Ulster Colleges

[NotedObserver]

Serious performances by Omagh in the semi and final...winning by 18 and 17 points respectively. Almost a pity it was so one sided as the atmosphere never really got going in Croker. Great achievement for my own club having 3 players on the 15 one being the captain with 2-5 from play and another being man of the match.

Any one of 4 or 5 schools in Ulster could have made a great cracking at winning today. Standard very high across the province this year.

Surely a good few inter county players come from that side. Serious talents with serious attitudes

[Walter Cronc]

Serious performances by Omagh in the semi and final...winning by 18 and 17 points respectively. Almost a pity it was so one sided as the atmosphere never really got going in Croker. Great achievement for my own club having 3 players on the 15 one being the captain with 2-5 from play and another being man of the match.

Any one of 4 or 5 schools in Ulster could have made a great cracking at winning today. Standard very high across the province this year.

Surely a good few inter county players come from that side. Serious talents with serious attitudes

Doubt it. Schools football hugely over rated. Be doing well to get 5/6 top club players from any school side. Hogan winners or not!

[shawshank]

Regardless, that was a serious Omagh team. They’ll be a few because of the pace they have

[Nanderson]

Serious performances by Omagh in the semi and final...winning by 18 and 17 points respectively. Almost a pity it was so one sided as the atmosphere never really got going in Croker. Great achievement for my own club having 3 players on the 15 one being the captain with 2-5 from play and another being man of the match.

Any one of 4 or 5 schools in Ulster could have made a great cracking at winning today. Standard very high across the province this year.

Surely a good few inter county players come from that side. Serious talents with serious attitudes

Doubt it. Schools football hugely over rated. Be doing well to get 5/6 top club players from any school side. Hogan winners or not!

From the St Colmans Newry side that won 2 hogans in 10 and 11 AFAIK Caolan Mooney, Jerome and Ryan Johnston, Niall McParland, Niall Donnelly, Donal O'Hare and Ross McGarry. There were others on that team that played for Armagh so I'm not sure if any of them went on to play at senior level with Armagh. Honourable mention to Shay McCartan who went on to play professional soccer across the water

[Walter Cronc]

Serious performances by Omagh in the semi and final...winning by 18 and 17 points respectively. Almost a pity it was so one sided as the atmosphere never really got going in Croker. Great achievement for my own club having 3 players on the 15 one being the captain with 2-5 from play and another being man of the match.

Any one of 4 or 5 schools in Ulster could have made a great cracking at winning today. Standard very high across the province this year.

Surely a good few inter county players come from that side. Serious talents with serious attitudes

Doubt it. Schools football hugely over rated. Be doing well to get 5/6 top club players from any school side. Hogan winners or not!

From the St Colmans Newry side that won 2 hogans in 10 and 11 AFAIK Caolan Mooney, Jerome and Ryan Johnston, Niall McParland, Niall Donnelly, Donal O'Hare and Ross McGarry. There were others on that team that played for Armagh so I'm not sure if any of them went on to play at senior level with Armagh. Honourable mention to Shay McCartan who went on to play professional soccer across the water

How many of them would you call established county players? I wouldn't say one! And that includes Mooney. Maghera had numerous sides that won and reached Hogan finals over 3 or 4 years. Conor Glass and Shane McGuigan the only two to really come through to play at a high level.

[God14]

Consider how good Omagh were.

Dungannon academy and Holy Trinity Cookstown made up a three of the semi finalists for Tyrone schools

Donaghmore convent swept all before them at 'b' grade winning ulster and All Ireland handsomely

Carrickmore did well also at the C grade winning Ulster

I can see why the Derryman is concerned. Serious firepower coming down the tracks

[Walter Cronc]

Consider how good Omagh were.

Dungannon academy and Holy Trinity Cookstown made up a three of the semi finalists for Tyrone schools

Donaghmore convent swept all before them at 'b' grade winning ulster and All Ireland handsomely

Carrickmore did well also at the C grade winning Ulster

I can see why the Derryman is concerned. Serious firepower coming down the tracks

Lol where did I mention Tyrone?

[Captain Obvious]

A lot of athletic looking players on the Omagh team who can make the step up to county level if developed right. Tyrone have top of range facilities in order to do that also.

