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Losing this year's final  really hurt Kilkenny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bc5AJWQ9s8

The nature of the defeat will sting in Kilkenny.

Outfought and outthought , physically they were dominated, tactically naive and outhurled skill wise.

That could have never been said when they were in their pomp, still fresh in the minds of most Kilkenny supporters.

They know they're a bit short of that Limerick team, but so is everyone else.

It was worse than last year. A 2 point defeat would have been ok but this was awful for them.
They would have been better off losing Leinster. It's going to be a long winter in Bennetsbridge
It's amazing that Huw Lawlor has no all Ireland medal. .

2015 is their last win, going into their 9th year without a win and being beat in their last 4 AI final appearances will hurt a team who's ability to win finals is what used to get them apart.

The manner with which Limerick went up through the gears in the second half and tore them asunder should be a concern to everyone, not just Kilkenny, The Limerick juggernaut shows no sign of abating.

They were also without Sean Finn and Deccy Hannon FFS!

Why is all the talk about this incident? Was there not a few sent off in the Glenn v saval match. I dont see any threads on this.....

96 weeks for one offender, pushing the referee, another two with 12 week bans for verbally abusing the referee and the others with two game bans for red card offences during the game.

https://www.irishnews.com/sport/gaafootball/2023/08/31/news/saval_hit_with_suspensions_-_including_96-week_ban_-_in_wake_of_glenn_championship_clash-3575555/

CB threatened this at the start of the year and seem to be following through on it, but we'll how they respond when some of the big teams fall foul of these new punishments.

It should hopefully deter any potential abuse towards officials. Though there are some clubs who may not be so accepting and launch the usual appeals if they end up in a similar situation. It seems from the quotes in the article that Saval are taking their medicine and not appealing, and that's a rare occurrence these days across the GAA all over Ireland.

I'd be shocked if there isn't a £1K fine also looming over them for future conduct.

Some clubs are already on warnings 

The PSNI story is another dead cat.
This relentless distraction must be a feature of post conflict societies in Bosnia etc.

The PSNI are limping from one disaster to the next, removing Simon Byrne as head won't change the nature of that organisation as we see how they walk alongside vigilante groups in Newtownards and much more....

Why is all the talk about this incident? Was there not a few sent off in the Glenn v saval match. I dont see any threads on this.....

96 weeks for one offender, pushing the referee, another two with 12 week bans for verbally abusing the referee and the others with two game bans for red card offences during the game.

https://www.irishnews.com/sport/gaafootball/2023/08/31/news/saval_hit_with_suspensions_-_including_96-week_ban_-_in_wake_of_glenn_championship_clash-3575555/

CB threatened this at the start of the year and seem to be following through on it, but we'll how they respond when some of the big teams fall foul of these new punishments.

Losing this year's final  really hurt Kilkenny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bc5AJWQ9s8

The nature of the defeat will sting in Kilkenny.

Outfought and outthought , physically they were dominated, tactically naive and outhurled skill wise.

That could have never been said when they were in their pomp, still fresh in the minds of most Kilkenny supporters.

They know they're a bit short of that Limerick team, but so is everyone else.

It's all gotten a bit murky for those cops at the Sean Grahams anniversary as they initially said they didn't know what the gathering was for or anything about the Sean Grahams massacre but the radio recordings suggest different as they were told exactly what was going on.

It won't be the first time a member of the PSNI/RUC told a few porkies in a court of law so little wonder these young recruits ably assisted by the Police Federation didn't think it was an issue to continue to do so!

Is it fair to say a lot of those lads coming in are not nailing down chances so it's a churn?

Nope, that doesn't make sense.

This is probably the best team we've ever had and definitely the best World Cup squad we've ever had.
The bookies say the best four teams in the world are quite a bit ahead of the rest, and most followers of rugby would agree.
Ireland are one of those 4, but ranked by the oddsmakers as 4th favourites, very slightly behind the other 3.
Can the 4th best team win the World Cup? Yes.
Is it likely? No.
While it's our best squad, we've more depth in some positions than others. Injuries/suspensions are likely to have a bigger adverse impact on us that the other 3 contenders.

We're very close to France. When we play it is the home team that are marginal favourites.
We're no longer afraid of New Zealand. Most of our players have won more than they've lost against them. But a World Cup quarter-final would be a different beast. Barring injuries we're evenly matched, but NZ would have the edge in having that inner belief that NZ always win these type of games.
Ireland play South Africa in the group stages. Another 50/50, but I wouldn't pay a huge amount of attention to the result. Like Kerry v Mayo this year, it's a game both teams will want to win, but everyone will know that while a win should certainly be advantageous, it's not do or die. It will be slightly below 100%.
I don't think we can beat South Africa in a true knockout game. In the unlikely scenario of Ireland winning the World Cup, in my view it would require one of France/NZ taking out the Boks in the quarter final.

We're likely to be edged out in the quarter-final. That won't be a failure. That will be meeting expectations given the draw. A failure would be a hammering, or losing to Scotland in the group stages. Scotland are much better than England or Wales, and probably at the same level as Australia, so should not be underestimated- but we should have too much for them.

Ireland have a shitty draw which means in the group stages they'll almost certainly need to beat Scotland to keep the second spot if we don't beat SA first.

