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Quote taken from the Torygraph..

I enjoyed this year's rugby - a flawed, but compelling Six Nations and a fantastic World Cup supplemented by a brilliant Heineken Cup - but it will be two different emotions, rather than games, that will stay with me from this year past.

First, the spontaneous standing ovation given by the Irish crowd at Croke Park to the English on their first visit, was a moment of such poignancy that I fall well short when I try to articulate what it felt like to be there. Having already been told by BBC management that starting off my commentary by reflecting that the last time England had been there they had murdered the Irish was not a good idea, I thought I would concentrate on what most assumed would be an equivocal reception, at best.

As the sustained and genuine ovation mounted, I felt my throat go dry, my eyes well and my breath shorten. Here was the hand of history, created by decent people and from within a game I love. Sorry, but football, for all its wealth, could never have achieved this; I doubt they could even have contemplated holding the equivalent fixture.

Consider how the Leinster Board treated Moorefield it will interesting to see how Liam O'Neill's own Laois deal with this....but then again no TV cameras so who cares.....

Laois board delay decision on brawl
Tuesday, 18 December 2007 15:56
The Laois County Board will await the appointment of a new Competitions Control Committee before taking action over a major fracas which occurred in the Laois Under-21 Football semi-final.

The incident occured during a clash between holders Portlaoise and St Joseph's/Barrowhouse last Saturday, seven minutes from full-time.

Three players were sent-off and an ambulance had to be called for St Joseph's' Paddy Fleming.

The violence broke out after St Joseph's' Donie Kingston and Portlaoise's Cahir Healy were involved in a tangle close to the St Joseph's dugout.

Both players were sent-off by referee Eddie Whelan, while St Joseph's full-back Fleming was taken away by ambulance after being knocked unconscious in a melee that is believed to have lasted up to ten minutes.

A special meeting of the full County Board Committee has been convened for 7 January at which a new CCC will assume office.

Last night's meeting at the Heritage Hotel, Portlaoise deemed that the outgoing CCC is now defunct after last week's County Convention.


The report of referee Whelan has yet to be received and it will likely be at least a month before the teams will meet each other again for the refixture.

Portlaoise were leading 0-09 to 0-05 when the match was abandoned

Anyone heading, should be another cracking game. Outside the GAA, it has probably become the biggest sporting rivalary in the land....

I see Quinlan is out for 8 weeks great news for Leinster. Think we might win this one, would be nice to beat the turnip  munchers in their backyard 

One-match wonder
With Barnstaple's second XV a man short, they called on Jerry Collins – the All Black forceDavid Walsh
On September 8, 1905, the first New Zealand rugby team to play in the northern hemisphere landed at Plymouth after a six-week voyage aboard the Rimutaka. The next day the Originals, as they would become known, departed for Newton Abbot, where they would base themselves for much of their tour. They arrived in England as New Zealand and departed as the All Blacks.

One-hundred-and-two years later, on the morning of Saturday, October 27, another All Black breezed into Newton Abbot. It is doubtful if the arrival of the Originals all those years ago caused as much stir as Jerry Collins's more recent coming. With his highlighted hair and terminator-tackles, Collins showed up in a Barnstaple T-shirt, intent on helping that club's second team put Newton Abbot's seconds to the sword. Colin "Punchy" Thorne, Barnstaple's hooker, remembers the moment they climbed off the bus and walked through the gates of Newton Abbot's ground, Rackerhayes. "They'd heard he might be playing and were watching. As we walked in, you could see the look of complete amazement on their faces. 'That's him there,' said one fellow. 'No, it's a looka-like,' said another. 'I'm telling you, it's him all right.'"

Barnstaple's bus didn't arrive until 40 minutes before the start of the game and there wasn't much time to consider the implications. Should the poor second-teamers of Newton Abbot have laughed or cried, rubbed their hands in glee or wrapped themselves up in extra padding?

It would be Collins's first game since New Zealand's shocking loss to France in the World Cup quarter-final three weeks before and he was itching for a run-out. "When I'm fit and don't play, I become like a loaded gun," he said, though thankfully not to the Newton Abbot boys. They showed Collins and his new teammates to the back dressing room at Rackerhayes, a homely little place where you couldn't swing a cat.

