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Post by kerrygold on Nov 17, 2019 20:30:00 GMT
I don’t know what else they can do though. The old system was flawed too in that if 2 clubs got to semi’s and both lost to divisional teams, no 1 team has technically gone the furthest. At least this system means the Senior club championship will be of a good standardAssuming the system changed back to the club team that goes the furthest in the county championship (if two club teams end up going the same distance, maybe use whoever is the highest in the county leage) and the "prize" of being the club team going forward to the Munster club in the case of a divisional side, would the club championship suffer all that must in terms of competiveness? I think the potential relegation aspect of the club championship would ensure it remains seriously competitive no matter whether the prize of entry into Munster was there or not. If no change is made, it means that there is every chance of something similar happening again down the road. The final of the club championship was the 28th of April. That's 29 weeks or just short of 7 months from today. With that kind of gap, there is always going to be a reasonable chance of the team that wins the club championship losing form/picking up injuries. I think the current system is less than optimal for Kerry football and think a change should be made. Or simply have a play off between the two. Not sure what purpose the senior club championship is serving between the 8 clubs? |
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Premier
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Post by Premier on Nov 17, 2019 20:40:25 GMT
Assuming the system changed back to the club team that goes the furthest in the county championship (if two club teams end up going the same distance, maybe use whoever is the highest in the county leage) and the "prize" of being the club team going forward to the Munster club in the case of a divisional side, would the club championship suffer all that must in terms of competiveness? I think the potential relegation aspect of the club championship would ensure it remains seriously competitive no matter whether the prize of entry into Munster was there or not. If no change is made, it means that there is every chance of something similar happening again down the road. The final of the club championship was the 28th of April. That's 29 weeks or just short of 7 months from today. With that kind of gap, there is always going to be a reasonable chance of the team that wins the club championship losing form/picking up injuries. I think the current system is less than optimal for Kerry football and think a change should be made. Or simply have a play off between the two. Not sure what purpose the senior club championship is serving between the 8 clubs? Big factor in deciding relegation |
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Jo90
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Post by Jo90 on Nov 17, 2019 21:23:33 GMT
Apart from Crokes no senior club in Kerry has come come remotely near being good enough to win the Andy Merrigan Cup in a very long time, certainly none in the mould of a Crossmaglen or Corofin as multiple winners. Crokes '92, Laune Rangers '96, Desmonds '85 tells its own story. It is doubtful Crokes in 2019 would have been strong enough to contest this time. The results at senior club are in stark contrast to Kerry clubs in the junior & intermediate All-Ireland club championships for some reason. Take Crokes away and senior club teams in Kerry look run of the mill at national level. Er......I think the whole country knows the reason at this stage why Kerry intermediate and junior clubs do so well! |
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Post by Mickmack on Nov 17, 2019 21:50:06 GMT
Next years senior club championship winners are odds on to represent Kerry so i imagine they will prepare well for the Munster campaign.
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Post by Mickmack on Nov 17, 2019 21:55:53 GMT
Echolive Logo
Cork Sport - Liv
Even in front of a bumper home crowd, Éire Óg can't get past classy Templenoe
Therese O'Callaghan
Éire Óg 0-12 Templenoe 1-17
THERE was no joy for Cork Premier IFC champions Éire Óg in the Munster club IFC semi-final in Ovens.
A big crowd of 1,777 turned out but it was the visitors who stole the show serving up an excellent performance to book their place in the final against Clare side St Breckans in a fortnight.
Éire Óg's Daniel Goulding racing past Templenoe's Kieran O'Neill. Picture: Denis Minihane.
Éire Óg's Daniel Goulding racing past Templenoe's Kieran O'Neill. Picture: Denis Minihane.
That Éire Óg were unable to reach the heights they achieved in the Cork final says a lot about Templenoe who did most of the damage in the opening half. After playing with the strong wind, they led 0-12 to 0-2 and left the hosts with it all to do.
This is a very accomplished Templenoe team, and it is unlikely they will be stopped in their quest for Munster honours, which also means that Clyda Rovers were the last Cork team to take silverware in this grade back in 2013.
With four intercounty players on their side, and two All Ireland junior winners there was no shortage of experience in the Kerry line-up. It was one of their junior winners, Stephen O’Sullivan, that got them up and running.
Inside a quarter of an hour, they were 0-6 to 0-1 to the good and through four different scorers. As well as the outstanding O’Sullivan, Gavin Crowley, Cian Hallissey and Killian Spillane were all on target.
They kicked some awesome scores, and from distance. Teddy Doyle’s effort on 24 minutes put them nine points ahead, and they finished with O’Sullivan and Tadhg Morley points. Midfielder Ronan O’Toole was the sole reply for Éire Óg.
All Ireland U20 medallist Colm O’Callaghan was introduced at half time, and while the home side upped their
display – mainly through the free-taking of captain Daniel Goulding – they couldn’t make any serious inroads into the lead.
