The weights for the Aintree Grand National on April 11 were published last week and for the second year in a row, I Am Maximus has been allotted top weight. Willie Mullins’s star finished second to Nick Rockett as he attempted to defend his crown 12 months ago, and was given a mark of 168 after finishing second in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas. Current Grand National favorite and fellow JP McManus flag-bearer, Iroko was rated at 157. His weight of 11-1 is four pounds more than when finishing fourth in last year’s feature at Aintree. Willie Mullins’ stables have assembled a bigger squad than ever as they look to keep the Aintree Grand National trophy in the Closutton yard in County Carlow for another year. Last year Nick Rockett prevailed for the father-and-son duo of Willie and Patrick, the realization of a lifelong dream for Patrick and a third win in the race for his father.
Nick Rockett has been allocated 11st 11lb to carry around the marathon Aintree course, with Mullins keen to take the ride again once the horse emerges from a slightly interrupted preparation. Patrick said: ‘‘Without a doubt, I would love to ride Nick Rockett again. We have got a good team of jockeys and I don’t think there will be any shortage of volunteers to ride our horses. There are 13 further Mullins-trained horses holding entries, with nine joining Nick Rockett in being guaranteed to make the final cut for a field of 34 runners. In addition to I Am Maximus, Mullins also has Grangeclare West who was third in last year’s race when only beaten by three lengths in a Closutton 1-2-3.
ALLIANZ MOTIONS KEPT OFF CLAR
Motions calling for the GAA to end its sponsorship agreements with Allianz over the company’s links to the Israeli economy, have not made the Clar for next weekend’s Congress in Croke Park. At the end of 2025, nine counties: Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Offaly, Roscommon and Tyrone all passed motions at their conventions intended for Congress and Central Council.
However, the GAA’s management committee accepted a recommendation from its own ethics and integrity commission not to end the Allianz sponsorships after a three-person commission compiled a report on the company’s links to Israel. Yet small groups of people continued to hand out leaflets to GAA supporters on their way into National League games in recent weekends asking fans to encourage the GAA to drop Allianz as sponsors. They got their answer from thousands of GAA supporters all around the county who voted with their feet and turned out in huge numbers at hurling and football games.
Most of the motions that will be debated at Congress have been well aired in recent weeks and months. Chief among them is a Central Council motion to extend the inter-county championship season, with a key provision being that the All-Ireland finals are played on or before the 32nd weekend of the year. From 2027 on, we can expect the All-Ireland football final to be played during the second weekend in August. However, the Gaelic Players Association is proposing that an inter-county season window shall be no more than 30 competitive weekends. The current season has 30, but with a proposal from Central Council to extend the championship by two weeks, the GPA is looking to guard against further extension at either end of the calendar.
A motion to prevent the Joe McDonagh Cup finalists entering the Liam MacCarthy Cup via the preliminary quarter-finals in the same year, will also be debated. And Fermanagh want the All-Ireland minor finals to be played as curtain-raisers to the senior finals, a tradition which was abandoned some years ago. I think that motion could succeed.
BROLLY IS BOSS
Former Derry footballer and Sunday Game analyst Joe Brolly has been appointed manager of Knockmore Ladies football team in Mayo. The outspoken analyst now lives in Mayo with his wife Laurita Blewitt. Last year Brolly was part of Knockmore’s men’s senior football backroom team.
RHASIDAT IS BACK
Dublin-born runner Rhasidat Adeleke made a welcome return to the track earlier this month in the USA and lowered her Irish 300m record. Racing for the first time since July 2025, the 23-year-old clocked an impressive time of 36.30 seconds to finish second at the Tyson Invitational indoor meeting in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That took 0.12 seconds off her previous national record for the event (36.42) that had stood since February 2024. Victory went the way of Stacey-Ann Williams (Jamaica) who crossed the line in 35.92 seconds.
KITSON REVEALS
FOOTBALL ‘SECRET’
Former Reading and Stoke football Dave Kitson last week revealed himself as “The Secret Footballer,” saying his anonymous exposés into the modern game stopped being fun when Gary Speed died in November 2011. Kitson, who is now 46, wrote five books and had a weekly column in the Guardian newspaper in England during the 2010s under the pseudonym, detailing his frustrations with the game. Guessing his identity, which he has now revealed in a YouTube interview, was a passion for fans. Kitson said: ‘‘I am The Secret Footballer. I have never said that out loud before. It was an idea that came to me when I wasn’t not happy with where football was going and I needed an outlet to express it for my own mental health.
“I have been writing since I was a kid, it’s a passion. It helped me process what was going on in football. It started as something that wasn’t about naming names. It was about explaining what happens in the industry and why. It changed football in England and led to overhauls at the highest levels, which I’m proud of. But the stress and anxiety were immense. The worst thing that happened was when I wrote a column about mental health called ‘Sometimes There is Darkness Behind the Light.’ I said there was a mental health epidemic and I predicted it was only a matter of time before someone took their own life. I submitted the article on Friday. It went out Saturday. On Sunday, Gary Speed was found dead. That’s when the Secret Footballer stopped being fun.’’
WATERFORD FOOTBALLER,
WRITER MCCARTHY DIES
The death occurred last week of former Irish Press journalist Gerry McCarthy. The Waterford native covered GAA and Coursing for the paper. He also played Gaelic football and was in goal for Waterford when they shocked Kerry in the of the Munster senior football championship semi-final back in June 1957, winning 2-5 to 0-10 in Walsh Park.
