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2024 Joe McDonagh Cup Discussion thread

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Westmeath - relegated from Leinster. 1B: 5th
Offaly - McDonagh runners-up. 1A: 6th
Laois - McDonagh 3rd. 2A finalists at least at the time of writing.
Kerry - McDonagh 4th. 2A: 5th.
Down - McDonagh 5th. 2A: 3rd.
Meath - Ring winners. 2A: 6th.
Westmeath, Offaly and Laois will be a three way battle for the final. Down, Kerry and Meath will be a battle to retain McDonagh status. Down currently favourites for 4th.
Westmeath and Laois play in the final round. Offaly will want to avoid a situation where one of Westmeath and Laois have qualified for the final and are resting players that will ease the other's progress to the final.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7888 - 23/03/2024 18:42:16    2532898

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Replying To legendzxix:  "Westmeath - relegated from Leinster. 1B: 5th
Offaly - McDonagh runners-up. 1A: 6th
Laois - McDonagh 3rd. 2A finalists at least at the time of writing.
Kerry - McDonagh 4th. 2A: 5th.
Down - McDonagh 5th. 2A: 3rd.
Meath - Ring winners. 2A: 6th.
Westmeath, Offaly and Laois will be a three way battle for the final. Down, Kerry and Meath will be a battle to retain McDonagh status. Down currently favourites for 4th.
Westmeath and Laois play in the final round. Offaly will want to avoid a situation where one of Westmeath and Laois have qualified for the final and are resting players that will ease the other's progress to the final."
Good preview.I think its the best competition in the GAA always hyper competitive.Our record with your boys in Mullingar has been very poor strangely much better in Tralee. Nobody will fancy going to Ballycran while the Meath game is a derby game which always has Meaths best performance of the year.So we will be taking nothing for granted and Laois and Offaly will be dog eat dog matches.Its a tough programme and whoever gets to Croke Park with the least number of injuries will probably win.

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1463 - 23/03/2024 23:54:21    2532958

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Replying To legendzxix:  "Westmeath - relegated from Leinster. 1B: 5th
Offaly - McDonagh runners-up. 1A: 6th
Laois - McDonagh 3rd. 2A finalists at least at the time of writing.
Kerry - McDonagh 4th. 2A: 5th.
Down - McDonagh 5th. 2A: 3rd.
Meath - Ring winners. 2A: 6th.
Westmeath, Offaly and Laois will be a three way battle for the final. Down, Kerry and Meath will be a battle to retain McDonagh status. Down currently favourites for 4th.
Westmeath and Laois play in the final round. Offaly will want to avoid a situation where one of Westmeath and Laois have qualified for the final and are resting players that will ease the other's progress to the final."
Spot on legend. Offaly did it last year and it backfired. Antrim did it the year before.

Overthebar53 (Carlow) - Posts: 209 - 24/03/2024 09:29:59    2532980

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Replying To jobber:  "Good preview.I think its the best competition in the GAA always hyper competitive.Our record with your boys in Mullingar has been very poor strangely much better in Tralee. Nobody will fancy going to Ballycran while the Meath game is a derby game which always has Meaths best performance of the year.So we will be taking nothing for granted and Laois and Offaly will be dog eat dog matches.Its a tough programme and whoever gets to Croke Park with the least number of injuries will probably win."
The best competition? That's weak talk. No wonder WM will never do anything

Whestofthewest (Clare) - Posts: 152 - 24/03/2024 15:14:09    2533078

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Replying To Whestofthewest:  "The best competition? That's weak talk. No wonder WM will never do anything"
I agree with Jobber - it's probably the best competition in that all the entrants are on a broadly similar level so most games are competitive.

saorkick (Dublin) - Posts: 13 - 24/03/2024 15:29:52    2533094

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Replying To Whestofthewest:  "The best competition? That's weak talk. No wonder WM will never do anything"
Maybe you need an English dictionary.Look up the word competition and you will understand what I am talking about.After that concentrate on Kilkenny.

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1463 - 24/03/2024 16:38:35    2533168

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Replying To legendzxix:  "Westmeath - relegated from Leinster. 1B: 5th
Offaly - McDonagh runners-up. 1A: 6th
Laois - McDonagh 3rd. 2A finalists at least at the time of writing.
Kerry - McDonagh 4th. 2A: 5th.
Down - McDonagh 5th. 2A: 3rd.
Meath - Ring winners. 2A: 6th.
Westmeath, Offaly and Laois will be a three way battle for the final. Down, Kerry and Meath will be a battle to retain McDonagh status. Down currently favourites for 4th.
Westmeath and Laois play in the final round. Offaly will want to avoid a situation where one of Westmeath and Laois have qualified for the final and are resting players that will ease the other's progress to the final."
Westmeath will win it out

Passer_By (Carlow) - Posts: 510 - 24/03/2024 16:50:48    2533174

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Replying To Passer_By:  "Westmeath will win it out"
hope you are right and you guys stay up.Enjoyed all those battles over the years and we would have 2 in 25.

