It’s only Tuesday but already feels like it’s Friday with the number of things happening in the world of sports this week, so let’s take a look at some of the stories making the headlines on KCLR and Scoreline.ie this morning.
Beginning with boxing this morning and local Olympian Darren O’Neill says it’s a privilege to be involved with the Irish Athletic Boxing Association having joined their board at the weekend, but there’s work to do to improve standards in the sport.
O’Neill, who led the Irish boxing team at the 2012 London Games was voted in as a non-executive director of the IABA at their AGM on Sunday. Speaking to our Full Time show last night, Darren says his appointment alongside that of Fiona Hennigan, coupled with a new CEO set to be appointed in the new year means now is the time to start putting the governance of boxing on a new course. You can listen to that full interview here.
Village on the move, again
There’s been a second change of time, and now venue, for this weekend’s AIB intermediate club camogie All-Ireland semi-final between James Stephens and Castlegar of Galway.
Refixed yesterday for 11.30am in Birr on Saturday, the game has now been pushed out to 1pm at the Maguire’s pitch at the University of Limerick south campus with the game set to stay on Saturday.
Tickets for the game, with adjusted details, are on sale from this morning. We’ll also have a full preview of that fixture on tonight’s edition of the Camán Caint podcast as we head towards the end of what’s been a very busy season of camogie.
Staying with Gaelic Games and tickets, there are no tickets released yet for the senior club All-Ireland hurling semi-finals as Ballyhale Shamrocks get set to take on Munster champions Ballygunner in a repeat of last year’s nail-biting All-Ireland final. While the final is set for Croke Park in late January, it’s possible we’ll see Chadwicks Wexford Park selected as a neutral venue this week. Dunloy or St. Thomas’s of Galway await the winners.
It’s also being reported this morning that Rower Inistioge’s Richie Leahy and Freshford’s James Maher will not be available to new Kilkenny senior hurling manager Derek Lyng are more players opt to take a season out for the 2023 campaign.
There’s also good news off the field of play on matters of health in sport with UPMC and the GAA announcing they’ve joined forces with the LGFA, Camogie Association and Gaelic Players Association to rule out a concussion baseline testing program for inter-county players across all 32 counties.
The aim of the appropriately named National Intercounty Concussion Baseline Testing Program is in rapidly diagnosing and treating concussions in players.
It puts player welfare to the fore again with Camogie Association president Hilda Breslin saying “they hope this program will not only help ensure our players have the right medical treatment if they sustain a concussion, but it will also provide important insight on concussive incidents in our games”
On the homefront, TInryland GFC have announced that former Irish rugby international Alison Miller will be part of the coaching team for the Bennekerry-Tinryland senior ladies’ football team, working under head coach Niall Barrett. Chris Townsend and Niall Lowry have been named as selectors for next season with Eamonn Byrne continuing as a statistician.
Carlow LGFA are also set to host their AGM this evening in the club rooms at O’Hanrahans, that one getting underway at eight o’clock. SETU Carlow also capped a great run in the Freshers hurling league division 2 last night with a cracking 4-12 to 1-20 win over UL (2).
World Cup Penalty Woes
We had our first penalty shootout of the World Cup last evening with Japan eventually crashing out to Croatia despite taking a 1-0 lead in the first half and holding on for extra time. Japan scored just one of four penalties as Croatia booked their place in the quarter-finals where they’ll meet Brazil on Friday.
Brazil made it looks easy against South Korea in the second game of the day as they finished 4-1 winners over South Korea.
The final two games of the last sixteen round take place today with Morocco and Spain going head to head at 3pm while Portugal and Switzerland meet for a place in the quarter-finals from 7pm.
And a reminder, if you missed it yesterday that the nominations for the November round of the David Buggy Motors Kilkenny Sport Star awards is up and running.
