Messages

Team for Sunday:

Brendan McVeigh
Gerald McCartan
Dan Gordon
Luke Howard
Aidan Branagan
Kevin McKernan
Declan Rooney
Peter Fitzpatrick
Kalum King
Daniel Hughes
Mark Poland
Conor Maginn
Conor Laverty
Brendan Coulter
Martin Clarke

So Decky Rooney's back. I think that's good. Interesting to see Maginn and Laverty getting a start. And Benny ia pushed to the square. I'm surprised Murtagh didn't get a chance. Maginn has looked very promising when he's come on as sub I'm glad to see him in. Best of all it's great to see that largely speaking we have a settled team that know who will be playing week in week out and can develop as a unit.

Not a bad team and good to see Laverty getting a start.  I would expect to see Gerard Mc Cartan pushing out to the half back line, as he is definately not a corner back.

Corey Haim has died aged 38.

He died on Wednesday 10 March 2010

I have never read so much anti St Colmans tripe in all my life, obviously written by some extremely envious Abbey past pupils, or Abbey sympathisers, who are eternally jealous of the Colleges history and tradition, standing proud at the top of the MacRory Roll of Honour with 18 titles compared to the Abbey's 5 titles (only titles won on the field count).

You are right Leo, to call St Colmans College by the name 'The College' would be the same as calling Abbey Christian Brothers Grammar School by the name 'The Abbey.'   

As for the antics the other night.  The College took the field to chorus of cheers from the Blue Army while at the same time the Abbey supporters were chanting that Caolan Mooney was a W@@ker.  Why should an 18 year old lad have to listen to this abuse that went on for quite a while and he was not alone as a number of other College lads were also subjected to this type of 'personal' abuse?  As for the bottle throwing, the Abbey lads launched the bottles for first which was not on, hitting a girl in the process, and the College lads returned them, which was also unacceptable.  St Colmans teachers were soon in among the College supporters and shortly after this, the Abbey teachers did likewise.  I have also heard subsequently that there was urine in some of the open topped bottles thrown from the Abbey 'fans', which adds a sick twist to the whole debacle.

The Blue Army brought some wonderful noise and colour to the occasion as they have done for years and anyone who knows anything about Ulster Colleges football will recognise that, with good natured chanting and singing throughout the game, all with a hint of humour ("You're not a physio" and "Mickeys got a big coat" were two examples).  They also acclaimed the number of past pupils who walked past them prior to the game giving the likes of the Mc Cartan's, Aidan Carr and others a special cheer.

May I also suggest to Mid Down Gael and Pointlad that they venture to Croke Park to watch St Colmans play in a Hogan Final as they certainly won't be supporting Kilcoo or Warrenpoint in Croke Park at any time.  The might also bring a bus for the Abbey PPSA where they would be able to see football being played as it should, and not the 13 men behind the ball crap that St Colmans had to play against the other night.  It was also interesting that the scoreboard gave the Abbey 3 points in the first half when they had only scored 2 but I suppose they needed all the help they could get.  It must have been an Abbey man keeping the score.   

The College now move on to the MacRory semi final against Magherafelt and the Abbey back to the drawing board.  The Abbeys massive investment in their 'specialist' strength and conditioning coach wasn't too evident the other night and to kit out 40 lads in all that gear could not have been cheap.  St Colmans have a real chance of making the MacRory final on St Patricks Day but a number of their players will have to step up their game.  It was good enough the other night against substandard opposition, beating them by 35 points over two games this year, but it would be good enough the next day.  I'm sure they will improve.