Qualifier Draw

mchurl

The draw for the 2nd Round of the Bank of Ireland Football Championship qualifiers has been made. The eight pairings are:

Monaghan v Offaly or Wexford
Sligo v Leitrim
Meath v Roscommon
Clare v Fermanagh
Westmeath v Limerick
Longford v Tipperary
Tyrone v Laois
Kildare v Derry

Not the most exciting of draws at all. Laois certainly got the short straw and after their hammering by the Dubs, i cant see them giving Tyrone any sort of a match. Derry v Kildare could be an interesting game down in Newbridge. My predicitons are :


Monaghan
Sligo
Meath
Fermanagh
Limerick
Longford
Tyrone
Derry

Waylander

I think alot of those ties are pretty even matches. Laois got a very tough draw, but I am not sure Tyrone will be too happy with it either. Tyrone are missing alot of players, and Laois and Derry, and possibly Fermanagh, would have been the teams they were really hoping to avoid in that draw. Laois have allot to do in the next few days to pick themselves up.

solskjaer20

Is the Derry vs Kildare game confirmed for Newbridge yet?

The brother is playing in the Féile na nÓg in Wicklow this weekend. It would handy to take a run over till Kildare for the game in that case for me. Better than driving home to Derry for it anyway.

mchurl

Not confirmed yet but im guessing it is as Kildare were drawn out first.

stevemac

Monaghan v Offaly or Wexford
Sligo v Leitrim
Meath v Roscommon
Clare v Fermanagh
Westmeath v Limerick
Longford v Tipperary
Tyrone v Laois
Kildare v Derry


all of the games are really 50 -50, apart from longford - tipp where i'd expect longford to win, and clare fermanagh, where fermanagh should win easy enough.

Think sligo, roscommon, fermanagh, limerick, tyrone and derry will win. Not sure about the monaghan game. Kildare - derry could be tight, but could also be an easy enough win for derry.

Looking at the teams in it and there seems to be a lot of teams who've had bad loss's so far this year.

meath had a bad loss to wexford, westmeath, limerick, laois, kildare and derry have all had either a bad loss or a bad performance. Roscommon collapsed in the 2nd half against galway, tyrone have there injuries and a bad loss to derry.
Sligo, monaghan, longford, leitrim will all be happy enough with there performance's so far and should have some confidence about them. Fermanagh too, but didn't see there game yesterday so unless they had a bad collapse in the 2nd half they might be happy enough going into there game.

stevemac

mchurl wrote:

Not confirmed yet but im guessing it is as Kildare were drawn out first.

didn't see the draw myself, but just guessing at this, where the qualifiers just drawn first? instead of the losing semi finalist's. As far as i heard, only monaghan and clare will get home games as weaker counties. Other details will be decided today.

solskjaer20

Nope, Derry at home.

Celtic Park, Saturday at 6pm.

Mrs. MacGyver

Delighted that Westmeath drew Limerick, was dreading them meeting Fermanagh. Are thye playing in Mullingar by chance?

Hitman Actual

Mrs. MacGyver wrote:

Delighted that Westmeath drew Limerick, was dreading them meeting Fermanagh. Are thye playing in Mullingar by chance?

Yeah, 5pm Saturday in Cusack Pk. I'm nearly certain that the hurling qualifier against Laois is on after it; two hugely important games for Westmeath.

The Rooster

Monaghan v Offaly or Wexford
- Monaghan at home to win comfortably

Leitrim v Sligo
- Leitrim are notoriously difficult to beat at home (except when Dublin visit ) , this will be tight, but I think Sligo will gain revenge for their defeat there last year.

Meath v Roscommon
- Hard to know how good/bad either of these are. Home advantage to swing things Meath's way.

Clare v Fermanagh
- Clare are improving, but Fermanagh should be too good.

Westmeath v Limerick
- Limerick seem to be "gone". Westmeath being at home should cement their win.

Longford v Tipperary
- Easy for Longford!

Laois v Tyrone
- Home advantage gives Laois some chance. If they get off to a good start they might just upset Tyone. However I dont think that'll happen. Tyrone by 6.

Derry v Kildare
I fancied Kildare, until I heard Derry won the toss for home advantage. I think this will be very tight, but I'll stick with Kildare to edge it.

I'm certain about Monaghan and Longford, the rest all have some element of doubt in my mind.

squire1

solskjaer20 wrote:

Nope, Derry at home.

Celtic Park, Saturday at 6pm.

Just to update that. Moved to 4pm. No idea why.

whassupp2

Any of these games on RTé???

mchurl

squire1 wrote:

Just to update that. Moved to 4pm. No idea why.

Could it be for tv? If it is though it doesnt make much sense as the World Cup Quarter is on at the same time.

Carrickman

mchurl wrote:

Could it be for tv? If it is though it doesnt make much sense as the World Cup Quarter is on at the same time.

