All Ireland U21 semis

[bennydorano]

Saturday@3pm in Hyde Park
Mayo v Laois

Sunday @3pm in Portlaoise

Armagh v Cork

Possible tv coverage for the Saturday game, but not likely for Armagh's game as the League final is on at 4pm(which is sh1t as I'll not be able to get ).  Cork seemingly are very strong, hard to gauge on here as there are so few Cork men about.

[brokencrossbar1]

Benny there are a few Cork men floating about, but as the honorary Armagh Corkonian I will give you my tuppence worth.

I have only seen the highlights of them in a few games but I know a good few of them through the club scene.  They have a good spread of players from last years team and have just won their 4th Munster in a row(maybe the Kingdom tide is slowly turning).  Their forwards are free flowing and can rack up high scores.  The likes of Cathrach Keane, Fintan Goold and Daniel Goulding are all excellent ball players with senior experience.  If they get a run going they could rip a team apart. 

The flip side to that is that their defence is a bit porous.  Tipp scored 3-12 against them in the Munster final and in any mans language that is poor.  Michael Shields was roasted by the Tipp FF but he is a good footballer.  A club team mate of mine Steven O'Donoughue switched with him in the Munster final in the second half and made a big difference, I would say Stevie will be FB in the game against Armagh.  Fit, big, fast strong and can win a ball.  Can be prone to the head staggers though and lose track of himself.  In the HB line they have a number of good ball players, but not necessarily good defenders. 

I think football wise, one-to-one they will match, if not better Armagh, I think though physically Armagh will have an advantage and the tougher games they hve played recently will stand them in good stead.  If they can restrict the space to the forwards, which as we know emminently poosible in Portlaoise , and can dominate midfield, then I would take Armagh to win by 3.

[Uladh]

What are they like around the middle bc? all of armagh's wins so far have come on the back of winning the majority of ball round the middle due to their size.

why is this game not on saturday?  o'clock on sunday is a balls of time

[ildanach]

i am wondering with all the talk of player burn out, why mayo have to play the semi final on sunday and then the national league final on sunday. Its a disgrace. There are 3 players involved in both. All will start the under 21 game and although not starters have a chance of being involved on sunday

[brokencrossbar1]

Armagh should have the edge there, a lot of Tipp's scores came from loss ball around the middle being scooped up by HB's and launching it early into the space for the FF line.

It is a shit time for any game to be on and should be on on Saturday in fairness.

[Goats Do Shave]

Was Michael Shields the full back for the seniors league match against Tyrone??

I thought he was excellent...roasted Steven O'Neill.

[brokencrossbar1]

Could have been Goats, or it might have been Michael Prout. 

[Uladh]

think it was shields all right. goulding had a good game that night too if i recall?

[bennydorano]

If I were part of the Armagh management set up I'd be having sleepless nights about our FB line, it has been exposed in every game so far, yet we have come through, but we haven't met a team with a really potent FF line.  Finnegan has to go, with P kernan slotting in there somewhere, Donaghy deserves the benefit of any doubt but he doesn't fill me with confidence either.

[Fishead_Sam]

Sure remember last year when the Mayo hurlers where in the hurling semi-final play offs with Kerry down @ Limerick and the U-21s where playing Tyrone at the same time in the football.

How the hell did the GAA expect Keith Higgins to be in the opposite ends of the country at the same time. That day Keith played football and we beat Tyrone, Keith is probably one of our most deadly forwards in the Hurling, that day we lost to Kerry by one point. This year Keith score 7 points from play against Kerry hurlers.

[Heshs Umpire]

Laois minor hurlers will be without one of their better players John O'Loughlin on Saturday when they play Kildare in the first round of the Leinster MHC because he will be playing for the Under 21 footballers v Mayo at the exact same time.
Thanks very much whoever came up with that master fixture list...

[Uladh]

Without a doubt Benny. Finnegan will probably make way for kernan, though i'm not sure there's much between the two. Donaghy has taken a roasting at corner back in each of the last two games after holding his own against tyrone bar the last ten minutes. they are really struggling for man markers, especially against light nippy forwards. the tyrone sub who came on wasn't dealt with, mcgolderick couldn't be handled against derry and the same for the number 13 on saturday. if someone like goulding were to cause damage this week they need need to think about putting dyas back to man mark.

toner has looked quite ordinary too for the u21s and armagh will need a big performance from him. as well as o'neill has being doing at midfield i'd like to see him played on the square. he is very dangerous in there. hanratty is a good ball winner but i've been disappointed with what he can do from there. just winning it isn't enough at this level and we've been struggling as a forward division to carry enough scoring threat.

[Goats Do Shave]

Toner isn't a centre back - midfield or full back!

[Uladh]

he doesn't play centre back for the u21s. wears six in every game but plays full back

[judas1]

Lads for all your discussion about this years team, and the inadequecies of the backline, think they only conceeded 3 points from open play in each of their previous games and only 7 points in total in the final after the first 5 mins, when they were still in the dressing room.  This team has done well for a squad , destroyed in Clones by Down in their last year at minor.