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Westmeath Football thread - 5 Like(s)
Replying To Greengrass1: "Well if Cox 's shot was made 20 seconds later and same result applied it wouldn't have made any difference. Time would have been up. The shot was there for the taking though an older head would have recycled it but once that decision occurred, then the set up wasn't there to counteract Wexford which was my point. Had it gone over then it would have been inspired! Narrow margins." The shot was not there to be taken , he seen the headlines simple as.
Westmeath213 (National) - 23/03/2026 16:29:39
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How Do We Take Hurling On From Here - 2 Like(s)
Replying To Tadhg2020: "Its an insurance policy for the traditional counties. Thats my point. Thats how it works out well for ye as in whoever is the weakest of the 5 now that Offaly are back. Thats what it is for. It provides a buffer zone for the rest so that an Offaly should never happen again. It probably wont because even on yere( other 5) worst day you wont finish below that 6th team. Does anyone really believe that anyone other than kildare will finish bottom?
The other teams can pretend that it was great for hurling. It was for a year or 2 but everyone , including the teams that voted for it, knew what it was really about and that once Offaly got their act together somewhat that none of the 5 would be relegated. Even if wexford do keep losing to the weakest team in it.( i didnt realise it waa so common for ye to do that). So again, how does it benefit Laois, Carlow(i forgot them last time), Antrim , Westmeath or Kildare to be in this 6 team championship anymore than it did benefit them being in the 5 team one now that Offaly are back?
It doesn't." Have to say I find it somewhat ironic that you criticise this as being a perceived "insurance policy" for traditional counties, when Munster has the ultimate insurance policy for them!
Pikeman96 (National) - 24/03/2026 11:51:31
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Donegal GAA thread - 2 Like(s)
Replying To panamasam: "First game of the year after a couple of months away. Great to get to a game. The game felt like a glorified challenge match with Monaghan not offering much resistance but the goals woke them up and in Stephen O'Hanlon they had a player whom we couldn't handle in the first half. Only for Jamie's goal we were looking at a HT deficit which was head scratching to say the least as Donegal generally controlled the game. The Monaghan goals while good finishes seemed to stem from defensive mix ups with poor tracking or players not being where they were supposed to be. This was rectified at HT and the 2 subs made a huge difference. It did take an uncharacteristic slip up from Beggan to reverse the tide but once we did we seem out the game comfortably enough. As already pointed out similar defending next week and it'll be a blow out. Jason was again MOTM and was excellent throughout. Some great scores from Langan too and Shea had a great game. He'd remind you of Brolly in his pomp and it'll be interesting to see how he copes in the heat of championship battle. Interesting to see the approach next week. Will Kerry want to put down a marker? How will Jim approach it? Keep cards close to his chest for down the line or road test a little. It makes for an intriguing game." To be realistic, I can't see us beating Kerry in this league final, we have too many niggles and injuries at the moment and to beat this Kerry team, you really need a full strength fit squad with a strong bench. There is a chance Gavin Mulreany and Brendan McCole won't feature next week after yesterday, added to Shaun Patton, Ciaran Thompson, Daire O'Baoill, Ciaran Moore and Oisin Gallen.
However it is still an opportunity to learn for later in the year, because we know Kerry will likely field a full strength team and go full tilt at it, so its an opportunity to maybe test other players and really see how they fare against the All Ireland Champions.
Commodore (National) - 23/03/2026 21:08:58
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Openess Of Croke Park And Pitch Sizes - 2 Like(s)
It's always funny that the "tight pitches" are always either claimed to be in:
1. Ulster counties, because it supports the notion they play "negative" football
2. Weak counties, because it supports the notion that everyone they play will be better than them, so they want to deny the opposition space to express their ability.
As if counties knew decades in advance where they'd stand in the football landscape and designed their pitches accordingly.
