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[Why couldnt it be played at a later date?]

yeah they would have played O'Mahoneys yesterday. Why couldnt it be played at a later date? its a pity alright. Forde was on song kicking 11 of their 1-12 tally.

FFS juice, how do you think we got to this sorry state of affairs in the first place?! It's an absolute disgrace to be playing a Co Final in November. All the lip service will be paid to the Club players of the country for another year no doubt while nothing is actually done. The myopia never ceases to amaze me. The idea of holding up the Club Championship is ostensibly to maximise the chances of the County team in this year's All-Ireland. Does anybody consider the fact that you alienate, frustrate and probably lose the County players of the future, who are made sit on their holes all summer with empty promises of fixtures revisited and revisited again ad nauseum.

And by the way the MH v WX first round game was already put back a week when the WX Co Board were shocked to realise that their finely tuned County Football Championship "schedule" wouldn't produce a representative by 26 Oct, the original fixture. So they got their week's grace which gave them 3 weekends to play Quarters, Semis and Final. They hadn't finished clapping themselves on the back when Adamstown and Shels then drew their QF after Extra-Time. WHAT WERE THE CHANCES? 1,000/1 !! 

Aw don't start me.

Kilanerin were dead right to refuse to play. The Co Board are the ones who should have the public egg on their faces here (not for the first time this year), not the County Champions.

Pleased for Masterson in his debut year. 4 clean sheets out of 6 championship matches is a fair achievement, especially for a debutant. It will be welcomed by all the squad as some acknowledgement of their achivements over the year, but the Full-Back Line can certainly consider that they made a significant contribution to the award, helping to keep 3 clean sheets in the last 3 games - Last 16, QF and SF (OK, Tyrone didn't need any majors, but you've a better chance of staying in the game if you keep them out all the same).

Our defence in general (and Manager) learned a lot this year, including some harsh lessons, but will definitely be a much stronger unit for the experience going into next year.

Connacht have named their football and hurling squads for tomorrow's inter-provincial semi-finals against Leinster in Kiltoom.

Connacht football squad: P Joyce, D Blake, G Bradshaw, G Sice, D Burke (all Galway); D Clarke, T Cunniffe, P Gardiner, A Dillon, C Mortimer, A Moran, J Nallen, R McGarrity, P Harte (all Mayo); E Mulligan, D Maxwell, M McGuinness (all Leitrim); R Donovan, P Greene, C Harrison, D Kelly (all Sligo); S Kilbride, S McDermott, M Finneran, C Cregg (all Roscommon).

===

I'm looking forward to seeing Emlyn Mulligan in the flesh. He seems to have caught the eye this year. I thought Cathal Cregg was Castlerea, in which case he certainly wouldn't be lining out tomorrow. I must be thinking of the other good Roscommon forward 

A touch of the good old Dublin arrogance there from Val. Still I suppose if Sean Boylan can do it for Ireland, why not Val for Leinster. Anyway, I'll give Mr McMahon the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure he's a good footballer .......

Disappointing that neither Offaly nor Longford will be represented on the pitch, as there's bound to be a few in the crowd (or at least there would have been). The Provincial Club Championships really hurt the selections of these panels. Niall McNamee would have been a shoe-in. Another reason for moving the thing to March. And yes, Paul Barden is always worth watching. Maybe he's not available, who knows?

Eric Bradley was player of the year for Wexford for me, so nice to see him get some kind of reward.

When is the game on again? I want to make sure my boy doesn't stumble upon it on the telly or in the papers. Will there be highlights? At least then I'll know if it was anything less than a complete fiasco and might watch the edited version.

Anyone got any insight into the make-up of the Leinster Panel for next Saturday in Kiltoom?

Most of Wexford's contenders are caught up in Club Championship unfortunately. Should be a healthy local (Westmeath) contingent I would expect.

As part of the All-Stars Cermony tonight, RTE arranged to come to Clongeen GAA Club (Wexford Co Champions) and do a live outside broadcast section of the programme from there. The Secretary of Clongeen sent an invitation out to all Clubs in the County inviting the Chairman and Secretary to come and join in their evening of celebration.

