Outright Betting:
Westmeath 11/10
Wexford 5/2
Limerick 7/2
Carlow 14/1
Wicklow 16/1
Leitrim 16/1
Waterford 18/1
London 150/1
To be Promoted:
Westmeath 2/5
Wexford 4/5
Limerick 11/10
Carlow 4/1
Leitrim 5/1
Waterford 11/2
Wicklow 11/2
London 33/1
It'll be a travesty if we don't win this division, you'd imagine Banty will have Wexford fired up to give us competition for the title. History would dictate we'll be on the move again this year as since the current league format was introduced in 2008 we have only once competed in the same division in successive years.
2008 Div 2
2009 Div 1
2010 Div 2
2011 Div 3
2012 Div 2
2013 Div 2
2014 Div 1
2015 Div 2
2016 Div 3
2017 Div 4
So unless Kilkenny are opening up Div 5 we should be going up this year.
Limerick and Wexford are the sticky ties for Westmeath and Promotion. Other than that it will be a disaster if they don't win promotion.
Good result for Carlow today. Johnny Magee struggling with Wicklow, big win for Banty.
Carlow gave Westmeath one hell of a fright and unlucky not to get the second point. Going to be a tough division.
Quote from: Give and Go on February 05, 2017, 07:29:02 PM
Carlow gave Westmeath one hell of a fright and unlucky not to get the second point. Going to be a tough division.
Was a very fired up Carlow alright, none more so than the Maor Foirne. Overstepped the line multiple times, yapping at the Westmeath line, yapping at the Westmeath players and even pushing them on a couple of occasions. Should have been put in the stand instead of the multiple warnings he got.
Was a great test for Westmeath though, put to bed any notions we'd have it easy in this division. Carlow very defensive but they played it well and I think we'll encounter a lot of setups like that in this division. Goals killed us. Bryan did well in goals I thought apart from the one brain freeze where he kicked it straight to the corner forward that they got the penalty from. The ref had a brain freeze for the other one. Carlow were attacking and Gaughan was dragged to the ground right in front of the ref while he was trying to get back. Then not only did the ref not give a free out but Carlow managed to work the ball in and stick it in the top corner. Then to compound matters he went and gave Gaughan a black card to everyone's bewilderment.
Apart from that was a very enjoyable game on a super day for football in early February. Corcoran and Loughlin got a quick taste for senior football and didn't last the first half. Gaughan was the best of the substitutes until the ref entered the twilight zone. Sharry got on a lot of ball and delivered some nice kick passes inside. Didn't get enough of it in there though as by the time we got our heads up Carlow had filtered back the bodies. Jimmy Dolan got his customary goal and was unlucky not to get another in the first half after ghosting in behind. Have to win in Limerick next weekend.
Quote from: Croí na hÉireann on February 06, 2017, 09:37:30 AM
Quote from: Give and Go on February 05, 2017, 07:29:02 PM
Carlow gave Westmeath one hell of a fright and unlucky not to get the second point. Going to be a tough division.
Was a very fired up Carlow alright, none more so than the Maor Foirne. Overstepped the line multiple times, yapping at the Westmeath line, yapping at the Westmeath players and even pushing them on a couple of occasions. Should have been put in the stand instead of the multiple warnings he got.
You're being hard on him. He is entitled to come on the pitch during a break in play. Was he not provoked into verbals - Westmeath have a bit of a reputation for sledging....including your star player who kicked a ball at said maor foirnne after the game.
Quote from: Catch and Kick on February 06, 2017, 06:23:57 PM
Quote from: Croí na hÉireann on February 06, 2017, 09:37:30 AM
Quote from: Give and Go on February 05, 2017, 07:29:02 PM
Carlow gave Westmeath one hell of a fright and unlucky not to get the second point. Going to be a tough division.
Was a very fired up Carlow alright, none more so than the Maor Foirne. Overstepped the line multiple times, yapping at the Westmeath line, yapping at the Westmeath players and even pushing them on a couple of occasions. Should have been put in the stand instead of the multiple warnings he got.
You're being hard on him. He is entitled to come on the pitch during a break in play. Was he not provoked into verbals - Westmeath have a bit of a reputation for sledging....including your star player who kicked a ball at said maor foirnne after the game.
