Messages

A statement from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture has said that any decision on whether underage championship games can continue during new Level 5 Covid-19 restrictions "is still being clarified".

From 9.30 this morning.

Our club went to the Paidi Ó Sé last year for the first time, and we all had a great weekend.

It was a bit far though. Is there anything in the top half of the country in 2020?

Thanks.

If a club can't put out two adult teams, then they've got fundamental problems, and that's maybe another issue. The thirtysomethings should be hanging in there for the sake of the club to keep the thing rolling. And yes, any 18-year-old should be able to join the Junior panel. Why wouldn't he? If he does need to be minded in training, fine ... the club and team managers should be mature enough to handle something like that. Any 18-year-old who wants to keep playing football is only itching to play with the big boys surely?

What would your recommendation be for the kids who just fall outside the under 17 group?

As it stands you would have to put them into senior (which the majority arent even close to being fit for) or ask them to train all year for a few under 20/21 games in the Winter?

Fair enough. Ideally, they should be starting with the adults at Junior or whatever. We all did it back in the day, and it was an education! ... And we did it at 16! I accept there's a gap, but adult clubs should be bending over backwards to accommodate lads when they come out of minor/U17 ... if they've made it that far, they're footballers of some level of ability and interest. The clubs need to look after them, not waste time whining about Co Board or Croke Park.

As it happens, in Offaly the U20 club football is in early Spring, so your 18-yr-old is straight into it. It's straight knock-out, so it's short, but yes, any 18-year-old should be training and playing with the adults. He's been playing for 10+ years, let him off ....

Is none of ye involved in Fixtures?

I think U13/15/17 makes so much sense.

Separating minor from adult opens up the whole club fixture calendar, where you can now have clubs playing minor and adult together on the same weekend as there's no clash for players. Even better for a dual county.

An U17 is most likely not in his Leaving Cert year (in the Republic), whereas an U18 is.

At the other end, kids are starting younger and younger, and by the time they get to 12 years old, they are sick of Go Games, where every game is a draw, and by that stage they want to start competing. Starting competitions a year earlier at U13 is a good thing. My county have changed the whole way down, so Go Games is now U7/9/11 and I think it works very well.

My 2c ...

So it's Saturday afternoon then:
2pm at Owenbeg.

Whereaboots is this lads? Coming from Omagh, say ...

Come on Longford, give us your best shot!

You know you're capable of beating Wexford, you know you've been the better team on most of the occasions when we've met in recent years, but somehow managed to emerge defeat-ious ....

You just have to work on your closeoutability (a word recently invented by that mad rugby commentator who's name just escapes me during the last few minutes of Toulouse-Connacht a while back) ....

No pressure now. Don't let the pressure get to ye ....


(Heh-heh ... job done  )

I hate to say it, but it's very much looking to me like a shoot-out between Wexford and Longford on the last day, with the loser going down ...

Allianz Football League Roinn 3 2014 Round 6
Cavan  v  Roscommon
Fermanagh  v  Wexford
Offaly  v  Limerick
Sligo  v  Longford

Allianz Football League Roinn 3 2014 Round 7
Roscommon  v  Sligo
Limerick  v  Cavan
Fermanagh  v  Offaly
Wexford  v  Longford

Could we see Wexford in the basement? WTF has happened there?

We could indeed Shamrock. The loss of Forde a couple of years ago was a blow, but losing Colm Morris and Eric Bradley last year, David Murphy and especially Red Barry this year, is all proving a little too much to bear. Very much in a rebuilding phase, but I suspect the management expected to be rebuilding while in Div 3 not 4 ... still, every game is a Championship game from here on, so it'll be interesting to see what they're made of. Need 2 wins out of 3.

Another win (home v Cavan and then away to Sligo and Wexford) will secure our status but it won't be easy as nobody is going to cough up easy points at this stage.

Cavan and Ros to go up
Offaly and Wexford to go down.

Louth and Meath to join the Div 3 party for 2015.

... And wouldn't it be kind of poetic if Longford got the chance to put us down, considering the suffering they've endured at the hands of the yellabellies over the last few years ...?

Is this game sold out? No tickets on gaa.ie.
Thanks.

Maybe this has been said before, but does anyone else think there's an uncanny resemblance in build and style ("gimp", if you like) between Mickey Newman and Brian Stafford?

[(ii) Any player who falls or is knocked to the ground while in possession of the ball may fist or palm the ball away on the ground, and may score by so doing.]

Yeah, the free out of the hand had shaky beginnings alright! While it is a joy to watch a good free-taker off the ground (like Mickey Newman), the free out of the hand is still a good skill. Watching Sean McCormack in Longford on Saturday night, that man has developed the skill into an art form ...

This one though must be the least well known of all the Football rules. I had a huge argument with a Galway man in a pub while watching a match, trying to convince him it was legitimate to do this:

1.2 When the ball is on the ground, it may be played by any part of the body except the
hand(s). It may be lifted off the ground with the feet.
Exceptions
(i) The goalkeeper may play the ball on the ground with his hand(s) inside his own small rectangle.
(ii) Any player who falls or is knocked to the ground while in possession of the ball may
fist or palm the ball away on the ground, and may score by so doing.
(iii) The ball may not be lifted off the ground with the knees.

That lad from Wexford trying to find someone to hold his glasses was one if funniest gaa moments ever, then he just throws them away and runs in swinging. Priceless!

Pardon me for lowering the tone by changing the subject back to that of an earlier post ...
But on a point of information, that bespectacled clown highlighted during the melee in Longford - despite the colour of his bib - was actually a Longford official ...

Two iconic GAA moments in the one episode of TSG ... they might as well just retire the series now, the only way is down ....

'Twas Ross alright. Trust me, I've very vivid memories of any match that we didn't lose back in those days ...

And I was wearing my red jumper ...

Shamrock, if we've any sense of fair play down in WX, we should just award ye the two points in Div 3 next year, get ye off the mark (ouch!) ...

I had the dubious pleasure of witnessing Paul Barden in action for the first time in a Leinster Championship match in New Ross in the rain way back in '99 I think. That day he was electric and scored one of the most outrageous points I've ever seen to put Longford ahead near the end. He's been top class any time I've seen him since, though I suppose time is catching up on him. At the end of every season lately I'm terrified that Red Barry will call it a day, so I know how you lads are feeling about Barden ... but I guess we'll all have to move on when it happens.