GAA - 30 June / 1 July

1

Thought i would start the countdown to this weekend’s GAA.

In the hurling qulifiers, I would expect the 4 favourites to come through although Clare could be vulnerable in Casement Park.

Onto Sunday, and I’m really looking forward to see how Kerry are fixed at the moment. Tyrone laid down a marker against Donegal and it will be interesting to see if Kerry can/will do something similar.

As for the double header in Croke Park, a year ago I would have been cheering on Wexford in both games but since joining ths forum, I have grown to hate the county. I hope they get hammered in both games.

2

I would settle for two victories on Sunday. Very happy with both team selections and I expect us to win each game.

Our hurling team:

Nolan in for Wexford

John Meyler has announced his Wexford team for the Leinster Hurling Final against Kilkenny in Croke Park on Sunday 1 July.

Stephen Nolan of Faythe Harriers comes in at wing forward instead of Paul Carley, in the only change from the side that overcame Dublin by a point on 9 June.

Sunday’s encounter is the 35th Leinster final between the sides with Kilkenny on top 21-10 with three draws.

Kilkenny have won the last five final meetings, whereas Wexford’s last final win came in 1997.

WEXFORD: D Fitzhenry, P Roche, D Ruth, M Travers, R Kehoe, K Rossiter, C Kenny, D Lyng, E Quigley, M Jacob, D O’Connor, S Nolan, N Higgins, D Stamp, R Jacob.

Meanwhile we’ve announced our football side too:

Bealin names unchanged side

The Wexford team to play Laois in Croke Park on Sunday 1 July in the Leinster Football Championship semi-final has been announced.

Paul Bealin has given a vote of confidence to the starting 15 who played Louth in the first round.

Their opponents Laois have been forced into a number of changes, and have put off naming their starting fifteen.

Noel Garvan, Gary Kavanagh, Tom Kelly, Brian MacDonald and Darren Rooney are all likely to be absent from Liam Kearns’s line-up.

Speaking to the Irish Times, Kearns detailed his littany of injury concerns: 'Noel [Garvan] did his ankle ligaments and tendon. He fell awkwardly in training over a week ago. He’s off the crutches but he certainly won’t play in the game on Sunday.

'Gary Kavanagh has only recovered from an operation on his knee. He certainly won’t be involved.

'Barry Brennan twisted his ankle in a challenge game and hasn’t done anything this week.

'Aidan Fennelly injured himself against Longford. He came back but had a recurrence of the problem over the weekend so again we are going to have to look at him.

‘Beano McDonald has a back problem. Tom Kelly has been out with groin problems for the last five weeks and has done nothing. The next few days will tell us if there’s any hope for him.’

WEXFORD: J Cooper, C Morris, P Wallace, B Malone, A Morrissey, D Murphy, N Murphy, R Stafford, E Bradley, C Deely ©, R Barry, A Flynn, C Lyng, P Colfer, M Forde.

3

Prediction league fixtures are up for next week - still open to anyone to join though you’ve a bit of ground to make up.

Big week for Raven last week as he moves ahead of others who have played 5 extra games.

4

yes - good results so far - when do the people ahead of me get a rest week or when are you going to put up the success % table

5

fingal raven wrote:

yes - good results so far - when do the people ahead of me get a rest week or when are you going to put up the success % table

Click “statistics” on the prediction league menu to see the win percentages table.

6

so the Dob has the worst % as well as being last in the table

fookin hell - him and the neo con bandage mouth off most about their love of gah

7

Was talking a member of the Wexford hurling panel at lunch

He says they havent a hope against Kilkenny and are looking at ways of keeping the score down

8

farmerinthecity wrote:

Was talking a member of the Wexford hurling panel at lunch

He says they havent a hope against Kilkenny and are looking at ways of keeping the score down

9

farmerinthecity wrote:

Was talking a member of the Wexford hurling panel at lunch

He says they havent a hope against Kilkenny and are looking at ways of keeping the score down

Name and shame him. If the converstion did infact happen, I hate these cooonts that were talking to a lad on the panel when infact its a load of bollox.

10

Appendage wrote:

farmerinthecity wrote:

[quote]Was talking a member of the Wexford hurling panel at lunch

He says they havent a hope against Kilkenny and are looking at ways of keeping the score down

Name and shame him. If the converstion did infact happen, I hate these cooonts that were talking to a lad on the panel when infact its a load of bollox.[/quote]

In fairness Appendage I wouldn’t promote people naming players in instances like this.

Who knows if a poster, at any given time, is making the story up or not?

If someone’s name is mentioned then people reading this could develop a very negative opinion of a player when the player in question might not even have made any comment in the first place.

