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I dont think Mickey Harte will be too upset that Derry are out of the Ulster. They have the medals from the last 2 years in their pockets. Its all about SAM for them now. They get a nice 4 week break to get themselves ready. I would not be writing them off at all.

From a Derry perspective I don't think its a massive deal to give up an Ulster title if it means that they can regroup and prepare for a tilt at Sam Maguire. But Mickey Harte will definitely be disappointed on a personal level, after all he is there not for any great love of Derry but for personal achievement, the financial package and his legacy. They will be the team that every provincial winner will want to avoid in the group stages.

As for the Glass debate, watching the match on the TV doesn't actually do him justice in terms of performance. His positional play is second to none and he does a lot of off the ball work that is not the most glamorous to watch but is highly effective for his team. Plus he can play football when needed to as well. He is definitely not a moments player as someone suggested earlier, in fact anything but.     

Agree with that, the defensive work he does, covering ground and space is immense, a total team player, he does whatever he thinks will help the team achieve the results. Regularly sacrifices his own game for the good of the game.
Rodgers is an excellent footballer too, but brings something entirely different.
All that said, I'm sure both will admit, Saturday was neither's finest hour!

I dont think Mickey Harte will be too upset that Derry are out of the Ulster. They have the medals from the last 2 years in their pockets. Its all about SAM for them now. They get a nice 4 week break to get themselves ready. I would not be writing them off at all.

Will they definitely be playing in 4 weeks or could it be 5?

I believe they will be in Pot 3 so first game will be away to the Provincial winners in their group.
if its the Connacht or Munster winner then its the 18th-19th May ( so 4 weeks)
otherwise 25 May (so 5 weeks)

2nd Game on 1st or 2nd June
3rd Game on 15th or 16th June

So Kerry/Dublin/ or Mayo Galway.

If they get either Kerry or Dublin and get a similar 6 or 7 point defeat there will be major questions asked.

They'll want to be getting Mayo or Galway and start off with a signature win.

They could also end up with a trip to ballybofey (Omagh, Armagh or Newry), that might be the preference.
Second game at home to Clare and final game v meath in clones.
Presume draw will be made on Monday?

Not any lover of Tyrone, but it's very unfair a team having to play a big semi-final game just 6 days after a tight game. Def needs a 2 week breathing space between quarters and semi, plus a 2 week space to the qualifiers after the final for runners up

Absolutely. Scrap the group shite, 2 championships of 16 with a back door before the quarter finals or maybe just straight knockout be even better. Push the all ireland back to mid august.

Definitely not, the group stages are when this shadow boxing stops and the real championship begins.
I've seen various calls for provincial champions to go straight into quarter finals and other similar bollox, ludicrously, those calls have tended to be from Ulstermen. Can we not all see how that would simply reinforce the bullshit system we've had for nearly 150 years which sees kerry (and now Dublin too) advance directly to a quarter almost every year whilst the rest of us have to fight tooth and nail to get there?
For me, I'm really looking forward to groups, especially now that we all realise there is jeopardy, progressing is one thing, but progressing as group winners is a serious bonus Vs 2nd or 3rd. It's not perfect, but it's a massive step in the right direction.

How the hell is it a free out when 3 players are kneeing on you. Goldrick is a complete balloon

I'd go get your eyesight checked if I were you. The ref won it for you

He gave Cavan more time than they should have got at the end for them to try and get an equaliser.

He didn't even play enough time to cover the wasting at the last Morgan free lad...

From  when the free  was awarded to Morgan kicking  it  was roughly a minute. Ref played  about 45 seconds  over the 2 minutes , so  technically 15 seconds short.

But aren't players  allowed the 15 seconds to kick a free? So that evens it out

If the ref thought Morgan took too long then he would've cancelled the free, not added on 20 seconds at the end.

Refs rarely blow  for frees taking too long , especially  with goalkeepers coming  all the way up the field.

