Connacht Club Championship

[SLIGONIAN]

I have to say this having had a friend close to me with the same illness as mcgarrity. Yday was the first day Id seen him since. He was outstanding yday (great fielder) and fair play to him deserves alot credit and admiration. Well done and he gives hope to others with a miraclously quick recovery. He has a bright future.

I agree only ohara and egan will be in sligo panel. Gerrys been a great servant and deserves credit but time to blood the future and not the past. He showed character yday with the peno too.

[Mano]

I think McIntyre, Henry & Kennedy might be worth a look-they are still young lads though. They will be on u-21 panel anyway

[Owenmoresider]

I think McIntyre, Henry & Kennedy might be worth a look-they are still young lads though. They will be on u-21 panel anyway

Kennedy's overage for U21. Not a bad footballer as is McIntyre, though the latter has the better chance of making it. The Henrys strike me as being the most awkward looking footballers I've seen, for that level anyway. Stephen is young though, has some way to go before he can compete seriously with McGarrity et al, would be better at wing-forward.

[spectator]

It was a good match to watch on TV. I think the mild weather this year has made it easier for the club players to play well. The pitches are in great shape too.

That's an interesting point. Just goes to show that the top clubs can aspire to the level of many county teams given the right pitch & weather conditions.

Joyce's performance yesterday was class, when you saw him kicking the early long range point off his right you knew he well in the zone...

A few of Frankie's floated deliveries in were memorable & to be fair have in the past bamboozled more experienced defenders.

However, as stephenite + Barney have said, Ballina will be a serious test. With their pedigree & the big match experience of many of their players, one would be foolish to bet against them.

Brigids looked a good all-round side yesterday, it'll be interesting to see Ballina's tactics next day out.

[stephenite]

Should really be a dinger of a final - as Spectator mentions Brigids have a well rounded team and they're the hardest to beat. Ballina's injury worries mounting with Liam Brady, James Dev and Shane Melia long term. Not sure what the sotry is with Enda Dev? We were lucky to be able to being a player of the experience and class of Shane Sweeney yesterday

[ross matt]

I expected Brigids to win yesterday based on their good run last year and the fact that I wouldnt have thought the standard in Galway was good this season. However I didnt think they'd run in 4 goals and be unlucky not score one or two more. Thought Killererin were very poor. Quite literally a one man team.

The conditions were excellent for football but overall I thought it was an ok match with alot of defensive errors. The final will be interesting. Ballina are very strong physically and have lots of big time experience. Brigids have lots of strength in depth and the likes of Dolan and Mannion can up their game again from yesterday. It should be a great match and it would be great for Ross football if Brigids can put 2 Connacht titles back to back.

[Rossie11]

It was a poor Galway county final and I thought Killererin as a team would improve but they didnt. However I was very impressed with Bridgets. They are miles ahead of anything else in Ross (and will be for some time to come) and put together some fine passing moves.. something we havent seen our county team do in years. The foot passing especially from Dolan was excellent.
His pass for the 2nd goal was a peach. With distribution like that a full forward line will always create goal chances.

Ballina will be a much tougher task. Bridgets may go in slight favorites but when can any Roscommon team go to Mayo and be confident of coming away with a win after some of the drubbings we have received in club & county games the past 20 years. They will need to be on top of their game. Should be a cracker

[dodo]

Apologies if it's been mentioned before but when is the Connacht club final being played ?

[stephenite]

Sunday week in Ballina I believe

[Turlough O Carolan]

I expected Brigids to win yesterday based on their good run last year and the fact that I wouldnt have thought the standard in Galway was good this season. However I didnt think they'd run in 4 goals and be unlucky not score one or two more.

Jimmy Nail was on fire. He displayed all the hallmarks of the bold Mickey Freyne, Roscommon's first all-star, loitering around the goalmouth with some serious intent. Another player who's been left out in the cold since Tommy Carr kicked him off the panel in 03, not long after he saved Roscommon's hide with a last gasp goal against Leitrim. His chance in county colours is probably gone now. Good to see Shane Curran back in goals again. It would be nice to see him win a Connacht title with Bridgit's after injury ruled him out last year. Hopefully it wasn't the world famous "tee cake" that caused his injury, as he kicked out that last ball. Maughan should call him back to the panel too. Ros seniors are thin enough in the number one position, not to mention leadership stakes.

[ross matt]

Jimmy Nail was on fire. He displayed all the hallmarks of the bold Mickey Freyne, Roscommon's first all-star, loitering around the goalmouth with some serious intent. Another player who's been left out in the cold since Tommy Carr kicked him off the panel in 03, not long after he saved Roscommon's hide with a last gasp goal against Leitrim. His chance in county colours is probably gone now. [/quote]

What age is Jimmy Nail now Turlough? He looked alot fresher and more mobile on Sunday than he had in the past

[dodo]

Jimmy Nail was on fire. He displayed all the hallmarks of the bold Mickey Freyne, Roscommon's first all-star, loitering around the goalmouth with some serious intent. Another player who's been left out in the cold since Tommy Carr kicked him off the panel in 03, not long after he saved Roscommon's hide with a last gasp goal against Leitrim. His chance in county colours is probably gone now. Good to see Shane Curran back in goals again. It would be nice to see him win a Connacht title with Bridgit's after injury ruled him out last year. Hopefully it wasn't the world famous "tee cake" that caused his injury, as he kicked out that last ball. Maughan should call him back to the panel too. Ros seniors are thin enough in the number one position, not to mention leadership stakes.

