Club Championships 2023/24

Let this be a lesson to those who wrapped red and black ribbons around the cup and handed them the All-Ireland. Sport can be unpredictable and that's why we love it!

Brilliant game. Ballygunner can feel hard done by however.

Ref was dreadful. Let everything go early doors and then gave Thomas's some very soft frees late on. I've never seen so many rucks in a game that I can remember. BG really have underachieved for all their talent. Their obsession with the short game is mind boggling at times. They pass the ball to a colleague in a worse position than they are. Brain dead stuff. I'm afraid they've paid the price again. Well done to Thomas's. Hope they win it now.

In fairness the GAA are damned either way, they brought in penalties to deal with fixture congestion from replays, but also there was always this suspicion that refs were engineering draws to force replays for extra pay days for the association. So when they bring in something that allows you to settle the result on the day then everyone's up in arms about that.

Would agree totally with this. Ref let Thomas’s away with an awful lot I thought for the first 55 minutes and then towards the end every time BG got in front he seemed to give Thomas’s a soft free to level it up.

Also agree that Ballygunner were over playing the short game. They got turned over a lot due to this and especially given the ferocity Thomas’s were tackling with (much of it very borderline I thought) it made BGs obsession with playing short passes all the more dangerous.

Also given how dangerous Dessie Hutchinson is I think they’d be better to go direct to him more often. They got plenty of good ball into him to be fair but a guy like that should be constantly fed for the full hour. Also if they went long to him more often it would force the opposition to probably sit a little deeper which would then give them more space for their shorter game to thrive anyway.

Id agree. Like others I thought the ref got very fussy towards the latter stages of the game and free taking became huge.

But most of the time he was technically correct for hands left in, or high hands and BG really didnt help themselves with some silly unnecessary fouls against a Thomas that really didnt have the same scoring power.

Some heart from them in the 2nd half of ET alright. Looked all over with BG taking 2 point lead and the wind.

Once again Ballygunner miss out at the final stages having walked through Munster. Through their Munster campaign great praise was heaped on the team and management. Nobody seemed to have a problem with their style of play or with management's tactics. In fact it was suggested that this team could take on intercounty teams! That the management team should be long offered the county job!

And then up pops a non Munster team and bang, Ballygunner are gone and suddenly all the flaws are rolled out.

Well done St. Thomas.

I don't think they have many flaws but they were not as good yesterday as they were in the Provincial campaign which they supposedly "walked". Any team that downs Na Piarsaigh in Limerick 2 years running ain't walking.

Not having the slog of a Province to conquer will always help the Galway champs. What Ballyhale have achieved is monumental.

Anyway, good luck St. Thomas in the final, I hope you win it now.

Another great game....

I’m not sure this is really necessary.

Ulster teams have a decent enough record so it’s not like Ulster opposition is necessarily easier than the others (to the point that you need to adjust the draw)

Maybe they don’t win much at inter county level but they have strong clubs

Definitely