Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Competitions

[wingback]

Its neither brick Walsh or Martin Walsh playing, its Michael Walsh from gowran in KK, Martin walsh is from tullaroan and as far as i know he finished in UL last year!

[old yellar]

Yeah I think you and me are on the right track. He was Kk minor fullback about 2 years ago, good hurler. Was a good performer for Gowran this year when the reached the semi in intermediate. Is tommys brother Niall?

[Plain of the Herbs]

AFAIK Tommy's brother is Martin. He might even be Máirtín - Irish names seem to run in the family. Tommy is Tomás, while Pádraig was a Kilkenny Minor last year. Máirtín was a County Minor in 2006.
Niall Walsh (Slieverue) rings a bell.

Is tommys brother Niall?

[old yellar]

Spot on!

[Lone Shark]

Of the ten decent Fitzgibbon teams (eight quarter finalists plus WIT & DIT) there were a total of 150 starters in their most recent games - distributed as follows.

Kilkenny 29
Clare 22
Cork 20
Galway 18
Tipperary 16
Limerick 11
Dublin 9
Wexford 7
Offaly 6
Waterford 5
Laois 4
Carlow 2
Mayo 1

It should be noted here that both Offaly, Waterford and Wexford had disproportionate numbers hurling for weaker colleges within that ten - if we take the elite colleges to be the four semi finalists, UCD who lost narrowly to UL and NUIG who were champions last year, these three counties had one starter each between those six teams. (Albeit Waterford would have had two if Kevin Moran didn't pull out of UCC's match due to involvement with De la Salle).

Contrast that with Cork, Tipp, Limerick and Clare who had the vast majority of their starters in these six colleges, while Kilkenny still had plenty of elites, albeit they also had 8 St Pats starters and 5 each for DIT and WIT.

There's no silver lining to this cloud as far as I can see.

[durra1]

Interesting to look at the shortlist for Fitzgibbon Team of the Century for a competition run by the 'Irish' Daily Mail.

Since the competition began in 1912 only one Offaly man, Eamonn Bulfin who captained the 1915 UCD team was the only man to make the shortlist.

Very interesting lad the same fella – says here he was a Birrman who lives his later life in Derrinlough which I think is on the Birr to Cloghan road.

http://www.irishabroad.com/news/irishpo ... rising.asp

Anyway it struck me that this was quite a low return from a list of 70 candidates notwithstanding the fact that we only came to prominence in the 1980s. Having said that, the only man I can think of who I would have shortlisted would have been Johnny Pilkington who was a crucial man in UCDs march to the title in 1993.

Brendan Murphy may have been worth an honourable mention due to longevity alone.

It got me thinking – why is it we have not had more representation / participation at this level?

Any thoughts??

Goalkeepers
Tommy Daly UCD Clare/Dublin
Ger Cotter UCC Cork
Damien Young WIT Tipperary
Ray Brennan UCD Wexford
John O'Donoghue UCC Tipperary

Backs
Seán Silke Maynooth Galway
Seán Stack Maynooth Clare
Ronan Curran CIT Cork
Liam Shalloe UCC Waterford
John Grainger UCC Cork
John O'Connor UCC Wexford
Dinny Barry-Murphy UCC Cork
Michael Cahill UCC Tipperary
Ted Carroll UCD Kilkenny
Dan O'Neill UCD Kilkenny
John Ryan UCD Limerick/Dublin
Niall McInerney UCG Clare/Galway
Conor Hayes UCG Galway
John Lee NUIG Galway
Stephen Lucey UCD Limerick
John Walsh DIT Laois
Cyril Duggan TCD Laois
Jackie Tyrrell CIT/LIT Kilkenny
Conor O'Mahony LIT Tipperary
Eamonn Corcoran WIT Tipperary
J. J. Delaney WIT Kilkenny
Michael 'Brick' Walsh WIT Waterford
Seán McMahon UL Clare
Séamus Hickey UL Limerick
John Devane UL Tipperary
Des Cormican QUB Antrim
Brian Lohan UL Clare
Paul Curran WIT Tipperary
John Tennyson UCC Kilkenny
Ken Coogan WIT Kilkenny

Midfielders
Joe Salmon UCG Galway
Iggy Clarke Maynooth Galway
Jim Young UCC Cork
Con Lucey UCC Cork
Paul O'Connor UCC Cork
Eddie Enright UCC Tipperary
Jimmy Cooney UCD Tipperary
Des Dillon UCD Clare/Dublin
Jim Hurley UCC Cork
Dick Stokes UCD Limerick

Forwards
Joe Connolly UCG Galway
James O'Connor UCG Clare
Eoin Kelly LIT Tipperary
Joe Canning LIT Galway
Andy Maloney WIT Waterford/Tipperary
Henry Shefflin WIT Kilkenny
Pat Kavanagh UCD Kilkenny
P. J. Delaney WIT Kilkenny
Andrew O'Shaughnessy GMIT Galway
Colm O'Neill UCC/QUB Cork
Henry Downey QUB Derry
Paddy O'Donovan UCC Cork
Nicky English UCC Tipperary
John Enright UCC Tipperary
Joe Deane UCC Cork
John O'Halloran UCC Cork
Eamon Bulfin UCD Offaly
Jim Byrne UCD Wexford
Donie Nealon UCD Tipperary
Pat Henchy UCD Clare
Jack Ryan UCD Tipperary
Bill Loughnane UCD Clare/Dublin
Tony Loughnane UCD Clare
Matt Ruth UCD KIlkenny
Kevin Broderick AIT Galway
John Sheehan DCU Cork
Dick Troy UCC Cork
Neil McManus UUJ Antrim
Willie Hyland LIT Laois
James 'Cha' Fitzpatrick UCC/St. Pats Kilkenny

Breakdown of Nominations by Club/County - (Players who played for more than 1 club/county included twice)

Club
UCC 21
UCD 18
WIT 9
UCG/NUIG 6
LIT 5
UL 4
Maynooth/NUIM 3
QUB 3
CIT 2
DIT 1
TCD 1
DCU 1
UUJ 1
St. Pats Drumcondra 1
AIT 1
GMIT 1

County
Cork 15
Tipperary 14
Kilkenny 11
Clare 10
Galway 10
Dublin 4
Limerick 4
Wexford 3
Laois 3
Waterford 3
Antrim 2
Offaly 1
Derry 1

[durra1]

Apologies lads that link won’t paste into the post.

