Intermediate Football Championship

[Lean Times]

Cappincur 0.14 Raheen 0.5
Great win for the club and noboday could have anticipated this after the comprehensive defeat to Doon in the first round. Raheen didnt do themselves any favours last night by adopting the extra man in defence as they severley struggled up front. Cappincur worked hard in fairness and some good passages of play saw them over the finish line. Huge credit must go to Cappincur management and in particular Gerry O'Flaherty the Galway native who has done wonders with this team. Although I cannot see us pushing for honours I am very proud of the club with a panel of just 20 players and after losing so many from last year. The thing is, we are still nowhere near the knockout stages. If we lose to both Shamrocks and Ballyfore, and Clonbullogue beat both Raheen and Birr as will be expected, then we will fail to progress. Still up against it.

[Lean Times]

Ballyfore 2.15 Birr 2.5
Raheen 1.13 Clonbullogue 1.6
Cappincur 2.11 Shamrocks 2.4

These results rule Clonbullogue out of making the knock out stages. If they lose to Birr on Sunday they themselves will play off with Kilclonfert in the Relegation final. The victor of Doon and Raheen on Sunday morning will go through while the loser will bow out. The winner of Ballyfore and Cappincur on Sunday morning will top the group. Still alot to play for.

[Hocker]

Sunday 26th August 2012
Final group matches.....

Intermediate Football Championship Group 1
Birr 2-6 V 0-16 Clonbullogue
Ballyfore 2-8 V 0-15 Cappincur
Raheen 2-5 V 0-10 Doon
Intermediate Football Championship Group 2
Rhode 1-14 V 2-8 Durrow
Bracknagh 2-16 V 1-9 Kilclonfert
St. Brigid's 1-8 V 2-9 Shannonbridge

Shannonbridge & Cappincur top the groups

Quarter finals as follows with 1st v 4th & 2nd v 3rd from each group!
St Brigids (2) v Shamrocks (3)
Rhode (3) v Ballyfore (2)
Shannonbridge (1) v Raheen (4)
Bracknagh (4) v Cappincur (1)

Makes for a very interesting end of championship - Doon & Durrow's exclusion from knock-outs is a surprise!
Shannonbridge gave a lacklustre St. Brigids a kick in the hole in Tullamore this morning, and i wouldn't be surprised to see both teams meet again in the final.
Rhode v Ballyfore will be a cracker in the 1/4 as will brigids v Shamrocks.
I would have the betting as follows:
St. Brigids 9/4f
Ballyfore 4/1
Shannobridge 4/1
Cappincur 5/1
10/1 bar

[theman]

Intermediate standard this year hasn't been the best but it has been an interesting championship so far with everyone still playin for places up until the last day - unlike the senior.
What a magnificent achievement for Cappincur not only to get to ye quarter finals and top the group, but to do it with so many players missing from last years winning team. After the first day getting hammered by doon that should of been the end of there championship but fair play they regrouped and put in one performances since. As a clonbullogue man I wish them the best and would love to see them win it.

As for the quarter finals. In my opinion there all nearly 50/50. But Il go with Croghan, cappincur, Ballyfore and shannonbridge to get through.

Relegation final - Birr v Kilconfert. Very poor year for both. The interest in Kilconfert has been poor this year with loss of players. Birr on the other hand can put it up to most intermediate teams - if they copped on. They have players with county level experience so I tip them to win.

[Impactsub]

Would go along with theman. The intermediate grade has been quiet poor. Brigids were bad against Shannonbridge but I think they are still the favourites to win it. Cappincur as said previously have built a bit of momentum and fair play to them but does it say a bit about the quality in this grade that they have came out of the group in 1st place even after the hammering they got from inconsistent Doon.

A Raheen man said coming out of their game with Cappincur, that they are only concentrating on junior hurling. I had expected alot more from them. Look its down to the quarter finals now. Its all to play for. They have the footballers to push on but they have to get their act together and play the football they can.

Brigids were the favourites from the outset. I'll stick with them even after their slight blip the last day.

[Lean Times]

I really am a happy man tonight! Whatever happens the rest of the year, that group of players have done themselves proud, especially after the first round result against Doon! Talk in the club was about a relegation final! That shows the extent of the turnaround in their season with remarkably tight resources! 19 togged out players today and every man pulled their weight in a great battling performance against Ballyfore! Well done lads!

On the championship as a whole, alot of surprises! Who would have said Doon would get knocked out after winning their first 3 matches! Fair play to Raheen. Shamrocks v Brigids will be a massive game as many expected this to be the final! Shannonbridge have to be considered up there as favourites aswell. Four very even quarter finals and very hard to call.

[offaly2012]

Rhode got another Win in the Intermediate they will give Ballyfore a good run

It will be a very interesting game again Shamrocks and St.brigids. both teams were bet and to be honest it is a hard game to call I seen croghan play and wasnt impressed. Shamrocks the same

[kano123]

quarter finals on a weekday again what a joke .......were down to play in gracefield at 6:45 the county board really are a joke get yer act together people have lives outside of the gaa especially during the week

[Lean Times]

Bracknagh v Cappincur, Friday the 7th Septmber in Gracefield at 6.45pm. Scandalous. I can't speak for Bracknagh but I know Cappincur players who work in Dublin. Combined with Friday evening traffic, how are such players supposed to make Gracefield pitch for 6.15pm at the latest???

[timber]

Agree totally with lean times, it is scandalous. The bottom line is that no championship game should be fixed for a week night especially at this time of the year when games are having to be played an hour earlier. That means players have to be there an hour earlier. Complete stupidity and ignorance by the county board fixtures people again.

The county board should be trying to hold onto players that are working outside the county and facilitate them. Instead they are just causing alot of grief for players trying to get off work early and the end result of that is players will just pack it in eventually. We have seen that with some of the clubs already or are now struggling for numbers.

If there is anybody on here that is anyway connected or has any contact with county board members then let them know this is a major issue that has to be sorted.

[kano123]

Agree totally with lean times, it is scandalous. The bottom line is that no championship game should be fixed for a week night especially at this time of the year when games are having to be played an hour earlier. That means players have to be there an hour earlier. Complete stupidity and ignorance by the county board fixtures people again.

The county board should be trying to hold onto players that are working outside the county and facilitate them. Instead they are just causing alot of grief for players trying to get off work early and the end result of that is players will just pack it in eventually. We have seen that with some of the clubs already or are now struggling for numbers.

If there is anybody on here that is anyway connected or has any contact with county board members then let them know this is a major issue that has to be sorted.

agree totally whatever about a friday lads shamrocks v St Brigids is fixed for thursday 6th at 6:45 in Gracefield I know of at least 5 starting players on the shamrocks team that work in dublin which will have to leave work early to play and whatever about dragging both teams to gracefield is just mind boggling some heads need to change in the county board it's getting beyond a joke at this stage

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Hello lads, first of all Tommy Byrne has to look after his home club with a couple of big games, secondly, if a ladis travellin from Dublin, its a little bit easier to get to gracefield, but no, its scandalous. Just running off the auld games now at this stage.

[bracknaghboy]

Couldn't agree more lads. We're into month 5 of the championship and now that we are finally at the business of things and we start running off the knockout games at 6:45 on week day nights. Its shocking. Why can't these games be played this Saturday and Sunday?

[The_heen]

It's joke we're down to play Shannonbridge in Tubber Friday at 6:45 . Cant see no reasons why all the q/f are not on Saturday or Sunday they need to start thinking about the players. No just run games off

[fatlad]

Are there any official odds for the Intermediate Football Quarter Finals. If so can someone post them and where they are available, 4 very close games in prospect, well worth a flutter.