did act, just to be factual, they did act on that and they took, they addressed that to UEFA and they got zero support for it.

Well, look, the FAO has said that Boycott would damage Irish football, right? But I believe the Irish supporters would stand by it because there's enough support overwhelmingly to understand the situation of boycotting the game and supporting what decisions are being made.

We've seen only recently, and it's amazingly proud to see, you know, people accept real professional consequences to the situation that's going on.

Example being the Irish singer Aaron Rowe stepping away from Ed Sheeran's tour like, because of Michael Moore's pro-Palestine remarks.

So these, and it's timely for us as Irish people to see those things, to see, you know, that we can make a difference to what's happening, you know, in a horrific, horrific, live, it's like a live movie of a genocide.

It's disgusting to see that right now we have 47,760 Irish kids that play in the FEOA primary schools competition this year.

21,700 children have been reportedly killed in Gaza.

That's legitimising them as a

I- is this the right step? Is this something we should be considering?

We, we, we have to be very, I suppose, cautious of how we approach, um, anything that's new and changing when it comes to this space, because we, I suppose, are going through a transition at the minute when it comes to, uh, our own laws in regards to decriminalization of drugs and, and all of that sort of things.

But look, I suppose vaping has come in for a particular reason.

It, it's a, it's a harm reduction step for adults.

Um, it's, it's, it's to reduce the harm of nicotine, um, for an adult smoker.

So, so that's, that does make sense.

However, it's become the new cool thing, and it's having a huge impact on the youths of, of, of our time now.

though that because the two most widely used drugs in this country are alcohol and tobacco, a- and they cause huge, as you've said yourself, huge problems already, that when you decriminalize something, when you make it legal, it does become more widespread in terms of its use, and that in itself can be a problem?

Philly, after 75 years, Mayo have finally done it.

Yeah, incredible.

I- I mean, we...

It took us 16 years, so g- like I know the, the pain and the suffering that we had to go through to get it over the line in 2011.

Uh, but jeez, that amount of time, the amount of work done behind the scenes, the amount of pain.

It's, uh, it's no wonder their fans are emphatic and emotional and mad in every way, uh, in a good way.

So to get them, get over the line today against the, the juggernaut of Kerry, who, who obviously were here to do back to back, which is incredibly hard to do.

Just even talk me through what they're going through.

Yeah.

I mean, like, just that middle eight there at the minute, where you see kick outs dependent on, uh, uh, you know, if they, if they push up.

And obviously with the new rules, more kick outs are going long.

It's leading to the contest.

It's leading to breaking ball.

Kerry are...

Like, Kerry's half forward line, like, what's the difference between them and a midfielder? Like, there's just not.

Yeah

you know the floor was heated at that time? Yeah,

we knew, like we would have known, well, when I was a kid I didn't, I just thought the floor was hot, you know, but it wasn't, it wasn't hot like that, it was like, oh Jesus, it's nice, kind of temperature to it, and you had whatever, your carpet, your line, or whatever it was, but it was, again, I'm very different, because I lived on the first floor, but I was able to, if I was locked out, climb up the balcony, and get in the window, little things like that, you know, where, things you took for granted really in the summer time which was kind of a ritual to a lot of people in Ballymun where you went to your little cubby in the hall of your flat where you had all your sheets your hot cupboard you take your sheet out and you put it in the the field behind you and you just sunbathe on a sheet in the field as if it was a beach and you'd have rows of groups of young people just chilling with their sheets and each would have their own radio and all and they'd have like different music.

Like you could walk up, When I was going to training, I'd walk up the four-story flats, which would meet the eight-story flats, which would go all the way up, and it'd end at Poppentry Park, where I'd train for Ballymen Kickums.

So there could be days where I'd walk up the four-story flats.

I'd be listening to Rave.

I'd be listening to UB40.

I'd be listening to Bob Marley.

isn't

Yeah.

Like, you know.

And, um, they got it wrong tactically in the first half.

They got it wrong.

They, they played him so deep that it slowed down Kerry's attack, and he got huge amount of possession counts, and everybody talks about his possession counts.

He hits a spinner in behind for a mark, w- which shows his quality.

He gets a score off Basgall.

Mm.

It kinda felt at that moment they've given it a great shot, a good account of themselves, but back they came.