But Collins loved it. "We were getting changed on top of each other, one guy telling jokes, and another guy sitting in the corner having a cigarette. One of our guys asked me if the All Blacks did anything special in their warm-up routine. 'No, mate,' I said, 'we just get dressed, go out and play, same as you blokes.' It was me who had to fit in with the Barnstaple guys, not the other way around. The captain gave a team talk, everyone got in a huddle and we all did the one-two-three-four-five-six-seven routine on the changing-room floor. It wasn't foreign to me and not as different from the professional ranks as you might think. We all work from the same blueprint."

Barnstaple's training session the previous Thursday evening hadn't been the best. A few guys weren't there and so a team couldn't be picked. Instead it was read out in the changing room. "No 8, Jerry Collins."

Punchy Thorne was the guy in the corner drawing from the Embassy No 1 and it was the flanker, Josh May, who wanted to know how the All Blacks warmed up. The previous evening, Josh's brother and fellow back-rower, Max, had called Barnstaple's director of rugby, Kevin Squire, to say he couldn't make the Newton Abbot game. Squire sent a text to Josh. "Don't worry about Max, I'll get Jerry Collins to play instead." And so Barnstaple made a late change. Collins was in for May.

THIS remarkable little adventure began at The Blue Groove cafe in Croyde Bay 15 days before. Collins was there with a few friends, sipping a coffee, minding his own business. After the All Blacks' exit from the World Cup the previous Saturday, he decided to stay on in England and spend time with friends in North Devon. "People from overseas think of London and all the touristy spots," he said, "but when you're in Devon you'd be amazed to see all the people who come from London for the weekend."

As Collins relaxed at The Blue Groove, Squire and a couple of his workers dropped in for lunch. Squire, a builder, had a job in Croyde Bay and first thought the man who looked like Collins couldn't be the All Black back-row forward. Deciding it was, he introduced himself and in no time they were speaking the same language.

"If you'd fancy coming down to the Barnstaple club at any time," said Squire, "you're welcome. We've got a big home game against Exmouth tomorrow week."

Eight days later, Collins was driving over the new bridge on the River Taw in Barnstaple when seeing a rugby game in progress. He found the road to the club grounds, parked his car and spent the afternoon watching Barnstaple beat Exmouth. Affable man that he is, he stayed for a beer afterwards, signed autographs for a lot of kids and when Kevin Spencer came up to him with his lad, he suggested that Jerry might like to take the Barnstaple Under-14s for a training session the following Friday evening.

Collins was there. The session lasted two hours and the kids learned about the importance of body position. Squire and everyone else at the club was chuffed by the generosity of the All Black and asked if there was anything they could do for him. "Well, mate," he said, "I'm gaspin' for a game of rugby." Not being a registered player with Barnstaple, he couldn't play with the club's first team, so instead he was offered a game with the seconds. "We'll supply jersey, shorts, socks," said Squire. "All you need are boots. Bus leaves at quarter to twelve in the morning."

A little after eleven o'clock the following morning, Jerry Collins walked into Apex Sports shop on Barnstaple's High Street. Margaret Ellicott, who was on duty that morning, didn't know him from Adam. "I'm looking for a pair of football boots," he said, "size 13 and I don't mind what they look like." "Size 13?" said Ellicott, before disappearing to a stock room at the back of the shop.

Collins waited nervously. What if there were no size 13s? Back Ellicott came with the boots in her hand and the All Black handed over £45 in a fair exchange. At 11:45, the boys on the bus were giving Squire a hard time: "So where's Jerry Collins then? Ha, ha, ha! Maybe he'll send Dan Carter instead. Ha, ha, ha!" At 11:46 Collins drove into the Barnstaple RFC car park and young rugby men thought if they lived to be 100, they would never see the likes of this again.

