THE SUNDAY GAME was back on our screens and it was the first major Sunday of the 2015 GAA championship.
We were following all the action from Ballybofey, Carrick-on-Shannon and Drogheda.
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‘We’re back’ is the roar of The Sunday Game. It’s the first big Sunday of the 2015 GAA season and we’re following the action all the way.
Here’s what’s in store today:
- Connacht SFC quarter-final: Galway v Leitrim, Páirc Sean MacDiarmada, Carrick-on-Shannon, 3.30pm
- Leinster SFC first round: Louth v Westmeath, Gaelic Grounds, Drogheda, 3.30pm
- Ulster SFC preliminary round: Donegal v Tyrone, Ballybofey, 4pm
The lads are out in force on a wet and miserable day in Ballybofey. Everyone happy to see them back debating?
Here’s how they’ll line out in Carrick-on-Shannon.
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The Louth team that starts in Drogheda.
And here’s the Westmeath side they will face.
The first flicker of a row between Joe Brolly and Pat Spillane over last year’s All-Ireland final but it’s quickly quelled by Michael Lyster as he moves swiftly on.
You can take the boy out of Louth but not Louth out of the boy. Carlton’s Ciaran Byrne interested in seeing how his former teammates fare today.
Early season Connacht silverware for Mayo football. They’ve won the provincial junior final against Galway, the curtain-raiser today in Carrick-on-Shannon.
Result: Connacht JFC final – Mayo 1-12 Galway 0-13
Louth 0-2 Westmeath 0-1
Lively start in the scoring stakes. Derek Maguire and Colm Judge on target for Louth.
Leitrim 0-2 Galway 0-1
Sean McWeeney and Ronan Kennedy grab points for Leitrim after Paul Conroy had got Galway off the mark.
All over in the Ulster minor football championship opener with Donegal seeing off Tyrone by 1-11 to 0-8.
Couple of interesting late changes to the Tyrone team. Both Brennan and McShane are graduates from the recent triumphant U21 team.
Galway 0-3 Leitrim 0-2
Paul Conroy edges Galway in front.
Westmeath 0-5 Louth 0-3
Two point advantage for Tom Cribben’s side.
Westmeath 0-6 Louth 0-3
John Heslin wins a free, converts the free and Westmeath go three clear.
Interesting sign in Drogheda.
Donegal 0-1 Tyrone 0-0
Lightning start by Donegal as Frank McGlynn tears forward and pops over a neat point.
Donegal 0-2 Tyrone 0-0
Really good play from Donegal. Patient play around the middle before Michael Murphy’s delivery finds Patrick McBrearty. He skins his man and come in off the right flank to take his point.
Galway 0-6 Leitrim 0-3
Paul Conroy knocks over a free to stretch Galway’s lead to three.
Donegal 0-3 Tyrone 0-0
Tyrone are getting unlocked here at the back. Odhran MacNiallais does great approach work, plays it across to Neil Gallagher who finds Christy Toye in plenty space and he picks off his point.
Galway 1-7 Leitrim 0-4
Damien Comer was the start of Galway’s win over New York and he’s making a big impact again today as he fires in a the game’s opening goal.
Donegal 0-4 Tyrone 0-0
Martin McElhinney with another point, Donegal are absolutely flying.
Donegal 0-4 Tyrone 1-0
Where did that come from?! Tyrone have looked very tentative early on with Donegal dictating the terms but Mickey Harte’s have just rattled the back of the net. It’s a cracking finish by Darren McCurry but Donegal’s defence was surprisingly prised apart with Peter Harte finding McCurry in aces of room.
Half-Time: Westmeath 0-7 Louth 0-6
Delicately balanced in Drogheda.
Half-Time: Galway 1-7 Leitrim 0-6
Four point advantage for the Tribesmen.
Donegal 0-5 Tyrone 1-0
Colm McFadden settles Donegal after the concession of that goal as he hooks over a point off his right.
Donegal 0-6 Tyrone 1-1
Justin McMahon hits a point but Tyrone could have got a greater reward with the score coming from a rebound after Peter Harte came closing to hitting the net only for Paul Durcan to block his shot.
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Two scoring chances for Tyrone from frees but Darren McCurry off target with both. Those could be costly.
