Club Football

[The Magpie]

Completely off topic here but can someone tell me what the 15 & 12 represents on the Clara crest ??

15th December (15 & 12) 1884 represents the date on which the Clara GAA club was founded, making it one of the older clubs in Ireland.

Thanks for that bit of background on Clara GAA magpie. I read somewhere that an M. H. White, a local businessman, was involved at that inaugural meeting.
I wonder could all clubs give the same details on their crest,, as provided by yourself.

M.H. White was a local businessman in Clara (his shopfront could still be seen in Main Street, Clara, up to a few years ago), but it was his Father, PJ White (owner of the same premises before him) that was involved in the early days of the GAA. I'm not sure if he was present in Thurles at the inaugural meeting, as history records those that were assigned responsibilities in the organization, rather than those in attendance.

However, PJ White was certainly a very prominent activist for Irish nationalism and the GAA. He was the first President of the Clara GAA club, was active in the organization of early hurling fixtures and represented the club at the GAA convention in 1887.

Some of PJ White's descendants still live in Clara today.

[ruletheroost]

Fixtures and dates out for all the semi finals.

Intersting to see Fergal Smyth ref the Tullamore v Durrow game. His son plays with Tullamore underage and he helps with coaching them. Surely a conflict of interest there.

Few dubious decisions in the Tullamore v Ballycommon game this year and even more so in the Tullamore v Edenderry semi final last year.

[Tmacmahon]

Tullamore v Durrow - Tullamore aet by 5

Edenderry v Bracknagh - Edenderry by 3

Ferbane v Rhode- Ferbane by 1

Shamrocks v ballycommon- Ballycommon by 5

Senior b

Clara v tubber - clara by 4
Clonbologue v Gracefield- clonbologue by 4
Cappincur v ballycumber - Cappincur by 6
Daingean v walsh Island - Daingean by 7

Intermediate

St brigids v St rynaghs- St brigids by 9

Tullamore v Ferbane- Tullamore by 2

Erin rovers v raheen - raheen by 5

Kk v ballinagar - ballinagar by 7

[SearingDrive]

Fixtures and dates out for all the semi finals.

Intersting to see Fergal Smyth ref the Tullamore v Durrow game. His son plays with Tullamore underage and he helps with coaching them. Surely a conflict of interest there.

Few dubious decisions in the Tullamore v Ballycommon game this year and even more so in the Tullamore v Edenderry semi final last year.

A strange decision, given his ties to Tullamore underage. The Executive must be happy with the appointment.

[SearingDrive]

15th December (15 & 12) 1884 represents the date on which the Clara GAA club was founded, making it one of the older clubs in Ireland.

Thanks for that bit of background on Clara GAA magpie. I read somewhere that an M. H. White, a local businessman, was involved at that inaugural meeting.
I wonder could all clubs give the same details on their crest,, as provided by yourself.

M.H. White was a local businessman in Clara (his shopfront could still be seen in Main Street, Clara, up to a few years ago), but it was his Father, PJ White (owner of the same premises before him) that was involved in the early days of the GAA. I'm not sure if he was present in Thurles at the inaugural meeting, as history records those that were assigned responsibilities in the organization, rather than those in attendance.

However, PJ White was certainly a very prominent activist for Irish nationalism and the GAA. He was the first President of the Clara GAA club, was active in the organization of early hurling fixtures and represented the club at the GAA convention in 1887.

Some of PJ White's descendants still live in Clara today.

Thanks for clearing up the involvement with the White family. I think the business only closed a few years ago.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Fixtures and dates out for all the semi finals.

Intersting to see Fergal Smyth ref the Tullamore v Durrow game. His son plays with Tullamore underage and he helps with coaching them. Surely a conflict of interest there.

Few dubious decisions in the Tullamore v Ballycommon game this year and even more so in the Tullamore v Edenderry semi final last year.

A strange decision, given his ties to Tullamore underage. The Executive must be happy with the appointment.

