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Cork have the league won. Between Down, Tipp and Derry for second spot.

Can't call it yet, we lost loads of players this year, Derry struggled badly against the team without meaning to disrespect everyone expected to go down. Down should improve once they get some bodies back. It's going to be very tight and I wouldnt be surprised if there is nothing between 2nd and 6th/7th come last week

So am I right to say that a player who doesnt take a mark and plays on but is tackled gets a free from the point of the tackle? Is there any other penalty such as ball being moved up or a different player to the one who took the mark now being able to take the free? Can a ref give advantage to a player who takes a mark, plays on and is tackled fairly but is trying to break a tackle to get in on goal or will many refs just blow for the free straight away?

Derry 2-11 Leitrim 1-14. Great result for Leitrim and probably should have won.

Offaly leading Cork 0-9 to 0-8 at half time.

One of the games where yes for sure its a great result and something to build on for Leitrim but I'm sure they are coming away bitterly disappointed not to get the win.

Offaly looked like they had a great start against cork but well beat in the end, cant see anything but cork promotion

Todays games will be interesting, Longford are a funny team, they can be very good or very average on any given day. You'd think with slight momentum of winning O'Byrne and todays game in Pearce park they should have enough.

Tipp Down is impossible to call, some bookies have tipp 10/11 favourites some have down 10/11 favourites. Ill be shocked if its not a very low scoring game. Both teams without a number of players, Tipp lost alot of very important players due to travel, hurling. Down down the kilcoo contingiant and obviously Caolan Mooney unfortunately.

What is the situation with odd numbers in the qualifiers?

There's a few different example you could have anything from 1 munster teams in tier 1 championship to 5 teams.

Clare stay in div 2 or beat tipp and wford/limerick
Cork promotion or beat kerry
Tipp promotion or beat clare and wford/limerick
Wford and limerick - whichever wins 1/4 final then beat tipp/clare

You could have highly unlikely situation Cork don't get promotion and beat kerry, clare stay in div 2 tipp get promotion and Waterford / limerick reach a munster final. Are all possibilities for qualifiers thought about, I presume it's not a case if uneven numbers that one team could get a bye?

With the GAA's National Football League set to commence later this month, a number of counties are contending with the reality of losing a selection of their Gaelic footballers for the year ahead.

An All-Star winner in 2019, it was most recently reported that Tyrone's Cathal McShane will depart the inter-county scene to pursue his chances in the Australian Football League with the Brisbane Lions.

The latest in a long line of GAA stars to embrace the opportunity of playing professional sport in Australia, the allure of the AFL cannot be exclusively held responsible for the departure of a large number of players across the winter months of 2019, however.

From The Dundalk Democrat in Louth to The Clare Echo, regional outlets across the country have reported numerous instances of players opting to depart the county's senior panel for the foreseeable future.

The following is a list of those players who have opted, for one reason or another, not to participate at inter-county level for the year ahead.

Ulster:

Of the four provinces in question, the spread of counties hit by the optional departure of players is certainly widest in Ulster.

With McShane seemingly set to follow Connor McAliksey out of Tyrone, Dara McVeety and Conor Moynagh are opting out of the Cavan panel to go travelling; Killian Clarke and Conor Rehill opting out also.

Odhrán McNiallais (Donegal), Ryan Murray (Antrim) and Stephen O'Hanlon (Monaghan) all similarly look set to miss the year ahead.

Antrim - Ryan Murray (Travelling), Matthew Fitzpatrick (Opted out - Irish Premiership)
Armagh - Ben Crealy*
Cavan - Dara McVeety, Conor Moynagh (Travelling) & Killian Clarke, Conor Rehill (Opted out)*
Donegal - Odhrán MacNiallais (Opted out)
Monaghan - Stephen O'Hanlon (Opted out)
Tyrone - Cathal McShane (AFL)*, Connor McAliskey (Opted out)

GAA

Connacht:

The spread so far appears to be a little thinner in Connacht with only last year's two provincial finalists Galway and Roscommon suffering notable losses.

Galway - Peter Cooke, Danny Cummins (Travelling)
Leitrim - Michael McWeeney (Travelling)*, Jack Heslin, Gary Plunkett, Noel Plunkett, Cathal McCrann (Opted out)
Roscommon - Diarmuid Murtagh (Opted out)*

Munster:

Benji Whelan will have to deal with a serious drop-off in numbers as Waterford contend with the loss of a number of players in Munster. However, the entirety of the county's managers will be faring with different degrees of playing personnel dropping out.

Clare - Jamie Malone, Sean O'Donoghue (Travelling), Gary Brennan (Opted out).
Cork - Mark White (Travelling)
Kerry - Mark Griffin (Travelling)
Limerick - Darragh Treacy, Sean McSweeney (Travelling)
Tipperary - Michael Quinlivan (Travelling)
Waterford - Tadhg ó hUllacháin, Shane Aherne, Tommy Prendergast, Shane Ryan, Jack Mullaney & JJ Hutchinson (Opted out)

Michael Quinlivan

Leinster:

While Kildare welcomes Daniel Flynn back into the fold, they will be without Ben McCormack and Mark Dempsey in 2020.

