The League ends and the Championship begins

The National Football and Hurling Leagues may have finished but there’s no rest in the compressed GAA season with the Championship already kicking off.

The Throw-In GAA podcast, produced by LastCast Media, for Mediahuis Ireland, now consists of two shows - The Throw-In Hurling show and The Throw-In Football show.

Monaghan legend, Dick Clerkin, joins Will Slattery and a stable of Irish Independent journalists every Monday to discuss the main talking points from the weekend in Gaelic football, while for the hurling, Michael Verney is joined by two legends of the game, Eddie Brennan and John Mullane.

Whether you’re a hurling or football fan, for the best moments, incisive analysis and the important talking points of the day, listen and follow The Throw-In podcast.

Another hugely successful Left Wing Six nations

Sinéad Kissane, Cian Tracey and Rúaidhrí providing post-match analysis on The Left Wing.

While it was another Six Nations title for the Irish rugby team, it’s also been a hugely successful tournament for The Left Wing podcast.

Sponsored by Bank of Ireland, the show, produced by LastCast Media, features former Leinster, Ireland and Lions’ winger, Luke Fitzgerald, and has become the leading Irish rugby podcast.

In addition to Luke’s weekly deep dive, throughout the Six Nations there were, in addition, post-match shows recorded from the stadia with Sinéad Kissane, Rúaidhrí O’Connor and Cian Tracey giving listeners the hot-takes right after the final whistle.

Plus, there were weekly team news episodes in the days before the big games, and coupled with the video offering of the show on the Irish Independent’s YouTube channel, The Left Wing is going from strength to strength.

Rugby World Cup Fever

The beginning of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and with it Ireland’s place as the number 1 ranked team in the world, has meant that hope and expectations are at an all-time high for the Irish public.

Could we actually be celebrating a World Cup winning Irish sports team come the end of October?

The Left Wing podcast, produced by LastCast Media, for Mediahuis Ireland, is releasing daily episodes for the duration of the tournament with the Irish Indo’s team of rugby writers over in France also joined by Luke Fitzgerald, Will Slattery and Jonathan Bradley in Ireland to bring team announcements, the latest news and the best post-match analysis.

Interest in rugby podcasts has soared in the build-up to the tournament and with it The Left Wing podcast is riding high in the charts on Apple and Spotify - and it’s not just the sports charts either, the Left Wing is hitting the Top 10 of the overall Apple and Spotify charts showing just how much interest there is in the show.

Listen and follow on Apple or Spotify and you’ll never miss a thing from the Rugby World Cup.

The Throw-In Hurling & Football Championship Podcasts

The Throw-In, the Irish Independent’s popular GAA podcast, is now being split into two separate shows with separate hurling and football episodes each week being produced by LastCast Media.

With so many talking points around the games, The Throw-In Hurling and The Throw-In Football shows will give the presenters and contributors more time each week to delve into and dissect the issues that GAA fans are talking about.

The Throw-In Hurling show is presented by Michael Verney with Kilkenny legend, Eddie Brennan, and Waterford legend, John Mullane, joining Michael each week to give their thoughts and provide plenty of frank and honest opinions.

The Throw-In Football show is presented by Will Slattery and he’s joined by Monaghan legend, Dick Clerkin, and GAA writers from the Irish Independent, including Donnchadh Boyle, Colm Keys, Conor McKeon and Frank Roche.

Each show is released on Monday lunchtime and you can listen and follow on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Left Wing November Internationals Coverage

For the duration of the Irish rugby November internationals against South Africa, Fiji and Australia, the Left Wing podcast will be releasing three episodes each week.

The usual Wednesday show with Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald providing in-depth Irish rugby analysis will appear, along with shorter Thursday team news episodes looking at the starting XV announcement, presented by Sinead Kissane.

The third show of the week is a post-match reaction show with Irish Independent writers from the Aviva stadium minutes after the final whistle.

Video clips featuring the best of the episodes are also recorded and released on the Irish Independent’s Sports Facebook channel.

All three shows have seen a huge increase in weekly listenership showing the appetite for more podcast rugby coverage from one of Ireland’s favourite rugby podcasts.

Listen and follow The Left Wing on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

Shadows of Saipan

We didn’t produce this two-part series but it was certainly fun and interesting being a contributor to the ‘Shadows of Saipan’ podcast that was recently released by Mediahuis Ireland and produced by sports journalist, Ciaran Lennon.

20 years ago I was starting out on my journalism career with my first job as producer of a new soon-to-be-launched sports radio show called Off the Ball.

After being on-air for just two months, the biggest story to in Irish sports journalism history hit and the floodgates opened on the Newstalk airwaves as the country became engulfed in its second civil war.

All people could talk about for weeks was whether you were a McCarthy or a Keane supporter, with families divided and the entire country divided into the two camps.

‘Shadows of Saipan’ revisits that time and takes listeners into the team hotel and that infamous meeting where things finally boiled over between manager and captain.

Well worth a listen and worth reminding ourselves of a time when the Ireland soccer team was once important on the world stage.

Listen on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.