Cork were the luckier team to reach the final last year considering they had a succession of easy draws in the qualifiers and had the semi-final handed to them.
Anybody who thinks Coulter is overrated hasnât seen him play much.
Coulter is a class act, absolute class. Watch him play Club football, its an education thats for sure. Imagine one club producing Mickey Linden and Benny Coulter, jammy bastards.
My favourite performance of his was the Donegal match last year in the Ulster Championship. He destroyed Karl Lacey, one of the best corner backs around.
Fair point Farmer it was more to do with Cork shitting themselves than any particular Down talent. Weâll see as the year goes on I suppose how fair a reflection them getting to the final was of their talent.
Benny Coulter is a good player but the way some people go on about him youâd think he was the best thing since sliced bread. Vastly overated imo.
Coulter is class.
Sliced bread is also by and large inferior to an uncut fresh loaf.
I donât understand this at all. Bloody hell.
Down were the better team than Cork in the first half of that match. They played lovely flowing football with most of their forwards getting on the score sheet. It was to Corkâs credit that they held in there and upped it in the second half to go ahead. They certainly didnt shit themselves and it was nip and tuck until the end with Cork emerging victorious by the minimum.
So you donât believe that Coulter is one of the countryâs top forwards? Bizarre.
Looking like itâs inevitable that Marty Clarke is heading back to Collingwood on a $250,000 per year deal.
In fairness heâd be nuts to turn that down.
Like many people, a cold and wet experience in Mayo finished him.
Another man who impressed on Saturday evening was Wexford goalkeeper Anthony Masterson, who is a great man for the upfield forays. He twice ventured beyond his own 45, and got the ultimate accolade from our co-commentator, former Laois player Colm Parkinson who said â âI only ACT mad, Masterson really IS madâ. High praise indeed.
All goalkeepers are mad.
First bolded part i think is actually wrong way around. Clarke and Coulter are now only suppliments to Poland and Hughes. Poland makes Down tick more than Marty, and Coulter wouldnât get any more ball without any of the 3 as he has become lazy/too slow/one dimensional looking for the ball. Basically i think Down could continue to be a force if they bring through another couple of good young players which they have and lose Clarke and Coulter. But they could not do without Poland and Hughes.
The midfield is barely decent Farmer. Quite average really.
Doesnât suit his argument Farmer, stop being so unfair.
This is true. They are a nice team, but limited.
They were very exposed Farmer. From the position they were around the 25 minute to the end of the game they were completely outplayed. Cork cut them apart with wing play. Keep it away from the Centre back and they were in trouble.
On the basis of their league final performance Cork seem overpriced at 11/4 to win Sam. Can any unbiased informed poster comment on this price?
Dublin at 11/10 to win Leinster seems a decent price too. The standard seems poor. Is Earley injury free this year for Kildare?
Good luck with finding one of themâŚ
Where did you see that Runt? I thought he wanted to complete his studies.
A pity if true, but in fairness, they love him at Collingwood and Mick Malthouse has always spoken very highly of him.
Its being pretty widely reported in Ireland Fitzy, and i think Clarke hinted at it himself.
Bookies donât price on 1 performance KIB, otherwise even idiots like you would make a few bob.
So will he stay for the championship Kev, or leave before?
No leave for next seasonâs pre-season i would assume. Which starts in Oct/Nov right?
No, season ends then, it would be more like new year. Right so, Down will win the All Ireland this year.
Most unlikely. I think Marty is slightly over rated myself.
True the informed unbiased Gaelic football poster is a rare species on TFK.
I thought winning the league after being so far behind against Dublin showed good Croke Park form and quality football under pressure. I think they showed more in that second half than anything they showed in the championship last year (anything I saw from Cork anyway). A load of their players seem to have improved. Plus subs came on to good effect. Dublinâs subs, well the less said about them the better. Losing a final like that is hardly great for morale either and its the 2nd tight game they have thrown away against Cork.
Who else is there really? Kerry or Tyrone look to have declined, thought it was a poor Kerry side that won the All Ireland two years ago and noone new seems to have come in to good effect. Maybe someone new like Down can come out of the pack to challenge but all in all Cork seem very worthy favourites.
Wouldnt be up to speed on it myself but 11/4 seems high from an uninformed unbiased view. Think when Kerry were going well they would be around 6/4 or 7/4 to win the All Ireland at this juncture and they had an equal opponent of Tyroneâs standing to compete against. Dont think Cork will have to beat anything of that quality to make it a 2 in a row.