Messages

Agreed that beating Wexford on their own patch is not a given.  I'm hoping that Offaly will have bottled the hurt of the League Relegation and use that as motivation for a decent Championship run.  Our best performance should beat Wexford's potential best, but it has to be made materialise.  Looking forward to a good game in good weather.

[FOOTBALL]

FOOTBALL
Matt Connor
Martin Furlong
Paddy McCormack
Willie Bryan
Tony McTague

Notable mentions: Sean Lowry, Niall McNamee, Ciaran McManus

HURLING
Brian Whelehan
Pat Delaney
Damien Martin
Martin Hanamy
Joe Dooley

Notable mentions: Johnny Dooley, John Troy, Padraig Horan, Pat Carroll

That's a great old news report to read. God be with those days.
Of course, there will be no replay to consider next Saturday night. If it requires penalties, they'll probably be under lights at that stage.
It should be a good game.  Offaly have certainly adopted a very positive style so far this campaign. There's no reason to change from that now.
Let's just hope that Laois don't try to drag us down to their level.   

How things have changed around here.  Magpie Seanie used to be the only Sligonian and we had a raft of Faithful followers (who now mostly frequent a native DB elsewhere).  But it's good to see what the other sides are thinking here now and again.

Yesterday, I think Sligo played reasonably well against our team who were under big pressure to step up their form at home.  The key difference was our finishing and overall workrate.  Offaly worked really hard in support running, right up to the end.  For the first time in many years, I reckoned our whole team put in a really big effort to take control of the game, and then mange to hold onto that control.  John Maughan has certainly been a good addition for Offaly Football.  We needed his "steel" badly, and it seems to be paying off for us, albeit at our own level still.

As that potential Dublin date is just the Sunday before the Leaving Cert starts, I'd be suggesting to the lad not to be playing for either team.  Give him the two weeks or so to concentrate on some of the most important exams he'll ever do.  There'll be plenty of time for kicking a bag-of-wind around a field later.

... now ... dream sequence ...Fast-forward to May 27th, Offaly (having licked Wikla) v the Dubs in Tullamore, 10 minutes to go and we're just 2 points down, need to bring on a sub-forward, .... I say to myself "why dont we have Cian Johnson ready to come on?"

I couldn't hear much of the stadium commentator, but it seems I didn't miss much.  Miscellaneous observations:

• Some crowd in Temple Bar beforehand, and it's great to have a part of the city like that to give a focus point for all the tourists.  Really buzzing down there.
• Shuttle buses from there to Croker were completely inadequate (take a bow of shame Dublin Bus) so we walked.
• Good chuckle at the parachutist missing the ground; I wonder was he Irish or from UCF?
• The yanks don't sing their own anthem, leaving it to the choir.  We sang the Irish one though with the usual gusto.
• Beer at your seat while watching the game - dont think it would really work with a GAA match as there would be too much action and much more lepping around.
• Very few of the fans around me got in any way animated about the game.  Only good quip was one guy shouting at the refs - "We know you're staying in the Radisson".
• Far far too many stoppages in play (TV ad breaks I presume).  I reckon the players must hate it if they would only admit it.
• Really bad planning to let the two teams play in light colours (white vs pale gold/cream).  From a distance, you could tell nothing about what was happening in the scrimmages.
• Quite enjoyed the Hurling 11's except that the Irish commentator didn't really know which team was which (Munster v Leinster), called both goalies "Nicky Quaid" at different times.  Definitely a concept worth pursuing to suit small pitches with only soccer goals available.
• UCF were really rubbish, ridiculous amount of "false-starts", couldn't play a rushing game to scratch themselves.  Replacement QB at half-time was way better.
• Penn State fans so much louder, and justice achieved with the final result.  They were so much better than UCF that it would have shown up badly if UCF had held out in the end.
• Croke Park looked really well for the game.  With so many on the sideline, I dont know how this would fit in the Aviva.
• Incredible to see the pitch on TV on Sunday without a trace of the previous day's action.

I'm bringing Biff Junior and a few of his pals along.  I was at a few of the past instalments of these events here, including in the old Landsdowne Rd stadium and in the old Croker too.  It amazed me the amount of people who are pitch-side for each team, and the whole warm-up routines before the game.  The Americans sure know how to put on a real spectacle.

So who should we be cheering for?  Who is the underdog?  Is Penn State "perceived" to have the greater Irish connections?

