Leinster Club Championship

start this weekend for kildare clubs.

castlemitchell are out in the junior championship meeting milltown westmeath sunday at 2pm in castlemitchell

castledermot clonaslee st manmans of laois saturday at 2pm in st conleths

sarsfield waiting on winner of laois/emo v palatine

best wishes to all especially the mitchells at home to milltown sunday

Castledermot should hammer Clonaslee who are a very poor outfit (saw their Laois quarter final).

Dangerous assumption to make Bigfullforward, some teams can really grow once they get into provincial competition, all teams will be confident having won their respective county titles.

Leinster junior championship:

Castlemitchell 1-7 to 4-10 Milltown ( Westmeath)

Castledermot won yesterday 0-8 to 0-5, were down to 14 men, kicked a couple of late points. Quarter-final at home to Ballycumber next Sunday, someone here might have some knowledge of them.

On the hurling side Coill Dubh hammered by Bennetsbridge in the intermediate, and in junior Moorefield well beaten by Scoil Uí Chonaill. And as someone said above Castlemitchell well gone in junior football. So leaves just Sash (Portlaoise beat Palatine and away next weekend) and Castledermot, hopefully they can make a run.

Very tough proposition for the Sash, Portlaoise have a lot more expierience than our lads in this competition, I am open to correction on this but I think you have to go back to Raheens in 1981 for the last time a Kildare club beat them. I have no doubt this Sarsfields group is very ambitious and will attack the competition in a very meaningful way but other than the Dublin champions we couldn't have asked for a tougher draw

Portlaoise 8/15.. Sarsfields 2/1.

Castledermot 4/9 Ballycumber 21/10 (Not that I could tell you what that's based on other than venue - Newbridge, 2.00, Sunday).

I have to be honest and say I'd like Ballycumber at 21/10. They are the 9th ranked team in Offaly (only 8 senior teams) as opposed to Castledermot being our 17th ranked team.

I also like Sarsfields at that 2/1. Portlaoise have regressed a bit and were nearly caught in the drawn county final by a bang average Emo. They may not win but the value is Sarsfields.

Talking to a Portlaoise man yeasterday and he reckons they are very beatable. Thinks a lot of them are not capable of further improvement and the younger ones not up to the required standard yet. Definitely Sarsfields should not be afraid to have a right go at them.
Which was the last Kildare team to beat them if any?

Bigfullforward wrote:

I have to be honest and say I'd like Ballycumber at 21/10. They are the 9th ranked team in Offaly (only 8 senior teams) as opposed to Castledermot being our 17th ranked team.

I also like Sarsfields at that 2/1. Portlaoise have regressed a bit and were nearly caught in the drawn county final by a bang average Emo. They may not win but the value is Sarsfields.

Possibly but if there are double the amount of clubs in Kildare than are in Offaly are you not just talking about two mid-ranking teams in their respective counties.

How many clubsare in offaly compared to Kildare?

I do personally think the inter grade, while it has plenty of decent teams, does not have one outstandingly good team so castledermot may be overpriced.

Is Kelf the resident Offaly man? Maybe can fill us in (may not be Kelf but it is someone!)

Caprea wrote:

Bigfullforward wrote:

I have to be honest and say I'd like Ballycumber at 21/10. They are the 9th ranked team in Offaly (only 8 senior teams) as opposed to Castledermot being our 17th ranked team.

I also like Sarsfields at that 2/1. Portlaoise have regressed a bit and were nearly caught in the drawn county final by a bang average Emo. They may not win but the value is Sarsfields.

Possibly but if there are double the amount of clubs in Kildare than are in Offaly are you not just talking about two mid-ranking teams in their respective counties.

How many clubsare in offaly compared to Kildare?

I do personally think the inter grade, while it has plenty of decent teams, does not have one outstandingly good team so castledermot may be overpriced.

The Offaly structure might be a bit misleading in that Ballycumber didn't win the Intermediate championship - they won Senior B.

It was a group of 8 with each team playing 7 games followed by semi's then a final. There was also quite a few walkovers along the way which I wouldn't exactly take as being indicative of a strong, competitive championship.