Yeah, I, I wasn't worried at that stage, uh, because I said to myself, if, if it, if I...

Across the board, by the way, for any team, once it's tie-ish, [laughs] and nowadays with six points, it actually would've, you know, y- you still have that belief that you can get a couple of scores and get back into the game.

But once it's tie come the end of quarter three, whoever has the momentum is going to make life difficult for the opposition.

Uh, and if it was gonna be Dublin with the, with the fan base and the crowd that was there, it was gonna be very hard for Galway to change that momentum, and that's what I really felt was happening.

Um, the goal obviously came at a perfect time.

It was, it was...

Like, there will be a sense of, God, is, is this team rapidly going forward right now? It doesn't feel like it.

Now it feels a bit transformed, regardless, to an extent, to an extent what happens in the quarterfinals.

Yeah, I th- I think y- if they did bow yesterday, you'd, you'd park, park this season, say it was, it was the first year, and what did we learn? There was a couple of, obviously, issues along the, along the journey, but- The best outcome was him taking a scalp off a team that was tipped to, that I tipped to win an All-Ireland.

Um, and to find out really what the group is about.

Regardless of what happens next, he knows now going into next year, and the management know going into next year, and the fans know also, there's something about this group now, right? There's a bit about them, you know, rather than kind of going, "Are they gonna keep regressing?" You know, I've always said, once you get those leaders stepping up, the t- the p- the players we've spoke about so much, Conn, Kilkenny, Howard, Scully, uh, all of these boys, even Davey Byrne at the back was, was really good, solid.

You get them boys stepping up, the younger lads just jump on board, and they did yesterday.

McMorrow was brilliant.

Kennedy was brilliant.

Mm.

Like, how significant do you think Armagh's Ulster win is for them, for their mentality? Does it mean anything, or does it, is it just another competition and this is the real business? Do you, do you expect that to have any significance across the summer?

I think where Armagh are now, they're at the stage where they just have to keep winning games, do you know, and con- continuously improving on standards.

Because let's be honest, Ulster this year for Armagh, they played Tyrone, they kind of struggled to get over the line, but, but in fairness, showed resilience to do so.

Tyrone, uh, nearly had them.

Then they played two games after that where they just walked through in terms of Fermanagh and Down.

And then they meet a Monaghan team who are kind of just going, "We're in bonus territory here.

Let's have a real crack at Armagh." And at stages you were kind of worried that it wasn't gonna happen for them, but then, um, Armagh kicked on, showed their quality, like, you know? Um, so for me, they, they, they just have to constantly have that mindset of saying, "Right, no matter what, we just have to keep beating who's in front of us," right? Now, Derry is an interesting proposition for them because obviously they're an Ulster team, but Derry would've wanted to get to that Ulster final and have, you know, a real good Ulster Championship.

And do you think Derry, like, do Derry have a kick in them? Do they have, like, a big scalp in them, do you think?

Like, how significant do you think Armagh's Ulster win is for them, for their mentality? Does it mean anything, or does it, is it just another competition and this is the real business? Do you, do you expect that to have any significance across the summer?

I think where Armagh are now, they're at the stage where they just have to keep winning games, do you know, and con- continuously improving on standards.

Because let's be honest, Ulster this year for Armagh, they played Tyrone, they kind of struggled to get over the line, but, but in fairness, showed resilience to do so.

Tyrone, uh, nearly had them.

Then they played two games after that where they just walked through in terms of Fermanagh and Down, and then they meet a Monaghan team who are kind of just going, "We're in bonus territory here.

Let's have a real crack at Armagh." And at stages you were kind of worried that it wasn't gonna happen for them, but then, um, Armagh kicked on, showed their quality, like, you know.

Um, so for me, they, they, they just have to constantly have that mindset of saying, "Right, no matter what, we just have to keep beating who's in front of us," right? Now, Derry is an interesting proposition for them because obviously they're an Ulster team, but Derry would've wanted to get to that Ulster final and have, you know, a real good Ulster Championship.

And do you think Derry, like, do Derry have a kick in them? Do they have, like, a big scab in them, do you think?

Uh, but like, they are, they're homing.

Ulster's been, like, strange.

You know, it's, it's thrown different cards on the table, which is incredible.

