Cahair O’Kane

August All-Ireland finals are a bullshit move. They make no positive difference to anyone except journalists. There isn’t a single solid argument to do it.

This week’s podcast with Find Insurance NI

Watch/listen in full
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This week’s Monday Club podcast from The Irish News. Segment here from our deep focus on Armagh. Also looked at the Antrim-Davy Fitz marriage.

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Tyrone in focus: Firepower, physicality and futureproofing the goalkeeping position APPRAISING Tyrone’s 2025 in a few sentences is about as difficult as it gets.

Studied Tyrone’s 2025 with a view to their 2026. Three things really jump out #GAA

Cahair O’Kane: Dingle using the past to build their future THE reds and greens and whites and 50 shades of blue paint Dingle as a snapshot of old rural Ireland.

Column: You can’t say the rules make it easy for Kerry teams to win All-Irelands.

Kerry teams make it easy for themselves.

In praise of Dingle, the Geaneys, Tom Sullivan and the level playing field that is club football #GAA

The contrast with Derry, where the concentration from 1993 until now has changed very little. It showed signs of a shift in 2011 but is back effectively where it was.

Key
Red: 1993 All-Ireland
Yellow: 2011 Ulster final
Black: 2023 Ulster winning squad

Map of Donegal’s changing concentration

Key
Red: 1983 Ulster winning squad
Yellow: 1992 All-Ireland (starting XV)
Black: 2024 Ulster winning squad

Donegal’s changing concentration gives Derry food for thought THE biggest call Brian McEniff had to make leading into the 1992 All-Ireland final was whether to give Tommy Ryan’s place to Manus Boyle.

Where once the Donegal team was strongly concentrated on the south of the county, they’ve broadened their base significantly since the late 90s. Spreading beyond their traditional base is something Derry have struggled with

Cahair O’Kane: Banning goalkeepers creating 12v11 is the last remaining barrier to the great game we crave IN Matthew Syed’s acclaimed book Black Box Thinking, the author spends a lot of time examining a closed loop mindset.

Column: Closed loop thinking led me to kid myself the rules were close to perfect. They’re great and they’ve added so much but there is one major problem. The goalkeeper having the ball in open play simply has to be banned, or none of it works #GAA

Cahair O’Kane: New rules incubating a sport whose environment was failing it WHEN Galway were chasing an equaliser in stoppage time of last year’s All-Ireland final, they kept the ball for two minutes and 46 seconds.

Column: In stoppage time of last year’s All-Ireland final, Galway kept the ball for 2 mins 46 secs. If they had been from Ulster and played the football they played last year they’d have been kicked from pillar to post. Nobody will ever play that way again

Giveaway: Win one of 5 copies of the 2025 Gaelic Football Coaching planner.

All you have to do is retweet this post.

Available to buy below (full colour, B&W version at £16.99 also available) or drop me a DM 🙌🏻

ROI: amazon.co.uk/2025-Gaelic-fo…

NI: amazon.co.uk/Gaelic-footbal���

Are you even really a coach if you don't have a planner with the new arc drawn in it?

These proved far more popular last year than I'd imagined. So here's the 2025 version. Available from Amazon (below) or via DM

amazon.co.uk/2025-Gaelic-fo… (North)

amazon.de/dp/B0DS9F9FK1 (ROI)

Cahair O’Kane: Malachy O’Rourke managing Tyrone’s growing frontline riches better is key to a potentially successful summer WHEN Eddie O’Sullivan was coaching the US Eagles in the late ‘90s, a holidaying young Ronan O’Gara met him for a meal in San Francisco.

Column: Before a ball is kicked, Malachy O’Rourke has a dilemma to start sorting. Get it right and Tyrone could be in for a big summer. They have been so much less than the sum of their parts since 2021. They are now where Donegal were 12 months ago with the potential to chart the same path.

Football’s shape-shift will be measured in months, not weeks IF there’s anything to be learned from the friendliest of Saturday evening friendlies, it is that the measurement of football’s shape-shift will be over months and years rather than days and weeks.

I watched Mayo v Monaghan so you don't have to. There's no point in offering definitive judgement on January 4 but there are fragments of trends forming already. Old habits will not be easily extracted. These were my thoughts from the warmth of the house.

A lot of senior clubs in any county would look terrible in against strong divisional teams in fairness. Was genuinely asking if the divisional sides still have the impact they did, there are people down your way who would say the system doesn’t hold the allure it used to.

I get that but when the by-product has a knock-on effect on the provincial and national competitions that spawn out of it, then it’s not just a Kerry problem. I think all county cships should be streamlined with 12-14 clubs at senior. Do the district teams still add much to the overall in Kerry?

Weather could put a glorious opportunity for Errigal Ciaran on hold WHEN Errigal Ciaran first journeyed into an All-Ireland semi-final, the weather played havoc.