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1463 - 24/03/2024 17:07:11    2533186

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Replying To Passer_By:  "Westmeath will win it out"
Favourites alright. It'll be interesting to see the challenge from Offaly and Laois. The lack of a Kerry challenge will be frustrating after recent years. In a battle for survival this year.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7888 - 24/03/2024 18:06:45    2533224

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Replying To legendzxix:  "Favourites alright. It'll be interesting to see the challenge from Offaly and Laois. The lack of a Kerry challenge will be frustrating after recent years. In a battle for survival this year."
Actually the bookies have Offaly favourites 13/8,Westmeath 15/8,Laois 11/4,Kerry 12/1,Down 25/1 and Meath 40/1

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1463 - 24/03/2024 21:13:20    2533334

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Replying To legendzxix:  "Westmeath - relegated from Leinster. 1B: 5th
Offaly - McDonagh runners-up. 1A: 6th
Laois - McDonagh 3rd. 2A finalists at least at the time of writing.
Kerry - McDonagh 4th. 2A: 5th.
Down - McDonagh 5th. 2A: 3rd.
Meath - Ring winners. 2A: 6th.
Westmeath, Offaly and Laois will be a three way battle for the final. Down, Kerry and Meath will be a battle to retain McDonagh status. Down currently favourites for 4th.
Westmeath and Laois play in the final round. Offaly will want to avoid a situation where one of Westmeath and Laois have qualified for the final and are resting players that will ease the other's progress to the final."
Your last point there really brings out the problem with a league phase. If one team has nothing to play for, they are likely to give their opponents a soft win, potentially leading either to a KO berth (Final in this case) or avoiding the drop. This can happen even when it's a pure league race (1st place wins).

omahant (USA) - Posts: 2632 - 24/03/2024 22:28:14    2533367

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The top 3 in the Joe McDonagh (westmeath, Laois, Offaly) are arguably stronger than carlow and antrim who are playing in the Liam Mccarthy this year. It should be a great championship not a puck of a ball between the 3 midlanders.
I'd love to see it expanded something like each team play each other twice home and away (10 games for each team and top 2 in final)

preddan (Kildare) - Posts: 740 - 02/04/2024 12:43:45    2535164

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Replying To preddan:  "The top 3 in the Joe McDonagh (westmeath, Laois, Offaly) are arguably stronger than carlow and antrim who are playing in the Liam Mccarthy this year. It should be a great championship not a puck of a ball between the 3 midlanders.
I'd love to see it expanded something like each team play each other twice home and away (10 games for each team and top 2 in final)"
Carlow beat favourites Offaly in the Joe McDonagh Fnal last year.

thelongridge (Offaly) - Posts: 1751 - 02/04/2024 13:11:38    2535176

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Replying To thelongridge:  "Carlow beat favourites Offaly in the Joe McDonagh Fnal last year."
They did so on that basis after last weekend Laois should be odds on for Mcdonagh after the thrashing they handed out to Carlow in Dr.Cullen park.

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1463 - 02/04/2024 15:17:43    2535203

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Replying To jobber:  "They did so on that basis after last weekend Laois should be odds on for Mcdonagh after the thrashing they handed out to Carlow in Dr.Cullen park."
Would not read too much into that final scoreline. Bad day at the office for Carlow & better team won on the day but promotion was already secured by both teams. Only a few weeks ago Carlow comfortably beat Laois in Portlaoise when promotion was on the line. Carlow have Galway in 3 weeks & that's where the focus is.

carlo (Carlow) - Posts: 215 - 02/04/2024 16:02:56    2535213

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Offaly didn't want to play Laois in last year's final. Westmeath, Laois and Offaly should be a good three way battle.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7888 - 02/04/2024 17:55:20    2535237

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Replying To legendzxix:  "Offaly didn't want to play Laois in last year's final. Westmeath, Laois and Offaly should be a good three way battle."
We shouldn't rule out Kerry, Meath and Down. Joe Mcdonagh always throws up unexpected results!
Should be a great championship, its been excellent since it started and deserves to be promoted better.

Dheen (Westmeath) - Posts: 800 - 02/04/2024 20:00:07    2535250

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Replying To Dheen:  "We shouldn't rule out Kerry, Meath and Down. Joe Mcdonagh always throws up unexpected results!
Should be a great championship, its been excellent since it started and deserves to be promoted better."
totally agree.Our home record with Kerry is very poor.Down in the Ards a big challenge and Meath showed us in the under 20s what a threat they are to us in Navan.Not to mind Laois or Offaly.
One game at a time with total comittment,no complacency and fingers crossed no injuries.

jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1463 - 02/04/2024 21:26:17    2535266

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Replying To thelongridge:  "Carlow beat favourites Offaly in the Joe McDonagh Fnal last year."
wrell you have improved from last year blooded new players and played in division 1 this year and did ok????

preddan (Kildare) - Posts: 740 - 02/04/2024 21:48:09    2535276

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Replying To preddan:  "The top 3 in the Joe McDonagh (westmeath, Laois, Offaly) are arguably stronger than carlow and antrim who are playing in the Liam Mccarthy this year. It should be a great championship not a puck of a ball between the 3 midlanders.
I'd love to see it expanded something like each team play each other twice home and away (10 games for each team and top 2 in final)"
Antrim have a number players returning to their panel who were unavailable for the league, that should improve them significantly.

TerribleFootwork (Wexford) - Posts: 1760 - 02/04/2024 22:31:18    2535286

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