Inter-Provincial championship

[tyronefan]

today at 2.30 in Cross

[bridgegael]

hopefully that rain stops,  or numbers will really be down.  any ideas the adm for today??  should be a handy enough win for ulster today,  on paper anyway

[bikeflyer30]

No real buzz about this game today i think it should be a good game of football , The GAA are not promoting it well?

[ONeill]

Anybody doing updates?

[Celt_Man]

Joe Sheridan has a County final to play this weekend, doubtful that he'll be playing Saturday.

Is the Meath final definitely on now?

It's on next Sunday

[Carbery]

hopefully that rain stops,  or numbers will really be down.  any ideas the adm for today??  should be a handy enough win for ulster today,  on paper anyway

Admission is £10

[Bitta-Banter]

I see Caffrey has picked two fella's from dublin to play for leinster who aren't even in the Dublin squad.

[INDIANA]

I see Caffrey has picked two fella's from dublin to play for leinster who aren't even in the Dublin squad.

thats incorrect -they are in the new squad. But I agree -their selection for the interprovincial side is a laugh.

[bikeflyer30]

A good win for Ulster but a bad day for a game of football,Ulster had too much up forward .
From a Down point of view Benny played well Dan got a half and Danny hughes did well from the bench.

[mountainboii]

Braved the weather to head into this. Wind prevented any kind of normal game developing, the team with the wind dominating in each half. Ulster just made better of their advantage. Was a fairly tame affair until things got a bit niggly with about 20 minutes to go which made for a bit of a game. Decent enough entertainment considering the weather.

In the first half against the wind Ulster were poor all over the field, only really Harte, O'Kane and Murphy doing much. Earley destroyed them at midfield and the FB line of McMahon and Donaghy looked dodgy, Donaghy made a big mistake letting a ball bounch over his head for Leinster's goal. Brogan looked sharp for Leinster, and Rock was excellent from frees.

Second half was the complete opposite and was nearly totally played in Leinster's half. Ulster got on top at midfield with Hughes impressing after an awful first half, and a number of their forwards started to click. Coulter came into it when he went into the FF line, Bradley started to do things and scored a great point from a sideline, and the pick of the bunch for me was Finlay helping out at midfield and scoring a point or two. Gormley came on to hit a huge point from about 55 yards, probably the score of the game.

[ONeill]

Did O'Neill play?

[thebandit]

Yeah, he was at full forward, then switched to the corner. He was quiet enough though.

There wasn't much bite to it, apart from McKeever and Ger Brennan. Two strong boys, but Brennan is very loose imo

[bennydorano]

Was a poor game even considering the terrible conditions, but mildly entertaining.  Hard to pick any stand outs, but Kevin Hughes would get my MOTM by default, he had the touch of a baby giraffe at times but he kept plugging away even when it was going against him, scored two great points from play in the second half as well.  Out of our 1.14 I can think of only 5 points from play??  which tells a story in itself.

AFS - have to take issue with Early destroying them??  He caught maybe 1 ball, contributed very little imo.

Donaghy had an awful time of it at corner back, McCluskey looked far more assured when he came on at HT.  Ciaran McKeever was solid, a complete knave, but I'd rather have him with us than against us.  Aaron did ok as well, good point.  Hughes from Down played well when introduced.  O'Kane in the other corner back position grew into the game as well.

[mountainboii]

AFS - have to take issue with Early destroying them??  He caught maybe 1 ball, contributed very little imo.

Yeah maybe destroyed is too strong a word, but Ulster were hopeless at midfield in the first half and I thought Earley was Leinster's top man around the middle.

If anything was destroying either side at midfield, it was the wind.

[ExiledGael]

AFS - have to take issue with Early destroying them??  He caught maybe 1 ball, contributed very little imo.

Yeah maybe destroyed is too strong a word, but Ulster were hopeless at midfield in the first half and I thought Earley was Leinster's top man around the middle.

If anything was destroying either side at midfield, it was the wind.

Think you're right about that. Very easy to look like you're dominating the middle when the breeze is blowing the kick outs back on top of the half back line. Earley just punched them down and Paul Flynn in particular was reading things well. Wasn't impressed with Davy Harte today at all, couldn't get to grips with the wind and gave the ball away a lot. John O'Loughlin was pretty poor at midfield for Dublin and was replaced by Ross McConnell. Joe Sheridan got the goal and a few excellent frees.
Hughes definitely got on top second half but again the wind was a major factor, he hit two nice points though another few terrible efforts.
Leinster scored once in the second half and it was a Sheridan free from 40 yards against the breeze, probably as well struck a free as I've ever seen. Even 21 yard frees were tough facing the wind. Sheridan's goal came from terrible misread by Donaghy who let the ball bounce over him.
Ciaran McKeever definitely helped things get heated at the end but it done no harm. Benny seemed really pissed off all day too whoever was annoying him, and he spent quite a bit of time chasing the ref complaining about off the ball stuff.
Joe McMahon's early goal was crucial against the wind and Bradley tapped over everything from frees in second half. Justin McMahon was very assured in defence and Conor Gormlley came on to hit a belter late on when the tide had well and truly turned.
Only five quid in and probably two or three thousand there which isn't bad considering the shocking weather up here all day.