From Las Vegas, Nevada, Andre Agassi grew up hating tennis. His father obsessed about it. He watched American soldiers play it in Iran as a child and served as a ball boy. He later boxed and never backed down from a fight, once knocking a fellow motorist out cold in a violent act of road rage. He also pointed a handgun at a driver, reaching across the young Andre with it and laughing afterwards, warning his son not to tell his mother. Andre’s father Mike forced Andre to eat, drink, and sleep tennis, even improvising a machine called the Dragon to spit tennis balls at him from on high forcing him to hit harder and earlier. Anyone who plays tennis knows about that horrible bounce that attacks your neck and makes you curse your feet. Mike’s plan was for Andre to hit 2,500 balls in a day which equates to nearly a million in a year. It was all about the tennis. Andre once tried to play soccer; his father appeared on the sideline in a rage and threw Andre’s gear at the coach. He was never allowed play soccer again. It was tennis, tennis, tennis! Andre Agassi hates tennis. People think he means he hates tennis today. But Agassi repeatedly insists: I hate tennis. The obvious question is, Why play it then? The reason is he can do nothing else because he was never allowed do anything else, like soccer. He knows nothing else. But it wasn’t his choice. His opinion never mattered. His father would have become enraged had Andre ever refused to play. Then came the rebellion. He wore a mohawk at tennis school and ran away at least once. Nick Bollettieri, his tennis mentor and nemesis for a time, tries...

There was a lot of optimism surrounding Cork City FC at the start of the 2014 SSE Airtricity Premier Division Season . A new manager – club legend John Caulfield – had come in. Caulfield had signed players such as Michael Rafter, Anthony Elding, Liam Kearney, Billy Dennehy, Darren Murphy and Mark O’Sullivan, players that had experience and could make a positive change to the squad. Youth team players such as Brian Lenihan and Gary Buckley were ready to step-up to first-team football. So, as the new season came and the first fixture versus the 2013 champions St Pat’s loomed, a lot of supporters , including myself, felt that this could be a sucessful season for the club. Well, the team has most definitely exceeded expectations. As I write, Cork City are on the brink of SSE Airtricity League glory. They are currently a point ahead of Dundalk FC who they play in a title-decider at Oriel Park tonight. City started off with a respectable 1-1 home draw with St. Pat’s. They followed that up with wins against Derry City and Bray Wanderers. A real statement was made in the next match against Shamrock Rovers. City cruised to a comfortacle 3-0 win with the Dennehy Brothers, Darren and Billy, and Mark O’Sullivan scoring the goals. There was a real buzz around Turner’s Cross after the match as well as a general feeling that this could actually be a very good season. City continued to win games comfortably before a 4-0 trouncing by Dundalk and a 3-2 loss away to St. Pat’s. Many thought that this was the end of the “title charge” but others thought differently. City immediately bounced back with a 2-0 home win against Derry. They continued to grind through games with...

So, David Moyes has been sacked by the Glazers – a disappointing season, which sees Manchester United incapable of qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in about twenty years. Radio interviews with United fans have been aired, expressing hope for a “proven” manager, and that United “deserve the best.” It is important for us to remember Alex Ferguson’s early years at the club. His first match was a loss to Oxford United. It took him years to secure any piece of silverware. Yet there was a level of tolerance, which was rewarded with Ferguson’s first league triumph in 1993, having capitalised on Norwich’s late-season collapse to pinch the title from them. Whilst it’s true that there wasn’t the same level of expectation placed on Ferguson, it should be remembered here that the Scotsman had a pretty successful stay in Aberdeen, evening winning the European Cup Winner’s Cup in dramatic fashion against Real Madrid. Ferguson’s twenty-seven years was never going to be easy to follow, but Moyes should’ve been given more time. It is all too eerily reminiscent of Brian Clough’s brief tenure in charge of Leeds...

The whistle sounded we’d made it; this year’s Heineken Cup final would be featuring Munster! It all started way back sometime in mid-July when we first met up for pre-season training. After being introduced to our new head coach Ger Greene. We were put through our paces to be fit and ready for our first competitive match of the year. The training was finished it was now time to put into action all that Ger had taught us in the very little time he had to coach us. The first five games flew past and we were on a good winning streak, but my season was yet to kick into full-swing. Up until then I had played a combined 15 minutes for matches all coming after the end result had already been decided. Ger had noticed my lack of game time and handed me my first start as a senior Munster player in the following game. It was a massive game for the province as we were playing old rivals Leinster. I played out-half so naturally I got lots of touches and I had a steady start, finding touch, making all the right decisions and even kicking a 3 point penalty. Then, the worst thing that could possibly happen, a dropped ball. My first mistake in my first start. The next ball I received I got smashed by opposing fullback Rob Kearney. As time went on the mistake count rose and after just 2o minutes of my first game I had played the worst game that I could remember. I was substituted just before half time but oddly Ger kept his faith in me and had me once again on the bench for the next couple of league games, where once again he would...