Then either NZ or the hosts in a quarterfinal..

It'll be hard not to pick up a few injuries along the way and then you could be down to the walking wounded in a QF.

Groups C and D are a mile weaker

[There is no consistency at county level]

I wanted to compare the club setups around the country but there was enough statistical significance in 5.
The problem with the clubs is the all Ireland at the end. Leinster and Ulster need 4 weekends to run off . The all Ireland is another 2.

County Boards are incredibly busy running off myriad competitions.

Here are 5 counties with latest status this weekend.

Laois
Number in Round Robin Groups : 8

Latest RRG round : 3


http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=31915.0
https://laoisgaa.ie/fixtures-results/?owner=2160&orderTBCLast=Y&resultsOnly=Y&noTBC=Y&showByeGames=N&compStyle=football

2.Antrim. Already at quarter final stage

3. Derry
RRG group size : 6
Latest RRG group : 4
https://derrygaa.ie/results/?countyBoardID=7&resultsOnly=Y&daysPrevious=28&reverseDateOrder=Y

4. Galway
RRGs 3
Size of RRG : 6
Latest round 3

5. Tyrone
It's a knockout .
So there are 32 different systems.
This is not good enough especially with the provincial/all Ireland at the end.

If there are qfs add 3
Add 4 for provincial
Add 2 for all Ireland
That's 9 weeks.
Add a margin.

The player load has been moved to the clubs. Especially dual clubs.

I counted 13 weeks to the first week in December.

Laois SFC doesn't have round robin groups. It has an open draw for 16 teams with a backdoor and a SFC "B" and relegation process for those who don't make the quarter finals.

Thanks for the clarification. There is no consistency at county level.

There doesn't need to be.

Each county is entitled to organise their club games they see fit. Cork and Kerry allow amalgamations/regional teams in their club champions, most others don't.

Tyrone are one of the few counties who run off a knock out championship, so if that's what the clubs want then fire on I say.

Down hurling has a round robin hurling championship, probably due to the low number of clubs whereas the Down senior football championship has a back door where teams beaten in the first round get a second bite at the cherry.

The worst game I have seen in a very long time involving Ireland. Referee is awful too.

Ireland weren't great, particularly the lineout so POC has much to do there, but how god awful bad are England?

They're a raggle taggle outfit who seem to have been thrown together for an end of season tour!
Not that I'm complaining 

I think I was being too kind on England....

['better']

I know a man who is a warden in Mountjoy, he told me a few months ago that the Kinnehan gang was cornered and on the way out, said there will likely be a serious battle between two and maybe a third gang to fill the vacuum and things were likely to get bloody very soon

Have heard that too.

Currently listening to the Podcast on the feud between the 2 gangs. Very interesting with Hutch very much coming out of it as the 'better' criminal ....

Sounds like the feud still going on in Newtownards between the loyalist brethren over drug patches.

Twitter is for finding GAA scores updates... I haven't even understood how to open up the conversations on it!!

Facebook is to be a complete nosey Cnut.

This unfortunately is my social media outlet

No insta or Snapchat ain't got time to cover those.

I used Twitter for results and the likes and follow a few coaches who put the odd bits and pieces up.

I commented on one the other day and got a few likes on my comments, nothing untoward in that other than they were scantily clad ladies with onlyfans accounts....

I'm not sure what that says about me or these coaches 

What's the name of that reserve competition?

Betsy Gray.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Gray


The Betsy Gray Cup (2nds) and the Shield (3rds) was really put in place after the Ulster Intermediate and Junior club competitions came into being as up to that point the Ards teams 2nds and 3rds team played in the Down Intermediate and Junior championships. These 2nds and 3rds teams was skewing these competitions and something had to be done.
Initially we'd the Joe McCrickard (intermediate) and Betsy Gray (junior) as an end of year competition where the Ards 2nd and 3rd strings played the 1st strings of the various other teams in Down just as before in the old competitions but the weather and pitch availability didn't help to get them played.

We've only a 2nds team, Bredagh and Carryduff's second string are junior level and that's why there's only 4 teams in the shield and then there'll probably only be the three Ards teams in the Betsy Gray Cup later on in the year.

[The extra housing due to an influx of non-natives is adding to the pressure]

Zebra mussel major problem.

Yep. Feck all to do with the sand.

Which is probably causing other problems

That dredging has been going on for generations. Would it really be causing any new problems?

I grew up on and learned to swim in the Lough. I wouldn't put a dog in it now. When I was growing up the Lough Neagh Midges swarmed in millions. On a summer night it was like smoke above the trees. Only people who grew up there could hack it. now there are houses everywhere and this year in particular not a midge in sight, down to 50 years of dredging. The extra housing due to an influx of non-natives is adding to the pressure. In addition even though the shoreline is a protected area people along the shore are levelling and filling in habitat and the DRD does not give too fucks.

People from West Belfast? 

Lets not kid ourselves, a lot of our parents generation (and quite a few my generation in their younger days) thought nothing of having a load of scoops and jumping behind the wheel of a car.

I don't hear so much of that in the younger generation of a social age now.

Yeah trying to get off Loyalist drug dealers involved in dodgy activity would give a step to you day alright.

Even they are entitled to a fair trial.