This weekends senior fixtures
Out of interest what way does the Kilkenny championship work. Do they incorporate a league into it ?
No.
They beat a Limerick team that has 1 dead cert intercounty player and Caseys who have been in and out. Other than that they have a lot of "almost" county players.
The great success of the Limerick academy is to pick the best players in the county and not the best players from the best teams.
Sum going for the club
Pretty sure it'll be Leinster v Ulster.
Dunloy played St. Thomas's (so Ulster v Connacht) last year, and the year before, Ballygunner played Slaughtneil (so Ulster v Munster). The rotation then would surely be for Leinster to play Ulster this time.
The semi finals this year in the Hurling are
St Thomas (Galway) vs Clonlara (Clare)/Ballygunner (Waterford)
Leinster Champions vs Cushendall (Antrim)/Slaughtneil (Derry)
Looking like it's the weekend before Christmas again. Thurles and Parnell Park maybe instead of a double header in Croke Park
Naas game is moved to Portlaoise for the extra capacity.
Is Newbridge out of action at the minute ?
Yeah its being completely redeveloped so out of action, long overdue, was originally down for Kildare's training ground, main pitch there has a capacity of 900 I think.
Leinster senior final Kilmacud Crokes 1-14 Naas 0-10. Score line harsh as it was a decent effort by Naas and had their chances to at least bring that game into extra time but by the end of it all Kilmacud Crokes win three Leinster titles in a row and move onto 7 titles overall tied at the top with Portlaoise, St Vincents. The addition of Shane Walsh as expected has made a big difference, scored 1-8 of their 1-14 points today.
Bit of a non-event as expected in Munster hurling final. BG went through the gears half way through the first half and finished the game before half time. Going through the motions in second half.
Just on a different level to Clonlara.
Will fancy themselves to win AI but much tougher tests in SF and final.
On paper you'd say Al Final of Ballygunner vs O Loughlin Gaels but never know in the semi finals
St Thomas have had terrible luck at the semi finals stage in the past and will be fresh going into the game, not having played in a few weeks. Ballygunner will be hungry to get back to Croke Park
Very dominant display from Ballygunner like most of us expected. Winning three Munster finals in a row by an average of 12 points shows their stranglehold on the championship down south. They look like a team on a mission. Winning one All Ireland is great but a dominant club like Ballygunner would see a solitary All Ireland as a bit of an underachievement i feel.
Loughlins scraped by na fianna yesterday and their normally dominant back lines were put under a lot of pressure and started to make some bad mistakes, only for deegan settling the ship. I think they'll beat cushendall but they'll need to up it big time if they're going to put it up to ballygunner down the road. Can't see anyone beating them if they're on the form they were today.
As an aside, I didn't realise they have done ten in a row now in Waterford. That can't be good for the state of the game in the county regardless of the quality of the club.
They could easily get the hurling championships done in the calendar year but would mean getting rid of the traditional 2 senior code finals
A Triple header AI Senior, Intermediate and Junior Hurling finals 2nd last weekend in December would be great
Never understood why they didn't ever go with that in the last few years once it was moved from Paddy's day.
It makes sense, not least one weekend being a festival of hurling, the next being a festival of football, football fans are more likely to stick around for football matches and hurling fans for hurling matches than either walking out at half time of the other code once their game is done.
And it also make sense in the event a club has managed to do a double and are making an attempt at both codes.
Outstanding win for Castlehave v Dingle.
Went all the way to penalties.
Absolutely Horrid conditions with the wind throughout but it got way worse for the penalties.
They really are a tough team to beat.
No. Its good stuff though or at least the 10 mins I have seen of the first half on TG4 was good football.
The keeper got very bad cramp racing off the goal line to celebrate. He lay down in agony, but the others didn't realise and all piled in on top of him. It must have been very painful.
It was Cahalane that went in goal and may have actually done his hamstring in. Not confirmed yet.
Only got to see last few penalties of Munster final. Horrendous conditions. Watched second half of Ulster final poor conditions but enjoyed it two good teams was hoping to see Scotstown win but Glen took there scores well coming down the stretch.
Semi finals
Kilmacud Crokes v Glen
St Brigid's v Castlehaven
Crokes and Glen look a bit ahead of the other 2. Winner of that should win AI.
Scotstown passed up too many chances.
I'd fancy Crokes to get the job done.
St Thomas had the beating of Ballyhale a few years ago only for a wonder goal by TJ Reid. Last year they just didn't show up against Dunloy. Could it be 3rd time lucky
Ballygunner could easily blow them away and as a Waterford supporter be nice to see and get a trip to Croke Park
Intresting stat that a Waterford senior club has never beaten a Galway club. Ballygunner (2001/02) and DLS (2010/11) lost to Clarinbridge at the semi final stage while DLS fell to Portumna in the 2008/09 final
Ballygunner to win it outright for me. They would be competitive at Inter county level their that good.
You would wonder how Waterford are so bad the last few years given that they have those lads playing.
Some retired from intercounty
Players more motivated to play for their club perhaps. A different sense of purpose or team ethos.
Clubs are obviously the pick of a local community playing against the pick of another local community. A county team should be the best from all the clubs. Limerick started the AI Final with 10 clubs represented, plus 5 more in the subs.
Ballygunner are well coached. Waterford on the other hand...
What a finish to a game.
both teams scored more against the wind in extra time
