Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cups 2022

[royalkerryfan]

Tommy Conroy done the cruciate last night.

Poor lad,

Huge blow to Mayo.

[kerryeastcoastusa]

Feb 2, 2022 19:43:22 GMT royalkerryfan said:

UL a point down at HT.

Clifford 1.1

I thought that game was in Abbotstown but it's saying its in Limerick on the app its in Limerick.


Correction App is wrong, it is on Dublin.

UL seem to have completely taken over in the 2nd half. Good to see

[royalkerryfan]

Feb 2, 2022 20:11:12 GMT kerryeastcoastusa said:

Feb 2, 2022 19:43:22 GMT royalkerryfan said:

UL a point down at HT.

Clifford 1.1

I thought that game was in Abbotstown but it's saying its in Limerick on the app its in Limerick.


Correction App is wrong, it is on Dublin.

UL seem to have completely taken over in the 2nd half. Good to see

Some poor lad is getting the backlash from David having a quiet game on Sunday.

[veteran]

Feb 2, 2022 19:59:40 GMT royalkerryfan said:

Tommy Conroy done the cruciate last night.

Poor lad,

Huge blow to Mayo.

Ah that is a shame. Such an exciting player and , all too rare nowadays, well able to shoot from distance.

It is amazing that some research is not done on what seems to be an epidemic of cruciate ligament injuries in recent times. Maybe it has but I have missed it.

[mike70]

Devastating for the young fella, we wish him a speedy recovery.

[onlykerry]

Ray Moran so busy with cruciates he is working Saturdays - the problem is happening with lads of all ages. Does not even need to be a bad tackle or any contact from another player for it to go on a lad. Curious as to the basic cause - are some leg elements being built up too much with a resultant imbalance or weakness on the cruciate?

Any word on Joe O Connor - what level of damage did he do in the recent club game?

[royalkerryfan]

Feb 2, 2022 20:26:05 GMT onlykerry said:

Ray Moran so busy with cruciates he is working Saturdays - the problem is happening with lads of all ages.

Any word on Joe O Connor - what level of damage did he do in the recent club game?

I'm not involved in soccer or rugby but you don't hear about cruciates that much compared to GAA.

[royalkerryfan]

2.3 for Clifford this evening.

The man is just special.

[kerrybhoy06]

Feb 2, 2022 20:12:41 GMT veteran said:

Feb 2, 2022 19:59:40 GMT royalkerryfan said:

Tommy Conroy done the cruciate last night.

Poor lad,

Huge blow to Mayo.

Ah that is a shame. Such an exciting player and , all too rare nowadays, well able to shoot from distance.

It is amazing that some research is not done on what seems to be an epidemic of cruciate ligament injuries in recent times. Maybe it has but I have missed it.

Fatigue is commonly accepted as being a high risk factor in cruciate injuries. The buckling of the leg can happen from the muscles being too fatigued to bear weight when landing or turning sharply

[mike70]

Feb 2, 2022 20:31:02 GMT royalkerryfan said:

2.3 for Clifford this evening.

The man is just special.

class act

[veteran]

Feb 2, 2022 21:18:53 GMT ciarraimick said:

On Cruciate injuries. I heard a gym instructor years ago say gaa players are doing so much upper body weight to build up and don't do the same on the legs which means the upper body is too heavy for lower body and that can damage cruciate and legs when running jumping and twisting. Lads years ago played in worse pitches and there were less cruciate injuries. However I'd say that just his opinion as I never heard it officially from someone like Ray Moran. Anyway it's tough luck on young Conroy. Hope he has a speedy recovery.

Surely somebody like Dr. Ray Moran has written papers on this topic. No offence meant towards the gym instructor but I imagine Dr. Moran might be more authoritative.

If there is any orthopaedic surgeon reading this , come out of your bunker and share your wisdom with us.

