lads, keep this thread on topic- anymore of it going off in unrelated tangents & ill have to get the mods to delete it
Alright m8, what do you think of the new Duffys?
havent been there yet mate-has to be an improvement though
Sheehanâs got a great foot on him. Have said it for a while that it would nearly be worth Kerryâs while trying him in goals again given their recent problems there. Still he might kick on this season, he showed well in a few league games. Would love to see a kicking contest between the likes of him, Goulding, Michael J Tierney, etc. Tierney is meant to have kicked some monsters of his own for Parnells over the weekend.
Disgraceful to stop leagues, whatever about Cship. Ridiculous.
Splitting the Posts: A time and a place
Shane Stapleton
I was accosted during a hurling match last Friday evening. Now what happens on the field stays on the field, thereâs no problem there, itâs when it spills in or out that you have a problem.
I donât want to mention the name of the opposition as the intention is not to blacken a team that has, like us in Cuala, trained hard all year and is doing its best to move up in the world. If you want to look up the results to see who they are, go ahead, they are the first team to beat us in the league all year and they deserved it too. Indeed to support the idea that I donât want to temper another teamâs reputation, Iâll happily point out in this anecdote that Iâm no angel myself.
To set the scene: I was playing right wing-back and the first few minutes of the game went by without much incident. Then my man was backing up for a puckout and he gently bumped back into me as I stopped up. Thinking he would lay down a marker, he drove the bĂĄs of his hurley back at me and scraped my neck. I advised him that this was not best policy. About five minutes later, we had a repeat incident so, with enough being enough and my neck holding a certain value to me, I pulled across him. Not high, not low, in the side. Iâm not proud of it, I donât recommend it, but thereâs only so much bating a person will take.
Pandemonium ensued. His teammates came running towards me from all angles and a schemozzle â that great non-descript word that somehow says it all â broke out. I was being pushed and pulled from all angles. My man got back to his feet and joined in as I held my arms out trying to keep myself standing upright. That was when things went sour. I had no issue with the playerâs teammates reacting, that is what happens in sport. It was that one of their mentors came charging onto the field that it got out of hand.
Because while it all happened very quickly and I donât think he landed a proper blow, one of our backroom team said the mentor came in with fists swinging. What I remember is this man clutching for my neck and, along with a player, him pulling my helmet off by the faceguard. The clasps on the strap that attach to the body of the helmet came off and the guard swung loosely from my head. It was unacceptable.
The referee saw nothing, of course. Maybe he actually didnât pick it out with so much going on. I should have had a red card but got away with it while no one was reprimanded for the melee either. A thing of nothing, it seemed. Free passes all âround. But while no one got hurt and everyone played on as such, it pointed to a prevailing issue of the game: interference onto the pitch.
You need only look at the Tyrone Ladiesâ football incident that saw a couple of lifetime bans handed out â it may not quite be GAA but as has been pointed out, these are GAA people â or the incident which saw Donegal player Leo McLoone suffer a double break to his eye socket. The latter after a brawl involving 40 players and mentors broke out at the end of a Naomh Conaill v Glenswilly match in the Glenties.
What can be done about it? Well given the amount of games that go on every weekend across the country, nothing can be done. You can hardly get security at every game, or CCTV, or even culpability for that matter. In our game, the referee was asked at half-time if he had taken the name of the mentor who had come onto the pitch. The referee said the mentor was only holding people away from each other. Now while I know that is absolutely incorrect and that the mentor should be reprimanded for coming on even if it was peacefully, there is nothing I can do about it. Unfortunately, you will have people willing to charge into a game at every ground in every county.
I donât blame the GAA for this man running on and I wouldnât even if he had given me a double break to my eye socket. Indeed Iâm glad the GAA made helmets compulsory or I might have picked up more than just a scratch to my face. But really itâs all down to individuals acting responsibly. Donât come onto the playing area and donât get involved. Let the players at it.
After all, the wing-forward and I shared a smile and a handshake after the game. He knew heâd asked for it; I knew I shouldnât have done it. That was that and should we meet them in the league final, which the bookies would favour right now, then weâll shake hands again.
But while I could have been given a month- or two-month ban, it turns out that there would be no punishment at all in that. The reason being that, as we were informed at training last night, there will be no more Dublin club matches â league or championship â until both senior inter-county teams have been eliminated from the All Ireland championships and until the Dublin under-21 hurlers are out too (they play Wexford in the Leinster final tonight). That could be late September or October.
Itâs the opposite of burnout. We have been training for about six months now and have played just a single championship game; that was on May 11, against Ballyboden St Endaâs. Our second group game might not be until October. Galling enough as that is, we are not even allowed for finish out our league campaigns.