Wouldent be the first time a game involving Derry clashed with a WC match:rolleyes:

squire1

mchurl wrote:

Could it be for tv? If it is though it doesnt make much sense as the World Cup Quarter is on at the same time.

I don't think so. The same thing happened when we played them in the League this year. First the match was fixed for Celtic Park, then moved to Maghera and then moved back to Celtic Park. A lot of fans were not sure where they were going to see the game. Must be just the way they do things up there. :rolleyes:

twenty8

Why ohh why oh why would the GAA CHANGE a fixture to clash with an England v Portugal world cup quarter final???


my God - what is in the brains of these people??

Saturday 1st July
4pm Derry v Kildare
4pm England v Portugal

stevemac

Time finally on Kildare's side
Wednesday June 28th 2006
ADVERTISEMENT

KILDARE have managed to persuade Croke Park to change the time of their second-round qualifier against Derry on Saturday.

The game was originally set for 6pm in Celtic Park, Derry but Kildare said this would force their team and many of their supporters to overnight or face a late-hour trip home.

After losing out in the blood-sub debacle with Offaly, they will be mollified by the GAA agreeing to bring the throw-in foward by two hours to a 4pm throw-in.

Kildare are likely to be at full strength, with injury concerns over Derek McCormack and Ronan Sweeney receding.

However, Derry will definitely be without star forward Enda Muldoon.

He is travelling to Croke Park tonight to have a hearing with the Central Disciplinary Committee after being sent off in the Ulster semi-final against Donegal.

Muldoon is likely to get the minimum four-weeks suspension, and, while he is likely to appeal to the Central Appeals Committee, his case will not be heard in time for Saturday's game.

Barry McGoldrick is definitely out with a hand injury but Patsy Bradley and Seán Marty Lockhart are expected to be available.

As expected, the Ulster Council has confirmed that their provincial football finals will be played in Croke Park on July 9.

squire1

Oops. Apologies to all in Derry.:D

hawker

Don't think the Kildare v Derry game is on TV. The racing from the Curragh is on I think!

solskjaer20

Us Derry ones getting blamed as usual.

munster30

Looking at the draw, surely it's unfair if Wexford lose on Sunday, to be expected to travel up to Clones for the second year running. Surely if they are the so called designated weaker team they wouldn't have beaten us last year.

Also will the losing Leinster semi-finalists get a two week break before this game?

The Rooster

Good point about Monaghan being a designated county and Wexford not, even though Monaghan beat them last year. Monaghan are designated because they lose in Ulster in the first round ever year, whereas Wexford win games in Leinster.

At the moment it is scheduled that the losers of Wexford/Offaly will not get a week off (because of the delay in reaching a decision in the Kildare-Offaly subs issue). And round 3 of the qualifers are scheduled for the week after that, so it could be 3 matches in 13 days for the losers. There is a scheduled one week break between Round 3 and Round 4 qualifiers, so there might be scope to put back the Monaghan game by one week if the losers object (the GAA say they try and give losers a week's break if at all possible) - however in that circumstance a team could end up playing R2, R3 and R4 qualifiers in successive weeks.

Carb

munster30 wrote:

Looking at the draw, surely it's unfair if Wexford lose on Sunday, to be expected to travel up to Clones for the second year running. Surely if they are the so called designated weaker team they wouldn't have beaten us last year.

Also will the losing Leinster semi-finalists get a two week break before this game?

As far as I know, the game is planned for Saturday week. Also, aren't Leitrim and Fermanagh playing this Saturday. Thats only a six day break.

As for the designated county thing. Its also based on your league standing. Last year, Wexford were contesting the National league final, and had their sights set on a Leinster Championship. The fact that Monaghan played well/Wexford played bad last year when they met hardly warrants changing Monaghan's status. After all, they only won one game in the league and championship since then, and haven't really featured in the Ulster Championship in nearly 20 years.

munster30

likewise both Offaly and Wexford got relegated this year, but hopefully it will be offaly having to travel to Clones this year

Carb

munster30 wrote:

likewise both Offaly and Wexford got relegated this year, but hopefully it will be offaly having to travel to Clones this year

I still think it's correct to class Monaghan as a weaker county (just about), but I don't think it'll be for much longer. Moanghan and Wicklow couldln't be classed as equally weak, but Monaghan still got home advantage. The argument would be whether Offaly or Wexford think they should be classed as weaker counties. Based on recent years in the championship, and the teams that are actually classed as weaker, I don't think either county would.

As for who comes to Clones, it doesn't matter to us whether its Offaly or Wexford. We'll win anway.:D

squire1

Big blow for Kildare. Apparently (still to be confirmed) Dermot Early is out with a stress fracture of the foot. Of the whole panel Dermot is probably the most irreplacable. What is it with metatarsal bones, nobody heard of them before David Beckham, now everyone wants to break one!!

solskjaer20

Very pleased with the Derry performance on Sunday there.

Hopefully we can get a run going and get back on track.