Connacht Club Championships 2016

[PadraicHenryPearse]

Syfín must be gone all nervous about his favourite bandwagon club's chances!
Corofin raging favourites but Brids not without hope.
Hope they can upset the apple tart and prove the experts wrong.

Tarts alright.

Sice trying to say Corofin have forgotten 2011 and 2006 and that it's a different team now. Watch the yellow bellies go out on Sunday and try to decapitate Brigids players and we'll see how in the past it is.

Well he's hardly going to say yes we're mad for revenge, watch out Brigids is he? Corofin certainly won't be short on motivation for Sunday, hopefully they do it. I think they have more quality from midfield up, they need to be careful with the amount of frees they're giving away in scorable positions though, could easily have been a different result against Castlebar with all they gave away. And hopefully Ronan Steede's nose will have a better day out!

Darren Dolan, Senan Kilbride, Cathal McHugh, Karol Mannion and two good young lads about to break onto the senior county panel in Brian Stack and Connor Murray. Frankie still laces up the boots and if he wasn't manager he'd probably still be starting games. Corofin have good forwards too but I don't see them having much of an edge there. Defensively there might be more of a difference but even then I think this is a match between two teams with a good mix of experience and youth in the three sectors. The fact bookmakers and neutrals by extension have written off Brigids will be plenty of motivation for them because they hardly consider themselves inferior to Corofin.

Bookmakers are rich for a reason. The Longford champions would have comfortably beat Brigids today.

Bookmarkers had it with 2 pt difference. They also had Corofins favourites to beat Brigids the last two meetings.  Brigids will be very disappointed, they are a lot better than they showed today. 

[Rudi]

Corofin were superb today. Speed of thought and almost telepathy between their players they ripped our lads to shreds. Excellent performance by a very well drilled footballing team not a hope of anyone else winning on St Patrick's Day. Our lads were not let perform however they will be disappointed with some woefull wides that might have left the scoreboard a little better. Corofin look like a pure academy of well coached lads.

[seafoid]

At least that Brigids team won the all Ireland. Pour oul Clann never did it and it wasn't for the want of trying. It was nice being in Athlone on the Ros side in 2013 and seeing the posters saying "all Ireland champions"

[seafoid]

That mad favouritism  was well justified sadly.
Embarrassing  today by our Co Champions.
Despite being well bet 5 points and 13 wides is inexcusable.

Sometimes that happens

The contrast between the 2 sides of Athlone is interesting.
The 2 Rossie clubs have gotten to all Ireland finals

The Westmeath clubs on the other hand..

Part of it is being in Leinster but the Rossies must have something else

[Helix]

Did Garycastle not get to an All Ireland final and lose to possibly the greatest club football team of all time Crossmaglen?

[Maroon Manc]

Corofin are great to watch especially in the first 20 minutes yesterday where the were exceptional. I thought Sice & McGrath had great games.

[shark]

That mad favouritism  was well justified sadly.
Embarrassing  today by our Co Champions.
Despite being well bet 5 points and 13 wides is inexcusable.

Sometimes that happens

The contrast between the 2 sides of Athlone is interesting.
The 2 Rossie clubs have gotten to all Ireland finals

The Westmeath clubs on the other hand..

Part of it is being in Leinster but the Rossies must have something else

Apples and oranges.

As pointed out, Garrycastle rescently made an all-Ireland final and lost to Crossmaglen after a replay. Athlone have previously made the Leinster final, albeit in the 70's. They are two very good clubs. Both have produced all Stars in recent years.
In Westmeath there is no parish rule, this leads to massive troughs and peaks in the fortunes of different clubs. Garrycastle have been squeezed badly in the last few years from all directions and they are suffering now.
Westmeath clubs have won less than Roscommon clubs as a whole, it's not just an Athlone thing. But as you point out, they are in different provinces. 3/4 games to win Leinster against 2/3 to win Connacht. It makes a difference.

[Syferus]

That mad favouritism  was well justified sadly.
Embarrassing  today by our Co Champions.
Despite being well bet 5 points and 13 wides is inexcusable.

Sometimes that happens

The contrast between the 2 sides of Athlone is interesting.
The 2 Rossie clubs have gotten to all Ireland finals

The Westmeath clubs on the other hand..

Part of it is being in Leinster but the Rossies must have something else

Apples and oranges.