Would ya ever crawl into the hole youe came out of RTR? Whatever dubious decisions may come from Fergal, he's hardly likely to favour a team to ensure he keeps an U10 coaching job or whatever age he looks after.
Maybe its the fact that he's a Kilclonfert man first and foremost is the reason for your questioning him.
A decent referee and a decent bloke, and obviously CCC are happy and Duignan hardly too concerned I'd say.

Maybe in a few years if he was involved up to minor, but you have little to be worried about!

[Anonymous1]

Fixtures and dates out for all the semi finals.

Intersting to see Fergal Smyth ref the Tullamore v Durrow game. His son plays with Tullamore underage and he helps with coaching them. Surely a conflict of interest there.

Few dubious decisions in the Tullamore v Ballycommon game this year and even more so in the Tullamore v Edenderry semi final last year.

A strange decision, given his ties to Tullamore underage. The Executive must be happy with the appointment.

Would ya ever crawl into the hole youe came out of RTR? Whatever dubious decisions may come from Fergal, he's hardly likely to favour a team to ensure he keeps an U10 coaching job or whatever age he looks after.
Maybe its the fact that he's a Kilclonfert man first and foremost is the reason for your questioning him.
A decent referee and a decent bloke, and obviously CCC are happy and Duignan hardly too concerned I'd say.

Maybe in a few years if he was involved up to minor, but you have little to be worried about!

RTR is correct on this.

There should be zero conflicts of interest and there is clearly one here.

He shouldn't be reffing Tullamore games if for unconscious bias alone.

Let's say he gives Tullamore a favourable decision that costs Durrow the game, you can imagine what people will be saying after the game about bias so it's best to avoid any potential issues before they arise.

There's no reason he couldn't have reffed any of the other senior games.

[Buttons]

Well fergal has relatives living out in Durrow so yeah he probably shouldn’t ref. God the poor lad won’t get any games at all if we start going through everything, look he is going to ref it fair and square so let’s just leave it to him. He will have two linesmen to assist and umpires.

I am not sure why this is even getting discussed tbh

[Lone Shark]

To be honest I'd be inclined to side with RTR on this one, I think it would surely make more sense for Smyth to be given one of the other quarter-finals, and I find it strange that referees themselves don't step aside from some of these situations. That's not because they intend to be biased - far from it - but it's always possible that you'll find yourself in a situation where you're going to have to make a controversial, match-deciding call one way or another.

Let's say in this game, there's a dubious penalty call at the end of the game, Tullamore are two points up and it's a very close call as to whether Durrow get a penalty or not. Don't give the penalty, and people will say it's because he's an active volunteer and part of the Tullamore club. Give the penalty, and he'll have people he's coaching alongside and working with, feeling cranky that he cost them a championship. (I'm not saying they'd be right to feel that way, but we all know it would happen).

Any referee can get stuff wrong - to pick an obvious example that will be familiar to everyone on this board, let's think of Shane Hynes' decision not to give Offaly a free out at the end of the 2022 minor final against Tipp. I have no qualms in saying it was the wrong call, but I also made peace with it because Shane Hynes is a good referee and a decent guy, and he made an honest error, which could happen to anyone. Human error is part of sport, and part of life. But imagine Shane Hynes was an active coach of a Tipperary development squad at the time - there's no way I'd be able to be okay with it, and I'm sure most people would be the same.

Put it another way - I'm a member of St. Aidan's in Roscommon now, and active in the club. If I was a referee, I could referee any game not involving St. Aidan's. But there's no way I would take a big St. Brigid's game, because it's my wife's club, my brother in law is on the executive, my nephews play with them, and I'd be very friendly with a lot of people and players there. It's just not worth the grief to put myself in that position. And I don't know why Fergal wouldn't take the same line of thought here, and why the CCC don't just assign him to Edenderry vs Bracknagh (for example) instead.

[frankthetank]

What I’d like to know is, how is it fair and right that Tullamore can nominate OCP as their home venue in the group stage and then also get their Q-Final played there aswell.

This wouldn’t be such an issue except the County Board have clearly made a rule that Birr can’t hurl any matches in SBP. All their recent knockout games have been brought to OCP.