Adrian Spillane’s 54th minute goal completed the Kingdom’s dominance, and on the day, it was hard to see if any team would have lived with them.
Scorers for Éire Óg: D Goulding 0-6 (0-5 f), R O’Toole 0-2, E O’Shea, C Sheehan, B Hurley and C O’Callaghan 0-1 each.
Scorers for Templenoe: S O’Sullivan (0-2 f), K Spillane (0-4 f) 0-6 each, A Spillane 1-0, G Crowley, T Morley, T Doyle, C Hallissey and P Spillane 0-1 each.
ÉIRE ÓG: E Kelleher; J Kelleher, J Mullins, D O’Herlihy; D Dineen, John Cooper, D McCarthy; L Sheehan, R O’Toole; J Murphy, K Hallissey, E O’Shea; D Goulding (c), C Sheehan, B Hurley.
Subs: C O’Callaghan for L Sheehan (half time), Joe Cooper for K Hallissey (52), D Hurley for J Murphy (56), M O’Shea for J Kelleher (58), D Murphy for B Hurley (60), P O’Sullivan for E O’Shea (62).
TEMPLENOE: D Cahalane; M Hallissey, T Morley, K O’Neill; S Sheehan, T Spillane, G Crowley; P Clifford, A Spillane; T Doyle, B Crowley (c), J Crowley Holland; S O’Sullivan, K Spillane, C Hallissey.
Subs: P Spillane for C Hallissey (50), M Reilly for J Crowley Holland (58), J Spillane for S Sheehan (60), J Sheehan for M Hallissey (60), J Rice for B Crowley (63).
Referee: Alan Kissane (Waterford).
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Post by Mickmack on Nov 17, 2019 21:59:51 GMT
Na Gaeil power into last four of Munster Junior Football Championship
By Diarmuid Sheehan
Saturday, November 16, 2019 - 03:21 PM
Na Gaeil (Kerry) 2-11
2-03 Kilshannig (Cork)
Na Gaeil of Kerry powered into the last four of the Munster Junior football Championship this afternoon with an impressive dismissal of Cork champions Kilshannig in Mallow.
A dominant first half display from the Kingdom side saw them lead by five at the turn and while the local men pushed all the way to the finish there really was only ever going to be one winner – especially when Diarmuid Herlihy bagged his second major on 41 minutes.
Goals from Eanna O’Hanlon (penalty) and second half substitute Jerome Murphy put a gloss on the final result for the Avondhu men who on this day can have no complaints as the better side took the spoils.
Na Gaeil will now move on to the last four where they will face St Michaels (Clare) while for Kilshannig it is time to reflect and enjoy what has been a historic season for their club.
Scorers for Na Gaeil: D Herlihy 2-2; D Devine 0-5 (four frees); J Lowham, M Griffin, E Walsh, D O’Connor (free) 0-1 each.
Kilshannig: E O’Hanlon 1-1 (1-0 pen, one free), J Murphy 1-0; K Twomey, C McMahon 0-1 each.
NA GAEIL: T Culloty; R O’Neill, K Dineen, D Bourke; F Barry, A Barry, E Doody; D O’Connor, J Barry; D O’Connor, Eoin O’Neill, D D Goggin; D Herlihy, J Lowham, D Devine. Subs: M Griffin for J Lowham (40), D Reen for D Goggin (46), E Walsh for R O’Neill (50), K O’Donovan for Eoin O’Neill (53), J O’Connor for D Devine (57), S Fitzgerald for K Dineen (61), Eamonn O’Neill for T Culloty (64).
KILSHANNIG: C O’Dea; C Murphy, E Burke, R O’Mahony; C O’Shea, B Guerin, B Curtin; J Twomey, E O’Hanlon; K Twomey, K O’Hanlon, E O’Sullivan; J Kearney, D Twomey, C McMahon. Subs:B O’Shea for E O’Sullivan (half time), F McCarthy D Twomey (46), J Murphy for J Kearney (46), K Flynn for J Twomey (58).