There might be only 8 "senior" teams but in reality the standard is pretty poor. Take Rhode, Edenderry, Tullamore and possibly Clara out of the equation and I'd fancy the remaining 4 to be battling it out against relegation were they to play in the Kildare championship. Brigid's and Rynagh's took a number of hammerings between them - they'd nearly be as well running Senior A off between 6 teams.

Ballycumber (amalgamated with Tubber) did have a decent run in the minor champ though so if a few players come through from that team then it might help them.

Looking at how well some Kildare teams have done at this level in Leinster over the last couple of years would seem to be another reason why Castledermot are favourites for this one.

Caprea

Yea, I'm the BIFFO but have not seen any Senior B games in Offaly and have not seen Ballycumber play in 20/30 years. Colm Quinn has been their best known player and is still playing but must be 35/38.
This is the first year of the Senior B ( since 95 or thereabouts).
Made up from 4 who were Senior in 2014 & 4 up from Intermediate. BC had been senior for many years without getting near winning after winning the Inter in 1994........

Ballycumber were next door, in the same parish, with a few "difficulties" especially around my Juvenile/Minor days and games had a certain edge with players & supporters joining in with a will... I would not be an unbiased view !!!!

In fairness castledermot have been holding their own in div one very comfortable for a few years now.. I think they'll win.

Sounded like a cracker today, Castledermot after extra-time, seemed good and filthy too. Ratoath await in semi-finals.

murof wrote:

Talking to a Portlaoise man yeasterday and he reckons they are very beatable. Thinks a lot of them are not capable of further improvement and the younger ones not up to the required standard yet. Definitely Sarsfields should not be afraid to have a right go at them.
Which was the last Kildare team to beat them if any?

I agree, Portlaoise are 'very beatable'.

I think if you go back 2 years to when Moorefield played Portlaoise, there were a lot of similar comments made about Portlaoise being very beatable. Portlaoise won that game relatively easily in the finish. This is an incredibly tough game for a very inexperienced Sarsfields squad and the odds reflect that.

topcat wrote:

I think if you go back 2 years to when Moorefield played Portlaoise, there were a lot of similar comments made about Portlaoise being very beatable. Portlaoise won that game relatively easily in the finish. This is an incredibly tough game for a very inexperienced Sarsfields squad and the odds reflect that.

If memory serves me right Portlaoise got a 'lucky' goal that altered the pattern of the game, won't go as far as to say that they won relatively easy thought.

That match v Moorefield was the same as happened Moorefield v Rhode last year and happens our Minor and U21 teams when they come out of Leinster, they get out footballed, brain beats brawn. Just the problem we have, we dont produce all that many natural footballers. Great athletes but not great football brains. I often wonder is it because in Kildare many kids play rugby soccer hurling and football and only concentrate later on, where as in Rhode football is only show in town, as is hurling in kilkenny and football in Kerry!?

Having also been at that game, I just felt Portlaoise were never troubled once they scored the goal.

That match v Moorefield was the same as happened Moorefield v Rhode last year and happens our Minor and U21 teams when they come out of Leinster, they get out footballed, brain beats brawn. Just the problem we have, we dont produce all that many natural footballers. Great athletes but not great football brains. I often wonder is it because in Kildare many kids play rugby soccer hurling and football and only concentrate later on, where as in Rhode football is only show in town, as is hurling in kilkenny and football in Kerry!?

Of course that the case, it the way with most things in life the more you practice the luckier you get.
You learn most skills when you are young. They will always be players who are good at all sports, but instead of being good at a few they could be great at one

I am not sure how true that is, there are any number of studies that show that specialisation at an early age is not a good idea and skills learned in one game are transferrable to others.

I agree Tpos. It goes deeper than that, there are far too many lads turning to soccer as well. Also what does not help is kildare youth who have an allegiance to mayo galway dublin (parents counties) etc, and not Kildare first and formost. This is a huge problem and it affects the mentality. Something needs to be done to stamp it out.

When Moorefield lost to Portlaoise 2 years ago, I thought their attacking play wasn't good enough to win. Last year Moorefield never got going against Rhode and the game was effectively over after 20 minutes. Sarsfields might do better as I think they have better forwards and they have been improving as the year has gone on. 
I think the bookies have priced it right. Portlaoise deserve to be favourites and they are going be better than any team Sarsfields have played in Kildare.