*Limerick GAA news/discussion thread*

paddy no 11

Was in the canal end that day, i will never watch that again. The team had a couple of flaws in the backs that got exposed, if quigley had rattled in the third goal instead of hitting over it would have been different but.........not to be. The devestation was something else, hard to believe its only sport.

Rightwing

jordainius wrote: »

Being at that game was surreal, I'll never forget the sight of a (small) number of Offaly fans leaving in the few minutes before the comeback, I hate watching it, but its one of these things that no matter how many times you see it you still struggle to believe it, it fascinates me because it doesn't make any sense. It's such a shame they never got an All-Ireland, I believe if they won one that one or two more would have followed in the next few years.

I agree fully, but when we eventually win one (we have as a good a chance this year as any) it will be surreal. Only ourselves and mayo football have endured such pain.

Colemania

So looks like we'll have great weather for the Munster final on Sunday week and hopefully I have my ticket in the open stand secured too! My friend ordered ours through his club and said we have the tickets secured but he hasn't been given em yet so until I actually see the ticket in my hand, I won't believe it!

Gonna be a great match anyway and the support will be unreal! Anyone else got a ticket for the open stand?

shawnee

Fireball07 wrote: »

You can watch that game again? I was too young to have watched those games live, but I've seen them all since...when I was younger I was shown all of them. But that one...too horrible to watch more than once.

We had comebacks of our own...(Tipp in 96, Waterford 01, Tipp 07...I'm sure there are others) but none of them make up for throwing that away. Offaly were very very good...the Dooleys, Whelehans, Pilkington, Troy, Duignan, etc. serious hurlers. But that Limerick team were class too, and deserved an All-Ireland. Sickening stuff.

Lads , will ye forget 94 and indeed 96 , sick of hearing and reading about it. None of the present team/mentors have anything to do with it. Focus on the present team and if ye want to focus on a past all Ireland , why not pick 73....:D:P

paddy no 11

its cathartic, like a bit of group therapy here, im still not over it.

Have written loads about the current team and hope/think there'll be plenty more to be written about them.

Copper_pipe

Maurice Horan has stepped down as football manager.

paddy no 11

Wouldnt be up to speed on the football but there really wasnt another move for the guy to make. Good luck to him. Hope we can get a decent successor, there's plenty of ability in that team to my mind.

Rightwing

paddy no 11 wrote: »

Wouldnt be up to speed on the football but there really wasnt another move for the guy to make. Good luck to him. Hope we can get a decent successor, there's plenty of ability in that team to my mind.

I'd be the same as yourself, but even for me it was evident they were going nowhere, apart from down hill.

As for the hurling, I'm not convinced about us yet, the forwards haven't gelled well as a unit. Do we know our best fowards even?

The 1 good thing is, we do have players that can come on and make a genuine impact. That's a real positive.

Fireball07

Listened to the Sporting Limerick podcast, they all seem very negative about the football...thinking that it doesn't matter if Horan went or not, we're not going to get an improvement.


I don't know personally, I think if we were able to implement some sort of gameplan we'd do better but underage has to be the first focus.

Rightwing

Fireball07 wrote: »

Listened to the Sporting Limerick podcast, they all seem very negative about the football...thinking that it doesn't matter if Horan went or not, we're not going to get an improvement.


I don't know personally, I think if we were able to implement some sort of gameplan we'd do better but underage has to be the first focus.

We can become more competitive in football, no question about that, but I feel we lost our opportunity to win a munster a few years back under Kerins. Galvin and a few more than deserved one.

washman3

Best of luck to Maurice Horan. Passionate football man who gave it his all.
My abiding memory will be that night in Portlaoise when we knocked out Wexford and going within a 'hares breath' of taking Kildare last year.

panda100

washman3 wrote: »

Best of luck to Maurice Horan. Passionate football man who gave it his all.
My abiding memory will be that night in Portlaoise when we knocked out Wexford and going within a 'hares breath' of taking Kildare last year.

+1 As a proud Limerick football supporter,that evening in Portlaoise when the final whistle blew is in my personal top ten sporting moments of all time.

I think Maurice Horan made the right decision, and wish him all the best in the future.