I wonder are RTE still going?

God, I'd say there'll be a big crowd in Kiltoom anyway. They love their football in the Midlands. Then if Leinster get through I would expect a big crowd in Portlaoise.
We've been crying all year about small crowds in Croker and now they're taking the finals to Provinicial Grounds. Makes sense to me ...

As a Midland dweller myself I'd be a bit biased. But I'll certainly be hoping to attend both Kiltoom semis and both finals.

Freudian slip of the finger in the title there Anthony?

Is it available online?

after all the cant here before the Semi we saw howmany reallly prefer the hill 62,000 in the ground only a hand full on a small section of the dinneen . id reckon ifit wasn't for the logistics of the train lines they'd tear it down pronto and if people Were honest enough they'd be campaigning for it

Have to bear in mind that the hill tickets only went on sale a couple of days before that game. I'd be confident the hill would have been fuller were the hill tickets available from the start.

ros, I normally steer clear of personal abuse on this board, but for you I'll make an exception.
You're some gobshite if you think that's some kind of valid argument.
I seriously worry when I see that there are some Gaels out there (well, at least one) that don't think what was done for the semi-final was a thundering disgrace.

Cant my hole. The only cant in the discussion is that drivel that you felt you should enlighten the world with.

Cheap tickets are there for a reason. Because there's a market for them. If they want to save on the cost of a few stewards, they should have sectioned off some of the upper tier first, before they went after the GAA fans that are willing to pay 30 Euro to stand, having probably forked out 100 Euro to stand in provincial grounds all around the country all through the spring and early summer.

Lads,
Hope you don't mind me dropping in, but I thought ye might help me with something.
In an idle few moments there I was drawing parallels between Wexford's Football odyssey this year and your own in '04.

An obvious parallel is that we both beat Armagh in the Quarter Final.
In fairness, ye got a step further by forcing a replay in the semi, but it was only Mayo 

Anyway my question is this:What success have Fermanagh had in the last say 25 years in Football?
I'm not having a dig, I'm just trying to extend the parallels. I'd be surprised if your record was as grim as ours ....

For example, going back 25 years before 2008, Wexford's "Roll of Honour" would read something like:

National League Div 1 Finalists 2005 - Lost to Armagh by 7 points
National league Div 2B Semi-Finalists 2003 - Lost horribly to Limerick

Leinster Finals in Senior:       0
Leinster Finals in U-21:         1  (1988 - lost to eventual AI winners Offaly after 3 replays)
Leinster Finals in Minor:        2   (1999 - lost to Meath, 1994 - lost to Dublin)

Leinster Club Finals:             0

All-Ireland Schools Finals:      2  (1999 - Good Counsel, New Ross beat Jarlath's, 1995 - Good Counsel lost to Pat's Maghera)

O'Byrne Cup Titles              1  (1995 - Drew with WH, awarded title when WH refused to play Extra Time)


Finally, to my knowledge, the entire Wexford squad of this year can probably boast the following total of honours won:

Railway Cup Medals:     1 - Matty Forde, maybe a couple of others as subs
Hogan Cup Medals:      2 - Good Counsel '99
Sigerson Cup Medals:   Red Barry might have one with UCD - not sure.


Anyway, if any of you has any comparable stats, I'd appreciate it, thanks.
See yis in Wexford Park next Spring I hope ...

I think you're right about Giles, Canalman. I wasn't at that match, but I think I remember seeing that in the highlights on TV.

Anyway,I'm sure you'll all change your minds about the greatest goal of all time when I remind you (how could you forget) about a certain Mr. Foley. Comes top of the list in all categories - quality of move, number of players involved, awareness, impact on the game, number of consecutive passes, number of defenders beaten, impact on the history of the game, absence of any hint of foul on ball or man and execution. And did I mention impact?

You forgot one category Hardy - the overcarrying. Tommy Dowd took 6 steps (from memory  ) ....

