Ulster Colleges

[snoopdog]

[quote
author=bennydorano link=topic=22328.msg2187891#msg2187891 date=1679134335]
A nonsense argument Walter is putting forward, Colleges football is a super standard, much more Darwinian than some underage county panels.

IMO Tyrone' Schools' biggest advantage is that it is a huge county comparatively speaking with much greater nationalist leaning people (strong communities & clubs) than other counties. Gaelic football is king everywhere as well, little Hurling, Soccer, even Basketball? ( I remember Dungannon used to be a BB powerhouse but do they bother with it anymore?). In A grade Armagh have 2 regular MacRory teams, St Pats Armagh & St Ronans Lurgan and up until the creation of Ronans,  St Pats were the only A grade side, and a lot of our catchment area are Armagh clubs near the Tyrone border who gravitate towards Dungannon Academy. St Paul's Bessbrook flit between A & B grade and they have to contend with half of South Armagh going to Newry Schools. But that is just the way it is, there aren't going to be any structural changes that can level the playing field a bit.

Do many sth. Armagh lads still go to the 2 Newry schools?

Traditionally there was always big numbers of Cross,Mullaghbawn,Silverbridge and Killeavy lads in the Abbey and they obviously made up a large proportion of football teams.
     The College although on the Armagh side of Newry, traditionally had a bigger contingent of Down students. There was always a big Lurgan contingent in the College though.
     Much different now i'm told with a greater mix in both schools.
[/quote]
When I went to St colmans late 80s early 90s there were loads from South Armagh in the school.

[trailer]

Popped over to watch St Pat's Academy V St Pat's Armagh last night in the Rannafast final. Armagh led at the break by 2 points they got a fairly fortuitous goal in 1st half from a high ball into the square. Academy made hard work in first half running into a well organised and strong Armagh defence, who bottled them up and turned them over. HT 1-5 0-6
Academy better setup after the break and stopped running into the Armagh defence. Switching the play well to get a few danger men to catch handy marks as well as strong runners coming at better angles to break them down. Got a bit of a run on them. Armagh got another fairly lucky penalty to come back a them but Academy had a bit too much in the end running out 0-16 to 2-6 winners.

Good game. Best for Academy probably Joel Kerr, Liam McGeary and big lad in MF. Stewartstown lad.
Armagh Cathair Hughes, and Matty Daly.

https://teamtalkmag.com/rannafast-title-for-academy/

[Goals_Will_Come]

Tyrone schools flying again. Three of them topped their MacRory groups as well and automatically through to the Quarter Finals.

[trailer]

Tyrone schools flying again. Three of them topped their MacRory groups as well and automatically through to the Quarter Finals.

Good smattering of that Armagh Rannafast team are all from Tyrone as well. Eglish and The Moy

[TwoUpTwoDown]

Tyrone schools flying again. Three of them topped their MacRory groups as well and automatically through to the Quarter Finals.

Any word on how other Tyrone schools are going? I was interested to see how the Dean got on in MacLarnon.

[Estimator]

🏆MACRORY CUP  FIXTURES / RESULTS 🏆

Play-offs ( Wednesday, January 3 – Saturday, January 6)

Playoff 1 St Macartan's, Monaghan v Patrician, Carrickmacross
Playoff 2 St. Ronan's, Lurgan v Abbey CBS, Newry
Playoff 3 St Mary's, Magherafelt v St Patrick's, Cavan
Playoff 4 Our Lady's, Castleblayney v St Colman's, Newry

Quarter-finals (Tuesday January 9 – Sunday, January 14)
QF1 St Patrick's, Maghera v PO3 Winner
QF2 St Patrick's, Dungannon v PO1 Winner
QF3 St Joseph's, Donaghmore v PO2 Winner
QF4 Omagh CBS v PO4 Winner

Semi-finals (Tuesday, January 23 – Sunday, January 28)
QF1 Winner v QF4 Winner
QF3 Winner v QF2 Winner

Final
Sunday, February 11

Could easily end up with another all Tyrone final with the way the fixtures have panned out. And in fairness, those sitting in the QFs could be caught by one of the play off teams, with a bit of momemtum behind them.

Maghera, Macartans and Omagh have been the teams that have got to the various finals up through the year groups. So I'd hazard a guess that the semi-final line up will be:

Maghera v Omagh
Macartans v Donaghmore

[Onthe40]

Popped over to watch St Pat's Academy V St Pat's Armagh last night in the Rannafast final. Armagh led at the break by 2 points they got a fairly fortuitous goal in 1st half from a high ball into the square. Academy made hard work in first half running into a well organised and strong Armagh defence, who bottled them up and turned them over. HT 1-5 0-6
Academy better setup after the break and stopped running into the Armagh defence. Switching the play well to get a few danger men to catch handy marks as well as strong runners coming at better angles to break them down. Got a bit of a run on them. Armagh got another fairly lucky penalty to come back a them but Academy had a bit too much in the end running out 0-16 to 2-6 winners.

Good game. Best for Academy probably Joel Kerr, Liam McGeary and big lad in MF. Stewartstown lad.
Armagh Cathair Hughes, and Matty Daly.

https://teamtalkmag.com/rannafast-title-for-academy/

was it not the kildress lad in midfield...quality player..

