Messages

Still all to play for with 15 minutes to play.  Derry 1-8 Tyrone 2-6

U20 final on at 7:30pm.

Wouldn't be comparing it professional sports. The proof will be in the pudding for the All Ireland Quarter finals this summer. I believe Mayo and Tyrone would have given a better account of themselves last year with more time to prepare for their Quarter final and it's worth taking into account Tyrone and Mayo would be among the best when it come to fitness and conditioning of their players. 

No point in pulling out hypothetical situations to fit your narrative. Both Kerry and Dublin would widely be seen as better sides with bigger squads than either Tyrone or Mayo. I could equally point to how a rested Armagh were knocked out by Monaghan (after extra time) despite them playing 3 weeks in a row and who were seen as underdogs prior to that match. There are a whole range of factors that could affect a result including momentum, injuries, suspensions, illness, match fitness, confidence, freshness etc.

It might well be an advantage depending on the circumstances but I just don't think its as cut and dried as some people try to make out. There will be players who would much prefer to be playing every week because if they aren't they are invariably spending a full day in a training camp on the weekend before the next match anyway.   

Granted Dublin and Kerry are better but 12 points the better team I think not.  No amount of training replicates a high intensity championship knock out tie and coming through that and going up against a rested Kerry,Dublin the following weekend most certainly doesn't help in making an All Ireland quarter a competitive watch. 

Wouldn't be comparing it professional sports. The proof will be in the pudding for the All Ireland Quarter finals this summer. I believe Mayo and Tyrone would have given a better account of themselves last year with more time to prepare for their Quarter final and it's worth taking into account Tyrone and Mayo would be among the best when it come to fitness and conditioning of their players.   

The last rr - pre qf- qf
 is the killer

I wonder how many first seeds will win their qf . Will it be 3/4 like last year ?

You would have to assume 4/4 would be the standard every year for the group winners making it the the semis.
This would have been the case last year only for Monaghan's penalty win over Armagh.

I wouldn't be surprised if 3/4 would be the usual most years for the first seeds in as regards making the semis. I think most years you've a very decent chance of one of the Ulster teams turning over one of the other provincial winners.

As you said the the preliminary quarter-finals route with 3 games in 3 weekends looks like an absolute death-trap of a route towards Sam. It's very hard to see a team winning Sam through that route.

Yes would expect that to be the case until such time that all Quarter finalists are given at least two weeks prep time.  If we get another 3 Quarter final mis-matches this year as we did last year then HQ need to tweak it.

I don't think there is any chance that all the quarter-finalists are going to be given two weeks prep time for a fair while yet (think 10 years or so).

If you give the four preliminary quarter-finalists two weeks, you would need to give the group winners three weeks (assuming you did't stagger the groups) which would tilt the advantage of winning the group a fair bit away from the group winners. I don't think the powers that be want to reduce the benefit of winning the group/increase the odds for the teams coming 2nd and 3rd in the group.

Even if you were to play around with the timing and stagger the group stages to give all four quarter-finalist two weeks, it would lead to a situation whereby you gave some sides three weeks and some two at a later stage which I think the powers-that be would consider a worse option.

Long story short I think the GAA is going to keep the status quo in place for a good few years yet and that winning your group is going to be key if you want to win Sam.

The powers to be will surely want all of their All Ireland Quarters to be as competitive as they can possibly be?  In year one of this new format we got highly competitive Prem Quarter finals decided on fine margins and only one of the All Ireland Quarter finals going that way. If that is repeated this year it will have to be looked at sooner than later.

Topping your group avoiding play off game and not playing any of the group winners in the last 8 is enough of advantage IMO.

The last rr - pre qf- qf
 is the killer

I wonder how many first seeds will win their qf . Will it be 3/4 like last year ?

You would have to assume 4/4 would be the standard every year for the group winners making it the the semis.
This would have been the case last year only for Monaghan's penalty win over Armagh.

I wouldn't be surprised if 3/4 would be the usual most years for the first seeds in as regards making the semis. I think most years you've a very decent chance of one of the Ulster teams turning over one of the other provincial winners.

As you said the the preliminary quarter-finals route with 3 games in 3 weekends looks like an absolute death-trap of a route towards Sam. It's very hard to see a team winning Sam through that route.

Yes would expect that to be the case until such time that all Quarter finalists are given at least two weeks prep time.  If we get another 3 Quarter final mis-matches this year as we did last year then HQ need to tweak it.

Bayern Munich 2 Real Madrid 2 it finished and sets things up nicely for the 2nd leg.

Real Madrid 1-0 ahead with their first attack of the match on 25 minutes.  Six shots for Bayern Munich on goal before that.

Group 1 Galway/Mayo,Armagh/Donegal,Derry Westmeath

Group 2 Dublin/Louth Galway/Mayo Roscommon Cavan

Group  3 Donegal/Armagh Kerry/Clare,Tyrone Cork

Group 4 Kerry/Clare Dublin/Louth Monaghan Meath

Tailteann cup draw

Group 1  Kildare  Leitrim  Longford  Waterford

Group 2  Sligo Antrim Wexford Tipperary

Group 3 Fermanagh Laois Wicklow Carlow

Group 4 Down Offaly Limerick London

Louth v Meath Leinster U20 final starting at 7:30pm live on TG4






Decent half of football.  Meath 1-6 Louth 0-6

Result Meath 3-13 Louth 0-12.    Meath's first Leinster U21/U20 title for 23 years.

22k at Croke Park yesterday. Sure everything is grand. Well done the GAA. Hope ye are proud.

Ostriches.

Would definitely do no harm to move the Leinster games out of CP for a year or two. No Dubs I know would have an issue with this

Louth will give Dublin a game for 45/50 mins. Kildare, what is the craic there? Could be doing with a McGuinness or a Gallagher type manager

Kildare played Dublin in Croke Park twice last year.

In the league Dublin 1-11 Kildare 0-13 and in the Leinster championship Dublin 0-14 Kildare 0-12.  If they were playing Dublin yesterday it probably would be a 15 to 20 point defeat.

9k at the meeting of the big 2 in the Leinster hurling championship today. I imagine it won't get the same headlines the 22k at Dublin Meath got

Compared to Munster the interest in the Leinster Hurling championship doesn't seem to be great.

Why is the final between the 2 d2 teams? Hmmmn.

Div 2 seems to be the place to be nowadays, current All Ireland champions played in Div 2 last year.

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