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Curious as to the level of interest in going to the final.

Feckin Derby day again.

Good day to stay down around Kildare/Newbridge.

Good draw for Kildare, hope we go down with our boots on.

Hmm, what to discuss

Financial Doping
Home Ground
Death Rattle of the Leinster SFC
€35 on the day ticket price
attendance
Fixtures - 3 games on the trot for Kildare

I suppose we could take about the football but would it serve any real purpose.

Kildare were very wasteful in the first 20 mins against Longford, a repeat against Dublin will see the game over pretty much by then, so we need to be as clinical as we have ever been to have any chance . I suspect we will go for it but as always with Kildare we will give up 1 or 2 soft goals and that will suck momentum and life out of us. Dublin won't be great, but they won't need to be. They will win by 8/9 points. 

Whoever scores the first goal, I definitely can't see the other team coming back.

Kinda happy that I will miss this as I will be on a plane. However 2 fantastic managers but the sad thing is instead of the winner been feted for winning the biggest prize in club football we can all see the loser being vilified for not having won a trophy with his current club.

Anyway Liverpool for me, the lesser of two evils but you can't beat tradition. Could be a classic, final score 4-2.

[Winner]

Winner: Dublin

Leinster: Kildare Dublin
Ulster: Donegal
Connacht: Mayo
Munster: Kerry

Super 8: Dublin, Donegal, Mayo, Kerry, Cavan, Tyrone, Galway, Armagh

Narrative:

Armagh to be the surprise package, winning a game in Ulster but losing to Cavan in the semi-final before going on a nice run in the qualifiers taking care of Meath in Round 4. They will get to AI Semi - beating Donegal and Galway in the Super 8.

Dublin with intense media pressure from Kerrycentric journalists and pundits will get stronger as the season progresses, they will have poor first halves against Kildare and Meath in Leinster though, before gradually easing out to 5-7 point winners in both games. This will give a sense of vulnerability and they will lose their Super 8 game to Mayo but will have enough to dispatch Tyrone and Cavan comfortably. Kerry will implode mentally in the semi-final with David Clifford getting sent off for a filthy but deserved elbow on Johnny Cooper. With Mayo in the final Jim Gavin will just say 9 words in his team speech. "We owe these bastards and lads it's just Mayo".  The 5 in a row will be complete.

Food for thought

Article - https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/beat-the-clock/

In the early 1950s, basketball contests were too frequently boring, slow-moving, low-scoring affairs in which one team grabbed an early lead and then spent the rest of the game simply holding on to the ball until the clock ran out.

The league predictably tinkered with the rules a bit (primarily by expanding the lane from six feet to twelve feet in width, thereby reducing congestion under the basket and forcing teams to rely more on distance shooting), but by 1954 the NBA's economic viability was in serious trouble as paying customers began walking out of some dreadfully dull games. The New York Times reported that "professional basketball's existence was in jeopardy" as fans became disgusted with the "continual stalling and intentional fouling," losing interest as teams sometimes required half an hour to play out the final four minutes of a contest. As John Taylor wrote in The Rivalry, his survey of the "golden age of basketball":

[The] game was still frequently boring, degenerating all too often into what were known as "freeze-and-foul" contests, with the team in the lead playing possession ball to run out the clock and the losing team fouling to try to recover, the game stopping each time it succeeded. In one notorious example of "stall ball," as it was also known, on November 22, 1950, between the Minneapolis Lakers and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, the final score was 19-18. The Pistons coach, Murray Mendenhall, had decided not to run the ball but simply to hold it and wait until the end of the game to score the winning point. He succeeded, but fans were reading newspapers in the stands; some walked out and demanded their money back, others swore never to buy another ticket to a professional basketball game.

The solution to this dilemma was another rule change, one which might seem simple and obvious to today's fans, but which was revolutionary for professional basketball at the time. Danny Biasone, the owner of the NBA's Syracuse Nationals franchise, argued that the league needed to place a limit on how long a team could hold the ball, thereby preventing one side from stubbornly hanging onto the ball until they were fouled (or until the clock ran out) and forcing both teams to play the game at a faster pace.

The implementation of this change — what Taylor described as "the single most important innovation in basketball since James Naismith invented the game" — was the 24-second clock. From 1954 onwards, every time a team gained possession of the basketball during a game, they had to attempt a shot within 24 seconds or turn the ball over to the other team — no more hanging on to the ball for minutes on end to run out the clock or force the other side to commit fouls.

The new rule was implemented a little crudely at first (typically by giving a recruit a stopwatch and having him stand on a sideline and yell "Time!" whenever 24 seconds elapsed during a possession), but by the end of the season all the teams in the NBA had set up 24-second shot clocks around their courts that made the timers visible to players, officials, and fans. The innovation was an immediate and obvious success: In 1953 and 1954 combined, only three times did a team score as many as 100 points in a playoff game; in the 1955 playoffs alone, one or both teams scored 100 points or more in over half the contests (eleven out of twenty-one games), and over the course of those two years attendance at NBA games jumped by 50 percent.

https://youtu.be/TAI4viKGswc?t=2676

Really good work by Shane Stapleton this, not an easy listen but none the less compelling as Niall McSorley, Paddy Quinn & Karl Logue talk about that fateful day.

