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Rasharkin punishments are out;

All teams over minor banned for 1 year.

One mentor, one member and one player recommended for expulsion from GAA.

One player and member suspended for 96 weeks.

One fan banned for a year.

Four players banned for 4, 8, 72 and 96 weeks.

Very severe to ban all players over minor fr one year. Many of these players could be lost to the GAA. Having said that a lot of work needs to be done on educating clubs on how to respect officials. This kind of thing is happening much too often nowadays.

Delighted that Dublin won. I love their brand of football and they have been involved in some great games in the last few years. However does anybody else think that the current trend of getting keepers up to take frees and 45s has to be looked at by the GAA authorities. When you consider how long it takes each time for the keeper to make his way up the pitch to take the free it wastes a lot of time. If an outfield player took the same amount of time over a free the ball would be hopped.

Joe's verdict on Donegal (article also in Gaelic Life) this week. Get the impression Joe isn't crazy about Donegals style of play

Brolly's Bites - What's the point, Jim?

Jerome Quinn did a very enjoyable video piece before the Ulster final called "Derry is buzzing" from Shamrock Park in Ballinderry (see it on youtube).


Conleith Gilligan, Big Enda and Kevin McGuckin were down at the park helping out with the club's summer camp and the atmosphere was one of fun and excitement. The children were asked to predict the scores. "1-19 to 1-18" said one. Adam Gilligan, heir to the Gilligan fortune, predicted that Derry would win by 3-11 to 2-9 and "my daddy will score the Derry goals." His daddy is one of the most skilled footballers the county ever produced. When Ballinderry won the All-Ireland club title in 2002, Conleith claimed the 'Man of the Match' award in five out of their six post-Derry championship games, controlling games with his pinpoint passing and clever movement.

So, in mid July in Clones, he brought all his reservoir of talent and experience onto the pitch; a lifetime of loving and learning the game. What a colossal waste of time that all turned out to be. All those early mornings on the Shamrocks pitch, kicking ball for the sheer pleasure of it. All those Saturday afternoons when he headed off with a bag of balls over his shoulder to perfect his technique with both feet, him and Big Enda putting on a private show, kicking sideline after sideline until it was dark, revelling in it. Pathetic!

Derry and Armagh had lit up the championship in the semi-final, an exhilarating game where players expressed themselves to the full. Eoin Bradley's audacious skills brought gasps of admiration. Jamie Clarke terrified the Derry support every time the ball came near. Three brilliant goals! We came away with a spring in our step. How Pathetic! How absolutely pathetic!

Come the Ulster final, it became clear that what Derry men have been engaged in all these years is not football at all, but some childish fantasy. In Clones, Adam's daddy never got a kick, because Donegal men played ring-a-ring-a-rosy around him for the entire game. This is lots of fun. The formula is this: Get all your players to stay inside their own half, save for Colm McFadden. Then surround the inside forwards. At halftime, you can stop doing it for ten minutes. When the whistle for the second half goes, resume the position until the final whistle goes. Then Rory will say "we make no apologies for this" and express surprise that people hate it. "I am amazed at the reaction" he said after last Sunday in Croke Park. "We are not in the business of entertainment." You don't say Rory..

In that Clones final, Enda Muldoon looked awful. No Derry forward scored. Very few even managed to get a shot off. To tell you the truth, I can remember very little about the game, other than the Ring-a-ring-a-rosy. Oh, and Donegal got a penalty which Michael Murphy crashed home. That aside, the mind draws a blank.

Their destruction of their games prior to the Dublin match was not just as depressing as last Sunday because up until then, no one had played them at their own game. The other opposition (save for Kildare who only got partially sucked in) fell into the trap of throwing their defenders forward in a desperate attempt to get a score. This allowed Donegal to selectively counter-attack into the space left behind, while still keeping their defence in position. The plan is simple and effective. Blot out all space inside their own half. Create a turnover as the opposition defenders come forward, then go for the jugular. Murphy, or Lacey or Kavanagh come through the middle, then lay the ball off for the striker. Tyrone played into their hands by coming forward from the back in droves. Their high-wire act was eventually exposed, two turnovers leading to the two killer goals. 2-6 is more than enough to do the job.

There are three ways to deal with Donegal's death-grip. One is to put your head in your hands and weep. The second is reserved for the Kerrys of this world and by that I mean Kerry. The third is to do precisely the same to them. Keep your defenders in position. Use the spare men to surround Colm McFadden (above), then Michael Murphy in the unlikely event that he is allowed to go into the forwards (on Sunday, he was finally sent up on the 64th minute).

