All Ireland Club SFC Semi-finals Feb 2016

[From the Bunker]

Does today's result mean Jamie Clarke is now available to play for Armagh between now and March 17th as his ticket to the USA was surely booked for a date post March 17th?

Aside from this being a complete joke of a Question.

I'm not sure it would do the squad the world of good a player hopping in for a couple of games. Taking the place of a committed player. And then heading off post March 17. Leaving the committed squad player to come back in and pick up the pieces.

[ONeill]

Unlucky Crossmaglen. When you beat Cross you earn it. 2 All Irelands and 2 semi defeats by a point in recent years.

[seafoid]

I suppose Syfín will be on the bandwagon to Croker on St. P's day alright.
He loves all winning teams but especially Rhu ones
Great contest tonight but football is an awful spectacle God help us.

It is still better than rugby and without the injuries

[seafoid]

Would Douglas make it onto the Mayo team? He can score, unlike a few of the forwards on the county side

Horan and H&C did not fancy him. Horan gave him a chance initially, but he got injured (hamstring) replace by Doherty and was forgotten. Last year he impressed in 2  FBD games (i know so what) but was dropped and you'd expect his former Mitchels Manager Holmes to bend the rules a bit if he fancied him. Mitchels doing well in 2014 and 16 has not helped him really as he is not available for FBD trials or early league campaigns. He's a smart footballer and has a cool head. Might be a little on the small side. I think he's part of Roch plans, but there are a lot of players like him in Mayo and it's hard to know if he can offer more.

GRMA

[Il Bomber Destro]

Thought the Cross Castlebar game was superb.

Barry Moran lorded it for Castlebar in the middle of the park for Castlebar and they just dominated Cross in the second half. For me, the game was lost on the line for Cross, why did they leave it until injury time to introduce McKenna when Moran was so influential. He's the only player in the entire Cross squad with the size to match or negate Moran. If Cross could have broken an even or even 40% of the primary ball then they would have won such was the joy Clarke was having inside when the ball was going in.

Once again the old start a melee proved the surefire way to effectively run down the clock, that's not a slant on Castlebar either. Any team that has a serious notion of being successful at that level have to know how to bend the rules to their advantage, but when are referees going to clamp down on it and add the time on? It's the only way to combat and deter this which is becoming all the more commonplace.

How many of those Cross boys will join up with the Armagh panel now? Young O'Neill looks a big talent and Rushe at full back is definitely one to look out for. Actually felt sorry for Rushe today, very much a victim of the Cross arrogance/virtuousness in that he was left one on one on the edge of the square today with a guy who had a 3 or 4 inch advantage of him, maybe that's more of an indication of the modern game that I'm bemoaning that but I felt he did well under the circumstances.

Castlebar should win the final comfortably.

Ballyboden looked really average in the other semi.

[Rossfan]

I suppose Syfín will be on the bandwagon to Croker on St. P's day alright.
He loves all winning teams but especially Rhu ones
Great contest tonight but football is an awful spectacle God help us.

It is still better than rugby and without the injuries

A dose of the runs is better than fkn rubby

[T Fearon]

Curse you Ballyboden,had a nice little Double at 3/1 coming,but both they and Castlebar needed to win in Normal time😠. Crossmgalen reign is over,two defeats in two semi finals and needed a replay to beat a Westmeath team in their last final,in 2012.

Interesting to read that 18 out of the last 20 senior club titles have gone to Connacht and Ulster.In the same period only 7 Sams have gone to the same provinces.Shows exactly where the big counties priorities lie.

[Il Bomber Destro]

Cross will be mightily disappointed. A goal in the first half and that would have been game over. Dunno what cbar did to Clarke in the second half but he hardly touched leather.
Referee did his best to drag cbar back into it. No consistency in his calls. One call for over carrying when it was all square stands out. Also young fella penalised for lifting off the ground when he clearly had his boot under the ball.

The over carrying was a correct call. 7 steps when the ref blew

If you are talking about the no3 towards the sideline for the pickup - then the ref got it spot on. The full back did great to win the ball, but it was pretty stupid of him to then pick it clean off the ground.

I only saw the 2nd half. Jamie Clarke got less than 3 touches

The pickup one I think was Paul Hughes who had his foot under the ball and the Mayo lad came in and kicked the ball as he was going down on it. Kinsella gave the free in when really it should have been a free out.

I don't think Kinsella was too bad, Cross had a few minor decisions go against them which in the end did prove telling but I think they should have more questions to ask of their management team in some of the decisions made.

Did Carragher go off injured early today?

[Il Bomber Destro]

How cynical were the Connaught team and management. Unbelievable. Pulling, mouthing and scummy behaviour. Shame. Good side.