As this article shows, most "common knowledge" about GAA pitch dimensions is wrong;
https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2022/0511/1297395-size-matters-gaa-pitch-dimensions-irk-beyond-measure/
Cusack Park in Ennis and Dr. Hyde Park are both the maximum possible size for GAA pitches, but you hear them being called "tight" for some reason.
Similarly you never hear MacHale Park or the Gaelic Grounds being called tight, despite being among the smallest inter county fields.
CastleBravo (National) - 23/03/2026 21:11:15
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How Do We Take Hurling On From Here - 2 Like(s)
Replying To Tadhg2020: "How has that worked out for Laois and Antrim or westmeath? It has worked out ok so far for Offaly and Wexford." The Leinster Championship went to 6 in 2021. Offaly were un the Christy Ring then, so not sure how you think the change helped Offaly.
If you follow your logic of creating more 'jeopardy', how about bringing relegation in for Munster?
Firceall (National) - 23/03/2026 18:46:47
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Sligo GAA thread - 2 Like(s)
Replying To ShellyGael: "I think some people's expectations exceeded reality considering almost half of last years team was unavailable. Some people have an obvious agenda too. It was not a terrible campaign but there is loads of room for improvement. There was some excellent football played yesterday but Clare's two pointers offset a lot of the 23 singles scored. As previous poster said, Clare had 3 of the best forwards in the league on show yesterday. Someone must have been watching a different game. Humble pie doesn't taste that nice" We all watched the same game and overall Sligo is extremely lucky to have retained D3 status. On that basis, no progress from last year. A lot of players tried and tested with a longer view in mind. Sligo's biggest fault to me, is the lack of bite in the defensive tackle, 8 x 2 pointers would not occur if real pressure was imposed on the kicker. Defensive steel has been absent throughout the League. I also feel that the player/ manager cohesion that was apparent under McEntee has not been developed yet. An unexpected good run in the Championship or Tailteann is all that can save the current managerial setup from coming under intense pressure next year.
Maggiepie (National) - 23/03/2026 18:02:03
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Roscommon GAA thread - 2 Like(s)
Replying To S1234: "Loool love the way you are the Rossies biggest fan when it comes to mayo / rossies haha" Not sure about biggest fan but how can one not be admirer of a county of their size and resources to have comfortably retained Division one status and stood toe to toe with Galway,Armagh,Donegal and Kerry in this league campaign.
Now stay humble Ms Kennedy.
Drax_the_destroyer (National) - 23/03/2026 15:57:37
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Donegal GAA thread - 2 Like(s)
Replying To S1234: "Think ye may have peaked to soon haha" And are still miles ahead of Mayo thankfully
eddieSize5Balls (National) - 23/03/2026 14:48:54
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Openess Of Croke Park And Pitch Sizes - 1 Like(s)
It's a lie that's been peddled for years, the 'wide open spaces of croke park".
letsgosligo (National) - 24/03/2026 01:13:46
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Dublin GAA thread - 1 Like(s)
Replying To Viking66: "Hopefully we might beat Louth. We werent that far off them a couple years ago, and we are better now. A couple of late penalties put a gloss on the result for Louth that day." It would be the shock of the century of Wexford were to beat Louth who are reigning Leinster champions, and are absolutely flying at the moment. Being 'not that far off them' a couple of years ago counts for absolutely nothing. Louth just keep on getting better.
bloodandbandage (National) - 24/03/2026 08:35:06
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Non-Gaa Forum - 1 Like(s)
Replying To Tirchonaill1: "President Trump sounds confident today he can settle the war with Iran, hopefully he does." If you believe that you will believe anything. He said that just to calm the markets. Some cronies will have made a fortune out of this again but when reality sinks in that the war is going to go on ,the markets will crash again and the price of oil will soar once more. Trump thought this war would be over in 3 days , kill the Supreme Leader, and the whole regime would collapse. But the Iranians have been preparing for this for the last 20 years and (despite what you will hear all the propagandists claim) have enough firepower to keep going til at least the mid-term elections. Time is on their side. It has been a monumental misjudgement by Trump. The only way this war will finish early is if Trump declares "victory" without achieving his stated war aims cos if he wants to get regime change he will have to authorize a full invasion and send tens of thousands of American troops there for months and probably several years.