Seriously though, referees are very reluctant to disallow goals for overcarrying. It seems they don't have the nerve to call the game back as the ball crashes to the net and the stadium explodes. Sean Cavanagh's goal v Dublin was an example. Fair enough, when lads are trying to escape from a challenge they do get the benefit of the doubt, but even with that consideration he way over-carried. And then there was the first Cork goal v Kerry in the drawn game, if I'm not mistaken ... and that's only in the last few weeks.

Now don't start me about john Fitzgibbon's winning "goal" in the 1990 Hurling Final ..!! And you're only allowed 3 steps in hurling!!

I was pleased that Wexford went down fighting at least, and they were clearly determined that there would be no capitulation this time.
It was a shame that we allowed ourselves to fall so far behind so early (11 to 2 is a serious setback!). Tyrone were awesome, but really shouldn't have been allowed so much ball and room.

Against all the odds then we managed to make a game of it. Tyrone probably got a bit complacent especially when our no. 15 didn't emerge for the 2nd half. When we had that period of possession just after the goal we hit some fairly hopeful ball up to the FF line. Colfer is a good man under the high ball, but he got very little support under the breaks, and some of the ball in was poor enough. It's a pity we didn't use young Roche and Deely on the ball a bit more, as they started so well when they came in. I though Red was very quiet by his standards, when we rely on him so badly to lead.

As I said they fought to the end, and the ground that Bradley and Roche made up near the end to get in tackles and blocks was a joy to behold. Wallace guarded his area well (though Davy Harte was unlucky). 3 clean sheets in the last 3 games is a fair achiievement for Masterson and his previously much-maligned full back line, but Tyrone had enough scoring talent to win comfortably on minors alone. You can't really hold the full-back line responsible for the 0-7 scored by defenders!

All in all a great year, and plenty of experience bottled for next year. I wouldn't expect to be in an AI semi-final next year, but a serious tilt at the Leinster Title has to be the aim, and it can be done. Hopefully we can have a good Div 2 campaign, secure our 2nd flight status and bring on the younger lads and a few more with them.

Should be an absolute cracker of an AI Final. The right two teams are in it, and who ever wins it, it will have been hard-earned!

My point was you'd want to be pretty sure of your ball-carrying skills if you're hoping to win frees that way. The fact is Armagh dispossessed our forwards legally several times in that first half, and if they had been more clinical about converting their possession into scores could have been further ahead at half-time. It's not a tactic I would recommend and I would rather see a forward kick a ball 10 yards wide than give it away, especially when his wing backs have come 50 yards up the field to support him ....

Breaking balls and turnovers are what will decide the outcome of most games. If we can break even or shade the midfield breaks as we have of late, and try to minimise turnovers when in possession then we'll give ourselves a chance.

I'd love to say that Wexford are going to throw caution to the wind and this will be a rip-roaring end-to-end game of football, but I don't think it will ...

I think it will be in Wexford's interests to try to stifle the pace of the game and to try to limit the number of scoring - especially goal - chances, to Tyrone early on. I expect a few stoppages if they can get away with it, as I think the main aim will be to get to HT still in touch with Tyrone. We have free-takers who can convert from the sideline on either side, and we may be relying on them to keep us in touch a la Armagh, but I hope not, as playing for frees is a dangerous game. Neither Tyrone nor Pat McEneaney will give us anything soft.

if the first 15 can sustain the physical effort to stay with Tyrone for the first 45 minutes, then I would be confident that we have the fellas on the bench to come on and provide the spark. Stafford or Howlin at MF can do a job, Deely and Roche have the pace up front, and Niall Murphy will be chomping at the bit to use his pace and aggression (and class) to help out in defence.

It will be a 20-man performance from Wexford, and whether it's good enough or not, I hope they leave nothing in the dressing-room and have a right go. Again, if they can get to the last quarter still in with a shout, then they have showed all year that they can win big games in that final quarter. The biggest ask will be maintaining the challenge to get ourselves into that position.

Big performances needed from our core of experienced players who have spent the last 7/8 years building up to a day like this - Wallace, Morris, Murphy, Barry, Colfer, Forde. They need to lead and bring the younger lads on.

It'll be a great day, and if the heads are right anything's possible. The ability is there if enough fellas perform.

Come on The Model!!