“Progress means a wide variety of things in different counties. Kevin McStay looks with hope towards the horizon whereas Billy Lee has simply done everything he could.” Two contrasting pieces of GAA intercounty managerial news dropped in the last 48 hours, Mayo found their next manager in Kevin McStay while Limerick are on the hunt for theirs after the somewhat surprising departure of Billy Lee. Seán Moran runs the rule over the process of giving McStay his job while attempting to explain Lee’s decision to leave his: “Billy Lee has been integral to refashioning Limerick football. Of course there’s a glass ceiling but he has been taking charge of football on behalf of the county board for six years and now he’s gone, he will be missed.”
Enya Breen only debuted for Ireland three years ago but given the youthful regeneration of Greg McWilliams’ side, all of a sudden she finds herself as one of the more experienced heads in Ireland’s backline. Despite a comfortable win over Japan in Shizuoka last weekend, the centre is not taking anything for granted ahead of the second and final Test: “I’m nowhere near the oldest on the squad so I know how they feel coming in. Having that experience and having the few years I’ve had in the bank beforehand kind of gives me the best of both worlds and I can pass on what I know as well. Obviously we put a good score on them at the weekend and they’re not going to rest on their laurels, but I think we’re all pretty confident that we’re not going to either. We really want to back up what we did last week and we’re really excited for the opportunity to do that.”
Whisper it quietly, but the prospects of an Irish-born player playing in the NFL this season just got a whole lot more significant. James McCourt, who was born in Dublin, went to high school in Florida and university in Illinois, has just been signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars mere hours after being waived by the Los Angeles Chargers. After releasing Ryan Santaso, Jacksonville has just one kicker on its roster, McCourt, giving him a significant chance of claiming a starting role for the regular season with just two preseason games remaining. The Jaguars play in London against the Denver Broncos on October 30th.
Adam Idah returned from a six-month injury lay-off to score what he thought was the winner for Norwich in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night, only for Bournemouth to equalise in stoppage time. The Canaries went on to lose the tie on penalties. In Cycling, Sam Bennett still holds the green jersey in the Vuelta a España despite being beaten in an intermediate sprint by Mads Pedersen, albeit his lead is down from 37 points to nine. The Carrick-on-Suir rider suffered a suspected wheel issue which hindered him though his team was not sure exactly what the problem was.
