@Halfpipe Was bumping his gums with confidence before my team had even played their opening round, his words in true GAA tradition were pinned all around our changing room walls & now it’s a case of ramming them down his throat with the help of our public following.
Mine is a team you can ill afford to enter battle with when they have a game under the belt already, we will fly out of the traps again with early majors & will take monumental effort to reel back in.
I was always very confident about this one and now that it’s a beautiful summers day with the pitch in great order I can’t see any way my lot will be troubled by the collection of mullockers (and DJ) @Watchyourtoes has cobbled together from 8 up.
Tactics are fairly simple, that is an incredible full forward line of class and craftiness, there is at least 3-8 from play sitting in there so the ball has to go in. A further 5 or 6 pints are coming from a very talented midfield, a point apiece from a hardworking half forward line that will keep the ball moving and then the customary 2 long range frees from McMahon.
I also am not sure that the opposition have what’s needed on the line for championship hurling, McInerney at 6 in a dream team shows a woeful lack of imagination that will be exposed in the white heat of championship. If twas a league game in February I’d be nervous, but it looks fairly straightforward here.
Halfpipes corner backs will have it handy but their wing backs will be under pressure. But reliance on Tony Browne to do a lot of covering and hurling though.
Lyng can quiten one of the midfield but Houlahan will struggle for legs you would feel in there.
May well come down to the Daithi Burke match ups and just how much pressure halfpipies half forward line can put in to stop direct ball into DJ. If they break even then watch your toes is in trouble
It’s Crimmins in goal, a lad with 3 club All-Irelands and who has been dealt with harshly in this thing by being rated worse than James Skehill. Crimmins was a more than decent keeper, he conceded little really in championship hurling but just never looked commanding behind some very ropey fullback lines. Shouldn’t be a problem for him behind the line he has in this though.
I love WYT’s full-back line, I really do and I think it will be needed against Halfpipe’s full-forward line which looks serious. I’m less certain about his half-back line but at the same time, you could see Browne lording it and there isn’t the greatest scoring threat there from Halfpipe.
Midfield is an interesting battle, WYT really needs Lyng to keep Kelly quiet.
There is huge pressure on DJ to get scores for WYT. The Bonner & Niall Mac will cause plenty of bother alright but I don’t see that full-forward line getting much change out of that full-back line. I just don’t think DJ can do it all on his own this time, against what is a formidable outfit and although WYT’s full-back line may even get the better of the full-forward line, you’re not going to keep them all scoreless.