keane
Fanatical Member
Posts: 1,267
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Post by keane on Feb 16, 2017 13:32:29 GMT
All the post match interviews, tv appearances, articles...blah blah blah...The man who outscored the gooch in an all Ireland final. We're talking about a guy who had a brilliant year, destroyed a living legend in an All Ireland final, eye-gouged one of the highest profile players in GAA in the same match and has a back-story a sub-editor would drool over. Honestly, I think interviews, articles and TV appearances were warranted and well-earned by his achievements and/or behaviour. Destroying Gooch in the final was a part of it, but it's not like that part was invented, he did actually do it.
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Post by Mickmack on Feb 16, 2017 13:52:17 GMT
All the post match interviews, tv appearances, articles...blah blah blah...The man who outscored the gooch in an all Ireland final. We're talking about a guy who had a brilliant year, destroyed a living legend in an All Ireland final, eye-gouged one of the highest profile players in GAA in the same match and has a back-story a sub-editor would drool over. Honestly, I think interviews, articles and TV appearances were warranted and well-earned by his achievements and/or behaviour. Destroying Gooch in the final was a part of it, but it's not like that part was invented, he did actually do it. He might have dominated a fully fit colm Cooper too in 2015. We will never know now anyway. But I doubt it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2017 15:15:42 GMT
What do you mean he dined out on it? All the post match interviews, tv appearances, articles...blah blah blah...The man who outscored the gooch in an all Ireland final. We are ones to talk with all the same crap being done by Star on a far larger scale! Hopefully Philly will wait until he retires before he tries to sell a book!! It is funny this "pure" or holier than though opinion we carry of ourselves and then trying to belittle the achievements of others!
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Post by jackiel on Feb 16, 2017 15:29:39 GMT
Are we not gone off track a bit here lads, the title of this thread is Club All Ireland Games. Surely at this stage a bit of chat about Glenbeigh/Glencar might be in order as they're next up.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2017 15:37:55 GMT
Excellent I was just going to post that. I think we should leave gooch v philly for another forum. Let's just say they are both great players and leave it at that. Big day for glenbeigh/glencar coming up
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Post by Seoirse Ui Duic on Feb 16, 2017 16:48:40 GMT
Big game for Darran this weekend. Rock St. Patrick's are no pushover though and have been at this stage of the competition before. Ciaran Gourley their best player will more than likely be pitched against Darran. Glenbeigh/Glencar excel in the forwards, but need the midfield to do well to get any ball at all. St. Patrick's though have a great defence and will be looking to stop any runs at all by Glenbeigh/Glencar. Rock is close to Cookstown and Dungannon, but itself only a very small village. Since the end of the troubles the club has known some very positive developments such as acquiring a new pitch and opening a new clubhouse and have won the Ulster junior title in 2007, 2014 and 2016. They were in the 2008 junior final against Canovee from Cork, but lost that final. Aidan McGarrity, Conor McCreesh and Ciaran Gourley will be three to watch out for. Hoping Glenbeigh/Glencar can pull it off and it will need another special performance from Gavan O'Grady, Kieran Courtney, Caolim Teahan and Darran O'Sullivan. I would expect Darran to be in or near the middle third as they have so much firepower up front, but need to get the ball into them. I suppose Fergal Griffin will be in midfield again (I have to admit I'm not aware of any injuries) with Colin McGillycuddy and if they can get the upper hand in midfield it could be a very good win. For Rock Ciaran Gourley will probably be in the half back line, but show up in midfield a lot as he is by far their best player (still). Rock are a very tough team to break down and Glenbeigh/Glencar will face their biggest test in the final, probably how a final should be.
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Post by MrRasherstoyou on Feb 17, 2017 0:09:35 GMT
Nothing ambivalent about the comments about him above. Those are dismissing his football abilities/achievements, as an individual player If you just want to pick out the bits you don't like it's your call, but one of the posts you are crying about says that the guy was the clear Footballer of the Year in 2015. That's a position I agree with and one that I've seen posted here a lot by the way. I think the other post has a typo and is intending to describe him as 'an uncompromising corner back' rather than 'an compromising' one. No. I wasn't 'crying out' against that post. In a reply to that post I simply made a point about McM and LK. It was clearly a point that meant I obviously agreed with the comment about McM in the quoted post. This then developed into something else altogether. Honest to jaysus, if people are going off on complete misinterpretations of what's being said, then let's just leave it. The relevant points are very simple. KG and MM decided in their own particular ways to say MCM isn't fit to lace Gooch's boots. The first point also claimed all that McM had done to gain a standing even in the same breath as a Gooch, and 'dined out on' was to have a great game in that one game where Gooch was not near his best, and where, as I posted but you clearly neglected to read, the Kerry team were collectively poor. (by the way such media comments about forwards, and backs after finals and other major games are 10-a-penny throwaway, whenever a top forward has a tough day, and one of his markers gets scores. I can clearly recall, for example, similar comments about Brian Dooher, and one or two Kerry forwards, and Tom O'sullivan, and Dublin forwards, and I know there's others). I went on to clearly outline what other things, in playing achievement terms, McM had done to gain a high reputation, in fact the things that really make it, not the superficial evidence of a day when his team dominated fairly easily against a team that really malfunctioned, most of which had little or nothing to do with Gooch, and I even mentioned where Gooch had left McM bamboozled in another game. Did you actually read the posts at all? Anyway back to the subject. Slaughtneil in football are lacking enough scoring threat on a big pitch in an energy sapping final against a talented team who have enough experience, and tons of motivation, and belief. Cuala, on the other hand, in the hurling semi Vs the same club, are bigger favourites but conversely more at risk
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Post by MrRasherstoyou on Feb 17, 2017 0:21:01 GMT
Nothing ambivalent about the comments about him above. Those are dismissing his football abilities/achievements, as an individual player If you just want to pick out the bits you don't like it's your call, but one of the posts you are crying about says that the guy was the clear Footballer of the Year in 2015. That's a position I agree with and one that I've seen posted here a lot by the way. I think the other post has a typo and is intending to describe him as 'an uncompromising corner back' rather than 'an compromising' one. I hadn't even noticed the typo, and it's irrelevant. If you can't see what the whole post is really inferring then let's leave it. Some people are more clever with language than others. There is only hollow, and condescending credit to McMahon in that post, with laughable qualifying comments that say nothing, and everything. Its an argument that can never be gainsayed, the best one can hope for is that a player like McM, who let's be clear here, was never an original footballer, will get, is the reputation from the high priests of the game of "highly effective". And to be honest, as long as McM remains as effective as he has been, that's the best outcome all round for his team. Posterity, however shall become a huge bone of contention
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Post by Mickmack on Feb 17, 2017 8:20:31 GMT
not wishing to prolong the thing but in my view the word "uncompromising" was the correct one.....
