The Second Captains Podcast

The Lions return triumphant from the 2025 tour of Australia with a 2-1 series victory... but was that the bare minimum?  Shane Horgan and Gareth Rhys Owen of the BBC's Scrum V are on the show this Bank Holiday Monday to review why the Lions ran out of steam on Saturday's third test.  

We discuss whether Andy Farrell returns to Ireland with his reputation enhanced, which Irish players have grown or wilted during this to...

Welcome to our world service best of show, and what a humdinger of a week it was with Tom Brady and Keith Andrews getting the reality tv treatment at Birmingham and Brentford, Ken chatting to QPR and Ireland's soundest man, Jimmy Dunne, the Lions tour exploding into life, and Jonathan Wilson taking the gloves off for some cricket chat.

Plus there's question marks around the whole Newcastle/Saudi project, democratic dictator...

England have won their second consecutive Euros, a Lionesses XI built out of different types of rocks and hard places ultimately proving too tough for Spain to break down.

Today we learn about the lighter side of Sarina Wiegman, look at what England's win signifies in these exciting days for the meaning of Englishness, and reflect on the overall impact of Euro 2025. 

We also discuss the knock-on effects of Luis...

The 2025 All-Ireland senior football championship is finished and Kerry are worthy champions, again.  Two of the great GAA pundits, Paul Flynn and Oisin McConville, are in studio to discuss this magnificent season of gaelic football 2.0.  

How did Kerry defuse the Donegal zonal defence? Where did they find their energy after losing to Meath 8 weeks ago? Is David Clifford even human?  We also examine Jim McGuinness...

Welcome to our world service best of show, and what a romper stomper its been this week with the Premier League transfer market getting red hot, Ken's north star, Eamon Dunphy, featuring heavily throughout, there's a much anticipated All Ireland football final match-up, the Lions are meowing their way to victory, and Ken has been meeting people in Tolka Park .... and the gym.... and in saunas.

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Tipperary are the 2025 All-Ireland hurling champions, and their victory was as dominant and deserved as it was unexpected. As they’ve done all summer, Jamie Wall and Liam Rushe are on hand to pick through the bones of an unforgettable second half.

Cork’s inability to adapt to the tactical picture Tipp presented them will haunt them forever. For Tipp, giving your perfect performance on the biggest day makes this as sweet as any A...

Evan Ferguson has joined the flood of under appreciated young Premier League players seeking to transform their careers in Serie A. 

James Horncastle joins us to talk about what awaits Ferguson in Rome - where he will be working under one of Italy's most respected coaches - what a young player like him should be doing (and not doing) to succeed in Serie A, and how Italian football keeps going its own way in an increasingly ...

Welcome to our World Service taster which this week included Ken and Scottie Scheffler on the meaning of life, Patrice Evra brings you inside the dark culture of winning, Tom English of the BBC chasing Lions Down Under and Nicky English remembers his iconic ''soccer style'' goal in that hot summer of '87.

Click the player at the top of the page to play the show. Monday’s shows are free to all. To listen to our programming th...

Chelsea are the new FIFA world champions after destroying PSG in another one-sided CWC knockout game. Johnny Infantino's long servile campaign paid dividends as Donald Trump showed up and dominated the extended post-match proceedings. 

The entire occasion was as though someone had started with the basic concept: imagine the Americans had invented football. To which we can only respond: why? 

Jonathan Wilson and...

If the price of one absolutely mega All-Ireland football final showdown is two pretty pedestrian semi-finals, then that’s a price we’re happy enough to pay. Paul Flynn and Oisin McConville are on hand to look back at Kerry’s composed win over Tyrone, and Donegal’s devastation of Meath in the weekend’s games. 

Will this final be a showdown between David Clifford and Michael Murphy, or will Donegal’s peerless cohesion be the ...

There was a period of a few hours over the weekend when it looked as though Mikey Johnston might be going to Brazil to teach them how to dribble. Even Robbie Keane's intervention could not save the move. 

We talk about the Club World Cup, where Jurgen Klopp's direst predictions of injuries came true for Bayern's best player, Jamal Musiala. Should he even have been playing? And does Gianluigi Donnarumma deserve the criticism...

The Cork hurlers have built up a following which some commentators are comparing with Heffo’s Army or, say, the Pope's visit to Ireland. They travelled from Kent station to Heuston on Saturday with, let’s be honest, a certain cockiness and Dublin’s quick capitulation made for a good day out for the red shirted horde. 

And then came "its a madhouse at Croker" on Sunday - our senior analyst Jamie Wall had tipped against Tipp....

Murph and Mark headed off to Croke Park together yesterday for the MARPH derby. Murph's initial arrogance slowly curdled into horror as he and everyone else in the stadium witnessed the return of the Royals; Meath are back!

Mark is on the show today to celebrate on behalf of his people, but otherwise, it's wall-to-wall losers as Dublin and Armagh's Paul Flynn and Oisin McConville join Murph's Galway pity party. 

We chat ...

Friend of the show David Sneyd sent US Soccer into a tailspin over the weekend with his exclusive report that Brentford interviewed Mauricio Pochettino for the job they ended up giving to Keith Andrews. But doesn’t Poch already have a job? In Ireland we can empathise with the American soul-searching.

Meanwhile, certain senior German grandees been engaging in the favourite activity of their kind: lighting up the feuilleton space ...

Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week includes the voice of Saipan (trailer), the Joe Duffy era coming to a close and a new door opening, Tim Vickery on Brazilian footballers' ability to sin and win, Messi's secret to longevity, and Ken on the USA V Italy cuisine wars.

Plus there's Lions o'clock, climate change, ASMR, and the GAA football and hurling championships are red hot for the next few weeks.

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14-man Dublin's win over Limerick on Saturday has been described as the greatest upset in championship history - is that hyperbolic or on the money? Is this the end of an era or can we expect to see a less dominant but still title-contending Limerick going forward? And what are Dublin capable of against Cork in two weeks' time? 

Jamie Wall and former Dublin hurler Liam Rushe are with us to answer those questions and more af...

Ken is back from holidays and so is Branno. Did they... go on vacation together?

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened... is what Branno's Shels-supporting friends are claiming they are thinking the day after Damien Duff walked out of the club. 

Today's show is mainly about perhaps the last-ever Duff-LOI Bomba - although it was a different competition that dominated much of our weekend bandwidth. Eoin br...

Another insane weekend of Gaelic football, and finally we have some teams departing the scene - including, most chaotically of all, Mayo. They conceded a last-second score to a team who needed it not even a small little bit, and they, Derry, Roscommon and Clare are gone. 

Former Galway player Barry Cullinane is on the line to chart his old team's progress through the Group of Death, and he's joined by Wicklow manager O...

Today's football show contains all the meats of the football stew, from local LOI beefs to the state of the world game.

First we chat to David Sneyd about where exactly things stand in the League of Ireland season, a season in which Damien Duff and Stephen Bradley are at each other's throats. Why? Because of Italian trance classic, Komodo by Mauro Picotto, of course. 

Then we speak to The Guardian's Barney Ronay, who's b...