The Second Captains Podcast

After a series of terrible VAR decisions in the Premier League last week we heard many VAR advocates claim "it's only in England they don't know how to use it, VAR is working perfectly everywhere else." Right on cue, Juventus-Salernitana generates the Exxon Valdez of VAR decisions. We also talk about whether Pep Lijnders' recent book is as dangerous a signal for Liverpool as Didi Hamann fears, and...

Shane Lowry is back in the winner's circle for the first time since his Open victory at Royal Portrush in 2019, courtesy of a faultless Sunday performance at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth yesterday.   He was pushed all the way by Rory McIlroy, who fell literally an inch short of forcing a playoff - we talk to Malachy Clerkin about Shane's lovely habit of winning big tournaments,...

The Champions League is back, Thomas Tuchel has been shown the door and friend of the show, Rory Smith of the New York Times has a new book out on the data revolution in football... That means lots of football on the World Service this week, and lots of good reasons to sign up now.  Join us for ad-free, member-led broadcasting for just €5 + VAT a month at secondcaptains.com/join.  H...

Shane Walsh made his debut for Kilmacud Crokes in the Dublin senior football championship, and his new club sent a message to every other club in the country with a powerful display. If they were a county, would they win Division 3? But it was salt of the earth Dublin GAA man Eoin McDevitt making impassioned calls for one young footballer to put his life on hold to give back to his community today...

VAR will be good, they said. It will reduce the amount of time people waste pointlessly arguing over wrong decisions, they said. Ever mindful of the wants and needs of our listeners we tried not to do too much VAR talk today but after a weekend like that it's not easy. Mark Critchley was at Old Trafford to see Erik ten Hag's clinical Manchester United end Arsenal's 100% start. And after Celtic's 4...

Welcome to our weekly taster of the Second Captains World Service which includes Ken on grammar, Caitlin on Serena's secret sauce, Murph on losers and Pep's machine gun dilemma. Join for a fiver a month at secondcaptains.com/join. It takes less than two minutes to set up, there’s no contract, no obligations and no hidden fees.1 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rory McIlroy became the first 3-time winner of the FedEx Cup last night, chasing down the world number 1 Scottie Scheffler who held a 6-shot lead going into the final round.  But what’s the difference between the 18.5 million dollars Rory won last night and the Saudi money on offer in LIVgolf?  There’s also Damien Delaney’s dad’s hurling exploits for Cork, Paul Galvin in Leap last week,...

Spurs suffering, Arsenal allegedly overcelebrating, Richarlison’s swift justice, Steven Gerrard’s brow scrunching up ever more tightly – season 22-23 is boiling up nicely. Thankfully we can still say: nobody beats Mark Travers ten times in one game. We also dissect the Sunday Times’ inside story of the Cristiano Ronaldo-Man United stand off. Lars Sivertsen and John Brewin join us to talk about the...

Anthony Joshua had a couple of things he wanted to get off his chest after he lost a split decision to Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night - listeners wanted Ken's thoughts, and Ken is more than happy to provide them.  It was a brilliant European athletics championships for Ireland, with Ciara Mageean and Mark English both winning medals on the track, and we have a new Dubli...

Jesse Marsch is winning points faster than friends in the Premier League as hard-running Leeds make a lot of other managers look bad.    After Casemiro's tearful Real Madrid farewell, we debate whether his signing is a good idea for Man United. Meanwhile there are hints of trouble in paradise as Jurgen Klopp points out he's not in charge of deciding how much Liverpool spend on midfielder...

There were contrasting weekends for the two stars of last month’s All-Ireland senior football final as Fossa’s David Clifford got mobbed by tiny pitch invaders so cute even Ken couldn’t have a problem with them, while Kilkerrin-Clonberne's Shane Walsh was at a wedding as his club secured a dramatic win over Headford.  Paul O’Donovan's unstoppable march to becoming by-common-consent Ireland’s&...

The weekend marking the 30th anniversary of the Premier League belonged to Graeme Souness who declared after watching Chelsea 2-2 Spurs that "we've got our football back." We argue about what that means and whether this new direction is likely to lead anywhere good. Laurie Whitwell and Dion Fanning join us to talk about the weekend's football. Should fights between managers become a more regular P...