"uncompromising"... inflexible, unbending, unyielding, unshakeable, unwavering, resolute, unpersuadable,
Paidi was described as an uncompromising corner back.
"compromising" definition, a settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles,
To get back on the thread track, I cant see Slaughtneill sticking with Crokes in the final 15 minutes as they wont be able to match the subs that Crokes have. Slaughtneill has no pub or anything. Just a few hundred people on the side of a hill. Their achievement is remarkable.
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Post by kerrygold on Feb 17, 2017 8:45:26 GMT
Just to maintain my integrity on the forum. The only intention of my post was one of admiration for Philly McMahon's success in business. My two great interests are inter county football and self employment/entrepreneurial spirit/success in business. I admire any athlete/person who successfully succeeds in combining both pursuits which takes massive commitment and time to excel in at such a relatively young age and stage in life.
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Post by Mickmack on Feb 17, 2017 11:00:12 GMT
I read your post exactly as you describe. It was a rebuttal of my post which is fine.
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Fado
Senior Member
Posts: 317
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Post by Fado on Feb 17, 2017 11:03:44 GMT
Some of ye need to take a deep breath, please stick to the topic!
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Post by seamusd on Feb 17, 2017 13:43:41 GMT
Big game for Darran this weekend. Rock St. Patrick's are no pushover though and have been at this stage of the competition before. Ciaran Gourley their best player will more than likely be pitched against Darran. Glenbeigh/Glencar excel in the forwards, but need the midfield to do well to get any ball at all. St. Patrick's though have a great defence and will be looking to stop any runs at all by Glenbeigh/Glencar. Rock is close to Cookstown and Dungannon, but itself only a very small village. Since the end of the troubles the club has known some very positive developments such as acquiring a new pitch and opening a new clubhouse and have won the Ulster junior title in 2007, 2014 and 2016. They were in the 2008 junior final against Canovee from Cork, but lost that final. Aidan McGarrity, Conor McCreesh and Ciaran Gourley will be three to watch out for. Hoping Glenbeigh/Glencar can pull it off and it will need another special performance from Gavan O'Grady, Kieran Courtney, Caolim Teahan and Darran O'Sullivan. I would expect Darran to be in or near the middle third as they have so much firepower up front, but need to get the ball into them. I suppose Fergal Griffin will be in midfield again (I have to admit I'm not aware of any injuries) with Colin McGillycuddy and if they can get the upper hand in midfield it could be a very good win. For Rock Ciaran Gourley will probably be in the half back line, but show up in midfield a lot as he is by far their best player (still). Rock are a very tough team to break down and Glenbeigh/Glencar will face their biggest test in the final, probably how a final should be. Read more: kerrygaa.proboards.com/post/199929/edit#ixzz4Yx2BbauVi'm from Tyrone and what i can say is that the Rock are extremely tough and mentally strong and they always seem to grind out a result against the odds. they've been here before so will not be overawed by the occasion which is a big advantage. they played brosna a couple of years back (ai semi) and that game went to a replay. i've read in a few places about glenbeigh having mental weaknesses in the past? if that's true the last team you would want to meet is the Rock. for me their best player is Aidan McGarrity. stop him from scoring and glenbeigh will have a much better chance.
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Post by Dermot on Feb 17, 2017 15:47:18 GMT
What are Slaughtneill's chances of winning their Hurling semi ? (Ive no clue about the potential of the team they're playing)
and what happens the finals if they do ?
I know a few suspicious/pessimistic Derry folk who think the GAA will want them out as it would mess up Finals day..
but what would happen ? .. Obviously a lot of them play both codes ...
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Post by givehimaball on Feb 17, 2017 16:33:48 GMT
What are Slaughtneill's chances of winning their Hurling semi ? (Ive no clue about the potential of the team they're playing) and what happens the finals if they do ? I know a few suspicious/pessimistic Derry folk who think the GAA will want them out as it would mess up Finals day.. but what would happen ? .. a lot of them play both codes ... Bookies have Cuala as 1/8 favorites, so you would have to imagine their chances aren't great.
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Post by clarinman on Feb 17, 2017 16:51:41 GMT
What are Slaughtneill's chances of winning their Hurling semi ? (Ive no clue about the potential of the team they're playing) and what happens the finals if they do ? I know a few suspicious/pessimistic Derry folk who think the GAA will want them out as it would mess up Finals day.. but what would happen ? .. a lot of them play both codes ... Bookies have Cuala as 1/8 favorites, so you would have to imagine their chances aren't great. In the newspaper during the week it said that the 2 finals would be played 2 weeks apart in provincial venues.
