The Second Captains Podcast

After last Sunday's heroics Roscommon may have thought they had the 2026 Cinderella Team mantle all to themselves, but yesterday in Croke Park Westmeath took that title from them, and took the Leinster title for only the second time in their history.

Dara Ó Cinnéide and Paul Flynn were watching an insane day of Gaelic football - a day where Monaghan even came painfully close to turning over another pre-game favourite, before Armagh finally captured their first Ulster title since 2008.

Plus there's Ken on the GAA's talent drain to Love Island and we salute golf's new working-class hero, Aaron Rai.
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Most of the world wanted Hearts to win on Saturday but this little corner of it was an exception.

Eoin swoons at the romance of his close personal friend Martin O'Neill becoming a champion again at the age of 74 while Ken confesses that technophobia has driven him into the sweaty arms of Celtic FC, a reassuringly old-fashioned, incompetent football entity.

Rory "Jambo Unchained" Smith was at Celtic Park to see Celtic win the league. We talk about the game, the glory, the SCENES, and whether Hearts can do it again.

Rory also analyses "the four mysteries" of Xabi Alonso joining Chelsea. Why didn't Liverpool show any interest? And do we really believe big Arne will still be there at the start of next season?
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Welcome to cheat week on the Second Captains world service! It all started with the Arsenal West Ham VAR fallout and got progressively murkier as the week went on with the Southampton "Spygate" saga, Celtic's questionable late penalty against Motherwell and Florentino Perez calling out all the haters and losers at Real Madrid.

There was also the news this week that Chelsea are looking to get Xavi Alonso as their next manager, news that astonished Ken given Liverpool seem a better fit and given how Liverpool's season has gone with Slot in charge.

Coming up tomorrow we have the latest in our series of Fiesta Fridays ™ - last week it was Seve - this week it's bullfighting culture wars. Its a fiver to join, it takes 30 seconds, you have instant access to every show we've ever done, and all the top stuff coming up such as Ken at the World Cup, the Premier League and Champions League deciders, Madrid continuing to be insane, Rory's majors quest, Leinster in the champions cup final, the munster hurling championship is getting red hot, and the football championship is getting real tasty too.

GO TO secondcaptains.com/join
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The newest member of our championship punditry team, Dara Ó Cinnéide - already getting rave reviews - was at Dr Hyde Park to see Roscommon pip Murph's Galway to their first home win in a Connacht final in a quarter-century yesterday.

Dara and Paul join us to chat about a huge day for the Rossies, the first provincial finals of the summer, Jayo Sherlock, and how, for David Clifford, it's all in the eyes.

Plus there's Willie Hegarty's commentary par excellence and the return of the finest barber in the west.
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Arsenal are nearly there. As the manager flailed wildly with random substitutions, David Raya and Martin Ødegaard stood up to make sure that when the referees stepped up to rule on the climactic, decisive melee, Arsenal already had the crucial edge.

We go through the fallout, and also talk about the Southampton spying scandal, while Eoin confesses to a faux pas in the presence of an unusually glamorous and sophisticated colleague.

Nick Ames and Rich Jolly join us to talk about the West Ham-Arsenal VAR drama and debate some eternal questions. Is football's tottering refereeing system in need of urgent action to save it? Or is it actually working about as well as can be expected, but being sabotaged by a poisonous alliance of the cheating players and managers who disregard the rules, the self-righteous morons who watch them, and the entrepreneurial anger-farmers who whip everything up?

Oh and Real Madrid we haven't forgotten about you.
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