Messages

You are actually more likely to be blown for "too long" if you dither on the ball and don't move.  That's the irony of it.

Looks worse standing although you are entitled to stand for the "time needed to take four steps".

Mick Fennelly getting a taste of hurling at the lower levels;;

"I think the Christy Ring, Lory Meagher, Nickey Rackard competitions are kind of being forgotten about and suppressed. Let's be honest about it, the promotion of it is very, very poor. That falls on the GAA and the broadcasting companies. Something has to be done about it. I'm not surprised there are football players concerned about this new tier two competition. I think it's the right thing to do personally speaking but that's from an outside point of view. They are afraid they will be forgotten about, that it will be suppressed, that they will not be on The Sunday Game. The Christy Ring, it might get 10 seconds, 20 seconds — that's no good for kids to be inspired to play for Offaly, they want to be seen on The Sunday Game. They want to see their players or their role models on the TV, on RTÉ, on Sky, on TG4. I don't know, I just feel a lot needs to be done for the promotion of the games. For me it's not working and it's not fit for purpose the way it is."
-Michael Fennelly
✪ (Irish Examiner/August 2021)

Thats why i prosposed the 3 finals are on the same day and must be all televised as part of any deal with TV stations. The GAA and TV channels cannot be trusted to do it otherwise.

I should have added that it was a Kilkenny man who relegated those competitions to their current graveyard slots.

In the beginning with the much slated Sean Kelly, the Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard competition finals were played before the two AI senior semi-finals with the minor semi-finals played at 12.30 the same day.

Along came "hurling man" Nicky Brennan and decided the kilkenny minors were more important than these competitions and moved them to a separate slot and we are where we are.

Are the PL not looking into City's finances now with the expectation there will be some punishment coming from their investigation?

Answer the PL to look at those club owners who've leveraged their debt onto the club rather than fresh money coming in with no strings attached.

They won't lose the final this year unfortunately. It'll be the semi final.

That's my feeling too.

The other game could go either way.

If Brian Gavin was still refereeing, Kilkenny would win by a bucket load..   

Lots of chat here that the stadium will only be filled once a year for an Ulster final. Something to consider is that there may not be too many more years of provincial Championships - or if there are, it will in my view be as a secondary competition to a restructured championship.

We already don't have a hurling final. Embarrassing. McGeehan and the fat cats don't seem to care about that

Ulster Council has abdicated responsibility for hurling quite a few years ago, not only do we not have an Ulster Senior Hurling Championship, but none for U20 or minor. We're now in Leinster by the looks of it.

Mick Fennelly getting a taste of hurling at the lower levels;;

"I think the Christy Ring, Lory Meagher, Nickey Rackard competitions are kind of being forgotten about and suppressed. Let's be honest about it, the promotion of it is very, very poor. That falls on the GAA and the broadcasting companies. Something has to be done about it. I'm not surprised there are football players concerned about this new tier two competition. I think it's the right thing to do personally speaking but that's from an outside point of view. They are afraid they will be forgotten about, that it will be suppressed, that they will not be on The Sunday Game. The Christy Ring, it might get 10 seconds, 20 seconds — that's no good for kids to be inspired to play for Offaly, they want to be seen on The Sunday Game. They want to see their players or their role models on the TV, on RTÉ, on Sky, on TG4. I don't know, I just feel a lot needs to be done for the promotion of the games. For me it's not working and it's not fit for purpose the way it is."
-Michael Fennelly
✪ (Irish Examiner/August 2021)

It's easy to have cheap shots at people at the lower end of the social scale in terms of a drain on our taxation and that is true.

In another breath sweet FA is being done and very little talk in the mainstream media about how the elite cream off government contracts to the tune of millions at a time under various guises and somehow that's more palatable.

Sure we see it here with Owen Paterson "advising" Randox...

The rules are written by the rich for the rich.

What's the Infatuation with Varadkar and this one Zappone?

