I had a couple of pints in the Thierafurth Inn today with some Kilcoo footballing royalty. Lacey is with them alright but it’s more of a consultancy role, much less hands on than the Derry mob they had over them previously. He commutes from Donegal a couple of times a week, a grand handy 4 hour round trip.
The reason for the pints was because I was on my way to watch Steven Poachers Mayobridge in the opening round of the championship against Bryansford, alcohol was clearly going to be required. The Newcastle club played in the first ever club All-Ireland final, they won’t be there again for a while yet. Mayobridge looked in good nick, but there is no standard of football they could produce that would justify the embarrassment of what they have on the line.
He’s an absolute tramp of a man
Did either side break 10 points?
3-10 to 1-4 it finished, think it was 8-1 at halftime. To be fair Mayobridge played some decent football, but the ape on the line wanted all eyes to be on him. Any club appointing clowns like that should be denied all county board funding.
Any school/club that signs up to his coaching clinic can be added to that blacklist too.
Rahilly’s suffering a heavy defeat at home to Dingle today and face a relegation play off. Elsewhere the other townie club, Austin Stacks, fall to Castleisland.
That’s in the Intermediate? A very strong Intermediate championship this year with Stacks, Na Gael, Fossa and An Gaeltacht.
Very strong
There is definitely a case for 12 senior teams in Kerry.
But they wouldn’t hoover up intermediate and junior club all irelands then.
I reckon they’re more concerned with how well it works for them allowing them hoover up Senior intercounty All Irelands
Apologies gents, I’ve missed a few updates on the Laois SFC and I’m sure you’ve all been devastated to miss out. Any way, we’re up the quarter final stages now, so a good time for a catch up.
Round 3 games were completed at the weekend. O’Dempseys, Port, Killeshin and St Josephs already smoked their way into the “A” Quarter Finals after winning both their opening 2 games, while Ballyfin, Park-Ratheniska, The Heath and Rosenallis were already smouldering in the Senior B after losing their opening 2 games.
Round 3
Arles Killeen 0-4 v Portlaoise 2-10
Portlaoise smoked Killeen here. Kileen set up with a very defensive type game plan to suit their aging limbs, and while Portlaoise dont have great firepower, they do have about a thousand young athletic lads who can run the ball at you and eventually overran the auld bucks.
Clonaslee 1-4 v Emo 2-7
Emo smoked Clonaslee in this one, as anticipated. Clonaslee arent the fearsome outfit of old, but are a young up and coming side. But Emo at full tilt are decent and have serious running and scoring power. Probably underpowered in the backline to win it out, but will cause problems with the likes of Greene, Crowley, Kirwan, Hosey and Costello.
Stradbally 0-5 v Graigue 1-10
One of the most storied fixtures in Laois GAA, but Graigue have the upper hand here and didnt let it go this weekend either. Stradbally are improving though and could have smoked Graigue, but a missed penalty with 5 mins to go when 2 points down was costly and Graigue raced over the line. Not sure what to make of them though.
Ballyroan Abbey 0-9 v Courtwood 1-8
Little ol Courtwood are having some crack at senior all the same. A yoyo Club for their lifetime, and more a Junior/Intermediate outfit, they have turned themselves around in recent years and are a fearsome outfit now at senior level and well capable of smoking anyone. Without their talisman of Niall Donoher it was left to Sean O Flynn to do the damage here as the fancied Ballyroan Abbey failed to score for the last 25 minutes and were caught by a SOF goal 2 mins into injury time to tumble into the Senior B. This is a significant kick in the hole to the all star management team of Shane Wall and Paul Garrigan. Be interesting to see if the situation there will be salvageable for them.
So we have our Quarter Finalists which will take place in 3 week (Next weekend is EP and the following is the Hurling Quarter Finals)
LAOIS SFC
QUARTER FINALS
- O’Dempsey’s v Portlaoise
I reckon O’D’s have too much smokeability for Portlaoise - Portarlington v Courtwood
Port werent at full throttle up to now, but surely Tessio will have them smoking for knockout. With Donoher back though… - Killeshin v Graiguecullen
This one will be smoke filled as the neighbours face off. No love lost here. Could Kieran Kelly take Killeshin to a semi final at the expense of their great rivals? - St Joseph’s v Emo
A real 50/50 here. Mick Dempsey looks to finally have Joes smoking, but Aymo are divils and have firepower, which Joes lack a wee bit, even with the former Kildare man Eoghan O Flaherty in situ.
‘B’ QUARTER FINALS
- Clonaslee-St Manman’s v The Heath
- Arles-Killeen v Ballyfin
- Stradbally v Park-Ratheniska
- Ballyroan-Abbey v Rosenallis
The Senior B doubles as the relegation dogfight, winners of quarter finals advance to the B semis, losers into the relegation semi finals.
Semi-finals
Laois IFC
- Ballylinan v Mountmellick
- Portlaoise v Crettyard
‘B’ Semi Finals
- O’Dempsey’s v Ballyroan-Abbey
- Timahoe v Arles-Kilcruise
In the Intermediate the semi finals are now set, with forum favourite Gary Walshs Ballylinan taking on Mountmellick and Evan O Carrolls Crettyard up against Portlaoises second team. Cretty knocked out Arles Kilcruise over the weekend. Kilcruise look to have wrung everything out of that generation and will require a few years of underage lads coming through now. They go into the relegation semi final and could be vulnerable there too. It looks like a shootout is coming between Evan and Gary in the final, but Mountmellick are dangerous still and god knows what Portlaoise could bring.
Have they much coming through? Not an overly promising sign when they’re part of that Na Fianna Óg amalgamation for underage.
16 senior teams in Laois is surely overkill. Seems to work reasonably well but 12 would surely be more suitable in Laois and enhance the overall quality of the Intermediate championship too.
Taking a quick look at the roll of honour would indicate they probably won’t change their system any time soon.
Lacey listed as Bainisteoir cc @Halfpipe
Impressive enough win for the much-maligned Kilcoo truth be told. They haven’t gone away you know…
A trilogy bout between Kilcoo and Glen this year would/will be iconic.
It’ll be a hell of an occasion.
I was very sceptical about the 1pm throw-in time, last year but it really worked. Normally I’d prefer a day/nighter but there was something really special about the mid-winter low sun.
One of those Mulholland’s tweeting “we’ve got sheep too” on the Monday Club the next day was sure to stoke some Kilcoo fires for this year too.
12 would still be too many. 8 would be plenty and if they wanted to throw in a few area teams on top of that, it would be a much better championship.
There’s only 8 senior hurling teams in Laois. Should be the same for football.
Some action from the Carlow Senior Football clash of Tinryland v Mount Leinster Rangers yesterday.
An own point from the Tinryland goalkeeper