Articles in the Sports News Category

COLM SHALVEY COMMENTARY In a year like no other, the local club championships have been as keenly contested as ever and a very welcome distraction. They are set to conclude on an actionpacked weekend, as for the first time, the SFC, IFC and JFC Finals all take place over the space of two days. The new championship format for the year has received a largely warm welcome and while many of the games have had to be played behind closed doors, the introduction of live-streaming has brought them to a wider ...

The Government has announced that crowds of 200 people will be allowed to attend matches where the capacity of the stadium is over 5,000. Grounds with a capacity of less than 5,000 may hold matches with an attendance of up to 100 people. The announcement arrived just two days after Monaghan’s county hurling final day but in time for a big weekend in the county, with the SFC, IFC and JFC deciders down …

Colm Shalvey reports The ongoing restrictions have seen the club championships progress in front of sparse crowds, even in the vast spaces of St. Tiarnach’s Park, but the streaming services have at least brought the action to wider audiences. Monaghan GAA TV’s coverage reached 22 countries (as far flung as Australia) last weekend and anyone tuning in to the second semi-finals in the SFC and IFC would have been enthralled by some of the best club championship action seen in the county. Scotstown’s routine win over Carrickmacross (with SFC top scorer ...

COLM SHALVEY The AM Hurleys Senior and Junior Hurling Championship Finals take centre stage (albeit behind closed doors) in Clones this Sunday. The SHC decider features a repeat of last year’s pairing, with Castleblayney once again putting their title on the line against an improving Truagh side. It’s a second consecutive county final appearance for Truagh, who put it up to Blayney for much of the 2019 game in front of a bumper crowd, only for Fergal Rafter and Mark Treanor to hit 1-14 between them and fire the favourites ...

THE NEW NORMAL: Supporters watch from a distance the Monaghan County Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final match between Truagh and Inniskeen at St Marys Park in Castleblaney. © PHILIP FITZPATRICK

JOHN GRAHAM All of the championship matches in the county this weekend will be going out live on Monaghan GAA TV as the County Board have finalised an arrangement with a Galway company to live stream all of the games to compensate for the fact that the games are being played behind closed doors, ostensibly. Aughnamullen star Micheal Bannigan agreed that the championship this year was very different both in format and in the restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic. “Yes, it is something very different but if someone had ...

John Graham It’s another jam packed and action packed weekend with twelve championship matches scheduled between relegation play offs in the McElvaney’s Waste & Recycling Intermediate and Greenfield Foods Senior Championships and quarter-finals in the Universal Graphics Junior Football championship spread over Saturday and Sunday. The action gets under way at 2:30pm on Saturday, with two play offs in the Greenfield Foods Senior Football Championship, Clontibret seeking redemption following their exit from the series last Sunday when they take on Castleblayney in Cremartin and Carrickmacross is the venue for the meeting ...

Colm Shalvey reports Can champions Clontibret complete great escape in relegation play-off? Amid the ongoing restrictions and after a final round of group games where the slimmest of margins sent some teams on separate paths towards the top end or the relegation shake-up, the Monaghan club football championships reach the knockout stages this weekend. The messy sideline scenes towards the end of the Latton v Carrickmacross game garnered the headlines on a weekend where there were many talking points across the grades, not least holders Clontibret losing their grip on the Mick ...

Club football championship groups reach the final round Colm Shalvey reports The round-robin stages of the club football championships conclude this weekend, with plenty still to play for in all three grades, even though the final round of group games is set to be played behind closed doors. The deeply unpopular decision that all sport in Ireland must be held without fans with immediate effect until at least September 13 as part of a series of new measures to limit the resurgence of Covid-19 was announced on Tuesday. The return to behind-closeddoors ...

COLM SHALVEY The GAA has clarified that members and players who test positive for COVID-19 do not automatically require their clubs to be shut down. Dick Clerkin, chair of Croke Park’s medical, scientific and welfare committee, told The Irish Times: “From a GAA point of view, we are not stating that on the basis of a single case, a club goes into lockdown, which we do see on an ad-hoc basis… To date – and this all could change – if a player or club member tested positive and went ...