Countdown  clock like the ladies game , is badly badly needed

Put it in your submission to the playing rules review group. There's a 100 word free text bit at the end. Introduce a shot clock for frees or countdown clock as in ladies football

So no one knows the rules around adding time?

I genuinely have no idea. If you extra time is 10 minutes a half does that mean that when 2 mins extra time is played 7 would have been played had it been a 35 minute half?

So when are we going to get our answer MR2?

On another matter, there seems to be, a few new posters on here past few weeks. On the messages, I get the impression they been on here before or jumping between a few names.

On the matter at hand watching the goals again, first was terrible, second Lynch actually scored it, it was going wide, forth lying in a heap in midfield embarrassing stuff.

The 2nd wasn't going wide but he made a balls of it. Should have kept it out.

The thing that stood about thise goals was him seemingly jogging back.  Surely he should be anticipating these scenarios and be busting his balls to get back.

He's always done that, it's always been a source of great annoyance amongst us! Maybe the thinking is that busting a guy to get back will mean he's unable to make a save anyway?
I'd agree with whoever said he was targeted for the last kick out - he's been covering space and rarely targeted, there's a reason why he's not midfield for the county, makes sense to target him, you'd wonder why it took Jimmy coming back to think of it!
Well done again to Donegal and Jim, excellent result for them and a tactical masterclass. Let's hope that our sluggishness was related to training or something and we'll get a prime draw with Kerry up in Celtic park in 6 weeks time - that'll tell us where we are!!

Don't think Derry too worried about winning Ulster again.

However, the blueprint has been set by Jimmy.

It's the manner of the defeat. Absolutely obliterated by McGuinness.

Getting beat is no harm, my preference would have been a loss on penalties. But we were worryingly outmanoeuvred today.
Donegal had done their homework and exploited the opportunities, we failed to react and adapt.
I'd disagree with screen on our attacking play, imo we lacked any cutting edge today, our speed and incisiveness was non-existent, very few line breaks, we didn't/couldn't carry the ball at pace. Our normal game plan just wasn't there. Barely won a breaking ball either.

The rest should do us good and the seeding is largely irrelevant as has been discussed ad nauseum. Better to have 4 weeks off than 2 more games where you could still end up as a losing provincial finalist, meaning you cannot draw the Munster or Leinster finalists, who will be the weakest teams in the competition.

Oh, and to those questioning Glass and all that nonsense, go to a game and watch what he does, he's everywhere, covering space, organising team mates, providing an outlet. Phenomenal athlete with an incredible football brain on him.

Derry going with the same team as the league final.

No real surprise didn't think they'd risk McKinless from the start and he's a great impact sub.

No Murphy on the bench??

Can changes be made to the 26? Harte normally names his subs in alphabetical order. Doherty is out of place & Murphy would fit in at 25 alphabetically.

Yeah I think you name 4 lads in reserve who don't appear on programme but can come in last minute.

Is that right? I thought that no changes could be made to the 26? The whole team naming gaa culture is a nonsense with these multiple changes come throw-in, but I thought that at least it had been agreed no changes could be made outside the 26 named.

2 time penalty Kick champs, Fact. Vinny Corey had the decency to acknowledge it after Monaghan beat Armagh. Derry got the cups* tho.

It wasn't penalties they beat Donegal on though?

I was giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming he meant last year's Ulster and this years NFL, maybe I'm being generous in my interpretation?

[Ulster U20 Football quarter-final results:]

Ulster U20 Football quarter-final results:

Derry 1-11 Cavan 0-7
Monaghan 1-15 Armagh 0-13

Semi-finals on 24 April 7:30pm:

Tyrone v Monaghan in Omagh
Donegal v Derry in Ballybofey

Final on 1 May.

They could nearly have played the Derry v Donegal game on Saturday in Celtic park, be like the old days when underage players used to get a proper taste of championship crowds!

There is a lot of back and forth re Dublin who I think we should all admit would dominate any province. They are dominating the All-Ireland long enough so it's fair to say their depth would manage Ulster too.

