Club Championships 2025/2026

And they're absolutely in the final on merit. That video of Alan Quigley (I think) sticking it to perennial bellend Graham Geraghty was golden.

Fantastic hurling game for a neutral. Felt like there have been too many blowouts recently.

A cracking final!

My god this ref is shocking, in favor of the cork team

Really???

Some kick to win it. Great to see players taking those on again instead of endless working it in.

In the end it balanced I guess, I mean ideally there shouldn't be such deviations in the refs performance

An error by the ref to move it up 50 yards.

A few things on the free

(i) the Barrs player had it in his hand for a second at most when the Dingle player stormed in and yanked it out of his hand. The Barrs player was absolutely not stopping him taking it, the Dingle player could have just taken it but instead he yanked it full force - to put it another way, the ref bought the foul when there was none. It was like winning a free with a dive.

(ii) this happened over near the sideline - I dont know the rule but I'd have assumed its brought 50 yards forward from where the incident happened? Same way a 45 is from the point where the ball went out? The ref pointed about 20 yards further in towards the goal. Making it way more kickable. Again, I dont know the rule here. Is he supposed to bring it to the centre of the pitch?

(iii) the footblock was the only questionable decision I really saw in Barrs favour - however, it clearly didnt hit his foot. I'd be interested in a refs view on this. I didnt think it was a peno, he was well back from the Dingle player.

TBH, its the first time I've watched a game where I thought the new rules made a mess of it. I thought on both sides, the two pointers, its too much of a reward for the shots they were taking - though to be fair the second last two pointer from Dingle was a stunner.

And then moving the free forward. When it probably wasnt even a free in the first place. An awful way to lose.

Or, you know, things changed after that

Soccer cant go to a video assistant for something like that.

I absolutely hate when people go on and on about an incident just because it was late on. Those incidents happen throughout a game and "we were robbed" just because the last contentious decision went against a team doesn't add up.

Barrs scored nothing in the last 10 minutes despite have a very kickable wide and the vast majority of injury time possession. As well as the free to win it (which was harsh) some lad plowed into a Dingle player giving them a chance to clear lines very late on.

but isn’t that the rule , you have to hand the ball to the opposition when it’s their free ?

Harsh, but leads to a better spectacle.

What an amazing game though. Haven’t seen as good a game of football in a while.

You still have u21 county finals in various counties only played around now.

It was certainly harsh.

The rule is as below:

“When a free kick is awarded, all players of the opposing team shall immediately retreat at least 13 meters from the spot where the free kick is to be taken and shall not interfere with the free taker or the ball until it has been kicked.”

The rule says immediately, and there were about 3 seconds between the ref blowing the original free to when he brought it forward.

However, in defence of the Finbarrs player he might have heard the whistle but didn't know who the free was for, and he gave the ball back pretty quickly once he saw it was a Dingle free. It was a harsh one.

It wasn't just harsh. It was wrong. I looked at the video a few times. There is one second between when the ref blew the whistle and when the Dingle lad barged into the number 5.

The problem with the rule is the word immediately. It means instantly, without any delay. That is not practically possible. In many instances, the ref will blow the whistle and he could be 20 or 30 yards away from the play. The players will automatically look around to see who the free is for. There is always going to be some delay. The aim of the rule is perfect, in that it is to stop the time-wasting and players trying to spoil the free being taken. But the specifics of the rule will need to be changed, as it will lead to further problems as more and more players become aware that it can be manipulated like was done in the Dingle match.