Messages

Davy and Lohan have a very unhealthy relationship. I expect it's the same for a good few of them. I don't know the full ins and outs but a lot of stuff there with his da etc.

If you ever get a chance there used to be a thread on Clare hurlers on how Brian Lohan got the job. He wasn't even interviewed for the job even though he'd expressed an interest in going for it and it was going to another (highly regarded coach all the same) lad known to be friendly with Davy and his Da only for a delegate to complain about how Brian was treated and then some other delegates rowed in behind and lo and behold he got appointed.

Some of the goings on in the Clare CB would take some beating, and in his first year Lohan had to put his hand into his own pocket for a lot of stuff for the panel of players before a separate organisation or supporters club got together to finance them and the centre of excellence...

Must be a record



Then you have Harry Kane still waiting after all those minutes of action.

I thought you had  to play a certain amount  of games to get a medal. That was  the case for the  premier league anyway , not sure about  the cup competitions

5 games for a league medal but is there an exemption fot keepers.

Surely to christ you must in the very least have to make the matchday squads!

What was the sending off for? Wasnt at the game. Seemed to fall apart after it

From what I saw it was minimal contact, we get refereed in such a different way to the other teams.

Looked like McGarry made an ever so slight contact to the lads helmet...

Very harsh indeed.

I truly despise how football analysts become cheerleaders for what they want to happen, rather than call it as it is.

A handball that gains a man an advantage has to be accepted a foul, regardless of intent or hand position. If not, they should just abolish the rule completely.

The game commentary team were expecting the goal to be ruled out based on precedent and the fact it had obviously touched his hand, but no, ref looked at the monitor and knew disallowing it would have meant Arsenal had no chance of winning the PL..

Other goals throughout the season have been ruled out for similar.

I saw a snap of the run to the finish line from Arsenal and it was pretty impressive too.  The loss to Villa at home was a killer blow, while the city juggernaut rolled on.

How their second goal yesterday still stood considering there was a blatant handball in the immediate build up to it, is staggering from the referee in particular who was asked to go look at it by VAR, but his balls disappeared up inside him and chose to ignore what was right in front of his eyes.

Those type of rules only apply to the smaller clubs.

Tipp were in it at half time and just after it for a bit too is the mad thing. They seemed to capitulate. Your man Kingston (not to take away from him) scored 4 points in a row from more or less the same place on the pitch. Would you not think they'd maybe get wise to that either management or players??

Can't see Waterford taking anything from Limerick as Limerick will be out to get to the final. What I do expect is Davy to be wired to the moon for it.

That game is a knockout game for Limerick also, Waterford win it and Limerick are gone as they'll lose out on the head-to-head with Cork with both on 4 points.
Davy Fitz expends so much (negative) energy fighting losing battles along the line it's surely bound to have a knockon effect on the team. I get the siege mentality but it wears thin after a while.
I'd have criticised his teams in the past for sitting way deep and being too defensive, but there was absolutely no-one tracking the Clare runners when they broke the ball down in midfield and Clare left a few goals behind them also.


In Leinster, f**k knows who'll make it out of that 4 way dogfight, let alone who'll be in the final...

I think Kilkenny will get one of the three spots out, but they might not be in the final as Wexford definitely won't fear them and with McDonald, O'Connor and Chin finding form with the Kilkenny defence at 6's and 7's they could make serious inroads in Nowlan park.

Dublin will fancy a real crack at this Galway team in Salthill as they still look pretty lacking in confidence and leadership on the pitch.

Lads a dodgy fire stick is your friend here

There's a certain irony in that as I don't have an issue with GAAGO as a concept but I hate that casting malarkey and the quality can deteriorate alright, but was in a friends house who has de olde firestick thing going and his picture was far better!

They've a bit of work to do to get the GAAGO app onto some smart TV's

Waterford draw with Limerick and Clare beat Tipp and Cork are gone!

What are the odds on that?

Clare have been the dominant team in lots of games but seem to be always hanging on in the end, they really don't rack up enough scores that their play merits.
Cork are the opposite, they'll absolutely hammer a team who's slightly off the pace at all, but will then struggle in a tight game against the better teams.

Dublin can consider themselves unlucky on Saturday evening, I watched a lot of that game thanks to GAAGO    and they played some fine hurling, TJ was quiet, Eoin Cody was quiet but John Donnelly stood up and was the difference in the two teams.
Lyng will be desperate to get Mullin back on the park, but two really poor performances on the bounce doesn't auger well for later in the year.

Cork to bate Tipp and the hay won't be saved either.

Clare to scrape past Waterford, purely on the fact they're at home which is a tough place to go, but if Davy can't get Waterford primed for this then there's no hope for Waterford who finish the campaign at Limerick!

The more I think of it, that draw between Waterford and Tipp has bolloxed both of them, although I think Tipp are out of contention after this Sunday anyway, but I can see Waterford ending the round robin on three and even if Tipp did manage to beat Clare on the last day they'd have three points to Clare and Corks four.

Clare would progress to the Munster final on the head to head and Cork get the third spot out of Munster.

Galway and Kilkenny to resume normal service this weekend as Lyng would have booted some serious Kilkenny hole over this week and Dublin will need to really fired up for this one. I might get feisty in Parnell as both wanting to lay down a marker...

Wexford visit the neighbours and as much as the jerseys will be very colourful I don't expect Wexford to slip up in this one.
Carlow may struggle to get two top class performances back to back.

right lads (+lasses) a bit of craic who's going to win this weekend but more importantly why:

st johns v ballycran
c'dall v p'ferry
enda's v dunloy
b'galget v rossa
b'castle v loughguile

Ours is easy, Rossa by some margin.

