Longford Football (& Hurling) Thread

[LaurelEye]

Good win in An Pairc le Solus in Dromard today for Colmcille. Hardly enough revenge for the county final defeat but a Leader Cup final agin Clonguish with a possible win may soften the pain a wee bit.

A theory doing the rounds was that Dromard took her handy cos of the impending Leinster Q/F clash with Kildare champs, Moorefield.

By taking it handy today will prob mean that Dromard will be beaten by 30 points as opposed to 40 by Moorefield.

Or is that fair?

On Moorefield?

[Billys Boots]

Good win in An Pairc le Solus in Dromard today for Colmcille. Hardly enough revenge for the county final defeat but a Leader Cup final agin Clonguish with a possible win may soften the pain a wee bit.

I heard the game in the Stadium of Light was very similar to the county final - except that it was refereed.

Pain not softened I'm afraid.

[North Longford]

Unforetuenately no pain softened yesterday. Another masterful effort of grasping defeat from the jaws of victory. At least twice the scoring oppurtunities Clonguish had yesterday and still got beaten 08 - 07. Included in that are a missed penalty 2 or 3 more goal chances and the obligatory late free. Ah well!

[LaurelEye]

Commiserations to Billy and NL.

We bowed out of the Leinster Intermediate yesterday at Derrycassan. Lost by 5 points with the Westmeath champs getting a late goal - we'd been 2 points behind with 3 minutes left to go and had been within a point earlier on. Our regular free-taker was off form after picking up a dead leg in the first couple of minutes and we missed a lot of chances. We can put it down to experience I suppose.

County Board got €1,200 on the gate at €5 a head, Black Jack officiating. Not a bad attendance considering that the County PRO seemed to have forgotten to tell either Shannonside or the papers that the match was on. I hope he'll be more careful for next week's match between Dromard and Moorefield.

[LaurelEye]

Update from the Westmeath Hoganstand page:

Intermediate Football Championship
Westmeath champions made the journey to Mullinachta, Co. Longford to take on the home side in the Leinster Intermediate Football championship on Sunday last.
Mullinachta were a very strong physical side, particularly around the middle of the field and Ballinagore found it difficult to get to grips with them, especially as team captain, Stuart Gavin was struggling with an injury which eventually forced his withdrawal, and centre half back, Peter Heraty, also had to be replaced injured. However come to grips with the situation they most certainly did and at the break led by 1-4 to 0-5 thanks to Thomas McDaniel's late goal.
Mullinachta closed the gap to the minimum before Michael Ennis struck for Ballinagore's second goal to increase the lead to four. The Ballinagore defence held firm from then on with Mullinachta unable to get closer than two points, before Thomas McDaniel struck for his second and Ballinagore's third goal to seal his side's victory bu 3-5 to 0-9.
Heartiest congratulations to Ballinagore on their superb win and they now face a home tie on Sunday next against Kildare's Suncroft. Suncroft will be a strong side who will include Anthony Rainbow and Killian Brennan in their ranks. No doubt it will be a difficult challenge for Ballinagore but with home support they will be hopeful of advancing to the semi final. Best of luck to all involved.

If people are going to describe us as "physical", it might do to point out that our leading free-taker did not pick up that dead leg by himself and the second goal came from a move which involved flattening one of our 17-year-old corner-forwards - which was immediately signalled by the linesman but for which a yellow card wasn't given until after the goal was scored.

[The Forfeit Point]

its amazing how one little thing has cost colmcille two titles this year.... bottle and what a vital little thing that is.
best of luck to dromard against moorefield!

[Billys Boots]

Well in the county final, the only one lacking bottle was the referee, and the folk who weren't interested in playing football.  Come on Moorefield.

[The Forfeit Point]

maybe so in the county final, but eugene murtagh couldnt have been more biased towards colmcille in the leader cup and colmcille still couldnt win it, against a very poor clonguish outfit who havent (as a team) near the amount of ability as colmcille - the resemblances to mayo here are uncanny........

wouldnt say rocky was the ONLY one...... were you not there for the last 5 minutes no???

[Billys Boots]

were you not there for the last 5 minutes no???

I was.  Point acknowledged.

[billy the kid]

I think the GPA should be ashamed of themselves they are undermining everything the GAA stands for.  What they are asking for is Pay for |Play dressed up in fancy clothes.

They are an elitist Organisation who are only concerned with themselves and I firmly believe its a case of a few leading the many.

Don't get me wrong i totally agree with players being treated well and looked after if they get injured but they are always looking for more and more.

Currently every season inter-county players in Derry get:

2 pairs of boots
2 full kits a season,
2 full sets of training gear. (1 wet and 1 normal)
1 rain jacket
1 zip up top
1 jumper
2 polo shirts
1 tracksuit
Home training Equipment
Free access to state of the art gym

All the above are official Derry gear from O neills with emblems and crests and this is only the gear I KNOW FOR CERTAIN they get!

Also they have access to a top class physio, team doctor dietician and heart screening facilities.

they receive meals after ALL games and on the way to away games

they get fed after every training

and they also get VERY GOOD rebates on their mileage expenses.

