Not much drama on the final day in this group. Boden hammered a poor Craobh outfit whose senior A days are numbered. Barrog had a great win over Judes which I covered earlier. Na F beat Lucan to clinch top spot. Lucan set up with a sweeper and stifled Naf with a early soft goal. Chris Crummy was excellent and they barely hit a wide in the opening half to go in 2 up at ht. Naf however got to grips with them in the 2nd half and ran out comfortable 4 point winners.
Group 2.
A bit of drama here in this group. Brigids overcame OPER after being down 6 at half time. Vincents gave a depleted Whitehall a nice trimming on Friday night. However the big shock was Cuala beating Crokes and getting 4th place in the group. Crokes played like challenge match and Cuala were up by 9/10 points at one stage in the 1st half. They had a huge amount of the old guard back. Crokes whittled into their lead in the 2nd half and drew level with 5 to go. You would have backed them from there. However Cuala dug in and got the win. They are a dangerous animal now. Crokes for all their talent gave serious defensive issues particularly in their FBL.
Was in Parnell Saturday evening. lucan hurled well in the first half but NAF stepped up in the 2nd half and never looked like losing it from very early on. Their subs made a huge difference, especially Stacey, he was excellent. They will be worried tho, Donal looks way off it, fitness and hurling. Theyâll need him to win it.
Dr Crokes kept up their recent dominance again today with club championship final win. 3 or 4 years ago I thought Stacks were gonna be the next dominant club when they got to the Munster final but havenât kicked on at all since despite producing young talent very consistently.
Looks like Crokes will be progressing into Munster as East Kerry should be strong favourites for the Kerry championship. Crokes would give the AI another serious rattle with the likes of Mark O Shea, White, Burns and Evan Looney much improved on last year and having a good year with Kerry. If they can get Brosnan firing on all cylinders they will be in with a good shout. theyâre maybe lacking that one extra quality forward alright.
Martins favourites, Annes, Gorey, Rathnure best of the chasing pack, Martins and Rathnure will be warm enough favourites in there QF, other 2 QF would be 50/50. Ballyhale Thomastown should be good in your neck of the woods.
Laois SFC Semi Finals
Courtwood v St Josephs
Graiguecullen v Portarlington
Into Semi Final stage in the Laois SFC and as outlined the story of the Championship here is Courtwoods disposal of Portlaoise in the quarter final stage. And they did it in some style too, winning by 9 and should have won by another 9. Dark days in Portlaoise indeed, and the recriminations wont stop for a wee bit yet. St Josephs handled Ballyroan Abbey, but only just. BA were chasing an equaliser in this one and looked about to pull the trigger when they were done for a 3 man up infringement, inexcusable really. Joes kicked the free and won by 2. BA are coming but just arent there yet. Joes will be happy enough and will fancy handling Courtwood as they would do, but you wouldnt put anything past Courtwood on this form.
Graiguecullen beat Killeshin in their quarter final, because, well they always beat their parish neighbours. Portarlington ended the Arles Killeen revival in a crushing manner, and look incredibly ominous once again. They seem to have practically everyone back and Pat Roe appears to once again have an embarrassment of riches. Theyâll be very very hard bet and will fancy a crack off Leinster with the draw as it lies. But work to be done before then.
Club legend and stalwart Aidan Fennelly was the manager last year who took them to the County Final playing a lovely brand of football. He refused to do the puke ulster football shite, trusting his defenders to defend, and his attackers to attack. Then they ran into Port in the County Final and they got picked open. No shame in it, Port are a generational side, had almost all the stars back, and just had too many weapons. Losing Damon Larkin after 10 minutes fucked it all up for Portlaoise too. The word is some of the older players heaved him, whatever, Aidan sensed how it was going and took off and left them to it. It left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of club stalwarts of that vintage. As it turns out, his brand of football would have been ideal for the modern game, but so be it. Portlaoise went off and hired Turlough of Brien, their first ever âoutsideâ manager, and the puke came back into the football.
He did this article after the County Final last year.
I hope this is true as regards Ballygunner in Waterford.
Forgot he was over Portlaoise. His star has waned from where it was during the Carlow rising days circa 2017/18. He was removed from the senior job in Eire Ăg last winter in favour of two young joint-managers.
Both big town pitches in limerick (NCW and Kilmallock) are tucked right in the middle of the towns and they are fantastic venues when Club finals are on there etc.
