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I have genuine fear for this weekend. I hope Kerry just come for a bit of practice rather than at full tilt. Cause under Colm they can win by whatever margin they want. Upto and including 20 points. Meath have never been as low as we are now. I wonder what the geniuses who destroyed mcentee last year by voting against him think now. After we had lost a playoff to get promoted and lost to Dublin by lowest score in years.  Pathetic.  We are a shambles I'd say worse than Kildare. But Colm will put out excuse after excuse after excuse.  And of course a few Latin phrases too just for good measure.

Still seems bizarre to me that he ended up as an intercounty manager given how poor he was on The Sunday Game for years.

By comparison neither Brolly or Spillane were allowed within an asses roar of any intercounty team.

At the end of the day, these are still children at minor.

Let them be kids I say.

Watched the Munster Final a few weeks back which finished Kerry 2-18 Cork 1-6.

Really don't think it would have benefitted anyone to have this game on in front of a senior Munster Final.

U20s I would be far more comfortable being in front of senior games if logistics allowed it.

Is James McCarthy injured? I don't see him in the dubs panel and hasn't been about much this year.

I wouldn't be surprised if he was.
He was named to start for one of the Leinster games but didn't make any appearance.
Could well be a re-occurence/flare-up or some injury.
If he doesn't appear for the group games, he'll be up against it in terms of featuring in the knock-out stages given the lack of match practice but I could see Dessie possibly risking him in an emergency situation.

Not looking good now, probably will still happen but can't see it done it time for the Euros which i'm not one bit bothered about tbh. I know this is childish, but would really love Dublin to step up and fund the rest and let them see what we have and look on in envy. Pure shambles from day one...

Really doubt Dublin is going to add any more money. Someone I was talking to a while back was speculating Dublin only announced their €50 million as a way to put pressure on London to guarantee their contribution.

If it doesn't happen for the Euros (with the London money), I just can't see the 34k capacity stadium happening at all given the estimated cost. There would be savings from not having to cater to the Euro requirements and the deadline but I just can't see these savings being enough for the 34k version to be feasible.

If that happens it's a case of right back to the drawing board and a complete reappraisal of the project - what can be built with the actual money available and what that means with respect to Clones/Ulster Final Day. If there's only the money for a 20k capacity stadium in Belfast, what happens then?

The clusterfuck goes on.

To follow up on the comments about Clare Cork game - basically the person I was talking to said both sides played poorly with Cork just about getting over the line.

They did mention Cork's shooting was very poor including one horrendous miss from Hurley for what was a tap-over free.  They said the Clare forward (can't think of his name) who had a great game against Kerry was well marked and Clare seemed to have very little in the way of attacking ideas once he was kept quiet. Maybe it was an off day for both sides but my friend was not impressed with either team.

Things getting somewhat desperate by the sounds of it.

I would be gobsmacked if there is any meaningful response to the letter from Rishi and friends.

Ulster GAA has written to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak seeking clarification on the funding of Casement Park's redevelopment. The Irish FA were joint-signatories to the letter which was sent last weekend.

The correspondence comes as a consulting company, commissioned by Ulster GAA, estimates that the value of five potential Euro 2028 games played at the venue would be worth £106m to the Northern Ireland economy.

Grant Thornton estimate that some £52m would come from accommodation and a further £54m from bars restaurants and other retail outlets that would benefit from the games being staged in Belfast.

The funding of the project, which has been ongoing for more than a decade now, has reached a deadlock as the deadline to commence works looms.

The British Government has not committed to bridging the funding gap with the full cost subject to much speculation, up to £308m in one case.

Casement Park is one of 10 venues selected for Euro 2028 at which 51 games will be played. The economic impact is estimated to be £2.5 billion, which would work out as a £255m pro rata contribution for Northern Ireland. But the report commissioned by Ulster GAA is more measured.

It focuses on economic and tourism benefits only and does not not reflect the contribution of the construction of the stadium or hosting major GAA games and other events that will take place in the years ahead.

So far the Assembly remains committed to £62.5m in funding, the Irish Government pledged around £43m in February, while the GAA is putting up £15m.

Ulster GAA secretary Brian McAvoy said the letter to Prime Minister Sunak expressed "urgency."

"We want and need to see progress, now, on the long-standing commitments given to deliver Casement Park," he said in a statement.

"In the joint letter we thanked Prime Minister Sunak and the Government for their previous public commitments to invest in the project.

"We also called for clarity on the Casement Park and Euro 2028 funding position to enable the NI Executive to, then, take the necessary steps to deliver this landmark stadium. With the announcement of the impending dissolution of the UK Parliament within days this matter is now beyond urgent.

"If Euro 2028 can be hosted in Belfast, what a powerful message it would send out on the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in 2028, shining a global light on the progress our community has made in building peace, prosperity and reconciliation."�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/report-puts-value-of-euro-2028-tournament-to-northern-ireland-at-106-million/a634581348.html

Is there any reason with games being played next week why the GAA can't confirm the dates and times of next weekends fixtures so that supporters can sort travel/accomodation if required.  I understand last round of games are neutral and undecided but why could they not announce the venues/times for the first two rounds at one time. 

The thing is that this surely has to impact ticket sales.

