Under 21 lives to fight another day.....

Smuigin popped along yesterday to the launch of the Cadbury U21 Championship. Typical pr affair with more photographers then people..but thats not the point. Great to see the U21 championship continue...Smuigin has long campaigned (view Sometimes the solution is staring you in the face) for the championship to remain, my faith in grassroots gaa was reaffirmed when the motion to suspend the championship was well defeated at Congress recently. Methinks HQ arent finished with the U21 championship just yet and may try another approach to the U19 competition but in the meantime we can look forward to another year of U21. Hats off to Cadbury they do a big job in promoting the championship..its a pity the other sponsors for the Minor and Hurling dont take note. Have a look at their website...www.cadburygaau21.com and you will see what I mean. Anyway the Leinster kicks off this wkd with the other championships later in March. My money is on Cork to do the double, given all the recent strife down there I think the U21 will be major aim.

Dont fall into this TRAP!...Its all Fr Dick Byrnes work...

Trapattoni....International Manager of some standing or that guy who played for Fr Dick Byrne against Ted in the over 75s soccer match...

Today car insurance...tomorrow the world!

Well well looks like Ryanair have taken another step in its plans for world domination, not content to do the whole no frills thing in the sky but now want to move into car insurance as well!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=a4ccdc3f88c2d5e8ce225dca4d89312d&p=55111576#post55111576

They have launched a new car insurance called No nonsense, jaysus Quinn must be shaking in his Cavan boots....

It will be interesting to see how it goes, to be fair Ryaneverywhere was done a lot to create competition so no harm in seeing it in the car insurance market to boot.

It seems to be aimed at people over 25 which is interesting... I would have thought no frills would be more suited to the younger lot.

Now must price the old jammer...


http://www.ryanaircarinsurance.com/

The Savage is BACK!

Well savage tom has been on a bit of a hiatus.

Like most gaa lads I take a wee bit of aq break over the christmas. Well earned as well, as the junior championships can take a toll especially when, like old savage tom, you're too old to catch the nippy young lads, and too young to skelp the auld lads if you follow me. Well the fesTive season is over - someone better tell the cork boys that, the humpy bastards. They're just copying that other thick cork fecker roy keane. Poor auld tom mcarthy is getting beat like the youngest child in a family of bareknuckle boxers. Player power be fuck as my old friend the blue ratigan would always say. The gaa was not built by player power. It was built on the backs of players, but certainly not by their power. Sure how would the gaa compete with it's main rival for influence in irish life, the catholic church, if twas a democracy. No, the gaa, in particular, the county board is , like the church is a theocracy. And at the top of the holy trinity sits the lord god almighty, the Chairman of the County Board. If you are a gaa player it is an article of faith that the Chairman of the board is divine. For he was there in the beginning, and due to his infinite wisdom he created the clubs in one day. And then on the second day, the pitch. Then on the third day, the floodlights. And so on until on the seventh day he said "by jaysus I'm wrecked, time for a cuppa" and he promptly forgot to create a workable fixtures procedure which is why savage tom has to play an under 21 league match even though he now 29 this february. Because of this transcendental effort The county godhead is only to be considered a divine being, omnipotent and omnipresent. Which might explain how the county team is without tracksuits this year as being able to tell the future and being able to do anything must have led him to assume he'd looked after that in the future if you know what I mean! It's this skill that enables the county manager to keep abreast of all modern fitness techniques, ever evolving tactics, head coachery, and player management and ultimately pick the correct manager for a coubty team. If not, the manager, then his backroom team. Do not apply mortal logic to his workings, he is beyond your comprehension. Those players in cork should bow there heads and think of their sage and divine god. Not satan in the memory of keano. So savage tom implores you to follow the wise words of larry 'blisters' tompkins, delivered to a stunned des cahill on RTE 'get in a fucking room and fucking start talking.'



Anyway before the rant ends - a thought for poor auld Ciaran Mul from the LRC - can you imagine trying to get a load of corkmen to shut up talking about how great their position is compared to the rest of the countries and how their ideas are the capital city of ideas....