Controversy seems to follow her around like a bad smell yet she gets Government appointments thrown at her.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/se%C3%A1n-moran-tipperary-s-proven-stalwarts-have-done-the-county-some-service-1.4638231

Maybe Liam Sheedy will stay on but, if he does, there is a major rebuild to be done. Within seven days of each other, they and Galway exited the championship against Waterford. Together with Kilkenny the three counties dominated hurling in the past decade.
They did so playing a traditional, orthodox game, relying on power and strength under the dropping ball and the artistry of their forwards. Tipp in particular with their touch, movement and lethal accuracy.
That time appears to be gone and replaced by the fast-transfer game and relentlessly hard running at the opposition defence – of which Waterford are exemplars.

The body can only take so much, that hard running at players involves a lot of impact, a few players looked to have taken some hits for Waterford last weekend, you can only take so much, the recover time is very limited.

I expect Limerick to get through and face Cork!!

Limerick and to a lesser extent Waterford are direct runners, happy to go into contact and offload to a runner off the shoulder, Cork are different, they avoid contact and that probably suits their current age and physique team profile.

Kilkenny love and thrive on the physicality, less so chasing shadows..

[That time appears to be gone and replaced by the fast-transfer game and relentlessly hard running at the opposition defence – of which Waterford are exemplars.]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/se%C3%A1n-moran-tipperary-s-proven-stalwarts-have-done-the-county-some-service-1.4638231

Maybe Liam Sheedy will stay on but, if he does, there is a major rebuild to be done. Within seven days of each other, they and Galway exited the championship against Waterford. Together with Kilkenny the three counties dominated hurling in the past decade.
They did so playing a traditional, orthodox game, relying on power and strength under the dropping ball and the artistry of their forwards. Tipp in particular with their touch, movement and lethal accuracy.
That time appears to be gone and replaced by the fast-transfer game and relentlessly hard running at the opposition defence – of which Waterford are exemplars.

Why are we so quick to not only write off a team but also its game plan when they get beaten. Waterford havent won anything yet unlike tipp.

That Tipp team were expected to be there or there abouts at the shake up in the final stages of the AI.

They rode their luck against Clare (who have been badly underestimated all year), got absolutely decimated by Limerick in a half of hurling that will live on in our memories for a long time and then were meant to regroup only for Waterford to blitz them again with similar tactic's to Limericks. They did well to get the game back down to 3 points, only for Waterford to open up the winning margin again.
I wouldn't be throwing the baby out with the bathwater just yet but fundamental changes need made in Tipp if they are to remain at the top. Some of the subs have shown the players may be there to keep them in the higher echelons but they need a manager to trust them.

Hurling is always evolving and Tipp need to evolve as well.

I'm still not convinced by Kilkenny and if they've evolved their gameplan but we'll know more about them this weekend when Cork try to run through them.

Joe Hart has signed for Celtic. If he gets back to the form of 3 or 4 years ago he would be a good signing as number 1 for Celtic.

He could play blindfolded and is an improvement on Barkas

Great to see Hart show real ambition and move to a massive club with a chance of winning trophies. Too many players in his position are happy to sit in epl sides picking up big wages and not playing. if he can get back to somewhere near his best this will be a great move for Celtic and Hart also.

Hart wasn't even going to get to warm the bench in the EPL so the move to Glasgow was about right for where he's at in his career.

He could do a job for Celtic

It's a fact lol.

That said I do expect our county finals and a good bit more to be played there. Just becomes more awkward to organise.

10% of gatemoney to the Ulster Council and you'll be fine. 

What a game, the last quarter was overdrive by Tipp and after that save on 69 minutes Waterford scores 1-4 or something in 3 minutes!


I wonder will the football,  match that next? 

Be tough to match but should be interesting nonetheless.

Liam Cahill to get the call to come home to Tipp before the year is out.

Tipp.have reached the end of the road with that great team.
Rebuilding is going to.take a while.

