Just read somthing there that I wasn’t aware of at all. The bottom 4 teams in Division 2A and 2B go into the Tommy Murphy Cup this year and only get to play in the qualifiers if they reach a minimum of their provincial final.
This means the likes of Tipperary, including Declan Browne, will go into the TMC and won’t get to take part in the championship qualifiers unless they beat either Cork or Limerick in the Munster Semi Final. He’s fuming about it in the papers saying it’s another kick in the teeth for small counties and I think he’s right. He mentions the game in the qualifiers in 2003 where they got to play in Croke Park against Donegal and he gave an exhibition, kicking 9 points. He says if the current rules were in place in 2003 then Tipp wouldn’t have got the chance to play in that game in Croker.
It could also affect the likes of Sligo who need to beat Wicklow tomorrow to prevent themselves from dropping into the bottom 4 and they’ve been excellent in the qualifiers beating the likes of Tyrone and holding Armagh to a draw. Even Offaly are potentially in danger and there’s the strange scenario whereby Wicklow (if Sligo beat them tomorrow) could beat Louth in the Leinster Preliminary Round, then Wexford in the QF and then lose their semi and yet not be let play in the qualifiers, while both Louth and Wexford would be eligible.
Reading it now I can’t believe it went through at last year’s Congress without any misgivings.
Literally just in the door from this. Wexford won 2-10 to 0-09 but they needed to win by 8 to progress. Winning by 7 means the scoring averages are equal but Meath go through by virtue of having a better scores for column.
It’s hard to quibble when beating Meath by 7 points (and it was surreal to see the large Meath support celebrating a 7 point defeat against Wexford - who ever would have foreseen that 10 years ago?) but we shot ourselves in the foot in the last few minutes.
Meath’s penultimate point, a free, came from one of our defenders picking the ball off the ground on the 21. We then restored the 8 point lead before one of our forwards fumbled the ball on the Meath 45. They worked it down and got another point. Then we moved the ball excellently up the field again against the wind and won a free on the 21 on the right hand side about half way between the near post and the sideline. Our two freetakers, Forde and Lyng, had gone off at this stage (Forde injured midway thru the 2nd half but Lyng, after having a super game, was surprisningly taken off just before we won the free). Even though it was the wrong side for a right footer Red Barry stepped up and scuffed his shot. There was still time for us to work another move up the pitch but Red shot wide under pressure. And that was it.
Our footballers have had some hard luck stories in recent years but fook it. It’s Divsion 2B and our priority should be the Leinster Championship. We need to put this behind us and the last 3 games where we took 2 wins and a draw against Sligo, Meath and Cavan show we have the ability to get to the Leinster Final this year, especially with Dublin being in the other half of the draw.
We were 2-5 to 0-2 up at half time after playing with the wind. Forde was good and got a goal and a couple of points from play. He also drilled a great chance narrowly wide. Meath hit the bar and Ciaran Lyng kicked some lovely points from play too.
Our defence was excellent all through too and there’s strength in depth off the bench also. Frustrating at the end but plenty to look forward to. Hope they knuckle down and keep their spirits up.
Those rules about the Tommy Murphy Cup are a farce. Wasn’t aware of them either and as I’ve said on numerous threads on numerous sports, the way forward is to have every team/country/county with a fair chance of competing at the top level. Punishing smaller teams by making rules harder for them is a disaster.
I presume Dublin are down now because they lost to Kerry?
Just remembered Ciaran Deely had a point waved wide in the 2nd half that all 6 Wexford forwards appealed. It was on the far side to me but they all went mental which would suggest it was a point but such is life.
As I said though it’s Division 2B, and while we would have liked getting the 8 point gap that would have sent us to Division 2 rather than Division 3 next season, we are too good a side to be playing in these meaningless Division 2 play-offs in the coming weeks against the likes of Roscommon and Leitrim.
We were superb today in terms of tackling, workrate, imagination and skill. Meath celebrating a 7 point loss does indeed say it all.