  It truly has been a baptism of fire for David Moyes in his first season in charge of Manchester United. Lying seventh in the premier league, questions have been asked as to whether or not Moyes is the right man to take United into a new period of success. Sunday was a new low for the Old Trafford faithful as they saw their bitter rivals Liverpool win 3-0 as yet again United underwhelmed. With the club set to miss out on Champions League football for the first time in over two decades this result leaves United now battling for a Europa League spot with Moyes’ former club Everton and a struggling Spurs side. United’s rapid decline has been staggering and much to the joy of opposing fans. The champions’ fall from grace has been mostly blamed on David Moyes and if you were to ask him yourself who is responsible for United’s poor form this season Moyes would shoulder the responsibility. David Moyes does deserve to be criticized however he is not the only one at fault. The players must take a lot of the blame as well. United fans left Old Trafford on Sunday in dissbelief, not only in the performance but how little passion and effort the United players showed against their biggest rivals. The fans have given so much support and they’ve received little in return from the players. This has angered a lot of Manchester United fans so much so that their have been calls to drop star players like Robin van Persie. This does not take away from the fact that most United fans have lost faith in Moyes and if the rumours are to be believed, the board has also. Many fans questioned his appointment back in...

2013 started with a big win for Cork in Pairc Ui Chaoimh when they tore Tipperary to pieces. However, this led to four narrow defeats which gave Cork serious trouble. They had to play Clare in a relegation battle in the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. The game was a close encounter with no team wanting to give in. Clare started to build a handy lead and at one stage they were seven points ahead. Cork somehow found a burst of energy from nowhere and drew level. The last few minutes were tense with neither side breaking the score line. The game went to extra time. Something had to give and it ended up that Cork had just gone one step too far behind. This game told us that Cork and Clare were out of contention for the Liam McCarthy cup in September but in fact these two teams turn out to be the revelation of the summer. In the first round of the Munster championship Cork met Clare once again. This game proved to be another cracker with the Rebels coming out on top with an unbelievable performance. Two weeks later Cork met Limerick in the final. It was nip and tuck for the first thirty minutes until Cork were reduced to fourteen men. This was a poor decision by the referee which proved very costly in the end for Cork. This left them facing Kilkenny in Thurles in an enthralling match. People thought this was going to be the end of Cork hurling for another year. They were proven completely wrong. Cork came out and blitzed Kilkenny winning by six points in the end. This blew the championship up a notch and Cork stated that they were not going to be beaten too...

Not a lot was expected from the Cork senior hurlers this year. An All-Ireland semi-final was a realistic target for most fans. Even before a ball was pucked in this year’s league, this team was being written off by everyone in the county. Very few had expected that we’d be playing in September. Cork beat Tipp and drew with Waterford in the first two matches, a very good start. It all went downhill from there though and at the end of the league, they would be playing Clare in a relegation play-off in Limerick. Clare won by a couple of points and serious questions were being asked of the team. Is the fitness good enough? Is the team strong enough? Are we good enough to compete? Some people were even saying that Cork were the worst team in the Munster Championship; they’ve answered their critics brilliantly. They were drawn against Clare in the Munster semi-final. Clare were on a high after beating Waterford and to add to that, Cork were missing captain Pa Cronin and Lorcán McLoughlin. Clare were red hot favourites. Cork put in a massive second-half and they won 0-22 to 0-15. William Egan, Seamus Harnedy and especially Anthony Nash put in massive performances on the day. Limerick awaited in the Munster final. Limerick had beaten favourites Tipp to reach the final. Cork felt really hard done by at the end of the day because star forward Pat Horgan was wrongly given a straight red card just before half-time. Limerick pulled away in the last ten minutes and won 0-24 to 0-15. Because they lost the Munster final, Cork were drawn against the mighty Kilkenny in the All-Ireland quarter final. Kilkenny always raise their game against Cork, so I gave the team...