Fireball07

I feel sorry for him, he did get us to our first ever quarter-final, pity we didn't put up more of a fight when we got there. This team deserved more though, it's terrible really

Thinkstoomuch

washman3 wrote: »

Best of luck to Maurice Horan. Passionate football man who gave it his all.
My abiding memory will be that night in Portlaoise when we knocked out Wexford and going within a 'hares breath' of taking Kildare last year.

He was a very good manager and I'd say that won't be the last we hear of him in management.

You can only but admire and respect a guy that knows when it is time to call it a day and unlike some managers he did not out stay the job when he knew it was time for a fresh voice and the right time to go.

Far too many managers who have worse records than him, just stay on when they should go.

Who is tipped to replace him?!Will it be an outside man ??

Rightwing

Thinkstoomuch wrote: »

He was a very good manager and I'd say that won't be the last we hear of him in management.

You can only but admire and respect a guy that knows when it is time to call it a day and unlike some managers he did not out stay the job when he knew it was time for a fresh voice and the right time to go.

Far too many managers who have worse records than him, just stay on when they should go.

Who is tipped to replace him?!Will it be an outside man ??

Spot on, I may have been a little harsh on him but I do admit I don't know much about football.

Who was he with before LK ?

Fireball07

In other news, lovely day for the start of the Féile.


Sadly, our club got beaten well by the Carlow side. Carlow team were generally bigger, stronger and had a few class players, lovely clean strikers of the ball. Scoreline mightn't have been a fair reflection of ability, but once you let in a couple of goals, bound to lose heart, and defensive shape completely crumbled.


Limerick teams as a whole not doing too great, Patrickswell were supposed to be good and got beaten well by O'Loughlin Gaels. The likes of Ballybrown, Adare, Ahane all got beaten well.

Na Piarsaigh and Kilmallock who, along with the Well, are the 3 unbeaten teams at U-14 level in Limerick had narrow losses to Douglas and St. Martin's respectively. And since a loss pretty much puts you out of the competition, that's disappointing.


Mungret were our sole winners at Division 1 level, beat Holycross Ballycahill by 5 points.


Old Christians, Cappamore, Shamrock Gaels, Knockainey, St. Kieran's, Bruree, Claughaun, Caherline also got wins....as you hit division 4 and 5, we got more wins. According to twitter, Bruree won 11-14 to 0-2 :eek:

glasagusban

Some good chats about the match on here. Hard to tell whether we'll see any team changes. On the one hand, why change a winning formula and I don't think anyone played poorly enough to be dropped, on the other, that team was picked and set up to beat tipp by negating their half back line, there will be different concerns v cork.

Breen is probably the only player in danger, I don't think he was that bad the last day. O'Brien made him look poor on a few occasions by hitting high clearances straight to Maher, O'Brien will majorly need to improve his distribution next day. If breen is to be dropped then allis, downes, dowling, or Moran could come in. That's some decent options! Guess it will come down to form as to who will make it.

I still think our half back line last year was a stronger alignment, and that hickey and o'brien would be our best midfield partnership, but again I doubt we'll see changes there.

Fireball07

glasagusban wrote: »

Some good chats about the match on here. Hard to tell whether we'll see any team changes. On the one hand, why change a winning formula and I don't think anyone played poorly enough to be dropped, on the other, that team was picked and set up to beat tipp by negating their half back line, there will be different concerns v cork.

Breen is probably the only player in danger, I don't think he was that bad the last day. O'Brien made him look poor on a few occasions by hitting high clearances straight to Maher, O'Brien will majorly need to improve his distribution next day. If breen is to be dropped then allis, downes, dowling, or Moran could come in. That's some decent options! Guess it will come down to form as to who will make it.

I still think our half back line last year was a stronger alignment, and that hickey and o'brien would be our best midfield partnership, but again I doubt we'll see changes there.

Well...as they say, horses for courses. Just because we beat Tipp doesn't mean there weren't a few issues with the team. I definitely think we'll need to get scores a bit easier.

I think Breen was cleaned out by Maher, Ryan did a much more effective job on him. I don't think he was terrible but at the same time, does he offer anything that the others don't?? One thing in his favour is that Allen seems to be a big fan.

Dowling's performance the last day + freetaking means that he does seem like the logical choice..... but Allis is apparently going very well in training? And if we want to go for a full forward and target them, then Downes and Moran are better options. It's nice to have a choice though.

