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Should be interesting to see who gets these this year.

Would say MD MacAuley is nailed on but has anyone else been consistent enough.


Likes of both OSheas, Sean Cavanagh,Darren Hughes have had 1 or 2 good games but often followed by average ones.

Word is McNulty not staying in Laois next year. Was he under pressure as he seemed to be doing an ok job with what he had to work with?

Less than 2 weeks till Ulster championship kicks off.Latest odds.

Armagh look short odds, not sure what these are based on. Down on paper have their best chance of getting to a final since 2003 is it?

Tyrone          15/8
Donegal        9/2
Down             5/1
Armagh          6/1
Derry             13/2
Monaghan     7/1
Fermanagh    25/1
Antrim            25/1
Cavan            50/1         

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/northern-ireland/17917205

Real blow for Down,seem to get a lot of injuries for some reason. Despite a lot of skillful nippy forwards Benny is still the go to guy for Down after all these years.

See GAA Board is heading for the 1 million mark.

Hopefully someone has something suitably classy composed to mark the occasion. Not Sinn Fein or Nordie related I Hope.

Don't see an exisiting thread for this.

Maybe it is old age and I know I shouldn't but I have just realised that I like Olly Murs'music.

Anyone else got anything they would like to own up to?

2012 season is about to start. What do posters think their county can achieve this year?

The Ulster championship is wide open this year (although you would still have Tyrone as favourites) with 6 teams having a relaistic chance of winning it. I don't think player for player Donegal are better than Armagh but they have a game plan and a system that every player has bought in to.

Armagh should be aiming to stay in Div 1 and ambush Tyrone come the Ulster championship. It would be good to see a few younger players like Morgan,Grugan and McParland given a run of games as well.

In terms of Sam you would say there are 3 teams (maybe 4 if Tyrone can turn things around) in contention.

Both of these have a lot of bodies within close vicinity with little by way of excitement yet 1 is critically acclaimed with viewing fgures over 10m and the other is castigated as being the end of football as we know it.

In all fairness have watched bits of this with the wife but cannot see what the fuss is about. Makes Terry Griffiths look like Ronne O'Sullivan on speed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/sep/21/rem-rock-band-split

Sad news tonight although I haven't heard an album of theirs since New Adventures in Hi Fi they were one of my favourite bands during my teenage years. Life's Rich Pageant and AFTP probably their best 2 albums.

Saw them at Slane in 1995 with Oasis, great day out.

With Dublin making the breakthrough this year with a relatively young teaam and U21 champions last year and Cork stung by their collapse this year and with players to come back from injury chomping at the bit, are we about to see a new rivalry in football?

Tyrone and Kerry will still be there or thereabouts but both will lose at least a few players who have multiple AI winners medals and will not be easily replaced and some that stay on will have too many miles on the clock. Dark horses will be Kildare and Donegal who with the right changes could go closer next year.

Either way with 4 different winners in the last 4 years the football championship for all its faults is in good shape.

Did anyone see the Fianna Fail documentary on TV3 tonight?

Bertie was on again,still lying,still deluded. Could have ran for presidency only for Fianna Fail toxic brand, had no bank account in his own name,economy was in good shape when he left.He has claimed something like €250k in expenses since 2008, aside from his massive pension.

How was this weasel so popular for so long? Seems to have few friends left in FF and even Celia Larkin is having a go at him. I suppose economy was going well and he was getting credit for it. Also Gift Grub character probably helped his image.

What I don't understand is that when economy in South was growing steadily with real job creation in 1997, how did FF get into power ahead of FG/Lab government?

There has been a downturn both in Ireland and UK for about 3/4 years now but how real is it?

Obviously gov revenues are down and deficits are up. Unemployment is up a lot in the South and a bit in the North but everywhere you look there are few signs of any real downturn.

For anyone who has lost their job the recession is real but there is no shortage of new cars about North and South, weddings are still as big as they were, everywhere you go people have IPhones/blackberries and every child in the country has the latest games/gadgets. The fleadh in Cavan recently had massive crowds and every major concert seems to be sold out.

Everyones income is down a bit but is this recession not really hitting people the way the one in the 1980s did?

One of the depressing aspects of the Donegal v Dublin game was the almost total adherence to short kick outs.

Tyrone started the trend of looking for short kick outs as much as possible and it has been copied by teams such as Wexford, Cork and Dublin but Donegal conceding every kick out on Sunday to Dublin and starting defending at the 45 was particularly depressing.

