Messages

'Corporate ' in Gaa terms means promoting county football to the detriment of club. As an organisation we definitely do need to have a look at the direction we're moving in. We were sold a pup by Duffy/o'neill et al re the sky deal. Peter McKenna has done a brilliant job in maximising the revenue streams from croke park, but how much do we need and should it ever compromise our games as it did last year with the semi final reply moving to limerick because of the gridiron? Do we need all these vanity projects in cork and belfast? 100 million combined..that's obscene. As an organisation we need to look seriously at the product, ie, the game itself. County football is a behometh and we will lose club players to rugby and soccer because of the lack of games in a season. Too many counties put club football on hold until county team are eliminated. Bring in the structure whereby players are released to county from clubs for 2 weeks prior to championship. A bit like the provinces v country in rugby. Clubs also need to have a look at themselves and allow games to proceed without their county players.

5 SAMs, I can emphathise with you re the defeat itself but not really with the circumstances. Abbey had their chance to 'right the wrong' on the field of play and I can only imagine how vitriolic www val's speech would have been before the game. My point is that would you rather have won the cup by default off the pitch, or played the game with Tully on the field? Better to have played and lost I would have thought? Maybe not

Gerry Armstrong was the son of a Tyrone man,and was banned for a long time from GAA for disciplinary reasons,not for soccer involvement.Played soccer with his brother back in the 70s who strutted around as if he was Johann Cruyff's brother.

As regards the 1982 Mc Rory Final the book comments "Only Stephen Mc Veigh and Aidan Murdock prevented a much greater defeat for the Newry side".

The book does not allude to the travesty in 1978 when St Patrick's Armagh,vice captained by my late brother Joe,led Maghera by 6 points at half time in the semi final,but failed to score in the second half,and lost by two,principally because the Derry wans kicked the crap out of Eugene Young,ironically a South Derry native himself.

Spoofer, the half boy half man,13 year old running riot again

What happened in 1982?
[/quote

St pat's maghera defeated abbey cbs newry in the final. The maghera capt was Martin tully. He played in the final after a protracted battle within the Ulster colleges council over his eligibility.

[Tullygate?]

1982...a travesty occurred..I'll say no more.

Let me guess, Billy's boy qualified for Spain or Tullygate?

That's the one.

Wee Val, big Adrian, brother Ennis... Some boardroom shenanigans at that time.

Not Mickey Mc Donald or Con Davey but in right era with Davey.Remember back in 1976 Mickey Mc Donald scoring all three goals for NI youth team against the Republic and his marker was David O'Leary who'd already broken into Arsenal's first team!

Jim Cleary?

1982...a travesty occurred..I'll say no more.

Let me guess, Billy's boy qualified for Spain or Tullygate?

Lavey in county Derry would be fairly small and 2 families gave Derry about 6-7 county men from the 90`s on, Coleraine though big on paper would be a very small club and only in recent years have come to the fore. Having played against them at Junior level, i think it was one of the biggets achievements in Derry for them to win a Derry senior county title all within 10yrs

Two downeys and collie and Johnny Mcgurk. Hugh Martin was finished up around 89 and big bro Anthony wasn't playing after 79. Pound for pound, Johnny was probably the best club player around in Derry in the nineties. IMHO .
Regarding coleraine, agree, one of the greatest achievements in the history of Derry football to come from where they did to win a championship. Town of coleraine wouldn't exactly be known as a hotbed of Gaa activity but one man and his 10 or 11 chislers certainly played a part. Don't forget however, that geographically, they have a massive area to pick from. Add in 5 or 6 feeder primary schools and a sprinkling of blow in cousins from Derry City, and it's a good base to work off. not much in portrush but there's a surprisingly large number of mass goers in p'stewart.

Absolutely no need for 4 umpires at a game. One at either end is plenty. For the bigger inter county games, the two redundant umpires from above could morph into additional linesmen, ie, two on each line, patrolling one half each. Would result in more eyes further out the pitch. Ref in the middle would still have the last call, would cut out a lot of the off the ball nonsense.

[Generally agree. Regarding O'Donohue being a great 'find', he is certainly a terrific and exciting footballer, but I think he is about 2 years older than O'Connor and only 10 months younger than Murphy. He would have a lot to do very quickly to get to where Gooch is imho.]

Diarmuid isn't even in the top 3 according to this man who knows a thing or two :

http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-videos/daily-news/1/1710141506-oisin-mcconvilles-top-3-footballers-of-the-year/

Agree. Especially if it has to be a forward. Thought Neil McGee and Higgins were the 2 best overall.

Generally agree. Regarding O'Donohue being a great 'find', he is certainly a terrific and exciting footballer, but I think he is about 2 years older than O'Connor and only 10 months younger than Murphy. He would have a lot to do very quickly to get to where Gooch is imho.

Asked a Kerry lad about this- basically where did he come out of -  and he's suffered a fair chunk in terms of injuries apparently - He missed Kerry's first game this season and is supposedly going for a shoulder operation soon enough. Also Kerry's record at U21 and the like hasnt helped him out much either in terms of wider exposure. The lad was saying that the odds of him having a long intercounty career arent the best - apparently his father was a lovely footballer as well but had his Kerry career cut short due to a bad leg break in a league game when he was due to be Kerry's captain - this was back in the early/mid 80s. What he was saying was basically don't be surprised if he doesn't have the longest run in terms of an inter-county career because he's very injury prone.

Not sure you can really say that as there's a bit of a difference between someone who's generally injury prone and someone who breaks their leg ! Also a bit unfair on the lad; cutting short his career before it has really started based on his da's bad luck or temperament. Just because you're born in a stable, doesn't mean you're a donkey.

If someone breaks into your house you should not be prosecuted for executing them on the spot by whatever means at your disposal.

Totally agree. Especially when the intruder is a gypo.

Bigotry and racism alive and well. God help us all

...are atrocious

Martin Mchugh said the word 'interesting' about 25 times before I lost patience and turned over to rte. His grammar, syntax and sentence formation is atrocious. It's as if his brain is moving too fast for his mouth. 'I seen..' is another favourite. I thought he was going to have an orgasm when his mate sent him a text that Conor Clarke was the ball boy.

Credit to both teams, excellent game given the conditions. From a Derry perspective, it's definitely a point lost as we had more than enough chances to win the game in the last 20 mins especially. Will never, ever, question patsy Bradley's commitment or endeavour, however his use of the ball and execution of even the basic 10 yard fist pass is poor. Thought our keepers kick outs were poor and his mistake for Tyrone's 2nd goal was unforgivable at this level. Where was the marking for the 1st goal? Midfield were AWOL. Gerard Okane wants to eat the ball, over carried and turned over on 3 occasions in 1st half alone. Scored a good point in 2nd half but in my opinion, a very over rated player who believes his own hype. At best a corner back who should be given a man marking job and be told to stick to it. Emmet mcguckin was excellent, superb handling and a great target man at 14. Lynn also was effective though not sure what happened in 2nd half when he seemed to play a more withdrawn role. We didn't win any breaking ball for 40 mins, kielt needs to give us much more at 11 from general play.  Overall very encouraging start, if we beat Westmeath and Kildare, we'll survive.

Jim cleary from Fermanagh in the 80s was an exceptionally talented player for Glentoran. Very stylish midfielder, great vision; very similar to Paul mcstay for Celtic during the same era. Apparently,  Cleary was also an excellent Gaelic footballer. He would have played with Gerry Mullan, the token Taigs!