Like, um, and you cannot kind of have a conversation about Ulster without talking about the context of what's going on in each of, before all of these games and the build into the next game.

Like, if you, if we're talking about Monaghan right now, a team that's been ravaged with injuries, um, you know, they play at Cavan and, you know, they just l- they just opened up.

They were the most kicking football team I've seen all year, and they probably have, have that chip on their shoulder going against a team that every- in terms of Derry, that everybody's saying Derry are going to be in the final.

Maybe that energy changes the belief and the, that bit of the grit to go after it.

so busy

Philly from Calvin's perspective what are you thinking?

they certainly like I mean you have to give it to I know I'm shifting straight them on in here but because they've like particularly in the last two games you've seen an old start they've been the most free-flowing in terms of kicking and that's hard to defend against so Kevin from the get-go we're kind of we're doing okay considering that that you're playing against a confidence team that in the first, say, quarter that were kicking the ball, kicking the ball.

But then, you know, there were just, there were so many gaps that we were creating and we had, they were up against a really good, let's say, front six there that were just taking shots in confidence.

And do you know what? They didn't give up, in fairness, the cavern.

They didn't throw the towel in.

I think it was more Monaghan kept them at arm's length and they kept going and half time we said do you know what there's still a bit of a kick in Cavan here and they did but in fairness to Monaghan they just kept them at arm's length just kept the scoreboard ticking over And then have him begging there as well to take some freeas.

But like we seen yesterday in terms of Antrim, you know, there's just little errors there that you could see the difference in levels.

block slash mid block for the... uneducated.

Yeah.

And if you're a player in this team, you're thinking, "Well, we've a point to prove here." So, you know, are we really hungry enough to prove that we are still, you know, dominant enough to win Leinster? And they can...

That'll only come to the e- That'll only come in terms of the outcome of what happens in Leinster for me.

I worry about, um...

So, so that brings a different energy.

But I also think [lips smack] if there's got to be a Bananas game, it's the, it's the Kildare-Meath game.

I think Kil- Kildare-Meath game is now, at different levels, it's no different to a Cavan-Monaghan game, Tyrone-Armagh game.

But ultimately, Kerry, I think, will be more switched on than they were going into last year's game.

that in a way? When you

look at the 22...

If you look at the All-Ireland final last year, the 22 shots they had, they got 21 scores out of them.

and David Clifford misses the goal chance what kind of influence did Paddy Clifford have in those players he had huge possession outside of that but if you look at those attacks right he gets he drops one short his first shot and now Sheik flicks it on doesn't he he's inside the full forward line he drops a short he gets a scoring on the Cusick side He intercepts for a two-pointer for David Clifford.

What else does he do? In the second half, he gets a free.

He's completely unmarked.

Kerry win a kick-out, he goes and gets a score.

Villain.

Um, we'll get into specifics in a minute, but just h-h-how it all played out, what, what's your, what are your big thoughts?

It, you know what, when you're at that stage of the season, you just want another extra game.

And to play a top quality opposition, it's, you're in bonus territory, and you just don't want to be going doing runs that week.

So I think both players were set out, regardless of what the silverware was at the end of it, I th- I think both team, both players will kind of be thinking, "Do you know what? This is great.

We're in Croke Park.

We're playing a game against a team that, if it's Donegal, that we, we all want to, and, and possibly we need to put a, a marker down here for later in the year." And then Kerry are kind of going, "Well, look, we need to keep the, keep the foot down on the throats of these because these feel like they're the next, um, big opponents for us." So it was, for me, it, it was one of those things where it, it started to drift fairly early in the game in terms of energy, and you are looking at Kerry going, "Hold on a second here.

This is...

... what did Donegal do yesterday that jumped out to you that was markedly different or markedly more effective than what they did last summer?

Wedged.

I don't think we'll know the answer to that.

You have one angle, I have the other angle where I think McGuinness would be the type of fella that would be in the changing room and geeing them up basically saying this could be a banana skin.

Being known that they're very strong.

I don't think teams at the top can be Can change their energy in the changing room if that makes sense.

I think When you play in opposition that there's so much noise around that you're so more Dominant then and you're you're they're massive underdogs that brings the energy down a little bit I think but I think the key for the you know, on the pitch today was down, just controlled the momentum in the first 15, 20 minutes.

Like they just, well, probably a little bit less.

That's