Connacht U21 Football Championship 2011

[ross matt]

Is it true that Roscommon were not allowed warm up on the pitch and had to drive 15 mins to another pitch? they were not even allowed warm up on the salthill club pitches next door?
while galway were allowed do their warm up on the main pitch??

It's what i hearing aswell! it was throw in when i arrived so i don't know? but this happened before Vs Galway in a Junior game.

Cutching at straws if its being used as an excuse for such a dismal performance.

Not using it as a excuse just replying to the comment! read up i texted at HT at the match & i knew we were going to get a bad beating.

Chill Ross. Never accused you of anything. Just making a general statement re how bad we were that anything that happened or didnt happen preparation wise wouldnt have made any difference.

[spuds]

Roscommon goalie let himself down trying to get into a physical with Danny Cummins in the goal near the end, Cummins tried to get out of there but Cafferkey and other defenders were all over him as if he did something wrong. Whoever comes out of the black north will take watching, more than likely Tyrone, whereas the novel Leinster champs might not be as big a challenge.

Fair play to Mulholland and co, have given Galway football a right lift again when needed. Would the likes of Shane Maughan from last years minors be far off that panel ? Another big brute of a lad with plenty of football in him. Peadar Ó Griofa as well ?

[ross matt]

From limited highlights on TG4 lastnight Galway looked very good, surprised how badly Roscommon fared. Thought they were better than that. Galway look a big strong team with plenty of pace onboard too. That wing forward Boyle has some turbo charge in him. Will put it up to the Munster champs.

Hard to tell from just two games I suppose but unusually for a Galway team they seem very strong defensively and in midfield. To only concede a combined 0-11 against Sligo and Roscommon is pretty good going. They have two big midfielders but they seem to be quite mobile as well rather than just being two big lumps who can't run. Both only out of minor though so how they would fare against someone like Cork's Aidan Walsh for example is another matter entirely. Seems to be plenty of pace amongst the forwards too. The two wing-forwards Boyle and Doherty are flying machines while Hehir, Cummins and Monahan are pretty quick as well. Boyle in particular ran like a scalded cat and he's a big fecker too. Fellas that size shouldn't be that quick. Alan Mulholland has them well drilled and has probably done his hopes of getting the senior job one day no harm at all.

Munster champs will be a big test for them though. I fancy whoever wins that semi will be favourites to win it out.

By the way the Roscommon goalie was some size of man. No wonder they couldn't get a penalty past him.

In fairness to Roscommon Galway did have serious pace. They used it to great effect to break forward once they'd broken up an attack. O'Currain is a fine midfielder but still young and light. Higgins won alot of primary possession of him when he was introduced. Like you say the likes of Aidan walsh will be a different proposition and Fahy and Duane will hardly get the same space to drive forward against better opposition. Whatever about the quality of their play being poor when in possession Roscommon were strangely very standoffish in the tackle.. like if they were afraid to concede frees etc. Galway physically pushed them out of the way.... again something they wont do unchallenged in an AI semi. Its difficult after hammering Sligo and Ross for the tribesmen to know how they really are fixed but they can only beat whats put in front of them.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Roscommon goalie let himself down trying to get into a physical with Danny Cummins in the goal near the end, Cummins tried to get out of there but Cafferkey and other defenders were all over him as if he did something wrong. Whoever comes out of the black north will take watching, more than likely Tyrone, whereas the novel Leinster champs might not be as big a challenge.

Fair play to Mulholland and co, have given Galway football a right lift again when needed. Would the likes of Shane Maughan from last years minors be far off that panel ? Another big brute of a lad with plenty of football in him. Peadar Ó Griofa as well ?

Maughan is definitely still with the minors this year. Think he's still young enough despite being a big lad. Son of Mayo's Jimmy Maughan of course.

Not sure if O'Griofa is overage for minor this year or not. I suspect he might be but not sure why he's not involved with the U-21's. Maybe they feel it's a year too early for him or maybe he's just injured.

[galwayman]

O'Griofa is overage for minor this year.Not sure if he just didn't make the cut for the u-21 panel or what the story is.
As GBB said Maughan is still minor and played in the curtain raiser on Saturday at Pearse.

Hard to know how the team will fare when they step up in class in the AI semi.Kerry or Cork will certainly provide a very stiff challenge. I just have a feeling that we may not possess enough of a threat in the full forward line to win that one.All 3 of Cummins,Sweeney & Monaghan are hot & cold in the extreme.
Think we would need more of a consistent scoring threat from them to go any further.
Hopefully I'll be proved wrong though. There are a lot of good footballers on the team.

[muppet]

Roscommon goalie let himself down trying to get into a physical with Danny Cummins in the goal near the end, Cummins tried to get out of there but Cafferkey and other defenders were all over him as if he did something wrong. Whoever comes out of the black north will take watching, more than likely Tyrone, whereas the novel Leinster champs might not be as big a challenge.

Fair play to Mulholland and co, have given Galway football a right lift again when needed. Would the likes of Shane Maughan from last years minors be far off that panel ? Another big brute of a lad with plenty of football in him. Peadar Ó Griofa as well ?

Maughan is definitely still with the minors this year. Think he's still young enough despite being a big lad. Son of Mayo's Jimmy Maughan of course.

Not sure if O'Griofa is overage for minor this year or not. I suspect he might be but not sure why he's not involved with the U-21's. Maybe they feel it's a year too early for him or maybe he's just injured.

I remember Jimmy playing minor for Mayo. He was outrageously talented at that level but as usual didn't quite carry it through to senior.

[ross4life]

After last weekends disappointment we got small measure of revenge in the Connacht Minor league tonight...by getting a big win over Galway to secure the title.

[mick999]

Some post match interviews here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ballywire#p/u/10/i3v1qwzScgs