Messages

[anarchy in the UK.]

Tyrone will still be smarting after the humiliation in Killarney. I expect it will be a fiery contest.
The lads will definitely be going up to create some anarchy in the UK.

Stop being an arse Mike will ya? Or maybe rock up to Healy park on Sunday week and tell people you're enjoying your time in the "UK"..see how that works out for you...

Has the Kerry County Board made a request for their supporters to be segregated from them Tyrone "hallions" in Omagh with a police escort to the ground?

Yes. All fans leaving from the Kingdom are also being given poncho's to ward off the danger of possible projectile saliva. 

C'mon now Fionn, don't be telling me ye took that ape from Crokes seriously when he went on about fan segregation? He was a laughing stock down here as much as anywhere for that shur.

Kerry can win this, but only if the half forward line is revamped completely..and I fear that won't happen, so given that and the fact that Tyrone will be well up for it, I'd fancy a home win here.

Looking forward to having the craic with the many genuine football people I'll no doubt meet in Omagh.

F*cking hell, i thought this had all blown over!.... sometimes we do ourselves no favours in the GAA with all this stuff do we?

I'm obviously not totally neutral on this being a Kerryman (North Kerry at that), but my views on all this stuff are as follows:

Cookstown were by far the better team on the night and were deserved victors. Finuge lost their discipline badly and the 2 Corridans were red carded deservedly.

-Footage emerges (posted by a finuge man on youtube) a month later of Galvin being spat on by a Cookstown sub. If this appeared in the week after the game I would say it was somewhat down to sour grapes, but this doesn't appear to be case. In my view the Cookstown player who spat at another player should be given a hefty ban.
- Owen Mulligan comes out defending his team mate, but from what I can see doesn't deny that he spat at all? He further accuses Finuge of "sectarian abuse" and goes on to say some of it mentioned Tyrone GAA people who have passed away.

Firstly, I don't see how Owen can defend anyone spitting on another player. It's indefensible in my eyes.

Secondly, if there was abuse of the Cookstown players along the lines of "British b*stards.." etc, that is not right and I would have no problem with Finuge or any other team being reprimanded for that as I don't agree with it....however, that is NO excuse for such a scummy act as spitting on someone.

IF the accusations of jibes about people who have passed away are true, then that is disgusting behaviour also. Again, whoever made comments like that should be reported and banned, fined or whatever...I know Finuge and the players quite well and while most of them are ok, there are a few  edgy characters amongst them also shall we say, so I wouldn't be surprised if a few comments were made.
"Sledging" has become a part of modern sport unfortunately and comments such as "free-state b*stard" or "british b*stard" etc, are so common now as to be almost expected..this saddens me greatly, but you can rise above that stuff. Taking the piss out of people who have died is another matter entirely and is not acceptable.

Galvin is no paragon of virtue by any stretch of the imagination, but he has conducted himself pretty well in this matter IMO and I agree totally with him that this build up of Kerry v Tyrone shit is doing nobody any favours. I think it would be fair to say that there are some Tyrone players who have conducted themselves in a less than classy fashion on a few occasions in games against Kerry teams, while its also fair to say that there are some people in Kerry who think Tyrone = Blanket defence and skullduggery, which is obviously totally narrow minded...the thing about idiots is that they are everywhere unfortunately!

Was wondering if this was going to get mentioned on here..

Some people getting sidetracked by various things here...the important thing is, this is a scummy act and should not go unpunished, The GAA have footage they can use and the perpetrator should be given a hefty suspension.

Is it just me that things the production standards in the latest series are a way down from other series?  A lot of poor editing and mistakes in the shows I've seen so far. Being picky, and it is TG4 I guess.

The Pony and Tohill are 2 of my all time favourites anyway, fantastic players the both of them. I think Moynihan winning an allstar and POTY (and lifting Sam!)at fullback in 2000 was a remarkable achievement considering he had nevr played there before...of course ultimately PO left him there too long and he was exposed by better full forwards, but at least he bowed out on a high. Was still dominating club games down here up to last year from midfield.

Missing the point completely.

I've no problem with scholarships for fellas leaving school. Every 3rd level institution has them, every province (I assume) has them....great, get more fellas an education while improving their football/hurling.

What I DO have a problem with is bringing players into a college SOLELY to play football/hurling with little or no regard to what course they do or how they fare academically. DCU,IT Tralee back in the day, LIT and a few other colleges have had a few guys in their mid 20's (or older!) who have very little bona fides as students and aside from being contrary to the spirit of Sigerson/Fitzgibbon, it is damaging for genuine GAA players in those colleges and ALSO for those "elite" players themselves, who at some point have to move on. Be interesting to see if Aidan Walsh is kept on at DCU for example now that he can't play for them. I couldn't put a figure on it, but the foolish decision he and Moyna took to push ahead with bringing him in could be a very costly mistake for him.

