Mullin heading to Geelong once again; Where are all the Qataris?

The ‘will he stay or will he go’, on again, off again nature of Oisín Mullin’s move to the AFL has swung once again into the ‘he’s leaving’ category after both the Geelong Cats and the Mayo county board confirmed late last night that the former young player of the year is moving down under. It is a huge blow for new manager Kevin McStay ahead of his first campaign in charge of Mayo. Mullin agreed to sign for the Melbourne club back in November of last year before changing his mind and remaining in Ireland. He was part of the Mayo team that exited the Championship this year with a quarter-final defeat against Kerry. Now, the defender will sign as a Category B rookie for the 2023 season.

“This is not the Qatar World Cup, it’s the first World Cup to be hosted by India.” Our man out in Doha, Gavin Cummiskey, has noticed one overriding thing about his trip to the Middle East so far: the country relies upon a middle class of educated Indians to function. He continues: “Other south Asians and Africans do the lower paid jobs, with Europeans creaming off the top, but the peninsula is driven by Indian expatriates who follow the rules. The Indians run Doha. They co-ordinate the roaming, fake supporters. It is the Indians who possess encyclopaedic knowledge of a metrolink that makes Blade Runner feel dated.” Back to the on-pitch action, you can find Ken Early’s report of Uruguay and South Korea’s 0-0 draw here, while there were also wins for Brazil and Portugal yesterday. Mary Hannigan has all the news you don’t know about from the tournament. Away from Qatar, a prominent footballer has been arrested in Iran in a move that is widely seen as a warning to the country’s footballers who have apparently shown support to anti-government protests back home.

Ronan O’Gara has offered some insight into his mysterious 10-week ban handed down by the LNR though no party involved yet has actually said what he did wrong. O’Gara did reveal that he and the powers that be at La Rochelle will consider an appeal, and that it wasn’t something he said to a referee that got him in trouble, but rather something that came out of a video analysis package of Toulouse back in October. “Within five days, when we know what the club and I are doing, we’ll be in a position to talk about it. It’s already wasted a lot of my time preparing for yesterday’s hearing. I don’t want to jeopardise anything,” said O’Gara, explaining his decision not to go into further detail.

“As someone who traded more on the straightforwardness of his approach to problems and a disinclination to equivocate, Seán McCague never projected himself as a prophet of change. But it’s hard to think of a president who proved as influential across a broad range of issues.” Seán Moran pays tribute to former GAA president Seán McCague after his death aged 77.