Laois must contend with losing Donie and Paul Kingston who've opted out for personal reasons, while Stephen Attride has decided to spend the year travelling.

Kildare - Ben McCormack, Mark Dempsey (Opted out)
Laois - Donie & Paul Kingston (Opted out), Stephen Attride (Travelling)
Louth - Andy McDonnell, Jim McEneaney, Anthony Williams & Derek Maguire (Opted out)
Offaly - Peter Cunningham (Opted out - an obligatory tour of duty)
Wexford - Kevin O'Grady, Tiernan Rossiter (Opted out)

A list of almost 40 Gaelic footballers, it is likely that an even greater number have stepped away from the inter-county game over the winter months.

Excluding those young footballers who are pursuing the professional dream in the AFL, such a number comes as perhaps less of a surprise on the back of the recently published second half of an ESRI report sanctioned by the GAA and GPA.

A demonstration of the challenges facing inter-county players, the report highlighted that the primary concern of those performing at the elite level of the GAA fell between the season's excessive length and the time commitments demanded of them.

To what degree this draining of talent will continue as the demands of the inter-county game intensify remains unclear. For the time being, the allure of a life lived on more normal terms has proved to be of greater appeal for some.

Although the very best has been done to accurately determine that the players noted above have departed the inter-county GAA scene for the reasons stated, in certain instances, the presence of an asterisk indicates that it was not possible to entirely establish why they opted out.

Liam Casey and Liam McGrath both travelling aswell from tipp. That's 2 of our regular full forward line in quinlivan and McGrath gone. Casey would have been a starter more often than not.

Shame as it's a great opportunity for Clare and tipp losing big players in a very very rare year both avoid Kerry in Munster

Quinlivan gone for the year so will probably finish mid table

Mid table at worst i can imagine most will expect. They are favourties for relegation there.

We've lost a few more too along with quinlivan, Liam McGrath and Liam Casey gone too. Talk of other players not involved this year either. I'm very pessimistic ahead of the year. We have 4 away trips, all long journeys Derry, Louth, leitrim and longford. If we get off to a bad start we will be in bother this year. Hope I'm wrong

Surely this will be played along as a double header with the bloody Sunday centenary match planned for November

I assume this is wrong?

SF: 17 Nov. St. Joseph's Miltown Malbay (Clare) v Clonmel Commercials (Tipperary)) in Dungarvan 1:30pm. Surely over in Clare somewhere?

Yes....it's in miltown Malay at 1:30

Should we change the thread title to "the meh 8s"?

If Meath win there's a nice symmetry to the Super 8. 2 Ulster, 2 Leinster, 2 Connacht and 2 Munster with one in each group.

If the lose obviously Munster is the strongest footballing province;) (That's a joke before everyone gets the pitchforks out!!)

No team will be afraid of being in Kerrys group after the Cork display AND now that  PK&TG are taking the training sessions. (MF&DB in the stands looking on ... great  view)

I think Cork are being underestimated, they have turned a corner, they could cause plenty trouble for someone yet.

Turned a corner because they had one decent performance? Cork are always capable of those 1 of those game v Mayo 2 years ago was a prime example. Next weekend will tell where Cork really stand and prove if they have improved or not. Last 4 years they have been knocked out at the round 4 stage and lets not forget they were relegated to Div 3 this spring.

Well,they look like they have improved.

Yes it does appear this way. Super 8s will be a huge step up though. To date they have beaten limerick and laois to reach a super 8s. Very good performance against Kerry, I'm not taking away but they have gotten a decent draw to this point. Fair dues to them though, have heard very positive things since the end of the league and they have a feel good factor that's been missing for far too long

When are the ai semi and final due to take place? Changed this year?

Vincent's and kilmacud beaten recently by Wicklow and longford clubs so to answer your question.....no

I presume they want to show entertaining games 
Not 45 throws followed by 55 more and so on and on and on....

Perhaps I'm biased because Mayo actually won the bloody league, but I thought the football league final entertainment far exceeded the hurling counterpart.

First half was pretty cat, 2nd half was brilliant. Hurling was very tame that day. I'm a football first man but the Munster hurling championship is the best we have, once the sooper 8s kick in we will have loads of quality football on tv. Interesting to see by the end of the year if there's more football or hurling after being on tv. Let's call a spade a spade, in connacht you only have 2 games worth showing, Munster and Leinster non, Ulster you have competitive games but it's overhyped in my opinion. No complaints with the early season scedualing and can't wait for it all to throw in

I have been calling for two refs for years.  Linesmen don't make enough calls and as this ref said it's impossible for one man to cover the entire pitch especially at the speed of inter county in hurling and football.

Yes, they are pretty much passengers but that's why I am saying they should be utilised and given a new role where they are told to "ref the game from the line". I still think there should only be one man with the whistle but a team all in communication making the calls.