Loads of Mayo fans at Celtic Park today. Every credit to them for coming up for both parts of the double header. I have no idea what the final score was as I left at HT. Derry lost the curtain raiser with Carlow by 2 points. They blew a pretty big goal chance late on. Cork beat up on Kerry in a surprising display tbh. cork were hungry for goals and got them. Kerry had Tommy Walsh on who scored a goal and won a tonne of ball. Johnny Buckley won loads of clean ball but didn't do much with it. Despite the hosing, there was a lot for them to take away. Kerry scored another through Kieran Donaghy. It was a **** goal to lose.
The hurling on Saturday was strange, Dubs scored 1-21 but got a hidin really, I don't think I 've ever seen a (non-challenge) match with 56 scores. The football was intense Tyrone put in a serious effort but unfortunately are fairly toothless in attack and having done the hard work were caught by a sucker-punch at the end. Good to see a lot of non-irish and first -timers in Croke on Saturday, spread the gospel
The Dublin hurlers got a lesson in how to play in the open spaces of Croke park. Cork were very impressive, it seemed like they had a laser guided ball, very accurate from anywhere. The Dublin footballers have been rank for the whole league. Tyrone totally outplayed them and deserved to win, a lot of the fringe players of Dublin don't look anywhere near good enough to me, they will still be relying on the same players come the summer.
The Dubs look like a team that haven't really settled into full work yet with a lack of sharpness to most aspects of their play but I reckon they have a lot of improvement in them. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a different training regime to last season when they may think they peaked too early, I reckon they have a lot of improvement in them. In contrast my county (Tyrone) are having to work their socks off to be competitive and unless one oftheir forwards catches fire we will struggle to win big matches later in the year
And yeah, there's more to come from Dublin. You can just tell when teams are keeping their powder dry. Tyrone are motoring hard just to stand still by the looks of things. Next thing you know, they'll pull a performance out of nowhere. Everyone used to say that the league meant nothing.... And it's true. But there's more to it than that. It's about jockeying for the summer.
Kilkenny? . I think the league is becoming more important, everyone wants to be in that top division and some of the league games these days are almost as intense as champ.
Kilkenny's powder has always been moist.....and stinking of urine. Some games are ridiculously intense, but others one one team appears to show up. Certainly being in division 1 in football and 1a in hurling is where teams want to be and will burst their holes getting to stay there, it seems that is the objective rather than winning the thing.
Heading to Owenbeg on Sunday for the deadest of dead rubbers. Derry brought Gaelic football to a new new low last week against Dublin to stay Rock bottom of division 1. Cork beat Mayo with a late late goal to be clear at the top. Cork will undoubtedly go with a shadow team but **** it.... I don't get to many.
i was just out at Owenbeg. Close for 50 minutes but Derry pulled away to win well and deservedly in the end. I really enjoyed it... Obviously would have liked a Cork win but **** it, it was great to see them all the same.
So Antrim do the impossible and manage to get themselves relegated to division 2 in hurling. They lost the play off to Kerry who move up. A ****ing disaster for Ulster Hurling. A bad day for Ulster football too as Cork rode the holes off Donegal. Scoring 4 goals in the process. The Dubs played ****e but still edged past Monaghan who scored some great points along the way.
Cork come from 12 down to bate the ****e out of the Dubs. ****ing great game. Then WaaaaAaaTerford shock the world by beating Tipp. Great game.....great ****ing game.
Some game alright between Dub and Cork in the hurling, I expected Cork to win but the fact Dub blew a 12 point lead makes it hard to take. Football on Sun should be a good game too. Scangers v Langers part 2
Cork drew with Kk in a challenge match on Saturday evening whilst Offaly and Armagh won the divisions 4 and 3 finals respectively. Roscommon beat Down in the D2 final and the division 1 final was also played.
****. Camogs beat by Galway. Hurlers hammered by Waaaaaaaaateford. Three national finals lost in a week. Kerry won in the Christy Ring. London drew. Derrry beat Mayo by 2 points on Mayo day. I was out at Owenbeg in the morning but had to come back before the game. A horrible aul day.