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Post by Dermot on Feb 17, 2017 17:19:39 GMT
Thanks for the info chaps ...
Looks like they're up against it in the hurling .. saying that, what they've done for one club has been astonishing .. and such as small club to boot..
Ulster champions in 3 codes .. I wonder has that ever been done before for any province ?
In the AI final in 2 code .. has that ever been done before?
Looks like it will be too much for them for 3 finals .. still though, an amazing achievement..
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Post by southward on Feb 17, 2017 19:01:56 GMT
What are Slaughtneill's chances of winning their Hurling semi ? (Ive no clue about the potential of the team they're playing) and what happens the finals if they do ? I know a few suspicious/pessimistic Derry folk who think the GAA will want them out as it would mess up Finals day.. but what would happen ? .. Obviously a lot of them play both codes ... If Uncle Joe appears with a whistle, they'll know
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Post by thebluepanther on Feb 17, 2017 23:11:54 GMT
Philly McMahon has a lot going for him. An compromising corner back belonging to brand Dublin Gaa football team, multiple All-Ireland winner and the owner of a number of businesses. Fair play to Philly McMahon, I'd salute him rather than belittle the man. It is what playing inter county football should be all about. Grabbing the opportunities with both hands. Possibly the most clever put-down or dismissal of a 'player' I've read in a while. Long may the unpure of Ballymun get up yer purist nose. Cannot for the life of me see anything but an honest post by Kerrygold, Rashers Its one thing sticking up for the Dubs, it's another trying to find to defend something thats not there.
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Post by thebluepanther on Feb 17, 2017 23:20:05 GMT
Twas a pity that he was started in the 2015 final...enabling Philly to make a name for himself. Colm wasn't near right. Even worse that Paul geaney didn't start. A club final medal would bookend colms career. He might leave it at that. I was going to challenge you on your assertion that Philly has somehow dined out on his performance marking the Gooch in 2015 , but the fact you don't know who started for Kerry in the 2015 final , I'll leave it. Its better to discuss Crokes chances and keep on topic.
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Post by Mickmack on Feb 18, 2017 0:34:00 GMT
Wednesday, December 28, 2016 A 2016 hat-trick of Derry senior titles for Slaughtneil – football, hurling and camogie, writes Paul Keane
A disco in Slaughtneil, at the foothills of the Sperrin Mountains. The suggestion, pitched by one of the younger members of the GAA club’s committee, got the short shrift it deserved.
“Everyone just looked around to yer man and said, ‘will ya wise up. That’ll not work up here’,” recalled Sean McGuigan. “Then the floor went quiet for a while and the next thing someone says, ‘well, hold on now, maybe we could try it’.”
Necessity, in effect, gave birth to invention in the early 1980s in south Derry. Surrounded by hills as far as the eye could see, and not a shop or a pub in sight, Slaughtneil had just built a terrific new hall - reputed to be the biggest in Ulster GAA - and were starting to get a little queasy about how they might actually fill it.
“So it was decided to give the disco idea a go, a junior disco for teenagers,” continued McGuigan, now the club chairman. “I think the success of it was that parents were content because Slaughtneil GAA people were stewarding the buses in and out and looking after the thing all night. And sure we only charged a pound a head for years so it quickly became a roaring success.”
McGuigan recalls driving back from Maghera to Slaughtneil one night maybe a decade later. The disco was on and he had a passenger with him as he carefully navigated the winding roads up around the Glenshane Pass towards home.
Guy Pearce, the actor from Neighbours who featured in Hollywood blockbusters like LA Confidential, had agreed to come out for the night.
Word had got back from another club chairman that Pearce was in Northern Ireland and sure it couldn’t hurt to invite him out. Mightn’t it bring a few hundred more through the door than normal?
“I lifted him myself in Maghera and we came out across the mountain in the car to the disco,” said McGuigan. “We must have had 1,500 young ones out that night. All there to see Guy Pearce.
“I do remember I had to console him a bit because he was wondering where all the bright lights had gone when we were crossing the mountain. It was black dark and wee, narrow roads. He didn’t know where he was going. “But he stayed for the night and had the craic. My own son went to it. He stood up on the stage and signed autographs and talked away to everyone. It went down brilliant.”
The Slaughtneil GAA disco. Chances are if you were a 15-year-old in Derry in the 1980s or 1990s, you experienced it for yourself.
McGuigan’s interest was piqued a couple of years back while listening to a sports report on BBC Radio about the club’s first Ulster football title triumph. He smiled at the sudden turn in conversation.
“When the sports reporter was finished up he passed it back over to the girl doing the main news and she stopped for a second and said to him live on air, ‘Slaughtneil, I used to go there to the discos’.”
John Joe Kearney, the assistant football manager alongside Mickey Moran, was passing through JFK Airport a few years ago when something similar happened.
“I was in the States going through clearance in JFK with my wife and we were standing in the queue,” explained Kearney. “I could hear young people behind the counter speaking and I said to my wife, ‘they’re from our part of the country you know’. I said to the girl, ‘you’ll be close to home if you’re ever around Dungiven’. I was only chancing my arm about Dungiven but she says, ‘God, how did you know that?’ I says, ‘sure I seen you around Slaughtneil disco’ and she laughed. She knew it well.”
Joe Brolly insists he never partied in Slaughtneil but was aware of the disco and its reputation. The ‘beginnings of the sexual revolution in Derry’ is how he has referred to it.