Sigerson/Fitzgibbon should be under 25/26 and allow players 4 years max, with exceptions being made for those doing Medicine/Dentistry which takes 5/6 years. Just my opinion.

Just read that interesting article by super joe brolly. One thing im wondering is:

Walsh dropped out of his first after a few weeks, fair enough. He then did a full Biology/PE course in CIT for 3 years, right?

So all he would need to do to become a teacher is to complete a one year H Dip ( that's what i did anyway). Why would he need to be enrolled on a 4 year degree again? I know murphy is also on course to be a PE/Biology teacher, surely this must be his 5th there now?

Even though i wouldn't have a pro or anti- DCU view, and I like to see general fair play and sigerson having proper rules and students, I think walsh could be unlucky enough with the ruling in this case.

Just so there's a bit of reality here. This is my understanding of the facts as I have ascertained from people I've spoken to.

Walsh was doing 1st year Engineering in CIT..he most certainly did NOT drop out after "a few weeks"...indeed records will likely show he played fresher football in jan/feb of that college year. He decided he didn't see his future in Engineering, so switched to diploma in health managment (or whatever its called) and completed that last May. (Not a course that generally leads to teaching study and really a stepping stone to further study..or becoming a gym instructor or that kind of stuff)

At some point during his last year of college he was contacted about the possibility of attending DCU...)Moyna claims he never contacted him or spoke to him prior to landing at DCU's doorstep which is horsesh*t) he was however informed by several people, as were DCU that he would be ruled ineligible for Sigerson due to the 3 course rule. DCU for whatever reason (I can only assume they thought Walsh had some sort of special case?) decided to go ahead with the process and Walsh was enrolled on a PE/Biology degree course (and given a scholarship/bursary). DCU were again informed on attempting to register Walsh for 3rd level gaa that he was ineligible for Sigerson and THEN months after being informed of this decided to kick up a fuss and start the campaign (still running) for "Justice for Aidan"..."GAA are trying to screw DCU"...etc.

Fact is, wherever its coming from and for whatever reason..DCU have huge bucks behind them and have gone around to talented U-21 players AND players from other 3rd level colleges offering them scholarships etc to sign up. Players have been known to be driving sponsored cars and the like for example.

To hear Moyna then, come out with rubbish like this, is most ironic. He would badly want to catch himself on.

Kerry A (IMO):
                  Kealy
Marc    O'Mahony    Enright
Tomás  Brosnan     Young
Maher      Sheehan
Galvin      Darran Sull    James O'Donoghue
Gooch       Donaghy     Curtin
 
Kerry B (off the top of my head)
                     David Moloney
Pa Kilkenny   Mark Griffin   David Culhane
Jonathan Lyne  Peter Crowley Brian Maguire
Johnny Buckley   James Walsh
Brian Looney  Mike O'Donoghue  Kieran O'Leary
Paul Geaney Conor Cox  Barry John Keane

Probably a few ommisions there.

Moyna making an arse of himself again today I see....poor DCU, really getting a raw deal they are, what with Bank of Ireland, Accenture and a few others pouring $$$ into them, the players driving around in sponsored vehicles and living in paid for accomodation..can't be easy.

Fact is, they tapped up Walsh, didn't check (or check properly) that he was eligible, got caught out and tried to blag their way out of it unsuccessfully. Simple as. I don't know the ins/outs of Boyle's case, but that is definitely the story with Walsh.

I actually disagree with the 3 course rule to an extent..if a lad is doing a course, drops out to change tack to something he realises he is better/more suited to, gets his degree, then decides to pursue a masters..he shouldn't be ineligible really once the case is genuine. This doesn't change the fact though, DCU knew the rules in place and thought they would get away with it, but didn't.

Anyway, looking ahead, I expect semis to be DCU v DIT and CIT v UCC. You'd have to fancy a DCU v  UCC final, but who knows. Both DIT and CIT won't be lacking motivation against their home town rivals.

[Cathal Shine striking home the only goal of the game.]

Few goals from the UCC - UUJ game  http://www.thescore.ie/sigerson-cup-ucc-peter-crowley-ucd-donie-kingston-775423-Jan2013/

Report on the games http://www.thescore.ie/sigerson-cup-triumphs-for-ucd-dcu-and-st-marys-773563-Jan2013/

and report from the rest of the games http://www.thescore.ie/sigerson-cup-round-up-774453-Jan2013/

From the Athlone IT game report: "The winners lead by 1-6 to 0-4 at the break with Roscommon senior Cathal Shine striking home the only goal of the game."....Not sure that's how I would have described that particular goal!...Shine did get credited with t though to be fair.

Just on the general point about Sigerson and Fitzgibbon...given the standard of fitness and the players on view you would think the media coverage would be a lot better. AS someone mentioned, half the games don't seem to warrant any attention, when any GAA person who was savvy would realise that the players in these competitions are in pole position to make the step up to county panels and that they may be looking at stars of the next 5-10 years.

