Junior Football Championship

[Harps Man]

looks like theres going to be some very good games in the quater finals,group 1 winners wont be known till next weekend,with ferbane, clonmore harps, killeigh and edenderry all level on points,clonmore play ferbane in clonmore next friday and killeigh vs edenderry in killeigh the same eve,very hard to call the winners from the group.
group 2 has k/k on top at the moment,but clara could take that if the beat daingean next friday,if daingean win it'll move them into 3rd and put tullamore 4th,clara 2nd and k/k stay top.
all in all it should make for a good run into the finals with 1st from each group playing 4th and 2nd playing 3rd.for me its to close to even call whose going to make the semi's never mind the final.

[Hesnoaveragejoe]

Getting to the business end now. If I was a betting man I would avoid group 1 as I can see the winner coming from group 2. Looks like it will be K/K, Clara, Tullamore and Daingean in the Quarters and with Daingean showing no consistency coupled with the fact they tend to choke on the big day I will rule them out. Clara and Tulamores 2nd teams so id probably go for K/K if they can keep players focused on the big ball in september.

[Ocment78]

How will grace field giving walk overs be fair on a couple of teams in group 2. Leaves ballycommon with a near impossible task to qualify. Pity to see, one of the better footballing sides this year.tullamore to qualify at their expense following a controversail refereeing mistake during the match when he couldn't get the score right.

K/k very strong and

[Lean Times]

Q/F's:

Killeigh v Tullamore
K/K v Edenderry


Im not sure about the other two q/f's as Ferbane and Clonmore finished equal on points after drawing tonight, but Shamrocks gave Ferbane a walkover in the group stages so the two can't be separated on score difference. Does anybody know if a playoff will be required between Ferbane and Clonmore to decide who comes 2nd and 3rd? Clara and Daingean await the two whichever way they are separated.

[Harps Man]

never heard anything about a possible playoff,on the table it has ferbane ahead of clonmore on score diff,never heard that about score diff not been allowed if 1 team has had a walkover,would make for an interesting game if it did go to a playoff

[High School Musical]

Impressive win from Daingean the other night against Clara.
Clara had already secured 2nd spot in the group prior to throw-in, but nevertheless Daingean quietly went about their business and really put them to the sword in the 2nd half. Daingean played with the benefit of the breeze in the first half, but made particularly tough work of it at times. A half-time lead of 0-7 to 0-3 was a reasonably fair reflection of how the first half panned out, but many felt that this would not be sufficient enough lead playing into the wind in the 2nd half. The 2nd half itself, however, was an entirely different affair. Daingean pretty much bossed this from start to finish. Bringing out an extra midfielder they started to control the possession stakes immediately. Clara didn’t react to this and Daingean had soon tacked on a couple more points as things started to slip away from Clara. A goal almost midway through the half killed off the contest and Daingean eased comfortably to victory from here, winning on a scoreline of 1-14 to 0-5. Both of these teams tend to blow very hot & cold and its not beyond the realms of possibility that if they met further down the line that the result could be reversed. This championship, as with most others, will really come to life now that we’ve reached the knockout stages, and there’s still about 5 teams who could realistically fancy their chances of glory this year.

Does anyone know if the final positions in the other group have been confirmed or not?
Ferbane and Clonmore are tied on points, but Ferbane have been placed ahead of Clonmore based on score difference, although this may not be the case due to the withdrawal of Shamrocks, considering that only one of these teams had played Shamrocks in the group stages.
Is a play-off required?
Currently the q-finals would be Ferbane v Daingean & Clara v Clonmore Harps.

[Lean Times]

Play Off - Sunday 2nd September

Tullamore Court Hotel Junior A Football Championship Playoff
Clonmore Harps v Ferbane, Ballycommon, N Cooney 6.00 pm
(extra time if necessary)

[Harps Man]

fair play to ye leantimes,ye were spot on!

[Lone Shark]

The odd thing about this playoff is that while they had to do it by rule, firstly Ferbane would have finished second no matter what margin they won by - and second of all, there is a case to be made for saying that you'd be better off losing and playing Clara. They haven't been as good in the second half of the season, presumably because they lost players to senior, and their score difference would also suggest that they possibly aren't the second best team in the group.

That's not to say that they would or wouldn't be favourites against either Ferbane or Clonmore, but right now Daingean looks like the tougher draw.

It could all be moot if Kilcormac/Killoughey don't beat Belmont on Saturday in the hurling. If there was an upset there, they'd be able to concentrate on the football and I'd say they'd walk this competition if they did that.

[Lean Times]

The odd thing about this playoff is that while they had to do it by rule, firstly Ferbane would have finished second no matter what margin they won by - and second of all, there is a case to be made for saying that you'd be better off losing and playing Clara. They haven't been as good in the second half of the season, presumably because they lost players to senior, and their score difference would also suggest that they possibly aren't the second best team in the group.

That's not to say that they would or wouldn't be favourites against either Ferbane or Clonmore, but right now Daingean looks like the tougher draw.

It could all be moot if Kilcormac/Killoughey don't beat Belmont on Saturday in the hurling. If there was an upset there, they'd be able to concentrate on the football and I'd say they'd walk this competition if they did that.

I would see it a bit differently. Over the last couple of years, Clonmore have had the upperhand on Daingean and at this stage have some what of a psycholgical edge over them. Daingean lost twice to them 2 years ago, once being in the semi final when CVlonmore went onto win it. I would say Clonmore would much prefer Daingean to Clara and I know Daingean would much prefer Ferbane than Clonmore. Daingean have been very hot and cold this year and seem to be brittle since last years final despair.

[Ocment78]

Ballycommon were the second best team in group b this year. Strange to say seeing they finished fifth. They lost out by a point to daingean in the opening round with a weakened team, drew with tullamore even though they scored more than them ,poor refereeing decision. They then drew with Clara having played them off the field but were soundly beat by k/k. Then ran up a cricket score v ballycumber. Very unlucky not to progress but could be a force next year.

K/k to win the junior easily if they apply themselves to it, if not fear bane or the harps

[DAF]

Clonmore Harps 2-10
Ferbane 1-7

6 points a piece at half time but Clonmore took over in the second half.Clonmore play Daingean in the quarter finals.

[Lean Times]

K/K hammered Edenderry in the first of the quarter finals. They seem to be going very well this year as opposed to last year. Will be very hard beat. No other team putting up similar scores

[DAF]

Semi Final Draw

Kilcormac/Killoughey vs Daingean/Clonmore Harps
Clara/Ferbane vs Tullamore

I think the remaining clubs may be hoping K/K progress in the hurling and it distracts them from the football because apart from that I would say they will win the championship .The hurlers must have been allowed to play football this year because last years when they played Daingean they looked like they hadn't seen a football in months

[DAF]

Daingean 0-8
Clonmore Harps 0-7

Daingean scraped through with a last minute point which Clonmore handed to them after conceding possession.Jimmy Foy got injured mid way through the first half and was a big loss for Clonmore.Daingean play K/K now so lets hope K/K win the hurling semi next week