[taggert]

Feb 2, 2022 20:49:14 GMT mike70 said:

Feb 2, 2022 20:31:02 GMT royalkerryfan said:

2.3 for Clifford this evening.

The man is just special.

class act

It was a nice evening for it and plenty neutrals in attendance to see the classy sharpshooter. Saying that, not sure UL have the spread of players to win it out - heavy burden on him. Not unlike Kerry at the moment.

[veteran]

Feb 2, 2022 21:32:43 GMT taggert said:

Feb 2, 2022 20:49:14 GMT mike70 said:

class act

It was a nice evening for it and plenty neutrals in attendance to see the classy sharpshooter. Saying that, not sure UL have the spread of players to win it out - heavy burden on him. Not unlike Kerry at the moment.

Come on Taggart , tell us more. How did Donal O’Sulliivan do for instance? Of course poor Stefan was missing I presume .

[veteran]

Feb 2, 2022 20:49:14 GMT mike70 said:

Feb 2, 2022 20:31:02 GMT royalkerryfan said:

2.3 for Clifford this evening.

The man is just special.

class act

As my Cork friends might say, “doubt you David boy”.

[Mickmack]

I was at the UL v Queens game in Abbotstown.

No programme on sale so its hard to give any 'granularity' as they say nowadays.

DC was in the 13 slot and Donal oSullivan at 15. Sean Powter was at CHB.

Queens looked the better side in the first half as they had more possession and they had Conor Turbitt of Armagh at 14. It didnt matter how the ball was played to Conor, high or low he was the man. He stroked over a 45 too and a few frees.

He is a man with a big future.

Queens paid DC the compliment of allocating a sweeper just in front of him. It was all so tight in that first half that DC got 3 touches i think. A UL played managed to fist a pass to David in a bit of space to the right of the goal. Would he pull the trigger with the right foot....no....he took a hop and moved left.....then another shimmy to fool the defenders and bang with the left foot into the corner of the net.

He moved out around the 40 a while later and got another ball and again made enough space to swing that right foot and the ball sailed over from 40 yards.... that one reminded me of Maurice kicking it over v Mayo in 1997 as he was moved away from goal to make space.


I think they were level at half time but UL were lucky enough to be in that position.


UL were a different proposition in the second half. A key man was Sean Powter at CHB. Time and again he sallied forward and put good ball to the advantage of the forward.

Donal oSullivan ticked a great point from one such move and DC another.

Suddenly UL were 3 points up. Then disaster for Queens....the Queens keeper found Donal with a short kickout on the wing....the Kilgarvan man soloed through and drew the keeper and flicked it high across the goalmouth with DC flicked it to the net. I think it was DC anyway...he got a bang in the nose in the process and had to be blood subbed for a while.

While he was off Donal kicked a huge point from distance.

Paul Walsh came on later on but the deal was done then and UL closed it out well.

I would have liked to have known more of the names but above is the general gist anyway.

[mg72]

It must be a while since there's been no colleges from the north in the Sigerson semi finals.

[taggert]

Feb 2, 2022 21:35:18 GMT veteran said:

Feb 2, 2022 21:32:43 GMT taggert said:

It was a nice evening for it and plenty neutrals in attendance to see the classy sharpshooter. Saying that, not sure UL have the spread of players to win it out - heavy burden on him. Not unlike Kerry at the moment.

Come on Taggart , tell us more. How did Donal O’Sulliivan do for instance? Of course poor Stefan was missing I presume .

Vet, I must say,I liked what I saw of Donal. I haven't seen much of him before but he was very assured and kicked some lovely scores including one fantastic point from distance in the second half, as Mick alludes to above. Finished with 6.
David, certainly in the second half played more centrally - hovering between full and centre forward spots and kicked 1 or 2 beauties from range. Also kicked a fabulous point from distance off the ground! Finished with 2-3.

2-9 of 2-12 between them. Big reliance on them.

A gentleman beside me remarked at being shocked at the size of David, having never seen him in the flesh. A unit for sure I said.