“When the car lights hit the pitch all you could see was teenage boys and girls ‘wrestling’, dotted all around like rabbits in a meadow,” recalled the Dungiven man.
If it sounds like a curious love story it’s because that’s exactly what it was, one of fleeting teenage love, every weekend for 20 years or so, but also one of longer lasting, more tangible love between a GAA member and his/her club.
The disco was a serious undertaking which required a huge voluntary effort from the local community for many years. Two club members were detailed to travel on each bus to ferry teenagers back and forth from towns and villages around the county. “Myself and John Joe partnered up on a bus out to Craigbane on the Donegal border one night,” said McGuigan. Bulging pockets were frisked and back at the disco anyone who’d made it that far with beer cans or bottles of spirits were relieved of their goods.
“We put it straight down the drain,” said Kearney. “Some people within the club who took a drink themselves weren’t agreeable with that but it was our policy.”
A labour of love is perhaps a better way of describing it all but it paid off. Big time. “Money was pouring into the club coffers,” noted Brolly. “They haven’t squandered it.”
“It was very, very successful for us,” said Kearney, pointing to the impressive facilities the club now boasts. The hall is still going strong, popping up in various newsreels whenever their latest homecoming celebration is chronicled, and outside there are four pitches that accommodate the playing population derived from 300 or so local houses.
“We generated quite a bit of funds from those discos,” said Kearney. “It allowed us to build a new stand, we developed a new pitch, all sorts.
“And you know where it all came from? A big draw back in 1983 or 1984 when we sold tickets for 50 pounds each to build the hall in the first place. The money raised from that draw built the hall.”
It was a visionary move that has reaped a remarkable reward. This Christmas, Slaughtneil teams own the Ulster football, hurling and camogie titles and a straight line can be drawn from that decision to sell tickets for a new hall right through to the disco years and the various pitch developments and on to the current champagne days.
It’s worth taking a drive out to the club some sunny day just to put it all into perspective, what they’ve built. Out of the various shades of green and brown that dominate the eye line for miles, the GAA club is a manicured oasis.
The late, lamented Thomas Cassiddy: His fingerprints are over every part of the Slaughtneil club. Picture: Mary K Burke Colm Parkinson was interviewing Slaughtneil and Derry footballer Chrissy McKaigue recently about the ‘village’ and what has been achieved by so few.
“I was pulling my hair out - it’s not a village, it’s just houses and a GAA club!” smiled Kearney.
Just down the road the new An Carn complex is a welcome addition to the area. Developed by the Carntogher Community Association, in the shadow of the brooding Carntogher Mountain, part of its remit is to restore the Irish language in the area.
Their clear vision is for ‘a modern 21st century Gaeltacht’ and they are moving forward hand in hand with the GAA club to make that dream a reality.
The passing of Thomas Cassidy just days before Slaughtneil won the AIB Ulster club hurling final last month, however, has made the task immeasurably more difficult for both organisations.
One of the drivers of the An Carn project, his fingerprints can be found just about anywhere you care to look throughout the GAA club too.
Hurling was his game, a lifelong obsession, and perhaps even crueller than his passing after a long illness was the fact that just days later Slaughtneil became the first Derry team to win the Ulster title, lowering the 2012 All-Ireland champions Loughgiel Shamrocks.
His sons, Sean and Eanna, played in that game, and he had three daughters - Aoife, Brona and Eilis - on the camogie team that drew with Loughiel the same day. The camogs got the job done in the replay and Aoife captained the team.
“Daddy would be so happy today to see us as Ulster champions,” said Aoife afterwards, choked by emotion.
Dominic McKinley, the former Derry hurling manager who is part of Antrim’s current management team, fought back the tears too. “It was Thomas that brought me to the club,” revealed McKinley.
McKaigue captained the hurlers in their success and acknowledged the debt he owed to the community’s pillar.
“He made me captain of the U-12 team that won the championship for the first time in 2000,” said McKaigue. “People tend to forget those things. It snowballed from there.”
McGuigan played a little football with Cassidy in their youth. A towering man well over six foot, they used to shout at McGuigan to mind poor Thomas when they’d all go up for a ball at midfield.
This was not a man who needed minding though. In fact, he was Slaughtneil’s shepherd.
“We’ll never repay the debt we owe that man as a club and as a community,” said McGuigan. “I’d say he was out loads of money over the years, actually I’m convinced of that, but he never asked for a penny. He sold a car once and bought a bus to help bring people around to games, that’s a true story.
“I remember when he was building a garage at the back of his house he put in extra space at the back if anyone visiting the club needed a place to stay over.
“It’s down to him that we’re Ulster hurling champions. He got help surely from everyone in the club but he was a fella who just constantly went out on a limb. It wouldn’t have happened without him.”
At the recent Derry GAA awards night, it was decided that the Laoch Gael award for 2016 was to be ‘awarded posthumously to the late, great Thomas Cassidy’. Slaughtneil will be a lonelier place without its guru but the club will endure and regenerate. It’s in their DNA to do so.
In the run up to Slaughtneil’s appearance in the 2015 AIB All-Ireland club football final, Dermot McPeake expertly chronicled how the county final team of 1969 spawned so many of the present players who have picked up the baton and ran with it.
“That would be spot on,” said Kearney, who played in ‘69. “Patsy Bradley’s father, Mickey, and me would have played together. You could go on and on.”
That ‘69 Slaughtneil team was the first to reach a county final. Actually winning one remained a glass ceiling they didn’t smash through until 2004. They’ve got four titles now, two Ulster crowns and are just loving the fact that they’ve prompted a conversation at Croke Park about what they’ll do if both the Slaughtneil footballers and hurlers reach their respective All-Ireland club finals on St Patrick’s Day.