Until Jim and Rory came along, I had naively assumed Michael was a forward. There he was all those years, wasting his time learning the skills. Turns out, all he has to do to win an Ulster championship is play ring-a-ring-a-rosy along his half-back line and kick the odd free or penalty. Dublin did the only thing that can be done. Do to them what they do to you, make it a horrible stalemate, then hope to scramble the late free or penalty that will win the game.

When other teams gradually realise that Dublin's approach is the only viable way to deal with Donegal's strategy, there is only one future. Forwards, even great ones like Bernard Brogan and Michael Murphy become irrelevant. Their role will be to try to get their hands to the ball and hope to win a free as the swarm of defenders reaches in. The goalie will be an expert long range free-taker, since all the fouling is done outside the scoring zone. The best scoring forwards will in future be picked in the half back line. Midfielders as we know it will become redundant. Jack O'Shea and his ilk will be relics of a romantic past. Instead, we will have ruck rovers like they have in Aussie rules, workaholics who roam up and down the field.

The point that has been missed in all the furore caused since Sunday is that there are two mutually exclusive positions. The first is Donegal's self-interest. They are perfectly entitled to play whatever game they wish to. Incredibly, they are Ulster champions and had Colm McFadden bagged the goal he ought to have, they would be getting ready for an All-Ireland final.

The second however, is the wider interests of the game and the people who love it. On this front, we, the people, are perfectly entitled to say that what Donegal do is fundamentally damaging to Gaelic football. Jim asked afterwards what was "the point in going out in a blaze of glory", something Donegal conspicuously did not do last Sunday. Instead, they went out in a shameful and forgettable way, iced by the disgraceful play-acting of Martin Boyle. No one will remember it. No one would want to remember it.

Don't always agree with Brolly but I think he sums up Donegal pretty well.

this will be the first year for me to understand any of the commentary in the minor game so looking forward to it. cant believe commentary in english hasnt been introduced far sooner but hopefully its here to stay.

[. defence is supposed to make it difficult for other teams to score the last time i checked.

The one that always gets me is the call to "let him out " when 2 or 3 men surround an opponent. 
Why the fcuk should they ?
You never hear anyone shouting at a goalie to "let in in" 

i know. a player with the head down on some godforsaken solo run runs into traffic he shouldn't and it's the defender's fault. sport has to evolve or it's stale, predictable and uninteresting. and good sport should allow a space for innovation, even if that innovation is defensive. what i've thoroughly enjoyed with donegal is the committment, the hard slog it's taken them to get into the conditioning they are and the sheers guts to leave every last drop of energy out on the field. and thankfully football, the great sport that it is, has a place for it. this type of football demands everything is left out of the field, there is no place for the work shy. and there's something very admirable about that. you could even say it's principled.

come and have a go if your hard enough.

Let me ask you a couple of straight questions cadence...

If two teams were to meet who both play 14 men behind the ball when the opposition has it, they executed 250 odd hand-passes each and the final score was 0-5 to 0-5 is that a game that you would be interested in watching as a neutral? Do you think that GAA attendances would grow larger or smaller if matches like that were to become the norm? Do you think young people would be more attracted to the sport or less attracted to the sport? These are the bigger questions which need to be answered.

Slightly less important, but none the less important, are you happy to...

- See the end of high fielding
- less score taking
- more frees, cynical play
- the end of player vrs player duels?

I think you know what my answer is to the above but the question is can you park loyalty to Donegal for a moment and answer these questions as a neutral fan.

Totally agree. Usually support the Ulster team but couldnt bring myself to back donegal. If all teams played like that i know i would def stop watching. I grew up watching great one on one battles between good forwards and back like canavan v kieran mckeever. They were fantastic tests of skill and courage. With this 12 men behind the ball and over negative thinking it looks like those battles are consigned to history unfortunately. Harte brought in the really defensive approach, other teams have tried to copy, and Mcguiness has taken it to a different level.

I believe that Tyrone have lost a few years rebuilding due to too much loyalty to some of the old guard. I hate being harsh on players- especially the ones that delivered 3 x All Irelands- but I thought that more of them should've stepped aside over the last few seasons.

In fairness the 'but' will be who could've replaced them. Which would be a fair retort, but we would've seen more game time for people like Carlin, Cassidy, Colm Cavanagh pre this season, Mulgrew etc.

There are others who I felt could've been afforded an opportunity at some point e.g. Martin Murray.

