Sligo Club Football & Hurling

[magpie seanie]

You're just a mouthpiece. Prepared to talk shite all day but you know very little of what you're on about. You think you know because you've watched from outside the wire a few days and you listen to rumours. Sad really. Keep on talking - its all you're good for.

[Mano]

You have gone too far this time Sligonian-you have been on the edge all year with some of your comments but the latest 2 posts you have inserted on this thread go way overboard.

You have been highly critical of certain county players all year and you have been proved wrong every time which shows how out of touch you are (T Taylor, Quinn, McNamara). McNamara has since got an all-star nomination and Quinn very unlucky not to be recognised also.

Then to criticise one of your own clubmates on an internet site and name his position to make identification easier is cowardly. This lad has been training all year to play in a county semi final and you are hiding behind your keyboard slating him. He is making more of an effort for his club than you are. If you love your club so much-get home every weekend and make the team.I made the trip home from Dublin for 7 years training with the county lads in Dublin winning 3 county titles in the process.

Your attack on Coolera also shows how warped you are. Everybody knows that a team can have off days and i think in fairness to Coolera their focus was on winning a county title their first since..well it was a long time.

Cop on lad and think before you start typing those letters on the keyboard. If you do the same in your working environment your career won't go too far.

[stephenite]

So who are the likely winners of the final then lads? Would be interested in the views of some longer term Sligo posters on here

[Mano]

From a Tourlestrane viewpoint i would be very confident going into the game next Sunday but for a spate of injuries over the last forthnight. O'Hara is out with a broken thumb, David Durkin and midfielder are also out with another lad unlikely to start. Fortunately enough we have a strong panel however you cannot replace the experience and class of those injured. Having watched Eastern Harps last week they are very beatable-they have a young mobile team and also have a few injuries themselves.

Its a tough one to call but i still think our lads can win it.

Ye were fortunate to win last week yourselves Stephenite from what i read and heard. Is there another Connaught title in your team?

[magpie seanie]

I find the final tough to call as well. I think both camps have reason for optimism. Would expect Tourlestrane to have the greater of the possession and that could be telling. However, Harps backs are good and its hard to see Gerry McGowan getting the same latitude he got the last day from the John's defence from Ross Donovan. Gerry is actually playing really well - the best I've seen him in a long time but Donovan is awesome. Tour can score outside of Gerry though and any frees will be potted too. At the other end Harps forwards are a bit light overall and might struggle early on against a pretty experienced back line. Maybe when to game opens out the pace of young Rafferty and skills of O'Grady will shine - its hard to know. A dry ish day would help those lads too.

So two good teams - both shorn of some key talents - will bid for the Owen B Hunt Cup. To me it looked like these two would get there from early in the season and so it has proved. I voted for Harps to win the c'ship on this thread way back so I'll tentatively stay with that. Either crew would be worthy champions and a tough assignment for wohever they meet, especially if they get some of their wounded back on board.

Just a mention about the minor final. We go to battle with Curry looking to end a 33 year drought. The sides drew in the league final (yet to be replayed) earlier in the year so that's an indication of how close it will be. The last time we played in a Minor "A" final as curtain raiser to the senior final was in '93. Hopefully the minor game will go a bit better for us but no doubt Mano remembers that day fondly. I remember Tony Carty and Anthony Brennan playing puck against the Tubber defence.

[stephenite]

Based in Sydney so not exactly well placed to comment on the team unfortunately, they did seem fortunate but there are a couple of things in our favour I feel. The current team is vastly experienced, most of the players have at least 3 Mayo senior medals and that is fair going in an era where I feel Mayo club football has been up there with the best of them. Players like McGarrity, Pat Harte, DB, Ger B are the marquee names obviously, but the team has a solid look to it, Eanna Casey appeared to have played a mighty game in the semi, and while he didn't seem to reach the same heights in the final, there were others that stood up. It's been a hallmark of this team over the last 5 years.

It's probably a concern that we seem to be reliant on the route 1 into Brady, but with injuries and other factors Ballina only had the full hand to choose from for the semi final so in a sense they might still be gelling.

I wouldn't say that there is definitely a Connacht title in them, but previous years tells me that when these lads get a bit of momentum behind them and can hopefully keep the big names injury free, well I wouldn't bet against them either at this stage. There was a huge lesson learned against Curry a few years back - so they won't be complacent about any opponents.