One would think he will be heavily patrolled in the next game - but isn't he always!

[Whosinmidfield]

Thanks for the reports.

Donal O’Sullivan is someone who I think Jack should be bringing in and giving a chance in a few league games. He’s different to our other inside forwards; he’s very quick, more direct and he wins a lot of ball on the run inside. I still believe in Paul Geaney more than most and also think Killian Spillane and Tony Brosnan are very talented but at the same time who’ll be joining David Clifford in the full forward line definitely isn’t set in stone.

MickMack the line outs in this report might be of interest to you although some of the numbers are wrong.

www.the42.ie/university-of-limerick-queens-sigerson-cup-report-5671904-Feb2022/

The general level of player in the UL team is probably the lowest of the 4 remaining sides but with David Clifford they will always have a chance.

Of the 4 teams left I feel Tralee are the team to beat. It appears they are the most organised and well balanced team and are combining the best due to them having a fairly settled team throughout the competition. DCU will be their most dangerous opponent I think.

[Mickmack]

David needlessly shouldered a player after the ball was gone in the first half. It was either going to be black or yellow. David Gough gave him a yellow.

An Tyrone player got a black card for 10 minutes v Kerry last year for something very similar.

DC will have to stop doing that although it must be terribly frustrating to be constantly double teamed etc but thats the way it is and he will have to learn to live with it.

[veteran]

Thanks a million to Mickmack and Taggart for those insightful reports.

I wonder who plays who in the semifinals ?

[horsebox77]

I've always been a fan of Donal O'Sullivan, even since his minor days. He was one of the few shining lights that lined put against Cork in the McGrath Cup two years back until he came off injured.

Donal can also play in the corner or wing, which could be a bonus down the track

[mg72]

Feb 2, 2022 22:13:26 GMT Whosinmidfield said:

Thanks for the reports.

Donal O’Sullivan is someone who I think Jack should be bringing in and giving a chance in a few league games. He’s different to our other inside forwards; he’s very quick, more direct and he wins a lot of ball on the run inside. I still believe in Paul Geaney more than most and also think Killian Spillane and Tony Brosnan are very talented but at the same time who’ll be joining David Clifford in the full forward line definitely isn’t set in stone.

MickMack the line outs in this report might be of interest to you although some of the numbers are wrong.

www.the42.ie/university-of-limerick-queens-sigerson-cup-report-5671904-Feb2022/

The general level of player in the UL team is probably the lowest of the 4 remaining sides but with David Clifford they will always have a chance.

Of the 4 teams left I feel Tralee are the team to beat. It appears they are the most organised and well balanced team and are combining the best due to them having a fairly settled team throughout the competition. DCU will be their most dangerous opponent I think.

That's a cracking half back line that UL have. None of the Queens half forward line got on the scoreboard.

[taggert]

Feb 2, 2022 22:13:26 GMT Whosinmidfield said:

Thanks for the reports.

Donal O’Sullivan is someone who I think Jack should be bringing in and giving a chance in a few league games. He’s different to our other inside forwards; he’s very quick, more direct and he wins a lot of ball on the run inside. I still believe in Paul Geaney more than most and also think Killian Spillane and Tony Brosnan are very talented but at the same time who’ll be joining David Clifford in the full forward line definitely isn’t set in stone.

MickMack the line outs in this report might be of interest to you although some of the numbers are wrong.

www.the42.ie/university-of-limerick-queens-sigerson-cup-report-5671904-Feb2022/

The general level of player in the UL team is probably the lowest of the 4 remaining sides but with David Clifford they will always have a chance.

Of the 4 teams left I feel Tralee are the team to beat. It appears they are the most organised and well balanced team and are combining the best due to them having a fairly settled team throughout the competition. DCU will be their most dangerous opponent I think.

