Leinster Minor Football final

[HairyHole]

I see Laois beat the jacks by 3-08 to 1-07 last night in the other semi .Was that a bit of a suprise? I'd rather be playing Laois than Dublin. They can't be too bad if they beat Dublin by 7 points. What sort of chance do we have on Sunday do you reckon ? It would be a great boast for the county if they won the Leinster and weny on to the semi's at least.

[Lone Shark]

There wouldn't have been perceived to have been much between Leix and the Dubs last week. Dublin started the minor League very well, but faded, while Leix weren't particularly impressive, in no small part due to a lot of their players being tied up playing with Knockbeg in the colleges.

In the league game between these sides if memory serves (I missed it due to it being on in Portarlington midweek) Offaly won by a point after Ken Casey scored all bar a point or two. Again, Laois would have had more lads missing than us, but it is fair to say that Offaly have come on a long way since the spring.

With all due respect to our lads, I'd say it's something along the lines of 8/13 Laois, 13/2 Draw and 7/4 Offaly. Well winnable, but maybe two point outsiders all the same.

Huge job for the full back line here. The Laois full forward line of O'Shea, Delaney and Carroll racked up 3-6 of the 3-8 against Dublin, with Carroll in particular going to town - 2-4 himself and a couple of assists. In addition they have a guy called Sean Ramsbottom who scored freely for Knockbeg throughout the year at FF, including 1-1 in the final, and he was only a sub the last day in Carlow. So certainly no shortage of scoring.

Shane O'Neill is a fine midfielder, but I was very impressed with the performance of Connor in Mullingar against Meath, so hopefully Connor will be able to at least break even with him, and allow whoever is beside him, probably Brady to do his thing and attack.

The battle between Casey and Paddy Fleming will be huge - the St. Joseph's lad is a very capable player, and obviously enough if he keeps Casey under wraps it'll be Offaly's main source of scores shut down - however I was surprised and impressed by how many lads shared the scores around against Meath. I know it was basically all a point each, but still there were seven other scorers, so hopefully there should be no fear for the likes of Flannery, Mulhall, Brady, Darby etc if they get their chance.

I'm looking forward to it - certainly this team has proved that they are great battlers, and that they'll keep going to the death and leave it all out on the pitch. God willing that'll be enough for another one point win!

[laoisgaa]

Offaly Minors are in an All-Ireland Quarter-Final regardless of the outcome this Sunday:

Not too sure what provinces face each other this year but last year the pairings were

Quarter-Finals
Leinster Champions V Munster Runners-Up
Munster Champions V Leinster Runners-Up
Ulster Champions V Connaught Runners-Up
Connaught Champions V Ulster Runners-Up

Semi-Finals
Leinster Champ/Munster Runners-Up V Munster Champs/Leinster Runner Up
Ulster Champ/Connacht Runners-Up V Connacht Champ/Ulster Runner Up

[Lone Shark]

Pretty sure it'll be Leinster/Ulster this year.

So the winners will play Down, and the losers play Armagh. To be honest I'd love to see Offaly win a Leinster title, but I suspect the Armagh quarter would be more winnable. Down lost by a point with a heap of lads out injured having had to play twice in the eight days run up to the Ulster final. Down schools were greatly improved in the McRory cup this year as well.

Never mind that though. Leinster title there to be won first.

[laoisgaa]

After Laois the next county I always wanted to see winning a Leinster Minor would have been Offaly. Always felt an underage title was deserving in the Faithful County. Sorry to disappoint ye but i'm full sure that Laois will win on Sunday with one little thing niggling in my mind and that is what difference will Croke Park make to the lads involved? Laois have a few experienced lads available with Croker experience. Don't want to sound patrionising here but have any of the Offaly lads got Croker experience after mini sevens?

[mykneehurts]

I know for a fact that the only time our very own Minor was on the Croke Park pitch in the recent past was for the U2 gig!

[Lone Shark]

U2?????

Poor Minor - So young and yet so old......

[Hyper]

From what I heard the down minor team are suppose to be exceptional. They beat the minors the week before the strike by 25pts or so, food for thought!

[Lone Shark]

The Down team are supposed to be quite impressive all right - though hype in the county went through the roof when they beat a strong Tyrone team in the Ulster quarter final - since then they've been a lot more moderate. The only scraped by a very average Cavan team after a replay in the semi, and lost by a point to Armagh in the final - who you wouldn't traditionally associate with being good at minor level, but I believe it's a seriously big and hard hitting Armagh team, huge lads all along the spine right up to Ronan Clarke's younger brother at FF, apparently a carbon copy of the sibling.

Down were supposed to have been missing five starters for the semi-final replay and final though - so possibly they have a lot more in them all right.

Hard to imagine Offaly losing to them by 25 though all the same.

[Ron]

I won't be able to make this one, a wedding to attend in Rebel Country, so I won't even get the dodgy radio 3 commentary!

Make yourselves heard, with a bit of luck the year could be savlaged!

It should be a good day with a packed house and a close game in prospect for the seniors too.

1989 since we've won a Leinster title at minor level from what I can make out, long overdue!

[laoisgaa]

As stated Above
Ulster V Connaught
Leinster V Munster

Confirmed to me from Croke Park today

[Ron]

Is that better or worse I wonder?
I was at the Munster final and I saw the second half of the minor game, some wonderful open play to be seen by both teams, Cork just edged it, they had the rub of the green. It will make for a good game whoever we play. Is there any dates fixed for these games yet?