[bennydorano]

Couldn't make it last night but I was at Armagh's last 3 Rannafast games, Dungannon beat us by 6 in the group stage so we knew it was going to be a big ask last night (& thats their 3rd Ulster title in a row for this group), but it bodes well for the future (& for my club as we'd 7 or 8 on show) should be competitive in the MacRory for a couple of years, noticeable that Dungannon & Abbey in the semi were that bit bigger generally. One of Dungannon's best players is young McGeary believe he's been starting on the MacRory team all year as well, a shame that he's in the Tyrone underage set up as him & his family are Armagh through & through, a major slip up there on our part.

As for the MacRory, was at all of Armagh's games including a few warm up games, unlucky to be departing at group stage after 2 x 1pt defeats and beating half a Maghera team (with half an Armagh team tbf). Was at Ronans v Bessbrook last week.

I predict a Maghera v Dungannon final.

[trailer]

Popped over to watch St Pat's Academy V St Pat's Armagh last night in the Rannafast final. Armagh led at the break by 2 points they got a fairly fortuitous goal in 1st half from a high ball into the square. Academy made hard work in first half running into a well organised and strong Armagh defence, who bottled them up and turned them over. HT 1-5 0-6
Academy better setup after the break and stopped running into the Armagh defence. Switching the play well to get a few danger men to catch handy marks as well as strong runners coming at better angles to break them down. Got a bit of a run on them. Armagh got another fairly lucky penalty to come back a them but Academy had a bit too much in the end running out 0-16 to 2-6 winners.

Good game. Best for Academy probably Joel Kerr, Liam McGeary and big lad in MF. Stewartstown lad.
Armagh Cathair Hughes, and Matty Daly.

https://teamtalkmag.com/rannafast-title-for-academy/

was it not the kildress lad in midfield...quality player..

Could have been. I didn't know him tbh and the fella I was with said Stewartstown. Apologies if it was Kildress lad. Good player.

[trailer]

Couldn't make it last night but I was at Armagh's last 3 Rannafast games, Dungannon beat us by 6 in the group stage so we knew it was going to be a big ask last night (& thats their 3rd Ulster title in a row for this group), but it bodes well for the future (& for my club as we'd 7 or 8 on show) should be competitive in the MacRory for a couple of years, noticeable that Dungannon & Abbey in the semi were that bit bigger generally. One of Dungannon's best players is young McGeary believe he's been starting on the MacRory team all year as well, a shame that he's in the Tyrone underage set up as him & his family are Armagh through & through, a major slip up there on our part.

As for the MacRory, was at all of Armagh's games including a few warm up games, unlucky to be departing at group stage after 2 x 1pt defeats and beating half a Maghera team (with half an Armagh team tbf). Was at Ronans v Bessbrook last week.

I predict a Maghera v Dungannon final.

Serious player. But he's with The Moy and lives in Tyrone and at a Tyrone school, so probably difficult enough for Armagh to pickup. But one for the future.

[Armagh18]

Couldn't make it last night but I was at Armagh's last 3 Rannafast games, Dungannon beat us by 6 in the group stage so we knew it was going to be a big ask last night (& thats their 3rd Ulster title in a row for this group), but it bodes well for the future (& for my club as we'd 7 or 8 on show) should be competitive in the MacRory for a couple of years, noticeable that Dungannon & Abbey in the semi were that bit bigger generally. One of Dungannon's best players is young McGeary believe he's been starting on the MacRory team all year as well, a shame that he's in the Tyrone underage set up as him & his family are Armagh through & through, a major slip up there on our part.

As for the MacRory, was at all of Armagh's games including a few warm up games, unlucky to be departing at group stage after 2 x 1pt defeats and beating half a Maghera team (with half an Armagh team tbf). Was at Ronans v Bessbrook last week.

I predict a Maghera v Dungannon final.

Serious player. But he's with The Moy and lives in Tyrone and at a Tyrone school, so probably difficult enough for Armagh to pickup. But one for the future. 

Collegeland blood in him?

[Walter Cronc]

Maghera and Omagh not the teams to beat going by previous years? Maghera missing their best player in Danny McDermott. Injured for Glen in Ulster club semi final.

[bennydorano]

Maghera and Omagh not the teams to beat going by previous years? Maghera missing their best player in Danny McDermott. Injured for Glen in Ulster club semi final.

They are on course for a semi meeting

[lurganblue]

Couldn't make it last night but I was at Armagh's last 3 Rannafast games, Dungannon beat us by 6 in the group stage so we knew it was going to be a big ask last night (& thats their 3rd Ulster title in a row for this group), but it bodes well for the future (& for my club as we'd 7 or 8 on show) should be competitive in the MacRory for a couple of years, noticeable that Dungannon & Abbey in the semi were that bit bigger generally. One of Dungannon's best players is young McGeary believe he's been starting on the MacRory team all year as well, a shame that he's in the Tyrone underage set up as him & his family are Armagh through & through, a major slip up there on our part.

As for the MacRory, was at all of Armagh's games including a few warm up games, unlucky to be departing at group stage after 2 x 1pt defeats and beating half a Maghera team (with half an Armagh team tbf). Was at Ronans v Bessbrook last week.

I predict a Maghera v Dungannon final.

Good lad Benny.  I noticed from the school Facebook that there is a decent amount of Harps ones on the team.  I didnt see a single Pearse óg player.  Am i wrong in that? 

[bennydorano]

No, correct, bit of an anomaly, apparently the year below is full of Ogs and no Harps at all!