When Collins told friends he was going to play for Barnstaple, they said he was crazy. How would the New Zealand Rugby Union react if one of their centrally contracted players injured himself at Rackerhayes? They might as well have talked to the wall. "Every man to his own poison," says Collins. "Rugby is mine. I suppose what you love is always going to hurt you in the end. I've got a lot to thank the amateur game for – I made my debut in senior rugby at the age of 16 and I'll be back playing amateur rugby in my late 30s." AFTER leaving the back changing room at Rackerhayes, Collins and his Barnstaple teammates had a long walk across Newton Abbot's training pitch, through another field, over a stream by footbridge and eventually onto the club's second pitch. It wasn't Twickenham, and there were signs that neighbouring cattle occasionally crossed the fence for a taste of rugby grass.

To their credit, the players of Barnstaple and Newton Abbot did their damnedest to rise to the level of the All Black but, soon, everyone knew it would be easier if Collins made the reverse journey. "He could have run through every player on the field, theirs and ours," said Mark Singh, the Aussie prop in the Barnstaple team, "but he played to the level of the game."

"He played about five gears below the level he would play for the All Blacks," said Thorne, "and the way he handled himself on the pitch was amazing. He could have hurt people but he made sure he didn't. A lot of our boys put pressure on themselves to play better, to show we're not too bad, and as a result we made mistakes we wouldn't normally make."

But the result was never truly in doubt. Barnstaple and Collins won comfortably. They talked afterwards about his reverse pass that sent Ed Hill screaming through for the first try and the tackle that stopped Newton Abbot wing Aiden Tolley. It was a fine move by the home side and when Tolley came screaming through at a good angle, the try was as good as his.

The wing dived, the ball tucked under his left arm, his right arm shooting upwards in celebration. "He didn't see me coming," said Collins. "I caught him in the air, faced him the other way, and carried him back a few yards. He said, 'damn, it, you could have let me score that.' 'I couldn't help myself,' I said."

Late in the game, after Collins had been substituted, Barnstaple's Trevor Wayborn suffered what seemed a serious neck injury and an ambulance was called. As the prop lay motionless, he noticed Collins standing nearby. "Any chance of a photo, Jerry?" he said. Collins lay on the ground alongside the prop and Wayborn would have proof that he too played with an All Black. His injury turned out to be not serious.

They ate sweet-and-sour pork in the clubhouse afterwards, had a few pints and, of course, the bus stopped at a couple of alehouses on the way home and took twice as long as in the morning. Neither did it end there and Collins stayed with the boys to the death. Some asked if he would play in the Boxing Day epic against neighbours Bideford. He didn't rule it out.

One thing he has already decided. "I have asked the Barnstaple guys if it would be okay for me to wear their socks when I play for the Barbarians against South Africa at Twickenham. I have played for the club and it's something I would like to do."
Collins intends staying in North Devon until early in the new year. Bideford had better beware.

09/11/2007

The way was cleared this evening for the appointment of Andy Comerford as manager of the Kildare Senior Hurling team.

Jody Murphy, the Hurling Board chairman, broke the news to the former Kilkenny All-Ireland winning captain, following tonight's meeting of the Management Committee.

Syl Merrins, County Board Chairman, - we understand - spoke to Comerford earlier today and reported back to the committee before it reached its decision.

The Hurling Board will ratify the appointment at its monthly meeting next Monday night, but it is not likely that Comerford himself will be at this meeting.

Hurling Board Secretary, Abby Murphy in confirming this evening's news, said she did not know when Comerford will meet the players nor when he will commence training.

"We will discuss this with him," she said.

"I am delighted with the outcome," added Ms Murphy, "and I wish him and all the players the very best in 2008."

The decision to appoint Comerford was made known to members of the Broadford club shortly before 10pm tonight.

Nick Sutton, Vice-Chairman of the Hurling Board, revealed the news at the club's monthly meeting after he had spoken by phone to Jody Murphy.

Comerford's brother Martin - a leading forward in the current Kilkenny team - is no stranger to Broadford's juvenile hurlers, having been here for a coaching camp and medals presentation.

Andy, we believe, worked in the area for awhile and his name was once suggested as a possible coach for the club's Intermediate team.

It is our understanding that he will be assisted by a trainer who will put the Lilywhites through tough physical training over the winter months, but Comerford himself will look after the coaching.

