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First game very predictable really. BK hurled around CB's system rather than straight into it.
In the second game RE were absolutely steeped. Looked totally lifeless and while it was an unbelievable finish, they scarcely deserved the goal to win it.
BK's squad looks a lot deeper than RE's going on today.
It's no surprise that it has come down to these two, and if I had to call it this evening I'd side with BK. Interesting build up to come!

Will BK finally invest in a new set of jerseys?!

What's wrong with their jerseys?

Jesus there's some amount of pettiness here.

Well, have a look at the starting 15, and particularly the subs used.
I wasn't at the game, but something odd about the team picked.

A very successful underage team all the way up along is suddenly strengthened by 4/5 players including at least 3 IC players. You wouldn't expect them to underperform in a final, right?

They're 16 year old kids for f**king sake. Grow up a bit yourself perhaps.

I wouldn't think so Don, would you?

Seemed an odd comment

Well done to the Harps on winning the Minor A this evening.This was their second year facing an marriage of convenience  amalgamation and fair play to them,they won by 8 points.

100% agree. Abbeyleix will be left to stew on their decision to bolster their squad!

Why, did it make them weaker?

Eddie has his team.

It's working damn well

Why on Earth are we attempting to parachute in our own man?

Quirke hasn't even been appointed yet, how can he have a backroom team... ??

You're surely not this naive?

Another gem from "the Don"..

You're very tetchy

Intercounty Football is fucked if a player like Moore can't play it.

Quirke hasn't even been appointed yet, how can he have a backroom team... ??

You're surely not this naive?

Heard last night Mick Dempsey is considering a role with Quirkes back room team after been approached recently . Not sure how true it is but there has been contact apparently.

Mick is gone from Kilkenny.

A Rosenallis v The Harps final looks nailed on. It would be some achievement if Rosenallis were Senior in both codes considering the base from which they came from. They could be the best dual club in the county!

Surely thats Ballyfin

Could be either depending on if one of then goes up!

But Ballyfin are in a senior football semi final, and have played both codes at senior in recent years. For all you know, Rosenallis could come down in both next year.

Both to be commended nonetheless and make a nonsense of the dual club/player thing.

A Rosenallis v The Harps final looks nailed on. It would be some achievement if Rosenallis were Senior in both codes considering the base from which they came from. They could be the best dual club in the county!

Surely thats Ballyfin

I listened to a good podcast over the summer called Against The Rules, it was by the fella who wrote The Blind Side and Moneyball. He did one of the episodes about referees in the NBA. The NBA invested millions upskilling referees, increasing their pay and also setting up a TV referees hub in New Jersey so that the referees in the stadiums could consult with a TV ref within seconds to make sure the correct call was made. All the surveys they conducted before and after have shown the referees have improved and a higher percentage of correct calls are made in every game, but the abuse towards referees has gotten worse and is being committed by more high profile players. His point was that people don't really want the correct call made by the referee, they only want calls made that suit them.

I would say this is heightened in the GAA because of the personal investment and parochialism involved with clubs. One thing that has struck me in recent years is the amount of abuse thrown at referees by teams who have been awarded a free, never mind the team that the free was given against. I'm not here to defend referees, but people can't expect to treat a group of fellas like dirt, fail to meaningfully invest in recruiting decent numbers, and then give out that the standard isn't high enough.

There's a major accountability problem when it comes to discipline in the GAA and I think that's one of the biggest problems with refereeing. Too many people in the GAA think punishments are only for other people and other clubs, and not their own, even when they are blatantly in the wrong. That comes back to the convoluted nature of the disciplinary process, and the only way to fix that is to streamline the whole thing, do away with appeals to the Leinster Council and DRA and all that oul sh*te. One avenue of appeal would be enough. Increase penalties on behaviour you don't want, anything less is tacit approval of that behaviour. Most senior championship games are played in O'Moore Park, the county board could easily set up a camera system in there to make sure there is video evidence from every game played there. It wouldn't take a huge investment to stretch that down to getting lads to video games at intermediate level or senior b in hurling. They could even offset the costs by selling the videos to the clubs to use for their own analysis, as most clubs now seem to video their games anyway.

If we want referees to be better, we need to increase the numbers doing it, attract the right people, retain them, and the put the right sort of pressure on them as well. Not pressure from abuse, but pressure from that fact they have been properly trained and certain standard is expected, and if they're not meeting it then there's lads there to take their place.

Mind you, I don't envisage any of that ever happening.

Wonderful post.

A good fella Andrew, he'll be missed.

the abuse is probably worse now than it ever was, but this is down to frustration on players part, club players put in so much effort nowadays and give up so much of their lives that when a contentious decision goes against them, so they lash  out physicality and verbally, club players nowadays train like county teams did ten years ago. better pay and conditions would improve the standards

Or maybe the players are more privileged nowadays.