Referee: C Maguire (Clare)
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Post by ballhopper34 on Nov 17, 2019 22:47:04 GMT
Na Gaeil power into last four of Munster Junior Football Championship By Diarmuid Sheehan Saturday, November 16, 2019 - 03:21 PM Na Gaeil (Kerry) 2-11 2-03 Kilshannig (Cork) Na Gaeil of Kerry powered into the last four of the Munster Junior football Championship this afternoon with an impressive dismissal of Cork champions Kilshannig in Mallow. A dominant first half display from the Kingdom side saw them lead by five at the turn and while the local men pushed all the way to the finish there really was only ever going to be one winner – especially when Diarmuid Herlihy bagged his second major on 41 minutes. Goals from Eanna O’Hanlon (penalty) and second half substitute Jerome Murphy put a gloss on the final result for the Avondhu men who on this day can have no complaints as the better side took the spoils. Na Gaeil will now move on to the last four where they will face St Michaels (Clare) while for Kilshannig it is time to reflect and enjoy what has been a historic season for their club. Scorers for Na Gaeil: D Herlihy 2-2; D Devine 0-5 (four frees); J Lowham, M Griffin, E Walsh, D O’Connor (free) 0-1 each. Kilshannig: E O’Hanlon 1-1 (1-0 pen, one free), J Murphy 1-0; K Twomey, C McMahon 0-1 each. NA GAEIL: T Culloty; R O’Neill, K Dineen, D Bourke; F Barry, A Barry, E Doody; D O’Connor, J Barry; D O’Connor, Eoin O’Neill, D D Goggin; D Herlihy, J Lowham, D Devine. Subs: M Griffin for J Lowham (40), D Reen for D Goggin (46), E Walsh for R O’Neill (50), K O’Donovan for Eoin O’Neill (53), J O’Connor for D Devine (57), S Fitzgerald for K Dineen (61), Eamonn O’Neill for T Culloty (64). KILSHANNIG: C O’Dea; C Murphy, E Burke, R O’Mahony; C O’Shea, B Guerin, B Curtin; J Twomey, E O’Hanlon; K Twomey, K O’Hanlon, E O’Sullivan; J Kearney, D Twomey, C McMahon. Subs:B O’Shea for E O’Sullivan (half time), F McCarthy D Twomey (46), J Murphy for J Kearney (46), K Flynn for J Twomey (58). Referee: C Maguire (Clare) Quality of reporting gone to hell...Na Gaeil play Michael Cusacks from Clare, not St. Michael's. |
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Post by glengael on Nov 18, 2019 10:18:43 GMT
Whose next for Templenoe?
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Post by crokes86 on Nov 18, 2019 12:44:39 GMT
Couldn’t agree with kerrygold more.
The senior club standard in Kerry is poor right now.
Crokes have dominated the last 7 or 8 years.
That’s probably coming to an end.
Stacks have been very strong underage the last few years
but have struggled to transfer it to senior level.
Dingle O’Rahillys and Legion are good club sides but haven’t been able to get that breakthrough yet.
Inconsistency is a big thing in club football.
Dingle can be great one week and average the next .
As can the rest.
That was a bad hammering for Stacks and it doesn’t say much for the structure of it.
Should be the club that goes the farthest in the county championship.
I don’t think Crokes would have beaten Nemo either .
We should be a lot stronger in this competition than we are .
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Post by ruralgaa on Nov 18, 2019 13:26:15 GMT
Whose next for Templenoe? Brackens of Clare. A team from the Lisdoonvarna/Doolin area |
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Post by givehimaball on Nov 18, 2019 18:35:00 GMT
Er......I think the whole country knows the reason at this stage why Kerry intermediate and junior clubs do so well! A large part of why the Kerry teams do well in Munster at intermediate and especially junior is due to Cork shooting themselves in the foot as regards tiers of their county championships, combined with bloated competition structures (there wasn't any team relegated from senior for a number of years - which has a knock-on affect on the tiers lower down) This year they had 19 clubs in the Senior County Championship and 7 Divisional and 2 3rd levels. The 9 Divisional and 3rd level side played off against each other and UCC who won that out joined the County Championship proper at the 3rd round level. Nemo won this. The "Premier Intermediate" club competition had 12 teams. Eire Og won this. The "Intermediate" club competition had 22 teams. Knocknagree won this. The "Junior A" club competition had 16 teams. Kilshannig won this. Cork have been entering the winner of their 4th tier competition into the Junior competition for years. To compound this their "Senior" and "Intermediate" competition have gotten fairly bloated with 19 club teams in "Senior" and 22 in the 3rd tier "Intermediate" this year. According to everyone I've talked to about this it has seriously damaged standards/competitivness of these competitions. There are plans to change things next year, but I think they are still going to make a mess of things as regards the provincial competitions. 1st tier "Premier Senior" - 12 club teams with 7 Divisional and 2 3rd levels (these 9 play off against one another and the winner enters at a preliminary quarter-final stage. 2nd tier "Senior A" - 12 club teams 3rd tier "Premier Intermediate" - 12 club teams 4th tier "Intermediate A" - 12 club teams 5th tier Junior A - 16 club teams There was a Junior B (8 teams) and Junior C (8 teams) competition this year as well as the Junior A. I don't think there is any proposed change to the Junior competition. The plan is for the winner of their 3rd tier competition the "Premier Intermediate" competition to enter the national 2nd tier Intermediate competition and the winner of the 5th tier "Junior A" competition to enter the national 3rd tier Junior Competition. |
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Post by ballhopper34 on Nov 18, 2019 18:55:17 GMT
Whose next for Templenoe? Brackens of Clare. A team from the Lisdoonvarna/Doolin area The Clare club is St. Breckan's (Naomh Breacháin)...Brackens (correctly JK Brackens) are a Tipperary club. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2019 11:22:52 GMT
Because of the co championship structure in Kerry the teams that come out in intermediate and prem junior have massive advantages - based on the above, Templenoe our 9th best club team played Cork's 20th best club side.