I don't know if I'd agree if Hickey + Paudie would be our best midfield pairing, I'd say DOG + Hickey or DOG + Paudie is. Not that I'd be against seeing it. And I like our defensive shape this year, having Paudie at wing-back gives us a good option while Wayne seems to be growing into his role in the middle.

glasagusban

Fireball07 wrote: »

Well...as they say, horses for courses. Just because we beat Tipp doesn't mean there weren't a few issues with the team. I definitely think we'll need to get scores a bit easier.

I think Breen was cleaned out by Maher, Ryan did a much more effective job on him. I don't think he was terrible but at the same time, does he offer anything that the others don't?? One thing in his favour is that Allen seems to be a big fan.

Dowling's performance the last day + freetaking means that he does seem like the logical choice..... but Allis is apparently going very well in training? And if we want to go for a full forward and target them, then Downes and Moran are better options. It's nice to have a choice though.

I don't know if I'd agree if Hickey + Paudie would be our best midfield pairing, I'd say DOG + Hickey or DOG + Paudie is. Not that I'd be against seeing it. And I like our defensive shape this year, having Paudie at wing-back gives us a good option while Wayne seems to be growing into his role in the middle.

Don't really disagree with any of that. You're right, our strongest midfield would have DOG, but so would our strongest half back line I think.

O'Brien crucified breen with deliveries straight to maher on a few occasions. Everyone saw maher win the ball but the problem was the deliveries, at one point breen was in space and o'brien hit the ball directly to maher 20 feet behind him. O'Brien still had a good game but it made breen look bad when the fault was elsewhere. Breen still is the only obvious option for a change though.

I doubt the system will change much, still a 2 man inside line probably. Dowling had a great cameo the last day. I wonder has he forced his way back yet, I doubt it. I'd love to have him on the field even if just for frees, long range and goals off 21s, he is lethal.

I'd like to see more of downes too. A ball winner and a serious goal threat. I won't be disappointed with an unchanged team though. It will be interesting to see what changes if any Allen makes, will they be on the basis of form or to combat a different cork style... One thing for sure is the camp is very focused and well prepared. There won't be any getting carried away. This team is seriously well prepared and won't be found wanting mentally, as we proved v tipp.

Fireball07

glasagusban wrote: »

Don't really disagree with any of that. You're right, our strongest midfield would have DOG, but so would our strongest half back line I think.

O'Brien crucified breen with deliveries straight to maher on a few occasions. Everyone saw maher win the ball but the problem was the deliveries, at one point breen was in space and o'brien hit the ball directly to maher 20 feet behind him. O'Brien still had a good game but it made breen look bad when the fault was elsewhere. Breen still is the only obvious option for a change though.

I doubt the system will change much, still a 2 man inside line probably. Dowling had a great cameo the last day. I wonder has he forced his way back yet, I doubt it. I'd love to have him on the field even if just for frees, long range and goals off 21s, he is lethal.

I'd like to see more of downes too. A ball winner and a serious goal threat. I won't be disappointed with an unchanged team though. It will be interesting to see what changes if any Allen makes, will they be on the basis of form or to combat a different cork style... One thing for sure is the camp is very focused and well prepared. There won't be any getting carried away. This team is seriously well prepared and won't be found wanting mentally, as we proved v tipp.

I thought DOG was good at centre-back, but I think he's definitely been better at midfield. Considering our options, I suppose having two of the others in midfield wouldn't have been a bad option.....but things have worked out okay. I also wouldn't have been against GOM at centre-back or even Paudie, but in fairness to Wayne, he's done well. If he just cuts out the solo runs where he loses possession, he'll be grand.

I remember the balls to Breen well, I was sitting right in front of them and they were shocking. But even still, I don't think Breen did anything particularly great. He scored a lovely point from the touchline (which he always seems to do) but hit a bad wide iirc, and he just generally didn't get involved enough.


It is a relief having Allen in the camp though, everyone speaks so highly of him in the psychological aspect, he's sure to keep their feet planted on the ground. And it seems (I'm hoping) that they're no longer the type of team who are satisfied with a brave performance. The Tipp win was great, but they have to win something. It's been way too long.