The group draw was made on April 30th. On that date it was known that Derry would be playing at home against the loser of the Ulster final on the weekend of the June 1st/2nd.

On the 12th of May, Armagh were confirmed as being the opposition for Derry in this game.

10 days have passed by since then and there is still no confirmation of the date, location, or time.

It's a similar situation for all the final round games.

That's 10 additional days of ticket sales. Whatever way you want to slice it I doubt that having the tickets on sale for a longer period of time would lead to less overall sales and there has to be a very serious chance that it leads to increased ticket sales.

The season ticket holders and the other types of GAA regulars are pretty much guaranteed to turn up no matter where and when the game is on but even if you sold no additional tickets, it would surely be a benefit to a significant percentage of these thousands of people to know the date/time and location two weeks earlier.

I jsut can't understand why the GAA aren't better on this issue.

Last week Derry were 6/1 for Sam and Galway were 12/1
Today Derry are 12/1 and Galway are 9/1

Galway have put themselves in a great position to win the group now and that would likely have a massive impact on their chances of winning Sam.

Derry by contrast are very unlikely to top the group, so if they do get out of the group they will end up going the much much harder (close to impossible) preliminary quarter-final route.

Was talking to someone who was at the Clare v Cork game. Standard was poor enough from his account.
He said if both Tyrone and Donegal don't manage to beat both of them comfortably they might as well not bothering turning up for the knockout stages.
He didn't give Cork much of a chance in the knockout stages (assuming they pick up the 3rd place spot in the knockouts.

Heaton-Harris not running for re-election and a general election around the corner.

Can't shake the feeling the current plan is to leave it in the in-tray for Labour to deal with.

The election being called on 4th of July looks like it's going to complicate things even further.
I feared the Rishi and the Tories would try to drag out having an election for as long as possible (the latest the election could be held is something like the middle of next January) while refusing to actual commit the money for the stadium, which would have surely meant going back to the drawing board with a much smaller capacity stadium.

Hopefully this will mean that Labour will be in charge with enough time to make a decision on how much they are going to contribute and that they uphold the previous government's commitment to underwrite the cost. Unless London stump up the vast majority of the overall cost, I just can't see any possibility the current proposal gets built.

Heaton-Harris not running for re-election and a general election around the corner.

Can't shake the feeling the current plan is to leave it in the in-tray for Labour to deal with.

Doubts cast over Casement Park being ready for Euro 2028
GAA president Jarlath Burns has called on Chris Heaton-Harris to "make good" on his assurances last year that the money would be found for the stadium.


MON, 20 MAY, 2024 - 21:08
JOHN FOGARTY

Delays in the British government's commitment to the rebuild of Casement Park have cast doubt over the stadium being ready to host Euro 2028 games.

At Saturday's GAA Central Council meeting, director general Tom Ryan relayed to delegates that there was no update from London about how much they are prepared to contribute to the reconstruction.

In the context of the imminent deadlines that have to be met for the Belfast stadium to be a venue for the competition, there is growing concern in the GAA that the British government will not deliver on assurances given last year.

The stadium's listing as a Euro 2028 venue is considered integral to the additional funding that had been assured by the UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris.

GAA president Jarlath Burns has called on Heaton-Harris to "make good" on his assurances last year that the money would be found for the stadium. However, the minister has baulked at the possibility the final bill for the reconstruction could exceed £308 million (€360.35m).

That figure has been disputed on the GAA side but as the Irish Examiner reported last month, the cost could be amplified by the discovery of waste materials on the Andersonstown Road grounds.

The Stormont Executive's original contribution in 2011 was £62.5m (€73.12m), while the Government in February announced a commitment of €50m (£42.74m). The GAA has refused to increase its original £15m (€17.55m). Another £13m (€15.21m) was recently committed to Casement Park from Stormont as an "executive flagship project".

Earlier this month, First Minister Michelle O'Neill insisted the stadium would be built in time for the Euros in June 2028.

"Hosting the 2028 European Championship in a world-class Casement Park presents our island and economy with an unprecedented opportunity, and it's going to be an enormous opportunity, and it's going to be a fantastic investment, and we are going to build Casement Park."

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-41399506.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Clean sweep for kerry in Munster football this year.

Bit of bizarre format they have at Minor level in Munster.  An off night for Cork seeing that they only lost by 2 points against Kerry in the Quarter final a few weeks ago?

Yeah Cork just a nightmare all over tonight. Every bounce of the ball seemed to go for Kerry tonight. Results like this can happen with kids. Kerry didn't look like that great - seemed solid throughout without being all that impressive in spite of the scoreline. Cork really struggled with their kickouts - Kerry won a serious chunk of ball and were just camped in the Cork half for long periods.

How does "Scoring chances converted" relate to the next two rows? In Galway's case there is a only a difference of one in the sum of the frees and scores from play, but in Mayo's case there is a difference of 9?

Forget it jake, it's chinatownRTE

Could easily see Sligo having a right go at this.

Ok so why are Dublins hurlers not doing what Limerick are doing with their money and less numbers that Dublin?

Because they were coming from a far lower base to start with.

If you look at where Dublin hurling was historically compared to where it is now, there is literally no comparison.