Cadbury U21 Football Championship

Thomas Clarke wrote:

Parouisa wrote:Dubs followed up 2-21 to 0-4 win over Laois with a 4-15 to 1-09 victory over Westmeath last night. Louth await in the Leinster final.

Last year's dual minor star Ciaran Kilkenny scored 1-06 in a MotM performance with Paul Hudson adding 1-04.

Genuine question: Are the Dubs that good, or is Leinster that weak?

Its probably impossible to answer that until the semis tbh. But they are right hammerings. Dublin have a very good side though and an excellent manager and a few minors stepping up who will be there for another couple of years. Kildare fancied their chances and got nowhere.

I think it will take a very good side to beat this team. Final v Louth is 4 April in Navan.

So we have the Leinster Final tonight. Dublin red hot 1/18 favourites for tonight! With Louth available at 8/1. Dublin have steamrolled their way to the final, I expect this will continue tonight.

Cavan play Derry in Brewster and Down take on Tyrone in Casement. Both games very hard to call. From a Cavan perspective we're missing Barry Reilly, Paul O'Connor and possibly Killian Brady. Barry is an especially big loss to the side. Brewster is our home away from home at this level and that should help the lads settle better.

H'on Cavan!

any ht scores

(2nd half, 31min) Dublin 1-8 Louth 0-5
HT Tyrone 0-09 - Down 0-04
HT Derry 1-04 Cavan 1-02

Rematch of last years Ulster final congrats to Cavan third Ulster final in a row.... Delighted!

Great win for the lads.. Big Paddy King (Stephen King's nephew) came into midfield after half time and made the difference, got the goal too. Sealed the final for us last year with 2 thumping scores, I wonder why he isn't starting?

3rd final in as many years. Brilliant stuff, doing the county proud.

Dublin 1-16 Louth 0-08. Last year's dual minor star Ciaran Kilkenny again the star of the show with 1-7. Scored the goal after about a minute and kicked five points in about the first ten minutes of the second half to push the Dubs lead out to 9 points and the game was over. Louth keeper had a super game.

Dublin sound like they're flying it. Any truth that Killkenny is going down under Parouisa?

Jonsmith wrote:Dublin sound like they're flying it. Any truth that Killkenny is going down under Parouisa?

Not that I've heard. I doubt he would tbh. He has everything going for him here except he may have to select one code ....

RMDrive wrote:(2nd half, 31min) Dublin 1-8 Louth 0-5
HT Tyrone 0-09 - Down 0-04
HT Derry 1-04 Cavan 1-02

Tyrone 0-16 Down 1-8 - a great result for Tyrone and not one i was necessarily expecting - Cavan up next wont be easy but i'm sure the lads will go into the game very confident of a win

Tyrone have eased their way into the final.. We had a huge performance and a lot of luck in the final last year, hard to see us repeating the feat. Good to be playing in finals at least though.

3 finals in a row is an excellent achievement, and indicates a lot of good work being done in Cavan.

Tyrone have done well to reach the final again. Picking from the 2008 and 2010 AI winning minor sides, we would have expected to at least win ulster last year, but were beaten by a bigger and stronger Cavan outfit. This year's side is backboned by the 2010 AI minors, so they are still quite young. Despite this, and despite the hammer blow of losing star forward Ronan O'Neill to a cruciate injury, Tyrone have posted 3 fairly comfortable wins to date, and they seem to be shaping up nicely.

As it was last year, Tyrone's biggest problem may be their manager, Raymond Munroe, who has shown on countless occasions over the last few years that he has no idea what a footballer looks like. Still, we go to the final with confidence based on the talent in the squad and the results so far.

Listen out for John Brennan at 55 seconds here shouting at Hyland while he's doing his interview.

Jonsmith wrote:Tyrone have eased their way into the final.. We had a huge performance and a lot of luck in the final last year, hard to see us repeating the feat. Good to be playing in finals at least though.

JS indulging in some mind games already.............................

bocerty wrote:

Jonsmith wrote:Tyrone have eased their way into the final.. We had a huge performance and a lot of luck in the final last year, hard to see us repeating the feat. Good to be playing in finals at least though.

JS indulging in some mind games already.............................

No really Boc.. Realistically Tyrone had better players overall than us last year. Pure hunger and dogged determination won us the final last year as well as the rub of the green. That and an exceptional performance from Gearoid at midfield. (At one point one of the Tyrone midfielders heard the announcement that there was a substitute on the Tyrone team and began to make his way to the sideline before he realised he wasn't being taken off and trudged back to mark McKiernan)

This year we are weaker at midfield and in the half forward line. From our best pick of players Barry Reilly our captain is out with a hamstring injury, Turloc Mooney did his cruciate, Paul O'Connor ankle and Paul Graham the captain of last years Minor team also not fit for inclusion. Conor Finnegan would also have had a strong case for a starting berth. We are not as strong as we could have been.

Tyrone will go into the final as strong favourites and rightly so, they won't underestimate Cavan this year.
Unless I find someone travelling from Dublin to Enniskillen and back on Wednesday I'll only be tuning in via Radio but it is genuinely brilliant to be contesting finals.

Nice try JS, you ain't fooling anyone with your mind games!! Everyone knows that the future is Cavan!!

TC's concerns about the Tyrone U21 management setup may be soothed somewhat by considering the inadequacies of the equivalent setup in Down. Being home for Easter I finally got a chance to go see what I expected to be a tight game, given the epic struggle between these two teams last year. I was actually horrified by the performance produced by the Down side in Casement.....poor chance conversion and terrible handling were bad enough to witness without the bizarre tactics that the management have clearly drilled into the players.