The management committee's sanctioning of Comerford's appointment this evening brings to an end a saga that was beginning to cause deep divisions between the Hurling Board and it.

Hurling Club delegates attended last Tuesday night's meeting of the County Board in order to emphasis their desire to have the Kilkenny man take charge of the county's hurling team.

Indeed, according to our sources many members of the Kildare team also wanted to attend the meeting and argue the case for Comerford's appointment.

That did not come to pass, but at that meeting County Chairman Syl Merrins asked for 'another 24 to 48 hours' to bring the matter to a conclusion and true to his word he did that tonight.

Did anyone else have this tradition in the good old days? Been replaced by Trick or Treat these days   

Sun Oct 21st
1. Clongeen (WX) v Moorefield

1st rnd Oct 28th
3. Palatine/Eire Og (CW) v Tullamore (OY)
5. CILL MHANTAIN v Crokes/Judes/Brigids/Vincents (D)

Q/F November 11th
4. 3 v Mullingar Shamrocks/Tyrellspass (WH)
2. 1 v Dromard (LD)
6. 5 v Navan O'Mahonys/Seneschalstown (MH)
7. St Patricks (LH) v Portlaoise (LS)

S/F Nov 25th
8. 2 v 4
9. 6 v 7

Dec 9th
CRAOBH: 8 v 9

Moorefield are definitely in the easy side of draw, no excuse not to make the final...

Last year after the Cyprus away debacle I posted that International soccer was dead and that professionals only care about their clubs and that the Champions League was the pinnacle of their ambition. I see Declan has posted a very similar post on the Muppets v Cyprus thread which I agree with 100%

I've said it before but international football is finished. There are no great "teams" anymore and the players are only interested in their clubs and champions league is where its at. You may get some good games in the actual finals but the qualifying campaigns are non events. The lads from Wolves on our team are the smallest earners and they are getting 5 grand a week sterling - thats 260K per annum basic without bonuses. Lads like Keane, O'Shea and Given are pulling in multiples of that so it's not surprising where their loyalties lie. I don't begrudge it to them at all but spare me the hypocritical posturing of "loving" to play for your country. Its obvious from their performances and results that when push comes to shove they couldn't be arsed.

On top of this John Toshack's comments this week are even more revealing....

"The players will say they do care, and it is rubbish to say they don't. But did it look like they cared? It didn't look like it to me.

"I was in charge of that team, and people will look at me and wonder what I was doing. That hurts my pride. I would hope that some of them feel the same – but I am not sure that they do."

Toshack insists he has not considered resigning and he does not believe the squad are no longer playing for him.

"Things went on out in Cyprus that made me wonder what we had been doing for two-and-a-half years," said Toshack. "I did question the attitude of some of the players.

Bottom line is that all the countries with the top Leagues bar Germany are struggling to qualify, England, Spain, Italy, France and Portugal, this is hardly a coincidence, deep down these guys are loyal only to their paymasters and cannot identify with the public anymore. The 2nd Russian goal against was quite simply scored by a guy who wanted it more, the baby bently culture has destroyed the passion and pride that players use to have in playing for the country..

How many more Stephen Ireland's do we have to have before this is apparent to even the most myopic soccer supporter...

With all the drug related murders it's easy to become immune to the horrors of another killing.

However this murder is truly very sad and my thoughts are with her parents, she was la onely child and it must be very hard for them.

Hopefully they'll catch the basta*d that did this sooner rather than later 

First they jinx international soccer and now rugby. No more sport on TV3 

Royals and Lilywhites to serve up fourth encounter

The Meath and Kildare teams who contested three memorable Leinster SFC games in 1997 are to cross swords again for charity.

The survivors from those games will come together at Ballinlough, Co. Meath on Monday, October 29th in aid of the Lana Devine Medical Fund.

Lana, daughter of former Meath start Jody Devine who starred in the triology, is currently awaiting a kidney transplant and is receiving dialysis treatment five times a week.

The re-match is being organised by Ballinlough GFC, Kilskyre HC and the Meath County Board.

The throw-in for the game is at 2.30pm.

