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Especially if it's a Mayo lad throwing the wooden spoon.

You can get the podcasts from Newstalk as well, including the Off The Ball show which is very good radio. 3 hours a night of pure sports, soccer, GAA, rugby, American sports etc etc.

www.newstalk.ie

If Offaly bother their arses they will beat Carlow, Westmeath, Down and Kerry by more than 15 points. The problem is they will stroll through it, get caught on the hop by someone, and end up wasting away down there. It's going to be a dogfight to get out of the division, you are right about that.

[Off, Ant promoted & into Qualifiers too.]

This weekend in Div 4, u can be sure Offaly & Antrim will win easily. They already are the 2 sides promoted. Its been a poor effort by the rest of us. Clare fancied their chances after winning the McGrath Cup...but lost all games except Kilk.
Carlow we thought we were well on course...beating Wex away, drawing in parnell pk with the Dubs....in 1st game of league beatin Clare away by 5 pts....we thought we were flying!
Reality hit us when Offaly came to Carlow and bet us by 20pts or so. Ok we went & won in London, but last game was shocking poor effort in Belfast going down by 6 points to Antrim. Since then a few of our better players have walked off the panel...same as every year in Carlow.
Hate doing it against my own county, but i was lookin at the odds for games at wkend. They have Cw 5/6 v Tipp 6/5. Im lumping on Tipp knowing what i do about the fall outs in Carlow. And most of the most talented guys in Cw are playing Leinster U-21 semi in Newbridge this weekend too. The 6/5 is guarenteed money!

Carlow U-21s are in leinster semi 4 1st time in 24 years, thats building on minor side who got to leinster final last year. Future looks good 4 Carlow, but this Sunday, no Tipp will win, i guarentee you that.

Sorry, back in Div 4...Antrim are sure of a win too.this wkend..so its Off, Ant promoted & into Qualifiers too.

What do you mean by that? We're going to win the Leinster title

What's controversial about that?

Put it like this, we're no world beaters, but have the potential to be at least the match of the likes of Monaghan, Laois, Fermanagh, Sligo, etc etc. Our backs are not that bad actually, especially when we get Karol Slattery back as well.

Depends on how Tipp get on between now and the end of the season. Carlow and Wicklow away will test them, as will the game against Antrim in Tipp. I'd say Antrim are safe enough, even if they 'only' draw in Ardfinnan. A loss there would obviously throw the cat among the pigeons, but even with that, Tipp would have to go unbeaten to the end, and that won't be easy.

Yeah, there's a Division 4 League Final to be played a a neutral ground. I would assume that, barring other divisional finals messing it up or causing double headers, Offaly and Antrim (if it is those two) would be in Navan. I think they are slated for the weekend of the 26th/27th of April. A Saturday evening in Navan would be nice, but of course both teams have to keep going before that would happen.

Current Standings

Team	Played	Won	Drew	Lost	Points Difference	Points
Offaly	5	4	1	0	+61	9
Antrim	5	4	1	0	+49	9
Tipperary	4	3	0	1	+45	6
Waterford	4	3	0	1	+19	6
Wicklow	4	2	0	2	+21	4
Carlow	4	2	0	2	-14	4
Clare	5	1	0	4	-3	2
London	4	0	0	4	-63	0
Kilkenny	5	0	0	5	-115	0

You would have to think that it's more or less all over bar the shouting for Offaly and Antrim, unless there's any calamitous slip up (not beyond Offaly ), and the Faithful's big wins in Carlow and Aughrim are looking good at the moment to give them an edge over Antrim, especially with a home game against Kilkenny to come.

This week's Division 4 fixtures sees Tipperary travel to Carlow in a match that would have been put down as a Carlow win before the season started, in all likelihodd, but Carlow seem to have their problems, while Tipp have turned in a few decent performances including holding Offaly to 4 points in Tullamore, although their wins have been against the 7th, 8th and 9th teams in the division. Carlow's 6 point defeat in Belfast is not a shocking result, and you could see a close game developing. I'm going to give a hesitant nod to Tipp, purely on momentum.