Na Gaeil our 25th best club team played Cork's 54th best club team!
I know it's for other counties to structure their championships the way they want but sure those championships are totally diluted.
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Post by Mickmack on Nov 19, 2019 14:51:19 GMT
Because of the co championship structure in Kerry the teams that come out in intermediate and prem junior have massive advantages - based on the above, Templenoe our 9th best club team played Cork's 20th best club side. Na Gaeil our 25th best club team played Cork's 54th best club team! I know it's for other counties to structure their championships the way they want but sure those championships are totally diluted. The system also makes Divisional teams stronger that they would if there were, for example, 12 senior clubs |
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Post by Mickmack on Nov 22, 2019 9:31:58 GMT
Gaelic Football
Crokes want change to Kerry club format
1
If two district teams contest the final, the Crokes motion asks that representation from the county in the Munster club SFC goes back to the club championship winners (stock photo)
Dr Crokes have submitted a motion to the Kerry convention seeking to change the way the county nominates senior club representatives to the province when a district team wins the county championship.
The motion comes in the wake of Austin Stacks' dismal performance last weekend against Nemo Rangers.
Stacks hadn't played championship football for seven weeks but were nominated as senior club champions, a competition they won in April.
Crokes lost the county final to East Kerry seven days earlier and they are now calling on delegates to approve their motion calling for a club side which reaches the county final to take precedence over the senior club champions in provincial competition.
If two district teams contest the final, the Crokes motion asks that representation from the county in the Munster club SFC goes back to the club championship winners.
Crokes are one of two clubs looking for the Kerry county championship to be extended to 10 clubs. It currently incorporates eight club teams and nine district or amalgamated teams. Having just eight clubs makes survival in the company of districts much harder.
The former All-Ireland champions have also put forward a motion calling for Killarney to host any future Kerry county final if two East Kerry district teams are involved.
Meanwhile, former chairman Patrick O'Sullivan is the sole nominee as Kerry's Central Council delegate.
Irish Independent
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Post by Annascaultilidie on Nov 22, 2019 13:11:58 GMT
Stacks not being in a position to compete on the pitch has caused us to potentially throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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Post by Mickmack on Nov 24, 2019 17:10:26 GMT
Brendan Maher carried his club Borrisileigh to victory over Ballygunner by a point in the Munster club hurling final. Super contest on TG4.
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Post by kerrygold on Jan 4, 2020 16:32:58 GMT
Corofin looked well placed to win the three in a row.
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Post by Mickmack on Jan 4, 2020 17:06:55 GMT
One of the smallest club sin Ireland, Kilcoo defeated one of the biggest Ballyboden St Endas by a goal.
Great fare to watch, full of honest endeavour, pride, over hit passes, some great scores and no needle.
Kilcoo defending a two point lead disrupted a Ballyboden, built from the back and the full back popped up to kick a brilliant point to put them 3 up.
Corofin to win the final. They seem to be operating at another level
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Post by dc84 on Jan 6, 2020 12:11:57 GMT
Gaelic Football Crokes want change to Kerry club format 1 If two district teams contest the final, the Crokes motion asks that representation from the county in the Munster club SFC goes back to the club championship winners (stock photo) Dr Crokes have submitted a motion to the Kerry convention seeking to change the way the county nominates senior club representatives to the province when a district team wins the county championship. The motion comes in the wake of Austin Stacks' dismal performance last weekend against Nemo Rangers. Stacks hadn't played championship football for seven weeks but were nominated as senior club champions, a competition they won in April. Crokes lost the county final to East Kerry seven days earlier and they are now calling on delegates to approve their motion calling for a club side which reaches the county final to take precedence over the senior club champions in provincial competition. If two district teams contest the final, the Crokes motion asks that representation from the county in the Munster club SFC goes back to the club championship winners. Crokes are one of two clubs looking for the Kerry county championship to be extended to 10 clubs. It currently incorporates eight club teams and nine district or amalgamated teams. Having just eight clubs makes survival in the company of districts much harder. The former All-Ireland champions have also put forward a motion calling for Killarney to host any future Kerry county final if two East Kerry district teams are involved. Meanwhile, former chairman Patrick O'Sullivan is the sole nominee as Kerry's Central Council delegate. Irish Independent It is probably the right call tbf |
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Post by Mickmack on Jan 6, 2020 18:04:27 GMT
IrishExaminerOpen Menu
NEWS
By Michael Moynihan
Staff writer
Follow @mikemoynihanex
Sunday, January 05, 2020 - 09:05 PM
Every semi-final ever played has a double life.
All those classics contested in order to feature in a final have a doppelgänger which didn’t sparkle quite as brightly. Disappointing semi-finals often have a parallel existence on the other side of the draw, the great game which grows in stature because of the contrast.
