, as you might have heard, Oasis are playing in Croke Park on August – means that the schedule will stay largely the same as it has been for the last few years.
20 July (hurling) and 27 July (football) are the dates that look probable for the two All-Ireland finals, which will disappoint some, especially as new GAA President Jarlath Burns had expressed the hope that the inter-county championships could be pushed back a week or two into August.
There is a sense that the longing for later finals is more a psychological one than simply being logical, and those making the decisions have to bear in mind that, while the county game brings in more revenue, the overwhelming majority of GAA players are club players.
Something that might soothe hurt feelings over the status quo regarding the schedule is the possibility of more live games on television next year – or at least more matches being available free-to-air.
The GAA have made available two of the packages that were previously shown on the GAAGO streaming service – it will be interesting to see where they end up.
Luck turns for Eddie Dunbar
Flashback to 2021 - Eddie Dunbar of Team Ineos during the senior men's road race at the 2021 Cycling Ireland Road National Championships in Wicklow. \ David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Well done to Eddie Dunbar on his big achievement in winning stage 11 of the Vuelta a España.
When it comes to matters cycling, Cillian Kelly (@irishpeloton) usually comes up with a worthwhile statistic and, after Dunbar’s late surge gave him victory, he summed up how well Irish riders tend to perform – in the past 20 years, only ten Irish riders have ridden a Grand Tour and six of them have won stages.
For Banteer native Dunbar, recent years have been frustrating as crashes have hampered him, none more so than in the second stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia, when he sustained knee ligament damage.
That he has bounced back in such fashion speaks to his character, but it comes as no surprise to Dan Curtin, one of Dunbar’s earliest coaches at O’Leary Stone Kanturk Cycling Club.
“It was always a trademark of ours, you go for it – don’t be sitting in there,” he said of Dunbar’s finish, as he streaked away from the rest of the leading pack.
“One thing he always had was that he was always cocky enough that way! There was nothing that he wouldn’t take on, he always had that mentality in his head – ‘I can be as good as anybody else'.”
Kanturk have sent five professional cyclists off into the world – and a former member, Josie Knight, recently won bronze at the Olympics, albeit for Great Britian – and the voluntary work by Curtin and others is of such value.
“It is possible to go far,” he said, “but you must put time into it.
“You need to put mileage in as you want to have a good base. Let everybody else be talking about monitors and this and that but I think that the monitors are holding up a lot of young fellas.
“It’s about hard work and that’s it,” he added.
Thomond Christmas cracker
While there had been some suggestions that Munster would be better off hosting their home URC game against Leinster on 27 December at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the province’s CEO Ian Flanagan was firm in his view that the financial reality of such a switch was not as lucrative as made out.
The match has been confirmed for Thomond Park, which will also host a game against an All Blacks XV in November.
One can see the rationale for Munster wanting to keep such events at their own home when it’s practical – a sell-out there makes for a better atmosphere than in a bigger ground that’s just over half-full.
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