Well what do you know about that?
Just last week, Ulster schools football was the subject of a country-wide inquisition and the finding was that it’s the worst thing in the world.
Abbey CBS spread out the blanket and there wasn’t much St Pat’s Maghera could do.
“Stomach churning,” they said. “The rules simply have to change,” was the general consensus after the Brock Cup game ended on the grand scoreline of 0-2 to 0-1.
Now this is in no way an attempt to say that the rules don’t need tweaking, but a pair of eye-catching results from Tuesday’s round of Ulster schools football fixtures reminds us of the old adage that one bad game shouldn’t be defining.
Because as if to stand up for their province men in their hour of need, the young student’s of St Ronan’s in Armagh, St Colman’s of Down, St Patrick’s of Tyrone and Coláiste Inis Eoghain of Donegal came roaring back.
This time it was the Dalton Cup – the under 13.5 A championship and the goalkeepers, let’s just say they were far busier than the lads of last week.
So first up were Ronan’s and Colman’s.
The men of Lurgan in Armagh prevailed there after a 12 goal thriller that ended on a scoreline of 7-14 to 5-10.
@ulsterschools D'Alton Cup Result @stronanssport 7-14
St Colman's 5-10
Well done to our D'Alton Cup squad on another superb performance today!Some great scores by both teams on display! Well done to everyone involved!#ColáisteRónáinAbú #RI 🇱🇻🏐👍 pic.twitter.com/a7p2Ka604M— St Ronan's Sport (@stronanssport) March 5, 2019
“The norm isn’t usually worth of comment,” tweeted the Ulster schools account to Joe Brolly.
Another @DanskeBank_UK Dalton game today
St Ronan's 7-14
St Colman's 5-10The norm isn't usually worthy of comment@CahairOKane1 @irishnewssport @JoeBrolly1993
— Ulster Schools GAA (@ulsterschools) March 5, 2019
Brolly, to his credit, took the dig well.
Love to see busy keepers https://t.co/28cXNO6Cdi
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) March 5, 2019
And things were about to get even better for Brolly and Gaelic football followers.
Because when Dungannon of Tyrone met the boys of Inishowen in another Dalton Cup game on the same day, a feast of football resulted in a 20 goal thriller that only ended in a one point win.
9-11 to 11-4 was the final score there in a game that had everybody present on the edge of their seats from the first minute to the last.
https://twitter.com/GCallaghan/status/1102979049968816128
It’s not all bad.
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