Google "An Irish Argentine in the Easter Rising - Irish Abroad"

It’s an interesting read although like everything on the net, I don’t know how much of it is fact.

Man apparently hoisted the flags in the GPO in 1916 ...

Turns out Pat Fluery won a Fitzgibbon with UCG in the seventies although I’ve no idea if he was a starter or a stand-out performer on that side. Anyone know?

[jimbob17]

The facts unfortunately are that Offaly has one of the worst attendances per head of capital at third level education. It was revealed about 3 years ago that OY was the worst in the country. this is obviously one reason for the low stat. another reason perhaps is that when Offalians do go to 3rd level, many of them choose AIT in athlone who dont compete in fitzgibbon and enter the second tier competition.

However, my belief is that only perhaps 12/14 of any offaly squad would make a Fitzgibbon team in any of the big 7 hurling universities/ IT's, UL LIT, CIT, UCC, NUIG, UCD, WIT. Many are not good enough to make the teams such are the quality of the teams. A lot of Offaly people dont get this. County senior players sit on the bench of many of these teams. I made a Fitzgibbon panel for a few years while in University and while we had a good team we were beaten in both a quarter final and semi final. From them two teams I was involved with, 6 players have All Ireland senior medals and 10 more played in an all ireland final. In fact 3 players who sat beside me on the bench have since played in All Ireland Senior finals and many have won provincial championship medals. Many fellas who are good enough to play county U21 in good hurling counties are not considered good enough to make a fitz panel in these 3rd level institutions. The same goes for Sigerson (football). Some county players often opt off a panel if they are not considered good enough to make a team. In fact, Offaly's hurling goalkeeper was not deemed good enough to make a Fitzgibbon team recently and pulled himself off the panel rather than be seen to not make the team and undermine himself in front of county management.

Any idea on what Offalians will feature for the various Colleges this year in Fitzgibbon and Sigerson competitions???

I know a few

Fitzgibbon
David Kenny NUIG



Sigerson
Anton Sullivan Athlone IT
Graham Guilfoyle??
Bernard Allen DCU

[True Red]

3 Edenderry players - Stephen Guing of Edenderry has played midfield for NUIG in their last 2 victories in that Connacht equivalent of the O'Byrne Cup.
Diarmuid Meleady played corner back last Sunday for AIT in their loss v Longford.
Sean Pender is also in DCU and all will most likely play Sigerson barring injury.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Durra,

Brilliant work on Eamon Bulfin. Your link worked fine for me.

I must admit I’d never heard of him but if half the information on that link is true then he’s a stand-out candidate for ‘greatest ever Offaly man’.

From the 1999 Handbook of Gaelic Games, Bulfin also won a Fitzy in 1911/12, the first year the Fitzy was competed for,

As for the lack of representation of Offaly hurlers on the list, Jimbob17 is, unfortunately, on right lines with the comment on the low University attendance record. Of the 1994-98 Offaly team, only Shane McGuckin and Johnny Pilkington attended third level. Of the 1980-86 team, again, very few attended third level, and only Pat Fleury (UCG) and Mick Kennedy (Maynooth) were in ‘Fitzgibbon’ Colleges. Padraig Horan, for example, went to Bolton Street, who didn’t compete in the Fitzgibbon. Did Joe Dooley go to Rathmines? Again, a non-Fitzgobbon college.

That 1999 publication lists Pat Fleury as hurling centre half-back for UCG in 1977. They beat Maynooth (who featured Seán Clarke of Kinnitty) in the Final.

Apologies lads that link won’t paste into the post.

Google "An Irish Argentine in the Easter Rising - Irish Abroad"

It’s an interesting read although like everything on the net, I don’t know how much of it is fact.

Man apparently hoisted the flags in the GPO in 1916 ...

Turns out Pat Fluery won a Fitzgibbon with UCG in the seventies although I’ve no idea if he was a starter or a stand-out performer on that side. Anyone know?

[alltheway]

Pat Fleury was captain of UCG Fitzgibbon team prior to their last success in 2009.

[durra1]

Interesting Jimbob17 – your thoughts all the more relevant from a man who did the time.

Aside from the low college attendance, I used think it was a winter thing that Offaly hurlers just didn’t enjoy training and games in the heavy going…traditional indifference to the League… open spaces and hard ground in the summer etc.

Birrs perennials kind of put paid to that theory.

My opinion is that it can’t be good for development of hurling in the county if we don’t have at least some reasonable participation at this level – if only having lads playing with lads from other counties with different styles and different outlook on how the game should be played.

I always thought in later years that more familiarity at this level might have taken the awe factor out of some of the KK players who doled out hidings to OY at underage.

If at the very least ,lads could say to themselves ‘I remember that lad in college and he was nothing special’ or ‘ that lad was pure useless with the women’ etc.