Running: the most natural form man has adopted throughout the centuries. Man was born to run, literally; it’s in our genes, our physiology. We needed to hunt, we chased down our kill for hours till it keeled over panting and exhausted. The first cave drawings were of us running – we were running experts. Yet why is it today that running seems less like Mo Farah striding out and comfortably clocking under 30 mins for 10k and more like a geriatric trudge? The mention of running is often followed by a groan. How did things ever get this bad? you may ask. Well, let me introduce you to our good friends at Nike and Adidas. Yes these guys have been telling us lies for years. See, there used to be a time where there was no such thing as the conventional running shoe; it’s more recent than you think, as late as 1964. A man called Bill Bowerman is to blame for fucking up your running. He began the craze by creating a new shoe designed especially for running. He claimed his shoe would guarantee injury-free running. At the time virtually everyone had perfected gait (technological term for running form); there was no such thing as orthotics because no one needed them; injury was an especially rare incident. Our ancestors fell for Mr Bowerman’s antics and they purchased the runners. The running boom during the 1970s spurred on the Nike Corporation’s success which contributed to making it the most recognised sports brand in history while in Europe a German company known as Adidas entered the market with the same mentality. Running shoes became more and more supportive with buzz words such as EVA, over-pronation protection and heel strike being bounced around. The general population...

F1 is the short word version for Formula 1. I remember the first time I was introduced to it. I was watching a documentary on the best ever F1 driver (in my opinion): Ayrton Senna. After watching it I was smitten and ever since then I have followed F1. Some people think it is the most boring sport in the world next to golf and cricket (now they’re boring) but I don’t think so; it’s just magic! I would prefer a F1 race  to a golf or cricket game any time. OK,  to be fair, some of the races can be boring but the build-up and the start are quite interesting. Some will say, “That’s boring too!” Well here’s what you get to see: the F1 car being tuned; the tires being warmed; the crew checking that the radio system in the car is working; the steering wheel being tested; and my favorite part – that amazing roar as the engine sound test is done to see if all is working and making sure the engine is warm enough to race. I know this can be quite mean to say but I absolutely love it when the F1 drivers crash (only when they walk out of the crash). The best crash was Mark Webber’s of Red Bull. He and Adrian Sutil of Lotus were going around the final corner in The Monaco Grand Prix. Webber went around the bend first and as he was pulling back in on his racing line Adrian Sutil came behind him; Webber just saw him but it was too late. Webber clipped Sutil’s wing and Webber’s F1 car went flying over Sutil’s. Webber’s back wheel which was still moving at 210 km/h missed Sutil’s head by just 10 cm....

Liverpool played Chelsea at Anfield yesterday and fans, not for the first time, saw Luis Suarez bite an opponent. Liverpool were chasing an equaliser late in the game when Suarez bit off more than he could chew. The referee, not seeing the incident, didn’t punish the Uruguyan and he went on to score an equaliser well into injury time. 2010, while playing for Ajax, saw another incident when he got the munchies. That turned out to be his last game for the Dutch team; he was handed a seven match ban. That was the occasion of his move to England and he’s been with Liverpool since.   But he’s not a one-trick pony: he racially abused Evra last year. He also obstructed the ball to prevent his Uruguyan side conceding to Ghana in the World Cup quarter final. What’s clear is that he has an attitude problem; what isn’t too clear as yet is how he picks his victims: Otman Bakkal (PSV Eindhoven); Patrice Evra (Manchester Utd.); Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea).   What’s interesting is that he escaped censure and added insult to injury by scoring against the oppositon in each case.      ...

Golf, what a topsy-turvy game: from Rory McIlroy’s extraordinary final round meltdowns at the Masters Tournament in Augusta on April 10 (final round) and the BMW PGA Championship in Quail Hallow in early May to his amazing turn-around in Hong Kong on December 4th. What I really dislike about golf is the way in which they make putting from 30 to 40 yards look like a piece of cake. I always try to whack a golf ball 200-250 metres but to no avail; I end up almost rolling it 2 or 3 yards at a time. If I were entered into a 4 round golf tournament I’d probably get a +5 par every time. I often wonder how on earth they lift the balls to such great height and how they can chip in from a bunker with a torrential downpour and gusts of 100 mph. Like most other sports, your personal life will affect your sporting life. Tiger Woods went from World Number 1 down to outside the top 50 in a matter of months because of infidelity. Golf dates back to 1297 to commerate the capture of the assassin of Floris V of Persia the year before. There is an amazing glossary of phrases in golf such as, “The 19th hole is the clubhouse bar” and “a dog licence” which is when, in a matchplay, you and your teammate lose 7 and 6. Then there are words: an Austin is any ball that lands off of the green yet is still on an imaginary line passing through the flagstick; an ostrich is when a player scores a hole in one on a par 6 hole; a scratch golfer is someone who has a handicap of 0; a whiff is when a player...