“I was lucky enough in ‘65 to be part of the first Derry minor team to win the All-Ireland,” said Kearney. “It was the first All-Ireland we’d won at any level.
“It’s a nice memory and I was saying that to my young lad recently, he’s finished up playing now, but I’ve told him to keep the clippings from all of these occasions because he’ll want to look back through them in 20 and 30 years’ time and remember how good it was.”
For the younger members of the club it’ll take a little longer for it all to seep in. A batch of minors were drafted into the senior football panel in recent seasons and have known nothing but success. They’ve won three Derry senior titles in a row and are on the crest of a wave that shows no sign of breaking.
In good time, they’ll learn about the Slaughtneil disco and how it funded the facilities they now enjoy and, eventually, the full extent of the contribution of men like Thomas Cassidy to their club and parish will dawn on them.
High noon for Slaughtneil’s quiet men
Paul Keane
“What ever happened to Gary Cooper, the strong, silent type? That was an American. He wasn’t in touch with his feelings, he just did what he had to do.”
- Tony Soprano.
There were, apparently, numerous attempts made to pull Patsy Bradley in off the construction sites and sit him down in an office role at the family business over the years, to take the strain off his battered body.
He wasn’t having it though. A lot like his long career in the Slaughtneil and Derry midfields, life at the coalface has always suited him just fine.
Bradley chatted with media on the eve of Slaughtneil’s 2015 AIB All-Ireland club semi-final appearance and was open and engaging.
Yet it was, as far as anyone was aware, about the only time he’d sat in front of a bunch of dictaphones despite a long and successful inter-county career.
“A collectors edition of The Irish News today. Page 62. An interview with Patsy Bradley “#frameit”, tweeted Paddy Heaney, the paper’s Gaelic Games correspondent.
Slaughtneil’s answer to Gary Cooper, you won’t find Patsy Bradley extending himself across social media platforms commenting on affairs of the day. Which is actually quite refreshing.
You get a strong sense that Mickey Moran (right) , Slaughtneil’s wisened manager, sees in Bradley a reflection of himself.
Bradley described Moran during that hen’s tooth of an interview as a ‘very quiet man’. Irony aside, he hit the bullseye as Moran is to ego what oil is to water.
John Morrison did a lot of the talking when he and Moran led Mayo on a summer of fun to the 2006 All-Ireland final and John Joe Kearney, the Slaughtneil assistant manager, has assumed a similar role for the three-in-a-row Derry champions.
“Whatever it is about the press or television Mickey just doesn’t want to get involved,” said Kearney. “I said in 2014 when we were in the Ulster final, ‘Now Mickey, you’re the manager of the team and this is your day’. We got back to the dressing-rooms afterwards and everyone was in a great mood. Mickey was out in a passage way and I went to get him for the media stuff. I couldn’t budge him. I knew there’d be a row if I kept on at him so I left it. That’s just the way he is.”
At this stage, Moran is not for turning. The former Derry, Sligo, Mayo, Donegal and Leitrim manager has long since made his mind up about the media. And that’s just fine with Kearney.
“He came in and talked at the interview about wanting to win one championship — he got to the All-Ireland in his first year and has done three-in-a-row in Derry, the man has performed wonders. I don’t think you’ll find anyone in Slaughtneil with a bad word for Mickey Moran.”
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Post by Mickmack on Feb 18, 2017 0:39:24 GMT
By John Harrington
The net bulged, and Robbie Hogan’s heart sank.
Ballyea had just been beaten in the 2015 Clare Senior Hurling Championship Quarter-Final by a goal scored with the last puck of the ball in extra-time.
When he thinks now of the desolation in their dressing-room after that loss to Kilmaley and the depression that hung over the parish for weeks afterwards, the only thing he can compare it to is a death in the family.
2015 was meant to be Ballyea’s big year. They’d been narrowly beaten in the 2013 County Semi-Final by Newmarket and were now two years older, wiser, and better.
It was team manager Hogan’s fourth year at the helm and he’d poured every fibre of his being into the job.
So when it all ended with that sickening defeat to Kilmaley, Hogan decided he’d run out of road and it was time for someone else to drive the thing on.
That was until a convoy of cars pulled up outside his house one day and a delegation of Ballyea players led by Tony Kelly, Jack Browne and Paul Flanagan knocked on his door.
They wanted him to give it another rattle, and as he admits now, “When those lads come calling, you can’t really refuse them."
He’s mightily glad now he didn’t. Ballyea are Clare county champions for the first time in the club’s history thanks to last weekend’s replay victory over Clonlara, and the fact that he came so close to walking away last year only makes the achievement all the more special for Hogan.
“Ah it does,” he admits. “There's a lot of emotion alright. Someone said it can never again be done to win the first one.
“It was unreal I suppose to be honest. Any day you make a bit of history it's massive. Ah sure, it's just great for a small club.
“It's hugely satisfying. From a personal point of view the amount of effort you put in, I've three young daughters and they all play a part in helping out with training and all of that as well.
“It's a family effort and when you put that much time in, it's going to affect your family life. It's the ultimate reward really that we got to lift the Canon Hamilton.”
Ballyea have been knocking on the door for a while now. They won the County U-21 ‘A’ Championship in 2012, and ever since have been a force to be reckoned with in senior hurling.
Potential is one thing though, cold, hard achievement is something else entirely, and this county senior title elevates Ballyea into the sort of company they once only peered through a window at.
They’re the furthest club to the west in Clare’s hurling heartland, and for a long time it was more than geography that made them feel peripheral.