Would be interesting to see Toulestrane against the Stephenites, Harte and O'Hara are first cousins as far as I'm aware and would probably mark each other if ye make it that far

[Mano]

A dry ish day would help those lads too.

We play the bal out of defense with short passing so we would like a dry day also. We will have to vary our tactics slightly i think on Sunday as Harps get bodies behind the ball quickly so an option to hit an early pass in occasionally would be agood option.

Hopefully the minor game will go a bit better for us but no doubt Mano remembers that day fondly. I remember Tony Carty and Anthony Brennan playing puck against the Tubber defence.

I don't actually we weren't in senior final that year-it was Harps and Tubber-Tubber beat us well in the semi final. 94 was our year-maybe you are getting years a bit mixed up there.

Would be interesting to see Toulestrane against the Stephenites, Harte and O'Hara are first cousins as far as I'm aware and would probably mark each other if ye make it that far

They are first cousins and Harte was a neighbour of Eamon O Hara and our full back Eamon Hara in Cloongoonagh, Tourlestrane until a young age and then unfortunately for Tourlestrane and Sligo football his family moved to Ballina. He still very often goes to Tourlestrane matches

[magpie seanie]

Mano - you are right. That's twice in as many days I've been badly wrong in my recollection about things around that time. It must have been your semi that was on after us in '93. Maybe ye started well and ended up getting well beaten? I probably was back in Coolera House shortly after half time now that I think of it!

A dry day would suit all - definitely. Just think maybe Tourlestrane would be able to cope better with wet conditions than Harps light forwards.

[Owenmoresider]

Seanie - the U21 final was on before the 94 final. Not sure re 1993, expect our minors played (and lost) their final prior to the Intermediate final - a double whammy of bad results!

On the final, even though Tour are weakened by those injuries, it will be a close one nonetheless, but I do think Harps will win in the end. Re a Tour-Ballina semi, the winners hav to get by St. Mary's Carrick in Carrick first in any case, helpfully being played on Sunday week (despite all of the following three Sundays being clear to play). O'Hara has strong links with Knockmore too IIRC, wasn't his uncle manager of them before?

BTW Don't know how reliable this may be, but I see on HS that someone's mentioned Shams winning their appeal on the relegation points issue, if true it throws all up in the air, gives Shams hope of catching Ballymote, and Castleconnor won a trophy they may not be entitled to!

[thedestroyer]

do sligo play hurlin, they must be sh*t

[Owenmoresider]

Well congratulations to Tourlestrane on winning their 8th title, a close call in the end but they were never headed for the whole game, and the great start they got set them up for victory. Strange cos Harps looked good to take it when they brought it back to one in the second half, but they wasted chances and gave the ball away cheaply at times, some of their leading forwards didn't stand out as much as they had in earlier rounds, unlike McGowan and Marren at the other end, who made the most of what came their way, Donovan got a runaround from Gerry, which was not on the cards at all. Harps' midfield problems did them no favours, though they were winning a fair lot of breaks in the first half. Phillips had a good game for them, and Danny O'Grady performed well also, though a bit casual at times in the second half. Eamon Haran was the MOTM recipient, not sure about it but he did well in fairness. Carrick next Sunday for them, hard to know how that will go but one would like to think they can win it.

Curry won the minor also by three, missed a fair bit of it but from what I seen Coolera were well on top but couldn't take their chances at all, shades of Senior finals gone by. A double for the South on the day.

In the league - Mullinabreena fell on their sword, and are 2B bound for 2007, and we survive for another year. Sometimes you reap what you sow.

Sligonian - didn't comment on your earlier comments but re Coolera and their Connacht defeat, you could compare it to Sligo this year, because we won't be recalling the memories of the Cork game over the winter, and likewise for Coolera the Co. Final was the insurmountable hurdle that they finally cleared, and the one game that mattered most, therefore there was a massive desire to win it, which in all probability was hard to replicate for Kiltubrid, but injuries were a hindrance too. Also bear in mind that Kiltubrid went on to take the present Connacht champions to a replay after that, and also Harps (twice) and Tourlestrane both fell to Leitrim opposition in the 90's, in Harps' case heavily. Mary's were taken to a replay too in '01, so the gap in club football between the two isn't all that huge. How Leitrim can run Junior A, B and C Championships, when we can barely run one, would make you wonder too.

[orangeman]

Congrats to Tourlestrane - well done - commiserations to losers.

