SIX COUNTIES HAVE been relegated from Divisions 1, 2 and 3 of the Allianz Football League and now face the prospect of dropping down a tier for the 2016 campaign.
Ulster heavyweights Tyrone and Derry were the top-flight casualties, Leinster duo Westmeath and Kildare went down from Division 2 and another Leinster pair, Wexford and Louth, bid adieu in Division 3.
Here, we take a look at where it went wrong for the doomed sextet:
1. Tyrone
With boss Mickey Harte recovering from a surgical procedure, Tyrone’s relegation wasn’t confirmed until the final day, when a draw with Kerry confirmed their fate. But the Red Hands were always in trouble from the moment they suffered a seven-point defeat to Monaghan on the opening weekend.
Victory in Mayo had Harte’s men right back on track before draws with Derry and Dublin, the latter a dour affair at Croke Park. A narrow one-point defeat to Cork followed before Tyrone were demolished by Ulster champions Donegal, losing by ten points in Ballybofey. And so while Tyrone lost the same number of games (three) as Monaghan, Donegal, Mayo and Kerry, a record of just one win from seven games cost them dearly.
2. Derry
Brian McIver’s Derry salvaged some pride from their League campaign with a final day victory over Cork, who were already safely through to the semi-finals. But it’s that much talked about snoozefest with Dublin sent them down to Division 2, as the Oak Leafers scored just four points against the Sky Blues at Croke Park in a grim affair that left the doomsdayers crying out for change.
Derry managed to score just 2-60 in six games before registering 2-15 against Cork last Sunday. That chronic inability to score, coupled with a run of five defeats from seven matches, were the main reasons why they will play Division 2 football next year.
3. Westmeath
Tom Cribbin has had plenty to say about his Westmeath players following their drop to Division 3. Defeat to Roscommon last Sunday left Cribbin deeply frustrated and lamenting a lack of leadership from more senior players. Victory would have kept Westmeath up but they went down for a second successive year after losing five times in seven games.
Westmeath kicked off their campaign in style with a six-point victory over Laois before producing another creditable display against Galway, scoring 2-12 and losing by just a point. Victory over Kildare had Westmeath looking up the table and eyeing promotion but then the wheels came off with defeats against Meath, Down, Cavan and Roscommon. In those final four games, Westmeath scored just 1-36.
4. Kildare
Relegation to Division 3 just wasn’t in the script for Jason Ryan and Kildare after last year’s drop from the top flight. But it’s been an abysmal Spring for the Lilywhites, who conceded 7-100 in seven games, or an average of 1-14 per match. Kildare leaked 3-13 to Down and 3-12 to Galway but the concession of 0-24 against Roscommon was the most concerning statistic to emerge.
There were two encouraging victories over Cavan and Laois but not even that late Emmet Bolton goal that handed them a lifeline in the Laois game could rouse Kildare from their slumber. Ryan, a highly-rated coach, now faces the biggest test of his career to date as he attempts to lift spirits ahead of the championship.
5. Louth
Another season, another relegation for Louth. After dropping from Division 2 last year, the Wee County will now ply their trade in Division 4 next season. Sunday’s defeat to Limerick consigned Louth to the bottom tier but on paper at least, they’ll still fancy their chances of getting past Westmeath and Wexford to reach the Leinster semi-finals.
Louth lost five of their seven Division 3 games but it looked good for boss Colin Kelly when his charges bounced back from their opening day defeat to Fermanagh to register successive victories against Clare and Wexford. It was all downhill from there, however, as Louth leaked a massive 2-26 against Sligo and suffered further losses against Tipperary, Armagh and Limerick.
6. Wexford
Wexford’s fate was sealed before last Sunday’s visit to Tipperary but there was still enough from their second half performance against the Premier County to suggest that boss David Power might yet enjoy a productive summer. Wexford managed to arrest a series of second half calamities to come from eight points down after half-time against Tipp to win by three.
But relegation to Division 4 is hardly ideal championship preparation and while Power is working with a very young squad, his League tenure got off to a nightmare start when Wexford were trounced by 0-5 to 1-16 on the opening day. Armagh hit 2-13 against the Slaneysiders before Louth inflicted a third straight loss. Fortunes improved with a narrow win against Limerick but more heartbreak followed at the hands of Sligo and Fermanagh.
Second Captains RAGING!
He’ll be off the list of the Top Ten Irish sports star over this move :)
We all think the grass is greaner.. The lads imo made a huge mistake by jumping ship.. Ireland is a small place, apart from their part time tv gig what else do they expect to get
I think they are doing grand with the TV show, weekly podcasts, articles in the Irish times, Slate etc etc… I’m sure they could have more work but they aren’t doing badly considering it’s only been a year. Better than getting stale doing the same show forever.
Bodcast.
Good idea actually, he should do something like that from his own website. Get his old team mates in, a bit of punditry, etc. I’d certainly listen to it.
Remembering murf, mcdevitt, hick and of course ken burley at this time.