PoolSturgeon (National) - 24/03/2026 00:19:32
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Westmeath Hurling thread - 1 Like(s)
Replying To Dheen: "St Mary's 1st years not to be out done by the 2nd year's beat Castlecomer by 12 pts in the Leinster A championship today. They are competing and winning at A level in all age groups now, a great conveyor belt of talent and hopefully we see the fruits of it with Westmeath starting with the minors this year who have plenty of talent, many who have been coming through St Mary's and competed at that higher A level grade. I believe they are going well although have to wait another week for a game as Down dropped out of the Leinster championship." Unbelievable we are apparently in a knockout situation now.Leinster GAA is a joke they can't even put the fixtures up for the competition and allow a non Leinster team destroy the competition for a Leinster county. What are Westmeath doing about it? Down should never be allowed back into Leinster competitions.
jobber (National) - 23/03/2026 23:02:55
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Openess Of Croke Park And Pitch Sizes - 1 Like(s)
Replying To CastleBravo: "It's always funny that the "tight pitches" are always either claimed to be in:
1. Ulster counties, because it supports the notion they play "negative" football
2. Weak counties, because it supports the notion that everyone they play will be better than them, so they want to deny the opposition space to express their ability.
As if counties knew decades in advance where they'd stand in the football landscape and designed their pitches accordingly.
As this article shows, most "common knowledge" about GAA pitch dimensions is wrong;
https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2022/0511/1297395-size-matters-gaa-pitch-dimensions-irk-beyond-measure/
Cusack Park in Ennis and Dr. Hyde Park are both the maximum possible size for GAA pitches, but you hear them being called "tight" for some reason.
Similarly you never hear MacHale Park or the Gaelic Grounds being called tight, despite being among the smallest inter county fields." The whole thing is mostly an illusion I think. So called tight pitches just have less space between the sideline and the stand which makes is appear tight.
Doylerwex (National) - 23/03/2026 22:38:43
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Non-Gaa Forum - 1 Like(s)
Replying To PoolSturgeon: "If you believe that you will believe anything. He said that just to calm the markets. Some cronies will have made a fortune out of this again but when reality sinks in that the war is going to go on ,the markets will crash again and the price of oil will soar once more. Trump thought this war would be over in 3 days , kill the Supreme Leader, and the whole regime would collapse. But the Iranians have been preparing for this for the last 20 years and (despite what you will hear all the propagandists claim) have enough firepower to keep going til at least the mid-term elections. Time is on their side. It has been a monumental misjudgement by Trump. The only way this war will finish early is if Trump declares "victory" without achieving his stated war aims cos if he wants to get regime change he will have to authorize a full invasion and send tens of thousands of American troops there for months and probably several years." In what way was Trump in any way qualified to come to that conclusion? What does he really know about Iran? Would he even be able to find it on a map? Does he think that if someone killed him America would collapse perhaps?
Viking66 (National) - 24/03/2026 10:38:29
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How Do We Take Hurling On From Here - 1 Like(s)
Replying To Tadhg2020: "I actually replied to this last night but it never got published here. I will give you the short version. Its very noble of the competing counties to agree to extend the competition from 5 to 6. At least it appears and can be presented that way. However when you examine who it actually benefits then you see that it is actually more of an act of preserving the old guard than developing hurling as portrayed. How is finishing 5th in a 5 team competition any different to finishing 6th in a 6 team one for Antrim, Laois or Kildare? Who does going from 5 teams to 6 actually benefit? The team finishing 5th maybe?" And yes, I'd have thought it was obvious that the change to six teams benefits the team finishing in 5th. Instead of being relegated from 5th, they'd retain their status for another year.
