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Ballacolla were good and skilful on the poor underfoot conditions, and their forwards didn't miss much, even if a couple of their goals were from defensive errors. One beauty of a point: the wing forward controlled a high ball on his hurl on the far sideline and, without taking it in his hand, just swung it over the bar. Their defence was a bit vulnerable when Clonad ran at them in the first half, but tightened up after half-time. It was a very impressive display from last year's junior champions, and Rosenalis wouldn't want to take them lightly. Still and all, they should beat them in the final. They had Camross beaten early on, and though Camross got a goal just before half-time, they were hardly able to score at all in the second half. They tried to drag Rosenalis down to their level, but it didn't really work.

On the senior semis - Ballinakill should have beaten Borris, and I was sorry they didn't. However, it was a poor game, and the Camross/ RE one wasn't a whole pile better, either. I hope Rathdowney-Errill win the final, because I think they'd make a better fist of it in Leinster.

Yes. In fact, I would be surprised if "clonadmad" was a Clonad man at all.

Yes, that is absolutely a bag of lies - there is no 'advanced talk' between Clonad and Colt. I could speculate at the reasons for trying to put that out there, but I think it rather foolish to spread untruths on a forum like this.

The county board to step up? Well, we could be surprised, but plainly we don't have the money for a 'big name', and we don't want an untested outsider, either. I'd say it'll nearly have to be from within the county.

Yes, it is a great pity Cheddar has gone - he has put a lot into what is a thankless task. I hope he can remain involved in underage development.

He was put off a few times, all the same.

For a new pitch, Mountrath is surprisingly wet in patches. No, it definitely couldn't cope w/ a senior double-header.

A bit of a one-off: Clonad are w/ Ratheniska qt u14, and on their own at u12.

I assume the Sonny Walsh is a second-string side?

Yes, I agree with that.

Yes, but the problem, as has been mentioned, is what happens to the teams just below the senior level - Ballyfin, Colt, Shanahoe, etc. I agree that the eight team system works well, but it means they have nothing really to aim for - the team coming down will always be too strong for them. Bar they amalgamate, which, in my opinion, isn't the answer either.

I actually think he's right.

Ballyfin relegated? Is it because they lost to Borris-Kilcotton, because their score difference is much better?

Wexford at home might have been manageable, but beyond that...

Against Clare was one of their better showings in the league, but then again, that was at home... Yikes!

The Offaly 'keeper made a couple of great saves in the first half, for sure, but it felt like Laoise were lucky enough to be level at half-time - though, to be fair, they clawed back a five-point deficit to be one up approaching half-time. There was one sequence late in the first-half when Offaly looked certain to get a goal, only for some amazing saving blocks to come in. Sort of lifted them a bit. Of course, the second half was a write-off, and the only good thing from a Leix point of view was a couple of great scores from Cha. Otherwise, there's nothing to say, except that Offaly looked good, and Leix looked dire. I think it's more of the latter, to be honest, and it's back to the bad old days again. Maybe they DO need the round robin games - though on today's performance, they wouldn't even get out of that.