OTB are certainly pushing the boundaries of sports broadcasting in this country.

He should resign, the standard of refereeing is at all time low.

If Anthony Nolan is one of the best referee's in the country then it's time to bring back Seamus Aldridge.

This notion that unless it can be implemented at club level the it can't be introduced is ridiculous, the pace of inter-county football is miles ahead of the highest club standard.

If the GAA can have full time administrators then it's time for full-time referees.

5 per province for football and hurling- refereeing Jan -Sep, training and educating referees - Oct - Dec.

Put them on a retainer of 25k and then a match fee.

Well worth supporting, you'll even get to see Dinny Jnr swing a hurl/hurley/piece of wood at half-time.

Gobshite!

Massive ban coming his way. Pushed a linesman and then threw a ball at his head hitting him.

I hope it's sunny.

Kudos to the Kildare Hurlers & their Antrim Brothers


Kildare and Antrim hurlers release joint statement on farcical playoff situation facing both counties
By Patrick Ward 22:26 Thursday 28th of June 2018

The GPA have released a statement tonight on behalf of the Kildare and Antrim hurlers ahead of their playoff this Saturday, which will determine which side plays in next year's Joe McDonagh Cup.

Meath finished last in the second tier competition, meaning they were relegated to the Christy Ring Cup, while Antrim finished second from bottom. Kildare won the Christy Ring Cup, but they will not be automatically be promoted to the Joe McDonagh Cup as the GAA are trying to cut that competition down to five teams ahead of 2019.

It means that a playoff between Antrim and Kildare has been included in the structure of the competition, which is the main bone of contention for both counties. The statement released by the GPA also outlines the farcical timing of the game, which arrives just seven days after Kildare won a national title in Croke Park and has been fixed for Armagh at 12.45pm on Saturday afternoon.

Joe Quaid told KildareNow earlier this week that he felt there should be no playoff game, and, seeing as there is one in the offing now, questioned why it was being rushed.

The statement on behalf of the players also outlines how teams in the lower tiers are now being marginalised and that events such as this is only hampering the development of hurling in counties such as Kildare.

Some people may ask why a statement has only come to light on the Thursday evening before the game, but one prominent member of the Kildare senior hurling team told KildareNow that the players would not raise the issue ahead of the Christy Ring Cup final as it would create a distraction that would upset their chances, while also giving an air of over confidence that they might win the game. The GPA have been preparing this statement since Wednesday through dialogue with players from both counties.

There is no threat of the players on either side refusing to fulfil the fixture, but there is a hope that the GAA might analyse the structure of the competitions ahead of next season. A six-team competition would certainly make more sense than a five-team competition.

Statement on Behalf of Kildare and Antrim Senior Hurling Panels

The players of the Kildare and Antrim Senior Hurling Teams wish to jointly express our discontent with the Joe McDonagh Cup promotion/regelation play-off scheduled for Saturday the 30th of June 2018.
We feel it incumbent on us to highlight the unfairness and inconsideration surrounding this fixture in the hope that we can positively affect change for the future.

The players feel that our opinions in this matter should be heard and considered with our welfare in mind and not disregarded with the simplistic recourse of referencing agreed procedures as this will be perceived by us as a belittling of the respect that should be afforded the players. We are the ones who must go through the stresses and strains of these decisions and wish for our opinions to be valued.

Both panels believe neither team should be required to play in a promotion/relegation play-off for a number of reasons:

1. The Joe McDonagh Cup should remain at 6 teams; a request which is made in the interest of competitiveness, fair-play and equity. The McDonagh Cup has shown everyone how competitive hurling at the lower levels has become and the tier below the Liam McCarthy should encourage teams to achieve higher standards, not shut them out. This is a point which many panels have echoed throughout the year. A 5 team competition is illogical and only serves to make it more difficult for aspiring counties to compete. Antrim should remain in the competition as they did not finish bottom and Kildare should fill the relegated 6th spot.

2. The Christy Ring Cup competition, and by consequence the Nicky Rackard and Lory Meagher Cups, have been eroded in standing for a number of years consistently since their inception. For example, the Christy Ring Final used to take place before Liam McCarthy All-Ireland Semi-Finals, which held true to the original intentions of promoting hurling in the weaker counties. This progressive principle has been lost to a point where all these competitions have been downgraded to tiers 3, 4 and 5 and run off in their entirety before the end of June. This does nothing to promote respect for these competitions and this grievance has been aired numerous times in the past.

3. If the system of promotion/relegation matches is being discarded next year, then the time for implementation was this year's competitions. They are unjust, unequal in advantage and unnecessarily stressful. Winning your respective competition must be the end-point and high-point of your competitive year. No further fixtures should ever be considered for any reason and automatic promotion must be the incentive. Promoted teams should be afforded the courtesy and respect of being given a pre-season to prepare for superior opposition and competition. Kildare suffered under a similar situation in 2014 and failed to win the Christy Ring for a further 3 seasons. This could have happened to any team in the competition that year. Manipulating the rules of promotion/relegation in such a fashion can and does have long term ramifications for progression.