[paddypastit]

First Sligo club game I've seen this year, from the comfort of the sofa in Dublin 5 - a rare treat - even if it was hard to explain to a 5 and a 3 year old about the commentary - that's wimmin fer ye as Albert Reynolds used say!!

I'd agree OMS's take.
I thought that the football in the first 20 - 25 was as good as you'd see but it deteriorated badly. So descent displays all round but as lads get tired they start to hold the ball and then it gets sloppy.  Expected Egan to have a bigger influenceMcGowan really was buzzing and did Donovan not get booked twice? Great to see Mattie Walsh coming into steady the ship, Paddy Henry was just about keeping himself in check by that stage (by the way, someone buy him a new jumper or onbe of them snazzy TG4 jackets). 

Was watching out for young Henry and McIntyre as I've heard much but the lad that caught my eye, funny enough was the EH wing back, (Kevin?) Gallagher... but then am I right in saying that he played in the infamous inaugural Tommy Murphy Cup final against Clare in '04?? It's not the weakest area of the county setup and the quality of forward play today didn't offer much in the way of new forward talent, but he'd be worth getting tested at the higher level IMO.

[Teeling Gael]

Was at a wedding last Friday so didn't get to post my prediction but it would have been that Harps would win as Ross Donovan would eat Gerry Mc Gowan !!! Congrats to Mano in particuliar and hopefully they will do well in Connaught next weekend. Tony Talyors loss was always going to be hard for Harps to overcome as its the weakest area of their panel.

No tears in Collooney for Coolaney going down to the dreaded Division 4 but with their relegation and the likely relegation of Johnsto Division 3, perhaps there will be moves to redraw the divisions. Definitely think there are areas that can be improved but more of that later in the year.

Seanie asked a week ago about our Relegation playoff but it appears that we are safe. Curry go down on points scored !! To be honest, if they had got a late point in our match to have put them ahead of us on points difference , I would have encouraged us to go down the DRA route as its written in black and white on Sligo gaa website that there would be relegation playoffs in event of teams been equal on points. Presumably for Curry its not as big a deal. Intertested to hear Paddy's rumours on Shmarock gaels appeal. That could yet end up very nasty if true .

[magpie seanie]

Another day leaving Markievicz on county final day with a sick feeling in my stomach. Bottom line is we didn't perform to anything like our ability in the minor final. That said we still had the chances to at least get another go at it. Very hard when you're swimming up stream all game but I guess we're used to it at this stage. If these boys come through to senior in the next couple of years as we hope then hopefully they will have a better day in the Park some time. I'm gutted for them because they really gave great commitment all year and just failed to perform at the worst possible time. Congrats to Curry. An amazing year at underage for them. League final replay is on next weekend and while it's a chance for our lads to get back on the bike even a convincing win would be not much consolation.

Well done to Tourlestrane also. Have been the most consistent team in Sligo all year and saw it through to the end yesterday. I went for Harps early in the year and was still fairly confident in my prediction for most of yesterday. However the early sloppy goal left them too much to do in the final analysis. They were chasing the game all day and every time the got a bit of momentum Tourlestrane had the reinforcements to bring in to swing the balance again. Huge credit to Gerry McGowan who was my man of the match. I've been a big critic of him at times over the year but his display yesterday was one I though we'd never see from him again. He made Ross Donovan look very ordinary and that takes doing. Harps did themselves no favours when giving away good possession cheaply and to their credit Tourlestrane didn't do this as often. So best of luck to the green and gold against Carrick.

The word on the aftermath of Shamrock Gaels' appeal is that no-one will go down at all this year. I would expect that would also be the case in intermediate. A big boo boo by the CCC.

I see the U-20 championship has reverted to a knockout basis. Down to commence on October 28th. We have Molaise Gaels in the Prelim round. Third year in a row to play them - lets hope its third time lucky.

Under 20 Competition



A Competition



Preliminary Round Sunday 28th of October @ 2pm

A - Shamrock Gaels V Tubbercurry

B - Coolera/Strandhill V St Molaise Gaels



Quarter finals

1. Tourlestrane V Calry St Josephs

2. Curry V St Johns

3. St Marys V winners of A

4. Eastern Harps V Winners of B



Semi finals

1 V 3

2 v 4



B Competition



Preliminary round Sunday 28th of October @ 2pm

1. St Farnan's V Bunninnadden

2. Geevagh V St Patricks

3. Easkey V Owenmore Gaels

4. St Michaels a bye



Semi finals

1 V 3

2 V 4