Limerick IT will play NUI Galway in tomorrow’s Fitzgibbon cup final after they both came through todays semi finals. If you’re not near Carlow catch the game live on TG4.
In the Ryan Cup IT Tralee will play UUJ in the final and in the Fergal Maher cup IT Tallaght will play Kings Inn.
In a surprising and quite interesting move it appears that the Division 2 league champions will after all get a chance to playoff for a spot in Division 1 next year when the league is re-structured.
Instead of the current format of A and B groups in each division, next year will see 4 regular divisions of 8-9 teams each. Division 1 will have 9 teams. 8 of those will be the the top 4 in the current divisions 1A and 1B. The remaining place was originally scheduled for a playoff between the two 5th place teams in each group but now it seems that the Division 2 champions will get to battle in that playoff for the final spot.
So 3 and possibly even 4 teams from the existing Division 1 will be relegated to the new Division 2. As it stands it would seem that Down, Antrim and probably Dublin will get relegated and maybe Wexford or Offaly will end up playing the Division 2 champions. Wicklow are setting the early pace in division 2 but it’s very competitive and the winner is likely to come from Wicklow, Laois, Kildare or Westmeath.
The infamous
YouTube seems to be the only site out there with free video clips of hurling and there are a lot of clips on it. To find what you’re looking for just search for “hurling” and if you want county specific clips just add your county name e.g. “hurling kilkenny”. It’s an awful website in terms of design and usability but when it’s so popular and gets bought for billions and it doesn’t have any serious competitors what can you do!
Here’s one of last years All-Ireland final between Kilkenny and Cork.
Dublin
UCD have opted out of the Senior Hurling Championship for the second straight year having won it in 2005.
Regional teams made up of junior and intermediate clubs have been entered in the championship this year (2 north and 2 south).
Wexford
Midfielder Tomas Mahon has apparently left the hurling panel to join the new Wexford League of Ireland soccer team Wexford Youths.
Clare
A big injury list has been added to the existing problems of the hurling panel. Up to 8 players are on the list including Frank Lohan, Gerry O’Grady and Barry Nugent.
Tipperary
Following on from David Kennedy’s transfer to play with Kildare it now seems that Eoin Brislane is heading to play with Meath, pending some final decisions.
Limerick
A couple of players suffered injuries during the weekend loss to Galway. Brian Geary, Denis Moloney and Donal O’Grady will all be recieving treament ahead of Limericks next outing in Kilkenny on Sunday week.
Galway
Iarla Tannion in on crutches after picking up an injury in the league victory over Limerick. This also affects Limerick IT who he plays for because he now misses the weekends Fitzgibbon clash with UL.
All the 3rd level colleges finals are being held this weekend in
IT Carlow. They have put together a nice little website down there,
http://fitzgibbon.itcarlow.ie/, that has plenty of information and particularly history and roll of honour for the Fitzgibbon.
The poll running here shows UL and Limerick IT getting the most votes and, surprisingly in my view, UL actually in the lead. I’d pick Limerick IT to win it out. Then again my predictions for the weekend league action weren’t exactly spot on!
The 3 hurling games that were cancelled because of the weather on Sunday last have been re-fixed as follows
Waterford v Cork, Walsh Park, Saturday March 10th 2.30pm
Carlow v Meath, Dr. Cullen Park, Saturday Match 10th 1.00pm
Antrim v Dublin, Casement Park, Wednesday March 28th 7pm
The Antrim Dublin game will now be played under lights on a Wednesday night in Belfast. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes and what kind of attendance the game gets.
Big game on this Saturday now between Waterford and Cork. Makes for a busy Saturday with the 3rd level colleges finals on aswell.
The updated league tables are now available on the
league-tables page. All 3 divisions are there. I’ve moved this page into the navigation at the top of the page so it’s easily accessible.
A complete reversal of results from round 1 in Division 2A. Laois hammered Derry first time out but today they were brought crashing down to earth in Wicklow, as the garden county won by a goal, and Derry had a comfortable win over Armagh. Laois would have been favourites in this division but Wicklow are now top of the table with 2 wins from 2. The other game between Carlow and Meath was another victim of the weather.
In 2B Mayo had a great win over Kerry coming from behind at half time with a storming second half. Westmeath and Kildare shared the spoils in a high scoring game that leaves Kildare top of the table for now.
In division 3 Tyrone were the highest scores of the day as they notched 2-23 in a hammering of Cavan and Louth, Leitrim and Roscommon all notched wins.
The weather played havoc with the 2nd round of the hurling league as Waterford v Cork and Antrim v Dublin were called off. Elsewhere there were plenty of surprise results as Tipperary and Wexford picked up away wins.
Division 1A
Clare 1-10 Wexford 1-12
Offaly 4-18 Down 1-11
Division 1B
Kilkenny 2-13 Tipperary 3-13
Limerick 1-9 Galway 0-17
Tipperary overcame recent history to take their first win over Kilkenny in 4 years. With Danny O’Hanlon and Paul Kelly causing all sorts of problems in attack, Tipp opened up a 10 point lead and then just held off a late Kilkenny charge.
Galway maintained their 100% start in a scrappy game in Limerick thanks largely to their full forward line with Eugene Cloonan contributing 9 points.
Wexford totally upped their form from round 1 and no doubt helped by the unrest in the Clare camp they got an unexpected win thanks to a bunch of late points. Offaly as expected were way too good for Down.
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