No chance. He's entitled to come on to the pitch, never said he wasn't. He's not entitled to have multiple goes at the Westmeath line (manager, doctor, water carrier, basically whoever happened to be nearest for him to direct his ire at), he's not entitled to mouth at the Westmeath players as he runs past them and he's certainly not entitled to come on push and remonstrate with the Westmeath players. He got at least four warnings from the officials regarding his conduct and should have been put in the stand at half time. He puts Rory Gallagher when he was on the line with Jimmy McGuinness in the ha'penny place.
I think counties who have dropped down from Division 3 make the assumption they will easily get out of the basement division. It took Antrim two years, Wexford are down for 2nd year now; Limerick and Westmeath have just come down.
It is a dog fight. Highly competitive. Any of the teams that are not on the radar are capable of delivering a knock out punch!
Was at the game on Sunday and as a Carlowman have to be happy coming away with a draw against the league favourites, especially with an injury time goal. But still feel like it was a game we could have won.
After a nightmare 1st 2 mins where we went 1-1 to 0 down, we owned the rest of that 1st half. Kicked some crazy amount of stupid wides. It was 1-4 to 1-3 at ht but we kicked 7 wides to Westmeaths 1. Should have been much further ahead.
2nd half Westmeath made changes and it was a much more even game, their tactic of long ball into ff line got some success for a while.
We brought on 2 scoring forwards with pace near the end instead of the managers son & another workhorse who won't score and straight away we levelled it up. Then Westmeath got a very dodgy goal, it looked like a square ball all the way.
Luckily for us Westmeath were naive enough to allow us put a great move together and Shane O'Neill only on the pitch making his league debut scored a cracking goal to level it.
For Division 4 it was a quality game, some great long range scores by both sides. The ref bottled out of giving Heslin & a couple of others black cards and waited till injury time to finally give one. The Carlow coach Poacher is exactly what we need, but can see how opposition fans & teams will hate him. He may reel it all in a bit as i'd imagine other refs might send him off.
It will be interesting to see how Michael Moyles gets on in the Leitrim set-up. He was trainer with my club's seniors last year and they reckon he was the reason they got to the county final. I'd like to see them promoted.
Carlow could surprise a few people in this League ...They were going very well in winter training and everyone seems to behind O'Brien.
D. Bryan
J. Gonoud
K. McGuire
M. McCallon
J. Dolan
F. Boyle
D. Lynch
P. Holloway
G. Egan
J. Egan
P. Sharry
D. Corroon
K. Martin
J. Heslin
C. McCormack
Westmeath mean business this weekend. Strong team named. Hopefully more than Paul Sharry does themselves justice this Sunday.
Bad result for carlow after a decent start last week
Quote from: macdanger2 on February 12, 2017, 10:42:08 PM
Bad result for carlow after a decent start last week
Yeah, that was an eyebrow raiser alright. They were always going to struggle to replicate the intensity they brought to Mullingar but still thought they would pull away.
Good win for Westmeath down in Limerick, all the leaders on the team stud up and performed, Sharry, Heslin, Ger Egan, Martin, Dolan, Holloway. The bench pulled us away in the end, gap was down to 4 points around the 60th minute. Kickouts kept them in it, we let them go short all day and never got a hand on them at all. We fared worse though at our own kickouts, there was a spell there in the second half where every one found a Limerick man. Decent teams will absolutely hammer us if we continue to replicate that, we have no effective kickout strategy at all.
Another competent performance from Westmeath yesterday, always looked in charge despite Leitrim getting back to within 4 points early on in the second half. Heslin was good inside, Martin needs to become more of a scoring threat if he's going to remain in there beside him. Holloway looks like making center back his own and Gonoud kept Mulligan very quiet I thought. McCallon in the other corner looking very assured too. Kickouts were an improvement on the last day but there were still a few Garryowens in there. We dominated the middle third and seem to be working hard on turning the ball over as we caught Leitrim in possession numerous times. Beat Waterford next week should see us promoted with home games against Wicklow and London to come. Away game against Wexford should be a good test of where we really are.