On Sunday the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick had a bit of that dual identity going on, because Borris-Ileigh and St Thomas’ had to live in the immediate shadow cast by an epic in the far north.
Learn more
The first of the All-Ireland club SHC semi-finals threw up a blood-and-thunder winter war in Newry, with Slaughtneil refusing to bow the knee to Ballyhale Shamrocks. The aristocrats eventually crushed the rebellion, but the clock was edging into the red zone when the game was put to bed. The interest in that contest among early arrivals in the Gaelic Grounds was keen, judging by the phone screens glowing in the shadow of the Mackey Stand.
Could Borris’ versus Thomas’ live up to that as they chased a spot in the other dressing-room for the club final? Confident predictions about the quality came up against the cold truth expressed in the aftermath of every semi-final ever played: those games are for winning.
As you may know by now, Borris-Ileigh were the side that did the winning in Limerick. Surprised? Perhaps you are.
Have the Tipperary side been patronised by observers since digging out a memorable county final win over fancied Kiladangan? There was a hint of that in their star player’s comments afterwards: ever-articulate, Brendan Maher said he and his teammates were being praised for their heart and attitude over and over again, so they were happy enough to show on Sunday that they could hurl as well.
Still, they needed to show heart in order to hurl. Inside the first ten minutes St Thomas’, who started the game well, engineered a good goal: when the ball fell to Eanna Burke after some careful build-up play by the Galway men, he was outside the 20-metre line, but he found the corner with a cracking drive.
Borris’ were soon back on level terms, thanks in no small part to Maher’s driving influence. In the Munster decider against Ballygunner, the No 6 was an outsize personality, top-scoring for his side and striking an immense, inspirational point just when it was needed in the second half. Here he front-loaded his good example, opening the Borris’ account with a terrific point off the run beneath the main stand.
The Tipperary men shrugged off that early goal and led by half-time, 0-11 to 1-6. Inevitably it was Brendan Maher who hit their last two points of the half, from a 65 and a free respectively.
St Thomas’ will not enjoy reliving that second half. They fought their way back into contention and the teams were level at the three-quarter stage — it could hardly have been better balanced as a contest — but their shooting, which had been erratic, tipped into profligacy. They hit three wides on the spin which drained the confidence, and Borris hit back with two inspirational points from Kevin Maher and Conor Kenny.
From then on it was all maroon: Borris clearly smelt blood in the water and surged forward, with Maher completing his day’s scoring with a ridiculous score: having surged upfield, he half-blocked St Thomas’ full-back Sean Skehill but split his hurley lengthways in doing so. When the ball shot back in he still managed a point. Off the run. Over his shoulder. With half a stick. James Devaney’s late solo goal for the Tipp men was the icing on the cake as they won by seven, 1-21 to 1-14.
Standing on the field afterwards, Maher paid tribute to his teammates for their work ethic: “I think we’ve got lots of scores from turnovers and this year, one thing that our forwards are priding themselves on, they’re fighting but I think we saw today as well we get the scores, all the boys can play ball.
“That was something that we spoke about, saying ‘God everyone’s talking about our heart and our attitude, it’d be nice to show we can hurl, too.’”
Maher was correct in his analysis. Looked at coldly one might have expected St Thomas’, with an attack spearheaded by Conor Cooney, to hit scores easier than their opponents, but it was their accuracy which began to fray in the final quarter, with some of the shots being taken a surprise for such an experienced outfit.
By contrast, Borris-Ileigh’s forwards struck the right note of hunger for work and an eye for goal: the classic case was Kevin Maher’s second-half blockdown of James Regan. Maher not only got in the block but gathered the loose ball and pointed.
Very well. We started with the eternal quandary of the semi-final, a stage of competition which exists to serve up two teams for a further game. In this case, Borris-Ileigh face one of the great club powerhouses of all time in a fortnight, a Ballyhale Shamrocks side steered by one Henry Shefflin. Can they do it? Do they believe they can do it?
“This year, the one thing we said that we want to enjoy every minute of this,” Brendan Maher said. “We’ve enjoyed training, the slog over the Christmas, we came down here with a smile on our faces and we’re leaving with a smile on our face again today.
“The next day we go out we’ll do everything we can. We’re absolutely going to be underdogs again. Ballyhale are a savage team, we watched a bit of it (the other semi-final) over in Na Piarsaigh — we’re going to have to do our homework, to make sure that we prepare as best we can.
“We’ll go out and give it a rattle and see what happens.”
As Maher was speaking, by the way, the lights went out in the Gaelic Grounds, and all was plunged into darkness. An excitable novelist would have been castigated for overdoing the symbolism, but there you are. (Said novelist would have been laughed out of court if he or she suggested Sunday was Maher’s birthday, but it was).
