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He could hardly hold onto a ball in midfield and couldn't pass to the required level. Fan favourite among some as he showed a bit of pashun and popped up with a few goals, but he was a net negative to the team. No top side in the EPL would have him.

Good to get one poisonous f**ker out of United anyway.

Was he not one of your best players last year? I found it strange but what's the story?

He spent half the season at another club?

Down have a massive learning curve for next year. Div 2 won't be easy. We kicked some poor wides yesterday. And while we never looked like losing, croke pk seems to hold a fear factor for us. That goal line scramble at thr end could've ended up disastrously for Down. A game that shouldve been won a lot easier could also have been lost very easily.
Final won, move on and I'm sure Laverty has already begun planning for next year.

Not an expert on football, but Downs in game superiority never seems to be reflected on the scoreboard, Sligo was very much proof of that and yesterday going into the final few minutes with a five point lead looked to be enough and ultimately was, but that goal at the end made it a more nervous wait than it needed to be.

There'll be a lot less possession for Down next year in Div2 and in the Sam Maguire, so whatever possession we do get needs to count.

I think Down are so error prone in part because they're mostly not punished for it in Div 3/Tailteann Cup as they're considerably stronger than most other teams. They'll have to tighten up next year or the Division 2 & Sam stay might be a short one.

If you're from one of the three counties in Ulster that are not occupied and you have worked down south as in far down south you soon realise that the people down there throw all of Ulster under the one canvas.

I've grown to have more of an affinity with all the Ulster teams because of that.

Having said that I'm slightly torn as I have a love of Galway too but if it was Mayo or Kerry in the final etc I'd be 100% in favour of Armagh.

I suppose they throw the Ulster teams under the Ulster canvas? And Galway/Mayo/Sligo/Roscommon?leitrim under the Connacht canvas and so on?

A lot will depend on the fitness of Kelly, Walsh and Comer.
If they are all fit then Galway will be favourites and rightfully so. If not then Donegal have every chance.
One thing Donegal need to develop is the ability to find a full forward with a long kick pass. What they do they do very well but it is a bit one dimensional.

Very unlikely Kelly will be fit. He's been struggling all year and hasn't been playing well. In his current condition he's actually not much of a loss. Galway would be much better off with a fully fit player in there. At 100% he'd get on any team in the country but he hasn't been that player this year.

Walsh looked like he went off holding his hamstring, which (if accurate) is hard to fix in 2 weeks.

Mannion, Jack and McCarthy in for the Dubs. All guns loaded.

Dublin going for an early blitz to finish the match early

Curse of the commentator after the potential of "a real classic" was mentioned twice within the first 6 minutes.

Some round this fella has going at the US Senior Open

Obviously hit the beer after the second hole in one

[Not much of a club man arranging his wedding for a friday during the season]

Not much of a club man arranging his wedding for a friday during the season . Bredagh not at fault, they are fighting for every point to survive . siege mentality 

Mental comment.

Soft penalty. Game over I'd imagine.

Never a penalty. He was falling before he was touched.

Jersey was being pulled in the square before he fell.

[Making it near on impossible to beat the table toppers.]

Down v Offaly a dead rubber. Are many others nothing games.

It is the advantage of the current round robin system. Only 1 dead rubber out of 8 games, and a meaningful difference to top the group by going straight through to the QF and an extra week off.

Whereas if it reverted to the Top 2 only qualify, which is what the Sunday Game/RTE in particular are demanding, there would be 5 dead rubbers out of the 8 games next week.

The problem is that the Quarter Finals end up as uneven games as the 2nd/3rd teams are wrecked from outings 3 weeks in a row. Making it near on impossible to beat the table toppers.

2 out of 4 lost their quarter final last year.

Rory and the wife divorcing - not the greatest prep for a major you'd imagine.

I don't get why they haven't waited until next Monday... why have the hype around it the week of a major?

See above - because I think he's fine with it. Something happened...No doubt.

Most likely it was going to be leaked and he wanted to get ahead of the story.

Absolute scutter and the ref is useless.

Ref has been horrible but Armagh have been shite so far!

Can't blame the ref for this shite

He made the wrong call with the free in front of the benches before the goal (it wasn't easy to see the Armagh player had got the ball, from his angle, before hitting the Down player in the back),  but yeah, the teams need to look at themselves.

Free was for Doherty being emptied on the sideline by 3rd man in when nowhere near the ball.

Armagh must be worth an each way bet. Likely to be top seeds having had some warm up matches to try systems/squad before the Ulster final against a jaded Donegal or Tyrone. They'll probably not have a better chance of making a semi or a final for a while.

In all seriousness, bar drawing Dublin I'd be very disappointed if we don't make a semi final. Donegal, Tyrone, Kerry, Derry, Galway, Mayo all very good teams but have their flaws, time we pushed on, sick of hard luck stories at the qf stage.

You have a serious chance of making top seed and then a 66% chance of drawing Clare or Louth/Kildare as 2nd seed in your group. Avoid the preliminary quarter final thereafter and you're set up to beat the hard luck stories!

Armagh must be worth an each way bet. Likely to be top seeds having had some warm up matches to try systems/squad before the Ulster final against a jaded Donegal or Tyrone. They'll probably not have a better chance of making a semi or a final for a while.

That keeper is a bomb scare. Go on Donegal

he can save a penalty though!

Well...