“For years we were the second half of the Clarecastle parish and we would have been the junior team,” says Hogan.
“When I was younger your opportunity to win a county title wasn't with Ballyea, you had to go into Clarecastle. They were a senior club and we were a junior club and what they were doing was giving lads the opportunity to play at that level.
“There was a time you could play junior and also play senior and that benefited both clubs in some ways, but in later years that rule was changed so if you went to Clarecastle you were lost from Ballyea really.”
All has changed since those days. Now players arrive on Ballyea’s border with hurleys in hand, offering their services.
Because of their location on the invisible border that separates the traditional hurling and football areas of Clare, players from football strong-holds like Kilmihill and Cooraclare who fancy a bit of hurling too come knocking on their door.
The current panel includes four players from Kilmihil and two from Cooraclare, so the impact of this influx is considerable enough.
“Our geographic location means we're the furthest west hurling club,” says Hogan. “Just outside of Ennis. Lads can come to us as isolated players.
“We'd have a few lads from Kilmihil and Cooraclare. They'd be football clubs. They came to us as a young age and were just given the opportunity to hurl if they wanted to do so.
“It isn't for everyone, it doesn't just work out, but the lads who were good stuck with it. You're just giving them an opportunity, really.”
Watching with a neutral’s eye, it looked like Ballyea had let a glorious chance slip when a last-gasp Clonlara injury-time point denied them victory in the drawn county final.
It looked like Ballyea had let a big opportunity slip when a last-gasp Clonlara point took the County Final to a replay. That sense was deepened when influential full-forward Eoghan Donnellan was ruled out of the replay after breaking two bones in his neck in an accidental training-ground collision.
But typical of a club that makes the most of what it has, Ballyea managed to turn that negative into a positive that may have given them the vital edge they needed in the replay.
“Eoghan scored eight points in the three previous games and it was very unfortunate for him to be missing it but you can't dwell on the fact that a fellow is out,” says Hogan.
“Sometimes you have to just turn these things around and just try to work them in your favour. I think Eoghan sent a text out that morning on the WhatsApp, just to give a little bit of inspiration to the lads, and to a man they responded with a thumbs up.
“I just felt leaving home that morning that we were in the right frame of mind. Eoghan's text definitely inspired the rest of the boys.”
The good news is that Donnellan is expected to make a full recovery and will not require the surgery that was initially feared.
“I was on the phone to him there this morning,” says Hogan. “They were to operate, but he's just been put in a brace now. I don't know the duration, but it will be a few months. The fact that he's not being operated on, we'd be hopeful is good.
“He's in good spirits and he's constantly on the phone to the rest of the lads. We're just hopeful that his recovery is swift.”
When a team wins a county championship for the very first time and then immediately has to refocus for a provincial campaign, the story tends to go one of two ways.
Either they revel in the fact that the pressure is now off and hurl with abandon, or else there’s an understandable dip in their form considering how much mental and physical energy they expended to win the county title.
Hogan knows they face a massive challenge in the face of Tipperary champions Thurles Sarsfields, but is hopeful the high standards his players set for themselves will ensure they meet it head on.
“A lot of the lads have played at the highest level be it in hurling or football,” says Hogan. “They're honest and I know we spoke to a few of the Clonlara lads last night and John Conlon who would be their captain, he spoke to me about when they won it eight years ago and in a similar situation they were out in the Munster club the following week and he said they didn't give that week the respect that it needed.
“He said it was one of his biggest regrets that for the talent they have they haven't won a county title since and, he said, maybe they might never get that opportunity again to represent their county.
“It focused us again really when you hear it coming from John. He said it more as a warning than anything, that you have to embrace these situations.
“A good friend of mine, Colin Lynch, I was talking to him today and, in a similar situation, he played with Kilmaley, and he said these days don't come around often and you have to knuckle down and just get on with the job.
“Thurles Sarsfields are a serious team. They've All-Irelands, All-Stars, they're the full-package, a serious outfit.
“But Clonlara were a serious team too and this is the level you aspire to be at.
“The likes of Gary Brennan and Tony Kelly, they're all but professional in their approach. They manage the situation nearly for us. They're very good lads.”
Kelly, especially, will be a key figure this weekend. The 2013 Hurler of the Year is the main man in this Ballyea set-up. Where he leads, others follow.
He’ll relish the prospect of testing himself against the clutch of recent Tipperary All-Ireland winners that backbone this Sarsfields team, and Hogan intends to give him and the rest of the team a licence to thrill on Sunday.
“Tony comes in the gate there and there's a spring in his step and he's laughing and joking,” says Hogan. “He just enjoys it. We'd give him the freedom to express himself.
“We often say to him they don't come with a set of remote controls. You just let them off and let them loose. “You keep it simple. I don't think the game has gotten or should get more complicated, you just let them off and express themselves.
“That's how we approach it.”
It’s an approach that has worked well for them so far.
