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14th August 2013
02:46pm BST
Declan Whooley says... this weekend there is no shortage of quality sport and while I can’t wait to see the first weekend of Premier League and hope Conor McGregor continues his incredible start in the UFC this weekend, for me there is one event standing head and shoulders above the others.
And it will throw in at 3.30 on Sunday in Croke Park.
The summer, especially in a non-World Cup or European Championship year, tends to become GAA dominated in Ireland, and rightly so in my humble opinion. The tribal and competitive nature of both codes make it captivating and enthralling viewing for the neutral, never mind when one’s own county is involved. That is not to say that the Premier League should take a back seat. I have spent hours poring over my Fantasy League team that will undoubtedly flop after a month and watched keenly as the transfer speculation is building up to frenzy with just a couple of weeks left in the transfer window. The start of the season can’t come soon enough, but this year, similar to every season if I am truly honest, the Premier League will only become my main focus of attention once Sam Maguire and Liam McCarthy have been presented and are doing the rounds in the winning counties. One of the downsides to professional sport – and the Premier League is a case in point – is that the disconnect between the players and supporters is widening as the money is pouring in. I don’t necessarily blame the players, they are providing the entertainment –unless you are a Stoke City fan – so you can’t have your cake and eat it. But the cynicism that goes with that only adds to the feeling that loyalty is dying out of the game. Messrs Suarez, Rooney and potentially Gareth Bale, ye know what I am talking about. This couldn’t be further from the truth for our amateur heroes. And when I say amateur, I mean that in a loose term. Our inter-county players are almost professional in everything except for remuneration. Yet these are ordinary Joe soaps who will be back to work on the Monday after entertaining up to 80,000 in Croke Park the day before. You would struggle to get that in any amateur game anywhere in the world. Having being brought up when GAA was one of the few sports always guaranteed to be shown on TV and such a fabric of Irish life, hurling and football will always have a prominent place in our mindsets. And considering we witnessed one of the great games last weekend in the first hurling semi-final, there is not a chance I would miss it for another sport. Clare and Limerick may not be as open an affair – I certainly don’t expect a repeat of 27 scores in the opening period – but it will make for a compelling game as two unlikely teams battle for a place in the decider next month. The Premier League will be on for the next nine months – Sky Sports and BT have left us in little doubt of that - and I genuinely hope that Conor McGregor does himself justice in the US after a blistering first fight demolition, but Croke Park is where the action is this weekend. At the business end of the GAA calendar, all other sports take a backseat. Until September 22 anyway.
Conor Heneghan says... summers without a major international football tournament (no offence Confederations Cup) seem to drag on that bit longer than usual and instead of live action we have to rely on the seemingly endless transfer sagas – which have been more ridiculous than ever this season – to get our football fix.
But that all comes to a halt this weekend and call me a couch potato if you must, but I am already looking forward with great excitement to Saturday afternoon.
From around noon onwards, I will be combing a serious ass groove on the couch while settling in for Liverpool v Stoke in the early-kick-off and then a bit of Soccer Saturday with Jeff and the lads before David Moyes’ first league game in charge away to Swansea a little later on. And I can’t wait.
How Moyes will cope with the huge pressure that comes with trying to emulate Alex Ferguson is one of so many interesting storylines ahead of the start of the new season. Can Jose Mourinho have the same effect on Chelsea second time around? How will everything that has happened in the summer affect Gareth Bale, Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez, if, as is looking increasingly likely, they all end up staying put?
Will the transfer business that Manchester City have conducted so quietly and efficiently help them snatch the title back from their bitter rivals? And from an Irish point of view, who will stamp their authority on the Premier League like Shane Long and James McCarthy did at various times last season? Will it be McCarthy himself if he ends up back in the top flight where he belongs?
All of those questions and more will be answered over the next nine months and I like, most football fans, am looking forward to having a bit of a routine about my weekends once again, whether it’s an insatiable knowledge to find out who provided goals, assists and clean sheets for my Fantasy Football team or maybe having an odd accumulator every 
Mike Sheridan says... I remember sitting down with a couple of the lads here in JOE around a year ago and talking about MMA. While it always had a core Irish audience who would turn out in force at local events, it didn’t yet have that household name that could push through to the next level. We all agreed that if an Irish fighter made it big, that would be the catalyst for the sport finding a broader audience here.
Conor McGregor’s rise to ‘someone whose name your Ma now knows’ arguably began with a spectacular knockout in his last Cage Warriors fight. This got him noticed on a global scale, then by The UFC who put the skilled American fighter, Marcus Brimmage, between him and his first UFC win. It took just over a minute for the Dubliner to destroy Brimmage and not much longer than that for UFC fans all over the globe to become enamoured with his boisterous personality. The hype surrounding McGregor since that win has been insane; with the SBG fighter making a birthday trip to Las Vegas to hang with UFC president, Dana White – and enjoying a spin in his Ferrari – only adding to the fun. Ireland needed someone like McGregor; an immensely talented athlete with personality brimming from his every core. He and teammate Cathal Pendred are a huge reason why Mixed Martial Arts is fast becoming a mainstream sport. When he steps into the octagon on Saturday night, he’ll do so with a huge Irish American Boston crowd in his corner. He also, crucially, knows how to finish fights, which fans absolutely love. It's worth pointing out too that one of the most entertaining fighters in the history of the sport, Chael Sonnen, is one half of the main event, as he takes on vicious Brazilian Shogun Rua. While fan favourite and all round tough bastard Joe Lauzon is also scuffling and looking to break the all-time UFC bonus record. You won’t need caffeine to keep you awake for this card, folks…Explore more on these topics:
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