There’s a potent message in the two sides of Maher’s message: Borris’ are a relaxed side (stacked with “free spirits” in his own words) but are well able to play, and have been ripening nicely ever since that Tipperary county final victory. Croke Park may be familiar to more of the Ballyhale players, but the Tipp champions’ mindset is good, and Sunday will boost them even further.
Semi-finals are for winning, after all. So are finals.
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Post by Mickmack on Jan 6, 2020 18:06:27 GMT
Will it be the TJ Reid final or the Brendan Maher final.
Its going to be some collision.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Jan 6, 2020 18:30:07 GMT
I was in Ballybofey for Dgal v Monaghan on Sunday and boy was it helter skelter, for a wet surface and given it was Dgals 1st outing, and Monaghans second, it was virtually error free, I didn't notice one 'till 20 mins in. Massive movements, hard hitting, ah I suppose 1st game will always delight but one thing for sure, Dgal will be formidable this year and remember they lost key players in the run up to drawing with us in 2019 -that we could have beatsn teh Dubs will be salt on their tails. Rumor that McBrearty was US bound now appears to be just that and if Odhran Mac Neilis can make it for the Championship then 2020 will be exciting.
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Post by OnTheForty on Jan 14, 2020 15:41:40 GMT
I'm sure Templenoe were shocked by the IFC SF defeat to Oughterard. Good luck to the Galway club against Magheracloone, the Monaghan club without a pitch!
And best of luck to Na Gaeil in the JFC final against Wexford's Rathgarogue-Cushinstown on Sat 25th Jan.
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Post by dc84 on Jan 14, 2020 16:32:21 GMT
I was in Ballybofey for Dgal v Monaghan on Sunday and boy was it helter skelter, for a wet surface and given it was Dgals 1st outing, and Monaghans second, it was virtually error free, I didn't notice one 'till 20 mins in. Massive movements, hard hitting, ah I suppose 1st game will always delight but one thing for sure, Dgal will be formidable this year and remember they lost key players in the run up to drawing with us in 2019 -that we could have beatsn teh Dubs will be salt on their tails. Rumor that McBrearty was US bound now appears to be just that and if Odhran Mac Neilis can make it for the Championship then 2020 will be exciting. In fairness we were missing our midfield and ended the game without any recognised mf. Having said that donegal have been unlucky in the super 8s last two years. If they get over tyrone first day out they should win ulster and have a great shout of a semi final at least. |
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Post by glengael on Jan 17, 2020 12:18:51 GMT
I wonder how the Finals will go this weekend and how the day will pan out in terms of attendances etc, what with the new date. It would be a real fairytale for Kilcoo to triumph but stranger things have happened. The hurling will be some clash indeed with the edge of recent inter-county rivalry also.
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Post by jackiel on Jan 17, 2020 14:50:27 GMT
I wonder how the Finals will go this weekend and how the day will pan out in terms of attendances etc, what with the new date. It would be a real fairytale for Kilcoo to triumph but stranger things have happened. The hurling will be some clash indeed with the edge of recent inter-county rivalry also. It'll be interesting alright. I'm skipping stewarding the Junior & Int hurling on Saturday , 2 days in a row is a bridge too far for me in January. The triple header next week will be a killer too. Because of the teams involved the attendance will probably hold it's own this year but it's hard to say for sure. |
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Post by dc84 on Jan 17, 2020 14:54:59 GMT
Id say the attendance will be a lot smaller for a few reasons one its not paddys day you would imagine there would a lot smaller walk up crowd in jan compared to march. Also the sizes of the clubs involved all relatively small areas kilcoo only had 1000 people a lot of city clubs would have more members!
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Post by Mickmack on Jan 18, 2020 12:37:09 GMT
Malachy Clerkin
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about 7 hours ago
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When he leaves the warm-up and heads to the middle of Croke Park for the toss tomorrow, it will be both an end and a beginning for Michael Fennelly. Presuming all business gets done on the day, it will be his last time togging out for Ballyhale, his last time for anyone. Although still only 34, hurling’s lease on his body has run out, all extensions and allowances finally exhausted.
Young and all as he is to be putting the helmet away, it’s a small miracle that’s he’s been able to keep playing out the string this long. When Fennelly left the intercounty scene at the end of 2017, you only had to pick through the team line-ups from his last few seasons to get a sense of the toll the game was extracting from him.
In his final five seasons of intercounty, when he was between the ages of 28 and 32, Kilkenny played 64 matches in league and championship. Fennelly, in what should have been the prime of his career, started and finished only 14 of those games. A back complaint that began in 2013 never really went away, leading to knee and Achilles problems all the way to the end. He didn’t so much retire as expire.
Throughout those years, Fennelly was always a walking advertisement for the narcotic hold the game can have on you. Of all the intercounty hurlers limping around the place, he ought to have been the last one allowing his heart shout louder than the rest of his body. At the time, he was lecturing in strength and conditioning at the University of Limerick. He knew his body, he knew what he was doing to it. He did it anyway. He couldn’t not.
