Connacht Senior Football Club Championship 2012

[Syferus]

Well, if the Ulster lads can have their fun..

(* denotes defending champions)

Roscommon

SFC Quarter-Finals
15/9 (5:30pm) - Castlerea St. Kevin's v. Pádraig Pearses, Kiltoom
16/9 (2:00pm) Elphin v. Clann na nGael, Dr. Hyde Park
16/9 (3:30pm) - St. Brigid's** v. Western Gaels, Dr. Hyde Park
16/9 (5:30pm) - Roscommon Gaels v. St. Faithleach's, Strokestown

Semi-Finals
Roscommon Gaels/St. Faithleach's v. Castlerea St. Kevin's/Pádraig Pearses, Dr. Hyde Park
Elphin/Clann na nGael v. St. Brigid's**/Western Gaels, Dr. Hyde Park


Galway

SFC Semi-Finals
16/9 (2:30pm) - Tuam Stars v. Corofin*, Tuam Stadium
16/9 (4:15pm) - Salthill-Knocknacarra v. Killererin, Tuam Stadium


Mayo

SFC Semi-Finals (Dates TBD pending Sam)
Ballaghaderreen v. Knockmore
Crossmolina Deel Rovers v. Ballintubber*


Leitrim

SFC Final
TBD - Melvin Gaels v. Glencar/Manorhamilton*, Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada


Sligo

SFC Semi-Finals
15/9 (6:00pm) - Coolera-Strandhill v. St Mary's, Markievicz Park
16/9 (4:00pm) - Curry v. Tourlestrane*, Kilcoyne Park


Brigid's look better than last year and should retain the Roscommon championship barring the upset of the year. I'd have fancied Ballagh to halt Ballintubber's three-in-a-row but with Andy gone I'm not too sure - they dispatched Garymore with ease in their quarter-final without him. Deel have been on form too so plenty can happen in Mayo yet. Tuam Stars are getting heat in Galway but all four semi-finalists there look like they have a shot at wining the title. Hard to look beyond Manorhalmilton in Leitrim again. Been hearing good things about Turlostrane's form in Sligo so maybe they'll make it two-out-of-two.

Thoughts?

[ross4life]

Connacht draw

Preliminary round - 28th October Leitrim v Roscommon
Semi final - 11th November Sligo v Mayo
Semi final - 11th November Leitrim/Ross v Galway
Final - 25th November

Connacht champions will play the Ulster champions in the All Ireland semi final

[Farrandeelin]

Syferus, proudly flying Knockmore's colours as you wrote Mayo. Hopefully we can do it!

[drici]

Do you boys ever talk about anything other than poaching players and town from each other?  Very difficult trying to wade through a thread for some actual information.  Jaysus, ye even turned the international rules thread into another rossies in town stealing scandal!!

Great start to the thread this time with teams and fixtures and all.
Remember Bogball cracking up when trying to extract fios from the mire a couple of years ago.

[ross4life]

Roscommon championship

Castlerea,Pearses ended in draw - 0-12 to 1-9
Ros Gaels got a shock win over Faithleach's - 1-11 to 2-7
Expected win for Brigid's over Western Gaels but was a bad tempered poor game - 2-12 to 0-13
Elphin hammered a very disappointing Clan side - 3-13 to 0-10

Galway championship

Tuam beat Corofin 2-6 to 0-9
Salthill-Knocknacarra beat  Killererin 3-10 to 0-10

Sligo championship

Curry beat Tourlestrane 9-8
Coolera/Strandhill,St Marys ended in a draw 1-10 to 2-7

[Farrandeelin]

Duine Eile won't be happy so. Rossfan will.

[Syferus]

Fight night at the Hyde for the Gaels-Brigid's match. Very poor refereeing, with all due respect the least qualification someone needs to referee a match is to be able to keep up with play, which this man clearly was not. It meant players continually fouled when the ball was moved fast as they knew they could get away with the rough stuff. He played two 35-minute halves, or eight minutes of injury time in each half. The second game was a full 15 minutes late starting.

I usually don't dig into referees but this was Basil Fawlty stuff and it made a bad tempered match way worse. Frankie D's out for the semi with Elphin after a straight red too.

Elphin were the best team on show at the Hyde today and all year they've surely been targeting another shot at Brigid's. Without Frankie to pull the strings it'll be a very interesting challenge for the champions.

[Mano]

Participation of Sligo team in Connacht championship is likely to be short (as usual some might say) after yesterdays result between Curry and Tourlestrane. Tourlestrane are by far the best club side in Sligo and lost for the first time this year in all club competitions. The game was played in the tight, soft pitch of Tubbercurry which suited Currys smothering tactics and Tourlestrane unfortunately were without 3 key players. Ref was very poor and should have sent off 2 curry players on double yellows. Both players had yellow cards and proceeded to rugby tackle Tourlestrane players as they were running though however they only got a stern talking to rather than the expected second yellow. Bizarrely a Tourlestrane player got a yellow for one of the incidents for reacting but Curry lad got away with it.

