Official All Ireland Senior Football Championship 2010 Thread

Terrace tickets on sale on Ticketmaster now for 20 quid. Could be worth waiting until the morning if they’re handy enough to get.

Yeah, Mac was onto me about it. Don’t know if the match will be as exciting as the paintball now.

there’s a streak in him alright, but I cant say I’ve ever seen it in club games. care to flesh that one out MBB, or at least what is well known? news to me anyway

+1, news to me too

+2
Although he can be fairly petulant at intercounty level Matty is grand at club games. Just a bastard to mark

I only saw the Down v Donegal match last night and was well impressed with Down. They have an ocean of football in them and play a very attractive style, traditional Down football, all accurate foot passing into the forwards who were almost always out in front of their man. Typically magnificent, free flowing, beautiful game Ulster championship fare. Everything they did all over the pitch was done at pace as opposed to the ponderous handpassing you see from Donegal and from so many other teams.

They have improved their defence as well. They should have stopped Murphy for the first Donegal goal alright but he’s a freak in fairness. The second goal was as jammy as you can get. After that they tightened up big time and were all over their men. Damien Rafferty in particular had a great match. They were the tightest defence in their league division.

There are serious options up front with Coulter, Clarke, Hughes and Gordon who can move up to full forward. They might not win Sam but have a great hance of winning Ulster. I think they might just beat Tyrone.

When Mahy was breaking through as a young player I heard a lot about multitude of sendings off and suspensions with Kilanerin. Would have bee around the time of his debut for Wexford, post and pre. Gotten better in recent years, but he had a reputation long before he started tearing it up for Wexford at senior level for flying off the handle when taking some treatment from defences.

EDIT - worth saying I never seen this with my own eyes, just reports I’d heard.

I’ll provide you with some answers, NCC.
Rory Stafford, aka Beardy, has emigrated to America. Well, a former club mate of his told me he did any way.
I feel a great deal of pride thinking back to Forde’s actions. Any assault on Offaly is clearly to be welcomed.

At the risk of repeating myself, I thought Coulter gave a masterclass on Sunday. The kind of performance that great players have in them.

In fairness, the word genius is bandied around a lot but I would agree that Mattie is one. For a couple of years there he was unmarkable by anyone in Ireland.

Left foot, right foot, in the air, range of kicking, pure talent - he has it al really.

cant say I ever remember that to be honest, in any shape or form. cant ever remember him being sent off at club level, and certainly not to an extent of it being well known anyway. I even remember playing against him when he was only about 18, and our half back absolutley sowed into him the first ball he got. Matty didnt want to know about it for the rest of the game then. he was more timid younger and only got a bit ratty at county level once he established himself. maybe I’m wrong about the sendings off, but I certainly dont remember a multitude of them or a load of suspensions either.

If its wrong, I’ll hold my hands up to getting poor information Gman, but I definitely remember reading about Mahy in the Indo well before he became a household name. Even remember marking him out for my auld man as one to watch but that he had a habit of getting himself into bother on the field.

Dublin Wexford is hardly a sell out, is it?

May be in Dublin this weekend so would be tempted to head along.

Its next weekend farmer

Matty only became a decent player once JJ Barrett got that cowardly streak out of him. JJ probably did more for Wexford football in a short space of time than most others had in the last 20 years. Notable exceptions like Seamus Keevans aside.

Its a double header with Laois Meath farmer, tickets are on Ticketmaster now.

He definitely got a few months suspension around 99/2000, it was around the time he scored four goals or something in a Leinster club championship game. Can’t remember what it was for.

Disagree, watch the Kerry and Tyrone backs in recent years, and people like Anthony Lynch. Unbelieveable on breaking balls from play. It was terrible defending for him to get so much space. There are far more breaking balls in a game fromplay than from kick outs, yet alot of coaches work on kickouts. The breaks from kick outs are just about being brave, knowing your midfielder and also sometimes taking a chance. Breaking balls around the full back line are harder to judge IMO as the ball can come in so many different ways.

Also Down aren’t quite the traditional Down, i think there is more control to their play, not quite as swashbuckling, but for me its equally attractive. They are a controlled team under McCartan. I think its shows the level the League 2 final was at, both Armagh and Down are serious operators with relatively young teams and experience players coming back in both cases.

While I’m at it, I’d like to thank Wexford for providing our final challenge match before the championship, and in Croke Park too. which gives us a great oppurtunity to wish the lads well before our big Leinster opener against Meath. I expect it will be be a real carnival atmosphere somewhat akin to the last home friendly an international soccer team has before a World Cup.

gga is a turgid game - there is nothing attractive about it whatsoever - down are shit- they were dreadul against a dreadful donegal team