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As Ted famously said "there are no chicks with dicks Johnny, only guys with tits".

We were taught the anthem in english at primary school. Like wtaf?

The 'he hasn't been charged or convicted in court' argument is a bit like saying Al Capone was a well known tax dodger. 

Is it? because we know there's been public law proceedings and a finding of fact in his favour. We also know that the authorities in the North investigated the case and issued a no prosecution decision, that was affirmed on review.

We also know complaints were made to the Gardai. I'm not sure what happened those.

The issue with the 'inventor of sell by dates' was that he was protected by a corrupt establishment until the people turned on him.

As a law professional I am sure you are more aware than almost anyone else on here of the difficulty in successfully prosecuting domestic violence crimes.

Disappointed that you are taking this stance.

The 'he hasn't been charged or convicted in court' argument is a bit like saying Al Capone was a well known tax dodger. 

I think you need to look past his age. At end of the day Chrissy is still playing at at level that warrants a start. He kept Clifford to one point from play last day out. He did well v Mayo, still getting up the pitch in injury time to fist over the winning point. Gallen was the best forward in the country this year and I don't think he scored from play against us.

I'm normally one of his biggest critics, but I agree with you on his performance this year.
He was immense against Kerry.
But....age can't be beat. We need to be priming someone else for that position.
If it was me, and he doesnt retire, I wouldn't play him at all until the last couple of league games and instead bring someone through. Keep him for championship and try to gradually reduce his game time whilst increasing game time for his replacement(s).

No shame in that, just the natural order of things.

Why would you be critical of McKaigue generally surely one of Derry's greatest defenders at his peak?

When would you say he was at his peak?

I've mostly been critical from when he played in the half back line.
In his earlier days in the full back line no issues, but he was never a half back. Offered nothing going forward and was too easy to get past when defending. Always felt like he was lost in HB at county level. He also, imo, seemed to be telling lots of others what they should be doing whilst not doing what he should be himself.

A different story when he moved back to the full back line - give him one job of marking someone out of a game and that's what he can do well.  But, in recent years he was more likely to concede a free than tackle cleanly. Was too easy to turn and gets too involved in verbals and that's always a high risk when your a man marker. He's the best option we have right now, but we need to be introducing a replacement.
He was really good against Galen and Clifford this year, was awful against Armagh (but then who wasnt).
I don't want this to be a personal attack on the lad, I don't know him personally. He can still do a job in FB, but time is not on his side. Injuries will be slower to heal, forwards will become faster for him as he slows down. All I'm saying is we need to acknowledge that and plan to replace him sooner rather than later.

Would have my criticisms of things that CMcK does during games but there's not much here* that I agree with. To put it mildly lol

*Apart from the telling other people what to do bit  lol

Here I was being sarcastic. Or ironic. Or satirical. 

Never really could tell the difference in those lol.

Dunno what the Armagh men think but for me the return of Grimley was the critical factor in Armagh's improvement to AI winners.

Tv car ads. Every single one of them is electric. Is that all they are allowed to push now?

Push?? You mean advertise? Nearly every new car now is at least a hybrid. Diesel engines won't be made in a few years.

Woke bullshit.

And while we're at it there hasn't been any steam engines pushed for years, and as for seeing a decent horse and cart ensemble the snowflakes have sure put paid to that.

Adh mor innui Ard Macha

Lifelong Derry fanatic, desperate to see them succeed and think we are very very close to the top.

But I would rather we never won another game than reappoint Rory Gallagher.

The GAA is about more than just a game, so how can someone with his reputation be appointed to such a position.

I think it is shameful the way some people on here are trying to excuse his conduct for the sake of trying to win some games of football.

OMG the levels of begrudgery on this thread is something else, and I for one am loving it, the very essence of what the GAA is all about in my book.

Automatic £200 fine per match for not fielding reserves.

[Absolutely, pure shite. Nothing more than meaningless games.]

Is our current championship format, the worst format imaginable? Surely the worst in Ireland?

Absolutely, pure shite. Nothing more than meaningless games.

Years ago, the conversation was about burn out and player welfare, now there are more meaningless games than ever. In all grades.

I'm assuming the only benefit is for the county to try and have more opportunities to see players in action.

The whole focus seems to be county with club an afterthought.

Meaningless league again this year with insignificant risk of relegation, all Coleraine must do is beat third place in D2?

