Can’t believe this hasn’t been started yet. Most wide open Championship in years.
Kerry in transition
Tyrone in decline
Armagh in decline
Dublin in transition (this may be from bad to worse)
Galway stuck in NY
Mayo same as ever
Down on the rise
Donegal fickle as ever
Waterford on the rise
Kildare mired in filth
Derry relegated
Monaghan look stale
Westmeath in turmoil
Limerick in the rise
Tipp on the rise
Laois slowly building
Corks to lose surely?
I’d disagree with a bit of that to be honest.
Kerry in transition - Kerry are rarely in transition, but you could be right. Logic tells me that they just have lost too many stars to win an All-Ireland, but if David Moran and John Buckley have spectacular years you’d never know. Tommy Griffen and Mike Mac down the middle is dodgy though.
Tyrone in decline - I agree with this
Armagh in decline - Totally disagree, think they have a fine team that will improve more with a championship game or two.
Dublin in transition (this may be from bad to worse) - Totally disagree, think the Dubs are heading the right direction, a year or two away from All-Irelands yet though.
Galway stuck in NY - Will be a force, just not sure how much of one
Mayo same as ever - Agree, worse than ever may even describe it
Down on the rise - Yes, nice football team, way too small though
Donegal fickle as ever - Like Cork they can revert to type when under pressure, as Manus pointed out with U-21’s a short hand passing game is the default. Teams are too quick and fit now to be fucking around with the ball at the back. Mike MUrphy is a star though, and this with the energy of U-21’s and a few of the old stagers could see a good year.
Waterford on the rise - Yes, but squad wise very limited, lose a player or two and its all over
Kildare mired in filth - I think they may be aiming for Championship more than others were during the league, but they have gone back from last year going on the league, not sure about them to be honest.
Derry relegated - Strange team, some very good players, maybe lack a bit of depth and mental strength.
Monaghan look stale - U-21’s were handy, they need to blood a few cos your bang on about staleness.
Westmeath in turmoil - Fucked, no point in Dolan coming back IMO, but the other 2 are badly needed.
Limerick in the rise - I think they are strengthening alright, squad wise. They have an extra scoring forward or two now, so a good year i would expect.
Tipp on the rise - Good footballing team, but like Down are a bit on the small side.
Laois slowly building - Seem to be alright, discipline is the biggest thing with Laois, all forms of it.
Cork - Well they are in good nick in fairness, cover for almost everywhere. Now they must settle. A virtual new team hammered Limerick last weekend, but you can still only put 15 out there. I don’t think its Corks to lose,as i think thats a fairly ridiculous saying as you win games and would be an insult to the opposition, but they would be favourites at this stage.
Provincial winners:
Cork
Dublin
Mayo
Monaghan
Quareter Finalists
Kerry
Derry
Galway
Tyrone
Semi Finalists
Cork
Kerry
Derry
Galway
Final
Cork to beat Kerry
I have a thread on this already.
And there is none of this ‘Official’ bullshit in the title as if that gives it more weight.
Dunph, lock this thread.
I could care which one there is for it Farmer, Rocko can merge them both, I just couldnt find yours because it didnt have “official” in the title, Please ensure you do this in the future.
Also Dunph isnt fit to lock his tricyle.
Its all good news over at gaa.ie
http://www.gaa.ie/medical-and-player-welfare/news/gardiner-out-for-three-months/
http://www.gaa.ie/medical-and-player-welfare/news/armstrong-blow-for-galway/
http://www.gaa.ie/medical-and-player-welfare/news/dubs-hit-by-griffin-cruciate-blow/
http://www.gaa.ie/medical-and-player-welfare/news/anxious-wait-for-lilywhites-earley/
4 bad blows for their counties.
Laois lost by 3 points to Kerry on Monday, 3-14 to 3-11 I believe. Ding dong game, but played behind closed doors as all Kerry home challenges are. Cure hoors.
First column was poor enough fare, but the subsequent two have been very decent from Darragh. This one is very good imo, never easy to walk away.
Leaving of Killarney grieves me
DARRAGH Ó SÉ WEEKLY COLUMN: For the first time in 17 years, Darragh Ó Sé won’t be running out on to the summer sod in Fitzgerald Stadium as the craic and the graft for yet another championship begin
WE WERE to train last week in Killarney with West Kerry. Somebody got the wires crossed along the way and we ended up training in Fitzgerald Stadium with Kerry.
That was bad enough but earlier I had got nostalgic making the drive across from Tralee on my own, thinking about all the summers and all the championships we worked through from that perfect spot.
That’s the beauty of the championship for a Kerry player. The championship brings you the beauty of Killarney. Kerry always train for the winter in Tralee and for the summer the team moves to Killarney.
It’s special in Fitzgerald Stadium.
In Tralee in the winter you are going out with your tracksuit over your top and the collar pulled up to your ears and your woolly cap down to your eyebrows. In Killarney the sun is shining, you have your sleeveless top and there is always a buzz to the place. You’d look forward to it always.
