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[Found the board back in 1997/1998 when I lived in Arizona (AZ). Am from Offaly.]

1. Why your user name - Found the board back in 1997/1998 when I lived in Arizona (AZ). Am from Offaly.
2. Favourite all time game - 1982 AIF. Seamus Darby. The leprechaun leap after the goal.
3. Favourite all time player from your county - Matt Connor
4. Favourite other poster on gaaboard.com. A lot of sound lads/lassies, but special mention for the Offaly lads and lassies, Turk, LS, BnMman, Treas, plus Boots, BC1 and Cicfada.
5. Things you'd like to see change on the site. - I'd like the gobshites who ruin threads to go back to Hogan Stand.
6. Player from another county you admire. Eoin Kelly  Tipp in hurling, Stephen O'Neill in football. (Maurice Fitz for the lifetime award )
7. Dual players. Should they be allowed do both (why/ why not) Yes, they should be allowed.
8. Dublin Hurling, IS there hope? *question for dubs  Not a Dub, but I think there is hope for them, certainly.
9. Best Moment of the year? Beating Wexford in Leinster semi final in football, and beating Waterford in the league in Birr in the huirling. We thought we were on the way back.
10. Worst moment of the year? The debacle in Portlaoise by our footballers, and the sense of let-down in Nowlan Park from our hurlers
11. Breasts or bum? bum
12. Breaking ball or park live? Breaking Ball gan dabht.
13. (Situation) Cork v Meath (if from Meath Cavan V Dublin) in an All-ireland final. You have to shout for one or your head will explode. What do you do? Meath, I have great respect for the Meath footballers. Proper men.
14. DJ Or Eoin Kelly - The Boy Wonder
15. What  your own county needs to do to win Sam next year? Move to Kerry or Tyrone. A Leinster would do us nicely. Same answer for Liam, except replace with Kilkenny/Cork.
16. How do you stop (legally, Meath lads) Sweeper in front. And wait for him to come down before harassing him out of it.
17. Hopes for 2007.  That Offaly win a Leinster in football, and that Offaly beat Laois and stay within 8 points of Kilkenny in hurling.
18. Who will win Sam in 2007.  Mayo
19. Who will win Liam in 2007.  Galway
20. Your Gaaboard resolution for 2007.  To win the American Football Fantasy league next year!!

Look for a few lads making themselves 'unavailable' this year. If you thought the ructions last year were bad!!

KM - That rumour about Dec is probably going to turn out to be true.

Sad to see the end of Newbridge. Played a few times there, always found the pitch a bit boggy to be honest, but have some great memories of Ferbane's epic Leinster Club campaigns of the late 1980's when nearly every game seemed to be in St. Conleth's park. It was the scene of the famous Leinster Club Final victory over Portlaoise in 1986 as well, not to mention my last trip there, the Qualifier success over Kildare a couple of years ago.

Best of luck with the new stadium. I hope the facilities include a mechanism for counting substitutions as well!!

Billy, Skellig Rangers are actually Portmagee.

Ballinskelligs play with Foilmore, I think their minoker is St. Michaels. Everyone calls them Bally/Foilmore

Not like the independent to jump all over this  but it seems as if there is more to this than the usual in fairness. The people responsible should be jailed, never mind banned from the GAA. (Apologies if this has been posted before)

From the Indo.

-*-*-*-*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

VIOLENCE on the GAA's club scene is on the agenda again after a Kerry referee at a minor game was "Kung Fu kicked in the stomach" by an irate supporter.

This latest example of disgraceful behaviour adds to the growing hall of shame that has embarrassed leading GAA officials in recent weeks.

Only on Saturday, GAA President Nickey Brennan described the spate of unsavoury behaviour as "completely unacceptable" and declared: "We need to get rid of that aspect in our games . . . we've seen people fighting and going crazy on the field. Some of the players coming out are wired to the moon."

The most recent chapter in club violence took place at the weekend when a mob of 'supporters' set upon referee Michael Curran in the shocking aftermath of the South Kerry divisional minor football championship final.

The local derby between Waterville and Skellig Rangers had actually passed without major incident and the referee had only handed out three yellow cards.

But violence exploded after a dramatic injury-time goal from a 20-metre free. Despite lining most of their players across the goal-line, Skellig Rangers were unable to prevent Kerry minor star Paddy Curran finding the net and securing Waterville a one-point victory.

The referee - a member of Dromid Pearses, the same club as outgoing Kerry boss Jack O'Connor - blew the final whistle a couple of minutes later, but before he could get off the pitch, he was attacked by a group of incensed Skellig 'supporters' who were apparently protesting at the amount of stoppage-time played.

One ran at him, jumped in the air and savagely kicked him in what one witness said "was like something out of a kung fu movie."

Others joined in by raining down blows on his head and spitting at him, and Curran's injuries could have been worse if it weren't for the fact that some bystanders - including a Skellig Rangers' official - came to his rescue.

Curran, who also referees at senior level and took charge of this year's county minor final, would make no comment yesterday when contacted by the Irish Independent.

But it is understood that he will give a detailed account of what happened in his match report to the South Kerry Board, whose officials seem certain to respond with a thorough investigation.

