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Jaysus, some of those comments by Crofton are pure idiotic. Wouldn't mind if it came from a Kerry or Tyrone man who might have a right to question the Dubs, but from a Kildare man who probably lost over 80% of the time he faced Dublin, well that's rich to say the least.

Come on lads - sow it into them!!

OK Owen is going to be paid but £20,000 a week basic probably isn't too dissimilar from what the likes of Macheda and Wellbck (pure guesswork though?) and if he does the business to get the bonuses he'll have been worth it. I can't really see the downside looking at the deal for Owen itself.

The papers said earlier in the week that while his minimum salary is 20k a week, he can earn up to 110k. Didn't say what he had to do to get that!

Feckin heck Dinny, you're happy with everything. What weather would suit Kildare? No doubt you'll get that too! 

Venues and times are to be confirmed tomorrow. Down were out of the hat first because they came through the round one qualifiers. Laois were in a different bowl as a beaten provincial semi finalist. It could be a neutral ground, although Down obviously had to go to Portlaoise at the same stage last year.

No, Down were drawn as the home team (coincidentally 7 of the 8 R1 qualfiers got home draws). Unless the GAA decide to do a double bill somewhere, this game will be in Newry.

Maybe it is the case that Gilroy picked him for Westmeath knowing he'd be abroad by the time the next match came around, but I find that very hard to believe.

Then again, I wonder what came first. Ryan playing corner back in training or O'Carroll making his final decision re Thailand...
O'Carroll looks a fine footballer and I'm sure will be corner back for the Dubs in years to come, but I think this year is at least one year too soon. He needs a full NFL campaign to bring him on. His man scored 4 points off him v Westmeath, so maybe its more likely that Gilroy made his mind up that he wouldnt be starting v Kildare anyway.

Personally I thought it was a really good draw.

There are a number of these games I'd like to see (unlike the first round draw).

Monaghan v Derry would initially be seen as the pick of the ties, and while it will be interesting I don't think it might not be the best of football (!!), so I'd really like if if TV3 chose a different game to televise. Tipp v Sligo is what I'd go for. Two promoted teams who'll both be very confident of winning.

I'd also like to see the two Ulster v Leinster clashes. Wicklow v Cavan (with the added interest of Micko v Tommy Carr) and Down v Laois. I'd be hopeful of two Leinster victories. 

I'd be very interested to see Westmeath v Meath, though perhaps all province clashes in qualifiers have generally limited appeal outside of that province, unless for some reason they haven't happened in a number of years.

It is a strange one O'Carroll going off. There'd be no way he would have played v Westmeath if Gilroy thought he'd be leaving the panel immediately afterwards. Dunno if we can read anything into Shane Ryan playing at corner back in training. Would be a good move if we were sure his man would move to midfield, but I'd hate to see Shane in the corner if his man stayed there. Think we'd need to swap him with one of the half backs. But Cullen played full forward in training in the lead up to the Westmeath game and that proved to be a red herring.

Kildare are bound to be the hungrier team on Sunday. Most of the Dubs won't really care about another Leinster medal - we'll want to win the game and we'll want to stop Kidare winning Leinster, but in the back of our mind we know we'll get another chance if we lose. Mind you, I still think we'll edge it.

 Brolly has always been an advocate of player rights. But had a big falling out, and now has totally reversed his views. His criticisims are purely personal.

He then had the opportunity to rejoin LFC but thought he would be better with an extra £20k a week in his pocket and got relegated.  The little c**t has no shame full stop.  United and Owen are made for each other.  If you want to welcome him back to Anfield good luck to you.  He has burnt all bridges end of.  All he cares about his himself and his precious England caps.  Oh, and his tax bill.

Also, you can't understand the hatred for Owen when he refused to play for Liverpool when he was contracted to do so?  Or when he forced the club to sell him cheaply???

Not true.

He did not have the opportunity to go to Liverpool. Newcastle bid considerably more than Liverpool were prepared to. The Real Madrid president told him they would not accept Liverpool's final bid under any circumstances so he had a choice to either sign for Newcastle or spend a year at Madrid in the reserves. Owen initially refused and was prepared to call Madrid's bluff but Keegan and Shearer eventually persuaded him.

This time Owen had two firm offers. Man Utd and Hull. Stoke were just about to finalise their offer. Villa and Everton made some noises but no proposals. If Liverpool had made any kind of offer Owen would have jumped. But Benitez doesn't like him. He only made the half arsed bid for him a couple of years ago because Gerrard and Carragher pestered him. But he ignored them this time. Personally I think Benitez is right. I also don't blame Owen one iota for making the choice he did.