The festive season is over. You'll see the condition in the players. The supporters'll be commenting on how the players have wintered well. The O'neill short shorts are stretched beyond capacity looking like a laced up teddy.

But not Savage Tom - oh no. The Tom decided to try to keep the christmas pounds by straying into the foreign game. He took up egg-chasing over the winter. A sport invented in Kerry in the late 19th century - when every village in Kerry had a team and from which the gaelic football spawned!!!

anyway Tom found the experience exhilirating. Having to only run short distances was great, rather than those murderous fecking pitch length journies that michael donnelly started in the early 2000s and that every stupid thick corner back who wants to make a name for himself like Ryan - the trashtalk - mC from tyrone. Another advantage of the funny shaped ball game was the tackle. In the GAA, Savage Tom would find it hard to get up the steam to catch the nippy forward or indeed rotund centre back. He'd invariably be sprinting like a man ducking under the branches of a tree up the field and end up just lunging at the player with only the whisper of a slap at the ball, legs intertwining with the player like a french plait only to bounce up from the human wreckage - arms out by side, palms up like a human weighing scales and start screaming at the referee for giving the free against. It turns out this is the perfect training for the epilsoid featuring game of ruggers.

So the collars are up, the dubes are on, and Savage Tom is fit to ruck

When Doves Cry!

The unthinkable has happened...Eamon Dumphy has fallen out of love with Roy (the boy) Keano. Maybe it some only a shorterm thing like a lovers tiff but Eamon has been pretty scathing on some of Roy's recent comments including the move to bring premier league matches abroad. What has happen..has the world become so commercialised that a love as pure as Eamon's is now corrupted! What does this mean in the long term..with Keano contuining his weekly character assination of the FAI Blazers could we see Eamo defending them...surely not.....

Eddie's Waterloo....

Is today going to be the defining point in Eddie O'Sullivans tenure? Will Ireland's most successfull rugby football coach perish on the one part of the planet he has struggled most! In years to come I doubt the poor man will ever holiday in France.

So today we take on the French, a nation who proudly got rid of half the World Cup squad and with a string of debutants pretty much destroyed a brave Scotland with an exhibition of ball in hand rugby.

Eddie through a combination of poor form and injury has had his hand forced and picked the team that Hook, Pope and O'Shea have been calling for. It now of course looks like he has bowed to media pressure - shedding his last great strong point - his stubborness. For all the ups and downs of Eddie's tenure he has always done it his way - picking his team - playing his subsitutes when and where he felt like it. This to me afforded him a certain respectability and also gave him a bit of rope with the media, pundits and public.

But what happens today in Paris if Ireland are beaten comprehensively. There wont be any more rope for our Eddie! Sadly as always his future will lie in the hands of the media and public pressure.

Declan Kidney..keep you mobile on just in case.

Premier League - Coming to a City near you!

Too many games at Christmas, Liverpool supporters who can't stand the whole concept of squad rotation! - but whats this the FA want to add an extra game for the premier league - ABROAD.......pity the FAI dont follow suit and move the whole bloody thing overseas!


The 20 Premier League clubs are planning a radical change that would see each team playing an extra match a season in a foreign city.

Under the proposal, from the 2010-11 season in one weekend in January there would be an extra 'international round' with 10 matches played abroad in cities such as Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Sydney, Johannesburg, Dubai and Beijing.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: "The 'international round' is an exciting and innovative proposal that needs careful consideration before being introduced.

"However, this concept recognises the truly global appeal of the Barclays Premier League whilst understanding that the traditions of the English game have always underpinned our success.

"We believe that an 'international round' of matches will enhance the strength of the Barclays Premier League as a competition; create extra interest in all 20 Premier League clubs at home and abroad; and allow increased investment in talent development and acquisition, facilities as well as our football development and community programmes."

A meeting of the 20 clubs on Thursday agreed in principle to the plan. The final decision whether to proceed with the plan will be made in January 2009.

The idea would be to cash in on existing interest in the Premier League around the world, and the extra money generated from TV would be split equally among the 20 clubs.

The details of how the system would work have yet to be finalised but it would mean each club playing 39 games, with a draw to pick out each side's overseas match.

