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Westmeath scraped over the line on Sunday, the wind should have made it a game of two halves but the first half was a half of 2 halves. Westmeath stormed out and put some early scores on the board. Did an excellent job on the Fermanagh kickout and had them pinned in. Then after going 5 points up we completely took our foot off the pedal and all work rate and intensity disappeared in the middle third. For the second week in a row we should have been more ahead at half time. We showed good composure in possession at times in the second half, particularly for Ray Connellans point. Showed Dublin like patience waiting for the right scoring opportunity to present itself, which killed some precious minutes. Showed good spirit as well when we went down to 14 men and raised our effort levels. That said if Fermanagh had a reliable free taker they would have nabbed the win, Quigley might be getting a call this week. Could be 2 very valuable points at the end of this campaign, would be sitting pretty at the top of the table if we finished off the game up in Cavan. Armagh in 2 weeks will be the biggest challenge yet, will show us exactly where we're at. Good to see Sam back, panel is looking healthy this year.

[deliberate]

2 points left up in Cavan Saturday evening. Westmeath by far the better team in the first half, should have been more than 5 in front at half time. Indiscipline didn't help us there, didn't see what Coroon did for the black but McGivneys was 100% deserved. Cavan's changes at half time gave them fresh impetuous and they started kicking outrageous points to draw level. Getting our extra man back and Luke onto the field helped us turn the tide and should have coasted home when we went 6 up. Cavan kept kicking outrageous points for fun and we couldn't kill their momentum. Our fate was probably sealed when Ronan O'Toole got a black for reaching for a ball, the word deliberate should be underlined and in bold in the rule book. Then to cap the evening off what I presume was a mishit fisted attempt at a point went in off Carberry's leg. Lots of learnings in it for Westmeath. First thing they should look at is what Cavan did after the goal to kill the game. Something we should have done to kill Cavan's momentum in the second half when we had the extra man. Could be 2 very crucial points dropped, need to get the win next Sunday now.

Important 2 points for Westmeath yesterday. Were solid enough defensively apart from hesitating for their goal. Need to be more careful tackling when there's a free taker like Tubridy around to punish you. Took our goal chances well when we got in behind them but didn't create enough point scoring chances. Should have closed the game out when we got the second goal and not have to chase the winner in injury time. Good to have Ray Connellan back in the maroon, McGivney is showing well too. Cavan will be sore the next day and expect one hell of a battle under lights, won't be much in it.

Had the pleasure of attending a talk by Jim Gavin recently. The man is an inspiration. He will be a savage loss to the Dublin setup. It must have been phenomenal to have worked with this guy.

+1. Great to hear from the man himself as opposed to the reserved persona he presents to the media.

Nice of the Leinster council to give Dublin a Bye to the Semi-finals of this competition.

You just could not make this Sh1t up!

They need to have as much time as possible to get the holidays and functions out of the way , celebrity life is demanding .

True, You can't be asking a county with a long season ahead of them to be travelling with their 'C' team to obscure venues around Leinster? Semi final and final will probably be in Parnell Park. 

The C team are on the way to the home of the Slashers this weekend.

[Group 2 – Laois, Offaly & WexfordGroup 3 – Meath, Louth & Westmeath]

Here we go. Christmas comes early this year with the return of the OBC early December.

O'Byrne Cup S.F. 2020

Group 1 – Kildare, Longford, Carlow & Wicklow

Group 2 – Laois, Offaly & Wexford

Group 3 – Meath, Louth & Westmeath

Dates: Dec 7, Dec 14, Jan 4. Semi-finals Jan 11. Final Jan 17/18

We're out against Louth this weekend. Very young team with some good prospects lining out including Costello, Toner and Jack O'Connor. Hard to know they'll fare, depends on how Louth are treating this.

Meath (O'Byrne Cup SF v Louth) –

Dominic Yorke;

Robin Clarke, Brian Conlon, David Toner;
Gavin McCoy, Eoin Lynch, Sean Reilly;

Bryan Menton, Donal Keogan;

Jack O'Connor, Darragh Campion, Jason Scully;
Jordan Morris, Thomas O'Reilly, Mathew Costello.

Subs: Harry Hogan, James Conlon, Oisin O'Brien, Thomas Murtagh, Ben Brennan, Shane Walsh, Caolach Halligan, Conor McGill.

Ok, who wants to explain why Louth was playing Offaly on Saturday and Westmeath played Wexford the week before?

[Winning this would be huge for the club!]

Hi, back again! As I was saying earlier we have a panel of 27 for 13 a side under 12 Girls. 8 Girls play every minute of every game that leaves 5 places for up to usually 15 Girls on game day.

It's a mess of players getting quarters in the full forward line where they see Fuk all ball.

Anyway time to move on!

What is the procedure for transferring from one club to another in the LGFA? I know the ladies game is like soccer and players can move to any club.

Why are 8 girls playing every minute of every game?

We are good enough to go far in the 'A' under 12 Championship. Winning this would be huge for the club! Taking any of these 8 players off would lessen this!
I totally understand both sides.

There is no animosity here. They are doing what is best for to win a trophy. And I'm doing what is best for my daughter who is lost in a very big squad with a plethora of other kids in the same boat.

Anyway anyone know the process to switching club in LFGA?

FFS. Ridiculous mentality.

Crazy yet commonplace outlook. Watch them girls drift away over the next few years. Hopefully it's to other clubs and not from the game.

The thing is when a club has such numbers it hopes that the average to weak drift away and see winning as a way of holding onto the talented. It is competitive sport after all. Inclusion is only a way of getting registration money at the beginning of the season.