I thought both teams were equally negative/defensive/cynical. Unfair for anyone to single out Monaghan IMO.
Having an incompetent petty ref made it worse. Though I don't think he favoured one team over the other. Still I enjoyed it more than I would Wigan v Everton or similar.

With Monaghan being so dominant in midfield in the 2nd half they should really have wrapped it up comfortably. Their half backs made some great runs forward, which Armagh struggled to deal with. To me, Monaghan seemed to have the better footballers and the more room for improvement. But the amount of times a Monaghan man with the ball in the Armagh half took the wrong option was incredible. Really stupid braindead stuff, which nearly cost them. But at the end of the day the best team won IMO.

I just noticed on the GAA website that we've an early start on Sunday week. 2pm throw-in for the senior game (the Munster hurling final has the 4pm slot). This presumably means a 1200 start for the minors, or maybe 1145 to allow for the presentation.

Suits me much better 

Excellent detective work Bud. I haven't seen the accounts but would have the following comments:

There are only two shareholders in the Gaelic Players Management Company. Donal O'Neill and a guy called David Burke own 75% and 25% of the shareholding respectively.

I thought O'Neill had left the GAA.
Burke is a lawyer and used to play with Waterford (footballers I think). He's been involved with the GPA for at least 5 or 6 years.

How can another company apply for a Government Grant if they owe VAT, or better still, how did they get previous grants at a time when they appeared to owe vat?

The company paid Corporation Tax of  €21,209. This would indicate that the company made profits of €169,672 in 2007, again a tidy sum (after directors salaries etc) to be shared among two individuals.
The accounts record the company as owing €78,590 to the Revenue as at 31 December 2007 and €52,973 as at 31 December 2006. So was this owed when they got original funding? This would normally appear to indicate an ongoing problem with VAT arrears and/or cashflow

The company had "cash in bank and at hand" of €121,125 as at 31 December 2007, which is very curious given the existence of the large VAT liability as at that date. The  "cash in bank and at hand" as at 31 December 2006 was €247,626.

The tax figures are in no way unusual. The amount of €78k owing could include the 21k corporation tax and will include 3 months worth of PAYE/PRSI and at least 2 months of VAT. There is nothing to indicate the company does not pay its tax liabilities as they fall due. The company clearly has the cash, but to pay Revenue before it was due would be silly.
In my view the extracts you have shown would indicate the company does NOT have any tax issues and would qualify for a tax clearance certificate.

Not sure why the company is making profits. You would think that if they allocated the profits to player welfare activities they could have avoided the 20k tax. There are no dividends being paid out, so the net profits have been reinvested. I presume O'Neill and Burke are nominees rather than the actual owners of the company and therefore would never receive dividends? 

Ciaran McArdle was appointed as director on 1 October 2008. There is no mention either of any connection between Ciaran McArdle (who is listed as an "accountant" on the B10 return filed with the CRO to record his appointment as director) and the auditors Kearney McArdle McEnaney & Company, so it can probably be assumed that no such connection exists simply because you can't be a director of a company and be the companies auditor at the same time

McArdle has been an accountant with the GPA for a number of years. Dunno if he has any connection with Kearney McArdle McEnaney.

Darius Vassell got some reception in Turkey when he went over to sign for Ankaragucu! 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1197078/VIDEO-SPECIAL-Turkish-delight-Manchester-City-reject-Darius-Vassell-mobbed-3-000-jubilant-Ankaragucu-fans.html

Them Turks are crazy when it comes to football!

They obviously haven't seen him play.

I was just thinking about what might have been going through Vassell's head at the time:

"I wonder who they think I am..."

I'm still astonished by it. I like Owen, do not begrudge him either leaving Liverpool for Madrid or not rejoining Liverpool when he left Madrid, but I'm glad he's not rejoining now. Without his killer pace, he's an average enough footballer. Even though he's older I reckon RvN would have been a far better signing.

Unless its stage 1 of Ferguson's masterplan of getting Gerrard to Old Trafford 

A batch of 20p coins accidentally issued with no date on them could be worth £50 each, say coin collectors.

Tens of thousands of the coins have been produced in error by the Royal Mint at Llantrisant, near Cardiff.


Rare mistakes might be worth £50 each. Tens of thousands of mistakes won't be.

A rare mistake would be worth a helluva lot more than £50.

Coin collectors would want one of these and I'm sure they'd pay at least £50.
Not sure I'd sell if I had one. Even in 12 months time there'd be far less of them on the market, therefore the price would go up a lot.