Google Calendar Sync has reached its end.  I know it was flagged up a good while back, but I never really understood the reason for its wind-down.  I presume it must be a licensing thing.

Anyway, can anyone recommend a reliable cheap replacement?  All I'm looking for is something to do what the old tool did, i.e. run on my laptop to sync Outlook's Calendar (as used for Work appointments) with my Google Calendar (as used on my Android phone and home computer.

I don't need sync'ing of Contacts or Email, as I keep those separate (work v home).  Just Calendar stuff so that I can see on my phone my Work Appointments and whatever else I have to do before I get into work.

Thanks.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but in 2001, U2 sold out a concert in Slane and the clamour rose for a second gig to be put on.

Problem - no Planning Permission for a second concert in Slane in the same year.

Solution - recall the Dáil for an Emergency session in the summer, and rush through emergency legislation to change the Planning Laws just to allow the extra concert.

http://www.atu2.com/news/u2-asked-to-pay-for-second-slane-show.html

So if it could happen then, couldn't it happen now?  When the powerful lobby groups get onto Enda & Co about the damage to Ireland's reputation about this new version of "cant organise a piss-up in a brewery", I can see the pressure being put on Aiken Promotions and the GAA to basically concede to run the last few concerts on a break-even basis, and use the extra cash to soften the blow for the local residents.

Everybody has a price.  It's just a case of working out what it is, and finding someone to pay it.  Rules can be changed.  It has happened before; it will happen again.  I reckon these 5 concerts will all go ahead, not because of Garth's ultimatum, but because repairing the international image of "Ireland Inc" (after the Celtic Tiger lost its bite) is too important and too delicate to be let fail.

These parades of teams should be scrapped, and certainly for all games other than the Provincial Finals and All-Ireland Final.  They are jingoistic, almost militaristic, and to me, it never looks like many of the players like the slow walk after they spending 20 minutes doing all their warm-up drills.

In this particular case, it seems that it was to become a show of strength for both teams.  The Cavan lads, in particular, are seen to be congratulating each other when Armagh are made to march on the other side at the end.  A lot of good it did them.  It's Martin Johnston, the England Rugby team and the red carpet all over again, and I certainly would not want to be put in the same category as that group.

Embarrassing incident.

Offaly's qualifier record

....

Total. Played 18. Won 6. Lost 12.
Home. Played 7. Won 4. Lost 3.
Away. Played 9. Won 2 Lost 7.
Neutral. Played 2. Won 0 Lost 2.

Now you can see why the OP said "What's the point?"

AZ, that's an awful lot of bad statistics that you've dug up about our Faithful County.  But sure this year's draw could have been a lot worse for us.  There would be little more shame if we were to lose in Aughrim than how we are already shamed (no disrespect to Longford). We probably have less expectation now than before that match. So it is as close to "nothing to lose" as we can get.

That's why we're gonna win by 2 points.  Woohoo!   

Hush Up there AZ, this is a good news story about Offaly Hurling.  Best of luck to Brian and he should get great support from all quarters of the county.

Question ... any other instances of Father & Son managing the same team on different occasions?

How long does the Compromise match last?  It is timed to start in Croke Park at 4:15.  Giving it an hour and a half (including half-time) means that it will be over well before 6 o'clock, but the Footy game doesn't start until 7 pm.  That's a big interval between the two games.

Myself and Junior have already bought the tickets for the Footy before we heard about this.  Although we'd love to see the Shinty, that is making it a very long evening.  It's almost as if they don't want to "join up" the two matches; maybe there are different sponsors for each.  We will go early, but I don't think we can make it that early.

It's on TG4

It's a good job the Aussie Indigenous team is not playing this series in Australia.  By reading BigFooty.com, most of the AFL fans seem to have ditched whatever last remaining interest their might have been, because they are convincing themselves that their team is "racist" because white guys couldn't be picked.  I really don't understand the Aussie sports-fan psyche.  Here is a team representing Australia, and they are lashing them out of it before they even take the field.

Their loss   

As for Ireland, I know this is not our best possible team, and this game is not to everyone's taste her in Ireland either.  But this team is representing Ireland, and they were picked from players playing one of my two favourite sports.  I will defend their right to represent my country, and I will show them all the support that I can.

Here's hoping for a good game, plenty of action, played hard but in the honest spirit of the contest.  I hope the result is close, so that the Croke Park game is not irrelevant.  And I'd almost hope for an Aussie win, just to see how the fans "back home" react then.

Almost ........ Nah!

COME ON IRELAND