Meaningless championship format

No fuss championship draw. Although the graphics are informative that they put up, there was no live draw, no big fuss.

Clearly the person that does Newbridge's PR has come in to help this year and we do see club results and fixtures sometimes on their socials but club coverage is still underwhelming.

Where is there meaningless games in the senior, bottom two teams in each section, their season is over. Meaningless my arse.

Ye have a league then another league and then knockout. Bit crazy

Something not right about Ballinderry Coleraine and Dawson playing intermediate and then senior league and vice versa with lavey

Ballinderry and Coleraine playing intermediate as they weren't good enough to play in the senior top 12 this year. Lavey got relegated from the league last year for the same reason ( the Downey hangover over) but pulled themselves together for the championship. What you have this incoming year is alot of clubs looking after themselves and voted for a return to a 16 team senior championship next year, protecting themselves in case they wouldn't get promoted or if they get into future relegation battles that happened last year. Weakening our intermediate and junior championships. First year we have a seriously competitive intermediate championship.

Which all goes to show you that no matter how massive a shitshow something is, there will always be somebody along to defend it.

Against WM we did become a bit more defensively efficient but there were still alarming gaps appearing in defence from time to time against a team who are not that strong up front. I don't think that there has been a major change in tactics from Derry in the last few months but there has been a definite deterioration in attitude and there were a couple of instances which for me encapsulated what the issues are for the team. These might seem like minor issues in isolation but I could provide plenty more examples but I don't want to make a long post 

We are inexorably heading back to the era of the noughties, when holding your man scoreless, or racking up a big personal tally, or getting a MotM award, was more important to some of our players than winning games was, hence our lack of success with what could have been a great team, but egos were allowed to take precedence over team ethos. It was similar issues albeit on a smaller scale that led this current team down through the divisions to Div 4 and it was the eradication of these issues that was instrumental in them climbing back to near the summit of the game.

In the first half Westmeath got through for a goal chance from a simple chip over the top, when Derry had had plenty of time to get set up and had 10+ players around the D, versus 6 WM players.

Not a single one of our defenders was alert to the danger, it was Glass [as usual] and I think Murray who made the effort to get back goalside to provide cover and put the WM player under pressure so that Lynch could make a good save.

During this time one of our defenders stayed touch tight to his man [who was in a completely unthreatening position and surrounded by other Derry players] running away from goal and leaving space in behind, rather than reading the play and defending his goal.

I am certain that the biggest part of our gameplan on saturday was not to concede a goal. To see a player tagging his man whilst leaving our goal wide open encapsulates everything that has gone wrong with this team. To me it looked like he was making sure that 'his man' didn't score even if that left space for WM to get through for a major.

A similar thing happened against Donegal when they broke from a kickout and were running through towards an empty Derry goal and a derry defender was standing with his back to play shadowing a Donegal player, completely ignoring the rest of the play, whilst the ball was kicked into an empty net. Like something you would see in primary school football.

Also for that Westmeath goal chance one of our other players just stopped and downed tools when he saw the pass being made, rather than make the effort to get across to defend the goal.

The second issue I have is that over the recent games we have had quite a few instances of players carrying the ball whilst pointing to other players where to make a run!! WTAF is that self indulgent shite about and why is Mickey not hauling that player ashore immediately. Our attacking has become completely pedestrian and IMO that is primarily because some of our players have let their egos get the better of them with this type of play and are playing as individuals, not as a team.

I do blame Mickey Harte for this current malaise as these types of things would not have been tolerated under Gallagher, there has been a definite slippage in discipline, which has  become incrementally worse over time, and this has inevitably led to some players not putting the team first. The cracks in the foundation have been there and growing for a while and the Donegal game burst that dam and it so very very difficult to rebuild that dam in the raging torrent of championship football.

I am not having a pop at any players, hence not naming anyone, and I am definitely not saying this is deliberate on the part of any player, in fact I am 100% certain the players don't even see this themselves and cannot fathom what has changed over the past couple of months. I am sure every one of them has and is putting in massive effort and would give everything they have for Derry to be successful, but I think it is really obvious looking in from outside what the issues are here.

It is equally obvious that Mickey and Horse have not identified these issues or if they have they have not taken the necessary steps to resolve them, and equally clear that if we don't resolve them before saturday we will be out.

People complaining about that football has become just like basketball.

Also people: lets introduce threepointers and a shot clock.