St Brigids v Ballymun St Patricks Day 2013

[Rossfan]

Wonder how long it will take d Rossies 2 demand d underdog mantle.[/quote

Paddypower isn't acceding to our "demands" anyway
St B 5/6
Bmun 5/4
Draw 7/1.

And it a home match for the Dubs and all 

[Declan]

St B 5/6
Bmun 5/4
Draw 7/1.

That sounds about right to me.

[Milltown Row2]

Ballymun remind me of our club during the run to the finals, plenty of fitness running through that team, everyone running off the ball looking for support and options, all the players filling in the gaps from the attacking defenders and they took their scores well. Some tough tackles and players have plenty of spirit.

St Brigids might win it purely on experience (need to lose one to win one) but Ballymun don't give a shite, in truth I thought Crokes were crap so I'm finding this one hard to gauge. Cooper was a yappy wee shite the whole way through the game, he's have been booked early on for slabbering if I was refereeing it.

I think both teams to win 1-3 points might be the better bet, should be around 7/2 - 100/30

[Farrandeelin]

I'm just delighted that one Green and Red team will have an All-Ireland medal, at the very least.

[Syferus]

I'm just delighted that one Green and Red team will have an All-Ireland medal, at the very least.

If Brigids do it you can take it as re(a)d that it's revenge for stealin' Ballagh.

Them Kilbride boyos come from true Ballagh Ros stock, after all.

[fearsiuil]

Dubs seems confident

http://www.reservoirdubs.com/forum/index.php/topic,15531.0.html

[Rossfan]

That's the way we want it.

[Syferus]

I wonder if Ballymun's pressence will swell the crowd for the finals? The two hurling clubs are first timers and half of Roscommon will turn out for Brigids.

[emmetryan]

One that will likely be of interest, using graphs to illustrate how Ballymun Kickhams beat Dr Crokes http://action81.com/blog/?p=6754

[yellowcard]

Good article in the Indo on The Cake.....lunatic


Damn you Cake. There I was having a leisurely look at the sports pages on Sunday only to be confronted with a plethora of references to 'St Brigid's veteran goalkeeper, 41-year-old Shane Curran,' after the Roscommon side defeated Crossmaglen Rangers in the All-Ireland semi-final.

Veteran? 41 years old? Where did all that time go? This is my 26th year doing this job, about as long as Hitler was a member of the Nazi Party, yet it seems to have gone by in a flash and I can still remember games from my first year in the job as though they were yesterday. Actually I can remember some of them better than I can remember yesterday.

Like the day in the spring of 1988 when I went to the Roscommon area final of the FAI Junior Cup to watch Castlerea Celtic take on Cloonfad United. In goals for Castlerea was a skinny red-haired lad who'd recently had a trial with Manchester United. His name was Shane Curran, his nickname was Cake and he was 16 years old.

Cloonfad United were a pretty good outfit who a few years later would reach an All-Ireland semi-final and they bombarded the kid between the posts to such an extent that he looked like someone trying to repel the seventh card of Space Invaders with no houses to cover him. It didn't bother young Curran, one-on-ones, point-blank headers, deflected shots, he got to all of them. Well, almost all of them.

Midway through the second half with the score at 1-1, Cloonfad were awarded a penalty. Paul Coggins, now an excellent manager of the London senior football team and then the best soccer player in Roscommon, took the kick and put it in the top right-hand corner. Or he would have if Curran hadn't sprung up and made one of the best saves I'd ever seen, tipping the shot round the post. Castlerea went on to win 3-1 and the handful of spectators at the ground in Roscommon town agreed that Shane Curran was someone to keep an eye on.

It wasn't just his obvious talent, it was the fact that for almost the entire 90 minutes the kid had kept up a steady flow of chat to his defenders in a voice so piercing you half expected the dogs of the town to invade the field in response. Sometimes the commands had to do with defensive organisation and sometimes you suspected the young lad got a kick out of giving his older team-mates a bit of a bollocking.

In the quarter century since that day, one thing has remained constant: If Shane Curran is playing you'll probably notice him. Because while there are plenty of Irish sportsmen who get described as 'characters,' most of them pale into insignificance compared to Curran. As the old saying goes, 'In Ireland they call them characters, in England they call them eccentrics and in America they call them madmen.' Perhaps there's a bit of all three in the lad from Castlerea. He's always done things his way.

Take the dénouement of the 1989 Connacht minor football final. Roscommon trailed Galway by two points when they were awarded a penalty with seconds remaining. Corner-forward Peadar Glennon placed the ball on the spot and stepped back to begin his run-up. Which was when Shane Curran tore out of nowhere and hammered the ball past the flat-footed Galway 'keeper. There was pandemonium. No one had seen anything like it before. Roscommon were presented with the cup, had the game subsequently taken away from them in the committee room and eventually won the replay ordered by the Connacht Council.

A couple of years later, Curran was giving astounding attacking performances in the Roscommon senior championship. Astounding not just because of their quality but because he would sometimes accompany them with commentary along the lines of, so I'm told, "Curran has the ball, he's taking on the full-back, will he go left? No, he's gone right. Now he's through on goal." In one match he chipped the ball over the goalie, nipped around the other side to collect it and planted it into the net. A bit like Pele's effort against Uruguay in the 1970 World Cup except that Curran sealed the deal.

