Limerick GAA 2023 - League champions means nothing now šŸ

Weā€™re 5/2 with Powers.

Definitely a chance.

Probably fancy the Well to have enough experience to see them through but theyā€™re there to be got at.

Has to be a chance Gillane doesnā€™t play as heā€™s clearly injured and I donā€™t think theyā€™ll have anybody back from last weekend. Presume tom Nolan is suspended too.

It depends on the backlash resulting from last weekend. With Patrickswell they may have expended it all internally so might have nothing left to face the Spud boillers.

Iā€™d imagine the :hammer: ing received last weekend would open a few old wounds in the Well.

Iā€™d be taking their arm off if i was a betting man

Thereā€™s a couple of crazy prices in there and Iā€™ll be backing them later.

Feohanagh at 5/2 are a crazy price. Thereā€™ll be little between themselves and Bruree. Wonā€™t be a puck of a ball in it.

Croagh/Kilfinny at 13/8 are a crazy price.

Kilmallock are 15/8 with Powers against Na Piarsaigh.

Iā€™ll be having some of the above in various guises.

While it was a desperately disappointing weekend for me on a personal level, Iā€™m still nowhere near over it, it was nevertheless great to see the club Championship back in full swing.

Great to get the reports from various TFK users, covered off a fair few games between us all. Did @dodgy_keeper get to five games? Crowds in general seemed very good, I suppose youā€™d expect that for the opening weekend. Claughaun on the Thursday and Ballybrown on the Friday were absolutely mobbed. Obviously there were loads of games on the Saturday at exactly the same time, and the weather was atrocious but looked like there was a fairly big crowd in NCW too.

As for predictions, 18/26
4/5 Senior (draw caught me)
2/4 Premier Intermediate (another draw)
3/6 Intermediate (couple of narrow results went my way, the draw didnā€™t)
9/11 Junior

Not too bad, I guess. Our big tips on the value bets came through- Kilmallock & NaP2.

Despite two early goals, Patrickswell were missing too many and were easily beaten by Kilmallock, as expected. Kilmallock look slick and I imagine their odds have shortened. Doon couldnā€™t close it out against NaP down the home straight but both Adam English & Eddie Stokes were injured, there was no Eoghan Macā€¦ as I said, they donā€™t need to beat NaP now. They need to get through the group and actually deliver in the knockouts. Adare & Ahane wasnā€™t the greatest game but Ahane will really fancy themselves against Ahane now. Makes it interesting from both a relegation & qualification point-of-view.

Ballybrown didnā€™t absolutely murder Blackrock, but maybe the conditions on Saturday night didnā€™t help that kind of game. Obviously our game was a complete shambles. Liberties just pipped the Bouncers by a point; Nash apparently a standout as you would expect but the Liberties defence in a bit of bother with the Garryspillane forwards. With only two qualification places, you can probably only afford one slip-up if you want to qualify so advantage firmly with the three winners, 2 of those playing each other next weekend (Ballybrown & Mungret).

NCW were missing their two big forwards but still got a draw against Glenroe. Monaleen got the necessary win over Cappamore too. Bruff laid down a marker with a big, big win over Effin (not sure if POD was playing), while D/A beat Knockainey. Didnā€™t hear any report from the last game. This Championship is a real long haul though, there is plenty of time to recover with 6 more group games.

I thought Caherline might beat Croom and they led for long periods but apparently it was a dour enough encounter. Bruree were very impressive in their victory over Murroe/Boher, who will be massively disappointed with their performance. While I did tip NaP2 as a great value bet, they needed the Dowā€™s goal to pull it out of the fire. Feohanagh will be absolutely gutted that they fucked it away. It could be a real dogfight to get out of this group now.