It also benefits the team coming up from the McDonagh Cup, even if they end up finishing 6th and going straight back down again. At least they'd have had a game against a team more generally of their own level to give them a chance to survive, instead of having to hope for the odd shock result like Westmeath or Antrim beating Wexford, or Carlow drawing with Kilkenny.
The change to six teams actually happened in 2022 (not 2021, as somebody said above). If you consider the teams involved as being split into two groups:
Group A (the ever-presents): Kilkenny, Galway, Dublin, Wexford
Group B (the others): Westmeath, Laois, Antrim, Carlow, Offaly
There have been 32 matches where a Group A team played a Group B team. Group A's record is won 27, drew 3, lost 2.
If there weren't six teams, there'd almost certainly be a 'yo-yo effect' of the team coming up ending up going straight back down again. As already pointed out, even in the year we diced with relegation ourselves, we wouldn't have been in that position if there were still only five teams in the championship.
Pikeman96 (National) - 23/03/2026 22:08:10
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Non-Gaa Forum - 1 Like(s)
In all honesty we can't believe a word of what he says..he changes his goal not every day but almost hourly..he has destroyed the Iranian army but yet they keep fighting back..he's having great conversations with Iran but according to him,all the leadership are dead..who is he talking to?
This is the man who was seen in Graceland signing a guitar,in the middle of a war.I gave up trying to make sense out of any of this
CTGAA10 (National) - 24/03/2026 11:05:49
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Non-Gaa Forum - 1 Like(s)
President Trump sounds confident today he can settle the war with Iran, hopefully he does.
Tirchonaill1 (National) - 23/03/2026 19:06:55
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How Do We Take Hurling On From Here - 1 Like(s)
Replying To Pikeman96: "You know, had never actually considered things in that way before about what would have happened if Leinster was still only five teams, but you're right.
Take Westmeath results out of the '22 Leinster Championship, and we've have been in the final.
Take Westmeath results out of the '23 Championship, and while we'd still only have finished fourth, we would have been going into our last match threatened with relegation.
Take Antrim results out of the '24 Championship, and we'd have been back in the final.
Things would look a lot more positive!" In relation to '23 - what I meant to say was we wouldn't have been going into our last match threatened with relegation.
An important distinction to make!!!!
Pikeman96 (National) - 23/03/2026 21:03:24
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Leitrim GAA thread - 1 Like(s)
Replying To leitrimabu1: "Don't get that right about Allen Gaels strength. Heard they were short 8 first choice players which in the circumstances was a good result for themt. The next game against Leitrim Gaels will be the real test of their new status at Senior level. And I think another poster criticising Leitrim Observer Sports coverage is way off the mark. John Connolly & PJ Leddy do a fantastic job in covering so much Sport in the County with limited resources . With so many Club & County games going on they can't be everywhere .very unfair criticism" Yea they mentioned that alright at the game that there was a wedding on and had a lot of players missing. I hear their corner forward ciaran mc morrow is injured and caleb duffy they said could be out for a few months with a bad injury. I'd like to see themselves or aughavas staying up. Too many times we see of strong enough team come up to senior and go straight back down again.
Loughallenbanks (National) - 23/03/2026 20:38:26
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Westmeath Football thread - 1 Like(s)
Replying To Yellaman: "I'm sure you're all hugely disappointed with that result yesterday, it looked like you had it in the bag, just needed to hold possession during that last phase.
Obviously I'm delighted with the result and the way our lads never game up.
Whitaker is a rare talent, especially when running at the opposition.
I think maybe you're being a bit harsh on Loughlin
( based on yesterday). We'd be delighted with how our defence, especially Porter, never gave him a clear sight at goal despite the possession he had.
Anyway lads, really hard luck yesterday, but i think the future is bright, you have some fine young footballers, plus the great colleges win last week." Chickens are coming home to roost. What good is it having talented players coming through if you can't even provide a pitch? You wouldn't believe how badly our County players are treated in this County.
iarmhiabu (National) - 23/03/2026 13:47:00
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