If Tipp get Cahill back next year and he gets his 2 u20/21 all ireland squads buying into a senior setup

The rebuild could be in place by 2023

Tipp need a keeper/corner back/full back and 2 forwards

It's not an insurmountable problem

Not sure they need a keeper, they've the two Hogans to pick from and TBH any defeats they've had this year or the last were nothing to do with their keepers.

They need to rethink their middle third. They need more power and pace in there as they've been badly exposed in there the last two defeats. Both Waterford and Limerick cut through there like a hot knife through butter. They have some of the players who came off the bench on Saturday who looked like they can cut it at this level in Mark Kehoe and Willie Connors, but they need to find at least a few more as we now see the difference a strong bench can make to teams and is proving essential to having a tilt at an AI win.

Tipp can't cope with the running game.
Neither can Galway.
Would love to see the Deise winning this year.

You'd swear Limerick invented the running game

The reality is that tipp and galway were found out this year because they had the greatest number of over 30's in their squads

Tipp had 5 clear cut goal chances in the game v Waterford anytime between 09-19 they would nailed 3/4 of them,but age has caught them in a game of milliseconds

Cork had 10 of the u21eam beaten by tipp in 18,tipp had one

Galway are a disjointed shambles since the league ended,Canning might not be the last of their retirements either,1 all ireland is a poor return for that team.

O'Neill looks increasingly like a dead man walking,Lynskeyis the only and obvious choice for them

You'd think they'd either go with O'Donoghue or failing that Lynskey considering the job he's done with the minors and now U20's.

There may be a bit of internal politics in not going for O'Donoghue again.

WRT Cork, they were in a pretty non-competitive place against the serious AI contenders and really had to make the drastic changes that Kingston made. He was unpopular for doing it but has been proved right but we'll know a lot more about this project and where it's at this weekend.

Is Sheedy the man to tell a few senior Tipp lads thanks but no thanks for 2022?

He comes across as a ruthless wee bollox at times but maybe he's got too much gra for the likes of the McGraths, Callanan and possibly Paudie Maher and co.

SO good news abou casement and goal is to have ulster championship final 2024 and no mention of first Antrim county and club games. The day we signed up for the big stadium Antrim lost Casement to the prawn sandwich eaters

ITG hit the nail on the head, we have lost any say in it. All these ex-players raising their profiles off the back of supporting getting it built, fail to understand that we wont have a say it.

So those great old days when every schools competition in Belfast and seemingly every juvenile match as well (going by some of the reports) are gone and not coming back. We will be lucky to get even the biggest club games in it.

Where are you getting this from? How do you know what will & wont be played in the new casement? Are you on your club or county committee in any capacity? If so then you will have an opportunity to have a say on most things that affect you as a gael. If you're not then I'm not sure who you are referring to when you say 'we wont have a say'?
We've had to listen to some amount of negativity around the stalled casement project over recent years, now there is serious cause for excitement and positivity and people are determined to create more negatives. Some people just love being miserable! 

ITG is saying that this won't be Antrims stadium to decide who gets a run out in it or not and he's right.

Hard to see the South Antrim u13's getting a run out in it.

[you'd need to be down very close to 4:00 dead]

Ciara didn't make it, but it was a big ask to get through the heat with a calf strain..

Hasn't had much luck with injuries.

real pity. Haven't watched it but sounded like she ran well tactically but just hadn't the speed in the legs. She's 29 now and at that level i dunno how many more years you would get. Should be another olympics and worlds in her. Those middle distances are very tough to survive in. The tactics and the madness you get on the ramp up last up mean that unless you're way ahead of the rest it can be a lottery getting through at times. 4:07 isn't really going to cut it at that level either and you'd need to be down very close to 4:00 dead.

She commented something similar after the worlds where she'd busted herself so I think she knows her time is limited but will enjoy it while it lasts and then look to get into the physio'ing.