Vote for your favourite Noel Browne photo
Catherine Power
Noel Browne has been taking brilliant sports photos for the Munster Express for more than a decade. Each year Noel picks his favourite photos and they are usually featured in our Sports Supplement.
This year we are turning Noel’s Pick 6 into a competition and we would like to invite Munster Express readers to vote for their favourite photo.
The photos are listed 1 to 6 below. Noel has included the reasons he chose the photos below.
The winner will receive an A3 size framed copy of the winning photo while the runner-up will get a copy of ‘Flat Out’ from Healy Racing with words by Donn McClean.
You can also enter the competition on our Facebook page. Please include the reason you chose the photo.
The winner and winning photo will feature in our Sports Supplement on January 4th.
Simply use the entry form from the newspaper to vote for your favourite photo and return to:
Noel’s Pick 6 Competition, The Munster Express, 37 The Quay, Waterford before 12 noon on Thursday, December 16th.
Noel Browne
2021 was and still is a very difficult year for all of us trying to come to grips with Covid 19 . The photos below are from a very restricted and condensed sporting year. Not too much happened until the end of May this year as we waited for the lifting of restrictions.
Sport was once again put on the back burner until the government told us it was alright to start off some smaller sporting events and mostly behind closed doors. Eventually we got back
to some semblance of normality as the summer went on and I finally got a chance once again to get out to the few sporting events allowed. As we head for 2022 it is hard to believe that we are still talking about more restrictions as Covid 19 has not gone away. On a more sporty theme I was still glad to be able to cover a good deal of sport in the second half of the year, The photos on the page opposite may not be classics, some are funny, others are tough but the six all have a story to tell.
- Hibernians FC played their first home game back in the Schoolboy League on Saturday 18th September, it was a great occasion for the club but Kilmacthomas were never going to be a pushover. Things started well for Hibs but as the game progressed it looked like Kilmacthomas were going to spoil the party when Jamie Condon gave his side a 3-2 lead late in the game. The photo shows the joy on the faces of Kilmacthomas’s Jamie Condon celebrating with team mate Tom Power and the utter devastation on the two Hibernians players in the background. As I have often said in the past, sport means so much to so many people. The Hibs team were distraught, but it all ended well as they scored a much deserved equaliser not long after this and the game ended 3-3.
- The scene is set, it is the Well Kids Camp at Mount Sion GAA Grounds on Saturday 10th July, the cones are all put down by the various coaches and of course everyone is expected to listen to
the instructions given which were to run from one cone to the other, enter stage right, young Archie Power who had other ideas of what the cones were there for. A lovely. happy and cheerful photo
which was caught just before the said cone was put back in its rightful place. Good man Archie.
3.Waterford’s Austin Gleeson tries to kick the sliotar past Tipperary goalkeeper Barry Hogan before referee Colm Lyons called play back and awarded Waterford a penalty in the Waterford v Tipperary All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Quarter Final at Pairc Ui Caoimh on Saturday 31st July 2021. It was a crucial moment in the game which the Waterford team went on to win. The photo has just about everything that a photographer is trying to capture in a photo, fast action, diving goalkeeper and the concentration of Austin as he tries to improvise by kicking for goal in a high tension game.
4.Waterford’s Anne Corcoran felt the full force of this tackle from Cork’s Libby Coppinger in the Waterford v Cork All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship game at Pairc Ui Rinn on Saturday 31st July 2021. The reason I like it so much is the outstretched hand of Anne reaching for the ball and the “get possession at all costs feeling” to the photo, her helmet is nearly pushed off her face but she was still determined to win it.
- Sport is a lonely place if things are not going your way, Mount Sion were playing city rivals De La Salle on Saturday 4th September 2021 at Walsh Park in a must win game for the latter, the stakes were high and a place in the senior hurling championship quarter final was up for grabs.
The turning point in the game was the sending off of De La Salle’s Adam Farrell and here he shows his frustration as he sits in the stand on his own obviously thinking about the consequences of his actions. Mount Sion went on to win the game.
- Another sending off and a rather funny reaction as referee Cathal McAllister shows a straight red card to an amazed Darragh Lyons in the second half in the Waterford v Westmeath Allianz Hurling League game at Walsh Park on Sunday 16th May 2021. It is the total astonishment on Darragh’s face and the fact that I took the photo from up in the stand shows his reaction even better which really caught my eye as a stand out sporting photo from 2021.
Photo 2 Archie Power
Awww picture 2 shows the excitement of the game
Picture number 1 great atmosphere from the kids 👌
Pure excitement
Number 1
Number 1
Picture 2 Archie Power
No.3 I choose No.3 because it shows the fierceness of the game in the hope of a win. These ladies are amazing and nothing stops them.
3. Austin Gleeson
Great action picture. Captures the commitment of both players.
Picture 1 shows the emotions in youth football from kids. Sometimes parents and coaches can influence / overshadow the game. Talking about winning, losing and league tables but this picture shows kids ‘in the moment’ and we should never forget that it is their game and we are just there to facilitate it for them. Fantastic shot !
No: 1 because it shows the emotion of both players
Number 1 because of emotions in both set of players
Photo 1.
Great to see the kids smiling again after a horrible year.
No 2 archie it’s class
Number 5
Num 6,
The look on Darragh’s face says it all
Innocence is brilliant
Unbelievably good photos. Noel has a gifted eye for it. Number one is number one for me – captures the extremes of emotion that sport creates.
I vote for no 2. As it was my son Jamie who scored his first goal this season and he was super excited
I just voted there it’s number 1 picture kilmacthomas verses mountsion
No 2
Picture 2
Pic number 1 great to see lil kids and teammates so excited about a game love this pic 🥰
Picture one, its a true saying, a picture paints a thousand words.. fab picture
Picture number one for joy it brings and shows and also team mates of my son.
Photo 2 Having great fun 🙂
Number 1
Number 1
Lovely to see 2 team mates so happy.
Beautiful pic
Picture number 1, my nephew Jamie scored the winning goal great excitement 👏
No 1 really shows what sport means to some from such a young age.
Photo one sheer joy and delight
Photo no 2. Archie Power
No 1 boys look super proud there faces say it all
Number 2
Photo Number 2
Archie Power ❤❤
No 2. Go on Archie!!!
picture 2 Archie power
Number 2 – Archie Power!
Photo 2 Archie power
Hard choice..
No 3 for me though , captures the level of intensity of what these players perform at.
Pure Natural Emotion,
No 1, pure natural emotion
Photo 1, love it
No 2, Archie Power. So cute and playful 💕🥰
Picture no 1 shows emotion of both teams
I vote for number 1 it’s a great picture
Picture 1 .. great pic of what sport is all about.. fun!!
Picture 1…. Sport will always bring people together. Best of luck boys great pic
Picture no 1 it shows what sport is all about.
Pic no. 1 the pure joy on their faces says it all, sometimes kids are pressured so much to be the best that joy is lost in them