Patrick McCarron

Emyvale GAA, Monaghan GAA, Sydney Swans & Man Utd

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@Markm106 If he only kicked 3, you’d be commenting saying he didn’t kick enough.

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@RTEgaa The game was announced last week for North Sydney Oval on Saturday 1st August. The fact it’s a AFLW game as apposed to an International Rules, the GAA has nothing to do with it.

[Riley Beveridge @RileyBev]

The AFLW clash between Australia and Ireland is officially locked in 🔐 Clubs told today the blockbuster fixture will be held at North Sydney Oval on Saturday the 1st of August at 4.15pm AEST, just two weeks out from the season starting. @AFLcomau https://t.co/kP8qnJEtvr

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@XanderMcGuire7 @FantasyFreako @7NewsMelbourne @7AFL Why bother? Magpies have already confirmed they are not taking this game seriously anyway so why bother risking him.

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@Bob__Ewing @gcooney93 Fans & players for the majority are happy with him & why risk that with a different appointment. Same could be said if they don’t appoint Carrick, ‘why didn’t they keep Carrick?’

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@CamNoakes If this is the only negative thing you can think of, just give up mate.

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@jack_madden2001 Not a full back line issue for me. Work rate all over the park is pathetic which in turn leaving the full back line exposed time & time again.

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@7AFL It’s ridiculous this is even being talked about. Imagine in 3 weeks Magpies lose a close one v Sydney without Pendlebury because they didn’t want him breaking the record away from the G. Team performance/ results trumps everything else. @cleary_mitch

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@ONeills1918 any chance of releasing that Monaghan GK jersey Rory was wearing yesterday? A thing of beauty.

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@RileyBev @AFLcomau If it’s an Australian Rules game why is there an agreement needed with the GaA? Surely the AFLW can just press ahead

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@AlexJDonnelly Expect a lot of Aussies to miss out on tickets when released. A lot will go to Americans. This is what happened for the Dublin game. Only 30% of the tickets ended up in Irish hands.

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@m_brosnan If I was a betting man, this is a Michael Murphy idea. Australian’s done this in 2015 & 2017 in the International Rules. Worked quite well for them.

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@LMcKirdy7 Surely Waitin’ On A Sunny Day is the next song on the playlist

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@AlexJDonnelly Give me a Norwood Oval game every day of the week over an early Adelaide Oval slot. The Lions Bulldogs game was a real highlight from last year at the venue.

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

We lost a legend this week. Olympic Gold medalist Ron Delany passed away at 91.

The summer before the 1956 Olympics, Delany ran a 4:20 mile at a meet in Dublin. Then, he got spiked badly in Paris and could barely race the rest of the season.

The press said he was burnt out.

The Olympic Council only confirmed his selection at the last possible moment.

As he was struggling with his form, John Landy pulled him aside.

He told him he looked strained, that his shoulders were too tense and he needed to relax.

Landy was the Olympic favorite, the 2nd man under 4.

The man he'd have to beat in Melbourne gave him the technical cue that would help unlock the run of his life.

Arriving at the Melbourne Olympics as an afterthought, he meets the British trio of 1500m stars in the village.

They want to do a friendly breakdown of the field. Who's going to do well?

Delany: "I'm going to win."

They looked at him like he was out of his mind.

Why was he so sure?

In his last training session before Melbourne, coach Brutus Hamilton pulled a piece of twine out of his pocket. Strung it across the track and had Delany run through it, arms spread wide, like a finish line celebration.

Then he said: "Now, son, we have practised everything."

They'd rehearsed winning, including winning.

In an era where there were no sports psychologist, Delany had a pre-race protocol.

Two hours out, he'd deliberately turn on the nerves. He'd let the anxiety build, get the adrenaline flowing.

Then an hour before, he flipped the switch.

Become what he called "the cold, calculated, tactician."

It was a threat-to-challenge conversion decades before we had a name for it.

On December 1st, 1956, there were 120,000 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with a field that was one of the best in history.

At the bell, Delany was tenth. Six meters off the lead.

Then he started to move. He passed Landy with 180 to go. And closed his final 200 in 25.6, to break the Olympic record by four seconds.

"There is no pain...Into the home stretch and I feel the strength, as if running on air... legs flowing so easily, breathing so consistent and effortless, my mind so relaxed and concentrated."

After he crossed the line, Delany dropped to his knees in prayer.

Landy, the favorite who'd helped fix his form months earlier and just lost, "was the first over me — which is a great tribute to the closeness of sportsmanship. He thought I'd collapsed, sees my face, and sees I'm not even winded."

After the race, Delany sent a telegram to his first coach, Jack Sweeney, back in Dublin.

Three words: "We did it Jack."

He was 21, 10,000 miles from home, had just won the Olympic gold medal.

And his first instinct was to credit the man who taught him to race.

RIP Ronnie.

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@AlexJDonnelly Agree with you (would love to have him v Charlie Cameron this weekend) but Harry isn’t a tagger though? All 10 on that list play majority of their minutes through the middle.

[Tom Morris @tommorris32]

The return of International Rules in early November remains a live possibility.

Work to be done at AFL HQ, but Australia would travel to Ireland to revive the series. 🇮🇪

@1116sen @SENBreakfast

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@TylerVillagra24 Malcolm Rosas & Charlie to kick 5

[Patrick McCarron @pmcarron]

@rohan_connolly I do this for Premier League games. Don’t think I’ll ever go back. Lets me form my own opinions around a game without hearing what narrative analysts want to put across.