[quote=“Boxtyeater”]Visiting son and family in Carlow for weekend. County final S/F, today involving Eir Og (urbanites) and Palatine (muldoons ).
Athmosphere in the town indicates a lot of bad blood between both parties, to the point where the appointed referee has been replaced and a “firmer hand” has been given the gig.
I might visit and if so, may post a brief synopsis of what may turn out to be a classic of sorts !!![/quote]
just go & enjoy the game- dont worry about the brief synopsis
1-10 all. Small crowd on a very inclement day. No aggro or any great football.
Winners: County Board and Bookmakers.
Losers: Joe&Josephine Public.
dublin senior football semi-final replay
kilmacud crokes 2-11, vincents 1-07
thanks bandage…hope ye organise a bus down for the final next weekend…bring on them windy cunts to fuck…
They might print this off and stick it to the dressing room wall!!
Well done.
Crossmaglen won their 13th consecutive Armagh title today. That is phenomenal stuff.
well done mr puke, outstanding
well done puke.
you get a game??
well done kilmurray ibricken too on winning the clare county football well deserved win.
Lads i’m doing a bit of betting again this week (nobody really checks out the betting forum). I can’t believe the odds on Oliver Plunketts against Kilmacud. They are both star studded, but surely Oliver Plunketts are a good bet, especially with Kilmacud playing so much in recent weeks. Anything there from the Dublin lads?
Drom-Broadford verses Ballylanders. Going for Bally here, seen them play this year and they impressed me, they have an excellent coach in Tom McLinchy.
Going for Abbeyside in Waterford, coming team and i think the Lismore game may have taken alot out of Ballyduff (any advice here Hangblaa?).
Also going for Newmarket in Clare (sorry Puke), going for treble on these teams, but may add Oliver Plunketts, is that madness???
This really could go either way, with Drom spoiling for revenege from last year. Whats the betting like?
Drom are 5/6, Bally are 6/5. Good odds for a county champions.
Not bad at all in fairness and I would put more stock in Ballylanders win over Fr Caseys than I would Droms over St. Senans. Senans surprised even themselves to make it that far, whereas Fr Caseys would have been serious contenders for the title. I still personally feel Drom have been just gearing towards the final all year and have looked comfortable in any game I saw them play. I wouldn’t be putting my own money down but I really think a draw could be very likely.
Cheers for that
[quote=“caoimhaoin”]
Also going for Newmarket in Clare (sorry Puke), going for treble on these teams, but may add Oliver Plunketts, is that madness???[/quote]
foolish man…reckon that there will be nothing in it and if newmarket aren’t firing on all cylinders then we will beat them…remember i also said on this forum that we would beat kilmaley and crusheen when the bookies said we wouldn’t…
what are the odds…
I’ve friends over in Newmarket so as my signature says…
Here’s a preview of the Limerick final I lifted from the Hoganstand Message Board. A tip of the hat to Prof Honeydew, a very astute judge of the Limerick Football scene:
SFC final, Ballylanders v Dromcollogher-Broadford, Gaelic Grounds, Sunday 3:15pm
Thirty-five games later and there can be no complaints about the make-up of this years county senior final. Right from the start, Bally and Drom have been the form teams of the season. They might have come through a few close games but not once did either look in serious danger of elimination. But that all changes now that there can be only one winner.
In fact, like this years All-Ireland final, Sundays game may settle who has been Limericks footballing club of the decade. Bally won in 1999 and last year while Drom chalked up the only back-to-back titles since the Claughaun era. A feature of both has been a willingness to keep learning rather then rsting on their laurels and theyve developed team-paly as well as maximising indivdual talents to a level not normally associated with either football or hurling in the county.
Ballys biggest asset is the momentum behind them. While they still have a few survivors from 1999, the side is now dominated by the next generation which won the under-21 a few years ago. Even though theyve a few seasons of senior championship under their belts, players like Pa Fox, Kieran OCallaghan, Stephen Walsh, Jimmy Barry-Murphy and Liam Martin are all in their early twenties and yet to reach the peak of their abilities. Last year, they returned to the play-offs after a number of years absence and went the whole way and their immaculate record this season of six wins out of six suggests that theyre in no mood to leave it at that.
On paper, Drom should be a team in decline after peaking with their 2003 and 2004 titles. There was a certain staleness about them in the last two seasons as the backbone of the side grew older and the infusion from underage slowed to a dribble. However, a new voice in the dressing-room has freshened things up and they received a massive boost when Jason Stokes, their most influential player of the decade, enjoyed his first sustained run in the lineup after years of injury. With a midfield focus to work from, the semi-final victory over Saint Senans showed Drom playing with an intensity not seen since their last championship success.
The one strength that has separated this pair from the rest of the competition is their range of scorers. For Bally, Mike Mansell and Kieran OCallaghan give them free-taking options from both sides of the field and theyve also proven finishers in Johnny, Danny and Jimmy Barry Murphy as well as Tom Foxs ability to find the net. Drom can call on Micheal Reidy, Limerick footballs top marksman over the past decade, and they also have Ray Lynch, Pat Donnelly, Garret Noonan and even their raiders from defence to back him up.
Outside of the forwards, however, the picture diverges. Droms engine is their power down the middle. Not only can Stokes, Tom McLoughlin and Tommy Stack win plenty of primary possession but they are also very effective at blasting the path open for their wide men to run ahead of. Their defence has also been playing long enough together to keep its shape no matter what pressure its under.
Bally arent as big as their opponents and wont beat them in one-on-one exchanges. But they make up for it in the flexibility of the total line-up. They are easily the most effective team in the county at switching from defence to attack and back again and their speed and support play create cances from almost any situation. The defence is also very difficult to break down as backs keep reappearing behind the ball even if the forward move appears to have taken them out of the game.
Droms best chance lies in their big men taking control early on and then holding out long enough to throttle any chances of a Bally revival. But it wont be easy. All season long, the champions have been at their most effective during the final quarter and, if they can keep to within a score or two by the three-quarter mark, the cup could be spending a second year in South Limerick for the time in living memory.
[quote=“The Puke”]foolish man…reckon that there will be nothing in it and if newmarket aren’t firing on all cylinders then we will beat them…remember i also said on this forum that we would beat kilmaley and crusheen when the bookies said we wouldn’t…
what are the odds…[/quote]
I know i know Puke, but the way i have set up the bets i needed to go with a strong favourite or two. The bookies aren’t right all the time, but they are right most of the time. 4/9 for Newmarket and 2/1 for Clonlara, but i think they were longer two days ago, which is interesting in itself.
If Newmarket are firing on all cylinders and repeat their semi-final display they will take some beatin. Clonlara’s forwards need twice the supply to get the kind of returns Newmarkets are capable of getting. That said Clonlara’s half back line is superb. And the choke risk is probably well lower than the blues.
Is the Clare final on this weekend then lads? Clonlara out 3 weeks in a row? Is the Dublin football final on this Sunday? I was hoping this might be on a midweek night so I could have a gander at it but I’ll be at Wexford hurling semi-finals this weekend.
dublin football final is on tomorrow night poundage in parnell…crokes v. plunketts…hurling semi finals are on sunday- boden v lucan, crokes v crumlin…