Donegal 0-6 Tyrone 1-2
Tyrone hanging in there as Sean Cavanagh knocks over a close-range free.
Goal for Westmeath’s Callum McCormack!
Donegal 0-7 Tyrone 1-2
Christy Toye relieves the pressure on Donegal with a point.
Donegal 0-7 Tyrone 1-3
Sean Cavanagh points a free for Tyrone after Peter Harte is fouled by Neil Gallagher. Tyrone have to be happy with this state of affairs given Donegal’s powerful start to the game.
Donegal 0-7 Tyrone 1-4
Great individual score by Matthew Donnelly, he shrugs off the challenge of Ryan McHugh and clips over a foot off his left.
Goal for Westmeath from Shane Dempsey.
Tyrone 1-5 Donegal 0-7
And now Tyrone go in front! Fine point from Sean Cavanagh after a mistake from Karl Lacey.
Tyrone 1-6 Donegal 0-7
Tyrone playing really good stuff now. Ronan McNamee adds a point to stretch their lead. Cavanagh, Harte and Donnelly really driving them on.
Goal for Donegal by Martin McElhinney!
Donegal 1-8 Tyrone 1-6
MacNiallais with the initial chance for Donegal but Michael O’Neill produces a brilliant block to deny him. The rebound falls to McElhinney and he strikes first time superbly to the net. McFadden has just knocked over a fine point to put Donegal two ahead.
Half-Time: Donegal 1-8 Tyrone 1-6
Some shenanigans at half-time as both sides come off the pitch in Ballybofey. A schemozzle being the correct term.
A third goal for Westmeath from Ray Connellan.
Westmeath 3-11 Louth 0-14
Thirteen minutes left and the advantage is with Westemath.
Can’t argue with this.
Galway 1-10 Leitrim 0-6
Kevin Walsh’s side are seven points clear with ten minutes left in Carrick-on-Shannon.
Schemozzle alert.
Galway 1-12 Leitrim 0-8
Time running out and Galway in control at Carrick-on-Shannon.
Donegal 1-8 Tyrone 1-7
Sean Cavanagh knocks over a free after his brother Colm is fouled.
Full-Time: Westmeath 3-14 Louth 0-16
Donegal 1-8 Tyrone 1-8
Now we’re all square thanks to a lovely point by Conor McAliskey.
Full-Time: Galway 1-13 Leitrim 0-8
Donegal 1-10 Tyrone 1-8
Karl Lacey stretches Donegal’s lead further with a neat score.
Donegal 1-10 Tyrone 1-9
Couple of good bits of news for Tyrone. Conor McAliskey points at one end and then at the other, Michael O’Neill produces a fabulous save to deny Patrick McBrearty.
Tyrone 1-11 Donegal 1-10
Good kick by Michael Murphy from a free and that puts Donegal back in front.
Another top-drawer save by Michael O’Neill in the Tyrone goal to deny Colm McFadden this time.
Donegal 1-12 Tyrone 1-10
But Michael Murphy taps over a free as McFadden had been fouled moments before.
Yellow card for Tyrone’s Justin McMahon. Donegal fans very happy to hear that.
Sub: Mark Bradley, another U21 graduate in for Tyrone, for McCurry.
Red card for Donegal’s Neil Gallagher.
Second yellow for Gallagher and that’s 14 men Donegal have to play with for the closing stages.
Sean Cavanagh is sent-off!
High challenge from Cavanagh and he receives a black card, which is followed by a red as he was already on yellow.
We should mention that Paul Durcan produced a brilliant late save to deny Peter Harte a few moments ago, clawing the ball away as Tyrone nearly grabbed a second goal.
Donegal 1-13 Tyrone 1-10
Is that the insurance score? Michael Murphy brilliantly strikes over a ’45.
Colm Cavanagh nearly rescues Tyrone with a goal but he palms the ball against the crossbar.
And Tyrone nearly hit the net again! Mattie Donnelly fires in a rocket of a shot but the balls flies wide.
Full-Time: Donegal 1-13 Tyrone 1-10
Three-point win for Donegal, they macrh on in the Ulster championship to face Armagh in the quarter-final. The qualifiers beckons for Tyrone but they gave it everything today and really pushed Donegal hard. Really interesting, good game to kickstart the 2015 football championship.
