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He won a Hogan in 2010 so is either 22 or 23.

Why do the Branagans not want to play MDG?

I'm really hoping that Irish News article today isn't true. They say Marty Clarke is unwilling to commit to training five nights a week and therefore won't be involved for Down this year. Doyle, Gordon and King have opted out and Dan McCartan not selected.

Not too fussed on the others but Clarke not playing is a massive blow and I reckon Benny knew about this and it made his decision to retire easier as he said recently he was definitely going to play when the news broke that Clarke was back.

Niall and Daryl Brannigan both in the squad which is great news.

Mooney actually made his debut against Clare, not Antrim, and he started left half forward. I thought he was Down's best player in a poor team display. They played Antrim in the round after that.

As for next season, hopefully McCorry will get a few more of the Kilcoo boys to commit. Niall Brannigan may be small but he's the best corner back in Down and has a nasty side that the likes of Benny McArdle don't have. Darragh O'Hanlon and Paul Devlin should be given more minutes while Ryan Johnston should be an automatic starter.

Conaill McGovern, Gerard McGovern and Eamon Toner should look the best from that Burren side other than O'Hare.

Hopefully it's the end for Dan McCartan, Benny McArdle, Aidan Carr and Ryan Boyle. Boyle wouldn't even be in the top 5 players in the point side. Mark Poland shouldn't be an automatic starter, a passenger far too often.

Shay McCartan was RELEASED by Burnley.

The price on Cross is appealing. Does anyone really think a team that has won the last two All-Irelands and six of the last eight Ulsters has less than a 55.6% chance of winning Ulster again?

Good odds, to be sure. But Tyrone at 33/1 in 2008 was the greatest of all.


Tyrone weren't 33/1 at the start of that year. They only drifted to 33/1 after Down beat them in the first game in Ulster so those odds were fair enough.

They were generally around 20s with bookmakers at the start of the year which was strange considering they got to the semis last year.

I backed them to win Ulster in '11 at 8/1 and this year they were 7/1 with Hills to win Ulster which was unbelievable.

I think people wrote them off as a bit of a fluke last year, that they didn't score enough and the Cassidy incident would lead to more cracks appearing.

I still think Dublin are the team best equipped to beat them because they play the same way and Donegal will find it a lot harder to get scores against them. Providing Dublin win tomorrow that is.

Selection Details
Reference   1217050116 
Event   Sam Maguire Cup : Outright
Market   Win Market
Selection   BACK Donegal
Time Bet Placed   01-02-2012 13:30
Time Last Matched   01-02-2012 13:30
Status   Matched
Requested Odds   26
Matched Odds   26
Matched   £98.00

Potential Profit    £2,450.00

It really is beyond me how Sidebottom still has this job and I can't understand how anyone finds him funny in the slightest. A few posters have already put up some of the ridiculous lines he came out with Sunday and those are only a small sample of the crap that came out of his mouth over the course of 70 odd minutes.

He completely ruined the game for me and managed to suck any drama out of the last ten minutes due to his constant need to be heard.

First of all, somebody needs to tell him that TV commentary is not the same as radio and that he doesn't need to talk relentlessly.

Secondly, he needs to be told that McConville, or whoever is alongside him, is there as the analyst and Sidebottom's only duty is talk about what is happening, not what should be happening or what might happen. Instead of giving McConville time to talk, Sidebottom instead would come up with what he thought was some excellent tactical insight and ask McConville to agree with him. The problem is Sidebottom doesn't have a clue about tactics or strategies and sounds like the average man in the pub who has been given a microphone. I actually felt sorry for McConville during that game and it was clear for all who were watching that he wasn't enjoying listening to Sidebottom throughout. He made clear his disdain for Sidebottom the day before when after the Down game he said to Sidebottom, who was presenting in the studio, 'the one positive from today was that Thomas Niblock was excellent on commentary'.

Thirdly, I counted four instances in the first ten minutes where Sidebottom called the wrong name for a player in possession or committing a foul. He also brought up a couple of pieces of trivia which were also inaccurate such as Neil McGee being Eamonn's older brother and talking about remembering a Christy Toye goal against Armagh at the opposite end of the ground at which it was scored.

Finally, somebody needs to tell Sidebottom to leave out the terrible sayings as we aren't watching the match to listen to him. He is there to supplement or facilitate the game not to ruin it which is exactly what he is doing.

I don't think he is capable of improving so if you're reading this Mark, or if somebody with some power at BBC NI is reading this, please put Sidebottom in a different role.