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McManus is 71 now. The magic money tree won't go on forever in Limerick.

A lot of people disappointed with Santa Ponsa and the Canary Islands. What were they expecting when they booked there?

Carlow has a Moscow.

Does Mick Wallace live there?

Joe Fortune stays on in Westmeath. I'd say he will be in contention for the Wexford job next time.

Dessie Dolan to become the new Westmeath manager

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2022/0921/1324630-dessie-dolan-set-to-take-reins-in-westmeath/

He plays it safe on his co-commentary and isn't controversial.
What will he be like in the dressing room?

All that money spent on coaching over the last 10 years. Have they nobody coming through ?

They reached U20 All-Ireland finals in 2019, 2020 they should have a handful of those players coming through now however are struggling to do so under their poor Dessie Farrell management setup.

Them u20s lads will be 23/24 next year and will see more game time next year. A good few got run in O'Byrne Cup and League.

How many of them has established themselves as senior county players? Archer looked the real deal at U20 level and for whatever reason hasn't made the step up.  Costello,Mannion,Fenton,Kilkenny,J McCaffrey etc were all standing out in their early 20s on the senior team or be in a different environment and under a better management team.

Peadar O'Cofaigh Byrne only player to have got championship time and he missed the league with injury.  Lorcan O'Dell,  Ross McGarry and Brian O'Leary got a couple chances in league but probably too early for them. Archer has long way to go, doesn't have the work rate.   The lads you mentioned you were part of the greatest Dublin minor team of 2011 even though lost to Tipp. 9/10 played prominent roles in 6 in a row. Fenton was injured at minor but came through on 21 team in 2014.

I only found out recently that Peadar O'Cofaigh Byrne is a son of Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh!

No fear of the Guards is the biggest problem.
The weak justice system and the guards not being arsed feeds that.
The arrests in Ballyfermot shows the Gardai could tackle this head on if they were motivated to do so.

I've yet to hear anyone in the media pronounce Ratheniska correctly.

What is the correct way of saying it?
Laois had a hurler call Paddy Ruschitzko and have a town called Ratheniska. Is there some Polish connection?

Russia has pumped serious money into disruption and disinformation in the West.
I can imagine that daft idiots like Clare Daly and Mick Wallace are easy converts to start spouting Russia propaganda.
However, I bet Ewan MacKenna would churn out the pro-Putin, anti-Zelensky stuff for free, just to get attention.

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1569739548812345356

Is there any possible truth to the story or is it just malicious rumour?
I don't see anything verifiable about it.

Loughnane talking about ego! 

[Brian Cody has the biggest ego and we'll never see his like again]

https://www.buzz.ie/sport/brian-cody-ego-kilkenny-loughnane-27571437

Brian Cody has the biggest ego and we'll never see his like again
Cody always operates to his own rules, that became clear to me 20 years ago — and this is something I've never made public before

ByGer Loughnane
14:58, 25 JUL 2022

There will be no shortage of tributes made to Brian Cody in the days — and maybe even weeks and months — to come.

A lot of them will repeat the same stuff, stuff that he put out there himself about having no tolerance for egos.

That always made me smile, because few people ever had as big an ego as Cody.

Call it self-belief if you want, but Cody was convinced that he was superior to any others he came across.

Conviction
He'd use that great conviction to dominate others on the sideline, officials and the media.

It's 50 years since I first saw him play, and he was a star on that Kilkenny minor team that won the All-Ireland.

Cody was their captain and he gave a brilliant performance against Cork in the decider.

I was doing teaching training in St Pat's, Drumcondra, at the time and we knew Cody was coming to study too so there was a buzz around.

We ended up living in the same house, and in the same corridor of the house, but I could never say that I know Brian Cody.

I'm not sure many people really do.

He always keeps a distance, always operates to his own rules.

That became clear to me 20 years ago — and this is something I've never made public before.

Clare reached the 2002 All-Ireland final and came up against Kilkenny, going down by seven points.