A couple of clubs will be happy that all games have been suspended as they may want their county players back to ensure promotion or relegation in the league. But clubmen, and I donât just mean in Cuala, have been playing league games all summer, both without county stars and guys who have gone abroad for the summer.
We have just one league game left and the hope of a final to follow. In maybe two of those 10 games, at most, have we had our county players. For us club players who stayed training all summer and longed for a championship game or two, we sustained ourselves on the league. This keeps you going while you wait for the championship games to come. That is now gone. Suspending all play will suit some, it doesnât others. Certainly not me, anyway.
I look at my hometown club of Borris-Ileigh in Tipperary and see they will be playing their sixth championship game of the summer in a couple of weeksâ time. Everything seems good down there at the moment, of course. Still, doing up the schedules is a nightmarish job and even tougher because of the week on-week off system between hurling and football in a strong dual county such as Dublin.
But youâd have to feel for the club player who is like the young kid down at the GAA pitch being told to feck off up to the top goals by the bigger kids. And any player who gets caught up in off-field interference.
Fair play to him. Its complete bull shit. I see one of 2 things solving this whole thing,a SH rugby type scenario where the comps are staggered or County players stop playing with their clubs altogether.
They are down to the last 4 in Tipp now.
Drom/Inch hammered Toomevara
Thurles beat Loughmore
Mullinahone beat Borrisoleigh
Clonulty beat Nenagh
Down to last two in Laois in hurling, Clough/Ballacolla and Portlaoise. Clough/Ballacolla will win it pulling up, hockeyed a disappointing Harps side yesterday with Portlaoise accounting for Ballinakill.
Down to last four in Laois in football, but it doesnt matter a fuck as Portlaoise will railroad all in front of them in second gear. They had FIVE adult teams in semi finals this year and are again in line for the IFC/SFC double after missing out on the IFC last year. For what its worth Portlaoise are due to beat Stradbally in the SFC semi final this weekend with Arles Killeen due to face Graiguecullen. Itâll most likely be a Graigue V Town final unless those windy cunts from Graigue down slip up in the semi final, which I hope they do because Iâd love to see Beano given another run at a senior title with Killeen.
I heard Toomevara played CIT in a friendly last week and it was abandoned after 20 minutes due to violence :lol:
20 minutes before a row broke out? Thats better than normal for that shower.
[quote=âmyboyblue, post: 524065â]
For what its worth Portlaoise are due to beat Stradbally in the SFC semi final this weekend with Arles Killeen due to face Graiguecullen. Itâll most likely be a Graigue V Town final unless those windy cunts from Graigue down slip up in the semi final, which I hope they do because Iâd love to see Beano given another run at a senior title with Killeen.[/quote]
I lived in Graige for a while; they play in the Laois championship? Jesus that was/is some shithole
Still is.
The town of Graigue is in Laois, its the Laois side of the river. They used to play in Carlow years ago for logistical reasons and in fact are partly the reason the Carlow jersey is the state it is, due to them playing Rathvilly I think it was in a Final one year and the CB deciding to amalgamate both sides colours to create the Rastafarian beauty we see today. They competed in the Carlow Cship from 1903 to 1926 when they were tossed out for fighting I believe or choose to believe at least.
Paul Bealin is training Graigue for the past two years.
Someone already posted that on here.
And you have the cheek to abuse jugs for doing the same thing :rolleyes:
I find it weird that a town the size of Portlaoise only has 1 GAA club. A shame because inter-town derbies are excellent for violence.
There used to be another Club in there back in the day, but died out. Recently a new Club tried to set up but never got off the ground and to be honest was shambolically done. I would agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment and efforts are being made to deal with the urbanisation question of late but when you consider the amount of Clubs in somewhere like Carlow town or even Portarlington which has two, it is farcical.
[quote=âmyboyblue, post: 524072â]
There used to be another Club in there back in the day, but died out. Recently a new Club tried to set up but never got off the ground and to be honest was shambolically done. I would agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment and efforts are being made to deal with the urbanisation question of late but when you consider the amount of Clubs in somewhere like Carlow town or even Portarlington which has two, it is farcical.[/quote]
Portarlington have two but one plays in Laois and the other in Offaly, right?
Portlaoise would be as big as KK city and there are 3 hurling clubs in KK; all senior
Runt is some doughnut of a young fella
Yes, Gracefield play in Offaly and do have a few good ol rows with the Port boys on occasion for tournament games etc. O Dempseys of Laois also works out of the Portarlington area, as do three other Clubs in the Portlaoise Parish for what its worth, The Heath (football only), Park Ratheniska (dual) and Clonad (hurling only). Ballyfin do also to an extent but arent in Portlaoise Parish.
Hiya Puke