I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that some of the mainstream media reports on the games during the week were just hawked up from various sources and that there was no reporter assigned to the games as such in a lot of cases..I could be wrong, but don't think I am.

[Athlone I.T]

Did this brief report for livegaelic.com.

Athlone IT moved one step closer to taking part in the Sigerson Cup weekend they themselves will host at the end of the month with a 10 point win over a disappointing IT Carlow side today in Athlone.

While Athlone were most deserving winners and performed much better over the hour, it's also fair to say that the result could have been a lot different were it not for 30 seconds of madness in the IT Carlow goalmouth in the 22nd minute of the 1st half. With Carlow leading 0-4 to 0-2, after Ben Brosnan pointed 4 frees, a speculative high ball into the parallelogram made its way through a forest of defenders and goalkeeper Tom Hughes and finished up in the back of the net.

Then, to make matters far worse for Carlow, corner back Joe Kinahan was shown a straight red for an altercation in the aftermath of the goal. Buoyed by events, Athlone raced into a 1-6 to 0-4 half-time lead with Alan Coffey, Kieran Martin and Cathal Shine all prominent.

The second half was virtually one way traffic with Athlone suffocating their opponents, leaking only 2 points, while adding 7 themselves leaving the score at 1-13 to 0-6 when Michael Duffy sounded the final whistle.

The only sour note for Athlone was the straight red card issued to wing-forward John Mulligan late on, but despite this, they will be confident of building on this for their quarter final clash with the winners of CIT v GMIT who meet in a deferred first round game in Cork next Tuesday.

Athlone scorers - Alan Coffey (0-5), Cathal Shine (1-2, 1f), Ger Egan 0-3 (all fs), John Mulligan 0-1, Frank Burke 0-1, James McGivney 0-1

IT Carlow scorers - Ben Brosnan (0-4f), Eoin Walsh 0-1, Brian Hurley 0-1

Athlone I.T - Gary Connaughton (Westmeath), Eoin Kerins (Galway), Killian Clarke (Cavan), Colm O'Brien (Galway), Tomás Rahill (Meath), Kieran Martin (Westmeath), Levi Murphy (Cavan), Ciarán Duggan (Galway), Cathal Shine (Roscommon), John Mulligan (Leitrim), Ger Egan (Westmeath), Alan Coffey (Westmeath), James McGivney (Longford), James Dolan (Westmeath), Frankie Burke (Galway).
Subs: Diarmuid Maleady (Offaly) for Murphy, Peter Masterson (Longford) for Burke, Alan Stone (Westmeath) for McGivney.

I.T Carlow - Tom Hughes (Wexford), Joe Kinihan (Kildare), Conor Lawlor (Carlow), Alan Nolan (Wexford), Anthony Forde (Meath), Brian Kinihan (Kildare), Eoin Walsh (Galway), Richie Downey (Dublin), Conor Boyle (Laois), Marcus Mangan (Kerry), Cian Reynolds (Leitrim), Darren Hayden (Wicklow), Ben Brosnan (Wexford), Brian Hurley (Cork), Seán Gannon (Carlow).
Subs: Fergal Conway (Kildare) for Reynolds, P. Brogan (Roscommon) for Gannon, Darroch Mulhall (Kildare) for Mangan, Fiach O'Bearra (Galway) for Hurley.

More than a game can be got for 13 yo-yo's on bookdepository lads.

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/More-Than-Game-Con-Houlihan/9781907593246

Windfalls is his best book by far though..couldn't find it there in a quick search..I'm sure plenty old bookshops down here have it...its well worth getting.

5Sams, good to hear you followed my recommendation...its a great read isn't it?

Putting him back to corner back in 03 was possibly oneof harte's best ever moves imo.

Wasn't really a corner back but had the nastiness to do a good enough job. Tyrone have always struggled for corner backs since fay devlin and he was key to helping this.

Hard to like him but 3 all irelands and being a key player in each one not to be sniffed at.

Always did wonder what he was saying to corner forwards...

You know well what he was saying.

Rumour has it he once asked Conor Mortimer for his number in the middle of a game...the Mort went giddy with excitement and never touched the ball for the rest of the game.

He was a briliiant man-marker at his peak to be fair, tight, good on the ball, moved it quickly etc. Selfless team player.
He was also filthy though, some of the incidents he was involved in, dropping knees on McEntee, spitting etc...are just not on and Tyrone fans know it I'm sure. Seemed quite unhinged at times to be honest. This year as Tyrone were warming up in Killarney, he came over to the terrace side and started having verbals with a fan for example. 

Pretty sure it was outside of the left boot on the Cusack stand side into the Canal.
Ha wouldn't have been a man for using the right boot too often

I don't think he's involved with Tuam seniors at the moment.
He played a bit for their junior A team last year.

It was outside of the left, from the right hand side (Hogan stand side) into the Canal end.

Great player was Ja..kicked some fabulous scores in the 1998 final too...one from underneath the Cusack and the sideline ball underneath the Hogan in particular.