Is a win at all costs mantra acceptable as long as it's not a team from the black north?

I don't have an issue with the tactics employed, the team who is serious about winning is going to do what it takes to win and will take advantage of the rules or a weak match official in doing so.

However I do have a problem with the blatant double standards afforded by commentators, media and fans which only wish to associate these tactics and incidents with Ulster sides. There would be a completely different reaction of hysteria on here tonight I'm sure if it was Cross who were the perpetrators.

[clarshack]

Curse you Ballyboden,had a nice little Double at 3/1 coming,but both they and Castlebar needed to win in Normal time😠. Crossmgalen reign is over,two defeats in two semi finals and needed a replay to beat a Westmeath team in their last final,in 2012.

Interesting to read that 18 out of the last 20 senior club titles have gone to Connacht and Ulster.In the same period only 7 Sams have gone to the same provinces.Shows exactly where the big counties priorities lie.

was waiting on ballyboden to win an accumulator but cashed out on thursday instead. the more i looked at the 2 teams during the week there was never going to be much between them.

[moysider]

Would Douglas make it onto the Mayo team? He can score, unlike a few of the forwards on the county side

I think all of the scores Douglas got tonight were frees. What Mayo seniors need is more free scoring forwards from play.

I think he has matured well. He was always able to bag a score but his decision making used to be an issue imo. He sees the fuller picture now I think.

Scoring from play is what you want and Douglas will do that given time and space. The trick for top teams and coaches is to create space for their finishers. Something we re not good at. Meanwhile we give the marquee guy on the other side the freedom of the park to work his magic. Compare the looseness Jamie Clarke got to work his magic to the dogging likes of Douglas and Kirby got. If Jamie Clarke was given that space to play every day I don t think he would be travelling as much.

Douglas will get a run with Mayo again I think. Maybe 4/5 of that Castlebar team have something to offer. Durkin will take something else to keep him off the starting 15.

[Throw ball]

Oisin McConville's numerous slating of Eddie Kinsela for the BBC championship coverage came back to bite him today.

I will also agree with my northern brethren from Tyrone in that if Tyrone , or any Ulster team, had have seen out a game like that the backlash would be incredible. Questions might also be asked of a couple of high and late tackles on their most influential player. Cross showed well in accepting defeat. Let's hope for two good games on St Patrick's day.

As for Cross let's hope someone in Armagh can give their players an early summer break!

[From the Bunker]

How cynical were the Connaught team and management. Unbelievable. Pulling, mouthing and scummy behaviour. Shame. Good side.

Is a win at all costs mantra acceptable as long as it's not a team from the black north?

I don't have an issue with the tactics employed, the team who is serious about winning is going to do what it takes to win and will take advantage of the rules or a weak match official in doing so.

However I do have a problem with the blatant double standards afforded by commentators, media and fans which only wish to associate these tactics and incidents with Ulster sides. There would be a completely different reaction of hysteria on here tonight I'm sure if it was Cross who were the perpetrators.

Yeah, totally agree. Give a dog a bad name! Gas the way the media work. But hey, you get on with it and you turn the other cheek. In reality if you are good enough, it does not matter who the referee is or what they f**king say. We (Mayo) were totally rode in 2014, these things happen! Life is not fair, if it was, Leitrim would be in contention for Connacht and All Ireland titles every now and again. But they are not and do you think we give a sh1te?

[tippabu]

Sweet Jesus - where do the GAA get these referees from. The standard of the top refs is extremely poor. The 2 referees today were abysmal in all aspects of the game. Cassidy is woeful, he allowed Nelson to run a mile to get the equalising score and then gave 'Boden everything in ET to win.

As for Kinsella - nightmare he was for both teams and had absolutely no control in this game.

Kinsella, Conor Lane, Duffy brothers, Cassidy - did any of them ever kick a ball ??

The standard is woeful, players devoting their lives to train for games and then get shafted by clowns like these men.

Would you stop. Boden got nothing in normal time,  absolutely nothing. When Keaney missed the close free it should have been game over but boden showed great character to dig it out and there was nothing wrong with the equalising point except clonmel naivety. Do you think castlebar would have let him run half the pitch like that ?

In extra time poor kickouts alone gifted boden 3 points. You can't blame the ref for that ?

Yes there was something wrong with the equalising point, he fouled the ball by taking far too many steps. Am i bitter about that......no, we had the game won and should have seen it out, well done to boden, all the best in the final.

[manfromdelmonte]

Two weeks a row the steps rule has been ignored

Loads of focus on black cards, blanket defence and other stuff.

Yet one of the most basic rules of the game is being ignored. Same with hurling. How are you meant to tackle a lad if he's allowed take 6+ steps?

Get your priorities sorted GAA refereeing committee!!