Welcome to our weekly taster of the Second Captains World Service which includes Ken on goal hatching, poor Bernardo Silva, US Murph on the Irish-American broadcast poet, and rugby's uncomfortable conversation. Join for a fiver a month at secondcaptains.com/join . It takes less than two minutes to set up, there’s no contract, no obligations and no hidden fees. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...

The GAA's first foray into using a ref-mic was a resounding success on tg4 yesterday (as exclusively revealed by Frances Murphy during her TV guide on Friday), and we had a thrilling, tense, physical, All-Ireland camogie final this weekend as well. If we're playing rugby league commentary on this show then you better believe it has an extremely high "northern English people shouting at each other"...

City's midfield made the passes, Erling Haaland scored the goals, and all is rosy in their garden, once Guardiola gets used to his new job as a guy who talks about the younger Haaland for a living. Elsewhere it appears the Premier League has rolled out interesting new rules which mean lots of random fouls are no longer fouls. Will this encourage the fast-flowing furious football we all crave? Jona...

Welcome to our weekly taster of the Second Captains World Service which includes a Premier League Preview show, the GAA's tug of love, and US Murph on America's winning machine. Join for a fiver a month at secondcaptains.com/join . It takes less than two minutes to set up, there's no contract, no obligations and no hidden fees. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

England are European champions, after a final that attracted the biggest-ever UEFA tournament crowd and the biggest UK TV audience of the year. Liverpool won the Community Shield as Darwin Nuñez enjoyed a better debut than Erling Haaland - what wild conclusions about the season to come can be extrapolated from this one friendly?  Richie Sadlier joins us to talk about England's Euros win and t...

Ken has returned from holidays and it's time to ease back into familiar routines, starting, obviously, with Frank Lampard and moving on. Why does Antonio Conte make his players run till they puke? Might Erling Haaland and Jack Grealish make City the most watchable team in Europe this season? And how are we meant to make sense of what is happening at Barcelona? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...

It was a classic All-Ireland final, and it was a fitting stage for two of the great individual final performances of all time.  David Clifford scored 8 points to win his first Celtic Cross, and was still almost over-shadowed by the luminous brilliance of Galway's Shane Walsh. Oisin McConville and Paul Flynn talk us through the major talking points, as Kerry answered all the questions and won...

Welcome to our weekly taster of the Second Captains World Service. Ken is back next week so today we play a snippet from our chat with Ken and Lars Sivertsen on Lars' fellow countryman Erling Haaland who explains why the Man City striker is so blunt with journalists. Plus Paul Flynn says Galway to win and Richie tells us what it was like being on mind altering drugs. Join for a fiver a month at se...

It was impossible not be impressed by both Kilkenny and Limerick yesterday, but in coming through the ultimate test Limerick can now party like its 2020, 2021 and 2022. We discuss the magical points, the big performances and the outpouring at full time. Rory seemed to be on course to finally win a major after an 8 year break but slow and steady wasn't enough on a day when Cameron Smith was rolling...

It was the way they won it, the team they were facing, the history at stake and the drama, guts and glory in the second half that made this perhaps the greatest day ever in Irish rugby. We chat to All Black legend Justin Marshall and Shane Horgan about the breathtaking quality of Ireland's tries, the Tadhg Beirne masterclass, the mental strength shown and just why this tops even the Grand Slams fo...

We had a great time on the World Service this week including chats about Ireland winning the transfer window, "new" old Brian Cody, the immense pressure on NZ ahead of the third test and the hugely enjoyable new Netflix basketball movie, Hustle, starring Adam Sandler. To hear all our shows from Monday to Friday join for just five euro a month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inform...

England/Norway could be the game of the group stages of Euro 2022 and Miguel Delaney will be there tonight.  He tells us about the host nation’s reaction to the tournament thus far, and we also discuss Chelsea’s first post-Abramovich summer so far, their new-found canniness in the transfer market… and where a kite being flown about buying Ronaldo fits into that. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com...

Another wild weekend of football in Croke Park ends with Galway and Kerry as the last men standing in this year’s All-Ireland championship.  The best in the business Oisin McConville and Paul Flynn talk Dublin’s lack of a sweeper, Clifford magic, red cards, penalties and the Damien Comer effect.  And as Sean O’Shea’s last-second free takes its place in the pantheon, we give it the full a...