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I've preface this by saying that I don't follow any team in England or anywhere else, although I  always like to see all the English teams winning in Europe. I watched the second half last night and forgetting about the football, I thought the crowd were magnificent, great atmosphere, and the flag and scarf waving at the end was a great spectacle. This never seems to happen at Man Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal games, I'm just wondering why?

BTW was that the fields of Athenry the fans were singing or were they changing the Athenry bit, I just couldn't make it out?

was that Dermot Doran?
or his older brother PJ (imo PJ was hardier)
Hardest of all the O'Donoghues was Paddy, but I would still think Phelim Farrell was tougher (Colm wasnt farr off it also).
I think davy Dalton put himself on the line alot - but was easy enough inj - which imo rules him out of being among the 'hardest'

Yer Man Pat Flynn from st. Kevins was a savage too (bernard flynns cousin - all the flynns were from clogherinkoe originally too I believe).
Cloghs Tom doodle Kelly was tough as nails.

Stories were that Ambrose oDonovan of Kerry was the hardiest amongst them in the Kerry golden years

Twas PJ alright, one of the most dogged backs in club football. The rasher was a savage, both on the field and also in the bees knees.

The Flynn's played for the Cloghs with Bernard's father, Noel a handy full forward. A discussion between Cloghs supporters one night ended with a row as to whether Joe Flynn, (Bernards uncle) and Mick Moore (his cousin) were the best ever players for the club. Another Flynn cousin was Gerry Carroll who won an Ireland in '82.

Paddy O'Donoghue taught me maths for the leaving cert, the most useless hoor ever to teach. Football talk start to finish, 'twas a miracle any of us passed.

 Paddy was the only hard man on that Johnstownbridge team......I got a belt of yer man Doran, the corner back, can't remember his name, the hoor nearly killed me, couldn't move for five minuted. The Rasher Farrell was no alter boy either.

Other hard men that I've seen, in Leinster:

Paddy McCormack Barry Coughlin.
Lyons Harnan McEntee Cassels.
Sean Doherty, Gay O'Driscoll, Mullins

Angry Crofton calls up U-21s for O'Byrne clash
Tuesday January 9th 2007






KILDARE will field a team made up mainly of U-21 players in next Sunday's O'Byrne Shield game against Meath at Newbridge on Sunday.

According to manager John Crofton, the O'Byrne Cup is an "imposition" that has already disrupted his training regime and the Sarsfields clubman maintains the U-21s would gain more benefit from the outing ahead of their championship outing against Dublin or Meath at the beginning of March.

Crofton is utterly bemused by the introduction of a Shield competition without consultation with county managers and is making no apologies for doing what he sees is best for Kildare ahead of the visit of Armagh to St Conleth's Park in the National League opener on February 4.

"Is it an O'Byrne Cup Shield or an O'Byrne Shield or what is it?" he inquired.

"You're forced to play. Nobody was asked - I certainly wasn't asked 'would you like to play in the O'Byrne Shield by the way?' But you're out next Sunday, whether you like it or not.

"The U-21 team have a championship fixture in early March. We have a subset of eight or nine players that are current U-21s in our senior set-up, so that will probably be reflected in next week's fixture. They have to be accommodated.

"The way the league is structured this year, there isn't any gap," he continued. "We're essentially in pre-season training now.

"We didn't do a collective training regime from the end of September until just before Christmas, so we value the time we have here and I think it's an imposition, these O'Byrne Cup and Shield matches.

"So we'll derive what we feel is the maximum benefit from the match next week and it won't necessarily be what other people like.

"My view is that if you're prepared to play these matches - McKenna Cups, McGrath Cups and O'Byrne Cups - and everything has to stop to play them, why not start the National League now if you want to create room for club football or to create this buffer that they're talking about," he added.

I'm inclined to agree with Rossie11, Dolan is a dangerous forward who can singlehandly turn a game. I saw him lead Offaly a merry dance in Mullingar in the qualifiers a few years ago, and remember the point he scored in the dying minutes against Kildare in Portlaoise. He'll be some addition to Westmeath, him and Dessie in the corners, should be worth a few scores per match. I know he's the two ends of a ginnit, but if O'Flaharta can get the beat out of him the lakers could have a good run.

Great to see a gah man win it, twas some craic last night, with Spillane told to stop acting "jack the lad" by Tom McGurk, and being called a lick arse by Ted Walsh.  Gerry Kiernan said that the only barometer to judge an athlete, was how they performed on the international stage, therefore discounting any gah man. Only two people from the ten nominations were votrd for, with Dunphy, Ted Walsh, Cyril and George Hooke voting for Shefflin, and the lick arse and Gerry Kiernan voting for Dervla O'Rourke.

Shefflin was genuinely taken by complete surprise, given the other nominees.

All rise to the king.

Lynchbhoy

Terry Lyons me hole - what about Peter Conlon or Ger Lowry, two real men of steel.

Liverpool?

Lynchboy, makes two of us!!!

Lynchboy, did you play for thr Clogs?

Sad to see the end of St.Conleths. Played a few underage games there and lost a county u12 final in about '77. The memories of the 'Bridge and Carbury victories there in the mid 80's, going back further Monasterevin and Raheens and the perennial Sarsfields, Towers, Moorefield and Clane. Memories oF Paddy Mangan, Tommy Carew, Pa Connolly, Joe Giblin, Pat Dunny and more recently Glen Ryan, Paddy O'Donoghue and Dermot Early.  My father brought me to see Vincents of Dublin beat Raheens in the Leinster final about '76, and getting the autograph off Brian Mullins and rushing home to show the Ma. Jack O'Shea, Steven Connevy, John Courtney, Dermot Earley Snr also won  county medals playing in St Conleths. The jacks were woeful, but when your a young lad holding your fathers hand, your more interested in the woman selling the sweets from the stall.

Thanks for the memories.

It's a pity the game isn't on on one of the home grounds, as the attendance would be higher. However on a positive note, O'Moore park is a wider pitch and both teams should benefit from this. As for the result, Rhode should have enough to win, but I have fond memories of "Sos" (remember the goal against the dubs in '95?) and for his sake wouldn't begrudge the Moores the win.

Rhode 1-09

Moorefield 0-08

Fair play to the lads, a coupla pubs, a church, a few shops, a chipper and two national schools.
As a fella from Rhode said to me, there's only three things that matter, football, drinking and riding, in no particular order!!

Delighted to see UCD beat