O'Byrne Cup 2011 - Official Thread

Good game yesterday for Kildare - always nice to be winning these games.. Thought Connolly was good in goals - two great saves from him at the very end.. The lads all seemed to have a great game, the full back line was good, pity about Ollie lyons getting injured.. Half back line was consitent enough. Was great to see Dave Whyte back playing after his injury.. As for Oracle thinking that he is running out of time, he kept his man Cregg to one point in 50 minutes and kept Quinlivan scoreless when he came on to replace Cregg - so all in all, its not a bad days work done.. Midfield did well as did the forwards, looking forward to Mullingar next week.. Lets hope kildare can get another victory and maybe a final in January to look forward to..

Rex wrote:

Bannon refs a lot of the training matches fro the squad.

Yeah heard he was involved in the latter stages of the championship last year alright, just wasn't expecting him to be at games so early in the year. Can only be a good thing though anyways, hopefully cut down on a lot of the fouling done inside the 45.

John Bannon has attended a good few matches in Newbridge. Maybe it's early in the year but having watched Pat Fox and the way he gave frees to DCU, it can only make the lads more disciplined. Last year that was our strength, we didn't panic by fouling opposition players, we defended from the full forward line back. Despite the free count against Kildare on Sun. they still won. Encouraging no doubt.

A wise man once said to me the "the problem with the majority of referee's is that the haven't a clue how to play football, they never played it because the were useless so to feel invovled the became a ref".

I think that pretty much sums up why we have so many poor ref's in GAA at the moment.

For me the best referee in Kildare is Colgan because he played football and he knows how it goes.

That's a bit of a generalisation there fionn.

I can think of a few decent refs who I don't recall playing football.

On the other hand, I can think of one or two very prominent refs who played football, yet are still shite at reffing. There's one guy in particular I remember as being a shnakey arse when playing football, yet refs the game like it's a non-contact sport.

Bottom line: I don't think there is a strong enough link between one and the other. It (having played football) should help when being a ref, but there's no guarantee that it does.

i would have to agree with fionn on this one its a good point of course not all refs will follow this theory but i find the theory makes sense the refs who didnt play football wouldn`t understand the common sense decessions that need to be maade during a game.

Think there's more than 2 ref's in the county. Yeah we've a few bad one but in fairness the age has come down and there are a few that have only stopped playing.


*** I think we're starting to get away from the O'Byrne Cup which this Thread is for***

rgb wrote:

That's a bit of a generalisation there fionn.

I can think of a few decent refs who I don't recall playing football.

On the other hand, I can think of one or two very prominent refs who played football, yet are still shite at reffing. There's one guy in particular I remember as being a shnakey arse when playing football, yet refs the game like it's a non-contact sport.

Bottom line: I don't think there is a strong enough link between one and the other. It (having played football) should help when being a ref, but there's no guarantee that it does.

Would that shnakey ref of played in blue when he was playing by any chance?

Can't think of who you mean there babyduck...

A team that plays in blue ehh??? Celbridge? Monasterevin? Allenwood?

Alot of shnakes in 1 of them teams alrite

So far this has been the most enjoyable O'Byrne cup for me. Roll on Westmeath and given Geezers comments on scoring in last weeks game I'll predict an 8 point win !

Agree with you there peile, good weather and good football in January, what more do yo need.

Bigger stand in newbridge,as peile takes up a lot a space!!!!!!!

He had a friend with him the other day too,took up half the stand.Mouthin off at macgeeney the 2 of them!

Was wondering were all the noise was coming from all right,didnt think peile had friends!!

he doesn't he just stands with people and calls them his friends.

before you know it he's sitting in your living room drinking a bottle of bud in his underwear and clipping his toenails.

ever see Cable Guy?

anyone here the team for sat

junior/seniors well beaten last nite by carlow i.t conceeded 4 goals a couple of soft ones by shorty!

naked-lilly wrote:

junior/seniors well beaten last nite by carlow i.t conceeded 4 goals a couple of soft ones by shorty!

connolly be delighted to hear/see that

peile wrote:

So far this has been the most enjoyable O'Byrne cup for me. Roll on Westmeath and given Geezers comments on scoring in last weeks game I'll predict an 8 point win !

I wish you luck, and hope you do win by 8 , but to honest WM are a dogged side , they will bring the game down to scrappy Affair , now thats not to say kildare wont win , but it will be tougher than you expect , is the game in the town of mullingar or at st loman's gaa ?? If so tell the kildare boys to lock the dressing rooms , and be careful not to stumble over the snoods left behind

Any sign of a team?

according to the kildare website the match is in cusack park, mullingar.
thought the team would be announced by now alright

probably is, just cos it isn't on the website... mind you, if Head hasn't it, it mightn't be. I wouldn't be too pushed about it at this stage of the year, won't be too many changes I'd imagine, Sully, Moolick, Dowling, Fitzer will all start, the same midfield, who'll come in for Lyons will be interesting

prob throw boltan in the corner,maybe??even scanlon and move hendy in!!!
be tough game but i fancy us to nick it,if kildare win,wheres the final???

The experiment of playing Bolton in the corner never really worked. Presumably McGrillen will come in and hopefully Foley will be fit. I think Conor Brophy is injured.

What's the story with Mac and Morgan Flats?