I loved Killarney. I loved the sounds and smells of the dressingroom and the feel of the pitch, the scent of fresh-mown grass, knowing every inch of that pitch. I loved the craic and the slagging and how when we’d get out on to the pitch the craic stopped. Everybody got down to business.
In Killarney the football gets faster, the games get more competitive, till finally it winds out and if you are lucky, you are into September and the sessions are winding down.
If management have judged it right the energy is in your legs. With your own body you are suddenly like a jockey in a race trying to hold a horse back.
Sixteen years of going to Killarney to train for championship football is hard to leave behind. So much craic. Little stories pop into my head this week.
Like the night with Bernie O’Connor and the car. Bernie was a great groundsman for years and years. He was very involved with us and Bernie would go to the games with his Kerry jersey on. Sometimes, though, Bernie would get cross with us and this one evening he came bursting into the dressingroom and said, “Lads, there’s a car parked outside the main gate.”
I think it was Maurice Fitz that asked the question. “What kind of a car is it, Bernie?”
“A MOTOR CAR,” roared Bernie. Only in Kerry!
Every team that has ever left the county to win an All-Ireland has left from there. In the week of an All-Ireland you think to yourself about all the players who came and went from here.
How many of the absolute greats who went before you left their blood, sweat and tears on the grass there. You think of all the games and the drills and all the rows and the laughs they had and you feel lucky to be part of that great line.
You tap into that history in Killarney and it gives you an edge.
Very few teams have the honour and privilege to train in such a place. In the last couple of years they put in a new sprinkler system for the grass and new dressingrooms which has made it even better.
It’s the thought of the John Egans, the Mikey Sheehys back through the Mick O’Connells and the Mick O’Dwyers and further, the thought of them all being here that makes Killarney special.
And today on a Tuesday or a Thursday you can just walk in off the street, like the great Johnny Culloty does, and see the Gooch and Donaghy and other amazing footballers do their stuff.
Kerry people are so proud of that tradition and so interested in football that when management closes a session or two to try the odd thing out there is uproar.
I miss it. Obviously.
I was talking to David Moran on the street the other day and he said casually Fitzgerald Stadium had never looked better.
I came away envying him. That sort of stuff happens a lot.
I loved the training itself. I loved going over for training. There was great enjoyment in when lads would be going well, say, they’d be getting put out to midfield where I was.
I loved measuring myself against them. Séamus Scanlon and Mike Quirke and those fellas, trying to make or break it with those lads was incredible. You’d have nights where it didn’t go well and then you were bursting for road for the next night. If it was a Tuesday you were getting everything right for Thursday night because you wanted to get back in there and measure yourself off against those boys again.
They push you on and you push them on. Great enjoyment in that. Always trying to get it right. It’s like playing actual games. It is all-consuming.
I even miss the travel. I would love driving over and back, usually with Paul Galvin. People wouldn’t realise how witty Paul is. Even in his bad days when the world is at him he has a way of laughing at himself which always makes him good company.
We’d be travelling and he’d be talking about a game at the weekend and we’d be imagining Jack’s (O’Connor) face if Paul just decked his marker at the throw-in and then sidled up to Jack and said loudly, “Jesus Jack we got that one right didn’t we? He won’t try anything today.”
Kieran Donaghy would be with us sometimes. Great craic too. We’d hit the dressingroom in good form and check our egos at the door. You can’t be a sensitive soul going into a dressingroom.
It’s funny how one minute you are a footballer and the next minute you are ex-footballer. Marc is out in Dingle. Tomás is in Cork. I wouldn’t see the lads as much as I would now I’m not training so I’m not in touch with things as I used to be.
Last year if I saw something happening in training I always discussed it with the lads and vice versa. But I’m not seeing anything now so I am out of it in that sense. My interest hasn’t diminished but my knowledge and input has.
Go to any corner in Kerry whether you are a footballer or not and the game is being discussed. Often in the past you would be avoiding all that. Now you are more consulted as an equal than as a player. That’s no harm either!
There is still the odd fella stopping me on the street talking to me about the shape I’m in. Half of me is saying “yerra, no not at all leave me be” and the half of me is saying “come on, let’s keep the old rumour going a bit longer!”
Talk of coming back is just fooling myself, though. I made the decision and I have to stick by it. That horse has bolted. It is a huge gap to fill. You develop habits to maintain your fitness. Watching food, watching how much water you are taking on board and you have to say to yourself sometimes “why don’t you cop on and enjoy yourself. It’s over!’
It will be unusual this Sunday. The lads will take off early in the morning, driving by bus, getting in ahead of the traffic. I’ll be in a car somewhere on the road behind knowing what they are thinking, knowing the atmosphere on the bus and the dressingroom. And then watching when the ball is thrown out and the first few minutes of it. I know I’m in for desperate times at that stage!