[mouview]

Fight night at the Hyde for the Gaels-Brigid's match. Very poor refereeing, with all due respect the least qualification someone needs to referee a match is to be able to keep up with play, which this man clearly was not. It meant players continually fouled when the ball was moved fast as they knew they could get away with the rough stuff. He played two 35-minute halves, or eight minutes of injury time in each half. The second game was a full 15 minutes late starting.

I usually don't dig into referees but this was Basil Fawlty stuff and it made a bad tempered match way worse. Frankie D's out for the semi with Elphin after a straight red too.

Elphin were the best team on show at the Hyde today and all year they've surely been targeting another shot at Brigid's. Without Frankie to pull the strings it'll be a very interesting challenge for the champions.

Where are Western Gaels based? Are Castlerea strong at present? You would think being town-based with a good hinterland they'd be one of the teams to beat normally.

At least there'll be no repeat of the Brigid's - Corofin shenanigans this year, Corofin were beaten by 2011's defeated finalists Tuam Stars in the semi' yesterday, where their old problem of not being able to score regularly returned again. In the other semi' Salthill beat Killererin comfortably for the second year in a row to reach their first final since '05. Thus the two 'towns' meet in the final for the first time, if memory serves. Don't think too many neutrals will be sorry to see Corofin defeated; I'm a great admirer of their focus and the success they enjoy year in year out, but they generally don't play attractive football and the county footballers they produce are usually identikit good-but-not-great. For Killererin also, it *could* be the end of a great era. Padraig and Tommy, 2 of the great club footballers of this generation, may decide to pack it in and if they do the Barna' lads will surely lose a lot of their potency.

The 2 Intermediate semis ended in a draw. Oughterard, down to 12 men, drew with Athenry on a strange scoreline of 0-11 to 3-2, Athenry missing their county man Tomas Flynn. Carna and Clonbur had a very good game by all accounts and the winner here will be hard beat in the final.

[Syferus]

Western Gaels are in Frenchpark and draw alot of the Ballagh-based Rosies as the nearest Roscommon club. Probably the #3 team in the county behind Brigid's and Elphin.

Castlerea easily have the second best team in the county in terms of players,  six senior county players, a starting u21 midfielder and multiple ex-county players (Nigel Dineen is still starting for them). A complete sleeping giant. They haven't been able to string much of anything together this year but if they beat Pearse they should make the county final. They remain the only club besides Brigid's to win the county championship since 2004.

[ross4life]

Western Gaels are in Frenchpark and draw alot of the Ballagh-based Rosies as the nearest Roscommon club. Probably the #3 team in the county behind Brigid's and Elphin.

Castlerea easily have the second best team in the county in terms of players,  six senior county players, a starting u21 midfielder and multiple ex-county players (Nigel Dineen is still starting for them). A complete sleeping giant. They haven't been able to string much of anything together this year but if they beat Pearse they should make the county final. They remain the only club besides Brigid's to win the county championship since 2004.

WG also have the pick of villages Fairymount,Tibohine,Ballinagare in the terms of player wise they are the 2nd best team in Roscommon yes Castlerea have loads of county players but apart from Claffey how many are certain starters? when you consider only 3/4 Brigid's players are picked it's clear too many from Castlerea & too few from Brigid's are selected for Roscommon.

Elphin remain the 2nd best in Roscommon they play with a excellent system & every player knows their role they remind me of Castlerea when Tommy Kenoy,Dennis Kearney was managing them.

[Rossfan]

With the state of our Co team this year those who weren't on the panel were the lucky ones.
If the next County manager was looking at last weekend's games he'll be dumping a lot of lads and replacing them with Elphiners, Bridgies and  Ros Gaelers.

I suppose the real Co final is the semi between Brids and the Orchard bucks who have a real pep in their step ( or was it just that Clan were too abysmal for words?).

[Rossfan]

Duine Eile won't be happy so. Rossfan will.

To see Corofin gone?

I don't think too many will be sorry right enough.

[Duine Eile]

Duine Eile won't be happy so. Rossfan will.

Indeed and I'm not. Knew full well we wouldn't win this one though when I heard Alan Keane was reinstated to the goal after missing two games through suspension and Tomas Fahy was out with a torn hamstring. To really put the final nail in the coffin we also had John Maughan on the sideline, we really hadn't a hope. Salthill looked impressive though, Armstrong played very well as did Seamie Crowe and Finian Hanley, their defence was very solid throughout. They look to have a well balanced team. Tuam are building nicely though, they played very well against Corofin. This has the makings of a good final. Nice to see two different teams in it also.

[magpie seanie]

Leitrim SF final has been moved to October 7th I hear, same day as Sligo is scheduled for.