Downes, Dowling, Allis...I'd be happy with any of those 3. In my preferred team for Tipp, I had all 3 included from the start! But it's good to have options on the bench too, that's what won it for us the last day.

paddy no 11

Just on the O'brien clearances

Ive seen maher play a fair bit and his catches and barnstorming runs out of defence are his main asset, it gives hiss team a lift. POB never pucked the ball down between the 2, he put it in behind the two when maher did collect the ball it was 30 yards from goal up against the sideline for the most part. Do ye recall maher hitting one killer ball out of defence? One barn storming run? I dont, and i think it was tactical to pin him back, i know that doesnt make a lot of sense and you'd prefer to make better use of your own ball but there you go thats what i think happened.

Agree with the rest, will be more or less happy with whoever's picked whether be our 6 best forwards or a horses for courses selection like last day.

Thinkstoomuch

Fireball07 wrote: »

I thought DOG was good at centre-back, but I think he's definitely been better at midfield. Considering our options, I suppose having two of the others in midfield wouldn't have been a bad option.....but things have worked out okay. I also wouldn't have been against GOM at centre-back or even Paudie, but in fairness to Wayne, he's done well. If he just cuts out the solo runs where he loses possession, he'll be grand.

I remember the balls to Breen well, I was sitting right in front of them and they were shocking. But even still, I don't think Breen did anything particularly great. He scored a lovely point from the touchline (which he always seems to do) but hit a bad wide iirc, and he just generally didn't get involved enough.


It is a relief having Allen in the camp though, everyone speaks so highly of him in the psychological aspect, he's sure to keep their feet planted on the ground. And it seems (I'm hoping) that they're no longer the type of team who are satisfied with a brave performance. The Tipp win was great, but they have to win something. It's been way too long.


Downes, Dowling, Allis...I'd be happy with any of those 3. In my preferred team for Tipp, I had all 3 included from the start! But it's good to have options on the bench too, that's what won it for us the last day.

Allen has brought in a sports physcologist Julieanne McCauliffe who has done work with this team.He used one while in charge of Cork too.

glasagusban

paddy no 11 wrote: »

Just on the O'brien clearances

Ive seen maher play a fair bit and his catches and barnstorming runs out of defence are his main asset, it gives hiss team a lift. POB never pucked the ball down between the 2, he put it in behind the two when maher did collect the ball it was 30 yards from goal up against the sideline for the most part. Do ye recall maher hitting one killer ball out of defence? One barn storming run? I dont, and i think it was tactical to pin him back, i know that doesnt make a lot of sense and you'd prefer to make better use of your own ball but there you go thats what i think happened.

Agree with the rest, will be more or less happy with whoever's picked whether be our 6 best forwards or a horses for courses selection like last day.

Interesting. I'm not sure though. Pinning him back but still giving the ball away doesn't make huge sense, especially when there were options for a pass ie Breen in 20 feet of space. Even had the ball been sent when breen was beside him that is a mistake, there is practically no forward in the country going to catch the ball above maher when he is facing the ball. No high ball should be hit anywhere near his wing, simple as.

glasagusban

Fireball07 wrote: »

I thought DOG was good at centre-back, but I think he's definitely been better at midfield. Considering our options, I suppose having two of the others in midfield wouldn't have been a bad option.....but things have worked out okay. I also wouldn't have been against GOM at centre-back or even Paudie, but in fairness to Wayne, he's done well. If he just cuts out the solo runs where he loses possession, he'll be grand.

I remember the balls to Breen well, I was sitting right in front of them and they were shocking. But even still, I don't think Breen did anything particularly great. He scored a lovely point from the touchline (which he always seems to do) but hit a bad wide iirc, and he just generally didn't get involved enough.


It is a relief having Allen in the camp though, everyone speaks so highly of him in the psychological aspect, he's sure to keep their feet planted on the ground. And it seems (I'm hoping) that they're no longer the type of team who are satisfied with a brave performance. The Tipp win was great, but they have to win something. It's been way too long.


Downes, Dowling, Allis...I'd be happy with any of those 3. In my preferred team for Tipp, I had all 3 included from the start! But it's good to have options on the bench too, that's what won it for us the last day.

You must have been sitting near me so!

