This weekends senior fixtures
Out of interest what way does the Kilkenny championship work. Do they incorporate a league into it ?
Absolute classic. Such a pity to finish it on penos here.
Marvellous entertainment. Two great teams.
Advantage BG in penos with goalkeeper.
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!
Watched a lot of sport today…..that game bet them all…….
Brilliant game. Ballygunner can feel hard done by however.
For the talent Ballygunner have had over the years they have underachieved for a great side.
Sometimes things don't go as to plan.
Toomevara’s motion to discontinue the use of penalties to decide club & county games was carried at the Tipperary County Convention and it will go to congress, wonder how it will go?
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.
Let's hope it passes, I think this penalty lark is so unfair. Won't be holding my breath tho knowing how moronic some of these officials are.
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.
Just goes to show how great a team Ballyhale were over the years to keep coming back and winning club all Irelands.’
St Thomas have some very big, tough hardy hurlers and that really stood to them yesterday in the tackle and rucks.
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.
I amn't sure if any of the 3 late frees he gave against BG were not frees, BG were a bit silly to give the ref the option I thought, they could have stood up Fintan Burke on the last one but gave him the option of going to ground after he caught the puckout - even the previous one where Burke stormed forward, he was unlikely to point it into the wind.
I didn't see them coming back against the wind in extra time. Some heart.
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.
It’s not that they weren’t technically frees just that relative to what he had let go earlier they were pretty soft. In particular the 2nd one on the dropping puckout was soft.
Burke was looking to go down but probably was just about fouled. That was really poor defending as he was going nowhere.
The other one was a slightly high tackle that he had probably let go a few of earlier on but when it’s for a levelling free there’s no ref not giving that.
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.
The clubhouse is gas. The address is "unnamed road, Co. Galway"
It's a very long road from the start of county to Croke Park. Na Piarsaigh have a very similar conversation rate to Ballygunner in the AI series.
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.
Just shows how strong Connacht hurling is……………………
The Galway champions should rotate between the Leinster and Munster Championship each year. The All Ireland Semi finals can be the Ulster vs the winner of the provincial championship Galway aren't in
Cushendall are putting it up to Loughlin Gaels here, although their 8 point lead now down to only 3…..
Another great game....
In other words, Munster hurling my arse
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
I wonder was long range shooting a tactic for them, due to Loughlin’s much vaunted back line. It seems to be working, but gonna be tougher against the wind.
I would still fancy loughlin’s to get over the line here
The script for the club Hurling final is been ripped apart
Some awful wides from Cushendall
Definitely
O'Loughlins should have had at least two goals.
2 great semi finals and could easily of been a Ballygunner vs Cushendall final if it wasn't for bad wides for both teams
Hope St Thomas going on too win it, be well deserved
