Ulster Colleges

[ranch]

I certainly wouldn't say he was biased or favoured any team over the other.

[sbw]

Watch it again 

[ranch]

Watch it again 

I have.

Whilst I wanted St. Paul's to win I'm genuinely happy for Maghera after last season, no young lad deserves to lose two finals in as many years.
I just don't buy into this notion that the ref got St. Paul's back into it. They were never out of it in the first place and although they were scoring frees in the 2nd half they were frees that deserved to be given and St. Pat's were also getting them up at the other end.

[bennydorano]

St Pauls will be gutted, havent saw stats but i'd imagine Pauls dominated possession? I wouldn't blame tactics for the defeat either, how many frees were missed, wrong on-field options taken? More than enough chances to win. Just came out the wrong end of a tight one.

[ranch]

St Pauls will be gutted, havent saw stats but i'd imagine Pauls dominated possession? I wouldn't blame tactics for the defeat either, how many frees were missed, wrong on-field options taken? More than enough chances to win. Just came out the wrong end of a tight one.

Agree with that. They were beaten by the minimum in a game that could have gone either way. They missed some very kickable frees and conceded a goal that wouldn't have gone in 99 out of 100 times. Two very evenly matched teams, St. Pauls were just unlucky.

Yeah, losing by the minimum is what will probably hurt them most given some of the chances missed. I know some of the players and management and whilst the management can always have another crack at the MacRory in the future it's a pity that talented players like Ciaron O'Hanlon and Eoghan Burns have only had one year at it.

[Dougal Maguire]

A great pity indeed but Ciaran O'Hanlon has Armagh U 21s coming and Eoghan Burns is still a minor so hopefully they'll have a chance to shine there

[ranch]

On the other hand, young Glass from Maghera has another 3 years at MacRory level. Great future ahead of him.

[onefaircounty]

St Pauls will be gutted, havent saw stats but i'd imagine Pauls dominated possession? I wouldn't blame tactics for the defeat either, how many frees were missed, wrong on-field options taken? More than enough chances to win. Just came out the wrong end of a tight one.

My take on it too. Don't think tactics had any real baring. Inexperience more telling.  Well done to both teams, especially Maghera.

[Walter Cronc]

On the other hand, young Glass from Maghera has another 3 years at MacRory level. Great future ahead of him.

Lots of players of both sides hopefully have big futures ahead of them. If Conor keeps developing he will go far. Delighted as a Glen man that we finished with 9 players on the field. That has to be a record number!!

[sbw]

really thought St Pats discipline was as good as any team i have ever seen they just played the game and it was great to see them as winners . more teams should have this policy , what i did not like was the fact that good discipline near cost them as the 2nd half was littered with harsh frees against them. referees are sending the wrong message .

fair play to Glen , 9 players finishing the game on the pitch is a fantastic achivement. i really believe they are going to be a major force in derry soon .

[Rawhide]

A big congratulations to St Pats, thought they were the best team, and whilst the game went down to the wire and you couldn't ignore St Pauls guts, it was St Pats greater quality that eventually bore the result. Also congratualtions to Sean Marty Lockhart and Martin Mc Connell on stepping from underneath a great but ledendry shadow of Big Adrian, the first MacRory to be taken to the school without Adrians influence. But it must be said, that this final like last year was nearly lost as a result of negative tactics and and not allowing players to express themselves to the full. When Maghera were on top in the 1st half it was very obvious how much better they were to St Pauls, but instead of pushing up and taking full advantage of their superiority they stay rigid to their policy of trying to stifle the oppostion, it was this tactic that invited St Pauls unto them in the last 10 mins and without doubt could have resulted in a replay, the same tactic resulted in St Pats loosing the final last year, and it seems nothing has been learned. There is nothing wrong with playing sweepers etc, but when you attack you have to have players supporting the play in numbers to make the tactic an effective counter attack, and this is where St Pats struggle, but on the other side of the arguement the end justifies the means. On the postive side there were many players on the St Pats team yesterday who have won every competion they have entered from 1st year, the O Farrell , the Dalton, the Corn Na Og, the Brock, the Rannafast and now the MacRory, quite incredible, and I wonder has this ever happened before with an age group, at any other college, at this level. Onwards and upwards to the Hogan.

BTW it would make sense that Glen should have the biggest representation on the team, the school serves its primary schools.

[yellowcard]

A big congratulations to St Pats, thought they were the best team, and whilst the game went down to the wire and you couldn't ignore St Pauls guts, it was St Pats greater quality that eventually bore the result. Also congratualtions to Sean Marty Lockhart and Martin Mc Connell on stepping from underneath a great but ledendry shadow of Big Adrian, the first MacRory to be taken to the school without Adrians influence. But it must be said, that this final like last year was nearly lost as a result of negative tactics and and not allowing players to express themselves to the full. When Maghera were on top in the 1st half it was very obvious how much better they were to St Pauls, but instead of pushing up and taking full advantage of their superiority they stay rigid to their policy of trying to stifle the oppostion, it was this tactic that invited St Pauls unto them in the last 10 mins and without doubt could have resulted in a replay, the same tactic resulted in St Pats loosing the final last year, and it seems nothing has been learned. There is nothing wrong with playing sweepers etc, but when you attack you have to have players supporting the play in numbers to make the tactic an effective counter attack, and this is where St Pats struggle, but on the other side of the arguement the end justifies the means. On the postive side there were many players on the St Pats team yesterday who have won every competion they have entered from 1st year, the O Farrell , the Dalton, the Corn Na Og, the Brock, the Rannafast and now the MacRory, quite incredible, and I wonder has this ever happened before with an age group, at any other college, at this level. Onwards and upwards to the Hogan.

BTW it would make sense that Glen should have the biggest representation on the team, the school serves its primary schools.

Its funny how people see things differently, I don't think Maghera were 'obviously much better' than St Pauls. If the result had gone the other way I don't think anyone could have argued. Ultimately the soft first goal was the winning of the game for Maghera. They were physically much stronger than Bessbrook but the teams were very evenly matched. That was borne out by the fact that in the 2 matches they played this season there was the minimum score in both games. Also the sweeper that Maghera employed got MOTM so I don't think you could argue that it wasn't a success. In fact I would say that Maghera got their tactics spot on.

[Rawhide]

Your entitled to your view sur, but Maghera dominated the 1st half and were the better team and to me as a St Pats man I felt we were in a position to drive on, but as I said we sat back. Our sitting back eventually invited St Pauls unto us as they went four down and with the guts they had they were going to give all they had if allowed to come to us. I did say on the other side of the argument that the end justifies the means. A sweeper who is good at his job should be in a position to compete for MOTM, as he has nobody to mark, just read the game.

[yellowcard]

Your entitled to your view sur, but Maghera dominated the 1st half and were the better team and to me as a St Pats man I felt we were in a position to drive on, but as I said we sat back. Our sitting back eventually invited St Pauls unto us as they went four down and with the guts they had they were going to give all they had if allowed to come to us. I did say on the other side of the argument that the end justifies the means. A sweeper who is good at his job should be in a position to compete for MOTM, as he has nobody to mark, just read the game.

On the scoreboard yes, but in terms of possession I would disagree. I would like to know the number of missed chances for either side in the first half but I'd imagine St Pauls had more scoring opportunities than Maghera but simply didn't convert.

[sbw]

It was not a one sided game right from the off st pauls showed they could get into scoring positions and they were hit with 2 sucker blows in the 1st half add to that they kicked 3-4 bad wides their confidence was down going towards half time but good managment got them up and at it again and on another day they could have got a draw but for a great save they might even have won the game. St Pauls and St Pats are 2 well matched sides IMO