As pointed out, Garrycastle rescently made an all-Ireland final and lost to Crossmaglen after a replay. Athlone have previously made the Leinster final, albeit in the 70's. They are two very good clubs. Both have produced all Stars in recent years.
In Westmeath there is no parish rule, this leads to massive troughs and peaks in the fortunes of different clubs. Garrycastle have been squeezed badly in the last few years from all directions and they are suffering now.
Westmeath clubs have won less than Roscommon clubs as a whole, it's not just an Athlone thing. But as you point out, they are in different provinces. 3/4 games to win Leinster against 2/3 to win Connacht. It makes a difference.

Only one county in Leinster takes football seriously so a bit of a disengious statement.

[shark]

That mad favouritism  was well justified sadly.
Embarrassing  today by our Co Champions.
Despite being well bet 5 points and 13 wides is inexcusable.

Sometimes that happens

The contrast between the 2 sides of Athlone is interesting.
The 2 Rossie clubs have gotten to all Ireland finals

The Westmeath clubs on the other hand..

Part of it is being in Leinster but the Rossies must have something else

Apples and oranges.

As pointed out, Garrycastle rescently made an all-Ireland final and lost to Crossmaglen after a replay. Athlone have previously made the Leinster final, albeit in the 70's. They are two very good clubs. Both have produced all Stars in recent years.
In Westmeath there is no parish rule, this leads to massive troughs and peaks in the fortunes of different clubs. Garrycastle have been squeezed badly in the last few years from all directions and they are suffering now.
Westmeath clubs have won less than Roscommon clubs as a whole, it's not just an Athlone thing. But as you point out, they are in different provinces. 3/4 games to win Leinster against 2/3 to win Connacht. It makes a difference.

Only one county in Leinster takes football seriously so a bit of a disengious statement.

It's not one bit disingenuous.

We are talking about club football here, so a county taking "football seriously" (is there a definition for this?) is utterly irrelevant. There are many excellent clubs in poor performing counties. But you know that of course.

[Duine Eile]

That was some performance from Corofin. They are some outfit, the system they have is fantastic to watch in action, every man knows where he should be and what he should be doing. It's an awful pity Daithí Burke is such a talented hurler, he'd be some addition to the footballers. The way they can move the ball so quickly and pick out the most precise of kick passes is unreal. The understanding between Ronan Steede and Mike Farragher needs to be seen to be believed. The only weakness I saw yesterday was Kieran Fitzgerald's lack of pace unfortunately, he was well tested by Armstrong in the county final and up against a young, nippy forward I think he could be in trouble. In saying that, Corofin have Dylan McHugh ready and waiting to take over if needed. Well done to them, they'll take some stopping. They were fantastic in nearly all areas yesterday, Conor Cunningham had a great game I thought, Sice showed his class and Lundy is regaining form as well.

[galwayman]

Cunningham is a serious player.
Probably a bit slow for county football but very good at club level.
All teams in Corofin have played the same brand of football certainly since I can remember first playing against them at underage level years ago.
All very skilful in possession of the ball and don't give the ball away cheaply.
Quick, accurate kick passing a huge part of their game.

[Farrandeelin]

Best of luck to Corofin in the AI series. It'll probably take a good team to beat them. Saying that the others are all good teams too.

[Syferus]

Best of luck to Corofin in the AI series. It'll probably take a good team to beat them. Saying that the others are all good teams too.

Despite Gary Sice's arsehole comments about Frankie after the match Corofin look every bit potential AI champions. They blew Vinny's away two years ago and I'd expect a repeat pairing in next year's final.

[GaillimhIarthair]

Best of luck to Corofin in the AI series. It'll probably take a good team to beat them. Saying that the others are all good teams too.

Despite Gary Sice's comments about that arsehole Frankie after the match, Corofin look every bit potential AI champions. They blew Vinny's away two years ago and I'd expect a repeat pairing in next year's final.

fixed!

[Syferus]

Best of luck to Corofin in the AI series. It'll probably take a good team to beat them. Saying that the others are all good teams too.

Despite Gary Sice's comments about that arsehole Frankie after the match, Corofin look every bit potential AI champions. They blew Vinny's away two years ago and I'd expect a repeat pairing in next year's final.

fixed!

Fûck right off. Sice wilfully took Frankie's words out of context and he knows well that he did. He's been spoiling for a chance to get a dig in since Brigids laid Corofin flat on their arses in 2006 and 2011.

From a lad who is out being a mouthpiece for respect campaigns and the like it was an absolute absurdity that he took his post-match interview to have a go at Frankie. Brigids were far more gracious in victory than Sice was.