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Mary Hannigan: The championship misses the jeopardy of knockout football

Limerick won’t want to see Clare in the hurling championship again; and Nathan Collins on passing ‘the hype torch’ to Evan Ferguson

Carlow and New York. The Tailteann Cup is about giving players and teams hope, extra games is crucial to that, writes Jim McGuinness. Photograph: Evan Treacy/Inpho

Mary Hannigan's face
Mary Hannigan
Tue Jun 13 2023 - 10:03

There’s a more than reasonable chance that Jim McGuinness isn’t alone in pining for some “raw, knockout fare” in the football championship, “bringing it back to what it was in its heyday”. The current structure, he argues in his column today, allows for “too many games to eliminate too few teams”.

Jim, then, comes up with own his proposal to spice things up a little, the key requirement, he writes, to remove the safety nets and bring back “the jeopardy of knockout football”.

Clare’s defeat by Limerick last Sunday didn’t result in a knockout either, and Malachy Clerkin has a notion that after the mother of all scraps at the Gaelic Grounds, “Limerick won’t want to see them again” in this year’s hurling championship.

But the defending champions now have a four week break to recharge their batteries, just two matches remaining between them and an All-Ireland four-in-a-row. Seán Moran hears from Limerick captain Declan Hannon who is loving the journey. “We’re having the time of our lives, to be honest,” he says.

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Johnny Sexton won’t be loving the rumours doing the rounds about the EPCR’s investigation into his behaviour after May’s Champions Cup Final when he, well, had a word with the referee and his assistants following Leinster’s defeat by La Rochelle. John O’Sullivan updates us on the chat, the worst possible outcome Sexton being ruled out of Ireland’s World Cup build-up games.

In soccer, Gavin Cummiskey talks to Nathan Collins ahead of the Republic of Ireland’s European Championships qualifier against Greece in Athens on Friday, the defender mightily received that “the hype torch” has passed from him to his team-mate Evan Ferguson.

In golf, Matt Fitzpatrick talks to Philip Reid about his hopes of defending his US Open title when the tournament gets under way on Thursday. He took the trophy with him on holidays in Italy after his triumph at Brookline last June before returning it. “I was sad (about handing it back), I didn’t feel like I spent enough time with it really,” he says.

Aidan O’Brien’s trophy cabinet is, of course, overflowing – and it’s likely to have a few more additions after next week’s Royal Ascot. He needs one more winner there to tie Michael Stoute’s all-time record haul, and, Brian O’Connor tells us, given the depth of talent being readied for the meeting, “Stoute might be forgiven for looking over his shoulder like Indiana Jones in the famous boulder-chase scene”.

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