[Estimator]

Serious performances by Omagh in the semi and final...winning by 18 and 17 points respectively. Almost a pity it was so one sided as the atmosphere never really got going in Croker. Great achievement for my own club having 3 players on the 15 one being the captain with 2-5 from play and another being man of the match.

Any one of 4 or 5 schools in Ulster could have made a great cracking at winning today. Standard very high across the province this year.

Surely a good few inter county players come from that side. Serious talents with serious attitudes

Doubt it. Schools football hugely over rated. Be doing well to get 5/6 top club players from any school side. Hogan winners or not!

From the St Colmans Newry side that won 2 hogans in 10 and 11 AFAIK Caolan Mooney, Jerome and Ryan Johnston, Niall McParland, Niall Donnelly, Donal O'Hare and Ross McGarry. There were others on that team that played for Armagh so I'm not sure if any of them went on to play at senior level with Armagh. Honourable mention to Shay McCartan who went on to play professional soccer across the water

How many of them would you call established county players? I wouldn't say one! And that includes Mooney. Maghera had numerous sides that won and reached Hogan finals over 3 or 4 years. Conor Glass and Shane McGuigan the only two to really come through to play at a high level.

Why change the argument to 'established' county players?

From those Maghera teams, would you just call Niall Toner, Padraig Cassidy, Oisin McWilliams, Shea Downey and Paul McNeill county players, but not 'established' county players?

[Nanderson]

Serious performances by Omagh in the semi and final...winning by 18 and 17 points respectively. Almost a pity it was so one sided as the atmosphere never really got going in Croker. Great achievement for my own club having 3 players on the 15 one being the captain with 2-5 from play and another being man of the match.

Any one of 4 or 5 schools in Ulster could have made a great cracking at winning today. Standard very high across the province this year.

Surely a good few inter county players come from that side. Serious talents with serious attitudes

Doubt it. Schools football hugely over rated. Be doing well to get 5/6 top club players from any school side. Hogan winners or not!

From the St Colmans Newry side that won 2 hogans in 10 and 11 AFAIK Caolan Mooney, Jerome and Ryan Johnston, Niall McParland, Niall Donnelly, Donal O'Hare and Ross McGarry. There were others on that team that played for Armagh so I'm not sure if any of them went on to play at senior level with Armagh. Honourable mention to Shay McCartan who went on to play professional soccer across the water

How many of them would you call established county players? I wouldn't say one! And that includes Mooney. Maghera had numerous sides that won and reached Hogan finals over 3 or 4 years. Conor Glass and Shane McGuigan the only two to really come through to play at a high level.

Mooneys been playing every year bar the years he's had bad injuries since he was a minor. Donal OHare was consistently our top forward for the best part of 5 years. Jerome and Ryan have been established for a long time as well

[snoopdog]

Serious performances by Omagh in the semi and final...winning by 18 and 17 points respectively. Almost a pity it was so one sided as the atmosphere never really got going in Croker. Great achievement for my own club having 3 players on the 15 one being the captain with 2-5 from play and another being man of the match.

Any one of 4 or 5 schools in Ulster could have made a great cracking at winning today. Standard very high across the province this year.

Surely a good few inter county players come from that side. Serious talents with serious attitudes

Doubt it. Schools football hugely over rated. Be doing well to get 5/6 top club players from any school side. Hogan winners or not!

From the St Colmans Newry side that won 2 hogans in 10 and 11 AFAIK Caolan Mooney, Jerome and Ryan Johnston, Niall McParland, Niall Donnelly, Donal O'Hare and Ross McGarry. There were others on that team that played for Armagh so I'm not sure if any of them went on to play at senior level with Armagh. Honourable mention to Shay McCartan who went on to play professional soccer across the water

How many of them would you call established county players? I wouldn't say one! And that includes Mooney. Maghera had numerous sides that won and reached Hogan finals over 3 or 4 years. Conor Glass and Shane McGuigan the only two to really come through to play at a high level.

Mooneys been playing every year bar the years he's had bad injuries since he was a minor. Donal OHare was consistently our top forward for the best part of 5 years. Jerome and Ryan have been established for a long time as well

Saying colleges football is seriously overrated bacuse few make county teams is like saying Minor football is also overrated. I've seen many an entertaining game in colleges football.  How many of the great St Colmans and Maghera sides in mid to late 80s went on to play for their counties? and win Sam.