One of the great skills and spectacles of football is high fielding and there have been many great exponents over the last 10/15 years. Men like O'Se,McGrane,Galvin, McDermott, Walsh and Whelan ( in bursts).

Theres nothing like a great catch to get a team going or the crowd on it's feet and it would be sad if all teams started going down this route.The GAA missed an opportunity a few years ago when they decided not to go ahead with the mark which worked well in the league a few years ago. I remember Mickey Harte coming out against it but it may have encouraged more kickouts if the chances of retaining possesion were increased.

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ira-victims-to-go-to-libya-to-resolve-compensation-58325.html

Is this for real? 2 billion? Surely the new Libyan regime has better things too than meet Willie Frazier. I'm sure this money will be wisely distributed through an office in Markethill somewhere.

Media is on fire this week with this. Some people in neg equity salivating at prospect of getting their mortgage wrote down whereas other argue only those in serious arrears should be helped.

Costs range from €6bn to €40bn. Interesting to see some commentators such as Constantin Gurdgev and Morgan Kelly turn from doom mongers to advocates of this. Personal interest perhaps?

Surely a reformed bankruptcy procedure where it is cheap, quick and short (3 to 5 years) in terms of coming out of it would solve this. Debtor would lose the house but could get on with their lives. There is also a narrow focus on mortgage debt when a lot of people need help with other forms of debt such as credit cards.

Where does anyone stand on this?

http://www.incentivetravel.co.uk/airportairline/2800-virgin-atlantic-introduces-emotional-health-warnings-on-inflight-movies-

Heard this discussed today. Haven't saw some of these movies but what movies have reduced anyone to tears?

Off the top of my head, The Champ, Stand By Me, Old Yeller, Big Fish and the opening sequence of Up (heart of stone if you didn't cry at this)

The Gaa have put a lot of resources into developing hurling in Dublin and it has bore fruit with Dublin now probably the 3rd best team in the country having won the league and gave Tipp their hardest game of the year.

A few years ago they were barely in the top 10 in the country and the underage coaching and development work over the years has paid off.

If the same resources/effort was put into a county in football with a large population base which had won nothing in a long time such as Antrim or Down could a similiar turnaround occur?

May as well kick this off. How does anyone see the league going this year?
My Predictions (for what they are worth).

1. Man Utd - have bought well although keeper may take time to adjust and Rooney will be hitting the ground running this year.

2. Chelsea - have not strengthened enough, still need a right back and not convinced Torres will ever be the same player he was but like the cut of the jib of AVB and despite age of squad have enough know how to go close enough.

3. Man City - some people are talking of them as title contenders but they may not have improved from last year. If Tevez goes he will be hard to replace despite the money City have spent and City still do not have the creativity to unlock the top teams.

4. Liverpool - hard one to call but think they may pip Arsenal who still have not fixed their defence and will be to reliant on RVP who could get injured at any time.

Relegated - Blackburn, Wigan, Swansea.

As for my own team Everton, Moyes will do well to keep us around 8th.

Although not particularly wanting Tyrone to win the AI, I still felt an element of sadness if this is the way the inter county careers of men like Dooher,Gormley, Jordan and O'Neill have ended. Men who many in Armagh would have disliked, envied and admired in different measures.

It is premature to say how many of this team will retire but undoubtedly theTyrone team as we knew them is at an end.As Martin McHugh mentioned yesterday you wouldn't want this Tyrone team to repeat the mistakes of the Kerry team in playing on for too long. 6 of the team who started yesterday started in 2003 final and 2 more came on. There may be an abundance of talent with minor AI medals coming through but talent alone will not replace the drive, determination, the decision making that this group of players had.

If anyone can build a new team Mickey Harte can. If he decided to walk away he will go down as one of the best intercounty managers of all time and this group of players the best Ulster team of all time.We can be proud that we were able to go toe to toe with them for a few years but ultimately Mickey Harte and a better half forward line meant they were that bit ahead of us.

Watching the Shamrock Rovers game the other night when the 1st goal went in and effectively killed the tie.

I have seen this so many times where the away goal has killed the game.

Away goals in Europe were introduced at a time where teams faced long journeys, hostile crowds and dodgy refs and were happy to get everyone behind the ball.

Times have changed (apart from the hostile crowds and dodgy refs). In a lot of the big games now the home team is more likely to sit back in the 1st leg and a 0-0 at home is seen as a decent result.

Is it time to scrap the current system and at least let away goals only count after extra time?