In the other group, Malachy was able to dig out a win for Pallasgreen before coming 2nd in the All-Ireland poc fada. I didnā€™t think theyā€™d do it and it probably puts a lot of pressure on Knockaderry from a relegation perspective. Croagh/Kilfinny got a narrow victory over G/B in the local derby in the Bog Garden; again, a massive crowd at that one. Good few people tipping them to win it, but the fact that G/B competed all the way will give them a fair hope of getting out of the group and having a rattle off the overall competition. H/H only beat Kilmallock 2 by a point but still, two points on the board, sets them up nicely.

All three predictions right in Group 1 of the junior. B/B vs D/B was probably the only tough one to call and B/B got the job done. Disappointing for @Copper_pipeā€™s men. CON stepping up the gears when needed to get over the Stakers, more to come from him.

Two wrong in the second group, my tip to win it outright, Castletown/Ballyagran, falling to Claughaun. Be fair up against it to make it out of the group now with Patā€™s & Killeedy to play too. The latter two drew which fucked up my prediction. Didnā€™t hear how that went but you would have thought that if they had real ambitions of winning it, that a Hego-inspired Patā€™s should be beating a Paudie Ahern-less Killeedy. Monagea beating Ahane 2 as you would expect.

In Group 3, Askeaton play Kieranā€™s on Thursday. F/K beat Mungret fairly well and Doon 2 hammered Ballybrown 2. Doon 2 probably the best of the second teams at this grade, I think.

Peter Harty came on for the Patrickswell seniors, could be a big loss for their juniors. Also the likes of Jordan Higgins played. They still did enough to beat Christians; Kilteely/Dromkeen were comfortable against the Bouncers 2, while Tour got the job done against Rathkeale. Could open up nicely for Tour as Group 2 looks like a real bearpit already.

The word seems to be that in terms of individual displays, the most impressive were Tom Morrissey, Kyle Hayes and Barry Nash. I do think Sam Cronolly from Bruree was absolutely electric on the Sunday. Any other standouts unbelievable individual displays that ye saw/heard about? @dodgy_keeper @Gary_Birtles_Lovechi @Breaking_my_balls etc, etc.

7 Likes

I was talking to one of our lads that went over to watch Doon 2 ahead of us playing them Sunday. He said they are ridiculously good. Damage limitation job

They should be very good. Theyā€™re hurling Premier grade at every underage level for the past 15 to 20 years, it has to tell like. To be honest they should be winning that Junior Championship and up Intermediate

I donā€™t have the programme and donā€™t think I looked at their team but they probably have a lot of lads with loads of senior experience.

Shane Oā€™Brien and Chanley got a few nice scores between them.

I was at that Doon 2 v Ballybrown 2 game on Sunday evening. They were ridiculously efficient and have all the signs of a team that train with their seniors. Theyā€™d something like 2-9 on the board before Ballybrown even scored.

Full-forward line of MicheĆ”l Simon, Darragh Stapleton and Mikey Barry did wreck. The didnā€™t use a single sub either so they obviously also have their eye on Junior B.

That said, Ballybrown were septic and only had the bare 15. Kevin Foster was named as captain and centre-back but didnā€™t feature. He may have been used in the senior game?

2 Likes

Oā€™Reilly aswelll.

I donā€™t know if any of their performances were quite on the level of dominance as the other three mentioned, but playing in a much-stronger team, they didnā€™t really have to.

Chan dictating the play at 11 is a joy to watch tbf. Because of the limitations he does have, he needs to hurl at a different speed to others and he is capable of it. His touch and wrists are so good.

Is Bob Purcell still with the juniors? youā€™d think theyā€™d give him a craic at the seniors

The Dow would have to make a club championship team of the week.

1 Like

Played centre-forward and played well. Hit the frees too but heā€™s carrying a bit of timber. Great hands.

1 Like

Is Doon a big parish?

@the_man_himself . Sorry 2 primary schools. Forgot about Oola.

1 Like

Darragh O Donovan refferred to them as a ā€˜small clubā€™ the other day on OTB. Kinda surprised at the comment, good going to field 3 competitive teams.

1 Like

They must do very well with what they have in that case