Sunday 08th November

SPEAKER_2 (0:07)

You ever seen a trial like that? The Big Red Bench on Cork's RedFM.

Orla O'Leary (0:14)

Hello and good evening. You are listening to The Big Red Bench with myself, Orla O'Leary. Lots happening this weekend in the land of sports. Nemo advanced to the Munster Championship semifinals after their great victory today. We will have reaction coming up shortly to you as well on that. And in the Premier League, we seen Sunderland get back to winning ways after beating Chelsea 1-0.

And Brighton, they beat Brentford 2-0. I swear Brighton are definitely one to watch this season. They are doing unbelievable and currently sit second on the table ahead of, guess who? Manchester City. As a Man United fan, I'm happy about that, that they're not at the top of the table. But as a Man United fan, you can't be happy about a lot right now, to be honest. But Liverpool, they do come up to fourth in the league after their 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace today.

And of course, for my sins, Man United, they are currently playing against Villa, where the score is 4-2 to Villa. Absolutely devastating with just about 17 minutes gone.

It started off very rough, to be honest with you, Villa were 2-goes up with just under 5 minutes gone in the first half. But we came back in fairness at half time, it was 2-all. But then of course, in the first 8 minutes of the second half, Villa make it 4-2. But sure, that's United for you, I suppose. So without further ado, up next on The Big Red Bench, we have our very own Mel, speaking to Kieran Heston of Nemo after their victory today to get to the Munster Championships Semi-Final.

Mel (1:58)

Kieran, you're a very happy man here in front of me. How are you feeling once the Semi-Final?

Kieran Heston (2:01)

Ah, yeah, it's been a relief off it anyway.

We made a bad mistake over four years ago. We didn't turn up in the night, so we're actually just happy to be here today to actually get to be farmed soon. First half wasn't exactly set to play the world, but in the second half we actually improved a good bit. So we're happy enough for that. Just a great upgrade up and we got both in there.

Mel (2:17)

Yeah, and just looking at your own performance there for a minute, like back in the Countdown final, you kept Stephen Sherlock scoreless now today. You kept, I think it was Lee McGraw, I think he didn't score anything from play and you got appointed to yourself there like...

Kieran Heston (2:27)

Yeah, it's rare really to get up to field to get a score. No, in fairness, I was happy enough, in fairness, both of them were excellent players. Like it's just, on the day the other five backs are home and the two of my feelers do tend to make my job a bit easier because in fairness, they roll back in the top of us and that gives us some hope. If you're left on one-on-one in any game these days, you're going to be under a lot more pressure. So thankfully we've got a good five or six are home and that actually makes the job easier.

Mel (2:48)

Yeah, and you mentioned 22 there. Does the days like today make it a lot better? Like you know what a hurt it is to lose at this stage. Now you have a game against Fort Acasey, so look forward to it.

Kieran Heston (2:56)

Jeez, we've had a lot of hurt the last three years coming over and back from Australia. They lose county finals. It wasn't exactly great. And then, Clamelle, the game four years ago, that was touched on the right.

That was more down to they were excellent on the right. And we just were completely flat. So we just didn't want to let that creep in again this time. So we're all about trying to get a real performance. We haven't played for 60 minutes yet at any stage this year. So that's the next goal, trying to get it going. The whole way through for a full 60 minutes.

Mel (3:19)

Definitely those about 14, 15 minutes there in the first half. Obviously it wasn't probably your best performance. You put in what kind of was said in the dressing room.

Kieran Heston (3:25)

Ah, of course. Same as usual. You kind of have to go over all the heads keeping it calm. And then after that, you might get outburst every now and again. But as a whole, we just knew ourselves, we weren't at the races in terms of our work rate or even on the breaking ball. We weren't sure we lost like seven out of nine kickers or something in the first half alone. So if you're doing that, you're going to be under pressure against any team, so in fairness to the clock, Moncastellini, they are actually a very good team. It was just a case of we got on top of the kicker instead of winning breaks in the second half.