[bennydorano]

A nonsense argument Walter is putting forward, Colleges football is a super standard, much more Darwinian than some underage county panels.

IMO Tyrone' Schools' biggest advantage is that it is a huge county comparatively speaking with much greater nationalist leaning people (strong communities & clubs) than other counties. Gaelic football is king everywhere as well, little Hurling, Soccer, even Basketball? ( I remember Dungannon used to be a BB powerhouse but do they bother with it anymore?). In A grade Armagh have 2 regular MacRory teams, St Pats Armagh & St Ronans Lurgan and up until the creation of Ronans,  St Pats were the only A grade side, and a lot of our catchment area are Armagh clubs near the Tyrone border who gravitate towards Dungannon Academy. St Paul's Bessbrook flit between A & B grade and they have to contend with half of South Armagh going to Newry Schools. But that is just the way it is, there aren't going to be any structural changes that can level the playing field a bit.

[marty34]

A nonsense argument Walter is putting forward, Colleges football is a super standard, much more Darwinian than some underage county panels.

IMO Tyrone' Schools' biggest advantage is that it is a huge county comparatively speaking with much greater nationalist leaning people (strong communities & clubs) than other counties. Gaelic football is king everywhere as well, little Hurling, Soccer, even Basketball? ( I remember Dungannon used to be a BB powerhouse but do they bother with it anymore?). In A grade Armagh have 2 regular MacRory teams, St Pats Armagh & St Ronans Lurgan and up until the creation of Ronans,  St Pats were the only A grade side, and a lot of our catchment area are Armagh clubs near the Tyrone border who gravitate towards Dungannon Academy. St Paul's Bessbrook flit between A & B grade and they have to contend with half of South Armagh going to Newry Schools. But that is just the way it is, there aren't going to be any structural changes that can level the playing field a bit.

Do many sth. Armagh lads still go to the 2 Newry schools?

[brokencrossbar1]

A nonsense argument Walter is putting forward, Colleges football is a super standard, much more Darwinian than some underage county panels.

IMO Tyrone' Schools' biggest advantage is that it is a huge county comparatively speaking with much greater nationalist leaning people (strong communities & clubs) than other counties. Gaelic football is king everywhere as well, little Hurling, Soccer, even Basketball? ( I remember Dungannon used to be a BB powerhouse but do they bother with it anymore?). In A grade Armagh have 2 regular MacRory teams, St Pats Armagh & St Ronans Lurgan and up until the creation of Ronans,  St Pats were the only A grade side, and a lot of our catchment area are Armagh clubs near the Tyrone border who gravitate towards Dungannon Academy. St Paul's Bessbrook flit between A & B grade and they have to contend with half of South Armagh going to Newry Schools. But that is just the way it is, there aren't going to be any structural changes that can level the playing field a bit.

Do many sth. Armagh lads still go to the 2 Newry schools?

Still the schools of preference generally but the numbers wouldn’t be what they were. St Pauls and St Joes in Cross gradually getting stronger and stronger. St Joe’s have the new school now so I can see it pushing on a lot,  particularly with A Level now well established.

[marty34]

A nonsense argument Walter is putting forward, Colleges football is a super standard, much more Darwinian than some underage county panels.

IMO Tyrone' Schools' biggest advantage is that it is a huge county comparatively speaking with much greater nationalist leaning people (strong communities & clubs) than other counties. Gaelic football is king everywhere as well, little Hurling, Soccer, even Basketball? ( I remember Dungannon used to be a BB powerhouse but do they bother with it anymore?). In A grade Armagh have 2 regular MacRory teams, St Pats Armagh & St Ronans Lurgan and up until the creation of Ronans,  St Pats were the only A grade side, and a lot of our catchment area are Armagh clubs near the Tyrone border who gravitate towards Dungannon Academy. St Paul's Bessbrook flit between A & B grade and they have to contend with half of South Armagh going to Newry Schools. But that is just the way it is, there aren't going to be any structural changes that can level the playing field a bit.

Do many sth. Armagh lads still go to the 2 Newry schools?

Still the schools of preference generally but the numbers wouldn’t be what they were. St Pauls and St Joes in Cross gradually getting stronger and stronger. St Joe’s have the new school now so I can see it pushing on a lot,  particularly with A Level now well established.

Ok. Was thinking Colman's and Abbey have drifted from the scene a bit.