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On shows that tore arse of it - Prison Break. First season brilliant, second ok and then after that they just kept adding crazy level stuff to keep it going.

I remember my mates watching this and at the tender age of 13/14 and me asking the most obvious question, what are they going to do when they break out of jail? Seems highly paid writers couldn't figure that out either. 

Seems the same scenario has hit the walking dead whereby the premise was interesting but the plot is more or less the same.  Both shows 'jumped the shark' early and are forever tarnished for it. 

I would prefer the mini series shows now coming out at the moment to everything else, they have a definitive start, middle and end, usually well structured and thought out.  Watchmen would be a recent one that stands out in my mind. 

Sunday Mass ....Great introductory episodes with intrigue and plot twists shrowded in religious mystery.

The author then got off his face and decided "let's throw in vampires!!!".

F*$King hell. Save yourselves the bother.

Similar experience here, first few episodes were intriguing, then it went to pot. Midnight Mass.

Aye but not one person lets on they've ever heard of a vampire

It was created by the same guy that made the haunting of hill house and bly manor, hardly shocking it went down the route it did

[more praise/criticism on their performances, strictly because they are more well known.]

While social media can be a cesspit, this is squarely directed at mainstream media's criticism of Aidan O'Shea, in particular the Joe Brolly rant in whatever paper he wrote it.

Players who take advantage of media attention to build their own profile are also building a rod for their own backs when things don't go well on the pitch.

Dublin in the Lyons and Caffrey years embraced the hype, but got pilliored for it every year when Sam wasn't won. Although at least they were all on the hype-train together and the abuse was shared around!

In recent years, you could probably compare AOS to Bernard Brogan in terms of media attention, but Bernard was lucky enough to have success follow him so didnt have much personal abuse to deal with.

I would agree with that statement there 100%, players who build there own profile within the media will undoubtedly come in for more praise/criticism on their performances, strictly because they are more well known. 

My aging mother in law knows fairly little on football but knows who Aidan O'Shea is, so when is is on the ball she knows if he has been good or not, but she wouldn't know O'Donoghue missed the penalty 10 mins after it happened.

So probably best not having a media profile....

Not necessarily, I would say you have to prepare to take the rough with the smooth, as most people do within the public eye

While social media can be a cesspit, this is squarely directed at mainstream media's criticism of Aidan O'Shea, in particular the Joe Brolly rant in whatever paper he wrote it.

Players who take advantage of media attention to build their own profile are also building a rod for their own backs when things don't go well on the pitch.

Dublin in the Lyons and Caffrey years embraced the hype, but got pilliored for it every year when Sam wasn't won. Although at least they were all on the hype-train together and the abuse was shared around!

In recent years, you could probably compare AOS to Bernard Brogan in terms of media attention, but Bernard was lucky enough to have success follow him so didnt have much personal abuse to deal with.

I would agree with that statement there 100%, players who build there own profile within the media will undoubtedly come in for more praise/criticism on their performances, strictly because they are more well known. 

My aging mother in law knows fairly little on football but knows who Aidan O'Shea is, so when is is on the ball she knows if he has been good or not, but she wouldn't know O'Donoghue missed the penalty 10 mins after it happened. 

Rio blasting Phil Jones for still being at United https://t.co/2adGRLBrhG?amp=1

Show the difference in mentality between the players I suppose.

Has John small not been sent off more times than anyone else in all Ireland finals? Not new for him to not be the cleanest.

Every winning team in Gaelic has players who has no angels in them. McCarthy and small in particular for Dublin, Tomas O'Se, Peter Crowley for Kerry, McGee in particular for Donegal, Tyrone had a few, Armagh had a few etc. Not specific to Dublin. Mayo have one or two as well lol. I wouldn't say a couple of boys being dirty hallions ruins their reputation. Pretty much every successful Gaa team in history has a few.

Tyrone players like Ricey, Gormley and Jordan gave a bit of verbals but no out and out thugs on the team like Whelan and Small.

I'll just leave this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQFCW1QeUcY

Just on this one, what does happen if the Kerry camp come down with a lot of cases as has happened here on the week of the game?

Out of the 30 odd players how many have covid that they couldn't field a team?
I know it wouldn't be their strongest team, but is that not what a panel of players is for ffs?

Surely that is going to spell the end then for either Baily or Lindelof, unless he is going to change tactics.

Two international defenders hardly going to sit around for league cup games.

Lindelof as cover. Bailey on the 1st boat home. Complete balloon.

Not too often a player walks away from Madrid unless they are getting pushed out the door. 

Both players have had more than enough opportunities to solidify their position in the team, in the brutal world of football they are just not good enough.

I am the coaching officer in my club and am Grappling with a lot of these subjects. Even as a coach I have been very conscious of player drop out as I have coached my own lads teams from U6 up to where he is now playing U11 & U13. To put our club in context we would be struggling to field a team of boys at U13/U15/U17- wed usually need 2 or 3 players to play up from a younger level. Its a bit easier as we have the girls still at U7/U9/U11 before they go off to a local dedicated girls team made of up from 3 of the clubs in our area.

Here are a few things I have...

