Limerick GAA - knocked down, but will get up again

He was teaching out in Adare. Played the first game or two but headed off for the Summer. Gone to Australia for a year.

The recent winners of the prem Inter haven’t fared too well at Senior.
The last 4 winners were
Bruff
Bruree
Monaleen
Murroe Boher

First two went back down
I would suggest Monaleen and particularly Murroe would beat any Prem Inter side.

The gap to Senior B to 5th and 6th is fairly large. There is a chasm between B and the top 4.

I wouldn’t agree that Premier Intermediate is a better standard than Senior B. It’s an exciting competition, but what it has going for it is the amount of games and all the teams are relatively close. Now this year for the first time, a bit of a gap opened between the top 4 and bottom 4 but still, very competitive.

Senior B was very competitive too. Personally, I’d fancy our chances against any of this year’s Senior B teams but it would be very close. I think the 4 Premier semi finalists are pretty much interchangeable with the current Senior B teams.

The gap, pretty obviously, exists between the 4 senior semi finalists and the rest. Adare are currently in a slight limbo but probably closer to the pack than the big 4.

I don’t think you can eradicate hammerings from any Championship. South Liberties will definitely find it tough next year but they have to have ambition; they have proven they are the best of the rest.

If you want to compete, you put in the work underage and you will reap the benefits eventually. That’s what Na Piarsaigh did, Kilmallock have done it, Doon are in a great place now.

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Kildimo would beat knocjainey and , cappamore handy . They would beat any of the other 4 on a given day . Games would be tight granted . Ahane aren’t great .

What date are the semi finals?

Next Sunday .

Lovely.

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While I’d certainly fancy our chances, I don’t think we’d beat them handy. Last time we played Cappamore in Championship, they beat us after a replay. Granted, we are a better side now. But so are they, most likely.

And we’ve played Knockainey in challenges lots of times recently and the games are generally close. And Knockainey are a different animal in Championship. Very hard to beat when fighting for their lives & they’ve stayed up again.

We’ve obviously had a good run of form over the past few weeks but it’s only a month ago since we lost to Mungret in what was our worst performance by a mile since I’ve been involved. We were truly awful. To be fair to the likes of Murroe/Boher and Liberties, winning 4 from 5 in a very competitive division is not easily done, we know ourselves.

Fair enough . My point is that outside the top 4 , the teams down to Intermediate premier are very very even . Unless Monaleen and Mungret can step up ( numbers ) it is hard to see anything changing over next 5 years .

Yep.
Each club at that level has 2 or 3 really good players with 5 or 6 decent players. The higher you go the weak 5 or 6 get really exposed putting pressure on the team and you get exposed and your hole opened.

You are correct here. The model for GAA clubs in Limerick (and every other county) means that borders drawn up over 100 years ago see then rural hinterlands of cities becoming heavily populated. Then you have clubs (and without wanting to stick knife in anyone here) that are struggling to field junior teams. The only solution I can see that would help is to allow junior players play with a senior club and also play with their own club. Other than that amalgamate teams to fuck.

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Absolutely no way is prem Intermediate a higher standard than senior B. Majority of teams who get promoted get brought back down to earth fairly lively and get sent back down with their tails between the legs.

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At club level moral and momentum is key. Being in senior b is kind of a no win situation.

Tbf this is the first year of Senior B and the team promoted from Premier Intermediate made
made the knockouts so I don’t think that’s true at all.

Monaleen won it the year before and finished ahead of all the Senior B teams in their first year.

Bruree obviously went straight back down but they lost their entire management team in the interim.

The new format probably suits promoted teams more than before.

But Murroe were an established senior team who were caught on the hop the year they were relegated and they came straight back up. Not the same as the likes of Bruff who came up and went straight back down.

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Murroe/Boher were unlucky enough to go down, I will agree. But at the same time, they lost to Bruff and drew with Knockainey; teams they would profess to be better than. One win would have kept them up and they fucked it.

Bruff won Premier in 2014, stayed up in 2015 and only missed out on the knockouts in 2016 by the skin of their teeth. I’d argue that they were also unlucky to go down; they were in a much tougher group but again, couldn’t beat Knockainey in the playoff. Knockainey are good at digging out that one win.

There should be eight senior teams max. The rest of the Senior B’s should be fucked into Premier Intermediate. It should be renamed “Intermediate”. The Intermediates should be fucked in with Junior A and it should be called Junior A.

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Exactly. Two groups of six in intermediate would make sense giving them five group games and proper semi finals.

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It is better at the moment .

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Nah.

I like Premier Intermediate but to be honest, but 5 group Championship games at senior is probably ideal and I don’t think 8 team divisions is sustainable long term.

And as we’ve said, beyond the first 4, the gap between the rest down to the top Intermediate teams is less than that.