Despite all the euphoria and elation, there was still a heavy air of disappointment and regret hanging in the air at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday. A memorable day for Irish athletics was just 0.2 of a second away from it being the greatest day ever.<\/p>\n
Less than an hour after Kate O\u2019Connor won a silver medal in the heptathlon at the World Championships, Cian McPhillips came 4th in the Men\u2019s 800m final, the blink of an eye behind three of the five fastest men in the history of the 800m \u2013 Kenya\u2019s Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Algeria\u2019s Djamel Sedjati and Marco Arop from Canada.<\/p>\n
It was an incredible performance from McPhillips in a stacked field with six of last year\u2019s eight Olympic finalists, including all three medallists. Wanyonyi\u2019s winning time of 1:41.86 on Saturday was a championship record. McPhillips\u2019 time of 1.42.15 set a national record.<\/p>\n
The first Irishman to reach a World Championships 800m final, McPhillips has the potential to be a global star. O\u2019Connor now is after a mind-blowing performance that saw the Dundalk woman record five PBs in her seven heptathlon events.<\/p>\n
It was an incredible day but Irish athletics is blessed with a golden generation at the moment. The country is teeming with talent but there is always a lingering question around whether Ireland could actually be a bigger player on the world sporting stage if GAA wasn\u2019t the dominant sport in this country?<\/p>\n
Kerry\u2019s Jason Foley is just one example. A highly talented sprinter and hurdler, Foley represented Ireland twice at underage level, finishing with silver medals in the hurdles in the SIAB Schools International and Celtic Games. His fastest time for the 100m when he was competing as a young athlete was 11.18. Foley had hopes of competing for Ireland until he was called into the Kerry minors by Jack O\u2019Connor in 2014. A decision had to be made. Foley choose football and left athletics behind.<\/p>\n
Speed has always been his biggest asset, but Foley\u2019s story underlines the vast number of talented runners lost to athletics because they choose the GAA. It’s a theme continually spoken about across Irish sport, especially in soccer and rugby. It\u2019s a particularly common discussion topic when it comes to comparing Irish rugby with New Zealand when both countries have similar populations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Ireland was a rugby playing nation and we didn\u2019t have GAA we would wipe the board with New Zealand every day,\u201d said Mick Galwey on \u2018From The Horse\u2019s Mouth\u2019 podcast in 2021. \u201cI have no doubt about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at Jack O\u2019Shea and I compare him to someone like the great New Zealand player Kieran Read. You think of all the great Dubs, even the great hurlers. The likes of Maurice Fitzgerald, my God, if you had them on a rugby pitch they\u2019d be phenomenal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Any athlete, rugby player, soccer player or someone competing in any other sporting discipline on the world or European stage has more than likely made a decision to focus on that particular sport at a certain age in their teens.<\/p>\n
Yet many of those with incredible talent in those disciplines never make that decision because of their love of the GAA, and their ambition to chase their goals on the national stage here.<\/p>\n
When Kilmaley\u2019s Conor Cleary won a high ball on the edge of the Eire \u00d3g square in the 24th minute of Saturday\u2019s Clare hurling semi-final in Cusack Park, it was a routine play Cleary has made hundreds of times in that area of the pitch. Except this time, Cleary wasn\u2019t looking to head back out the field \u2013 he was attempting to turn the other way and stick the ball in the net.<\/p>\n
A handful of \u00c9ire \u00d3g defenders surrounded Cleary before he threw the ball up and played it back over his head. It initially appeared to be a free-in but Cleary also looked, just in that instant, to be focussed on risk-minimisation and to be thinking like the great full-back he has been for Clare, and not the converted full-forward he has become for Kilmaley this year.<\/p>\n
It was the only time that happened all afternoon as Cleary played an effective roving attacking role, starting in the half-forward line, drifting back into the half-back line to hoover up breaks on opposition puckouts before loitering with serious intent around the goal.<\/p>\n
\u00c9ire \u00d3g eventually won the match by two points but Cleary\u2019s presence up front was almost the difference between the teams. On a wet and windy evening when every ball was ferociously contested, Cleary\u2019s capacity to win clean possession was never more valuable.<\/p>\n
From 13 plays, he scored 1-1, was involved in creating another 0-3, was fouled for two frees while he did brilliantly to set up a goal chance for Tom O\u2019Rourke in the 45th minute, whose shot was superbly saved by Darragh Stack.<\/p>\n
Kilmaley recognised the value of relocating a career defender to attack this year, just like numerous managers have in the past. The most famous of all was Brian Corcoran\u2019s recalibration from centre-back to full-forward when he came out of retirement for Cork in 2004.<\/p>\n
One of the greatest All-Ireland final story-lines was Brian Whelehan\u2019s switch from wing-back to full-forward in the second half of the 1998 final. Sick with a flu beforehand, Whelehan had been cleaned by Brian McEvoy in the first half before being moved to full-forward for the second half and completely changing the game, scoring 1-6, 1-3 from play. The only modern player chosen on the \u2018Team of the Millennium\u2019 \u2013 at wing-back \u2013 Whelehan won an All-Star at full-forward in 1998 on the back of just 35 minutes in the position.<\/p>\n
Whelehan and Corcoran are two of just seven players to win All-Stars as defenders and forwards, alongside John Conlon, Tommy Walsh, Ken McGrath, Michael \u2018Brick\u2019 Walsh and Kyle Hayes.<\/p>\n
Unlike Corcoran and Whelehan, the other five started as forwards before relocating to defence. Hayes is one of the most versatile hurlers to ever play the game but the pattern of players featuring at both ends of the field has been more prominent in Limerick than in any other county; Eamonn Cregan, Paudie Fitzmaurice, Willie Moore, Pat Hartigan, Jackie Power, Mossie Dowling, Ciar\u00e1n Carey, TJ Ryan, Brian Begley, Declan Hannon, Barry Nash.<\/p>\n
Moving from defence to attack, or attack to defence, works when good players make it work. And moving Cleary forward almost paid off for Kilmaley in this championship.<\/p>\n
The game was already over but Crossmolina\u2019s Kobe McDonald made sure it was in the 50th minute of yesterday\u2019s Mayo senior football quarter-final when his goal buried any hope of a Belmullet comeback.<\/p>\n
Crossmolina were impressive and McDonald was outstanding, scoring 1-5, including 1-3 from play, 1-2 with his right foot and 0-1 with his left, along with a 2point free off the ground.<\/p>\n
McDonald, who doesn\u2019t turn 18 until December, has that look of class and panache about him, which is understandable when he\u2019s the son of Kieran McDonald, one of the most talented and skilful players Mayo ever produced.<\/p>\n
Outstanding for the Mayo minors last year, McDonald has been superb in this championship for Crossmolina. It appears only a matter of time before McDonald is burning it up with the Mayo seniors.<\/p>\n
Sound familiar?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite all the euphoria and elation, there was still a heavy air of disappointment and regret hanging in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,22,129,19,17,119,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-78476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-hurling","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}