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Option 2 is nonsense, are there 11 league games or do you just play some teams and not all? Way to complicated.
5 divisions of 7, where are getting 35 counties from? Are their three from England and will Cavan keep fielding? I know London field and so do Warickshire, who is the other county?
So basically Kilkenny or Tipperary don't fancy a trip to Belfast every year so rearrange the league. I know the Cats were up here twice this year league and championship, maybe that's the issue
Every year there is talk about spreading and promoting the game, then a big county gets annoyed and we alter things to suit them. Same old same old.

Deal agreed with West Ham for Maguire, best thing for him and the club.

Also a massive wage off the books, will there be a replacement before the window closes?

Do they need a replacement? Varane, Martinez, Lindelof, Evans and then Shaw can slot in.

Evans to replace Maguire, transfer fee and massive wages off the book, Evans becomes 5th choice centre back and part time coach probably at much much lower wage than Maguire. It all makes sense but I wouldn't rule out a late swoop for another centre back as Evans is old and very injury prone.

Creggan and Glenariffe must have been spicy, ended up 13 a side according to the Saffron Gael. Anyone at it? Three sent off in the first half one in the second.

[Rossa by 3]

SHC
ST JOHNS V ROSSA  Rossa by 3
CUSHENDALL V BALLYCASTLE CUSHENDALL BY 10 (agreed)
AHOGHILL V DUNLOY DUNLOY BY 20 ( may only be 15 depends how much either team is bothered )
ST ENDAS V LOUGHGIEL LOUGHGIEL BY 10 (again agreed )

IHC
CAREY V STGALLS CAREY BY 3
GLENARM V RANDALSTOWN Glenarm by 2
GLENARIFFE V CREGGAN GLENARIFFE BY 8
GLENRAVEL V ST PAULS ST PAULS BY 4

JHC
LAMH DHEARG V RASHARKIN Lamh dearg by 2
DAVITTS V ARMOY ARMOY BY 3
ST BRIGIDS V BALLYMENA BALLYMENA BY 5
GORT NA MONA V CLOUGHMILLS CLOUGHMILLS BY 13

JBHC
BELFAST SAINTS V LOCH MOR Belfast saints by 3
LOCHBEG V ARDOYNE ARDOYNE BY 6

All Ireland Final this weekend. Same two as last year and last year was a classic. Limerick will rightly be hot favourites, their record in finals under Kiely is exceptional.
Looking back on last years final Limerick have got Cian Lynch back to some degree but have lost Finn and Hannon which is a bad blow. The Cats have a new manager and slightly modified style. I think the Cats are fractionally better than last year but I don't think a fractional improvement will beat limerick who are still the best team in the country by some distance when they put their mind to it.

Johnny Sexton could end up missing the world cup as he now faces a 24 week ban for intimidating the referee after the european cup final.

So Johnny ends up getting a 3 game ban which rules him out of the 3 warm up games for the world cup. No real harm done as he has tonnes of experience.

He is a somewhat lucky boy, Rugby really has no time for backchat to the ref, unlike the GAA or soccer

Hopefully it is a prelude to his statement when he leaves......although from what I hear he actually wants to stay and fight for his place.

Stripping him of the captaincy was sign enough that isn't going to be a regular starter and he should take the hint.

He's not going to pick up that big salary anywhere else so he'll do a Phil Jones and ride it out to the bank, although somehow he's an England career to think about.

I think he will end up at West Ham on a loan to buy deal. He has two years left on his contract at United so if West Ham agree a deal to sign him next summer at a reduced wage for three years for 20-25m its a good deal all round. For this year they take him on loan and pay 75% of his wages, if he plays 25 or more games it triggers the deal to buy.
Something like that, he will end up playing somewhere else as he needs playing time before the Euros.

Surely the argument is clear - equality

They should get the basic minimum player welfare needs that all players deserve, same as the men.

Donal Og put the point across on the Sunday Game last night far more eloquently than I can.

Difference is the GAA control the mens game, but the GAA has no say in either Ladies Football or Camogie.

Their truck is with them, not the GAA.

Thats a fair point but its about time camogie and ladies football were under the same umbrella as the GAA with camogie and ladies football being given equal representation in decision making bodies. Why has the GAA never had a female president? I don't know about your clubs but in ours a lot of the ladies do an awful lot of dull boring administrative work to keep the whole thing running and fair play to them for volunteering.