He was an excellent full-forward, unlucky to be carried off in the 1992 Connacht semi-final against Leitrim after a frightening collision when he seemed to be on the verge of taking over the game. But perhaps his inner showman has always preferred a role between the posts, in that great sanctum for individualists.

Diversifying into the League of Ireland, Curran became the goalkeeper for Athlone Town, giving some terrific displays, most notably when, on the last day of the 1994-'95 season, Derry City came to St Mel's Park needing a victory to clinch the League of Ireland title. In the circumstances Shane Curran was the last 'keeper they needed to be up against. And when Stuart Gauld stepped up to take a penalty which would have given Derry a 2-1 lead, I knew what would happen next. It was a Curran moment. He saved it, the game ended 1-1 and Dundalk won the league.

Forward wind to 2003. Roscommon are on a bit of a run in the championship when they face Kildare in the final round of the qualifiers. They're trailing near the end of normal time when Curran, who by now had moved from Castlerea St Kevin's to St Brigid's, bursts out of the square with the ball and hares up the field, going 40 yards and setting up an equaliser. Roscommon win it in extra-time and in the quarter-final are getting stuffed by Kerry when Curran tears up the field again. A remarkable revival falls just a few points short. A Roscommon man says to me after the game, "They laugh when he does it but he never loses the ball, does he?"

And last Saturday when Brigid's were defeating Crossmaglen, Curran was in the thick of it again, getting decked by Crossmaglen's Kyle Carragher in the closing minutes after he decided to have his say in the usual forthright manner. Maybe Carragher thought he'd shut Curran up. He should have saved his energy, 25 years on and counting, Shane Curran still has plenty to say for himself.

It was interesting to see that terrific comic actor, and former Roscommon minor 'keeper, Chris O'Dowd name Curran as a hero of his a while back. You'd nearly wonder if watching Curran in action might have contributed to O'Dowd's flair for comedy. Then again Chris might have got it from his brother John who, while playing in goals for Boyle Celtic under 18s against Lough Harps, finally got fed up of a striker who'd been niggling him throughout the game and flung the ball at him precipitating a Keystone Kops-style chase as his team-mates and the opposition pursued the rebound across the six-yard box. I was one of those team-mates. Maybe it's a Roscommon thing.

The 41-year-old Shane Curran has changed a bit in the last 25 years. If you put his present-day self on the other end of a see-saw from his teenage precursor, the young lad would fly 20 yards into the air. I'd send my younger self 40. But the spark is still the same. And the fact that he's enjoyed a highly successful business career perhaps shows that, as is the case with all great clowns, there's been plenty of method behind the apparent madness.

No disrespect to Ballymun Kickhams but I hope St Brigid's win on St Patrick's Day. Because for all the entertainment Curran has given over the years, he's been sparsely rewarded in terms of major medals. Afterwards Chris O'Dowd can use his Hollywood pull to get the guy in Bridesmaids 2. No, on second thoughts, the man should get his own movie.

Because there's only one Shane Curran and he's always been a star.

backpage@independent.ie

[Syferus]

Wonderful article by Eamonn Sweeney there. If Brigid's can do it Cake will become the first double All-Ireland winner from Roscommon - alongside Karol Mannion, Peter Domican and Cathal Mchugh - since the 1943-44 and the era of Jimmy Murray.

Few could argue it wouldn't be a fitting achievement for one of the most terrifying and live-affirming players to ever play the game. To watch Cake play all your life is an experience I'd never wish on anyone but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

It's stories like this that make the All-Ireland club championship so unique and vital to the sport.

[imtommygunn]

Terrifying?

Live affirming??

[Syferus]

Terrifying?

Live affirming??

Many a man and woman have been on the verge of heart attacks when Cake takes off to the 45 with the team a point down.

Likewise it's always been obvious how much enthusiasm he has for the sport, even on the sideline last year he was barely able to stay on his seat for more than a few seconds. To see a man still in love with playing the sport after over a quarter of a century, and after having played at every level imaginable, senior county, junior county, district football, League of Ireland football, is some very special and should be celebrated. That he's still a fantastic goalkeeper only makes it more impressive.

[Rossfan]

Terrifying?

Live affirming??

Welcome to Syferusland where any word can be taken out of the sky and put anywhwere 
My favourite Cake game of all time was that mad replay day in Markievicz in 2004 when he scored 1-1 - a penalty and a free from the sideline about 50 metres out.
Did he save a penalty that evening too -- or am I thinking of a save from Savage in Ballinasloe when he did a mad dance on the line and also shook hands with Savage before he took the kick??? 

[Syferus]

Terrifying?

Live affirming??

Welcome to Syferusland where any word can be taken out of the sky and put anywhwere 
My favourite Cake game of all time was that mad replay day in Markievicz in 2004 when he scored 1-1 - a penalty and a free from the sideline about 50 metres out.
Did he save a penalty that evening too -- or am I thinking of a save from Savage in Ballinasloe when he did a mad dance on the line and also shook hands with Savage before he took the kick??? 

Better than typing like I'm coming down after a valium, eh Rossfan? You're a strange lad to be talking about someone else's writing style.