“I’ve only just turned 31 in February so I’m still young,” he told The Irish Times in 2016. “If I was a few more years down the line, definitely I would be questioning if the body could still take the punishment. But yeah, it will be interesting in years to come. I hope to God my body’s not going to be too bad in terms of functioning in everyday life. We’ll see at that stage whether I resent it or not.”
That stage is here and now. After tomorrow, he will be an ex-hurler. If Ballyhale win, he will retire with 13 All-Irelands (eight with Kilkenny, five with Ballyhale). Even if they don’t, he will still be leaving one of the truly great playing careers behind him. One way or the other, he’ll barely have time to consider the effects of it all. His new life has already started.
When he was 27, Fennelly left his job in the bank to go and do a master’s in sports performance in UL. He still lectures and is in the middle of a PhD in leadership and coaching, as well as being a partner in a coaching business with Roscommon football manager Anthony Cunningham. His sights have been trained on managing at intercounty level from a long way out so when Offaly got in touch towards the end of last summer and put it to him, Fennelly snapped up the opportunity.
As he put together his backroom team last September, he felt he’d managed quite a coup in getting Johnny Kelly on-board as team coach. Kelly had been a big part of Portumna’s success back in the day and was over Borris-Ileigh, who at the time were perennial also-rans in the Tipperary championship. Nobody could have imagined what would transpire from that point to this.
The night Fennelly was unveiled as Offaly manager, Kelly was on the sideline in Holycross and Borris-Ileigh lost their final group game to Moycarkey-Borris. Ballyhale hadn’t even had their first game in the Kilkenny championship. Calculating the odds on neither of them losing a game across the following four months of hurling would have left anyone’s head throbbing.
Yet here they are. Last weekend, Fennelly and Kelly stood side-by-side in Navan as Offaly won the Kehoe Cup with a one-point win over Antrim. Tomorrow, they’ll face off in Croke Park, Fennelly holding the middle of the Ballyhale defence at centre back, Kelly on the line for Tipp champions Borris. Next Sunday, they’ll huddle up once more as Offaly play their first competitive game of the Fennelly era, a Division 2A encounter with Meath in Birr. The world spins in funny loops, all the same.
Kelly is himself a fascinating character. He’s one of those life-with-no-other-life coaches, always with a couple of teams on the go here and there. He was in the background at the start of Portumna’s glory days and at the forefront of them by the end. He won an All-Ireland intermediate title with Galway in 2015 and was involved with their under-21s around then as well. Borris is his second coaching job in Tipperary, having coached Kiladangan at the start of the 2010s. He managed Coolderry to an Offaly title along the way too.
Borris hadn’t won a Tipperary title in 33 years before this one – and even when they did, they were well down the pecking order in most people’s All-Ireland thoughts. Since then, they’ve taken out Glen Rovers, Ballygunner and St Thomas’s, all of whom would have fancied the road ahead. Kelly’s role in it all is something he likes to play down but he’s fooling nobody.
Least of all, tomorrow’s opposing captain.
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Post by Mickmack on Jan 18, 2020 12:43:30 GMT
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CULTURE
GAELIC GAMES MY SPORTS
Kilcoo well used to facing a mountain and knowing the challenge involved
The club from the foothills of the Mourne mountains face mighty Corofin in Sunday’s decider
Keith Duggan
about 7 hours ago
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It’s the ordinariness that makes it special. For sure it sounds like a pastoral idyll, Kilcoo tucked into the foothills of the Mourne mountains and relatively forgotten during the violent decades. And like so many parishes on this island it relies on Gaelic football for its heartbeat. But they make no mad claims about it. It’s just the wee place at the bottom of the mountain. “Ach there is a village,” clarifies Caelan McEvoy.
“You start at the pub and you get the chapel and shop and drive on a mile and there is another pub and then you are out of it.” It moves to its own time-beat. “You go to mass, have a few sheep and that’s about it,” Aaron Branagan, one of five players from that household,” said in his post-match interview on RTÉ when they were Ulster champions. They’ve made some fun out of that, firing up images on social media of this herd or that. They’re fiercely serious about this year and have the good sense to know how to enjoy it too.
“It’s been a good year,” Conor Laverty tells you down the phone. He apologises for the background noise of young children in high spirits. He’s just in the door from work. “We are probably in the shape of our lives. We’d been trying for a number of years and couldn’t get over the line. Ulster’s an extremely tough province to get out of. We are very lucky but we have worked extremely hard.”
They’ve not really had time to investigate why this year has been different. Why over this long autumn, they’ve steered themselves through games that were eminently lose-able. Make no mistake, Kilcoo are bluebloods in the Down ascendency, with 17 titles. Eight have arrived since 2009. That year re-awakened their winning habit which had mysteriously stopped in 1937.