Lonely aul division in here. Good win for Westmeath down in Ardmore yesterday. Jaysus, I'll never give out about Salthill again, was nearly swept out to sea by the gale force winds, must have been worth at least 10 points. Looked like it was going to be a tight finish at half time with Westmeath only 1-9 to a point up but in fairness to the lads they drove into the wind in the second half. We created some amount of goal chances and missed about 90% of them, serious work on goal conversation to be done. Waterford did a Joe Sheridan and carried one over the line for us and Darren Quinn returned the favour in the last minute by getting the legs stuck underneath him and letting in one over his head that a Junior B keeper would be livid with. The Bear was like a bull in a china shop, bizarrely Waterford didn't provide full time protection in front of him and anytime he got on the ball he ran through his man. He got two goals but could've had at least another 2. Ger Egan well cleared the crossbar with a penalty and the rest were either put narrowly wide or some last ditch Waterford defending saw them keep it respectable.
Tom Cribbin was rightfully critical afterwards about having to play in Ardmore with other far more suitable pitches in Waterford, the GAA will have to be stronger on this. Apart from the Carlow game it has been a professional job for Westmeath so far, almost Dublin like. Should never have been relegated last year, that performance in Longford has really cost us this year in terms of a competitive league. We have the bottom 2 at home to come so should start those with little game time so far in those games. Wexford should give us two good games so we should get our championship team out for that. Paddy Holloway will be centre back on that, provided the injury he came off with yesterday isn't serious. He was really driving Westmeath on before he had to come off. Mark McCallon was another one driving Westmeath on from the back, has really discovered his appetite for the inter county game. Team starting to take shape but there's still a couple of spots for people to put their hands up for, especially in goals. I'd like to see Fagan given a shot at it for the next couple of games to see if he can cut it at this level, looked good last Wednesday.
Another professional job done by Westmeath in Mullingar yesterday, were comfortable enough all day without really putting daylight between the teams. Wicklow looked like a team who were coming up to put in a performance that they could reference before their championship outing. Westmeath will be disappointed with the last 5 minutes and giving Wicklow the last 4 points. Heslin was to the fore as he has been all league but he was joined yesterday by Stone and Egan who got 6 points from midfield. They have savage energy and after 3 games playing together are starting to look like a real good partnership. Kieran Martin was taking off and can have no complaints after a brilliant performance down in Waterford, needs to find consistency in the full forward line. One area that Wicklow did cause us problems was the long ball into Seanie Furlong. He was able to repeatedly catch dropping ball in his chest which should never happen.
That's promotion more or less in the bag. Away to Wexford, who are also promoted, next weekend. You'd imagine Banty will stoke the fires for that one so we should put out as close to a top team as we have. No sign of Holloway on the teamsheet yesterday, hopefully his injury isn't too bad. Luke Loughlin did his hamstring and is out for 2 months. Dennis Glennon went off with suspected concussion yesterday, can't afford many more injuries.
Standards were kept high down in Wexford Park yesterday against a second string Wexford team. They had some big men around the field but they had little mobility and we simply breezed past them. They couldn't stay with our powerful running and we were able to create chance after chance to go in 1-18 to 4 points at half time after playing with a strong wind. What was most encouraging though was we managed to outscore Wexford by 2-6 to 5 points in the second half as well even though we made a raft of changes after scoring two early goals. This team seems to have found some much needed consistency and as a result the likes of Noel Mulligan can step into the team and acquit themselves quite well. Good to see John Connellan getting back on to the pitch again, hopefully his cheese strings hold for the rest of the year now.
That's promotion guaranteed so gives us the opportunity to give some lads a rest and others a run out against London. I'd expect a completely different Wexford for the league final and nice to be getting a run out in Croker before the summer. If we could get the few lads back from injury it would really set us up for championship.
I think the Banty effectively threw that game yesterday knowing that they will likely meet each other in the league final. Wexford got some beating all the same.
See Westmeath came in from evens to 2/9 in advance of the game. I wonder did someone make a killing?
Quote from: AZOffaly on March 27, 2017, 02:29:44 PM
See Westmeath came in from evens to 2/9 in advance of the game. I wonder did someone make a killing?