The second game sees Waterford travel to Tullamore to take on Offaly. Offaly were, by all accounts, very impressive against Wicklow, but were lucky to get out of Casement Park with a draw, while Carlow only faded badly in the second half. The Tipperary game was a wake up call, and the Antrim result meant they had to beat Wicklow, which in fairness they did very well. Waterford have also beaten the bottom three, and were turned over by Wicklow in Dungarvan, so it's hard to see anything other than a comprehensive Offaly win, depending on how they approach the game.

Also on the card is a trip to Ruislip for Antrim. London are pointless in the league, and have shipped heavy defeats to Offaly, Carlow, Tipperary and Waterford. Their  previous home game saw a seven point defeat to Carlow, and again, depending on Antrim's focus for this game, you should expect to see a mid-high teens win for the Saffrons.

The final game of the weekend is in Ennis as two disappointing teams lock horns with Micko taking his tourbus to Clare. Wicklow should be better than they are, but the same could be levelled at Clare. Both sides will be severly disheartened following their games so far, especially Clare who have lost at home to Carlow and Antrim. Wicklow will be gutted by a 15 point loss to Offaly, so it will be interesting to see who can lift themselves most for this. With Micko in charge, you would have to assume Wicklow will be keen to bounce back, so I'll go for a close Wicklow win, maybe 3 or 4 points.

Paul Casey certainly has 'represented' the GPA on a few occasions.

Without a doubt Puck, but that's a different matter I think. Someone else mentioned the fact that you can't be sure of the quality of these drugs, so it's a bit blasé to say someone will grow out of it. If you could be guaranteed that your last line of Coke would be exactly the same as the next line, you could have some justification for saying that lads will grow out of it, generally speaking, and it's harmless enough unless you get addicted.

However, along with the addictive properties of cocaine or heroine, there are other, more serious and immediate health problems.

With alcohol and nicotine (the two other most commonly mentioned 'legal' addictive drugs) at least , because they are legal, you know what you are getting in 20 Carrolls, or a pint of Guinness, at least in terms of ingredients.

With cocaine, heroine, E tabs or any of the other more potent 'recreational' drugs, there is a fair chance that it will be 'cut' with some other agent. If you are unlucky, these cuts will kill you.

I believe, ironically, that several of the deaths before Christmas, especially in Waterford, were due to the cocaine being of a higher standard than normal, thus a line of the new 'good' stuff was the equivalent of several lines of the poorer quality cut stuff. That caused people to OD while theoretically taking their 'normal' dose.

The seemingly obvious answer to this is to legalise it, thus enforcing quality control, but I'm not sure whether that would be a good thing either.

I wonder, given the fact that he is supposedly a pianist, whether there was some thought to insurance matters when he was making up that story? It's common enough for pianists to insure their hands, and I'm not sure Lloyds or whomever would look kindly on a lad being pissed in Dublin, climbing a sharp fence and causing himself to lose a finger. They may think twice about paying out in that instance, and maybe that's what the young lad was afraid of.

Not 100% sure what you mean AZ.

Its not just in the last 6 months that people are struggling with addiction in Ireland, or the world at large.

Heroins been ruining intercity areas since as long as I can remember.

What I meant by growing out of it was the average recreational drug user. No one that I know of, didnt make it out when they decided they'd had enough. Maybe its a demographic thing. Maybe thats because they stayed away from the really bad stuff. (I realise how ridiculous that might sound, but I firmly believe that heroin and crack cocaine are the devil incarnate of the drug world - not that im saying anything else is ok before the usual suspects round me up). Its hard to know.

They died, therefore they'll never grow out of it.

Life changes, responsibilities come along and you eventually grow out of it.

If you get a chance. Too many people in Ireland in the last 6 months or so won't ever grow out of it.

Is he anything to Barack Obama that's standing for president?