Terrible game, Boland was some shambles of a ref. I appreciate that he gave terrible decisions against both teams at times but the penalty decision was a massive slice of luck for Clara & it was incredibly soft!!!
But despite my feeling that Shamrocks were the better team man for man, I have to acknowledge Clara's tactics for the day, which were pretty much perfect...while Shamrocks spent too much time moving players around & never really had any shape to their side!!! Some of Clara's tactics were completely cynical...with an awful lot of hitting off the ball, but it worked very well for them as too many Shamrock lads didn't want to know about it after they got a few slaps!!!
It was no where near the best game of the year, as there was far too many unforced errors & there was very little in the way of good football played!!! Yes it was exciting...but it would have been hard to have picked out too many top class performers from the game!!!
As for Derek Molloy for the county....going in to Sundays game I would have said he should definately should be in there, then again I'd put him on my Offaly panel for this year as well....but after Sundays performance I have my doubts!!! He didn't seem to cope well with the attention the Clara backs paid him & while he did kick a brilliant point from under the stand in the 2nd half....over all he never really threatened the Clara defence!!! I'm fairly sure he'll get called in to the county panel but will probably struggle to make the starting 15.
Slan!!!
Clara /Shamrocks
Yes Shamrocks did far too much messing with their team, too many changes. Neville Coughlan was never going to cast his infuence from Full back. Silly move because they have plenty of players that would have filled that role.
Boland for me and many of the neutrals that ive spoken to was terrible although i didnt see any "slaps" off the ball, just alot of jersey pulling but nothing else really.
The Clara man should have got the line for the nasty and dangerous knee into the face of the shamrocks player who had just won a free just below the stand.
Brady got away with a clear play of the ball off the ground and clara even got a score off that and the corner back clearly picked the ball clean off the ground in the square aswell.
Boland refereed a number of our games earlier in the year and he was brutal in them aswell. At least our games were Junior league and not senior county semi final with every decision been vital.
Boland for me and many of the neutrals that ive spoken to was terrible although i didnt see any "slaps" off the ball, just alot of jersey pulling but nothing else really.
The Clara man should have got the line for the nasty and dangerous knee into the face of the shamrocks player who had just won a free just below the stand.
Brady got away with a clear play of the ball off the ground and clara even got a score off that and the corner back clearly picked the ball clean off the ground in the square aswell.
Boland refereed a number of our games earlier in the year and he was brutal in them aswell. At least our games were Junior league and not senior county semi final with every decision been vital.