Thurles has always been a gorgeous spot to play on. Not sure how it would suit me at my age but you count the times you play there too. This will be a hard weekend but if Kerry win going to Killarney to see Kerry playing Cork will be tougher again.
Hopefully we will have to go to Croke Park this year as well. That will be torture but I’m a glutton for punishment.
The time had come to walk away but this week it doesn’t lessen the blow or the sense of loss and the sense of emptiness.
There is a big void there. I have the club but nothing compares to the green and gold. Never will.
On the challenge match circuit Laois have lost to Kerry by 3, Tipp by 1, spanked Carlow and Louth in recent games. Lot of chopping and changing going on. Hard to be sure what the Championship team will be, but don’t see Pauric Clancy getting in before Championship at this rate.
First big games in the Championship this weekend.
Ulster GAA Football Senior Championship - Preliminary Round
Doire V Ard Mhacha *
Time: 2 00 PM, Venue: Celtic Park
Referee: Maurice Deegan
Extratime playable
Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship - Preliminary Round
Cill Mhantáin V Ceatharlach
Time: 3 30 PM, Venue: Portlaoise
Referee: Gearoid O Conamha
Extratime playable
Munster GAA Football Senior Championship - Quarter Final
Ciarraí V Tiobraid Árann *
Time: 4 00 PM, Venue: Semple Stadium, Thurles
Referee: David Coldrick
Extratime playable
Armagh should have enough for Derry, but its hard to know. Derry had a shocking league, but have been in the long grass for a while now and will always fancy their chances againt anyone in Celtic Park. Am still not convinced about Armagh, but the form of Stevie from Killeavy swings this for me, just.
Wickla and Carla has nothing really going for it. Its a huge local squabble, they detest each other, but for anyone not from either County, it wouldnt matter a fuck. The involvement of Tomas Walsh for Carlow again means there will be even added bite to it this time out. I’m going with Carlow here, Walsh will be a huge ally for young Brendan Murphy who is a tremendous talent.
Tipp will give Kerry a bit of a rattle, but Kerry should win this pulling up. Kerry don’t peak til August at least, so they’re always vulnerable early doors, but there’s no way Tipp should have enough to take the All Ireland Champions, no matter how weak they are.
Are we doing a predictions comp for this?
I hear Wexford are flying.
Doire V Ard Mhacha - Armagh by 2-4
Cill Mhantáin V Ceatharlach - Wicklow by 1
Ciarraí V Tiobraid Árann - Kerry by 4
I’d say that hardy fucker could be back yet, sidling up onto the pitch in July when they are in “crisis” and the Dublin public has been deluded into thinking that we are genuine contenders.
The Kerry Senior Football Team to play Tipperary on Sunday 16th May is as follows:
The football championship in up on facetheball btw.
Good stuff Turrene.
Decent looking Kerry team on paper, and reputation wise, but i’d have reservations about No.'s 3,4,6 & 9. In fact i would have massive worried (if i were a Kerryman) about Quirke. Moran isn’t fulfilling the potential he showed at underage yet, but has plenty time to do it of course.
You’re worried about Tom O Sullivan?!! Jaysus Kev thats harsh, wait til he puts foot wrong to be worried about him. To me thats a decent FB line with Marc and Tom there to cover with Griffin. Where I’d see it weak would be midfield obviously, after that, the only worries a Kerry fan should have is the bench to me. Lacks firepower to what was usually there.
I set up a mini league for the All-Ireland Football, i suppose here is good enough for it.
Code is 6J0iw1VM1y0U
Its a good team, but a very shite bench imo.
Ya, he’s susceptible to being in trouble with big strong players like Stevie Mac, Bernard Brogan, Goulding etc. He is a fine player, and has plenty speed, but i could see him having it tough this year. When you hear from Kerry that they are worried about the same then you know other teams are looking at it. He is a wonderful covering player as is Marc as you point out, but i think Griffen is not really up to it. If the 2 boys are busy with their own jobs i could really see Griffin getting torn asunder, which will lead to either of those 2 going back in there. Mike Mac was saved by Dublin being shite and Kenneally doing a brilliant tactical job on Cork last year. He’ll be in trouble this year IMO.
As you say the bench is the biggest worry, but enough ball into Star and Gooch and we’ll all know about it again.
dara o Se and the fishbowl that is kerry…beautiful Killarney,the craic and a few piseogs…fcuk
off you kerry cunt… 
think derry will take Armagh on sunday…
don’t know where these whispers about laois are coming from…they are muck…
Cork v dublin all-ireland…and this dublin team never beats cork !!!
[quote=“scumpot, post: 463960”]
think derry will take Armagh on sunday…
don’t know where these whispers about laois are coming from…they are muck…
Cork v dublin all-ireland…and this dublin team never beats cork !!!
[/quote]Or any half decent side outside Leinster even with home advantage for almost every championship game they are involved in,joke.