Have to admit those bloody premiership avatars on a GAA forum bug the sh*t out of me, it's like you're telling us you're more defined by your allegiance to a English corporate brand than your own club or county.

And yea I have little or nothing to be worried about.....

[Football]

Football

Dublin by 4
Kerry v Monaghan Draw

Hurling

Waterford by 3

[Hurling]

Hurling

Limerick v Waterford  Sunday 4:00 RTE 2

Football

Derry v Tyrone Dublin           Saturday 3:00 RTE2
Kerry v Monagahan      Sunday 2:00 RTE2

Rugby

Scotland v Ireland        Saturday 2:30 RTE1
England v France          Saturday 5:00 SS3
Plus live NPC and Currie Cup games and Rugby League


Soccer

Sunderland v Spuds       Saturday 12:30 SS1
Celtic v Falkirk               Saturday 12:30 Set Ire
Bolton v Newcastlle       Saturday 3:00   Set 1
Aston Villa v Liverpool    Saturday 5:15 Set 1
Chelsea v Birmingham    Sunday   1:00 SS1
Man U v  Reading          Sunday  4:00 SS1 
Plus the odd Championship game

Golf

US PGA      Thurs - Sun 7:00 SS2

Ireland team named

Player / Club / Caps
15 - Geordan Murphy  Leicester   (48)
14 - Brian Carney   Clonakilty/Munster  (2)
13 - Brian O'Driscoll Captain  UCD/Leinster  (74)
12 - Gavin Duffy   Galwegians/Connacht (6)
11 - Tommy Bowe   Belfast Harlequins/Ulster (9)
10 - Paddy Wallace   Ballymena/Ulster  (4)
9 - Isaac Boss   Ballymena/Ulster  (

1 - Bryan Young   Ballymena/Ulster  (7)
2 - Jerry Flannery   Shannon/Munster  (15)
3 - Simon Best   Belfast Harlequins/Ulster (18)
4 - Malcolm O'Kelly   St.Mary's College/Leinster (85)
5 - Paul O'Connell   Young Munster/Munster (43)
6 - Neil Best   Belfast Harlequins/Ulster (12)
7 - Stephen Ferris   Dungannon/Ulster  (3)
8 - Jamie Heaslip   Clontarf/Leinster  (2)

Replacements:
16 - Rory Best   Belfast Harlequins/Ulster (12)
17 - John Hayes   Bruff/Munster  (73)
18 - Alan Quinlan   Shannon/Munster  (24)
19 - Keith Gleeson   St.Mary's College/Leinster (26)
20 - Eoin Reddan   Wasps   (2)
21 - Ronan O'Gara   Cork Constitution/Munster (71)
22 - Shane Horgan   Lansdowne/Leinster (55)

Nice interview with Shane Ryan in the tribune on Sunday for those who missed it...

"I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell . . . 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But "rst, you've gotta get mad."

Howard Beale, 'Network'

SHANE RYAN enters through a bar door but you expect him to exit through the bar wall.

Basically he's huge, the latest in a line of Dublin footballers that could con it as a rugby centre. Quiz him about the top-heavy look and he just smiles and admits he's grateful he changed careers a few years back. Then he was in banking but people were pulling on the various strands of his life and the whole lot was unravelling. Now teaching has given him room to inhale the summer air. Just in time too. After all, the training Dublin have been doing ever since would have meant being late for work . . . plenty to annoy the boss.

The new look? That started in a Croke Park dressing room late in August 2005.

Ryan was just one of a beleaguered panel, left with barely enough energy to feel embarrassed. Sure, they had taken the year's All Ireland champions to a replay and the 2-18 to 1-14 scoreline the second day out was far from disgraceful. But while the rest of the country praised their effort, Ryan and his teammates knew they had been bullied. They'd just had their hair pulled in front of their own people and their faces had been rubbed into the mud of their own backyard.

Enough was enough.

"That was it. We thought things were going well after winning Leinster and this was great but that day against Tyrone we knew we were still a long way off an All Ireland.

That was the moment and that was about the size of it.