So clearly Birr and Tullamore are operating under different guidelines.

[ruletheroost]

To be honest I'd be inclined to side with RTR on this one, I think it would surely make more sense for Smyth to be given one of the other quarter-finals, and I find it strange that referees themselves don't step aside from some of these situations. That's not because they intend to be biased - far from it - but it's always possible that you'll find yourself in a situation where you're going to have to make a controversial, match-deciding call one way or another.

Let's say in this game, there's a dubious penalty call at the end of the game, Tullamore are two points up and it's a very close call as to whether Durrow get a penalty or not. Don't give the penalty, and people will say it's because he's an active volunteer and part of the Tullamore club. Give the penalty, and he'll have people he's coaching alongside and working with, feeling cranky that he cost them a championship. (I'm not saying they'd be right to feel that way, but we all know it would happen).

Any referee can get stuff wrong - to pick an obvious example that will be familiar to everyone on this board, let's think of Shane Hynes' decision not to give Offaly a free out at the end of the 2022 minor final against Tipp. I have no qualms in saying it was the wrong call, but I also made peace with it because Shane Hynes is a good referee and a decent guy, and he made an honest error, which could happen to anyone. Human error is part of sport, and part of life. But imagine Shane Hynes was an active coach of a Tipperary development squad at the time - there's no way I'd be able to be okay with it, and I'm sure most people would be the same.

Put it another way - I'm a member of St. Aidan's in Roscommon now, and active in the club. If I was a referee, I could referee any game not involving St. Aidan's. But there's no way I would take a big St. Brigid's game, because it's my wife's club, my brother in law is on the executive, my nephews play with them, and I'd be very friendly with a lot of people and players there. It's just not worth the grief to put myself in that position. And I don't know why Fergal wouldn't take the same line of thought here, and why the CCC don't just assign him to Edenderry vs Bracknagh (for example) instead.

Exactly my point. Why allow yourself to be put in that situation. Everyone has relations and friends in lots of clubs but if you are actively involved in a club and your kids are registered with that club you can’t be referring games that club are involved in. You’re just leaving yourself open if something does happen. I haven’t said Fergal is a bad ref or a bad person. Quite the opposite on both counts. But like Lone Shark said, he could have done any of the other games instead.

[Anonymous1]

I was interested to see one Niall McNamee running up and down the sideline at the Castleknock vs Raheny game.

That injury doesn’t look to be so bad after all…

[biffinbanner]

hard imagine he would be ready after being on crutches a few weeks ago?

[Anonymous1]

hard imagine he would be ready after being on crutches a few weeks ago?

Based on what I seen of him on Sunday I wouldn’t be shocked.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Tullamore v Durrow - Tullamore by 8

Edenderry v Bracknagh - Edenderry by 5 Edenderry ,

Ferbane v Rhode- Rhode by 3 Always will be Rhode in this one (until it isn't)

Shamrocks v ballycommon- Shamrocks by 4 Could be a shock here though if Shams take foot off as favs

Senior b

Clara v tubber - clara by 3 Clara got shock last day out and won't take this for granted as a result and will grind it out
Clonbologue v Gracefield- clonbologue by 4 Could go either way but Clonbullogue to have too much
Cappincur v walsh Island- Cappincur by 7 Cappincur favourites now and should win handy enough)
Daingean v - Ballycumber - Daingean by 4 (Ballycumber waiting all season for this one, but Daingean turn up and dont take anything for granted they should scrape it)

Intermediate

St brigids v St rynaghs- St brigids by 4 Will be a battle, Brigids going better than expected this year

Tullamore v Ferbane- Tullamore by 2 Impossible and just think Tullamore will have too much

Erin rovers v raheen - raheen by 5 Both teams on the slide, change of manager should help Raheen for no reason other than it usually does

Kk v ballinagar - ballinagar by 4 But the Ballinagar boys could be meeting KK at a time when KK will have an appetite for it and would be a disaster if Ballinagar lose here