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Saw a stat on twitter earlier regarding this...since the a4 from Ballygawley to Dungannon has been opened 2 people have died. Over the same time frame 34 have now lost their lives on the (albeit longer stretch) a5.

Absolutely disgusting that this project has still been stalled due to underhand legal protests by the aa5a.

My number 1 tip would be to be invest in a half decent bluetooth speaker. Kids love music and you can get so much exercise and movement created simply by playing music and getting them to star jump, hop, run fast/slow and pause when music stops.

I focus on simple things like moving round the space and bounce ball 10 times, throw then catch the ball in the basket. Kids love it when you introduce adults who'll then try to knock the ball out of the basket, gets them to focus and finding space and improving their peripheral vision by avoiding collisions.

Interesting reading the debate around whether 6.5s should play games at the end of the session. I've looked after the age bracket for 6+ years and if you ask kids the one thing they want to do its games. Still think there's room for very small sided, fun-focused games.

Joe Oguz can feel pretty hard done by here but Fergal and Brian likely still have nightmares about the ease with which Mayo cut through us for goals. O'Neill provides more covet around that 6 channel and we'll likely see Oguz come on in the 2nd half for McGeary.

Where you seeing the fixtures lads?

Very enjoyable game yesterday, very little sideways shite and some excellent passages of score for score football. Fair play to the Armagh fans, they travelled in serious numbers. Hasn't been a crowd like that in Healy Park for a long time.

I see Galway v Kerry is on the TG4.  Someone said bbc was showing armagh Tyrone?

Tyrone v Armagh on the BBC iplayer app

There's no way in hell McStay going to name even a 75% strength team imo. Why would he risk any of his main men in a meaningless game. The league final the week after is the perfect opportunity to go hard in prep for the championship game.

I'd be very nervous If I'm from Armagh...

- Monaghan have that traditional dog fight in last game mentality
- Mayo likely to go very weak
- Tyrone playing for league final and have the motivation of the Armagh defeats last year.
- breaking news, Rian O'Neill out too

Good chance there could be 4 teams finishing on 8 points next weekend if Kerry, Tyrone and Ros all win. Looking at the table Galway have +6 over Kerry and +9 Advantage over Tyrone and Ros. Kerry would be in the driving seat if they can secure a 4+ win over Galway.

Slightly off topic but penny for the thoughts of STG on the job Mickey Harte has done with Louth? One game away from being a division 1 team, fair play to him.

Am I right in thinking Tyrone are now safe? Monaghan can catch us but we've the head to head plus a +17 point difference.

Good win to pretty much guarantee div 1 football. Dirty day for decent football but job done. Now on to next week to relegate the apple munchers.

Joe doing a right job of keeping Monaghan in the game, who have only scored the single point from play.

He's some boy Joe, I thought Cavan people weren't fond of Mongahan wans? Some of those frees were laughable.

Serious performances by Omagh in the semi and final...winning by 18 and 17 points respectively. Almost a pity it was so one sided as the atmosphere never really got going in Croker. Great achievement for my own club having 3 players on the 15 one being the captain with 2-5 from play and another being man of the match.

Any one of 4 or 5 schools in Ulster could have made a great cracking at winning today. Standard very high across the province this year.

Ruairi Canavan is thrilled to have the opportunity to represent Tyrone at both under-20 and senior level this season, following a recent change to GAA rules.

Canavan says it's important to him to be able to play with the group of friends he has progressed through the Tyrone academy with and represent the county at U-20.

The Errigal Ciaran youngster, a precocious forward talent, has little to prove in this year's EirGrid under-20 grade after winning Footballer of the Year at that level last season.

But he is adamant that the buzz of playing games is what drives him on.

"I get the buzz from playing games with boys I have been training with and friends with for years," the younger son of Tyrone great Peter tells RTE Sport.

"I love getting to the pitch with a few footballs to kick about with my brother, cousins and teammates. It is important for me to play Under-20.

"I came up through the ranks with a good lot of coaches and players and it was class last year when we got a bit of a reward but we will push on again now hopefully."

Tyrone meet Down at the end of the month in the Eirgrid U-20 Ulster championship. Soon after Canavan, and brother Darragh, will be in senior provincial action with the county.

The lethal young attacker hit 1-04 from play and 1-07 in total as Paul Devlin's side beat Brian Flanagan's Kildare in the 2022 All-Ireland final.

A week earlier he hit 0-08 in the semi-final against Kerry. That was in keeping with his general prowess in front of the posts as he accumulated 1-34 across five games in the Ulster and All-Ireland series.


Ruairí Canavan (L) celebrates with team-mate Lórcan McGarrity after winning the 2022 EirGrid GAA Football All-Ireland Under 20 Championship
Getting the top young players to play in this competition has not always been simple. Until recently the GAA applied a rule effectively preventing youngsters who had played senior championship from lining out with their under-20 side in the same season.

But backed by fellow dual counties Cork and Galway, Wexford proposed a new seven-day window at the recent GAA Congress and saw it sail through with 82% of the vote , meaning that an U20 player can play for both his under-age and senior county teams - just not within a defined seven-day period, Friday morning to Thursday evening.

And yet difficulties remain in assembling players of this age cohort.

"It is hard to get everyone together at this level all over the country, that is clear to see," Canavan says.

"Even this year, Tyrone has three schools in All-Ireland finals, including the Hogan Cup and we are still waiting on boys to come back from that.

"There are also the Fresher and Sigerson competitions taking players but everyone is the same. It's not easy to blend everyone together and you just have work with what you have.

"At least boys are playing at a good level and will come back in good shape."

Canavan's under-20 manager Devlin is now seven seasons in the job as under-20 boss.

"Paul is all about developing players, as are Mugsy (Owen Mulligan) and Dermy (Dermot Carlin) in his backroom. They just want to make us better.

"The end goal is for lads to play with the seniors on big days at Croke Park but if we get success at under-20 level too, we will take that.

"Those lads will take as much satisfaction if a few of us go to play senior football in Croke Park."

Canavan believes that the gap between U-20 and senior is not as wide as people may think.

"There are some differences, you might have that split second on the ball that you won't get at senior level and, physically, there might be elements, but the gap is not as wide as you may imagine."

Speaking of senior level, he says his teammates will take a lot of confidence from their recent win over Kerry in the Allianz League.

"Yeah, it's a big thing for us, I think so," he said.

"We were getting a wild lot of stick there for a few weeks so it was nice to put in a performance.

"We'd been training hard for weeks but it just wasn't showing up on the pitch so it was great to get that win. Hopefully we can drive on now."

Canavan will be looking to do that at both levels. He wouldn't want it any other way.

Jarlath Burns today...

"I would like to see a situation where on a referee's report there is an index, one to five, of how the home team, opposing team and supporters behaved so then we will be dealing with data," he said

So which clubs are going to be at the bottom of the table in this league? 😉