Columns - Irish Examiner

John Fogarty

Six irregularities from a weekend riddled with discrepancies

Other than how referee John O’Brien could have got it so wrong on Saturday, the most pertinent question arising from the Christy Ring Cup final surrounded the role of HawkEye in Croke Park. 

Tue, 07 Jun, 2016

‘You’d be worried you’re categorised but there are enough smart people out there’

Waterford manager Derek McGrath on his fears that his obsession with hurling is affecting his job, his relationship with Davy Fitzgerald and being perceived as a pariah of the game

Fri, 03 Jun, 2016

The GPA can’t afford to lose funding fight

Four weeks into the championship and there is no getting away from that underwhelming feeling. At this juncture last year, the average winning/losing margin in provincial football games was 8.5 points. This time around, it’s slightly better at 7.4 but the truth is the best game of the summer thus far came not in Ulster, as is usually the case, but in New York.

Tue, 31 May, 2016

10 facts that haunt the Cork hurlers

Leaving Semple Stadium around 8.30pm on Sunday, the scoreboards at the Killinan and Town Ends still carried news of the day. They in themselves were damning enough of Cork’s performance but when put into context their display becomes a whole lot worse.

Tue, 24 May, 2016

GAA county jerseys have become one big advert

We’re hazarding a guess here, albeit a calculated one, but in the eight years Páraic Duffy has been GAA director general, only one issue has truly angered him. Plenty have frustrated him, mind. For one, the reaction to his discussion paper on payments to managers. Counties’ unwillingness thus far to get on board with the calendar year may be another.

Tue, 17 May, 2016

Club games must take priority

Let it never be said that replays aren’t nuisances.

Tue, 03 May, 2016

If there’s a way to beat Dublin, Éamonn Fitzmaurice will find it

For a while there, the dunes of Banna Strand were threatening to become for Kerry what the hill in Crusheen was for the Clare hurlers in 1995 or the Spartan-esque Bere Island for Cork’s footballers in 2010. 

Tue, 26 Apr, 2016

Roll up, roll up, for the faceless final

Maybe it’s because we’re so used to seeing Kilkenny front and centre after most games but it seemed they spent an inordinate amount of time behind their dressing room door on Sunday.

Tue, 19 Apr, 2016

Kerry no longer regal but ever so real

In his report to annual convention last December, Down secretary Seán Óg McAteer took the opportunity to answer his critics after their protracted senior football managerial appointment process.

Tue, 12 Apr, 2016