“Emigration is what people will tell you,” Michael Kane, the club vice-chairman and general do-er explains for the abrupt halt in titles. “In the 1940s and 1950s people were going to American and England. Maybe standards slipped too.”
The revival was slow burning. Kane instances the 1998 minor title, the climb from division three in 1996 to division one in 1998 as significant. They’ve won seven of the last eight Down championships but until this year couldn’t find a path through Ulster. Conor Laverty is 34 now. Felim McCreevy is 33. Niall McEvoy is 34.They knew their chances were finite.
Against that, Ryan McEvoy, a brother of Caelan’s who has been lighting up the winter, is just 19 and the core of the team are young. Kane reckons that the senior All-Ireland winning seasons in 1991 and 1994 when Down were the last word in summer glamour triggered something in Kilcoo, too.
“Young people looked up to those teams and it revived the interest and our club put a lot of good men in place. We had to look at underage structures. We put those in place and got the right people in charge.”
Still, plenty of clubs have done that without experiencing the kind of fantastical adventure that this winter has been for Kilcoo. There’s no doubt that the arrival of Mickey Moran has been crucial to them.
“He was our number one target and we didn’t speak to anyone else,” Conor Laverty says of the policy in recruiting the Derryman. Moran is a constant in Ulster football, nimbly moving through the shadows and leaving a legacy of brilliant work behind him. Kilcoo have had other fine managers – Jim McCorry and Paul McIver both brought the club to higher levels. But Moran has been a magus in places like this.
“Probably just his record in Ulster. We had come up against him a few times. We had a lot of respect for the man and we felt we could add that something-that-was-missing to our team,” said Laverty.
Caelan McEvoy has had the opportunity to study Moran close up, working in the backroom team along with his dad. “Mickey is just very calm. Nothing is ever stressful. It is all relaxed – to be honest, as a lot of the boys said, he is like a granddad to the squad. He comes and goes and settles them down and you go and have your wee talk with them. Some people think he is very quiet because he doesn’t’ really talk to the media. But he is actually good crack . . . he’s a very witty man so he is.”
In a fairer world, McEvoy would be in the squad, trying to impress Moran. He is still just 22 and has managed to squeeze in an under-14 title with Kilcoo followed by interrupted years of minor and under-21 football and a senior squad place in between two episodes of serious illness.
Conor Laverty was his under-16 coach and noticed him looking unwell before a championship game against Downpatrick in the summer of 2010. McEvoy, terrified he mightn’t be able to play, insisted he was fine. Laverty called his parents anyway.
The boy was raging with the coach at the time but then things took a grave turn. Hospital. Tests. Serious faces. A liver transplant. And then the worst news: You can’t play football again Caelan. That was the worst. He refused to accept it and set about training himself back to health. Again, Laverty noticed. He was a Down senior player at that time but he began taking McEvoy for dedicated sessions. Seven months after his operation, he was playing for Kilcoo again. There have been over a dozen operations and transfusions since but through that, he somehow made it to the senior squad.
“I was starting my senior season under Paul McIver and I took sick again just completely out of the blue, Took a reaction to something in my blood.”
The relapse required a second liver transplant.
“ I’ve been on the road to recovery since then. And aye, its been a tough road.”
This is delivered without an ounce of self pity. His attitude makes the others stop and think, though. Kane remembers a mass said for McEvoy this time last year when he was in hospital in London. “It wasn’t looking great for him then. But he’ll be in Croke Park on Sunday setting out cones.” In ideal circumstances, he’d be warming up too. Caelan had the skills.
“Obviously his brother Ryan is a class player,” Kane says. “Caelan would be a more nippy sharp player in front of goal but never got that chance to progress in terms of strength and conditioning.”
There are times when McEvoy finds it tough. When the only thing you want to do – play – is the only thing you’re forbidden to do, it’s hard.
“Och yeah it is. It breaks your heart some nights when you go down to the pitch and you see them all out there playing. But there’s a sense of satisfaction with that when you see them boys winning. They put equally as much to get to where they are today so it is a pleasure watching them. There is no . . . there is a hint of jealousy that they are getting to do it but I will get my day so that is just something to look forward to.”
It’s been the strangest turn of year in Kilcoo: a giddy Christmas governed by football. The players – happily – didn’t really have a Christmas. “But for the community, its been like the longest Christmas we have ever had,” says Kane. It’s only a ninety minute drive from Kilcoo to Croke Park but they know it may be a once in a lifetime journey. Can they win this? Yes, the odds are against them. Corofin have been All-Ireland champions for the past two years and are one of the most formidable and classy sides to ever take to a football field.
“They’re right up there with the best club team that has ever been,” Laverty says quietly. “We have great respect for them and they play a great brand of football.”
Don’t for a second think they don’t believe. Whatever combination of excellence, dedication and clarity of purpose and just that mysterious unidentifiable otherness has taken hold of Kilcoo, they are going to wring everything from this Sunday. When you live at the bottom of the mountain, you appreciate the view from the top.
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