You're right on DOG being better in midfield, I just worry a bit that Wayne Mc might yet be exposed at 6, and POB the same at 5; whereas Mc is dominating at 5 and POB is better at midfield. I might be being unfair on Wayne and POB I just still have concerns there.

I loved Paudie's interview after the last game, not content with a win they want medals. Completely focused and no noise out of the camp since the last win, Allen is doing a great job IMO.

washman3

glasagusban wrote: »

You must have been sitting near me so!

You're right on DOG being better in midfield, I just worry a bit that Wayne Mc might yet be exposed at 6, and POB the same at 5; whereas Mc is dominating at 5 and POB is better at midfield. I might be being unfair on Wayne and POB I just still have concerns there.

I loved Paudie's interview after the last game, not content with a win they want medals. Completely focused and no noise out of the camp since the last win, Allen is doing a great job IMO.

Think all the posters here were sitting in the same section.!! I was right there too.:P Mahers job was made easy all right. balls being hit right down his throat without even looking. Thought Mac was excellent, just needs to let the ball go to the forward line, preferably full forward line.
Regarding Allens job on keeping things focussed, he is doing very well. But from tomorrow night on the real hype will begin.
I wish 95FM could be banned for the next 7 days.:D

Fireball07

glasagusban wrote: »

Interesting. I'm not sure though. Pinning him back but still giving the ball away doesn't make huge sense, especially when there were options for a pass ie Breen in 20 feet of space. Even had the ball been sent when breen was beside him that is a mistake, there is practically no forward in the country going to catch the ball above maher when he is facing the ball. No high ball should be hit anywhere near his wing, simple as.

I'd agree with this more.... getting Maher to turn back and stop him from running at you is a grand plan... but there's no reason to be hitting balls straight to him when he is unmarked which O'Brien did a few times. To be fair, O'Brien is generally one of the better distributors in the team so I'm just going to put down to an off-day.

The low ball in front of Tobin did work for a large periods.

Just over a week to go, nerves are building.

grenache

Fireball07 wrote: »

In other news, lovely day for the start of the Féile.


Sadly, our club got beaten well by the Carlow side. Carlow team were generally bigger, stronger and had a few class players, lovely clean strikers of the ball. Scoreline mightn't have been a fair reflection of ability, but once you let in a couple of goals, bound to lose heart, and defensive shape completely crumbled.


Limerick teams as a whole not doing too great, Patrickswell were supposed to be good and got beaten well by O'Loughlin Gaels. The likes of Ballybrown, Adare, Ahane all got beaten well.

Na Piarsaigh and Kilmallock who, along with the Well, are the 3 unbeaten teams at U-14 level in Limerick had narrow losses to Douglas and St. Martin's respectively. And since a loss pretty much puts you out of the competition, that's disappointing.


Mungret were our sole winners at Division 1 level, beat Holycross Ballycahill by 5 points.


Old Christians, Cappamore, Shamrock Gaels, Knockainey, St. Kieran's, Bruree, Claughaun, Caherline also got wins....as you hit division 4 and 5, we got more wins. According to twitter, Bruree won 11-14 to 0-2 :eek:

Our clubs didn't have too many wins on the opening day because they were playing the best club side from each county. To the best of my knowledge anyway.

jordainius

Dublin are Leinster champions, championship is wide open!

Dubs after playing 5 weekends in a row, I can't help but think of those Waterford fans who are adamant that the only reason we beat them in the 2007 semi final was because they played the previous two weekends, maybe now they'll finally realise the better team won on the day.

Browney7

Absolutely vital we beat Cork. If we win on Sunday wed play Galway or Clare (assuming Kk beat Waterford) in an AI semi (also assuming provincial finals can't be repeated but provincial semis could ie dub Kk rater than Dub Galway)

Fireball07

I thought Dublin would win, but that kind of performance is similar to the one we'll have to deliver. And we have to win no matter what, for the actual trophy.

I mean if we got to the final that'd be nice, but I'd take winning a Munster and going out in the semi, over losing Munster and losing in the AI final.


In an ideal world, we'd win both, but we can't get ahead of ourselves. Focus on the Cork game......seeing Dublin today, I'd love us to play, and get a win like that. Still think Cork will be a lot more formidable than Galway though.