I went to the Clare function for a while that night and then headed back to the Burlington Hotel, where I was staying.

That turned out to be where Kilkenny were having their victory banquet.

Ruthless
I said to myself 'sure, I'll have a word with Cody'.

We were chatting away and Henry Shefflin came into our company.

Henry was just a young lad at the time. He'd won the man-of-the-match award and was clearly chuffed.

But Cody just turned to him and said 'You hit that shot the only place Fitzgerald could save it, never let me see you do that again'.

Henry's face just dropped. I stuck around for another minute or two and then headed up to my room.

I couldn't make sense of it, how cold Cody was to a player who had performed heroics for him that day.

That coldness and ruthlessness was very much part of his make-up.

A lot of players will feel they owe him a huge debt, but I don't think many — if any — would regard him as a friend.

Tommy Walsh was one of the greatest of Cody's players and I went to his retirement function in Langton's a few years ago.

During the night, different players went up to the stage to say a few words about Tommy.

Cody sat there and eyeballed every one of them as they walked up and down.

Their reaction was incredible.

Some of these were fellas with six, seven or eight All-Irelands and they were clearly still spooked by him.

Aura
His aura had them in his grasp. There were fellas retired a few years and they were afraid to look Cody in the eye.

He got the Kilkenny manager's job in November, 1998, and things were going well for us in Clare at the time.

We'd won two of the previous four All-Irelands and three Munster titles.

We had a bit of stature and, as Clare manager, I was asked for a reaction to Cody's appointment.

I gave the reporters one sentence: "We're all in trouble now''.

Cody had virtually no experience in management at the time, and Kilkenny hadn't won an All-Ireland since 1992, so why was I worried?

The reason was that I knew Cody's personality.

It's the same reason that I said, a few years later, that he'd stick around longer than Seán Boylan.

I have never come across anyone as obsessed by hurling — and Kilkenny hurling, in particular — as Cody.

Cody's belief in the greatness of Kilkenny hurling is almost religious, and has been part of his philosophy all through his life.

Indeed, it is nearly 50 years since he said something to me that has stayed with me ever since.

And it is, I believe, the basis for the motivation which sustained him in the job for so long.

Motivation
We were young students shooting the breeze in St Pat's and I remember him declaring with total conviction: "There are always plenty of good hurlers in Kilkenny."

That is why no Kilkenny hurler — no matter how great or popular — ever loses the run of himself or feels secure in the ownership of the black and amber jersey.

In most other counties, once they become successful, players feel that they own the team, that they are indispensable, and then begin dictating how things should be done.

In 2007, I was manager of Galway and, knowing we would meet Kilkenny some time in the Championship, I hoped we'd get them early as possible as I felt that was the best chance of beating them.

We ended up meeting in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, and Kilkenny had the benefit of a Leinster title in the bag.

That was the year when the two Cannings, Ollie and Joe, didn't play for Galway following a controversial county final between Portumna and Loughrea.

Adding further spice was an innocuous answer I gave in an interview before the game.

When asked what to expect when facing Kilkenny, I mentioned the usual skill, speed, ability in the air and, of course, their physicality — especially the tap across the hand in the tackle.

Cody went ballistic, though I was only giving an honest answer.

The word 'physicality' was the problem because, at that time, physicality=dirt, so it wasn't to be mentioned at all.

Now, physicality is accepted for exactly what it means. Tough exchanges and at a completely different level to dirty play.

That was one of the stamps of his teams.

Different names will be mentioned as possible successors but Derek Lyng looks best placed.

Cody will cast a long shadow, though.

We will never see his like again.

Or more like a typical Irish goal. Long boot from the keeper.

Why do people here have a desire to have a 'good' Tory leader,  one who is perceived as being not as bad  as others in the race?
I think Truss would be perfect, the sh'ittier the better.

A bad leader is more likely to try and take a dump on Ireland to distract from their failures.

Great headline!