Comfort eating in Meath, the solution to the six-day turnaround and Pa Bourke is in a bit of form.
Comfort eating in Meath
Meath exited the Championship on Saturday afternoon, somewhat surprisingly, to Laois. After beating Kildare and running Dublin close it was a disappointing way for the Royals’ turbulent 2012 to finish.
The standout player for Banty’s men on Saturday was free-taker Brian Farrell. The big man scored 0-8, all from placed balls, and the decision to let Joe Sheridan take a few late kicks was puzzling. Anyway, Farrell is done with inter-county football for the summer, meaning he is no longer sticking to what we imagine was a strict diet regime.
Farrell tweeted his lunch today, under the words ‘Lunch of Champions…not #depressed’. The poor fella is not even getting away from his desk so we hope he enjoys a well-deserved, and tasty looking, lunch.
Farrell can at least content himself with the fact that his haul on Saturday puts him top of the scoring charts for the Championship, and he is 13 points clear of the next player still active, Colm Cooper.
Will the Gooch catch him?
The solution for the curse of the six-day turnaround
Meath were just the latest side to fall victim to the ‘losing provincial finalist bowing out after just a six-day rest in the Qualifiers’ phenomenon. But Down, by beating Tipperary on Saturday, bucked that trend.
How did they do it? Let Benny Coulter explain.
“James [McCartan, manager] kept us in the Canal Court (Hotel) on Sunday night [after the defeat to Donegal in the Ulster final]. We did a session on Monday and had a chat at dinner,” said the star forward on Hogan Stand.
“He told us we weren’t that bad against Donegal. We stayed with them for 50-55 minutes. We went to pieces in the last 15 minutes or so, but we knew we’d played rightly up until the last 15 minutes or so. We went home on Monday afternoon and were back at it on Tuesday. So we got everything out of the way on Monday morning.”
“I suppose in years gone by I’ve been involved in qualifying games and went for a piss-up and messed the whole lot up. So fair play to James, Aidan (O’Rourke) and Jerome (Johnston), they helped get it out of our system on Sunday night.”
Simples, eh?
Pa Bourke is in a bit of form, isn’t he?
In case you were wondering how Tipperary were getting on as they wait to face Kilkenny in an epic All-Ireland hurling semi-final next month, then listen to this.
Premier forward Pa Bourke was in action for Thurles Sarsfields against Loughmore in the mid-Tipp final this weekend. The score was 7-16 to 2-13 in favour of Thurles and Bourke scored a scarcely believable 6-3.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you Kilkenny…
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