[mpjmcevoy 363]

  On 8/11/2024 at 1:17 PM, Cosmo Kramer said:

Well, I think there are few enough events left that we can confirm our final position on the medal table - 19th. A few wrestling finals involving Iran and Georgia fell our way this morning to keep us in the top 20. The four gold medals keeping us ahead of some countries we would normally be well behind, including Brazil as well as European countries such as Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark and Switzerland (also spare a thought for Finland who have just suffered their first ever blank at the Olympics in terms of medals).

 

The final medal total of seven was broadly in line with what a few of us thought coming in to the games, but I know, for me anyway, the four golds was a massive overshoot. To beat our previous best in terms of both total medals and total golds in the same games is a great achievement by the team. We also had consistently strong results throughout the team outside the medal positions, with 21 Top 8 finishes and 30 Top 10 finishes. And yet, at least in terms of total medals, there's a new target there that we should absolutely be aiming to surpass again next time.

 

On that score there seems to be rumblings of some significant funding announcements coming up. Hopefully they come to pass and we see an even better funded and prepared team in 2028. While we've made huge progress on that side of things, there's clearly so much more that needs to be done in terms of facilities, coaching and ensuring that all of our best competitors are sufficiently funded to allow them to be full time professional athletes for the next olympic cycle.

 

🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

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I get the impression the Government have twigged somewhat that the benefits of funding elite Olympic sport go beyond simple performance. In GB, it is no exaggeration to say it was the only good news story for several weeks, and at least on some level had a unifying effect to help counter the mob. Ireland is having a 'moment' at the moment - the visuals often spoke of a better Ireland than the one we can feel we're in. Sport has the capacity to be a rather unifying experience, especially when we have plenty of impressive Irish athletes. It's no panacea, and there are, arguably, more urgent uses for major public funds, but elite olympic sports funding is never going to be more than a drop in the overall ocean even if it's generous, and we get unifying national moments from it money can barely buy.

[mpjmcevoy 363]

  On 8/10/2024 at 7:40 PM, Cosmo Kramer said:

We definitely haven't gotten any breaks in the athletics this week. All sorts of records being run in front of us to deny us medals. I felt after the second leg of the relay we just weren't far enough ahead of the Brits to hold on. The difference is the emergence of Amber Anning as an athlete capable of challenging for individual medals. She neutralises the advantage Adeleke previously gave us and their depth across the rest of their team was just enough to keep them ahead of us.

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If you ignore the Americans, that race for silver and bronze between the three European teams was one for the ages. So well matches, so many brilliant young athletes in each team. heartbreaking, but it'll come, I'm sure of it.

 

PS I think you are right about Amber, a suddenly very, very serious contender at Euro and global level going forward - I imagine Rhasidat, Amber and Femke will come to see a lot of each other over the next years!

Edited August 10, 2024 by mpjmcevoy

[mpjmcevoy 363]

  On 8/5/2024 at 12:34 AM, Ogreman said:

Not at the games, just haven't posted much during the games so apologies for that. Just haven't had as much time as I would have needed to do some of the things I had kind of wanted to get done. On the boxing, I just haven't had that many sophisticated thoughts on it beyond erratic judging and a dissapointing Irish display that I haven't fully got my head around. I missed a few sessions that I haven't had the chance to catch up on and the majority of the rest with the exception of the Irish fights it has been my second/third screen and boxing kind of needs your full focus. (plus that boxing thread has descended into some form of madness I do not think I can tame.)

That said I do think my predictions/ rankings ultimately held up a little better than they were trending towards after the first few days but I won't have a full look back on them until after the boxing finishes and those first couple of days were just me wondering how I had spent so much time watching all of these fellas only to get so much so badly wrong.

This does remind me I need to do a wrap up of my rowing form rankings but I was planning to update them daily and just didn't in the end.

But yeah there were other things I wanted to do even smaller pieces of analysis on and just didn't get around to but I will post most of my thoughts once the games are over.

So apologies, but it's nice to know someone misses me when I go somewhat quiet on this forum.

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Glued to the Games themselves, I'm afraid!!

[mpjmcevoy 363]

  On 8/4/2024 at 1:02 PM, Cosmo Kramer said:

Interesting to start to hear about the next steps for our medal winners after Paris. Paul O'Donovan obviously having to change boat but McClenaghan talking about expanding into more gymnastics disciplines. McSharry sadly sounding like she's going to pack it in. Possibly Fintan McCarthy also? Wiffen's just getting started I'd imagine.

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Rhys obviously has had a bit of crossover already with his wins, but the Olympics is a different beast, even in Ireland. There is a core of pretty decent European standard gymnasts in the fold, so we may be coming to the next phase when one superstar starts creating a bit of a wave for the sport more generally. boxing is going to be in an absolute global shambles post Games so who the hell knows where that goes, but as we see with rowing, one small ember can quickly become a useful program if it catches alight.