We're dire at the minute.

Anything coming through JC?

We do have a smattering of good underage hurlers coming through but its too early to tell, but any young lads thrown into that team will struggle, no real leadership in there and too many of the more seasoned lads passing the buck and may well be told to fúck off next year when we're in Div2 and start afresh.

Some of them seem to think you don't need to tackle in hurling anymore, but sure I'm an old cúnt who knows nothing.

[At club level, underage players can only play in their own age group and two grades aboveit with grades deemed as Under 12, 14, 16 and 18. All grades Under 10 can only play onegrade above. An Under 8 can play Under 8 and 10. An Under 10 can play Under 10 and12. An Under 12 can play Under 12, 14, 16. An Under 14 can play Under 14, 16 and 18. AnUnder 16 can play Under 16, 18 and Adult and Under 18 can play Under 18 and Adult.]

Quick question on age eligibility. In lgfa a child can play one go games age group above their own group (up to u13 in Tyrone). And 2 levels above their group at competitive level - u14 upwards. Would a 12 year old who's playing u13 go games and u14 competitive, be eligible to play u16 as well? As Theres no older go game age group, would she be allowed to play the 2 age groups above at competitive games?

From the 2023 Official Guide:
Underage players can only play in their own age group at Inter-County level for U-14 and
U-16 (Effective 1st January 2024).
At County U-18 level, players may play in their own age group and one grade above. Over
18 grade is deemed an adult grade.
At club level, underage players can only play in their own age group and two grades above
it with grades deemed as Under 12, 14, 16 and 18. All grades Under 10 can only play one
grade above. An Under 8 can play Under 8 and 10. An Under 10 can play Under 10 and
12. An Under 12 can play Under 12, 14, 16. An Under 14 can play Under 14, 16 and 18. An
Under 16 can play Under 16, 18 and Adult and Under 18 can play Under 18 and Adult.
At Inter-County and Club level, players must firstly play and train with their own age group.

Personally, I would have serious reservations with an u12 (potentially P7) playing at u16 level (5th years) but it isn't against the rules.  I don't think go-games is a factor as the LGFA deem the age groups at U12, u14 etc.

A 12yo can play U16 but it depends on when the turned 12. If they turned 12 on or before the 31st of Dec 2011 then they're eligible to play U16, but ineligible to play U12.

If they turned 12 on or after 1st of Jan 2012 then they're still eligible to play U12 and ineligible to play U16.

Bottom line is that if a kid is eligible to play U12 in that year then they're ineligible to play U16 that same year.

why would anyone in Down want to become a referee when they seen how our best ref was treated and after all the talk of rigorous investigation its now been brushed under the carpet and why would the county board not hush it when the clubs and current referees stand by and let that happen. 

Not sure it was brushed under the carpet as I think the outcomes were shared with the referees during a meeting at the start of the year.

One of Paul Faloons requests to have all championship referee's mic'd up and recorded is to be introduced this year I believe.

Surely with such a robust investigation being carried out by croke park on behalf of down into how the county board handled the process then all clubs would be privy to the findings of that report? I dont think such a report even exists or any investigation was carried out.
officials are micd up anyway in championship but there isnt enough to go around on big match weekends , and as for recording everything im not sure how that happens without all new gear purchased.

the very fact no one knows exactly whats gone on 7 months later is a disgrace.

i agree completely wobbler, it has to be on coaches and club to enforce

The report findings were shared with our county board rep.

There are two different issues here; the report reflects a sad chapter in our county's history where there were no winners. The recommendations should be implemented and we move on.

Each club has a responsibility to develop referees and , more importantly, develop respect for referees. We can learn from the LGFA; at a game on Saturday one of our players got injured and the ref handled the situation very well, both teams gave and got respect.

what were the findings ?

Ask your county board rep, each club has one.

right lads (+lasses) a bit of craic who's going to win this weekend but more importantly why:

st johns v ballycran
c'dall v p'ferry
enda's v dunloy
b'galget v rossa
b'castle v loughguile

Ours is easy, Rossa by some margin.

We're dire at the minute.

No Johnny. There's been various motions by clubs over the year at convention along those lines, but to the best of my knowledge, none have succeeded.

I do wonder when I see such motions. While I get the gist of what they're trying to achieve, those clubs who currently have multiple referees, do they have an active policy of encouraging and fostering referees, or are they just lucky?

I'm not sure, refereeing appeals (I'll use the word lightly) to a certain type of person or persons but probably easier if a group of people do it together as I see Dromara have 4 people starting the training together.

More power to them.

[officials are micd up anyway in championship but there isnt enough to go around on big match weekends]

why would anyone in Down want to become a referee when they seen how our best ref was treated and after all the talk of rigorous investigation its now been brushed under the carpet and why would the county board not hush it when the clubs and current referees stand by and let that happen. 

Not sure it was brushed under the carpet as I think the outcomes were shared with the referees during a meeting at the start of the year.

One of Paul Faloons requests to have all championship referee's mic'd up and recorded is to be introduced this year I believe.

Surely with such a robust investigation being carried out by croke park on behalf of down into how the county board handled the process then all clubs would be privy to the findings of that report? I dont think such a report even exists or any investigation was carried out.
officials are micd up anyway in championship but there isnt enough to go around on big match weekends , and as for recording everything im not sure how that happens without all new gear purchased.

the very fact no one knows exactly whats gone on 7 months later is a disgrace.

i agree completely wobbler, it has to be on coaches and club to enforce

yep, that came out of the meeting and is on Down CCC to provide the correct equipment to aid and back up the referees.


In Antrim if you don't provide a designated referee you lose all home games. Is this a thing in Down?