Both teams looked evenly matched before the game. Tyrone were missing Ronan O'Neill while Down were obviously without the services of Caolan Mooney. What separated the teams was a Tyrone management who appeared to put a lot of faith in their talented squad with simple tactics....Tyrone played direct football and for the most part converted their chances. The Tyrone full forward gave the Down backs a proper roasting.

There is a lot of talent in the Down U21 setup which is why I was astounded by the keep-ball tactic employed. It was an awful idea. In what I can only surmise was a deliberate tactic, the Down players fist passed the ball around, played backwards, always looking for the safest option. This is all well and good but after 10 passes and the ball has advanced a matter of yards a mistake is inevitable. And by God there were mistakes.

Perhaps too many of these players have shared a pitch with Caolan Mooney for too long, expecting him to make the brave decision to run at defenders and take the risks. Considering the undeniable talent of the Down squad, such a flat and gutless performance was a travesty.

The kickout strategy was as bad as anything I've ever seen, and I counted 3 kickouts that went straight over the sideline.

The sad thing is, when Down decided to play a long direct ball into the goal area it was fetched with ease by the relatively diminutive Donal O'Hare and he finished well to score a goal. In this period where Down came out of their shell they managed 5 points in 2-3 minutes before a questionable referee decision and a horrible miss from the normally reliable Chris Clarke killed the momentum just when Down had the chance to take the lead in a crucial stage of the game. Down's response was to revert back to the fist passing while Tyrone killed the game with simple long ball into their excellent forward line.

Tyrone were deserving winners, controlled the game, and while I don't think they played brilliantly, they went about their business with efficiency, aided by two corner forwards who had great games. Down played right into their hands...except for a brief period when Down broke into some fluid play and actually could have won the game. The Tyrone management may or may not be up to scratch but considering the talent at the disposal of Neil Collins and Steven Poacher, the tactics they employed only served to stifle the pace and talent of the Down team. There is no shame in losing to a talented Tyrone side but that Down team deserved better. I'm glad they had a brief period of dominance just so people could see what they were actually capable of when they played Down football...and not basketball.

Hope Tyrone go on and win it, they put their heads down and got the job done. A very workmanlike team.

So how do the Tyrone lads see tomorrow night panning out? Are ye going to make it down?
Cavan's injury worries continue according to reports. Hyland might be forced to start with King in the centre as Killian Brady appears to be out. Barry Reilly has no chance of making it and Paul O'Connor is a doubt too.

Tyrone will no doubt focus on keeping Tierney quiet as he has been our main scoring outlet this year. We will need to see more from Jack Brady and Feargal Flanagan as a scoring threat.

Very hard to know what to expect from this game. If the weather continues as it is down here at the moment it will be a wet windy evening. Barry Cassidy the Derry man takes control of the whistle for this one, no stranger to controversy. Lets hope neither of those factors unduly affect the game tomorrow night.

The bookies have us at 15/8, even longer odds than last year I believe. Sounds about right. Underdogs with a sporting chance. Looks to me like Tyrone's class will eventually see them past what should be a committed and tough Cavan challenge.

Terrible evening for a game. Heading off soon enough. Here's hoping for a good contest.

H'on Cavan.

Well done to Cavan, and congratulations to JS and Scoop. Back to back Ulsters is a great platform on which to build a new era in Breffni football.

From a Tyrone perspective, please God let this be the end of that shambolic waster of talent, Raymond Munroe.

Thomas Clarke wrote:Well done to Cavan, and congratulations to JS and Scoop. Back to back Ulsters is a great platform on which to build a new era in Breffni football.

From a Tyrone perspective, please God let this be the end of that shambolic waster of talent, Raymond Munroe.

Sporting observation from TC there, a fact that some could do with following. Well done to Cavan.

JS doubtless preparing a long summarisation of the evening. Hopefully he will be modest in victory.....

Just home.

A proud day congrats to all involved. Cavan the better side. Tyrone missed O'Neil. Fussy ref.

Cavan Abu!

Commiserations to our Tyrone posters.

Back to back Ulster titles. Fantastic stuff, well done to the lads. It started out in a similar fashion to last year, Tyrone had barely realised the game was on and Chris Conroy was rushing into the square after good interplay for Cavan. He was rugby tackled and Darragh Sexton slotted away the penalty.

From then on the game played as it did last year, both teams god 10 scores. But Cavan were a lot more comfortable than last year. We went into our shells completely with about 10 minutes to go, happy that we could see out a 5 point lead. Our defence was very good, gave Tyrone no room to play ball when they ran it and Cavan were winning the individual battles when they played it long, Killian Clarke in particular was outstanding. Just out of Minor, monster of a man and a classy player.

The game was low on any real quality, lots of frees and not many scores from play. The referee did give Cavan the better treatment I felt and the players bought some easy enough frees. We alternated our play well, we had 2 big men inside and played some quality long ball in as we broke.

Tyrone looked short on any real invention up front. Cavan put them under a lot of pressure but even so some of their shooting was very poor. They won midfield for the majority of the game but crucially Paddy King dominated things for about half of the second half after coming on and Cavan made hay from that.

Overall we looked stronger, more organised, ruthless and hungry than Tyrone. The atmosphere was strange. There wasn't the same strangling need for a win as last year. Barry Reilly made an appearance but pulled the hamstring again and had to go back off. His speech afterwards was fantastic, the lad has a real air of greatness about him. Such a pity he can't play a bigger part.

I had a sobering moment at the end of the game. A guy sitting behind me had been chatting to me throughout. Quiet but very passionate and knew every detail about the team. I turned around to say something to him (as Barry called up Mickey Brady and Conor Moynagh to accept the cup with him, not happy to lift it alone given his scant involvement) to see the man on the verge of tears. He explained that his nephew had played on this team as a Minor and was killed in a car crash last year. These lads were all his friends and teammates. Just put a bit of perspective on things..

Great report JS...