Second Captains @ The Irish Times

John Brewin and Dion Fanning join us to talk about the opening weekend of the Premier League season. John was at Portman Road to see the debuts of Kieran McKenna and Arne Slot and reports on the respective animal magnetisms of the two up-and-coming coaches. We also talk about Chelsea and their offences against football. Elsewhere, the latest instalment in the Perarnau-Guardiola series is upon us and we sample some characteristic vignettes.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to your weekly taster of the Second Captains World Service. This week we have a Premier League preview show, Man Utd's nostalgia money, anatomy of a 4 x 400m Olympic final, and Steph Curry's GOAT status.Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ken came into this Olympics a doubter and left it a believer. Was this the greatest ever Games? We chat to Cathal Dennehy and Gavin Cooney about the event, the Irish mentality, the 4th-place-a-thon, the drugs question, and how the future looks for us as an Olympic nation.Plus there's woozy Wiffen, sports tapas, pickleball rules and as ever Satan has his way with ceremonies and just Europe in general.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we grieve for the Paris Olympics, now already receding into history, but who could fail to be re-energised by the prospect of the PSR League starting up again in four days time?Arne Slot succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool is one of the buzziest storylines ahead of the new season, so it's a good time for the club's former head of research Ian Graham to bring out a new book explaining how he and Michael Edwards helped the club to make so many good decisions during the Klopp era. Can Edwards do it all over again?  Mark Critchley joins us to talk about Manchester City's penalty shootout win over Manchester United in the Community Shield and take us up to speed on the summer changes at the two clubs. Is Oscar Bobb already one of the best wingers in the Premier League? What does United's reported interest in another two members of the Ajax 2019 side say about the evolution of their transfer policy? And can anyone believe the size of the fish Sir Big Jim Ratcliffe has just caught?  Hosted on Acast.

Welcome to your weekly taster of the Second Captains World Service. This week we celebrated Kellie Harrington's back-to-back Olympic gold medals, look ahead to Rhasidat Adeleke potentially following her onto the podium and see what Ken has to say about his trip to Paris as a paying punter.Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Total medals for Ireland at the Olympic Games between 1960 and 1992 - 6. Total medals for Ireland during Week 1 of the Paris Olympic Games - 7.  Michael Foley of the Sunday Times and Sinead O’Carroll of The Journal were in Paris for Rhys’ gold, Kellie’s master-class and Wiffen’s third-place-that-felt-like-a-disappointment-but-is-in-fact-historic.  We recorded the show just in time to see Rhasidat Adeleke’s powerful, composed start to her 400m campaign that has us all dreaming big.Plus there's the 100m extravaganza, the gold medal table, coach Flo's form and St Lucia speed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He's an Olympic champ now, but back in 2022 we had Rhys McCleneghan in studio, fresh from a world championship win, but still navigating his way around a few obstacles and setbacks. He was engaging and intelligent and it was such an enjoyable chat and so full of insights into what has since made him into a dominant force, we thought we would post it for those who missed it first time. He wasn’t the only Irish Olympian who had a big weekend of course and Monday’s podcast will reflect on all that. Enjoy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's wall-to-wall Olympics on the World Service this week. Mona McSharry managed Ireland's first medal of the 2024 games, Daniel Wiffen backed up his supreme confidence with a Gold medal performance and Simone Biles cemented herself in Olympic history. Meanwhile, Andy Lee joined us in studio to chat about his time at the Athens Olympics in 2004, a lonely experience for Ireland's solo fighter at the dawn of the Irish High Performance era.Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back in March Ken and Eoin sat down with Daniel Wiffen. He promised a summer of gold. This morning he set the fastest time in the swimming heats, 7:41.53 seconds, the fastest of those making it through to the medal race. He is living up to his big, big talk. We speak to Gavin Cooney, who was poolside in Paris. While our island nation may not always have excelled in the pool, the boxing ring has been a happy hunting ground. We watch on as Kellie Harrington begins her journey to what will hopefully end with back-to-back Golds. While the still distraught (but always professional) Ciarán Murphy lets us know - through the medium of The Frances Murphy TV Guide - what to watch out for tonight and tomorrow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week we saddled up and rode north to Crossmaglen. Ciarán Murphy was confident riding into the old Armagh market town, he was a little less confident leaving.Yesterday Armagh won their first All-Ireland since 2002. Kieran McGeeney, their Captain then their manager now. We chat to Michael Murphy and Paul Flynn on a tense final that had a thrilling end. We go easy on Murph. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to our World Service tasting platter. This week we travelled to Crossmaglen to chat to Oisín McConville and weigh up the mood ahead of this weekend's All Ireland Football Final, Ken offered us up some strongly held views on the future of Hurling and Joe Callaghan gave us the run down of the Open Championship at Royal Troon. Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Kelly climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand yesterday to raise his county’s fifth-ever Liam McCarthy Cup and in a haze of hurling and religious fervour, declared Brian Lohan ‘God’.A down-in-the-dumps Jamie Wall and an elated Podge Collins join us to today to pick over how Clare managed to pip Cork by the finest of margins, weigh up the extra time debate, and reflect on what was a final for the ages.Ken, meanwhile, has major issues with Hurling’s imperialism and scoring system. Plus, there's Nesbitt watch, Clare's Flair and Jarlath Burns on Irish emigrants. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For our 3000th episode we trekked up to the Temple of Dunphy. Eamon was one of the earliest guests on the pod and has made numerous - always memorable - appearances over the years.We chat to Eamon about the latest wild happenings in the US Election, the rise of nationalism, the new Ireland manager and his old job of stopping Robin Friday from sparking up a spliff during their days together playing for Reading. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to our weekly best of the world service show. We discuss Southgate's departure, disharmony in the Bellingham/England camp, the contenders to take over, Rory's blocks, Heimer's arrival and Frawley's future.Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kieran McGeeney joined the Armagh senior panel for pre-season training in 1989. Thirty-Five years ago. On Saturday in Croke Park he led his county to their fifth ever All-Ireland Final. There they will face Galway.Neither county were a red-hot favourite when the ball was thrown in on this Championship back in April, McGeeney dealing with internal slings and arrows while Galway's squad consisted mainly of damaged chassis. But there they will be. And football thanks them for adding unfamiliarity to the sporting summer.Plus, amongst the chaos, there was Carlos Alcaraz's back-to-back Wimbledon titles after beating Djokovic in straight sets yesterday. Has the tennis torch been officially passed? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How should we play this game? We turn and ask Spain and once more they show and tell. Tonight they won their fourth European Championship, playing in a manner befitting of champions. To Iniesta, Xavi, Pique, Busquets, Alonso and Alba now add Rodri, Laporte, Cucurella, Yamal and Williams.By the time the World Cup comes around England will have been waiting, expecting, hoping to win a men's football tournament for 60 years. Sixty. It's quite incredible.As he has done all summer long Ken dials in from the stadium after full-time joined by Miguel Delaney of The Independent and Jack Pitt-Brooke of The Athletic while we also chat to our Basque correspondent Beñat Gutierrez and ask, given the Basque heavy make-up of this Spanish side are the people of Bilbao dancing in the streets..? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've had a mad busy week on the World Service between an All Ireland Hurling Championship for the ages, Lamine Yamal marking his spot on the world stage and England making a second consecutive Euros final. All that before you throw in the announcement of Heimir Hallgrímsson as the new Republic of Ireland Head Coach. Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Saturday in Pretoria was supposed to be many things, a battle between two teams who don’t like each other very much, the teams ranked 1 and 2 in the world, a chance for Rassie Erasmus to finally coach a team to victory over Ireland… in the end, it came down to 2 hours of watching to see if James Lowe had stepped out of touch in various weird and wonderful ways.  South Africa 27-Ireland 20 - we speak to Shane Horgan and Ruaidhri O'Connor of the Irish Independent about why this was a deserved Springbok win, how a couple of huge errors cost us, and how a bruised and battered Ireland can salvage something from next Saturday's second test. Plus we join Ken in München to discuss what impact the French election results will have on the striking French footballers, England's buddy system on penalties, and the exquisite joy of seeing the world's biggest laundrette right beside your new hotel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There'll always be an England, and under Gareth Southgate it’ll always reach the latter stages of major football tournaments. This was his fourth straight ¼ final and now his side are one game away from back-to-back European Championship Final appearances. So what’s the bloody problem then? We chat to Ken from the stadium, accompanied by Jack Pitt-Brooke of The Athletic. While England may be the footballing equivalent of a week away at Centre Parcs, watching Turkey has been whatever the same length of time would feel like at Wayne Lineker’s compound. Fun. But maybe a little too much. Jonathan Wilson joins us from Berlin where - like Recep Erdoğan, he saw the Netherlands advance past the surrogate host country. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's been a great week here at Second Captains as we chased Ken around Germany as he followed the Euros Circus from Frankfurt to Berlin. Murph also developed a sense of wanderlust and packed the car for Cork where he met with Jamie Wall to chat though this coming weekend's All-Ireland Hurling Semi-Finals.Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.