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Matt Doherty to Atletico Madrid on loan. An interesting Irish transfer deal to say the least. More power to him. Hope it works well!

Best of luck to all on the forum running the Dublin City Marathon today!

Australia
Canada
Republic of Ireland
Nigeria

Probably first match vs Australia in Sydney Olympic stadium with sell out of 83000. Stuff of dreams for the women.

A tough draw nonetheless.

Portarlington to do what Clough Ballacolla did last week a 3 in a row and leave their best performance of the season for the final.
Portarlington by 6 points.

Portlaoise to win the junior A curtain raiser just about.

A very comfortable win for Clough Ballacolla by all accounts. Never looked like losing all the way through.

Seemed to get all their match ups right, particularly in the backs; bringing back in Willie Hyland and Tom Delaney were a mastertroke, nullified ball winners for Camross on their puckouts. Darren Maher was very good in defence.

That said Camross were poor overall, never got going and reliant on frees to keep tipping over.

Clough Ballacolla will be hoping to at least make another Leinster club final if they keep injury free.
Good week for them across winning intermediate last night and now this.

As Meatloaf once said "Two out of three ain't bad" 

Looks like game over at half time.

Clough Ballacolla purple patch last 7-8 minutes has done well. Great save from Dunne in goals.

Camross will need a fast start in 2nd half to have any sort of chance!

After the way last years final finished, I'd imagine Ballacolla would have preferred the same ref again!

Interesting that Camross/Castletown rivalry mentioned.
But often in these cases people go out of their way to show they aren't taking sides!

Should be the makings of a good game regardless of referee. Both teams a point to prove and expect a big crowd in OMP. Will be watching on stream abroad and expect Clough Ballacolla to win by 5-6 points. A good win for their 2nd team last night in Intermediate final. Expect them to stay at premier intermediate for few years to come.

Abbeyleix to win by similar amount vs Clonaslee to bounce straight back up.

https://twitter.com/fotoole13/status/1573571339516010496?s=46&t=4Up3jZkmVOuvKB2mxNEz7w

Great to see a few more Irish winners. Swans were awful one way traffic all the way through.

Ah, just sideline talk, I must admit. However, according to it, Paddy Purcell, Cha Dwyer, Sean Downey, Eric Killeen all thinking of pulling the plug. Could be horseshit, but then again...

Sean Downey and cha dwyer going travelling for a year at least.
Massive losses

Ben Conroy gone also. To be expected after COVID-19 life is too short. More power to them on their future travels.

Semi finals
Camross vs Rathdowney Errill
Clough Ballacolla vs Castletown

Camross seem to be improving and won't fear Rathdowney Errill the next day. Granted Borris Kilcotton were woeful yesterday from what I heard.

Clough Ballacolla should have enough for Castletown even though seem to have near a full strength squad.

Interesting stat over weekend that almost all winners from 2021 championship (with exception of Junior C) were relegated in 2022.

Ballinakill premier intermediate champions 2021. Relegated 2022
Trumera intermediate champions 2021. Relegated 2022
Ballypickas Junior A champions 2021. Relegated 2022
Borris Kilcotton 3rd team Junior B champions 2021. Relegated 2022.

Probably happened before but just an observation.

A win for The Harps tonight with last puck of the game. Bob's Bar will be hopping in Durrow tonight from the great escape!

Abbeyleix look like nailed on csrts for the prem inter accordinf to laoistoday.
Still think Ballyfin and rathdowny might have a chance.
Slieve blom for the drop I reckon.

Ben Conroy gone to Australia will be a massive loss so will tip trumera to win that.

You'd imagine Abbeyleix will win it out. Ballyfin should have enough for Portlaoise this weekend.

Good win for Arles over Timahoe. Ross and David Conway to the fore. I think Ross scored about 1-08.

They'll give Crettyard a good game the next day. Mountmellick seem to be improving game on game and will be well up for the match vs The Heath.

Tough game tonight against Liverpool. Talk today of Maguire being dropped for tonight. Would be great to get a win (more likely to win the toss).
Predicting a 3-0 loss.

Stradbally letting me down in predictions over the weekend. Good to see a new face among quarter finalists. Courtwood finding enough to get over the line vs Rosenallis and O'Dempseys eventually pulling away from Park Ratheniska.

Draws for quarter finals:

Ballyroan Abbey vs Portarlington
Clonaslee St Manmans vs Portlaoise
Graiguecullen vs Courtwood
O'Dempseys vs St Joseph's

Probably close to top 8 teams left in it. Expect wins for Portarlington, Portlaoise, Graiguecullen and I think O'Dempseys will beat Joseph's. Will have few more back the next day.

Killeshin vs Ballylinan relegation could go either way. Hard to call.