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Now we are well through the league, are  there any players that could add something to the panel for next season. The obvious ones are in America but are their any others that Conor can add in?

Burren are going through a bad patch of form, have they injuries? Surely they have a squad to cope with players being unavailable.

Let me start by saying...do not take seriously, just a wee bit of fun.

To take my mind off the upcoming 1/4 final I started thinking about how many great players there were called O'Shea and if any other surname could compete.
The only other name I could come up with was ONeill. If anyone has another feel absolutely free to say so. THIS IS JUST FOR A BIT OF CRACK.

For the O'Sheas I have ( in no order)

Paudi ( for youngsters..a legend)
Jack ( for youngsters, as good a midfielder as ever put on a pair of boots)
Darragh
Marc
Thomas
Seanie
Aidan

Who have I missed?
Older Kerry fans...please step up!

For the O'Neills, again no order than a pure Armagh bias!

Rian
Oisin
Gareth
Stephen
Sean ( for benefit of youngsters on GAA team of century...wobbler can tell you more) My 90 year old dad described him as " take the best of Clifford, Matt Connor, Linden and  that would be him)
Dr. Pat ( again for youngsters a key part of Heffos brilliant Dublin team of the seventies).

So who have I missed?
Is there an O'Neill or an O'Shea who played on an All Ireland winning club team?

Is there another surname that could be added. You'd think Murphy would be a cert. but after Michael and Vinny ( Dublin) I'm struggling.

Over to you.

Sean's brothers Kevin was wing back on the 1960 team . They are from the fame family as Rian and Oisin

Will we see a nuclear bomb  soon?

The players who wouldn't commit must be kicking themselves. The management team are getting the best of this group that's for sure. The players work hard and put in an honest shift. Well done everyone.

Ladies game nights were changed this year, with Mondays and Wednesdays now having both male and female matches needing referees.

The Saturday evening for ladies football is no more, with that slot being criminally underutilised.

The motivation for change seemed to be largely around accommodation of clubs that offered camogie, but did little to consider clubs with one pitch. A series of mad proposals which got voted through.

It was fine the way it was.

Ladies footballers generally seem happier to play on Thursday nights as opposed to Saturdays. Given the age profiles of many ladies teams, that is understandable. Maybe one of the juvenile leagues could use that slot instead. Though there will be times that it clashes with other sports played by many underage players. In terms of making fixtures there isn't a huge amount that can be done. It is simply down to a lack of referees.

Down LGFA and Down Camogie got together over the winter and devised a fixture schedule which was devised to allow girls to play both codes and not be pulled from pillar to post, this is a knock on effect.

What do you mean by the knock on effect?

LGFA out the same night as juvenile football stretching the referees pool.

I'm not so sure it was "fine the way it was" previously either. There were more and more clashes between LGFA and camogie than enough throughout the year over fixtures.

The LGFA and camogs working around each other is a good thing - it was overdue. It just needs an overall controller now over the 4 codes for fixtures clashes etc. Teams with one field do get overlooked in the fixture lists.

I think the Europa league final might of had a bigger effect on refs available on Wednesday night than people want to admit

Is the Down County Board not the overall controller?

Ladies game nights were changed this year, with Mondays and Wednesdays now having both male and female matches needing referees.

The Saturday evening for ladies football is no more, with that slot being criminally underutilised.

The motivation for change seemed to be largely around accommodation of clubs that offered camogie, but did little to consider clubs with one pitch. A series of mad proposals which got voted through.

It was fine the way it was.

Ladies footballers generally seem happier to play on Thursday nights as opposed to Saturdays. Given the age profiles of many ladies teams, that is understandable. Maybe one of the juvenile leagues could use that slot instead. Though there will be times that it clashes with other sports played by many underage players. In terms of making fixtures there isn't a huge amount that can be done. It is simply down to a lack of referees.

Down LGFA and Down Camogie got together over the winter and devised a fixture schedule which was devised to allow girls to play both codes and not be pulled from pillar to post, this is a knock on effect.

What do you mean by the knock on effect?

There's a dearth of referees no doubt. It would seem there's only 5-6 left on the Newry area juvenile football circuit. f**k knows how we'd survive if losing 1-2 more.

But Wednesdays present the biggest obstacle I'd think. U14 boys and girls football are on the same slot, an age group when middle sized clubs like ours have the numbers to run 2 teams, and all the bigger clubs are running As and Bs (and even Cs).

That's not great planning by the fixtures committee.

Both moved U14s to Wednesday too. Last year was lads U16s (less teams) and U12 girls with no appointed refs.

Was this not noticed prior to the start of the season?

There's a dearth of referees no doubt. It would seem there's only 5-6 left on the Newry area juvenile football circuit. f**k knows how we'd survive if losing 1-2 more.

But Wednesdays present the biggest obstacle I'd think. U14 boys and girls football are on the same slot, an age group when middle sized clubs like ours have the numbers to run 2 teams, and all the bigger clubs are running As and Bs (and even Cs).

That's not great planning by the fixtures committee.

I see a number of matches were not played last night due to the lack of referees.

At the weekend there we seen fights in Clones ad fights on the Hill. What can we do to stop young ones congregating to matches full of Drink and drugs acting like soccer hooligans.

Its a great draw and we should be making the last 12 at least which would be progress but the squad should be confident of top spot.

Tough shit Paddy

has anyone a list of the GAA council facilities per council in the 6 counties

East Belfast having to put out a statement clarifying they are only using a council facility at Cairnshill on a temporary basis.

Presume local agitators have been making noise again. City is coming down with soccer pitches, god forbid a Gaa club might wish to book some council facilities.

If the Gaa made the same demands on councils as soccer the City would need to provide another 20 Gaa pitches, at the minute any dog and his mate can start a soccer team, enter a league and expect the council to find them room.

If the soccer lads are feeling the squeeze perhaps they could stop inviting non city teams into the Belfast leagues, effectively a national league largely being run on Belfast pitches and paid for by Belfast ratepayers.

Boils my brain.

Wasn't there a soccer club going irate in Sally Gardens, Poleglass about GAA clubs booking "their" slots? The audacity for them to book GAA games on a GAA facility.
Was all over Facebook at the time iirc.

What were they complaining about?