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Well done Galway. Exhibition first half.Connacht championship was a much higher standard than Ulster this year.

Personally, I think they are just feeding the media some nonsense and the amadáns are falling for it hook, line and sinker. Does anyone remember when Tyrone were winning All-Irelands and Mickey said the secret was to do hardly any training. I didn't believe that then either.

There was a time when it looked like the GAA was dying in Dublin, as it faced intense pressure from soccer and rugby. If it died in Dublin, it would lose a lot of its magic everyplace else. I think it's great that we have a brilliant Dublin team. They are a joy to watch. But the efforts of teams like Kerry and Mayo trying to dethrone them have provided riveting drama. It will be no less so this year. Sometimes I even dream that we could be that team before the missus yells at me to wake up and go to work.

The typical commentary on Gaelic Football is like 1950s sermons by the Catholic Church. The holier than thous are not happy until they can highlight salacious and sinful acts, and morally depraved behaviour. Thankfully I was at the Connacht football final but I read in Tommy Conlon's column that the first question that Michael Lyster asked Pat Spillane at half time  is this what you call puke football. The thing is there was some wonderful football played in what are typically difficult conditions in Salt-hill, including what will be a contender for goal of the year. There's been some great stuff in this championship, and some mediocre stuff - no different to most years. But the commentators have a Jesus Christ ideal, a purity that most games can never live up to, so the analysis has to be about where the sinners are going wrong. The faithful eventually stop listening.

Do we need former players to comment and analyse games?

Has there to be always a Kerryman on every panel?

Why are there no connacht representatives anymore?

Because if you take the job you end up managing Roscommon.

McStay managed Roscommon teams before he ever became a pundit on RTE. That said there's no shortage of Mayomen in the pundit business: James Horan, John Maughan, Martin Carney, Tommy Lyons, Billy Joe Padden, David Brady, the afore mentioned McStay. They certainly rival if not exceed any county when it comes to representation in broadcast media.

Carlow should be ahead here but inability to take scores killing them.

He was not on Tuesday. Must be still drowning his sorrows in Salthill. Or maybe the car is still impounded.

Great day in Galway today. Had no traffic problems getting there and great Ros turnout that became more apparent when we won, bit  like 2010. Most happy to see that many of our best underage players have the ability to be great senior championship players, as we have not always done the best job at making that transition. Can't get carried away with one game. However, Mac had us well organised, positive game plan, very fit and hard working. Some wonderful scores from both teams, and two top class goals. Lots of players could be MOTM but Enda was outstanding in the area where we worried the most. The TV highlights did not do justice to Donie and Conor's points from the left - pure beauts. Hard luck to Galway, took defeat with a lot of grace and were wonderful hosts. Well capable of beating Donegal if they get the heads right.

Lovely morning in Ballagh anyway but rain forecast for later in the day. Time to face the traffic. If our forwards are on song, hopeful of a surprise.

When you compare to say Second Captains, he and his presenters have a far better understanding on how to do audio journalism. Predictions tend to be a little formulaic but overall the best of the GAA podcasts and they keep it entertaining.  Even though not GAA (although he had Sean Boylan on recently) think Dunphy's The Stand sets the standard.

The orange leprechauns got their pot o'gold.

Ah lads just when Bomber went to bed and we thought we'd get a bit of peace and quiet.

The way the draw is, lose and you could be playing Mayo, win and you could be playing Mayo. A difficult round 4 and 1/4 final faces both teams. Although I had a read of the Western People this week and there was a big story in there by John Cuffe saying the current team is finished, and time to develop a new team. But that's for another day. Although unlikely, I hope it's a nice day in Salthill and we get a shootout. But I even remember the 2009 Connacht final in Salthill cos Ros were in the minor and there was still a very strong breeze blowing even though the day itself was lovely. If we get a shootout, I'd be confident we could outscore Galway. But I think Kevin Walsh will setup defensively and hope to hit our suspect defence on the counter attack. While we didn't know it at the time, the joint management of McStay and Fergal O'Donnell had two different football philosophies and things had broken down by the Connacht Final last year. We'll definitely bring a more coherent game plan to Salthill, so optimistic to an extent. Biggest worry is a lack of depth in some positions. It's a tremendous opportunity for our young team to break the cycle of false dawns.

I dunno how suspect our midfield is tbh. If we could spare him I'd have Enda on the wing but he gets so much space playing the middle there's a case to be made for playing him there anyways. Certainly creates a mismatch with almost any midfielder, who has little chance keeping up with him. TOR I think has had a very good debut season, a workhorse midfielder who breaks ball and has a great workrate. I think both compliment each other, and would say we haven't had a more stable pairing since 2014 when Shine and Higgins were at their very best. Physically I don't think they're overmatched against Flynn and FOC, it's more dealing with Conry that would be my issue for us around the middle third.

No I'm happy with our midfield. It's the most athletic and mobile we've ever had. What worries me is if one picks up an injury, given that Corcoran is out for the year, and Compton is very misfortunate with injuries, and Higgins had to retire from intercounty because of strain of injuries.

The way the draw is, lose and you could be playing Mayo, win and you could be playing Mayo. A difficult round 4 and 1/4 final faces both teams. Although I had a read of the Western People this week and there was a big story in there by John Cuffe saying the current team is finished, and time to develop a new team. But that's for another day. Although unlikely, I hope it's a nice day in Salthill and we get a shootout. But I even remember the 2009 Connacht final in Salthill cos Ros were in the minor and there was still a very strong breeze blowing even though the day itself was lovely. If we get a shootout, I'd be confident we could outscore Galway. But I think Kevin Walsh will setup defensively and hope to hit our suspect defence on the counter attack. While we didn't know it at the time, the joint management of McStay and Fergal O'Donnell had two different football philosophies and things had broken down by the Connacht Final last year. We'll definitely bring a more coherent game plan to Salthill, so optimistic to an extent. Biggest worry is a lack of depth in some positions. It's a tremendous opportunity for our young team to break the cycle of false dawns.

What is interesting about the batch of Roscommon underage teams that had moderate to decent success over the past 7/8 years is how many of them have turned out to be crocks

Were they just thrown into senior too early and flogged?

Yes. The lads on that minor winning team of 2006 were brought into senior football very quickly. You had players like David O'Gara, David Keenan and Conor Devanney (only 1 of 2 survivors) playing senior under John Maughan in the league of 2008, shipping big hammerings in the latter half of that league. They were also brought into very dodgy senior setups. Maughan had got rid of a lot of the established players. There hadn't been any great stability until Fergal O'Donnell and later Evans came in and in fairness, a lot of those players were responsible for bringing Roscommon from Div 4 to Div 1 within 5 years.

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They've been hyped up quite a bit over the last few years and I think there has been a very soft core in them, I think they believe a lot of the hype and when things tend to go bad for them, they fold rather than dig in and turn it around. The Clare game being a prime example.

Many have been plagued with injuries. I think this Connacht final is the first time you'll see some of them fully fit since their underage days. I have a feeling that RTE and some of the papers may even get their names right after the match. Maybe the odd poster has hyped them up but in general, I don't see any of that. There was talk about the performances in the league last year but everyone knew by time time Mayo pushed us around in the lakes of Hyde Park, and Kerry hammered us in the league semi-final that those performances were only because we had started training earlier. Reality has now set in and we'll go into the final as underdogs. Galway and Tyrone now are the teams being talked up as the potential to dislodge the top 3: Dublin/Mayo/Kerry. And in fairness, both have served up the two best performances of the championship so far.