If that is the clubs actual policy I would run a mile. We've 47 u8 girls from one end of the ability range to the other. We are intent on keeping all of them playing for as long as we can. If they don't make senior players they will hopefully help out with coaching/admin in the club.

Winning shouldn't come into it until senior level and even then it's counter productive to speak about it, winning is a by product of good processes. Until senior level priority should be player development and retention.

[Winning this would be huge for the club!]

Hi, back again! As I was saying earlier we have a panel of 27 for 13 a side under 12 Girls. 8 Girls play every minute of every game that leaves 5 places for up to usually 15 Girls on game day.

It's a mess of players getting quarters in the full forward line where they see Fuk all ball.

Anyway time to move on!

What is the procedure for transferring from one club to another in the LGFA? I know the ladies game is like soccer and players can move to any club.

Why are 8 girls playing every minute of every game?

We are good enough to go far in the 'A' under 12 Championship. Winning this would be huge for the club! Taking any of these 8 players off would lessen this!
I totally understand both sides.

There is no animosity here. They are doing what is best for to win a trophy. And I'm doing what is best for my daughter who is lost in a very big squad with a plethora of other kids in the same boat.

Anyway anyone know the process to switching club in LFGA?

FFS. Ridiculous mentality.

Crazy yet commonplace outlook. Watch them girls drift away over the next few years. Hopefully it's to other clubs and not from the game.

Hi, back again! As I was saying earlier we have a panel of 27 for 13 a side under 12 Girls. 8 Girls play every minute of every game that leaves 5 places for up to usually 15 Girls on game day.

It's a mess of players getting quarters in the full forward line where they see Fuk all ball.

Anyway time to move on!

What is the procedure for transferring from one club to another in the LGFA? I know the ladies game is like soccer and players can move to any club.

Why are 8 girls playing every minute of every game?

I'm guessing it's to do with the W word. This is worth a read for anyone involved with any team https://changingthegameproject.com/a-higher-purpose-than-winning/

[Westmeath lads, has Jack Smith got a run at all? Was a very good half back at underage for the Dubs, but never got a look in at senior.]

Westmeath lads, has Jack Smith got a run at all? Was a very good half back at underage for the Dubs, but never got a look in at senior.

The Derry lad on the Wooly podcast said (when talking about Kerry letting Cox go very easily to Rossies) that he knew Jim Gavin made a call to a player who was asked to join another county, to say he's still on the radar, and hold off for another year. Given the Derry lad plays for Skerries Harps, i'd guess he was talking about Jack's brother Stephen, who's an absolute topper of a corner forward. Admittedly small, but very quick, can take a bang, and great scorer.

There's another younger brother coming too, and I believe he'd be well worth keeping an eye on.

Played corner back Saturday. Played a couple of games in the league at wing forward. Hasn't really improved the team but hasn't disgraced himself either. Probably a little light for this level.

Not a great performance from us Saturday, we've gone back to playing within ourselves. Match should have been killed when Halligan got his goal at half time but Limerick were allowed waltz through us a few times. Need to bring a lot more intensity the next day against Clare. Draw was kind again but would have preferred the Biffos, least we're at home although a trip to Ennis would have been good craic. Need Heslin and Duncan fit to start.

Are qualifier tickets bought in Supervalu/Centra same price or cheaper than at the ground?

Yer man with the Offaly jersey wasn't behind the goal in Tullamore at the Offaly London qualifier. Or is it Portlaoise he's always at?

Be very surprised if Mick wasn't there, probably off retrieving a ball when the camera panned around

The qualifier draw Gods are finally smiling on us. Long may it continue.

[We need to stop blinding coaches with science.]

So my own club in conjunction with a Games Development Officer set up a course(online and pitch) for all under age coaches, I do the u8s. It was football specific, so while some of the messages were good, participation and inclusivity, the rest was too technical and ignored completely the primary reason why kids play sport in the first place, fun, fun, fun. I genuinely believe that giving all these resources and courses is becoming counter productive. Listening to some Offaly hurling development officer talking on OTB recently about how his home club has only 70+ players aged 7-17 but has 90+ qualified coaches, he was bloody proud of this. The obsession in Irish sport of driving technical and tactical standards is not helping us win the battle, underage sport should only be about participation and fun. Majority of kids are competitive by nature, what you don't need are competitive coaches at underage. In my day, training consisted of a game, or backs against forwards with the odd technical drill thrown in around the hand-pass and the solo. Even now that's the basis of any underage or senior training session I take in any sport, conditioned small sided games. We need to stop blinding coaches with science.

If I was to sit down with a bunch of 8 year olds and design a session it would not consist of technical, mental or tactical components, certainly not in a deliberate drill designed sense, they would insist on fun and games with weird rules.

Anyway the whole thing annoyed me, and yes I did feed it back, but just wanted to write it down somewhere...

What do you mean by being too technical and blinding coaches with science Dinny? The technical aspects from what I remember of the Award Courses were where to position your head, hands and feet, etc.

I'd agree with the rest of your post, what adults think kids need and what kids want are light years apart. I too have u8s, girls, and as well as Go Games we have a one hour session every week where we do both codes. We pick a skill and try and coach that through fun games where they nearly forget what we're working on. Loads of balls going in loads of directions, organised chaos. It's taken a mountain of effort to persuade our coaches of the benefits of this approach and away from lines, etc. but we're getting there.

Would also agree that Go Games are too many a side to start off with. Plus when all our numbers turn up our coaches want everyone on which means games turn out into 9v9. Again, small steps needed to change mindsets here as well.

Balls. Was hoping for London away.