I'd have little doubt that somebody made a few pound somewhere before the teams were announced. Thats a massive price change.
How long ago were Westmeath in Division 1? Laois were in Division 1 five years ago and now they've dropped into Division 4. It's strange to see teams go into free fall like that. Armagh could be next but it's unlikely.
Quote from: thejuice on April 02, 2017, 07:51:43 PM
How long ago were Westmeath in Division 1? Laois were in Division 1 five years ago and now they've dropped into Division 4. It's strange to see teams go into free fall like that. Armagh could be next but it's unlikely.
Westmeath were in Division 1 in 2014. 3 successive relegations. Would not be surprised to see another promotion next year. They just don't sit still.
Quote from: thejuice on April 02, 2017, 07:51:43 PM
How long ago were Westmeath in Division 1? Laois were in Division 1 five years ago and now they've dropped into Division 4. It's strange to see teams go into free fall like that. Armagh could be next but it's unlikely.
Laois hammered Galway by 1-20 to 0-08 in D2 in 2014.
Next year Laois will be in D4 and Galway in D1.
It's a funny old world
Hello.
Carlow had a great league campaign and you would imagine will be capable of challenging Wexford in the championship. Banty wouldn't have had Wexford at anywhere near full tilt today but it was a fair hammering they took.
If they beat Wexford in the Championship then they play the Dubs in Laois.
Quote from: Kuwabatake Sanjuro on April 02, 2017, 09:38:58 PM
Carlow had a great league campaign and you would imagine will be capable of challenging Wexford in the championship. Banty wouldn't have had Wexford at anywhere near full tilt today but it was a fair hammering they took.
If they beat Wexford in the Championship then they play the Dubs in Laois.
Wexford's result since they got promotion stand in stark contrast to prior to that, as do their team sheets.
Carlow 2-14 - 1-7 Wexford
Wexford 0-9 - 3-24 Westmeath
Now Westmeath finished 1st and Carlow finished 3rd but still there was a massive difference in Wexford's performance in their last 2 league games versus their first 5 league games.
First 5 Games Scored 2-69(75) Average of 15 Conceded 1-54 (57) Average of 11.4
Last 2 Games Scored 1-16(19) Average of 9.5 Conceded 5-38 (53) Average of 26.5
Wexford are available at 6/5 for the Division 4 Final.
Some start and indeed first half yesterday, we were 2-8 to no score up after 12 minutes and at half time it was 3-19 to 3 points. 4 changes at the break disrupted our flow and somehow we managed to lose the second half. Disappointing that when the certain starters went off at half time that no one really put their hands up. It was great to see Holloway, Connellan and Glennon back from injury and starting. Also Gallagher did ok in goals and hopefully he gets left there to see how he gets on in the final. Neither Bryan or Quinn have commanded the square or been consistent with their kickouts this year. Killian Daly was probably the best on show but I think McCallon, Maguire and Gonoud are ahead of him for the corner back spots. Callum worked hard even if the handling wasn't what it should be but that will come with match time. Mulligan is doing well in the half back line but is forcing it at times with long range shots rather than taking the better option and laying it off. It was really encouraging to see the goal opportunities being worked and the ball being squared across the box to the man in a better position for the slap in. Shows there is some quality coaching going on.
Division 4 final next Saturday, we should go all out to win this now and play the best 15 we have. Offaly will be boosted after the great escape yesterday so would be nice to send them down a message that would put the doubts back in their minds. It'll be interesting to see if Banty can pick Wexford up and reintegrate the bodies successfully as they've fallen a bit from their early season form. I'd be hoping for a fairly comprehensive win.
Quote from: twohands!!! on April 02, 2017, 11:19:20 PM
Quote from: Kuwabatake Sanjuro on April 02, 2017, 09:38:58 PM
Carlow had a great league campaign and you would imagine will be capable of challenging Wexford in the championship. Banty wouldn't have had Wexford at anywhere near full tilt today but it was a fair hammering they took.
If they beat Wexford in the Championship then they play the Dubs in Laois.
Wexford's result since they got promotion stand in stark contrast to prior to that, as do their team sheets.