11

thedancingbaby wrote:

Thought i would start the countdown to this weekend’s GAA.
As for the double header in Croke Park, a year ago I would have been cheering on Wexford in both games but since joining ths forum, I have grown to hate the county. I hope they get hammered in both games.

What’s happened since you joined the forum to make you hate Wexford?

I hope it’s not because of the constructive criticism I give to the team from that midland county you enjoy visiting.

12

fingal raven wrote:

so the Dob has the worst % as well as being last in the table

fookin hell - him and the neo con bandage mouth off most about their love of gah

i tried unsuccessfully to log on to the site last thursday to give my predictions. i have missed 2 out of the 3 weeks - not fair !!!

instead i have put my efforts into successfully taking money out of paddy power’s acount and putting that same money into my account.

there is a cracking Even money bet on the GAA this weekend but I’m not telling any of you because of your comments on Lovely Leitrim in recent days

13

Bandage wrote:

Appendage wrote:

[quote]farmerinthecity wrote:

[quote]Was talking a member of the Wexford hurling panel at lunch

He says they havent a hope against Kilkenny and are looking at ways of keeping the score down

Name and shame him. If the converstion did infact happen, I hate these cooonts that were talking to a lad on the panel when infact its a load of bollox.[/quote]

In fairness Appendage I wouldn’t promote people naming players in instances like this.

Who knows if a poster, at any given time, is making the story up or not?

If someone’s name is mentioned then people reading this could develop a very negative opinion of a player when the player in question might not even have made any comment in the first place.[/quote]

Yes Bandage but I think we had this converation before, possibly at the start of the year when on another board, some tit had it from one of the panel that Colin Lynch wasn’t invited to play for Clare this year by Considine. A lie, as are many posts of that “I was speaking to a panel member” genre.

It would actually be interesing if we could get a few inter county players, or maybe even Kevin Doyle to join us here to give an insiders view of the sports they play. Unlikely I would imagine though.

14

Good in theory Appendage but realistically I don’t think we could find an inter-county player sad enough to post on a forum like this.

Getting back to the game:

Question for Kilkenny supporters: Do your forwards decide to rotate positions themselves during the game, like the Dublin footballers, or are the changes made by management?

Question for Wexford supporters: If their forwards do continue this rotation policy do you think we should employ man-to-man marking and have a defender assigned to each attacker irrespective of where he roams in the forwards? Or keep our own positions and have our defenders pick up the forward whos in their vicinity?

Id like us to employ man-to-man marking as it avoids the confusion of whos picking up who but more importantly our defensive unit has players capable of playing in either defensive line. Id like to see Ruth pick up Comerford and follow him if he drifts out to the half forward line. Equally Id hope to see Rossiter take Shefflin and shadow him if he drifts between both lines. I think this is our best hope of getting on top of them.

I just hope we’re totally committed to whatever method we choose and are decisive rather than uncertain at the back.

Very confident we can give them a good hiding.

Any thoughts?

15

when it comes to this stage of the year for Kilkenny players the only challenge is to get into the team -winning leinster is an after thought

16

Can someone give me the handicap prices for the Antrim -v- Clare game? I quite fancy Antrim +9 or maybe even +7.

17

Very disappointing second half from Dublin yesterday - I thought they were doing quite well first half even though they never looked on a par with Cork at least they were matching them in some areas. Curran was superb at centre back, Hiney did well behind him and the forwards were doing ok as individuals. Some of the skill level was a bit below the required level. When they’d two a chance for a clean pick up it might take them off to the side a bit and all of a sudden the chance to shoot or clear unobstructed was gone.

Second half they just capitulated. In fairness Cork had thereated a bit earlier on with the room for O’Connor and Deane and when they got the same time and space in the second half they just murdered Dublin.

In the football Kilkenny will be very disappointed to come away with nothing from Casement Park. It’s not often you keep the oppostition down to 3-32 away from home in football and while the Cats managed that it seems that their own effort of 1-0 wasn’t quite enough to secure the victory.

18

As a neutral at the game yesterday I was disappointed in Kilkenny’s performance. They were right in the game until the last 5 minutes and then just let it drift away from themselves.

I’m very nervous about the Wexford games now. Oooh butterflies.

19

Bandage wrote:

As a neutral at the game yesterday I was disappointed in Kilkenny’s performance. They were right in the game until the last 5 minutes and then just let it drift away from themselves.

I’m very nervous about the Wexford games now. Oooh butterflies.

Remember in one of the cricket world cups when South Africa did the maths wrong on the Duckworth Lewis calculations and they didn’t score the extra run required so went out of the world cup? Do you think there’s a possibility someone on the Kilkenny bench got the maths wrong and they thought they had it won so they took their foot off the gas. They knew they had the goal in the bag, they knew Antrim were less than 50 - maybe they just assumed they’d done enough and nobody actually worked out the score to discover they’d slipped behind.