Hogan Cup 2012

Enniskillen school win MacRory Cup to advance to Hogan Cup semi-finals. Poor enough match on BBC but Enniskillen won't care - I'm just happy we didn't have to witness the thuggish scens from that school in Newry like the past two years. Hard luck to Maghera players in Derry but decision making in dying stages was shocking. I never realised how poor schools football was until today - young lads the size of men but lacking the strength of men, all very scrappy. Edenderry in Leinster, St Jarlaths from Tuam and some crowd from Dingle Munster representatives. Well done to BBC Ulster for covering this game. Very little else on the telly on this Bank Holiday Monday.

It is a poor mans Croke Cup, which is a far superior schools competition with a far higher standard of play

refereeing was attrociously inconsistent, he didnt help micks win it anyway!

Though st michaels played real proper football without the tactics which pats tried to use, thankfully football won over on the day.

In fairness the loyal the big red headed boy in mid for pats was a man mountain of strength like.

Well done Edenderry. Great speech from the captain: "We ****ing did it". "I ****ing love everyone one of ye".

I cringed watching that speech..

didnt hear the speech - in fact i stopped watching after the first half ended. Commiserations to St Micheals in particular the Tyrone lads but no sympathy for that Corrigan man, hes so full of himself yet he hadnt a clue what to do today to stem the tide.

On the plus side a Peter Canavan managed Holy Trinity from Cookstown won the first game quite convincingly. Well done to all in Cookstown, Mugsys bar will be full to the rafters tonight, good job them lads have no school on Monday i'd say a few of them will hardly be sobered by then............

The thugs from Newry would have made a much better job of those pesky Edenderry louts

bluearmy1 wrote:The thugs from Newry would have made a much better job of those pesky Edenderry louts

Just rewatched the post match chants and the captain's speech. Completely shocking.

Makes Bluearmy's school look like little saints.

What is it with these schools? Can they not conduct themselves with a bit of grace?

Happens every year at school matches all over the country in various sports. To say the reaction to the behaviour of the St. Colman's students was way out of proportion is an understatement. I don't condone it but it's a bunch of teenagers on cheap cider acting the big men....they're doing it every weekend.

The captain's speech was a complete disgrace though, which is very sad given the manner in which Edenderry went about their business on the pitch. A fantastic performance and an exhibition of how a bit of tactical awareness and good old-fashioned Gah skills, in perfect balance, produce the most entertaining football. Would pay good money to see them take on the St Colman's 2010 team.

A flawless performance.

St Micheal's were, to be fair, completely hopeless. I didn't get to see any school football before the final yesterday but the MacRory must have been awful standard this year. St. Micheal's players appeared to have never been taught the art of timing a tackle, and were brushed aside with embarrassing ease. All credit to the Edenderry coach, he said before the game that St Micheal's could punish them with free kicks and blanket defence and his team's tactics completely nullified both pillars of the Fermanagh lads' game.

If anyone recorded the match, look at Edenderry's goal for what I can only describe as the worst block attempt I have ever seen from a full back. Harsh to say about a young lad maybe but Fermanagh football will be going nowhere fast if its best college players can't perform a simple blocking action. Over-reliance on a blanket defence seems to have eroded the basic techniques of one-on-one tackling among the Micheal's lads, who simply had no response to the fast moving and direct game brought to the table by Edenderry.

And well done to HTC, didn't see them play but heard they were excellent.

bluearmy1 wrote:Happens every year at school matches all over the country in various sports. To say the reaction to the behaviour of the St. Colman's students was way out of proportion is an understatement. I don't condone it but it's a bunch of teenagers on cheap cider acting the big men....they're doing it every weekend.

Bluearmy, please, how can you draw parallels with what goes on at weekends? The young students that day were representing their school, their teachers, their parishes, and their families. You're right not to condone it but you're wrong to try and play it down. Also, I've never seen any other school carry on anything like the young mobsters from Down that day, so I can't agree that it happens all over the country, in varous sports.

But you have seen other people carry on like that, you've seen adults doing it and you've heard about adults doing it (pitch fights, abusing officals etc.)...you just haven't seen such a large amount of young supporters doing it at once. The foul language isn't welcome but it's peanuts compared to what some of the older GAA patrons be up to week in week out.

The Edenderry captain's speech was the most disgraceful thing I've ever seen in a school game to be perfectly honest.

I'll leave it at that, God knows we don't need to dig this one up again.