  Chelsea FC was in need of a world class player on the wing last summer and they got one and more in Eden Hazard. The Belgian International signed from French side Lille in the summer of 2012. This lad was signed from the French side for £32 million and, though still only 21 years of age, has been showing immense quality so far this season. In his first four matches for the Blues, he won four Man of the Match awards. So far this season, he has 12 goals and 19 assists in all competitions. His goals this season have been out of the top drawer, showing skill and technique. The most amazing goals of all that he has scored have all been with his left foot – these include goals versus Stoke, Steaua Bucharest, (in the Europa League) and West Ham. The funny thing is that he says he doesn’t even practice with his left foot. Even so he has scored some amazing rocket shots into the roof of the net. Being one of the “Three Amigos” which the commentators of Sky Sports have called the trio of Chelsea playmakers Hazard, Mata, and Oscar, has really brought out the best of Eden Hazard. Playing in a 4 – 2 – 3 – 1 formation suits his style and already I can see Eden Hazard become one of the best players in the world. Hazard could quite literally be anything he wants to be in football. He could become the world’s best: he is that good. He has the world at his feet and has become an integral part of Chelsea’s makeup. He has the ability to produce a moment of magic that baffles a defender, a touch that leaves opposing players for...

I know it’s skilful – there’s abolutely no doubt in my mind about it. Serial killers use skill too: the Boston Stranger grabs you from behind, you’re out like a light, two or three seconds flat. That’s skill. It’s the walking. Too much walking. You hit the ball and it goes away from you and then you go look for it, on foot. It’s the constant talking. Golfers like to talk. That’s why it’s so amenable to business deals and all that pompous stuff golfers go on about. The clothes are dire. Tiger Woods. Yeah, he’s talented. So is Celine Dion. But imagine him for a moment, in his hey-day, behind closed doors. Imagine the expensive Champagne, the dollars on the bed, the high-pitched, bimbo-giggles, the blonde dye-jobs, the collagen and the silicone. The privilege. Golf is the sport of rich, retired bankers, property developers and creative accountants. The average jokes. Golfers seem the most likely people to say the word “heck” in conversation. That’s not right. It’s, like, sooooooo American! Oh my God! I once heard this on TV while golf was happening on the TV at the same time as I happened to be looking at the TV: “You the man!” Ugh.          ...

It was the end of Autumn, approaching the first of November to be exact, as the New Star went off to his first ever rugby training session. The club was a well known local one down in Tramore Road known as Sundays Well. There he stood in the middle of the changing room getting ready,trembling with fear in case the team wouldn’t accept him.While he was putting on his boots an old primary school classmate walked in and The New Star said: “Wait…I know you.” “Ya?” “I went to school with you, didn’t I?” The other player replied: “Ya. You went to Ballygarvan N.S. didn’t you?” The New Star replied: “Ya I did. Your name is Tim is’nt it?” Tim said: “Ya.You joining up with us or you just training with us?”. “Ya I’m joining up; I finally got the nerve to begin a new sport.” Tim smiled and said: “Alright, that’s cool, just follow me out there when you’re ready and I’ll introduce you to the the lads”. On the way out The New Star met a man he later discovered was the President of the Club, who also turned out to be involved with training the team. His name was Paul Dunton. He was a heavy, well-built man but he also had a presence about him that made the New Star think he was a legend in some way. He introduced The New Star to the team and the rest of the coaches. All of the nervousnous and jitters he had been feeling were now gone and The New Star finally got on with his first training experience in rugby. He felt at home at once. Why, he thought, had he not tried this ages ago? A month passed since The New...

Firstly to soccer. The Premier League is coming towards its final 10 matches so things are getting exciting. Man Utd are running away with the title. Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal are going for Champions’ League places and at the bottom; teams like QPR, Reading, Wigan, Aston Villa and Southampton are doing their best not to get relegated. Luis Suarez, Robin van Persie and Michu are going for ‘top scorer’ and Gareth Bale will probably get Player of the Year. I think Man Utd will win the League, Man City will come second – Spurs and Arsenal to get in the Champions League. I think Reading, Wigan and Aston Villa will get relegated.   The Champions’ League is also getting exciting. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Malaga, PSG, Bayern Munich, Borrusia Dortmund, Galatasaray and Juventus have all made it to the quarter finals. I think Real Madrid will win because they have a strong squad and they have players like Ronaldo, Ozil, Benzema and Ramos so I think they’ll win it but it will be close.   Now to GAA.  The Allianz National Leagues have started. After 2 matches, Cork are top of the hurling with a win over Tipperary and a draw with Waterford. After 4 matches, Cork are mid-table in football with losses to Dublin and Kildare and wins over Down and Tyrone. Cork have a new jersey sponsored by Chill Insurance. The Cork U-21 footballers won their Munster quarter final against Kerry 0-14 to 2-07. I was at the match and it was very exciting because Cork nearly threw it away at the end. They will now play Tipp in the semi-final. At this time of year, training is a nightmare for GAA players because you mostly do running but it’s all worth it...