Club Championships 2025/26

[Watchthepost]

Some win for Brigids. Two Connacht titles in 3 years for a largely young group is good going. I’d love to see them go and win it from here

[myboyblue]

@Watchthepost

Some win for Brigids. Two Connacht titles in 3 years for a largely young group is good going. I’d love to see them go and win it from here

Outside of Clough Ballacolla there hasn’t been a story of these club championships yet in hurling, hopefully the Wexford boys next week might give us something. Otherwise we’re lucky to have the football to give us any sort of excitement.

In truth we’d be better off big up the junior and intermediate and simply ignore the senior which have little or no real interest.

[Watchthepost]

@myboyblue

Otherwise we’re lucky to have the football to give us any sort of excitement.

Not often you’d see score lines like this in winter club football. Incredible stuff today up in Ulster. Scotstown Kilcoo will be a cracker.

In fact, the other 3 provincial finals promise to be belters. I’m fancying Athy, Dingle and Kilcoo to advance

[myboyblue]

I reckon you won’t be far off, although Kilcoo can be their own worst enemies

[billyocean]

I think Dr Cullen Park is closed until the new year as there upgrading the dressing rooms, I’d say a Martins/Ballygunner game would be a 1 or 1.30 slot on the Sunday in Nowlan Park, if it’s Ballyhale/Ballygunner I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in Wexford Park.

I’d agree Ballygunner aren’t quite as strong as before but doesn’t mean they’re not formidable, arguably Ballyhale and Ballygunner from 2018-22 was as strong a pair there’s been competing for club all irelands.

[myboyblue]

That’s a lovely moment

Thomas Niblock (@thomasniblock) on X

[peddlerscross]

Any game that is ‘finish on the day’ on December 21st is on dodgy ground with no floodlights. At 3pm today there was no way that game could’ve started without floodlights.

Ballyhale and Ballygunner like you say at the peak of their powers in that period around 2022 were as good as any club teams ever, but both are creaking now. They were so good at their peak that it would be no surprise if either won another on the downslope.

If Martin’s were to win this All Ireland Club, it would be one of the greatest ever won. They’d have had to beat Na Fianna, Ballyhale, Ballygunner and Loughrea/Slaughtneil. Surely too much to ask.

[billyocean]

2 years ago there was a semi final in Navan on December 17th. It looks fairly open with the 5 teams remaining, only heard this week there’s been only 2 Munster winners in last 20 years.

[Watchthepost]

Ballygunner and Nap?

Very few Munster football winners too in recent years. Dr Crokes the only one in the last 20?

[YellowBib]

My Scotstown, Athy, Ballygunner, Barrs acca limps on

[billyocean]

Yeah Ballygunner 22 and Nap in 16 prior to that Newtownshandrum in 04.

Football Crokes in 17 and prior Nemo in 03.

Last 20 winners in hurling is 7 Kilkenny and 7 Galway.

[Fagan_ODowd]

@peddlerscross

Debate and different opinions is great but sitting at home and posting on an Internet Forum about wishing a Club GAA player to be decapitated is odd and unfortunate behaviour.

Men against boys in Thurles today. Eire Og Ennis weren’t good enough anyway, but their set up meant it was always only going to end one way. The template to beat Ballygunner is well known. You have to skelp/run with a bit of throwing and overcarrying mixed in to see can you get a bit of momentum going. Being the outsider generally gives you free licence to do all of the above. See Sarsfields and St. Thomas’s. Eire Og played with a sweeper, conceded puckouts and were blown out of it in the energy stakes. It was 0-16 to 0-03 from open play. Eire Og are obviously a good team but there are different levels of being good.

For a team that looked completely broken and bewildered walking off Semple Stadium this time last year, Ballygunner have reorganised and reset themselves as well as could be expected. Aaron O’Neill has come in and steadied the ship at the back. Between himself, Ruddle, Power and Leavy tracking back, there’s a fair bit of recovery pace there now to protect Philip Mahony.

They are slipping though. Two or three years ago they’d have won that game by somewhere between 14 and 20 points. They never really looked like scoring a goal today bar two harmless efforts from Kevin Mahony. O’Keefe is looking a little unsure of himself at times and I wouldn’t be hanging my hat on the subs to come in and turn a game if necessary.

But none the above means they can’t win this All Ireland. Hutchinson and Fitzgerald are humming nicely. The younger Mahony’s are running and tackling all day. Ian Kenny is doing fine full back and Paddy Leavy is like the Great Wall of China. There’s no end to him. If they fed Hutchinson and Fitzgerald enough ball they’d win it by themselves, but they don’t have an elite level distributor who can ping ball 90 yards into them on a six pence. So instead they’ve to work these interminable triangles of pop passes around the middle to find the opening. Its heavy going but they are good at it.

The All Ireland is a new competition and there are four other serious teams left. I think they’d rather Ballyhale now especially without Mullen. Better the devil you know and all that. These Martin’s lads are unexposed and unpredictable. Ballyhale would be in Thurles too whereas Martin’s could be in Carlow under crap floodlights. They’d be walking into a booby trap down there.

That’s a cracking summary of where Ballygunner are at. I’d add in that Philip Mahony is aging and Pauric Mahony is carrying an injury all the time and these two have been the mainstays of the team for a decade.

[billyocean]

2 of them and SOKY played in 2009 Munster Final, SOKY and Philip would have been 18 and Pauric 17.

[Watchthepost]

If only they had a decent minor to come in next year and boost them a bit more.,

[peddlerscross]

That was their 10th Munster Final today since '09. It was vitally important they made it 5 wins from 10 to balance out some of those previous losses.

That '09 Final was a great game and one of the last ever played with fellas with no helmets. Ben O’Connor’s point to win it was iconic.

Ballygunner have lost too many classics over the years to care about what sort of a spectacle the games this year are turning into. Its a last dance for the old guard and All Ireland Club or bust. In woeful conditions today, their stick work and handling held up fairly well after the first five minutes when there were a few errors.

[Appendage]

They were 18 and 17?

[billyocean]

Yeah SOKY and Phillip born in 91 and Pauric 92.

[Bisto]

@blackjack

I think Athy will give Boden their fill of it.

Think in Croke Park Boden will run them into the ground .

[glenshane]

Having had time to take stock, reflect, analyse, meditate, consult, measure and judge, i can conclude and verify that joe is rotten to the very core.

[Chucks_Nwoko]

He did all he could for your boys last weekend.