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What a buffoon he is.

Left to their own devices we'd have blue on blue and red on maroon every week. Horrible to play in. Horrible to watch.

If it was up to me, every club and county in Ireland would have an all white away kit, and would wear it every time they play away.

Any club or county that plays predominantly in white would just have to wind their necks in an accept that this is for the greater good.

I know I've mentioned it before on the board, but...

Once you're able to change your mindset about drawn knockout matches away from that of "we didn't lose, so we deserve another shot", and over to "we didn't win, so don't deserve to go through", then it becomes so much easier to accept penalties. It promotes a zen like calm about results.

I doubt it'll ever happen, but if the culture of the GAA could ever be keeled in this direction, we would be a much happier tribe of people.

Repeat after me: "We did not win the match. So we do not deserve to go through".

Kicking a 45 only becomes a skill if you've got the kicking length to achieve the outcome. Up to that, it's not a skill. Just one of those things most of us cannot do.

I don't think it's mockery to be honest.

It's more frustration.

A sizeable group of GAA followers - perhaps even the majority - have limited interest in rules being applied correctly, fairly or consistently. Instead they have an inner expectation that every coin toss should land in their favour.

Social media then provides an echo chamber for this approach, which allows them to feel vindicated, indeed unbiased, to have these thoughts.

It's not a GAA unique issue by the way. Soccer is drowning in "attack referee first, analyse performance second" followers. The NFL is falling down with it. Even in rugby where the players and management are almost entirely courteous to referees, suffers from it.

People are people.

Makes refereeing very difficult all the same.

if hes guilty will paramilitaries be looking to get at him too.

I'd say the vikings would be his main danger. Or maybe the banthas.

1/200 you make that one up? Sure Armagh got 2 in about 5 long balls in against Halway 2yrs ago.

Okay 1/200 is stretching it.

But the reality is you remember that Armagh outcome so clearly because it happens so rarely.

Re yesterday I don't think I can honestly remember a last minute goal like that i.e a catch and finish, rather than a deflection. Put 7 men on the edge of the square and 7 men on the goal line and it just shouldn't be possible.

One of the best games in years and people still want to focus on the referee.
In games like this there's loads going on both on and off the ball, as a neutral I thought the referee had a decent game.

It's just odd behaviour.

About 1 in 200 last minute hoofs into the box result in a goal.

About 1 in 200 of those happen after a man wins possession clean.

Derry made a mess.

But let's make the ref the focus after making the right call.

The one outstanding attribute of Guardiola's managerial career is not his tactics, nor his scouting. They help.

But the real gift he has - and one that is so, so rare - is an almost unnatural ability to get pampered millionaire footballers to completely buy into a relentless, ego-free style of football. Whether players start, come off the bench, or come in from the cold, they are always bought into playing a high press and non stop running.

All evidence in his managerial career to date would suggest that his little display of emotion won't affect City at all. There is no angle.

As for a "throw ball at a minimum".

The best technique a team could use to get the ball quickly up field, when protecting or defending a slender lead would be for their corner forward to start wrestling with an opponent in front of the umpires every time the opposition looks ominous.

... or a more likely scenario with modern cynical coaching...

Chrissy McKaigue spots that the linesman is going to call play back, and this passage of play is irrelevant, so takes the opportunity to land a high tackle on Con O'Callaghan.

——

This post is in no way indicative of Chrissy McKaigue's temperament. He's a fabulous baller. This is purely for the purposes of example.

Referees have been called back, at the next break in play, by umpires and linesmen to discuss off-the-ball incidents, since forever and a day. Some will act on their fellow official's advice and administer cards, some will not. But I don't yet think I've ever seen the previous passage of play cancelled as a result of the retrospective card / cards.

I think some people have been watching too much association football and its bizarre and erratic implementation of VAR, and gotten confused.

Nah, common sense really. Throw ball should be the next step at a minimum.

And what if from the resultant passage of play, a high ball goes in, two players challenge awkwardly, then get up off the floor and beat the reed out of each other in front of the referee?

Is it commonsense to ignore that passage of play too and just take the game back to a free for Derry where Fenton's lash out took place?

The best bit of yesterday for Liverpool fans was seeing Guardiola trying to humiliate Grealish. Pep has every right to manage as he sees fit but that was a show for the cameras, and was about power and control rather than instruction. Maybe there's some underlying resentment about his fee or his behaviour after winning the European Cup, but this was pathetic from the Spaniard. Grealish is a brilliant player and while I was disappointed he chose England, he had every right to, and he seems like a decent lad. For his self-respect he should leave- unless Pep beats him to it.

What happened

A manager explained to a player what wasn't done correctly.

The subsequent huff puff just sums up the overwrought overblown nonsense that is the PL.

In Grealish's next game, if he plays well, there'll be an angle that it was a professional response to the dressing down. If he doesn't play well the angle will centre on Pep losing control of his players, chinks and armour and shit like that.

Same again for the next game.

By a fortnight's time nobody will remember it. Then if city don't win the title, some gobshites in the media will "reinvestigate" the angle and bring it up continually through the quiet summer months. Grealish is leaving City one way or another this summer regardless of yesterday - he's done it all there and his personality seems to be someone who'd who'd be happier as a big fish in a small pond - so more pretend fuels for pretend fires.

All f**king nonsense, every last bit of it.

Referees have been called back, at the next break in play, by umpires and linesmen to discuss off-the-ball incidents, since forever and a day. Some will act on their fellow official's advice and administer cards, some will not. But I don't yet think I've ever seen the previous passage of play cancelled as a result of the retrospective card / cards.

I think some people have been watching too much association football and its bizarre and erratic implementation of VAR, and gotten confused.

Watching the D1 final must have been vexing for Armagh fans.

Derry have closed the gap on Dublin and Kerry, by pressing hard and taking control of momentum where possible.

Armagh, with better forwards than Derry, are getting further away each year, seemingly paralysed by a fear of taking a game by the horns and building up leads.

The biggest problem with Gaelic football is the endless recycling of the ball around midfield areas.

The second biggest problem is that even when we are served up an absolute classic of a match, the majority of comments are about the refereeing.

Lane had neither a good nor a bad game today, certainly not one worthy of lengthy conjecture. He could have awarded a 13m instead of a penalty, nobody would have complained. He could have black carded Shane McGuigan, with 3 mins remaining, and you could see from McGuigan's eyes that he was expecting one. He could have went easier on Fenton but on balance he refereed that passage of play correctly, including the red card. He made a blooper for Dublin's equaliser no doubt. But balance that up with the fact that he facilitated a brilliant, brilliant game of sport.

Leave him alone.

Leave refs alone.