Again these are jut the things i KNOW FOR CERTAIN!!

for each national league game they receive 4 passes each allowing friends and family to gain admission to the games for FREE and the passes can be used for both hurling and football even if only involved in one code.

They receive at least 2 and sometimes more FREE tickets for ALL championship matches they are involved in

They receive 2 good tickets for the all Ireland final in their code (hurling or football) for FREE

Before the club championship begins they receive a pass allowing them to gain FREE entry to ALL championship matches within the county in EITHER code at ANY level
 
The above list was given to me when I asked a PRESENT COUNTY PLAYER from our club about conditions at inter-county level.

I don't think anyone would begrudge them these things as the gear and medical farcicalities are a MUST and so are the mileage expenses and the meals.

The other stuff are added perks and again I would say Just right they are training very hard and giving a big commitment to Our County.

Looking at the list I would say our county players are fairly well looked after wouldn't you? And this is just the example of our county alot of other counties like Armagh and Tyrone get even more gear and perks which again is fair enough.

But to ask for money and to make out that they are so hard done by and listening to some of their leaders you'd think some were hardly fit to feed themselves and on the way to financial ruin is an absolute myth and border line lie!! Nobodies making them play!!!

What ever happened to being proud to play for your county and pride in the jersey? That used to be enough to make people play for their counties.

Has Pride and honour fallen of the radar of the GPA in their obsession with self-worth and self-gain.
If pride in the jersey and being honoured to represent your County plus the list i have supplied aren't enough to make individuals play for OUR county teams do we really want them to? The type of character who would undermine the very fabric of our great organisation to line his own pockets.   

I was also informed by the County player from my own Club that most county players don't want to strike but are being openly pressurised to do so. Is this Democracy?

Its also evident the GPA are so far removed from the grassroots GAA and the supporters that they haven't noticed that the vast majority are strongly against it, but why would they listen to us mere mortals?

Down Manager Ross Carr has the right idea:

If these prima donnas strike and refuse to play Each County should find a panel of players who will represent their counties for pride honour and the other perks i listed. There would be a stampede to trials and it would totally negate the strike and render their actions futile and meaningless.

We cannot let the elitist few hold the rest of us to ransom while they try to gain financially for doing what most TRUE Gaels consider an Honour and a privilege – PLAY FOR YOUR COUNTY  

[Billys Boots]

Why is this in the Longford thread?

Oh I see now, it's a 'come-all-ye' message for true-gaels everywhere - you're wasting your breath in Longford lad, though I believe there are primadonnas on the county panel who want to play for (wait for it) Sligo (no offence meant to Sligonians btw).

[Shamrock Shore]

Depressingly I see from the Official site that Sam Maguire paid a visit to Stonepark recently.

Now Sam Maguire and the Grattans are about as far apart from each other as it gets.......only Forgney are futher apart.

No offence to either, of course.

I fear for Dromard tomorrow in the middle of Newbridge....could be an almighty baytin.

[Shamrock Shore]

Ok - I owe ye all an apology.

Dromard put up a great display in Newbridge today against the Leinster champions Moorefield who got a credible draw.

1-08 apiece and it sounded a good match on Shannonside.

I'd imagine the replay will be in Pearse Park as opposed to The Stadium of Light in Dromard.

Well done Dromard and best of luck in the replay

Edit - following the obligatory state of confusion the game has gone into extra time. Even the ref was unaware that there would be 20 mins extra time. And we laugh at the FAI

Edit II - after extra time it finished 1-12 apiece so again fair play to Dromard. I'm sure even Billy will give a wee nod in their general direction

[Billys Boots]

I'm sure even Billy will give a wee nod in their general direction

And I thought you knew me ... 

[North Longford]

Forfeit Point.
My problem with a general Colmcille haven't the bottle is that it's a very general statement which would imply the whole team hasn't the bottle. It might be more accurrate to question some individuals particularly in the forwards and then your arguement might be more justified (although I don't agree). You need every bit as much bottle to win a semi final to be honest. I'd say for most of the league final Colmcille outplayed Clonguish by some distance so I'd be inclined to think that a lot of the lads had the bottle required. I put a lot more down to experience that anything else. To be honest I'd say a couple of lads had a bit too much bottle when they went for goals when simple points were on. A bit more experience might have caused them to take a different course of action. Hopefully they have acquired some of that experience this year.
As for Murtagh I honestly didn't think he was that blatant. We had hoped he would be once Dowd was playing but there were a few decisions that seriously annoyed us. Indeed I spoke to a Clongish man who had a different opinion. He reckoned Murtagh was only bad for us and terrible for them. The one incident that convinces me he was "trying" to be fair was in the second half when Brendan McCabe took on a corner back, the corner back put his hand in, McCabe grabbed it and fell (what a huge percentage of players do). Now Murtagh gave a free against McCabe. I'd say in about 90% of cases the ref still gives a free to the forward. If Murtagh was trying to influence the game in any way he had a very simple oppurtunity to give Colmcille a 14 yard free.