Two bronzes in Euro indoors last weekend, and many other great performances - Ireland can compete to some degree at this level - but Worlds & Olympics seem beyond us now. Of course Mary Cullen should have had at least silver, beaten by an Ethiopian running for Turkey.
Deja vu here, having already lost out on bronze in the Euro Cross Country, that time by a Kenyan running in Dutch colours. Most other sports have strict guidelines on international representation -
Mafi played a sevens game for NZ - once! - and can never play for Ireland now. It's a shambles, no better than Sonia cheated out of the medals in the World Champs all those years ago....
Speaking of shambles, Gerald McCarthy finally steps down -
his statement is well worth a read. It is mostly dignified & honest, with a few swipes too and parting shots - fair play. The Cork hurlers are a disgrace - really, who do they think they are? They wanted to be involved in choosing the manager, which they were. But what they really wanted was to pick the manager themselves, with no involvement from any other parties. I'm sure we'd all like to pick our boss. So then they strike, and refuse to talk to any mediator or enter any negotiations until McCarthy is ousted. I can only hope they have set Cork hurling back many years.
Kilkenny will be laughing all the way to their 4
th All-Ireland.
Kidney makes 4 changes - certainly some were expected, but no-one would have called these (even
Harty?). Great to see him mix it up - this team is just as strong, and those coming in will be hungry and motivated to keep their places for the potential Grand Slam game in Wales. Scotland will be tough- remember the single point win 2 years ago? Out of jail that day. But they should prevail.