4. The scheduling of this fixture exemplifies a blatant disregard for the welfare of the players. Both panels acknowledge that the week turnaround, the date, the timing and the location were not fixed with the best interest of the players in mind. We call for a more transparent, communicative, flexible and equitable process to be considered when fixing matches, especially of this nature and given the circumstances of all players involved.

5. Regardless of the result on Saturday both panels will support each other to retain the 6 team McDonagh Cup format and pursue all possible avenues to make this happen.

We fully accept that this fixture has been agreed upon and set since before the competitions commenced but these are the views of the players. This statement is an appeal to the GAA to listen to the concerns of the players and that increased respect is given to all participants of the great game of hurling.

Regards,

Kildare and Antrim Senior Hurling Panels 2018
28th June 2018

Can't see St Conleths getting a cent in the next 5 years 

Should be played in Newbridge and hard luck on all those Mayo supporters.

We know it won't though because of €€€€€€€€€€

Funny thing is, even though the majority of Mayo supporters will miss out you couldn't see them kicking up a fuss if it was played in Newbridge.

It would be a bigger ticket frenzy than the All-Ireland, imagine the hype.

Joe Brolly?
Neil Francis?
Ewan MacKenna?
Colm Parkinson?
Eamon Dunphy?
George Hook?
Ger Gilroy?
Paul Kimmage?

I presonally wouldn't put Parkinson or Gilroy in there and it's not particular to Ireland but by jesus we have some of the biggest arseholes talking about sport in this country. They will all claim not to be cheerleaders, hitting you with facts etc etc but they are always negative and never constructive. Empty vessels who never offer solutions just opinion usually uninformed.

The only thing more annoying is the gobshites who retweet them when they write something they agree with but abuse the f*ck out them when the write something they disagree with. MacKenna's anti-Dublin doping and his anti-rugby musings being a case in point.

Any other nominations?

Not sure if any interest as these comps seem to have died a death but set up a board one here...

Dinny Breen wants you to join his predictions contest GAABoard World Cup Prediction. Here is his message :

    ...

Register directly by following this link, or paste the following link in your browser:
https://www.pronocontest.com/signup?key=1azazgu

The contest key is: 1azazgu.

The Longford chaps are awfully nice on this board so hard to get the spite up. If only we had drawn Tyrone or Meath...

If Longford go open they will lose, if they go tight they will win. To me it's as simple as that, I hope they go tight, if Kildare lose need to lose better else they are not learning.

One of the saddest things this year was the murder of this young girl!

A 13 year old boy has been charged with her murder.

13 years of age!!!!

Where is the best place to watch the rugby on Saturday that is close to UUC?

Also where would be the best place for about 20 20 somethings from the South to go out Saturday night?

Any advice appreciated.

Heading to a Eindhoven on a stag.

Anyone ever been? Recommendations etc all appreciated.

Is it alive or dead? If we didn't play it would anyone care?

Anyway The State Council have determined that both Leinster Semi-Finals will be played in Croke Park, which means dearer ticket prices from last year as we now have to pay for a double header. Just bollix really. 

Leinster G.A.A. S.F.C. 2018
1.    Laois    v    Wexford     12.5.2018    Innovate Wexford Park    6.30pm
2.    Louth    v    Carlow     13.5.2018     O'Moore Park     2.00pm
3.    Offaly    v    Wicklow     13.5.2018     O'Moore Park     4.00pm

Probably looking at Laois, Louth and Offaly to progress.

QUARTER FINALS:
4.    Laois/Wexford    v    Westmeath     26/27.5.2018     TBC    
5.    Louth/Carlow    v    Kildare     26/27.5.2018    TBC    
6    Offaly/Wicklow    v    Dublin     26/27.5.2108    TBC    
7    Longford    v    Meath     26/27.5.2018    TBC    

Laois v Westmeath will be hard to call, Laois will have momentum of a good league (Div 4 caveat) and a championship win, Westmeath arguably the best Leinster team of the last 4 years outside the Financial Dopers will not be phased. Tullamore will be the venue and Westmeath to shade. Will be a good game for the neutral.

Louth v Kildare. Should be a double header with the above, Kildare even though had a poor league should benefit from the higher level and can score freely against teams at their level or below. Kildare to win.

Longford v Meath. Venue will be interesting, Cusack park would be a good choice. Tight ground would suit Longford who would be more physical than Meath. Not easy to call, would fancy Longford in a tight ground.


SEMI FINALS:
8.    4    v    5     10.6.2018     Croke Park    2.00pm
9.    6    v    7     10.6.2018     Croke Park     4.00pm

Westmeath v Kildare.  Again hard to call, Kildare's Division 1 experience to shade it. It will be a soulless game played in an empty Croke Park. With so many games with no outstanding favourites the Leinster Championship would be a great comp if only....

Nice for Longford players to play in Croke Park in the other semi.

FINAL:    8     v    9     24.6.2018     Croke Park     4.00pm

Meh!