Michael Murphy’s fourth All-Ireland SFC semi-final, 14 years after his first, saw him make way with 25 minutes left, the job done. In his first appearance at that stage in 2011 (which, amazingly, was Murphy’s fifth season on the Donegal squad), he operated a long way from goal in the infamous 0-8 to 0-6 defeat to Dublin.
“I was very surprised,” noted Irish Times columnist John O’Keeffe the next day, “we didn’t see Michael Murphy as a target man at any stage ... That told me they had no idea how to win the game.”
O’Keeffe’s analysis of Donegal has aged very well in general. In the hysteria surrounding that uber-defensive performance, the Kerry icon called it astutely.
“As for Donegal, we shouldn’t be too hard on them. Jimmy McGuinness will take a lot of flak after this but we have to remember that this is year one of what he’s trying to achieve up there. He’s going to find an awful lot of people who don’t agree with what he sent his team out to do yesterday but, as a starting point, this is exactly the kind of year he would have sought,” he wrote.
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“They will learn from this ... But the reality is they’re going to need a better attacking strategy if they’re going to win an All-Ireland title.”
A year later, Murphy was devastating at full forward in the final and Sam was for the hills.
Kilmainhamwood’s Chappell Roan unleashes a hit
It had to happen – the first viral GAA-themed song of the summer hit the airwaves during the week and it’s a classic of the genre.
The track, Hot For Meath (with apologies to Chappell Roan’s Hot To Go) was written and performed by Kilmainhamwood GFC chairman, and player, Richard Corbally. A video of Corbally singing the chorus in a bar after the quarter-final win over Galway was shared by the local We Are Meath podcast and took off; Corbally roped in producer Donal Bowens and recorded it professionally, also filming a video.
The synth-pop belter is an infuriatingly catchy earworm which leans into the cheesiness; social media reviews have been mixed (when are they ever not?) but at the time of writing, it has amassed close to half a million views online.
“Meath are winning games with Robbie Brennan/First thing that he did was bring back Menton,” begins Corbally, with the chorus continuing in the same vein: “M-A-T-T Costello/Jordan Morris scoring goals/Duke and Hickey on the wing/Donal Keogan still the king.”
Unfortunately for Richard, as one tweeter rather unkindly pointed out, Meath were hot to go – out of the championship. Ouch.
David’s stats are Goliath-like
David Clifford is unsurprisingly the betting favourite to be crowned Footballer of the Year for the third time in four years, having struck 4-23 in the knock-out stages of this year’s All-Ireland SFC alone.
His stats are eye-watering and approaching prime Tiger Woods levels now in terms of sheer outlandishness. Both were prodigies (in his last two minor matches for the Kingdom, Clifford scored a combined 5-15) and both managed the difficult feat of actually surpassing the hype at the top level.
Clifford’s average score per game at senior is 5.73 points; his 2025 average is 8.29. Within that, he has landed 12 two-pointers but even adjusted for that his average this year is 7.43 points per game.
In 90 senior matches, he has scored 41-393, 35-293 coming from open play. Woods had won eight Majors by the time he was 26; Clifford has just one to date.
Century not out for McGuinness – sort of
Sunday marked Jim McGuinness’s 100th senior match in charge of Donegal – sort of.
After the county won the All-Ireland in 2012, they decamped to Dubai for a team holiday, with then under-21 manager Maxie Curran given charge of the team for the McKenna Cup, which threw in on January 9th that year.
McGuinness had returned in time for that match (against Fermanagh) and the two which followed in the competition against Monaghan and St Mary’s College but sat in the stand for all three and had no involvement in the team on match day.
So, while there have technically been 103 senior matches during his two terms as manager, McGuinness has managed the team himself on exactly 100 occasions. Not a bad way to mark the century, to be fair.
Quote
“There’s a massive smell of Meath ’96 about this.” – Former Meath star Paul Shankey, who has recently stepped down as Waterford senior football manager, was bullish on RTÉ about the Royals’ chances.
Number: 135
Senior appearances for Kildare stalwart Mick O’Grady, who got his hands on some long-awaited silverware as the Lilywhites claimed the Tailteann Cup.