What deya think about that Kieran Donaghy???
Haha brill. Kerry got dirty and roughed up Donegal Armagh-style. Their foul count was incredibly lop-sided. They played puke football.
But now it’s claimed that it’s just because it’s win at all costs. Well if Kerry were in ulster then they’d be playing that way all season and if not then they’d have a very long route through the qualifiers, not parachuted into the quarters via Munster.
Kerry- welcome to our world!
All that aside – Donaghy brought this retort on Kerry himself. Can you imagine Murphy saying the same to Spillane when he won man of the match in the 2012 decider? No – cos that’s not classy.
Foul count:
1st: Kerry 10, Donegal 1
2nd: Kerry 7, Donegal 14
Final: Kerry 17, Donegal 15 – very lopsided.
“Hammer the hammer” eh?
That set the tone for the game. I remember hearing on radio 1 at the time Murphy was getting elbows into the back etc etc Armagh style. Dermot Early the Kildare star was sat beside me and couldn’t believe it.
Donegal are well able to get stuck in. They are no shrinking violets .
Joe Brolly wrote them off and they won the All Ireland. He is a mouthpiece that craves attention. Give it a rest Joe, nobody cares.
He’s hardly the only one who wrote Kerry off this year, most Kerry people did the same earlier in the year.
Including Spillane.
He has a point. Kerry were definitely infected by the puke football virus last Sunday.
Look, Kerry did what they had to to win the match, playing within the rules. No, it wasn’t a pretty final, but finals are for winning.
If Brolly had said what he did in reference to Pat Spillane’s post-game comments, fair enough, as Spillane was pretty blinkered, as is his wont. But the Kerry camp haven’t come out with any of the haughty comments he seems to attribute to them (unlike in 2004, for instance, when their county chairman claimed that they had restored the “honour” to gaelic football, following their All-Ireland win, which was a clear dig at Armagh and Tyrone).
Brolly makes a lot of personalised comments about amateur sportspeople, who give up their time in persuit of a very noble ambition. He should stick to analysing the game rather than indulging in these theatrics.
The kerry players who won there first all ireland have the same number as joe .
Kerry played football against cork. Footbal against Galway and had 2 amazing open high scoring games against maybe that all including brolly enjoyed. Then kerry play 1 game of this puke football invented by Northern teams over 10 years ago and all of a sudden they are the girl from the exorcist???? Kerry will never play this way again until they meet someone who does. Fight fire with fire. They did what they had to do. Brolly had to write this rubbish because he just had to respond somehow to donaghy. We need some new young fellas in.
U obv didn’t see the 12 men they played with behind ball against cork and mayo can’t comment for Galway didn’t watch Galway game live , tacti all yr was play with jod and 1 other in full forward line
They got a high score against cork alright but they definitely approached the game with a defensive mindset. They had alot of men back behind the ball for most of the game leaving a two man full forward line. Naivety on corks part led to a mountain of open space in between the 20-45 where kerrys superior kick passing came into play.
Donegal played defensively against Dublin and still managed to score 3-14. Kerry kicked some truly woeful wides, especially in the twenty minutes or so after half-time. It was a really poor game, and Kerry played their part in it.
But who cares? I’m sure Fitzmaurice and Donaghy aren’t going to be calling emergency meetings this week to attempt to overhaul their tactics on time for the league. They did what they had to do, and any county supporter would accept that, if the ends justify the means. Kerry are the All-Ireland Champions.
Hopefully the Dubs return to the fore next year mind, with their attacking and creative flare ;)
The cork back line must be fair shite if kerry played 12 men in their own half and still kicked 24 points.
Those rose tinted glasses must be great! Kerry played this year the way they had to plenty of cynical stuff in with the football any team that wants to win an all Ireland have to do it to be fair both teams in the final were guilty of some terrible shooting which made for a terrible match I didn’t feel there was the usual sense of urgency in the match that is typical of finals maybe both teams were guilty of not playing their best football. Maybe the kerry fans should take brolly comment with a pinch of salt and maybe Spillane shouldn’t speak just leave the room quietly when the rest of them aren’t looking
Joe Brolly, the king of bullshit.