***
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Post by Mickmack on Feb 18, 2017 0:44:47 GMT
Cuala the colourful blossom of many years tending GAA garden in capital Hurling club’s success stands out as Dublin GAA stands firm on funding issue Wed, Dec 7, 2016, 07:00 Seán Moran Cuala’s historic success in the Leinster club final at the weekend overlapped with Dublin CEO John Costello’s annual report, which nonetheless manages to mention it, but in many ways it represents a perfect snapshot of what the GAA is striving to do in the capital. Costello’s reports are always engaging, particularly in their focus on broader issues such as the importance of sport as social capital and the imperative for public policy to take that into account. His comments on the funding issue can be represented as alarmist or self-serving but what he has to say still has to be addressed. “Put bluntly,” he writes, “extra funding for other counties should not come at the direct expense of Dublin’s games development initiatives. Bleed that well dry and it won’t be long before soccer and rugby make inroads back into terrain that Dublin GAA has fought, tooth and nail, to colonise in the first place.” It’s hard to think of better examples of that terrain than south county Dublin but before getting carried away by the image of missionaries bringing Gaelic games to the previously uninterested it’s worth remembering that the GAA always had a presence, however small and constantly changing. There has been in history a roll-call of clubs, amalgamations and reformations in the south east of the county: Dún Laoghaire, Dalkey, Sallynoggin and drawing from surrounding areas. Hurling outpost Cuala is the old Irish name for the region stretching from the city down the east coast to Wicklow. Hurling – with camogie – was always the pre-eminent game and as recently as 1969 there was a story in Gaelic Life magazine (which is reproduced on the club website: www.cualagaa.ie/a-hurling-outpost-in-south-dublin-1969/) headlined “A Hurling Outpost in South Dublin” and detailing the strides made by the club at underage level. Five years later, symbolically the year when Kevin Heffernan put Gaelic games back on the city map, the current club, Cuala, was formed. The GAA’s Strategic Review Committee in 2002 proposed that some of the big units on the south of the city, the so-called ‘super clubs’ be split up to allow more rational husbandry of resources. It wasn’t unreasonable: how can clubs with catchments the size of some counties provide meaningful activity programmes for all age groups given that only 15 can play on a minor or under-16 team? The problem though was and is a very GAA-related one. All such clubs – and Kilmacud and Ballyboden would be more prominent examples than Cuala – came from somewhere. They had their own history and traditions and simply carving them into more manageable slices would, in many cases, upset those. The reason why Cuala was “an outpost” in 1969 was that Gaelic games were massively under-subscribed. Addressing that issue has opened up swathes of territory and the growth of the club has reflected that. When Costello writes about the importance of state assistance – or at least allowance – for the value of sport in the community he makes valid points about how public policy could require developers to make portions of land available at below-commercial value for recreation and amenity as part of planning permission. That’s been an issue for Cuala, set amongst some of the most expensive real estate in the country. The recent attempt to acquire some land from Blackrock rugby club demonstrated the need for expanded facilities, and the symbolism was lost on no one. At times Dublin clubs have been characterised as ‘League of Nations’ collectives, drawing players from all over the country as they come to the city for work reasons. Fluent Irish speakers On Monday’s Morning Ireland Cuala chair Adrian Dunne pointed out that of the 32 names on the Leinster final programme, all but four were home produced players coming up through the ranks. On an unrelated point, 10 of the starting team are fluent Irish speakers – testament to Scoil Lorcáin and Coláiste Eoin. Paul Schutte spoke after Sunday’s victory about the players’ pride in equalling and bettering the achievement of the previous generation. “It’s absolutely brilliant but it was more so beating the dads and uncles. They always held it over us that they’ve won three championships when we done the back to back, but they never got a Leinster so that was the big one for us.” Looking back at the Cuala team that lost a previous Leinster final 27 years ago, it’s just like any other club: the same names – Schutte, Treacy, O’Callaghan. There’s no doubt that the club through the relentless hard work of its volunteers has tapped into the modern concerns of parents about the importance of sport for children’s health but there have also been out-reach programmes into schools in the area, started by Damien Byrne and Willie Braine. I remember being at a primary schools blitz organised by Damien, the former Dublin goalkeeper and selector who founded the club’s Sports and Social Integration Project, and being struck by the diversity of the children playing football. Cuala is a very GAA story from an area that for a long time wasn’t. That, away from the All-Irelands and the funding arguments, is a measure of Dublin’s success.
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Post by Mickmack on Feb 18, 2017 0:47:17 GMT
I think the Schutte's are related to the late Mick Holden.
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Post by MrRasherstoyou on Feb 18, 2017 8:08:38 GMT
Possibly the most clever put-down or dismissal of a 'player' I've read in a while. Long may the unpure of Ballymun get up yer purist nose. Cannot for the life of me see anything but an honest post by Kerrygold, Rashers Its one thing sticking up for the Dubs, it's another trying to find to defend something thats not there. I think you'd do better to stick with thinking for yourself, not for me. I've been posting here many years, and apart from arguments about specific incidents in games which often end up no more than banter, I've always posted what I believe is the case in my honest opinion, which as I reminded people above, has included sticking up for Paul Galvin when many in the media etc lambasted him, and even some here very much criticised him, or doubted him. I'll leave it at that, it's all just opinions, even yours, despite the fact that you're widely agreed to be the best poster on here. It's interesting how Slaughtneil have managed the multi-challenge of these semi-finals, they got the football forward, and the hurling delayed. A 12 week gap for Cuala may prove to have been an issue, and some S players had the football also, which could work either way.
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Post by thebluepanther on Feb 18, 2017 10:16:49 GMT
Cannot for the life of me see anything but an honest post by Kerrygold, Rashers Its one thing sticking up for the Dubs, it's another trying to find to defend something thats not there. I think you'd do better to stick with thinking for yourself, not for me. I've been posting here many years, and apart from arguments about specific incidents in games which often end up no more than banter, I've always posted what I believe is the case in my honest opinion, which as I reminded people above, has included sticking up for Paul Galvin when many in the media etc lambasted him, and even some here very much criticised him, or doubted him. Rashers didn't see anything to get worked up in Kerrygolds post nothing more. No doubt you post what you feel to be right and if you percieve an injustice or character assasssination has just happened you comment on it, which fair play to you, but it doesn't mean you can't be challenged on it. Sometimes we have to be able to see the wood from the trees, then pages aren't lost on retaliatory posts which does no one any good.