There would be a sporting criteria, such as league position, to decide who plays who, and under the proposal, points earned in the overseas game would count towards the final league position.

Scudamore added: "The globalisation of sport is both an opportunity and a challenge; one that needs addressing in a responsible way.

"We are a better competition for being a cosmopolitan league and have benefited from our increased international reach.

"Nonetheless, it is critical we retain our English character by improving our efforts to produce home-grown talent, deepening our commitment to community engagement and continuing our investment in the grass-roots."

One club source said: "The Premier League is a global game now. Everyone knows how popular it is around the world and this proposal went down so well because every club would be involved, not just a few.

"The Premier League has always worked as a co-operative of 20 clubs and this would increase everyone's income, showcase the league to the rest of the world, and be exciting to those fans in this country who either want to travel to the game or watch it on TV.

"We now need the League to look at the proposal and see how we can take it forward."

The Football Association have reacted positively to the Premier League's move, and senior figures in the organisation were briefed about the proposal before Thursday morning's meeting.

An FA source said: "We understand the reasons for this proposals and the benefits it can bring to English football as a whole."

Super Tuesday! Not unless its Blackpool Vs Wreham

Ok ok...its bad enough the Yanks have pretty much bought their way into the Premier League..but now they are taking our time honoured sporting names..SUPER TUESDAY is for fantastically dull lower league english soccer matches hyped up to the last by SKY Sports...anything to get viewers to tune in for 90 minutes of absulute boredom...

So why do the US call it Super Tuesday? is it to create a sense of excitment or drive in voters....or both!

Either way get your own name for it..thousands of unsuspecting males tuned into Sky sports last night expecting to see a classic from League Two only to find wall to wall coverage of John McCain kicking ass (always think of John McClain..its more fun that way!)

A Special Year?

Hello friend’s god it’s been quite some time since my last musing. Is this blog that will follow an expression of thought that has been floating around my head for the past few days, or is it, in fact, a blog of necessity and a shameless attempt to accumulate hits? Well the truth is that it may well lie in between.

As we now settle into the cold rainy days of February, I look towards the New Year with the inherent optimism of my character, yet, also with a thin veil of trepidation. There are many other events, achievements, failures and moments on the horizon in 2008 which as of yet remain a mystery.


So in the spirit of adventure, expectation, anticipation The Special One has made some predictions for the New Year. Feel free to comment your reactions and opinions or even some predictions of your own.

1) The Bors will win 2008 Leitrim Senior Championship.
2) Bertie Ahern will resign to be replaced by Brian Cowen.
3) Hillary Clinton will become president of the USA.
4) I will finally conquer the ticket machines for the DART.
5) Manchester United will win two trophies.
6) Liverpool will win 0 trophies, it will then be 19 years of not winning the league.
7) Known companions will all sigh and curse me due to that prediction, then bow their heads as it rings true.
8) Kerry will win the Three in a Row.
9) Waterford will finally win Liam.
10) Sunderland will stay up.
11) The Panel will continue to get worse, to the point of unwatchability.
12) Fair City will remain the only relevant, important reflection of modern real life.
13) The Smiths will not reform.
14) Vincent Ventresca will continue to not be Kyle McLauchlan.
15) Podge’s Dogs will continue to be largely ignored. (Hello Chester!)
And Finallly...........
16) The Special One will leave.

The Special One.

Smuigin Re-Surfaces...

Hey..we're back...after months of inactivity (due to THE MAN!) we have regrouped, refocused and are making a comeback.

Its been so long in fact that even blogger has changed..it took us over an hour to get back in..thanks a lot helpful tips!

Things sure have changed here in Walton's Mountain...The Special One is gone, Big Sam & Little Sam are at the dole office together...Eddie O Sullivan is the most shook looking manager still standing and well Cork...Cork just dont want to play anymore until somebody apologies or something...

Oh the FAI havent managed to appoint a new manager yet...even Stan has managed to get a job in the meantime.

Anyway stay tuned...Smuign is back,...Special One & Savage Tom are bound to follow.