BOD is above this think he jumped the gun although if the money was as huge as it should be for his services fair play to him wish him the best. I think this move shows that he has a coachin gig lined up somewhere maybe Munster :-)
He could teach them a thing or two down there! :)
I don’t think many people training in radio or recent graduates from media courses could bring the same level of insight and credibility when talking about rugby as Brian O’Driscoll. In addition to playing at the top level he also has over 15 years of experience working with the media to some degree. Can’t understand how any young journalists could feel hard done by the best man for the job, getting the job.
More D4 nasal tones on newstalk.
He is actually from clontarf D.3 on the northside.
He’s from Clontarf
Yeah, at last
Hate that Pat….
Great news. A clean break would have been too much of an emotional blow for me to take.
If only we could get rid of McGuirk off of the RTE panel
I think he is a boring sod Mr goodie two shoes
Nobody really care what you think with your constant trolling comments , good God did you not go back to school today !
Hey troll..if you’ve nothing good to say keep your gob shut u gob s*ite!
Your on twitter with one follower that says it all u numb head
Cause I don’t use it you spa! What are you stalking me or something… Friggin creepy weirdo!
Not trolling here guys. I’m just genuinley sick to the teeth of hearing, reading and listening about this story. It’s worse than who shot JR!
Hey weirdo.. Still can’t believe you checked me out on twitter.. Freak! Next thing you’ll be asking for my number..
Im a huge BOD fan but this is just another slap in the face of people training to be radio presenters and journalists and trying to work their way to the top. Unsurprisingly its off the ball who have continued, if not mastered, this trend
Fair point, but i doubt that anybody straight out of college is going to be getting a slot presenting on off the ball anyway. Its a sports program so filling it with people who have been involved with sports at the top level makes sense to me.
No people aint gonna get in straight outta college, but why should you work hard knowing that the top jobs are just gonna be handed to retired sports stars with no experience or skills in radio/print?
It’s a masterstroke from off the ball. The whole world will be tuning in tonight to hear him. Who’s going to tune in to hear some guy straight out of collage ? It’s about ratings after all.
That is the nature of the beast. If it was a gardening slot it would be a top gardner brought in so why not the same for sports. Who are people more likely to listen to is what it comes down to.
I wud agree if he was a rugby pundit but this says he is new co-host so itl be similar to gizzy and parkinson
Off The Ball is a well established, and long running, popular show. Very few people, if any, would walk straight out of college and onto a presenter slot of a show that revolves around specialist subjects.
That shouldn’t mean that there’s no hope for people training to be radio presenters, just look at how far the Off The Ball & Second Captains lads have come from not being professional sports stars. They ground their axe for years and have made it relatively big. Perseverance is the name of the game. Simply put, a degree in something alone wont get you very far in many sectors.
Commercial broadcasting is about building audiences and advertising revenues. Unless they succeed at that they can’t employ anyone. Hence a sprinkling of star names across all the broadcast media.
College media graduates go into sh!tty gossip shows on Spin SW. Stuff for teenagers.
I think a sports-person on the same level and of the same calibre as O’Driscoll (not Drico) is the perfect choice for both OTB//Newstalk//The audience.
Please tell me it’s a direct replacement for Parkinson!
I think it’s probably a good thing he hasn’t gone straight to coaching. Very few manage the change over well and I think he may be too much of a star to go directly into it. A bit of a break will do him good and if down the line he decides coaching is right for him, he’ll be hungry coming back to it.
Blue Shite !
Cork man through and through I’ll have you know!
Sorry thought it was my stalker James from Donobate !!!
Blue shite Flash? Is it cold in Rathkeale or do you not have any doors on your outhouse. ;)
Cue sad little stalker no 2 – get a life you imbecile !
The list of trolling idiots on this site just gets bigger by the day …. Sort it out Score FFS !!!!!!!
The off the ball Leinster love in is now officially complete
As if the Leinster bias on that show wasn’t enough as it is.
I know it’s great, right!.. Long may it last!
A great decision well done Ger gilroy.
If our so called hero was a nice man he would turn down the program and say give the job to a out of work journalist. Its greed again and he is a millionaire
lol
Troll
Jesus what did he do to you?
Tr-lol
You’re gas
I’m sure as long as O’Driscoll says it, then they’d be happy to go along with it. After all, it’s vital that everybody in Ireland gets employed in a sequence that pleases Denise.
God sake Denise cheer up luv
God you’re an idiot
Journalists who are out of work are out of work for a reason.
Congrats to newstalk grt scoop !
I suspect this is only that start of BOD’s media career – a training run…when he is ready he will join Sky, the BBC or whoever covers the Six Nations and the other big European games. Why spend a lot of cold wet days coaching the game when you can earn millions talking about it ? He can also earn big money as an after dinner speaker, on TV shows, product endorsements and for personal appearances. After a few years he can then become President of the EU, if there still is one.
he’s got the product endorsements nailed; don’t you worry about that.
Seems a bit, errr, small time to me. Also, you’d have to expect the rest of the guys on that show to be, to put it mildly, overshadowed by one of the rare world class sporting talents ireland has produced. Maybe he’ll develop into Ireland’s Gary Lineker or something like that, but he just seems a bit too big time to be presenting a late evening radio sports show.
Love to see him go into coaching, pass some of his experience on. If even a bit got through it’d be worth it