Messages

Random one.

The near side of my driver seat has ended up with a 4-5 inch rip in it. People probably know where i'm talking about as it seems quite common.

1) I've never understood how the rip occurred/got worse over the past couple of year
2) What's the best way of fixing etc?

I see the Sunday Game schedule is out today and this is not on it. Is the BBC/ SKY schedule announced yet?

SKY released theirs today also

Are any of ye close to any intercounty players at the moment?
Just wondering what is the general mindset of most of them nowadays?

Are they very much loving the image and fame that goes with being a county player and no longer care about the club or does it depend on the player himself?

I know from my own club Dooher and Stevie O'Neill put a lot of effort into the club but I'm just wondering has things changed nowadays.

Ye Armagh one certainly make it sound like they are discouraged to play for their club as much as possible.
I'm not based in Tyrone any more but I get the feeling most county men have lined out a lot for their clubs since the NFL finished for 5 league games.

I personally couldn't speak highly enough of my own clubs county men. Great fella's and give all for the club.

Tyrone by 8

There's the football over for 11 weeks now - pure crap

A great win for the Quigan yesterday.i don't want to talk us up again but we're cruising along nicely. Glen have started well.  Bellaghy getting closer to the drop.

I heard Swatragh could have won by more too. Is it the younger players making the difference this year?

There's the football over for 11 weeks now - pure crap

Club football should not be played on a Sunday

Je the Craic on here is shit

Pure dung

[I don't blame them, zero craic playing inter-county football.]

Kildare

Dan Flynn still out
Niall Kelly back from his traveling still not confirmed he will be back
Aaron Masterson has dropped out
James Murray has dropped out

Masterson was last years All-Ireland u20 winning captain.  We don't have the depth to lose Dan Flynn, in my opinion the best full forward in the country last year, Niall Kelly and Masterson, one of the best young midfielders in the country.

I don't blame them, zero craic playing inter-county football.

Bit of a generalisation there. Plenty of lads love being involved with the county. A lot of the enjoyment will come from winning big games and sense of achievement. If the manager has any sense he'll let them enjoy the good days with a few beers. Some managers are too serious no doubt but there's still plenty of enjoyment from playing your sport at the top level and pulling on your county jersey no doubt.

They have been institutionalised from a young age. It's all they know. The penny is already dropping for lots of players. The sacrifice for the have-nots is too much to try and keep up with the haves. There's a reason why a lot of players sooner play with their clubs than their county!

What is so different to playing county football than playing any sport to a decent level? There is plenty of lads willing to do it and I'm sure they enjoy the craic of being part of a team and enjoy playing the game.

I'd imagine they don't actually train that more often as a team than a club rugby player does for example. In Tyrone the county team train on the pitch on a Tuesday and Thursday and have gym on a Wednesday then have a game or train once at the weekend. Would that really be that different to any other sport?

A lot of the complaining seems to come from people not involved.

I know it's a one off case but I was fairly recently talking to an ex county footballer and he told me if he was to do it again he wouldn't have played county football. He said there Is zero per cent fun in it, said the only buzz was the couple of weeks before the championship games. Said there was no element of enjoyment what so ever. He said he'd have stuck at club football and enjoyed pints after wins, instead of recovery sessions, food & ice baths after a win playing county football.

Michael McEvoy, Niall Toner & Declan Hughes away from the Derry panel now as they are playing football in the States this summer

O'Neill from Tyrone was well down the list of forwards and knew he wouldn't get his game so probably thought he'd be better spending a summer in America. Young Mark Bradley though will be badly missed as I think he's USA bound too or is he working somewhere else?

Studying in Liverpool this year & heading to the states for the summer

Anyone any insight on the best place/places to go in Croatia?

Dubrovnik/Split/Hvar?

[listen i like a bit of rimming as much as the next man but i usually get the wife to do it]

Pure filth. And to think he was in the paper last week slabberin that he doesn't rule out a return to the Tyrone jersey. No chance mate.

It's far from ideal and has been a horrible situation for all involved. But I wonder would you describe it as 'filth' had the warden and guard in question been female?

listen i like a bit of rimming as much as the next man but i usually get the wife to do it and i dont let anyone fuckin film it to show the whole world while representing my county. mc carron is filth, not the actual acts as such.

Lol

We have this issue in our club. Between U12s and U11s we have 40 players. We have entered 3 teams in football, and 2 teams in hurling (as the hurling will be during summer holidays). Our teams play 13 a side, 13 a side and 11 a side.

All our U12s are on our 'top' team, which means we won't win any championship, but all our u12s get games at an appropriate level for them. We don't, as a rule, put U11s  onto the 'top' team, even through some of our U11s would be better than some u12s. The rationale for this is that we want lads to play with their friends, and we know your average U12 might be your best minor.

The exception to the rule we have, with the individual players in mind, is if a player is completely out of his depth at a certain level, we would talk to his parents and him about going back to a team below, so he can be at a level where he feels he can contribute and not be embarrassed.

Likewise if an U11 is too good for his level, and his development is stunted because he is not challenged, we would suggest moving him up.

Those decisions are never made with a view to winning a championship though. We want to win every game we play, but not at the expense of long term development and player retention.


This approach is not universally liked in the club, as some people feel we should play our strongest team at the top, regardless of age. I'm not sure there's a right answer here, but I'm happy we are trying to do the right thing by our players. I'll be at a meeting tonight where we will be challenged again regarding this approach.

Stand firm. Your approach is absolutely the best one.

Read an article last year on Dr Crokes. They have massive numbers underage so field a couple of teams of equal standard at every age group. Not an 'A' team of their strongest 15 then a 'B' team of their weaker 15. It mentioned they do not win an awful lot of underage competitions but have won 13 Senior Championships, 7 Munster's and 2 All-Ireland clubs so it's definitely done them no harm.

Mark Sweeney will be a big miss off the Antrim panel.