Carlow 2-14 - 1-7 Wexford
Wexford 0-9 - 3-24 Westmeath
Now Westmeath finished 1st and Carlow finished 3rd but still there was a massive difference in Wexford's performance in their last 2 league games versus their first 5 league games.
First 5 Games Scored 2-69(75) Average of 15 Conceded 1-54 (57) Average of 11.4
Last 2 Games Scored 1-16(19) Average of 9.5 Conceded 5-38 (53) Average of 26.5
Wexford are available at 6/5 for the Division 4 Final.
Just seen that Carlow rested a lot of key players too though. The championship game might be one of the most intriguing championship games in years involving Carlow. There has always been a good football scene down there and they should have been more competitive than they have been for the last 15 years or so (1 good game against Meath aside). Good to see them make progress anyway.
Quote from: Kuwabatake Sanjuro on April 03, 2017, 09:52:15 PM
Quote from: twohands!!! on April 02, 2017, 11:19:20 PM
Quote from: Kuwabatake Sanjuro on April 02, 2017, 09:38:58 PM
Carlow had a great league campaign and you would imagine will be capable of challenging Wexford in the championship. Banty wouldn't have had Wexford at anywhere near full tilt today but it was a fair hammering they took.
If they beat Wexford in the Championship then they play the Dubs in Laois.
Wexford's result since they got promotion stand in stark contrast to prior to that, as do their team sheets.
Carlow 2-14 - 1-7 Wexford
Wexford 0-9 - 3-24 Westmeath
Now Westmeath finished 1st and Carlow finished 3rd but still there was a massive difference in Wexford's performance in their last 2 league games versus their first 5 league games.
First 5 Games Scored 2-69(75) Average of 15 Conceded 1-54 (57) Average of 11.4
Last 2 Games Scored 1-16(19) Average of 9.5 Conceded 5-38 (53) Average of 26.5
Wexford are available at 6/5 for the Division 4 Final.
Just seen that Carlow rested a lot of key players too though. The championship game might be one of the most intriguing championship games in years involving Carlow. There has always been a good football scene down there and they should have been more competitive than they have been for the last 15 years or so (1 good game against Meath aside). Good to see them make progress anyway.
Cheers hadn't spotted that.
Yeah looks like overall Carlow had a very decent league - possibly a bit unlucky in that Westmeath and Wexford were two strong contenders at Division 4 level this year.
Westmeath hammered Wexford again. John Heslin is a gem of a footballer. Banty laughing all the way to the bank. Wexford were awful. Some of their fouling off the ball went unpunished, quite a number of dangerous fouls too. I hate when referees let teams away with this just because they're getting well beat.
Westmeath gave an exhibition today and Wexford and no answer. Shocking indiscipline went unpunished. Not the way to play football Banty...
As has been said, it was a typical Banty team, strange how it never worked out between himself and Eastmeath, a match made in heaven you would have thought. And to be fair to the referee he was letting the pulling and dragging go unpunished before they were well beat too. There's a number of decent footballers in that Wexford team, if they concentrated on playing football it would be much more advantageous to them. Delighted with how the lads exploited the chasm down the centre of their defence due to the centre back dropping off to double mark Heslin. Sharry trundled through numerous times with the ball and was my MOTM, has really settled into that 11 jersey. Tommy McDaniels has justified his recall to the squad and did well inside again. The Bear and Heslin are probably in pole position for them positions though and we are well covered there with Dempsey and Connellan also well able to come in.
Kickouts were really good for the first time this year and hopefully that can continue. We have some tightening up to do at the back though, Wexford found their way through the centre a couple of times. One that sticks out was the goal in the first half, shouldn't have been able to find his way into the D, never mind beyond it. Midfield continue to work well together and the team has a nice settled look about it with cover for most positions. This year is the first time that you could apply the word ruthless to us, a great quality to see. If we can stay free from injury and the day is good in O'Connor Park on the 11th of June then I'd be extremely optimistic of beating the Biffos.
Great to see Westmeath footballers on the steps of the Hogan for the first time since 04. Our first bit of silverware since 08 and the first medals for most of that team apart from Glennon and Boyle. Wouldn't it be great if they were able to make it back up the steps on the 16th of July. 8)
Iarmhí Abú.