Dublin could and prob should have beaten tyrone by about 15 points but I'm glad they didnt. Great players like Stepehn O'Neill, Jordan, Gormley and Dooher deserved to bow out in a big game at Croker in which they gave a respectable performance. They did ulster proud for the last decade.

see the smug face of des cahill saying mickey harte declined to give an interview.the managers have every right declining interviews if they dont want to give them

They should be giving interviews because it helps to promote our games. Also, older supporters who cant get out to games any more like to hear what the managers think. I think it's petty of Harte to continue with this boycott.

McHugh  like the entire bbc gaa coverage is a joke. They should have a massive clear out. Get Jerome in and a few characters like pat and joe. How many people watch the beeb gaa coverage over rte when they have the choice. I am guessing less than 20 percent.

Agree bout mchugh but jerome was a joke as a presenter also. Biased and childish and never allowed mchugh or burns to develop any points they were making. Sidebottom is pathetic as a commentator but people like Canavan and Madden are pretty good as co commentators. Canavan has a dour voice but is intelligent and provides excellent analysis. Enda Gormley is also very good in this role when he has been used. Brolly and O'Rourke are the most enjoyable to listen to but quite often they revert to lazy analysis using stereotypical ideas about teams rather than analysing what is actually happening on the pitch.

Some finish by Colm Cooper. Few too many steps though? Class act all the same:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3TcT5E-ckk&sns=tw

Gneeveg. is one of the names that defies spelling in English

Redmond Barrys goal at the weekend was pure class and may not be bettered this season. Technically brilliant in that he didnt overcarry and he also threw in a fantastic dummy before burying it in the top corner.

After that shambles today,the Larries will have to be favourites.
I wasnt down at Aughrim two years ago,or Pairc Ui Rinn last year,but that might very well the worst championship performance ive ever witnessed by a Cavan team.
What do you Larries think?

Maybe, but surely even with a bad defeat your young players will have benefitted from getting a senior championship game under their belts. Donegal are difficult opponents with a settled team and gameplan. They have a great chance of winning Ulster this year so its no shame to be beaten by them. A bit of a run in the qualifiers could suit a young team like Cavan and really bring them on.

Murphy's sending off is ridiculous.

Agreed, terrible decision.  Hopefully he can get it overturned. The crowds are bad enough for games without our class, crowd pleasing, players being suspended for barely even a yellow card offence.

Yeah Lenny but when men with the integrity, intelligence, ability and not to mention busy schedule of the likes of Harte, Mcgeeney and Cody take the trouble to make a unified stand on something I personally would respect it. There must be more to it if they're taking such a stance.

Think most of the other managers are backing Harte out of sympathy for what he has come through this year. I honestly think he has lost the run of himself with this dispute. I usually respect his opinions even though I don't always agree, but I think he is just behaving ridiculously here.

Anyone hear the Mickey Harte "skit" on the John Murray show this morning? Seemed in fairly bad taste to me. 

Didn't hear it and can't get it on the link? What was it about?

It dosn't surprise me though that this idiot Murray who is in the smart arse sense of humour would have a go and it would be in bad taste. He had a very low cut at DJ Carey there a while back over his financial miss-fortune which in my view is a very low thing to do. I stopped listening to him after that. The RTE brigade probably think he is a great laugh though.

It was a pretend phone call and him asking Mickey what he should do and play on the show. Ended up playing "Pretty Little Girl From Omagh".

I see the Indo today backs up your view Ulick. Sounds like it was in bad taste and Harte deserves better in view of recent family tragedies. Typical poor attempt at humour by the drone Murray and his RTE colleagues.

Fair point but Harte and the other managers have no business stciking their nose into RTEs appointments process. I think its very stupid of Harte to not be giving interviews and it will be counter productive in the long run.

Thanks for the feedback folks suggestions are with webteam

Looks really good, Chris. Keep up the good work and thanks very much for the twitter updates on matches. Really apprecaiate your hard work.

He seems like a bit off an ass to be fair..  Surely the sign of a good ref is that no one talks about them after a game. But again the GAA top brass seem to pick the more harsh refs for big games and this takes away from the spectacle usually.  I wonder did he ever play himself?

At the start of the championship last year the refs were told to referee the handpass really tightly. The Derry Armagh game was the first one to be reffed like this and it was a farce. From then on all the other championship games were reffed less and less tightly with regard to the handpass rules. Most refs now apply common senese to allow the game to flow. At the moment Hughes is the only ref who refs this rule really tightly and he is way over the top. He has almost completely destroyed every game i've seen him ref.