You are on the money here I think. MTU play with a sweeper, Greg Horan, and rely on Tony, Jack and Dara. They have a good number of high quality players, UL definitely less so. Stefan, to Vets earlier point, obviously a big loss as his power and athleticism would be a big plus in the UL full back line which was troubled in stages tonight.
NUIG have obviously lost Conroy now so are weakened as a result. They won 2-8 to 1-8 and are beatable.
DCU had a 1 pt win over UUJ with Galways Shane Walsh at 11 kicking 3 and Mark Barry, Laois I think, in the corner kicking 1-2.
MTU favourites I think but county games and injuries and fitness a factor too.

[tpo]

No's 4 & 5 for UL didn't start, 4 being the captain which left Donal as the captain

[Mickmack]

David Clifford runs the show as UL secure passage Sigerson Cup last four
The 2-4 claimed by the Kingdom's talisman in this Sigerson Cup quarter-final brings his war chest for the colleges campaign now to a frightening 5-16 from just three games



WED, 02 FEB, 2022 - 21:47
BRENDAN O'BRIEN, ABBOTSTOWN


University of Limerick 2-12 Queens University Belfast 0-13

David Clifford had three days to stew over Kerry’s draw with Kildare in Newbridge.

Okay, so he scored two points from play in a league opener that ended in stalemate rather than defeat, but he spent large parts of that rank Sunday in St Conleth’s Park struggling in vain to escape the attentions of Mick O’Grady and his pals.

And the locals had lapped every bit of that up.

Queens felt the full force of that frustration on the GAA’s main pitch at the Sports Campus Ireland facility last night. Though Clifford spent half-a-dozen second-half minutes off the field with a blood injury, it was the Belfast university that suffered the knock-out blow.

The 2-4 claimed by the Kingdom's talisman in this Sigerson Cup quarter-final brings his war chest for the colleges campaign now to a frightening 5-16 from just three games against Sligo IT, Letterkenny IT and a QUB side that made this one far more interesting than many expected.

In terms of its closeness as a contest anyway.

The setting could have hardly been better — a magnificent facility, superb playing surface and a still and dry night with a small crowd — and yet so much of the opening half was about as distracting as a plough horse struggling through glutinous mud.

Nine of the 13 scores put up in a period elongated by a long delay for the injured Queens defender Ryan Conroy came from frees. Some of them were things of beauty in their own right, just not the sort of thing that had made anyone brave Dublin's rush-hour traffic.

Clifford supplied the rare sprinkles of stardust, as he so often does. Marked tightly by Peter Fagan of Down, he had Armagh’s Arden McAvoy to contend with as a front-lying sweeper to boot, and so chances were hard to come by in the opening half.

But, if a few sniffs were all he got for a long while, then that was all he needed.

The first scent he cottoned on to produced a goal on 13 minutes after No 13 turned his marker inside out and opted for a shot to the low right-hand corner. Maybe 99% of us would have seen the screen of bodies in front and tapped it over the bar for an easy point.

The second was in injury time and it was even better. A pedestrian team move meandering east-west, a rush from himself out to meet the ball, a sprint towards the sideline after he took possession and a whip of the right boot over his shoulder from downtown.

Three Queens defenders couldn’t have been tighter on him if they had applied Loctite.

That was 1-1 deposited in two blinks of the eye. The only other solid sighting of the man from Fossa in that first-half was less affirming, his late hit on McAvoy eventually persuading referee David Gough to produce a yellow from his pocket.

He wasn’t perfect after the break either. A couple of wides dirtied his bib but you couldn’t really crib when he continued to produce moments of magic. He added 1-3 to his locker in that spell and it could have been 2-2 but for the sake of a few inches.

It wasn’t a one-man show by any means. Fellow Kerryman Donal O’Sullivan deserves a special mention having chipped in with a vital six points, five of them from frees, but there was no disputing whose name was top of the bill.

And to think that Queens had done so well for so long.