In swimming McSharry has served her country proud; if she goes, she goes with our blessings and thanks. tom Fannon looks very useful going forward, Wiffen ain't gong no-where, and I have a sneaky feeling we may pick up some more after Dan and Mona (and Ellen and Tom's) heroics.

[mpjmcevoy 363]

  On 7/25/2024 at 7:15 PM, Cosmo Kramer said:

Hugo Keenan dropped for the Fiji game. Being honest, he's been poor, probably too long in 15s now to successfully make the step back to 7s.

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Wow. Fiji winning try a blatant knock on...but yet again, eventually, the brain fade, this time from McNulty taking a quick tap when Ireland had been marching downfield in lumps by line outs.

 

Jesus, we had them. Jesus, that stung.

[mpjmcevoy 363]

  On 7/25/2024 at 3:33 PM, Cosmo Kramer said:

I wasn't expecting the sevens team to medal, the draw was a joke so we were always up against it. But the strength of that team is that they try to play smart to counter what they lack compared to other teams, so to lose because of a huge tactical error is a tough one. 

 

The draw was so tough that even managing to beat South Africa a second time was likely to throw up a semi final against the hosts. So it was going to be a battle every step of the way regardless. The only saving grace of this result is that if they do somehow manage to beat Fiji they would then at least avoid NZ and France in the semis. But the more likely outcome is that it won't matter now.

 

Next up is the boxing draw this evening, that will be held before the rugby quarter final. We're in 10 of the 13 draws in the boxing, so surely they can't all turn out unfavourably for us...

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"We're in 10 of the 13 draws in the boxing, so surely they can't all turn out unfavourably for us..."

 

Are ye Irish at all?

 

There's a reason it's called Murphy's law and not 'Noviski's law'.

[mpjmcevoy 363]

  On 7/25/2024 at 2:57 PM, Cosmo Kramer said:

An absolute bottle job from the sevens team there sadly. No idea what they were thinking with the penalty under the posts. Threw away a great chance to beat the ABs and now have to play Fiji in the quarters.

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It was a complete brain fade all round, although I was having great difficulty understanding what the Ref's problem was. That said, it was interesting in the first half to see a ref actually call the blatant tackle and ruck infringements by the Kiwis that we've seen them do forever in both forms of the game...and then mysteriously stop doing so when they were clearly still 'at it', including the last turnover.

 

But it still shouldn't have mattered, but for that brain fade. Ireland are a team that play smart to overcome the better strength and instincts of other teams. It's unforgivable they were so dumb in that one moment.

 

Seems to my eyes that three of the best four teams have ended up in one group, and the reward for escaping as second place team is to face the best team, while the other two teams have to face each other again. It's all dreadfully similar to RWC 2023 - meanwhile, the winner of USA - Australia is going to get two shots at a medal!

 

I expect Fiji to win and win handily, but there's no shame in that, we played very well in the group, beaten the Boks, scared the Blacks. Top 8 finish and a punchers chance of a miracle after a strong but frustrating group stage...not the worst Irish olympic performance.

[mpjmcevoy 363]

  On 7/24/2024 at 5:18 PM, duineeile said:

Vital win for the sevens team against South Africa even if they made hard work of it in the end after controlling possession. Hopefully they get the job done against Japan this evening and then can have a right cut at New Zealand tomorrow for a chance to top the pool.

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And once again the vaguaries of a rugby draw has put Ireland to the wheel. The three best teams here seem to be, on this evidence, Fiji, NZL, Ireland...yet the loser of NZL-Irl tomorrow is going to be stuck with a QF against Fiji. Meanwhile, South Africa, beaten by both, could yet sneak out a quarter against a relatively nervous looking Argentina...

 

That said, if we somehow beat the Blacks, we could be staring into a USA, Samoa path to the final....

[mpjmcevoy 363]

  On 7/15/2024 at 12:44 AM, OlympicIRL said:

Rhys McClenaghan will be in Subdivision 3 during qualification so means he will have a very late start... 21:40 local time (20:40 Irish time). Ever the professional, he is changing his training times now in advance to replicate those "conditions"

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We may smile, but the sheer jammy luck of a non-gymnastics nation like Ireland happening upon a world class gymnast of Rhys quality, who partially benefitted from the British system which itself GBR jammied into thanks to the stand alone brilliance, really, of Beth Tweddle and to a lesser extent Louis Smith is off the charts. Now Ireland has a handful of strong gymnasts, some adopted, some home grown. Having already gone through the rubbing the eyes in disbelief stage with Britain discovering the sport, to find my beloved Ireland going through the same process is wonderfully barmy.

 

So if Rhys wants to train by hanging off the GPO, that' what we let him do!