But, that doesn't excuse Kildare and Meath especially. They should be up and around Div 1 or solid Div 2. I know lads are saying when we are waiting to be hammered in Leinster it breeds a bad vibe, but the league is something different and Kildare were annihilated by Cork and Derry last year. That is not excuseable.

There will be a reset and some fresh blood on the pitch and on the line next year, but the Dubs are going nowhere!

Meath and Kildare should be at least around the level of a Roscommon/Monaghan. Dublin being great is not an excuse for them being shite.

Kildare and Meath are the 4th and 5th most populated counties in the south, they have populations which are 3 times larger than Monaghan and Roscommon. There is no obvious excuse as to why Dublin are going for 14 provincial titles in a row.
And despite what someone else said about how they'd dominate any province, I really don't think that would have been the case in any of the other three provinces if they'd been magically dropped in!
They'd have dominated the last decade in any province certainly, but they'd have lost games too.

Apparently Glass is a top lad !!

Conor has received a full pardon from Joe who has eulogized the man, his leadership character and his football genius.
 In Joe's eyes, Conor accepted Joe's criticism as a challenge to overcome and bury his inadequacies.

Brilliant and absolutely spot on, that's exactly his spin on it - and he may actually believe it too.

Sure he credited himself with turning Dublin's tactics around in that same piece where he hoped Derry could get within 6 PTS of Dublin. He referenced an earlier article where he told con's da that Dublin needs to get the ball in to con and lo and behold they did that and transformed the team.

Maybe he should take the reigns down in mayo if mcstay doesn't make it happen - all totally pro-bono of course.

Paul Flynn says  the likes of Meath and  Kildare  more or less need to get the finger  out if they want to be competitive 

Aye and a few  million quid!

But  nobody  seemed to address that bit on TSG

The Derry county board is notoriously tight fisted, yet have managed to navigate a path to competitiveness.
Meath and Kildare have no excuses for failing to put up a fight to Dublin.

They have more than adequate playing populations, I imagine in the top 10 at worst?

They have facilities aplenty and aren't faced with the issues that many counties have trying to get players down from Dublin for training.

So even if that argument around funds being pumped into Dublin creating this situation had some validity (it doesn't in my experience), it still would not account for the inability of another Leinster team to field 15 players able to compete with 15 dubs at senior level every once in a while.....

Sixty thousand empty seats in Croke Park for a Dublin Meath championship match.  What a sad state of affairs.

Sad indeed

A number of obvious reasons for it , but one thing I have to say  from watching  a numbers of games this weekend, is that  the quality of football right now is  absolutely dire

As a spectacle it really has become a poor game to watch. Ruined by over coaching and stats, the level of crowd engagement at a match has never been lower.

Your money at the turnstile is effectively funding a host of professional coaches and over inflated backroom teams.

Whatever about tactics etc, when games aren't competitive and the competition is largely meaningless anyway, with little or no jeopardy, why would people turn up?
By the way, I hope you've all completed your survey for the football review committee?

300 approx as far as I'm aware in Derry

Yet there will be endless whining if Derry do reach the All Ireland.

Could it reach the lunacy levels of '93?? That would be something to behold. Hoor's still haven't spoken to each other since. Clubs really struggled to get anyone to fill committee positions in' 94.

Thing is though, if they drastically decreased the corporate numbers attending the AI Final and increased the % to both senior finalists, pretty much everyone whose deserves a ticket would get one out of a capacity of over 82k.

I believe around 50% of the Celtic Pk stand is going to Donegal and Derry clubs, that's a hell of alot of seats going elsewhere.

Croke park had drastically reduced capacity in 93 iirc - 63k? Probably much of a muchness with the amount that's available nowadays after corporates and premium tickets are distributed.

It's a nonsense to suggest that corporate or premium tickets could be redistributed to 'real' fans. These tickets are generally bought on a 10 year basis and if the rights to the all Ireland finals were removed, they wouldn't have too much value.