This might be useful, the next time you're in O'Connor Park

[Bord na Mona man]

http://www.thegaastore.com/view_product ... s&id=848#

[turk]

"take down that umbrella!!!"

[oscar]

Can it be laced with poison and used to kill unruly opposing supporters?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Markov

[True Red]

Memories come flooding back of a woeful wet day in Croke Park in August 1997 and sitting in the "new" Cusack stand while Offaly are playing Mayo in the All Ireland Semi-Final(hard to believe we were once in AI semi in these calamitous times i know).

Anyway some bright spark decides to open up a brolly the size of an aeroplane and I watch in horror as the oul man becomes enraged(offaly were gettin beaten) with this genius and utters the immortal lines
"take down that umbrella,arent we all gettin wet together"

With that Einstein decides to tip the umbrella back and shower everyone behind him.Needless to say the umbrella ended up on the sideline(we had quite good seats....) and yer man was lucky he didnt end up in hospital.

Anyway offaly lost,we got wet a bit more and yer man went home brollyless................

[Lone Shark]

I remember that day - horrible. Twas also the first time I sat in a stand (Cusack upper, tope deck, Hill 16 Corner) and watched birds flying below me. Well strange.

Back to the topic at hand - umbrellas should be barred. Every ground has a bit of cover somewhere, and if you get there early enough you'll get into it. No excuse for blocking some other poor soul's view.

[turk]

i was in bangkok for that game.
i walked about like a buffoon looking for an "irish bar" that would be showing the game but failed to find anything. on the way back to where i was staying it pissed rain with a big monsoon, so at least i got to get a bit of rain, just like the lads at the match.

well i didn't miss much anyways

[Bord na Mona man]

I was in the Lower Cusack for that match, about one row back from where the giant drops from the stand roof were landing on the people below.
I went up on Crane Slammon's hired bus that day, it was stopped in Enfield and impounded by the guards for not being taxed since 1990.

[oscar]

At least you weren't on the bus stopped by the guards on the way to a match that had its own bar and lads sitting on barstools

[the bare biffo]

Why the feck was'nt James Grennan on from the start ?

[True Red]

in fairness lyons couldnt have changed the team which started the leinster final.
Great side that was.Although how Larry Carroll got by at all is beyond me.he always seemed to be under pressure.

[The Biff]

I watched that '97 match somewhere in the Cusack too. All I can remember now was the rain, and how poor Mayo were too. Think of what Maurice Fitz would have done to Offaly if we'd reached the final. Think of it if he happened to be marked by Larry Carroll at any stage.

Moveing swiftly along, I saw that Umbrella on the GAA Store site. I think it is the only 3-colour version available for any of the counties listed. I then went to check what the Carlow version looks like, to find ...... none for Carlow. Anyway, they should never be allowed to be used where there is a decent crowd.

[Bord na Mona man]

Think of what Maurice Fitz would have done to Offaly if we'd reached the final. Think of it if he happened to be marked by Larry Carroll at any stage.

Carroll would have marked him out of it!
Though Cathal Daly would most likely have done a man-marking job on Maurice. Remember Mayo put their slowest defender Pat Holmes on Fitzgerald in the final and he was eaten alive. If they had put Kenneth Mortimer on him, who was outstanding that year, then they would have seriously reduced Kerry's scoring threat. Mayo absolutely blew it that year, letting Fitzgerald run amok and Ciaran McDonald missing 20 metre frees in front of posts.

Offaly had a good chance of winning the All Ireland that year...and probably going down as the most unlikely winners of all time. The team were on a roll and it was only in subsequent years that the confidence of the side started to wilt and we got into a rut of losing matches to poorer teams than us.

[Lone Shark]

In hindsight, much like Ireland in Euro '88, what seemed great at the time because of the famine that preceded it was in fact a great missed opportunity. On a dry day we definitely could have taken that Mayo team - for a forward line to go from scoring 3-17 to 0-8 says it all. And that Kerry team is widely recognised as one of the worst to have won an All Ireland - they only scraped past Cavan in the semi, and won the final with a largely one man display.

And certainly, in the form he was in back then, you'd have given Froggy as good a chance as any corner back in the country of keeping Maurice relatively quiet.

And when you think how close we came to losing to Westmeath in Tullamore in the first round .....

[Bord na Mona man]

And when you think how close we came to losing to Westmeath in Tullamore in the first round .....

I suppose the lesson Westmeath taught us in Tullamore was the value of a good free-taker.
Claffey, Brady etc missed some total howlers with their close-in free attempts. 20 metre frees going wide, hitting the post etc. Ciaran McManus wasn't hitting the target with the long range ones.

Thomas Cleary scored 7 of Wastemeath's 8 points total from frees.
No WH forward scored from play, yet they nearly beat us.
For the replay David Reynolds was brought in and he stuck over 6 points from dead balls, which was probably the biggest deciding factor on the result.

Bizarrely Tommy Lyons never learned from that experience. Dublin's exit to Armagh in 2002 owed a lot to not having a proper freetaker on the team. Someone who would have stuck over the type of chance that Ray Cosgrove missed to get a draw.

[Rynaghs Biffo]

I was on the hill that day, i was only a gasun, surrounded by tall mayo feckers everywhere with their umbrellas. saw more of the game on the sunday game that night!! wasnt that the day diana had the car crash??

but back to football, imagine if we did get to AI final, jaysus we'd be killed. the leinster final was by far the best game ive ever seen in both football or hurling, but in fairness, it was a once off. offaly were flying but really got meath on a bad day!! but what memories....mmm....