2016 All Ireland Under 21 Football Championship

No free there.

Where did he kick it from?

Narcissistic Cork cunts only interested in getting their fat mugs photographed for d’paper.

Monaghan just too small, they’ll only reach a certain level without those big dominating physical players in key areas. Cork had the easy outball all game with letting it into the two big guys who has 3 inch advantages on their men and Monaghan really struggled there.

Decent game, four closely fought provincial finals and two closely fought semis.

Mayo will be strong favourites for the final.

This Cork number 15 being interviewed is 21 going on 41.

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Scores all from play. Fair play.

Dessie Ward is the new Dessie Mone.

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Maybe. But probably the most experienced as well.

:smile:

There wasn’t a person watching that who wasn’t thinking “Dessie Mone” every time Ward got the ball.

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Saturday April 30

Eirgrid GAA Football All-Ireland U-21 Final

Cork v Mayo, Cusack Park, Ennis, 18.00. (TG4)

Referee: TBC

(E.T. if necessary)

When does the u20 grade take over?

Does that mean an age group will miss out, ie. players in their second year u21 missing out next year when age group is changed?

http://www.gaa.ie/news/major-changes-for-underage-grades-after-key-motions-pass/

January 1, 2018 with players eligible to be aged between 18 and 20.

The sudden-death free-taking competition if the match is still level after extra time sounds interesting.

I think the redrawing of the grades to under-17 and under-20 is a load of bollocks.

Can’t disagree with any of the effects predicted here. I predict that the grades will revert to under-18 and under-21 within a few years.

Reducing the minor age limit to 17 years will increase the risk of serious player burnout unless there’s a dramatic change of approach to training.

The warning comes from John Tobin, Connacht Games Manager and former Galway star who also had stints as senior manager of his native county and Roscommon.

He wholeheartedly backs the recent Congress decision to reduce the minor age limit from 18 to 17 years and to regrade U-21 as U-20 but has concerns that it may not be as effective in the battle against burnout as is generally thought.

He suspects that the excessively demanding training regimes, currently applying at minor (U-18), level will be transferred to U-17s, thereby exacerbating the problem as younger players are less well-equipped to cope with the stresses.

“At U-17 level, the emphasis should be on developing the player in all parts of the technical, tactical, psychological and physical aspects of the game. It’s my opinion that the strength and conditioning of players has consumed many coaches and has been given a disproportionate priority over the many other skills that are required. Are we now going to transfer that from U-18 to U-17? That’s the danger,” he said.

Lowering the minor age limit was designed essentially to ease the burden on players in their Leaving Cert year; while Tobin is happy it will achieve that, he fears a new situation will develop where U-17s will be put under excessive pressures. It’s already well known that the rule on when inter-county minor squads can start official training is being broken and Tobin believes the same will apply with U-17s when the new age limit applies from next year on.

“Despite the fact that collective training for county minors is not supposed to start until February 1, it’s common practice for teams to be months into their programme at that stage We all know that - it happens all the time,” added Tobin.

Tobin said that players are facing pressures from a number of sources.

"It’s common for players to be subjected to three or four sessions a week, excluding the demands from their club or school.

"In an average year, a county minor may have to attend over 100 training sessions in order to play five league games and an average of two championship games.

"There is a complete imbalance there in this ratio of training to games.
“One can only hope that the existing inter-county minor format which encourages these unreasonable demands on players will hopefully not be imposed on players who will be a year younger and less mature in all aspects of their development,” he wrote in the Connacht U-21 final match programme.

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+1

Fantastic competition this year at u21 with all provincial finals and semi-finals decided by a score. Last year’s competition was very good too.

The logical thing was to prohibit people who were called up by their counties from partaking in university football and condensing the senior county season. The U21 Championship is ran off in about 6/7 weeks, it is probably the best example of a fully functioning Championship in the GAA and they go ahead and completely overhaul it.

On today’s game, surprised to see Cork as slight favourites, thought Mayo would get the nod there. If Mayo can handle the long ball in to the two big lads in the full forward line I would expect them to win.

@caoimhaoin

Will many of this Cork team join up with the senior squad after? Think the younger Hurley looks a good player and completely different to any other inside forward they have available with his pace and accuracy off either foot, he’s an exciting player.

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I predict Mayo by 2.

Sean O’Donoghue is the obvious one but he is likely to go hurling.

Stephan Cronin was there last year but has gone way back (due to bad injuries from Crossfit for what its worth). He could get destroyed today, hopefully he will have improved but he was making lots of mistakes in last 2 games and was involved in alot of turnover ball. But the talent is there.

All the forwards have a shot, for varying reasons but Hurley, Kelleher and O’Donoghue are the leading players. I like Powter too, nice and direct.

Sean White at midfield is a good shot but as a back.

I would say a couple of the backs are barely u21 county standard not to mind senior. They are smallish and don’t seem like out and out defenders, more like good attacking backs. You need both for Senior.

Any chance of a link for this.

Serious pace to this.
Sizing up to be a belter.

Serious pace to this.
Sizing up to be a belter.