O'Connor took his scores well but in fairness the marking was brutal. He had plenty of time and was under little enough pressure to finish his chances.

[heineken_on_tap]

Jimmy Nail was on fire. He displayed all the hallmarks of the bold Mickey Freyne, Roscommon's first all-star, loitering around the goalmouth with some serious intent. Another player who's been left out in the cold since Tommy Carr kicked him off the panel in 03, not long after he saved Roscommon's hide with a last gasp goal against Leitrim. His chance in county colours is probably gone now. Good to see Shane Curran back in goals again. It would be nice to see him win a Connacht title with Bridgit's after injury ruled him out last year. Hopefully it wasn't the world famous "tee cake" that caused his injury, as he kicked out that last ball. Maughan should call him back to the panel too. Ros seniors are thin enough in the number one position, not to mention leadership stakes.

O'Connor took his scores well but in fairness the marking was brutal. He had plenty of time and was under little enough pressure to finish his chances.

True, Ballina will offer a sterner test. Still think Jimmy Nails would be a good option for the county. Would be a good man to have in around the box for 20 mins or so. And curran is without doubt still the best keeper in ros, however reckon there is no chance that he will be back. I realise you have to build for the future but you need a mix, last year we had no leaders at all. Curran, Dolan and jimmy nails would bring an extra dimension

[spectator]

I expected Brigids to win yesterday based on their good run last year and the fact that I wouldnt have thought the standard in Galway was good this season. However I didnt think they'd run in 4 goals and be unlucky not score one or two more.

Jimmy Nail was on fire. He displayed all the hallmarks of the bold Mickey Freyne, Roscommon's first all-star, loitering around the goalmouth with some serious intent. Another player who's been left out in the cold since Tommy Carr kicked him off the panel in 03, not long after he saved Roscommon's hide with a last gasp goal against Leitrim. His chance in county colours is probably gone now. Good to see Shane Curran back in goals again. It would be nice to see him win a Connacht title with Bridgit's after injury ruled him out last year. Hopefully it wasn't the world famous "tee cake" that caused his injury, as he kicked out that last ball. Maughan should call him back to the panel too. Ros seniors are thin enough in the number one position, not to mention leadership stakes.

The thing I remember about Jimmy Nail in the Ros colours, is that he was a very accurate forward when it came to kicking points, who also had a keen eye for goal.

He never really got a good run in the major games, although that may have been down to differences between himself & the management, if I remember the talk doing the rounds at the time correctly?

[Duine Eile]

What a disaster, an absolute bloody disaster.  I don't know what the hell happened out there on Sunday. The only one's to come out of the game with their heads held high are Thomas Hughes, Micheal Keane, Padraic Joyce and Tomas Fahy. The rest might as well have waited at home. Alan Keane was absolutely atrocious, was the cause of 2 if not 3 of the goals. He's done well all year but let himself down badly on Sunday.The full back line was nowhere to be seen all day. Mike Mitchell hasn't played well at all this year and was persisted with and on Sunday it really showed how far back he has gone, he was regarded as one of the best full backs in Galway until this year's championship. Damien Fla and Dec Kelly tried hard but just couldn't cope with the amount of ball being lumped in on top of them. Half back line didn't get to grips with the game at all.Tommy had the odd burst up the field but was quiet enough all day. Midfield played well. They both caught some brilliant ball in the middle, only thing going against them was their lack of pace. If they had a bit of help from the half forwards or half backs thay might have dominated. Jonathan Keane and Tom Flynn seemed to have an enormous amount of ball but did nothing with it. Shane Hughes was ok I suppose but can do a lot better. Young Tom Fahy played with a maturity beyond his years, showed well for the entire game and wasn't afraid to take a chance. Nicky Joyce was nearly completely anonymous, scored a monster of a point in the opening minutes, made you think he was going to have one of those days but he disappeared after that. Padraic was a class apart, head and shoulders above the rest. Never gave up, nearly every ball he got he managed to score with. Still one of the top forwards in the country and despite what the county board think he should be leading the Galway forward line next year. What was the story with the goal, haven't seen it on TV but I know Padraic himself is adamant it should have been allowed?

All in all a disappointing day out. I think Micheal Keane's reaction to being taken off summed up the frustration and disbelief of the team and supporters alike. Can't understand why they decided to take him off anyway, he was one of our better players, not surprised he reacted the way he did. There was a complete lack of guidance form the sideline though, A blind man could see the full back line were all over the place yet nothing was done to rectify the situation, they were wide open whenever one of the Brigid's players ran at them. Padraic Joyce could be heard all over the stadium bellowing like a bull to them to do something about Karol Mannion running through the Killererin defence but still nothing was done and when they did make a change it was with about 2 mins to go and they take off Micheal. They haven't a clue. The most annoying thing about this is we're seen as a one man team yet again but Padraic Joyce didn't get man of the match in any game until the county final, that tells you how well the rest of the lads were playing. Until now that is. I dont know what happened them, I'd say it's the end of the road for Stephen, Murt and John though. Well done to St. Brigid's though, best of luck against Ballina.