Does watching sport now fall into the ‘guilty pleasure’ category?

Telly addicts of the fit-and-healthy variety

Is there anything to be said, to paraphrase Father Ted, for commissioning another survey? On Friday, a press release dropped into journalists’ inboxes and it contained some staggering news: people like watching sport.

“New research reveals nation’s love for live sport as Lidl Ireland calls on public to attend TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Finals this weekend,” read the headline.

“The release below contains some interesting findings ahead of the games,” the email noted.

The survey was conducted via the Lidl Plus app. Among the findings were “nearly half (46 per cent) citing the sheer excitement of being part of a live crowd as the biggest attraction”.

“Looking at what people watched,” the piece continued, “the survey found 65 per cent of respondents tuned into the FIFA World Cup, 25 per cent to Wimbledon while an impressive 91 per cent engaged with traditional sports including 47 per cent following GAA fixtures, 32 per cent tuning into hurling and 12 per cent watching LGFA matches.”

The designation of “traditional sport” is, well, slightly contentious but some dodgy phrasing stood out.

“Momentum for female sports events continues to grow with over half (50 per cent) of Irish people ADMITTING to watching women’s sports this season,” it stated (the caps are ours). The Schemozzle can confess to being one of those who watched women’s sports this season.

If at first you don’t succeed . . .

Cliche tells us you sometimes have to lose one to win one. That does seem pertinent for the All-Ireland women’s junior football championship, where an extraordinary pattern has emerged.

The competition was inaugurated in 1985 and has been run 42 times.

On 10 occasions, including on Sunday, the team that finished runners-up have bounced back to win the title outright the following year. On 15 occasions, the losers became winners within two years.

The 10 teams who lost the All-Ireland junior final and then won it a year later were London (won in 1993), Longford (1997), Donegal (2003), Limerick (2010), Wexford (2014), Louth (2019), Fermanagh (2020), Wicklow (2021) and Antrim (2022 and 26).

Keeping her lit in Mayo

“Due to the unprecedented turn-out along today’s route,” the official @MayoGAA X account breathlessly tweeted midweek, “the squad are running 3-4 hours behind schedule.”

By this stage, we’ve all seen the scenes in Mayo; it’s fair to say not a tap of work was done since the win over Kerry.

But there was some football played. On Sunday, some reserve finals took place, while the junior football championship actually threw-in during the week, with wins for Killala, Northern Gaels, Tuar Mhic Éadaigh and Ballycroy.

Keith Duggan, of this parish, wrote the book House of Pain about Mayo football. The title of his other tome, The Lifelong Season, seems fitting for the county’s junior football championship teams too.

Antrim fly the flag for Ulster

In 2024, Ulster teams famously won almost every All-Ireland title up for grabs in men’s football (including a rare Sigerson success and all three club All-Irelands). It was also a stellar season in the women’s game.

Two years on, the province has struggled across most grades, with Antrim’s win in the junior championship on Sunday one of the only major All-Ireland titles heading north across men’s and ladies football.

The All-Ireland women’s SFC and men’s SFC crowns now reside in Connacht in the same year for the first time since the women’s championship threw in for the first time, in 1974.

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How was that not a Kerry goal in the ladies???? – Former Mayo footballer Conor Mortimer sought clarification on X after the dramatic finale to the women’s senior final.

Number: 22

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