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Post by Seoirse Ui Duic on Feb 18, 2017 14:17:40 GMT
Big game for Darran this weekend. Rock St. Patrick's are no pushover though and have been at this stage of the competition before. Ciaran Gourley their best player will more than likely be pitched against Darran. Glenbeigh/Glencar excel in the forwards, but need the midfield to do well to get any ball at all. St. Patrick's though have a great defence and will be looking to stop any runs at all by Glenbeigh/Glencar. Rock is close to Cookstown and Dungannon, but itself only a very small village. Since the end of the troubles the club has known some very positive developments such as acquiring a new pitch and opening a new clubhouse and have won the Ulster junior title in 2007, 2014 and 2016. They were in the 2008 junior final against Canovee from Cork, but lost that final. Aidan McGarrity, Conor McCreesh and Ciaran Gourley will be three to watch out for. Hoping Glenbeigh/Glencar can pull it off and it will need another special performance from Gavan O'Grady, Kieran Courtney, Caolim Teahan and Darran O'Sullivan. I would expect Darran to be in or near the middle third as they have so much firepower up front, but need to get the ball into them. I suppose Fergal Griffin will be in midfield again (I have to admit I'm not aware of any injuries) with Colin McGillycuddy and if they can get the upper hand in midfield it could be a very good win. For Rock Ciaran Gourley will probably be in the half back line, but show up in midfield a lot as he is by far their best player (still). Rock are a very tough team to break down and Glenbeigh/Glencar will face their biggest test in the final, probably how a final should be. Read more: kerrygaa.proboards.com/post/199929/edit#ixzz4Yx2BbauVi'm from Tyrone and what i can say is that the Rock are extremely tough and mentally strong and they always seem to grind out a result against the odds. they've been here before so will not be overawed by the occasion which is a big advantage. they played brosna a couple of years back (ai semi) and that game went to a replay. i've read in a few places about glenbeigh having mental weaknesses in the past? if that's true the last team you would want to meet is the Rock. for me their best player is Aidan McGarrity. stop him from scoring and glenbeigh will have a much better chance. First of all welcome. Exactly what I thought. Rock are very good at grinding down the opposition and Glenbeigh have had issues with getting going. McGarrity is a great scorer indeed, but it will come down to midfield in my opinion. Though Glenbeigh have a lot of firepower up front, it will not matter if Rock manage to win midfield and have no ball going to the Glenbeigh forwards. It would frustrate Glenbeigh and they have not managed to grind out wins the way Rock can. That said if Glenbeigh can get a goal or a good score early on they will gain confidence and run riot. Rock will want to set up defensively and make sure Glenbeigh don't get the scores. If they are only 1 or 2 points down at HT they will grind down Glenbeigh. It will be a very tough test for Glenbeigh but I'm confident they can do it.
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Post by southward on Feb 18, 2017 14:56:56 GMT
If Slaughtneil make it through against Cuala, is it the hurling or the football final that is likely to be postponed?
Kerry won't want to be a further 2 weeks without the Crokes lads.
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Post by Seoirse Ui Duic on Feb 18, 2017 15:01:21 GMT
Since the football semi was played first I would say the Slaughtneil hurlers would want the hurling to be postponed by two weeks. Since the finals are usually on St. Patrick's day and live on telly I would expect the game that is most likely to be watched by more people, the football, to given preference.
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Post by MrRasherstoyou on Feb 19, 2017 11:29:45 GMT
I think you'd do better to stick with thinking for yourself, not for me. I've been posting here many years, and apart from arguments about specific incidents in games which often end up no more than banter, I've always posted what I believe is the case in my honest opinion, which as I reminded people above, has included sticking up for Paul Galvin when many in the media etc lambasted him, and even some here very much criticised him, or doubted him. Rashers didn't see anything to get worked up in Kerrygolds post nothing more. No doubt you post what you feel to be right and if you percieve an injustice or character assasssination has just happened you comment on it, which fair play to you, but it doesn't mean you can't be challenged on it. Sometimes we have to be able to see the wood from the trees, then pages aren't lost on retaliatory posts which does no one any good. My dear good Panther, the gentleman, scholar, and raconteur Mr. Tierney, Esq, very much admires your good self's innocence, and idealism. He was very much of the same mind himself in days of yore, when he too was shiney, and fresh aboard the good ship Kerryproboards. I very often see the wood for the trees my good man/woman, quite circumspect in fact, usually so much on the fence I have splinters in me constitutional, hence as stated when I was sticking up for Galvin. Most of the time here I've been accused of beating around the bush. So when I do feel clear about something, whether I'm right or wrong, rest assured that I do really feel clear about it. As for being challenged, I think you'll find that as posted above, I don't get badly upset with these debates at all, because as stated, "I like a challenge". But do keep up with trying to teach me how to post better on the forum, I've clearly still got so much to learn, maybe I've learned all the wrong things in the past 10 years on here....... Sure if An tUasal Gooch can teach the bould Philip McMahon how to be a top player, and dine out, in the course of just one game, I'm sure it can't be as difficult for you to show me how to be a top poster. But now back on topic for real, for good, in answer to Seoirse's post, Slaughtneil already got the hurling semi-final put back, Cuala won't have played in 12 weeks by the time of the game. It's a massive game for Cuala, and hurling in Dublin. I really hope they can do it. Even to be in the final would be great. By the way I've always had nothing but admiration for Derry(and Ulster) hurling. I've been in North Antrim quite a few times, a friend in Glentoy schooled me on the history there.
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