Fair play Birr

[tayto]

Really looking forward to this one, think boden could cause Birr a few problems but they'll need to play for the full 60 unlike the last two rounds. Expect Birr to win but not by much hopefully.

[Pull Hard Hes No Relation]

Tayto - where and what time is the macth on Sunday?

[tayto]

Sunday in Tullamore, not 100% sure what time throw in is set for.

[Silky]

Birr still have it all to do today. Ballyboden will be no walk over and I expect a tight game. Hopefully the weather won't ruin the game.

[orangeman]

It just seems to me that Ballyboden are crusing at the minute and are ultra confident - I think they'll really put it up to Birr - conditions are going to be atrocious whih kind of makes it a lottery.

[orangeman]

Again fair play to Birr - they won the title but what a comeback by Ballyboden - fair dues to them as well.

[orangeman]

Who knows what would have happened - the piece of skill and brain power when Whelehan crossed the ball over to the full forward instead of taking the point was really the turning point. I thought the referee had his hands full in the 2nd half.

[Sky Blue]

Ballyboden had a great 2nd half but probably weren't just good enough. Tough but that's the way it goes.

[INDIANA]

A couple of dreadful refereeing decisions cost them though. It's quite extraordinary the lengths some country officials will go to give Dublin teams nothing when playing down the country. I think Boden left it behind them. I didn't think Birr had scored enough at half time and if Boden had of kept their heads a little bette in the second half they would have won by 2/3 points-instead they panicked a little bit and showed their inexperience. However the referee should have penalised Mullins with a 65 for persistence slowing of the puck outs instaed of booking him and a clear 65 in the end to Boden was waved wide. Instead of Nicky Brennan handing out grants to the Greedy elite maybe he could do something about the standard of officialdom because thta was very poor yesterday.
Either way Portumna's to lose can't see anyone stopping them before yesterday's two finals and having watched them i still can't.

[Bord na Mona man]

Well done to Birr, as Sid said yesterday no-one would have thought they'd be lifting the trophy this year after the Ballyhale game last year. Ballyboden deserve great credit for a rivetting encounter despite the conditions. They played with great determination and no little skill and the game was theirs for the taking.

About 10 minutes into the second half, when Boden had knocked 5 points off Birr's 9 point half time lead, they looked favourites to power on and win in it. However Birr dug in hard and managed to slow down their scoring rate. It was some relief when Birr got the two break out scores, when they had been reeled back to a one point lead.

Ballyboden were naive in the first half in not slowing down the game more. Birr didn't take full advantage of the wind despite the scoreboard, as they had only hurled well in patches. Also boden could crowded their backs better early on. It took Keaney too long to start sweeping behind the half back line.

Some good performances for Birr from Paul O'Meara in the first half, though he got a dunt in the head and didn't seem as lively in the second. Simon Whelahan rolled back the years with a hard working performance. Rory Hanniffy also covered huge yards, made mistakes but still keep hounding. Niall Claffey also looks at home at full back and Verney looks a good prospect for Offaly seniors.
Ultimately Sid's setting up of the goal was the difference between the sides. A 6 point half time lead would have wiped out within 10 minutes with the gale that was blowing.

[Bord na Mona man]

A couple of dreadful refereeing decisions cost them though. It's quite extraordinary the lengths some country officials will go to give Dublin teams nothing when playing down the country. I think Boden left it behind them. I didn't think Birr had scored enough at half time and if Boden had of kept their heads a little bette in the second half they would have won by 2/3 points-instead they panicked a little bit and showed their inexperience. However the referee should have penalised Mullins with a 65 for persistence slowing of the puck outs instaed of booking him and a clear 65 in the end to Boden was waved wide. Instead of Nicky Brennan handing out grants to the Greedy elite maybe he could do something about the standard of officialdom because thta was very poor yesterday.
Either way Portumna's to lose can't see anyone stopping them before yesterday's two finals and having watched them i still can't.

I doubt if many from Ballyboden would blame the ref for yesterday's defeat. Perhaps it was a 65, but on the other hand boden got a couple of soft frees from where I was watching, when their players went to ground very easily. Twice Keaney got frees for bulldozing into a crowd of players with no intention of putting the ball onto his stick. The Birr backs were enraged at these decisions and hence in one case the ref moved the free to straight in front of the goal.

Swings and roundabouts ultimately.

[Bogball XV]

Hurling shouldn't be played this time of year, the munster final was possibly the worst game of hurling I've seen in a long time.  That aside, a favourite gripe re hurling refs was able to manifest itself again yesterday, both games saw the refs play 2 minutes injury time - wtf game were the refs watching?  In the Munster game, the ball was in play for about 5 mins of the final 15, I just can't understand how they can't sort out a system like the ladies use.  Why will hurling refs in particular not play anything like adequate injury time??

[maxpower]

I thought the referee probaly should have played 3 minutes of injury time in the Birr match given that he had to book Mullins for time wasting, in fact in hindsight it was very clever by Mullins as he was slow at hitting the ball out then the ref actually stopped him for about a minte to warn then book him.  with no advantage for Ballyboden

Both teams deserve credit for serving up an enthralling game, especially when compared to the Munster final played in similar conditions.  I have heard the comparison earilier in the week of Birr with Crossmaglen and certainly yesterday added to the credibility of this statement.  Birr know how to grind out the result without playing as fantastic as they have done.

[Bord na Mona man]

In the first half the ref played less injury time than he should have, he had indicated 3 minutes, there was another minute long stoppage after that and he still blew the whistle early.

I think Mullins took just long enough with the puckouts that it wasn't blatant, but it wasn't too quick either. Ballyboden could have done the same in the first half, but didn't.

[maxpower]

I think the best team won, certainly the shrewdess team won.  Birr deserve immense credit for winning the leinster championship but then they are the best club hurling team of all time, and Padjoe is a very shrewd manager, what exactly is the system Birr play now