Their solid shape and discipline was enough to lead them into the interval with a 0-8 to 1-4 lead but the game was wrenched from them in the first 20 minutes of the second-half when the favourites landed 1-7 against a solitary point.

There was a mini-revival towards the end as the Belfast side rattled off three points on the spin to reduce the arrears to five with a handful of minutes to go, but a badly skewed free from the otherwise excellent Conor Turbitt all but let the air out of it.

One young lad from Clare captured the night for posterity when his dad begged a snap of him alongside Clifford. For almost everyone else this is a game that might as well have never happened. Just one more entry in the 23-year old’s burgeoning Book of Wonders.

Scorers for UL: D Clifford (2-4, 0-1 ‘45’); D O’Sullivan (0-6, 0-5f); E McMahon (0-2).

Scorers for QUB: C Turbitt (0-8, 0-5f and 0-1 ‘45’); K Hughes (0-2); P Brooks, C Love and P Finnegan (all 0-1).

UL: C Flaherty (Galway); P Towey (Mayo), C Donnelly (Offaly), P Maher (Limerick); J Coyne, (Mayo) S Powter (Cork), E McLaughlin (Mayo); C Dempsey (Mayo), D Walsh (Clare); C Downes (Clare), E McMahon (Clare), O Looney (Clare); D Clifford (Kerry), D Gray (Kildare), D O’Sullivan (Kerry).

Subs: P Walsh (Kerry) for Clifford (43-49, blood, and for O’Sullivan 56); C Igoe (Mayo) for Gray (52); R O’Reilly (Mayo) for Looney (59).

QUEENS: E Mulholland (Armagh); S Bolger (Laois), R Conroy (Tyrone), P Fagan (Down); G Brown (Limerick), M Murnaghan (Tyrone), P Brooks (Down); R Donnolly (Tyrone); T Bogue (Fermanagh); F Canavan (Down), O Mallon (Tyrone), B Campbell (Down); K Hughes (Armagh), C Turbitt (Armagh), A McAvoy (Armagh).

Subs: S McCarthy (Armagh) for Conroy (7); C Gorman (Down) for Hughes (48); C Love (Fermanagh) for Mallon (52); P Finnegan (Antrim) for Canavan (56).

Referee: D Gough (Meath).

MORE IN THIS SECTION

[mike70]

[mike70]

Good to see the games moved to Thursday, give county players a break after weekend games.

I was not impressed with DCU, expect UL to take them, if MTU get over Galway, which they should, but a battle in store, MTU to take UL, if the can put a vide grip on Clifford, I am sure AOM would have a plan for that , but I am sure all his focus is on Galway.

[wideball]

If it is a MTU Kerry Vs UL final, where would this be held? ASP or the Gaelic Grounds? Or a smaller venue (e.g., Rathkeale)? I know previously the Sigerson semis and finals were held over the same weekend but this arrangement is gone afaik.

[Mickmack]

Feb 2, 2022 11:27:13 GMT buck02 said:

I wonder how the Sigerson can be accommodated in the new split season.

Doing away with the likes of the Mcgrath Cup would be a start I suppose. Play Sigerson off in January, start league first weekend in February.

To fit in the league, the provincial championship, the 3 pool games, the QF, semi final and final in the by the end of July will, i think anyway, mean that the league will have to start in January.

The club scene will have to be finished off by end of December i think and that includes the club all ireland in football. They may need to slot in the Sigerson before Christmas too....

The inter county league games are going to get a lot more important for many counties....those who have no guarantee of reaching the provincial final anyway will be taking them very seriously.

[clarinman]

Feb 3, 2022 12:24:02 GMT wideball said:

If it is a MTU Kerry Vs UL final, where would this be held? ASP or the Gaelic Grounds? Or a smaller venue (e.g., Rathkeale)? I know previously the Sigerson semis and finals were held over the same weekend but this arrangement is gone afaik.

Sigerson final is fixed for Carlow IT on Wednesday February 16.