Kilmallock will go nowhere. they’ve a good age profile and will always have lads supplement it.
Well if some of the lads on here get their way he won’t be allowed play until he’s 25 and has passed a health & safety course.
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You’d imagine Patrickswell with their clatter of HOTYs will fall over the line again at some point.
We played a 21s game last night and some of those 17s will definitely keep our older lads on their toes next year. Some serious operators. The rule better not change.
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My two cents on Sunday
Wasn’t too far off in my pre match prediction, the goals were a killer, the one before half time a dagger through the heart that effectively ended the game as a contest.
Tactically Kilmallock got it all wrong for me
Looking in, it would seem to me that Kilmallock set out to stifle NAP, hold on tight and I suppose try to win it at the end. Mul was playing deep (was effective to be fair) and they seemed to be trying to crowd the middle third.
But it was weird, they seemed to be out numbered everywhere.
They withdrew Mul leaving them 2 v 3 inside. Then played absolutely horrible ball in on SOB. It seemed like the plan was to target Casey aerially? I mean SOB will be a fine forward in time, but Casey has faced aerial bombardment vs a lot tougher opponents than him. He absolutely cleaned him out, but it wasn’t even hard, NAP had loads of bodies back, just tap it down and someone mops it up.
Then because they were withdrawing the half forward line to crowd midfield the NAP HB’s were always available as an out ball, or indeed as a scoring option themselves.
NAP basically went over the midfield area then and picked out their inside men with intelligent ball, or Peter Casey who seemed to be operating in the pocket behind the bodies.
Downes and Dempsey saw very little ball, Dempsey only got into it late in the game when it was all but won, and even then he was mainly running onto it from deep rather than winning it at HF.
Then, even when the ball went through the middle where Killmallock should have been strong, the wrecking ball that is WOD was smashing them all over the place and NAP were very quick to get numbers in from the other lines.
Basically it didn’t work at all.
Second half they pushed up on them, but it was too late and NAP were rampant.
TBF it is a case of pick your poison with NAP as they are a bit like Limerick, they will pick you off from further out the field if you sit deep. But for me if you are trying to hold onto a team to keep them in sight, then commit to it fully, if not then go toe to toe, they were a bit in no mans land tactics wise.
They also panicked way way too early, hitting high ball after high ball on the full forward line, which wasn’t winning their battles anyway. GOM to full might have been worth a try if this was the plan, because he was relatively quiet anyway.
All that said, they simply came up against a NAP team in the groove. Peter Casey gave a fucking clinic, and then Breen, got 2-3 off about 6 balls I’d say. The other Casey had things well under control at the back, and WOD got a hurley to ever ball he gets within 5 feet of. Thought McEvoy had a fine game. Boylan played a similar role to for Limerick, unglamorous but he causes problems, did very well for the first goal.
For Kilmallock, Mul did what he could and thought Robbie Hanley had a fine game. A day to forget for Houla, SOB, OOR and Costello. You’d want (and need) an awful lot more from your county men to get passed NAP, and former county men GOM, POB and POL didn’t stand out either
Thought the standard was top class in the first half until the second goal killed the game. Hardly a wide in the early exchanges. Kilmallock might have come out with a bit between their teeth had they held out to half time. But NAP would have had too much anyway you would feel. Be interesting to see how they go in All Ireland Club.
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I think POB had a super first half, he fought a lot of battles on his own in the middle third and used the ball very well. Even in the second half he was still putting the shoulder to the wheel when the game was done… a super fella to have involved in a team
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You can really sense the excitement around the county ahead of the big one on Saturday.
The Premier Junior A football final fixed for back in Tournafulla next Sunday at 11.45am 
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Would make for a fairly super cider Sunday.
I always loved playing in the morning, waiting around all day is a pain in the hole
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I hope Feenagh win it for the legendary Jim Long.
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He should lead the parade in his Honda 50
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You’d have had some job convincing someone POL was ex-county on Sunday
Pasta and dry chicken at 9:30
Gone, he’s the plague of the local link bus drivers now😀
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I’d agree with that.
Kilmallock are a potentially serious team, they should have been a lot closer to NaP tbh. Crazy tactics fucked them. Na Piarsaigh were set up very well and obviously have the quality up front to put teams to the sword.
Castlemahon favourites? They’ve been up intermediate in the recent past and that might stand to them.
Does Sham Flan play football?
Think it was requested as pat Donnelly plays with feenagh & coaches adare with John Brouder
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I can’t get over the physicality of the Na Piarsaigh team compared to Kilmallock even though both have a similar number of county players.
Like there is no comparison between Aaron Costello and Mike Casey physically, Robbie Hanley v WOD or Peter Casey v Graeme Mulcahy, OOR v Conor Boylan.
Even a Will Henn is way bigger than a David Woulfe.
The Na Piarsaigh lads are monsters.
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We were looking at the parade last Sunday and commented similar. They are serious specimens. Even the lads coming off the bench are huge. Their smallest lad is Peter Casey and you wouldn’t knock him with a bus.