No more being nice about this and playing nice and being liked. Who cares what you are like if you win the All Ireland? Maybe that's not the most sporting view but any team that wants to win it has to take that view and we've learned that now.

"Tyrone showed us what it takes to win an All Ireland.

That was their second, we managed to draw with them and maybe we were a bit lucky but they showed us the level we have to get to in more than one way. There is that ruthlessness and meanness.

But as well as that I was marking Enda McGinley and I thought I was fit. The game was hectic and I was out on my feet and I'm sure he must have been tired too because it was sapping but he never showed it and was going strong in the end. That's where I had to get to. We all had to get to that level and it was a serious wake-up call."

It didn't take long for their mentality to change. The following February they went to Omagh. They can't be sure if they won the fight but at least they were in it this time.

On top of that, they had beaten Tyrone, picked up two league points and won where nobody wins, in Healy Park.

"Dogged stuff. It was a battle in a fighting sense but much more than that. The fight was handbags cause nobody got hurt but psychologically that day meant a lot. We beat the All Ireland champions in Omagh and we matched them physically. They weren't going to bully us and get away with that. Nobody was."

? ? ? Of all the thick GAA blood in the country, none runs more viscous than his. One grandfather, Seamus O Riain, was President of the association from 1967 to 1970. The other, Sean O Siochain, was Director General prior to Liam Mulvihill. His father Jack was a dual player for Tipperary and was an All Ireland winner with the hurlers in 1971. Many reckon he holds a record for time spent in UCD, too, having lined out on more Fitzgibbon Cup teams than anyone cares to remember. Then there's his mother Orla. She started her camogie career with Dublin at 15, won three All Irelands in her first three years and never won again. It's that name that adorns the two wristbands on his right arm, one in the colours of their club, Naomh Mearnog, the other in shades of blue.

"She died at the end of 2003. She would have been 55 and my life was on its head. One of the biggest influences on my life was suddenly gone. I found it hard moving on but we have such a big family, so many aunts and uncles and cousins around, it helps a lot. And we wanted to do something positive out of it so we set up a blitz in Naomh Mearnog with camogie and hurling and other things all to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society, Beaumont Hospital and St Francis Hospice in Raheny. They had one last year and they are planning another one in September. Obviously the first year there was a greater buzz about it but I'd love to see it continuing.

"It is strange because it puts everything into perspective but at the same time sport was such a big part of our lives and many peoples' lives and we take it seriously and rightly so. And she was an All Ireland champion as is my dad and as a kid you just take that for granted. But now I realise it means so much having strived to get there and I wonder what the aftermath is like and the reaction of people and just everything that goes with it. I'd love to find out for myself.

There was a time when I said I would have been happy to retire with a Leinster medal in my pocket but now I have three and all I want is an All Ireland like they won."

? ? ? Dublin may well lift Sam Maguire while he's part of the set-up, after all he's still just 28. When he met a 33year-old Kieran McGeeney on the international rules panel towards the end of 2006 he goes so far as to say he was taken aback. Never had he seen someone who played for so long, look so good and show such hunger.

What he doesn't realise is Dublin are now at that level.

Before every training session this summer the lot of them have taken 20 minutes to pump iron. They have the physicality to go all the way but it's the change in attitude that makes you wonder if they are winning the right way.

Last week in this church Sean Og O hAilpin was talking about sportsmanship.

"More than winning I think it's important that you're a good sportsman because, long after you leave the game, how you played outweighs what you've won." He wasn't referring to Dublin's new approach but there's been plenty of others willing to do just that.

Luke Dempsey said, "It's noticeable that certain quality players are doing this. If they go to Croke Park and have been 'coached', for want of a better word, in this unsportsmanlike behaviour, it's not right." But it was the words of Laois's Darren Rooney that were most hardhitting when he spoke about this year's Leinster final.

"Nobody is there to take abuse like thatf We were beaten and taking it, but for them to make a laugh of it.

Some of our medical staff got the height of abuse from Dublin players. I was on the ground getting treated before that, Dublin backroom staff were coming in off the line and one fella came in and jostled me. We'd all know those Dublin lads but, after what happened, it will be hard to look at them in the face again."