1- Lack of interest from the kids parents in a major major barrier. It is def the No1. Child brought and dumped for a bit of baby sitting but doesnt see a ball from one day to the next at home. These kids require huge extra work to get them to really enjoy the sport so that they might annoy the parent enough to get them a ball, bring them to matches etc. But even with all this extra work the return I would say is poor. I would estimate in this category I would have 50% retention. It is soul destroying as you put so much into it. Even the 50% you keep, they dont develop as well as other players. You'd be very tempted to give up on this category if you were from a big club with big numbers but in a small club like ours just cant do it.

2- Crazy parents. I know ye all know about these. I have one who thinks his child is too good to play GAA for this club (he isnt) and instead goes and plays soccer in a big town before no doubt he will be snapped up by Man Utd(he wont). I have another one who thinks both his lads (aged 8 and 9) are going to focus on rugby as they are Ireland material. Again these parents are a huge drain on the club and coaches. We have started to just kick them to touch. They poison their kids, other parents and are just requiring too much effort for likely a very low return.

3- Coaches. It is so important to get the right coaches in place. Its likely going to be someone with a child on each team. But you need a lead coach thats in it for the club in the long run. Different kids will develop at different times. You cannot make a call at U11 that a fella is worth persisting with or not. You need to be aware of the dates of birth of children as in an age group you can have kids 2 years apart in age. You need to give kids a chance on the team even if it means you might lose. My job as coaching officer is to keep informing the coaches of this and I suppose to make sure I am getting the right type of person on each team. This year I spent many weeks working through names and eliminating people who I didnt think would fit the bill. It is a tough job being a coach and trying to keep everyone happy. Its ok to say give every child equal game time but you have to also think about the kid that has ambition to play for county etc and ends up losing all their games as you dogedly stick to equal playing time. Every coach needs to try and get the mix right.

4- Club Spending: Coaches, parents etc need to make sure their club is investing in the youth. Gear for identity, trips away for bonding. The club needs to build pride in the players and parents. Too many clubs spending all their money on senior teams. Senior teams should be financing much of their own expenses (especially those that work). Put the money into the kids.

5- Dont ignore the girls ffs. So important to keep girls in sport and I know we have produced some brilliant players and handed them over to the ladies team. I love to see them do well. If you have a coach that sticks all the girls in a corner doing cartwheels get him out to f**k of your club.

Those are a few of my thoughts. Interesting reading in this thread.

Just on point 2, I think parents have to make the conscious decision on what they can reasonably send children to and what they can't, a child can't do it all. 
In my youth I would have trained with the school after school with a few different teams, then went off and played with the club or hurling club or soccer club that night.  I know for my child I don't want that, its not fair on anyone when you can't commit to one or the other.  The more arguments you get into over the back of trying to please everyone, be two places at once etc.

If you want an honest opinion on who the best English midfielder was of that generation ask Zidane, Xavi or Inesta, players who dominated European club midfield through the 2000/2010's.

Always thought a good rule change would be that play is not blown up until the ball goes out of play after the allotted amount of injury time has passed by at the end of the first half or second, would make for more tense finishes like this, and would rule out referee discretion on when exactly it should be blown up. 

Derry can take the positives away from the weekend, they held their own against a top top team so things look promising moving into next year. 

Agree, dodgy call aside the best team won, although the spirit Denmark showed throughout the tournament should be commended for sure. 

Sterling was immense to watch and was causing bother with his direct running at players. 

Given the dubious nature of the penalty, and how 'soft' England are playing for free's, I would think they are now earmarked as easy touches which may well count against them in the final. 

Finally, the English media, fans and to a degree the commentary team (ITV) are a disgrace.  Its one them to be excited for your team, its another to be booing the opposition, disrespecting your opponents (that daily mirror back page was cringy) and to gloss over incidents within the game that surly they should be impartial on?

A shocking level of arrogance coming from the Armagh contingent here.

It's hardly arrogance to expect us to beat a division 4 team handily enough now is it

Over the last 11 years of championship, teams who played in Division 4 teams have beaten teams who played in Division 1 just twice.
Longford beating Mayo in 2010 and Carlow beating Kildare in 2018.
The Carlow game was notable in that Carlow didn't kick a single wide in the whole game.

I think Longford just relegated to D4 took Derry out who made D1 final in 2013-14?

There is little arrogance is expecting a division 1 team to beat a newly promoted division 3 team, there is a bit of a gap there at the moment in terms of quality of teams played over the past few weeks, but, winning does breed confidence and Antrim should not be underestimated. 
Donegal have to be favourites for Ulster though, and the run of games they will have if they continue to win should set them up well for a semi final against what you would assume Kerry, Mayo or Dublin. 

I have the forerunner 645, got it back in January and it's brilliant, the data on it is top notch and it stores music as well, so you can leave the phone at home.  Although it doesn't come with an array of downloadable apps like the apple watch, if its pure running and cycling data you are after then go for a forerunner.   

A fella in Derry, Daniel Quigley, who lost his father Colm (who was probably the best triathlete in the town) to suicide 10 years ago, is currently training to undertake 10 Ironmen in 10 days, to raise money for Pieta House. Absolutely incredible.

I read a piece about that in the Irish News a few weeks ago, incredible indeed! Hopefully he can stay injury free throughout to complete it, a serious undertaking! Best of luck to him