Kerry done what was required to win. Fight Puke with Puke(a well known quote).
Something brolly says himself.
What brolly is saying. Don’t get all high and mighty – if u were in Ulster Kerry would be playing that way day in day out. It’s what makes ulster football interesting tactically.
I’m not saying I like it. There are days when it looks amazing (Dublin game) and days when it looks dire.
But u look at Kerry v Mayo – their foul count was huge and they should’ve been black carded more than once. Their foul count was also huge against Donegal. 14-2 at one stage. Trying to rough up Donegal Armagh style.
Suck it up Kerry – you’re down in the mud now.
Fact of the matter is Peter, Kerry are not in Ulster. You do know the Kerry Mayo match went to extra time hence more frees being given. But like you said we’re down in the mud now, if only we had something to console ourselves, like another All-Ireland
There were far more frees. And I seriously don’t mind that if that’s a strategy – but Kerry can’t throw the cynical mud at us just cos we’re in ulster when the game their semi was marred with controversy, dragging and outbreaks of handbags.
Kerry had a gameplan to give frees away out the field and slow the game down against Mayo. It’s a simple strategy that worked.
Agreed. And just like Armagh they overstepped the mark a few times and should’ve got black carded. But hey we all know that ref had a stinker.
I think the boys and girls at RTE have adopted a ‘give him enough rope’ policy when it comes to brolly. His analysis and ott opinions, both positive and negative, are good for ratings as he gets people talking by provocation. He’ll say something eventually that they will have to distance themselves from in order to maintain any credibility with viewers and that’s when he’ll get the boot. A clowns only good for paying if he’s entertaining people……
Brolly is a pointless pundit. He offers no balance in his views and veers from lauding systems to puke football often within minutes. RTE needs a full clearout of some of the relics like Brolly and even Spillane and replace them with more current recently retired players who will have much more insight to offer. They have done it with hurling very successfully with fast eddie and donal og and football with tomas o se in fairness but they need to really move it on now.
Who would you suggest? Eoin Mulligan? or that other bearded tyrone man (can’t remember his name)
When Brolly is on TV people complain and whenever someone else is on the evening show they complain as well
The only thing that needs to be done is to get rid of Mr O’Rourke who sounds like a 90 year old preist and bring in Anthony Tohill again along with Brolly.
He should have his own talk show where he just argues! He amuses me to no end!
Did Joe not say at half time that Kerry were using the correct tactics?
Here is another column by the mighty Joe after Donegal’s excellent win against the Dubs – with the last line “As the Dubs have discovered, and Kerry are about to, he gets inside your head.”
http://gaeliclife.com/2014/09/joe-brolly-nobody-out-smarts-jim-mcguinness/
Ignore him he is only looking for a reaction to keep the muppet in the media spot light
There s no dirt down here, just a shiny canister we ll enjoy the sight off for the winter while drinking a few pints
Why can’t people let it go Kerry are the champs this year they won fair and square they fought puke with puke but people seem to forget the games they gave us before the final tactically they were right in there style of football you have to do what you have to do to win well done Kerry and joe brolly get off your high horse and retire
Totally agree
Bring back ‘Mailbag’ so we can send our letters into Arthur Murphy to complain about Joe Brolly!!
What is brolly implying here? should kerry have tried be noble, attack and leave space for Donegal to exploit on the break, as is the only tooth in their head? why play into their hands, let them attack for once! Liverpool tried playing the right way against chelsea last year and lost the league because Chelsea did what they always do, and what donegal do; counter attack when space opens! no one praising Liverpool…Sometimes fire must be met with Fire! If Kerry played this way all year Id be worried, but we got the best of mayo in two shoot outs!!..think he’s upset because Kerry now have another string to their bow! No more naivety! Cant wait for Tommy Walsh and The gooch to bolster the ranks next year! Ciarrai abu!!
I am not Dublin fan but they would have made light work of this Kerry side if they were in the final
First, Donaghy’s childish swipe in a live interview on international TV and now this from Brolly.
These guys ought to act their age and cop on to themselves.
And if my aunt had balls Mick. ……
Joe brolly get a life
Cynicism is running amok in football and hurling has become the more entertaining sport hence I understand why Brolly would get upset considering he is a man who loves football more than his wife and children.