It's hard mentioning those words to Ryan. He was the one who looked to get hit repeatedly by Padraic Clancy but got on with it. He's always got on with it but what's it like to be part of a team that have come in for such a level of criticism, most agree deservedly?

"Well firstly there was the Clancy thing. Let's put that to bed, it looked a lot worse than it was. To be truthful things happen and that was nothing. As for the other stuff, well I've seen it on TV but that can be misleading. I'd be very surprised to hear of mentors getting involved and lads abusing physios but I'm not going to call Darren Rooney a liar. I really don't know . . . stuff happens that shouldn't but the real test is shaking hands and getting on with players away from it.

Is that not the real test of sportsmanship? Is being friends afterwards not a greater show of your character?

"You have to realise none of us go out thinking 'I'm going to annoy my man'. In saying that, in the heat of the moment things happen. We'd have seen Laois as our big rivals and things happened.

Like you mention people giving out about Paul Casey being given a high-five by Pillar even though he was taken for a few points. But we saw winning three-in-a-row as a special achievement and after that our focus returned the next night in training.

Maybe Mickey Harte wouldn't have done that but our main focus is on us. There has to be almost a siege mentality. We have to worry about what we are going to do. We have our goals, our focus, our aims and our plans and whatever anyone else thinks of those does not bother us."

[Winners]

Winners

Man Utd.

The African Nations Cup will cripple Chelsea mid-season, Arsenal are too inexperienced and Torres is not the 20 goal a season striker Liverpool need to challenge

Relegation

Wigan, Bolton and Birmingham

Top Goal Scorer

Robin Van Persie


Surprise Package

Derby County

A statue in memory of a Northern Ireland footballing legend is to be unveiled in his home town of Coleraine.
Bertie Peacock earned 31 caps for Northern Ireland, and while managing his country in the 1960s gave an international debut to George Best.

The memorial will be unveiled by former NI and Spurs goalkeeper Pat Jennings, who also gained his first Northern Ireland cap under Peacock in 1964.


The bronze statue by artist Ross Wilson will depict Peacock, who died in July 2004 at the age of 75, wearing his international kit.

Jennings said taking part in Saturday's ceremony at the Diamond would be one of the biggest honours of his career.

The Newry-born star will be joined at the ceremony by Bertie's son, Russell.

"I am so pleased to have been asked to take part in this tribute to a great man," Jennings said.


"He encouraged us and we all held him in the highest esteem. He was a legend himself and yet was always such a humble person."

'Little Ant'


Peacock, dubbed the "Little Ant" for his heroics in the 1958 World Cup finals in Sweden when Northern Ireland reached the quarter finals, is the first international to have a statue erected in his honour in Northern Ireland.

He also had an illustrious club career at Celtic, where he won Scottish League and Cup medals with the Glasgow giants and also captained the club.

After his playing managerial careers ended, Peacock was instrumental in starting the annual Milk Cup tournament in Coleraine.

The tournament has since developed into one of the leading youth football competitions in the world.

Tournament chairman Victor Leonard said having the statue in place was a fitting way to kick-off the 25th anniversary of the tournament, which is due to begin on Sunday.

"We would not have this tournament without the input of Bertie," he said.


The statue will be unveiled in the centre of Coleraine at 1600 BST on Saturday.

Kildare senior football manager John Crofton has resigned his position with immediate effect citing family commitments as his reason.

Crofton has been in charge of the Kildare senior football team since 2005 when he took over from Padraig Nolan.

In a statement today, chairman Syl Merrins said "Kildare Countyboard would like to thank John, not only for the last 2 years, but indeed a lifetime of service where he played with distinction for many years. We wish him well in all future endeavours."

I wish John luck, he did well my with own club Towers but always knew the step-up to inter-county was too much for him.

Where to from here with Kildare football, honestly only Carlow and Kilkenny would be rated below Kildare, with Wicklow, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath all fancying their chances...

Meath, Louth, Loais are well ahead of us and Dublin aren't even in sight..

We have a competitive senior championship but poor underage structures although competitve at u/21 level....

Who would want the job, Luke Dempsey, Big Joe???

All very depressing....