Dublin are a big price at 11/2, if Clare have any sort of hangover from the Munster final

Clare can throw in a ropey performance when least expected. Went into the all Ireland semi v KK as favourites last year and were beat out the gate in 15 minutes. Dubs might be worth a sneaky £10

Cushendalls loss is Cushenduns gain! A good few wouldve came up with Naomh Padhraig. Older players juvenile with Dall but a few senior transfers recently too

Naomh Padhraig got to two minor finals in three years about 6 years ago, mainly backboned by Cushendun hurlers. Plus they have had a few playing with both Cushendall and Glenariffe in recent years

Nicola Sturgeon arrested
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-65871857

Nicola Sturgeon released without charge. Handy how it got Boris and the Tory infighting off the front pages.

https://twitter.com/columeastwood/status/1667984392071913475

This is mad stuff from Colm. It's on a par with Danny Kennedys anti-democratic ramblings a few weeks ago. Unionists won't have a mayor in Derry for the next 4 years because they did not get enough seats to warrant one under the D'Hondt system, not because those pesky Shinners are up to their tricks.
I honestly almost put this in the WTF thread.

I find it amazing how this is such an issue for the local media when unionists are lacking representation in Derry or Fermanagh but is never an issue when nationalists are lacking representation in Ards and North Down or in Mid and East Antrim. Usual double standards from the usual suspects.

[NI has ready access to buoyant demand only an hour away and has access to to whole EU market. Public provision may not increase but there should be some opportunities for the private sector to enjoy modest success. For instance, if you could make modular houses in Derry or Tyrone and put them on a lorry then they would find a use for them in the 26 counties.]

I think what we are seeing is a managed decline of the 6 counties whether through choice or necessity, similar to Thatchers government policy regarding the city of Liverpool in the 1980s. I don't see that improving anytime soon. The UK economy is tanking and this place is not a priority and the DUP had every chance to try and make it work but they have shown that its their own party before union or anything else.

NI has ready access to buoyant demand only an hour away and has access to to whole EU market. Public provision may not increase but there should be some opportunities for the private sector to enjoy modest success. For instance, if you could make modular houses in Derry or Tyrone and put them on a lorry then they would find a use for them in the 26 counties.

Are there 10% of Unionists or those from a Unionist background who would vote for a UI ?

Ive never seen this reflected in any poll

Yes, and definitely more than 10%. However, they won't stand up and shout about it for fear of hate and ridicule. Many protestants are completely fed up with their politicians and the way that they're treated by the British. They didn't vote for Brexit and are very happy to travel on an Irish passport.

Vocal unionists and their politicians think these silent people will come out and vote for the status quo, but those politicians are in for a big shock. Just look at how independant Lady Harman was the north Down Westminster MP, and then the seat went to Alliance. It's anyone but the DUP and UU.

Now some of the unionists that might have been open to discussion have moved into the Alliance camp, but thee are still the type of anti Brexit unionists who can be talked to.

I wouldn't disagree with that in terms of the private sector, it's the public expenditure side of things that are being cut in real terms. Without the £15b or so annual subvention this place is still an economic basket case no matter what benefits the dual market access for goods will bring. I don't see any form of UK government be they Tory or Labour reversing those cuts whilst they have ever increasing levels of government debt.

This is a very important point, the UK is in serious difficulties post Brexit but the governmnent and the media don't want to admit it. Have a listen to Chris Patten last week on Question time about his opinion on the state of the UK economy. Costs will have to be cut and NI is ripe for the chop, no votes to lose over here.

Think it will be a few years before Dunloy are caught. Sadly, for the county, there is only 1 club capable of doing so. Not a good situation. Having said that, great work going on with hurling in many NA juvenile teams.

That's true to a point but my young nephew is on a team that's working hard and 'competing' but yes the NA teams are pretty good

We were invited to play naomh padraig in armoy a few weeks back at u10.5, best team ive seen at that age group by a considerable margin.

St Olcans Armoy won the Cumman Na Bunscoil North Antrim competition about two weeks ago. Some achievement for a school with 50-60 pupils. Hope springs eternal.

[41.5% voted for Nationalist or Nationalist leaning parties ( I haven't counted the independents)]

SF are playing a blinder with the Border Poll. It's the same tactics that vote Leave used for Brexit. There is no definition, no costing, no comparison of advantages and disadvantages.
It's all about emotion and we want it now.

No they aren't. In fact they're doing the exact opposite.

Emotion will get you so far, but it won't get a 50%+1 majority in NI at the minute.

The demographics may indeed be swinging in the right direction but not enough so the middle 15% (based on the LE votes for Alliance and the Greens) will need hard facts and figures and SF won't be able to swing these voters, it'll be a combination of a Civic forum and Irish Gov proposals as to what that UI will look like.

There's a bit of work to do yet.

41.5% voted for Nationalist or Nationalist leaning parties ( I haven't counted the independents)
38.1% voted for Unionist parties, no independents included either)


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2023/northern-ireland/results

Someone on twitter had added up all the independents, puts nationalism on 44%. There were a lot of independent republicans standing in Tyrone and Fermanagh. Irish news had nationalism 27,000 votes ahead. Of the middle ground lots more of their transfers broke the way of nationalism rather than unionism. Remember if nationalism is on 44% and the middle ground on 15% it only takes 40% of middle ground to break nationalisms way to win the poll.