February 1994. Errigal Ciaran players are in a Dublin hotel, ready to depart for their first All-Ireland semi-final. Supporters travelling down hear on the radio the match is off and call the hotel's front desk.

History could repeat itself and delay what is a glorious opportunity for Errigal.

Kerry’s internal compromise could ease their distortion of intermediate and junior grades IN the long and decorated history of post-match plámas, Billy Lee’s interview after Austin Stacks had won the Munster intermediate title was a real doozy.

Austin Stacks will be the last "ninth best team" from Kerry to play in an All-Ireland intermediate semi-final. The county's position has distorted and skewed the whole grade, driving other counties to bend themselves out of shape.

Piece below.

Managerial merry-go-round turning unusually softly NORMALLY the club management merry-go-round would be ready to come off its rails at this stage but this has been a winter season notably devoid of moving and shaking.

🗣️ Never spent as much time in one day on the phone. The topic was this pretty comprehensive round-up of who’s managing most of the major clubs in Ulster in 2025. Info on 70-odd clubs. Please don’t be offended if your club is not included, the clock won.

Shane Lennon will be the first ever outside manager of Crossmaglen Rangers.

Louth’s former Games Development Officer and ex-player will be assisted by former Dublin minor Gerry Seaver, who was with Longford minors this year.

They take over from Anthony Cunningham.

Cahair O’Kane: The juice is only worth the squeeze if you win URBAN Meyer has won three NCAA championships.

Column: Urban Meyer, Jeff Bezos, imbalance, retirement, greatness and sacrifice. One never came without the other. The juice is worth the squeeze when you win, or when you’re paid millions even if you don’t. Is it still worth it for everyone else?

Errigal Ciaran’s quandary is how much they bend to Kilcoo’s will LET’S do brass tacks here.

Errigal have operated through a lot of this run with a really aggressive high press. It has served them well. Scotstown’s had worked well until a fortnight ago. Kilcoo have that ability to make you doubt yourself and then be right about those doubts

Cavan’s sensory room is more than a room. It is a cornerstone of a family’s relationship, a connection, a crumb of normality MARK Gilsenan is loathed to reach for the word ‘normal’. Hates it.

Cavan’s sensory room is more than just a room. It is a cornerstone of a family’s relationship, a connection, a crumb of normality.

The brainchild of Cavan boss Raymond Galligan, it is brilliant. The impact on families like the Gilsenans is incredible

a woman with a white mask on her face is saying hello ALT: a woman with a white mask on her face is saying hello

Pretty sure my first tweet was with you too @cahairokane.bsky.social

Cahair O’Kane: Kilcoo and Errigal’s commitment to attack says they’ll both be even harder to beat in next year’s new game THE public perception of Kilcoo’s style of football is baffling.

The characterisation of Kilcoo, and to a lesser extent Errigal Ciaran, as defensive teams is baffling. Their commitment to attack means they’re already well set for the new-look game. If your club coach starts off crying about rules, you’re in trouble #GAA

Shane McGuigan lights fire under Sleacht Néill to lift them into wide-open All-Ireland race AS Cushendall rowed gradually clear of them in Newry twelve months ago, it almost felt like the sun was setting on Sleacht Néill’s dream of an All-Ireland club title. It has never been more alive than...

Having looked gone, Sleacht Néill hit 2-9 from 15 attacks in the last 19 minutes. Shane McGuigan lit the fire.

There will be a new name on the Tommy Moore Cup in January - why wouldn't it be theirs?

Report from Armagh as gallant Portaferry fall

Jim McGuinness: “The game’s always changing. In the ‘70s people were giving out about the handpasses. They’ve always gave out about Donegal. In many respects people in Donegal don’t care. The same way... THERE’S almost nobody in the restaurant. The tall, lean, unmistakable figure of Jim McGuinness sweeps through the door, searching past a blissfully unaware elderly couple.

“The game’s always changing. In the ‘70s people were giving out about the handpasses. They’ve always gave out about Donegal. In many respects people in Donegal don’t care. The same way they don’t care the motorway stops…We’re cut off, we’re isolated.”

Sat down with Jim McGuinness

It makes perfect sense. All we have to do now is convince the hurling fraternity. That’ll be nice and easy. The dashed halfway line will create problems for club refs especially, you’d want to be able to see at a glance without having worry about which line it is they’ve crossed

🏐 Line Umpires

- Linesmen (now apparently called line umpires) will have powers to help referees call a free in open play, which is huge

🏐 Pitch markings
- New 40m arc and dashed halfway line right across, with 65s remaining on pitches used for hurling

🏐 Clock and hooter
- Used where available, probably won’t be in operation at too many club games barring maybe latter stages of championship

🏐 Captain

- Only the captain can speak to the referee 🏉