The incident, at Caherciveen, occurred on a pitch which has a low boundary barrier but is not enclosed.

Ironically, Caherciveen is the home village of Sports Minister John O'Donoghue who raised eyebrows over the weekend when he suggested that the GAA, in certain circumstances, should encourage its players to take court action against those responsible for violent acts

Don;t worry LS, I wasn't talking about your esoteric ramblings. They are quite enjoyable over a cupán tae, even if I don't agree with you more than 6 times out of 10

I was more talking about that jinnet from Cork, McCarthy, and some of the stuff the girl puts out. In fairness to her, she is improving, but your man burned his bridges with me over the Kildare Subs affair.

1) Offaly Independent, although there's a couple of tubes that write for it.
2) The Offaly Express
3) The Tribune

The great Stig was manager of the team that beat Drogheda in Dalymount in the UEFA Cup. 11-10 on penos or something. Myself and Billy's Boots were there to witness his managerial brilliance. Wasit IK Start or something Billy?

It looks like the mark of some sinister Society I'm thinking.

The KKK, the freemasons, the Nationalist Socialists etc. Along those lines. Sort of appropriate really, vow of silence and all.

Quote from the Toronto Saint Patricks Day reports from somewhere. Looks like we were both wrong, but both kind of half - close

Brendan Shanahan's parents moved from Ireland to Canada in the 1950's. They met and married in Toronto. His lovely mother, Rosaleen Kerr, was born in Belfast.

Donal, from Dunmanus, west Cork, was born into a hockey family himself...sorry, I meant born into a family the size of a hockey team. Donal was one of 15 children!

He was also the first of many in the family to move from Ireland to Toronto. Don became a firefighter and eventually the Director of Fire Prevention in Etobicoke.

I thought Shanahan's parents, and some siblings were from up North, the Ballymena area? I was at a REd Wings - Coyotes play off game and there was something in the program about Shanahan, and that was in the profile.

I've been to at least 30 or 40 NHL games. They are great craic. Where are your seats? Is it the Islanders or the Rangers? (Oh I just saw you mentioned Shanahan, so it's the Rangers.) Is it in the garden?

The last hockey game I was at was the Islanders against the Flyers last year.

Mike, the fighting has really gone down in the NHL. It's seldom enough there'd be a fight now, unless there's a reason for it.

I agree with the lads who are raising eyebrows over the seeming double standards.

However, a lot of the kerfuffle about drinks sponsorship of GAA competitions and teams is internally generated. When Mick Loftus or someone takes a shot at the GAA about doing deals with Guinness, it is the shot that makes the news, not the deal itself. Then the Joe Duffys and Marian Finnucanes of the world take over, and every doctor from Gweedore to Gneeveguilla
is called in to tell us all that alchohol in excess is bad for us, that there is a youth drink problem in Ireland, and that bears perform their ablutions in the woods.

The part that annoys me is that while nobody in the IRFU obviously gives a continental, the media are being disingenous by not drawing the obvious parallels. If somebody said 'The GAA should not be associationg with drinks companies', I would take their outcry much more seriously if they added ' but neither should the IRFU have Guinness internationals, allow Magners league and Heinieken Cup branding either. They are as bad'.

The argument could be made that the GAA is autonomous and controls it's own sponsorship deals, whereas the IRFU are only part of the Celtic League and the IRB for the Heineken Cup. This has not deterred French Clubs from being involved, but the competition is rebranded as simply the European Cup, or the H-Cup over there.

The Irish Union could make a similar stance if they wanted to, but nobody bothers to ask them why they don't. Better for the D4 media to continually take shots at the GAA.

Cavan maniac, whatever about the selection/rotation policies, the poor form or whatever the statement that when Liverpool concede it is over is not borne out by the facts. Granted they have started this season spectacularly badly away from home, but under Houllier there was a stat something like Liverpool never won a game from behind. That has changed under Benitez, numerous time.

I'm with BC, and the more cautious members here. Let's not get carried away. LFC has reached a plateau, but with the new signings, a tough away first half of the premiership and the heavy schedule with CL group games, I always thought there was going to be a poor to middling start to the season.

I agree that there is something wrong, but to be honest I'd prefer to let Rafa sort it out, and I'd also prefer him to at most buy one or two new players over the January and Summer transfer seasons. Last summer gone by, there was too many holes that needed to be plugged, and most of us were fairly happy with the likes of Bellemy, Gonzalez, Kuyt and Pennant. But that many players coming into a team is always going to take time to bed in.

So I say, be patient, look for a much better run from here to April/May, and most importantly let the team bed in.

I would prefer Benitez to have a core, settled team of 8-9 players, with only 2 or 3 changes, maybe the likes of Pennant, Gonzalez, Garcia, Aurelio, etc, but all in all I am willing to see how this team finishes the season, and how they start the next one.

Biut no more buying 5 or 6 squad players.

Pity to see him retiring. I thought he may have held on for the year, as I thought he was slated to be captain of Cork next year.

Best of luck to him. He's come a long way since I scored 1-4 off him in a football challenge match for the minors It was the making of him