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The Athletic Grounds are a credit to Armagh compared to a lot of places imo. A decent stadium is well worth the money.

Agree to a point, athletic grounds is indeed a great venue. The problem is the plethora of oversized stadia, particularly munster. Every county should have one decent stadium in keeping with their needs.
What we don't need is pissing competitions by county chairmen based on who's stadium is biggest! Similarly, we don't need clubs trying to outdo one another and pouring funds into unnecessary capital projects, even if the funds have been shamed out of some poor tight hoor from ballyholland!

[They bate us out the gate 2 years ago in AI SF in CP when most of this team were playing.]

No version of Derry has ever beaten Galway in championship, you can be sure that will be a factor on saturday.

Janey, even Armagh has beaten Galway.

Derry wans trying their hand at the cute hoorism here? Sure Derry were in the big three talk with Dublin and Kerry not just a few weeks ago.

I would be more confident going to Kerry or Dublin and getting a result than I am about saturday due to our previous with Galway.

Out of those 3 Galway would be the 1 to choose on the road.  This history v Galway will have no baring at all on Sat. I'd say at most 2 Derry players played in 2015 and will be involved on Sat. Pretty much all of them beat Galway in Salthill in March.

They bate us out the gate 2 years ago in AI SF in CP when most of this team were playing.

And a league result in March will have no bearing esp as Galway had so many out injured at that time.

PS I sincerely hope you are right.

This was much more defensive orientated Derry team in their 2nd year of development. The better team in the first half, beat by 5 after gifting Galway 6 points. Mayo v Donegal in 2013,now that was a team beat out the gate.

Again, playing Galway in Salthill, with this version of Derry will have much less a baring on this game than a potential injury crisis

Derry got a last minute goal to make the scoreboard respectable

Galway got a point tagged on at a half time in ridiculous fashion, granted, the rules didn't cover the scenario, but I'll never forget the look of confusion and disbelief on Glass's face as the point was added.
That a referee in a field sport would retrospectively make a change without resetting the clock to the point in time when the incident occurred is beyond belief imo. In hindsight, we were probably better off missing out on that all Ireland final, it might have done more harm than good!

It's a shame for sure, but if other broadcasters valued the rights enough, they'd be trying to get a package. Sky didn't walk away for no reason.

Sky's model is not the same as TV3 though, one is selling subscriptions to a subset of people and one is selling advertising for the general public. As for trying to get a package, part of the story here is the way the product is divided up. You can set things up to get the most coverage, the most revenue, or something in between. If I was the GAA then I would have a regular chat with TV3 or even UTV and see what they might be interested in. We all recall the magazine programme that the UTV did in the past, which was OK, but they couldn't get the rights to show clips on it, this never made sense.

There is a slight lack of transparency on this
https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/virgin-media-throw-further-fuel-on-gaago-fire-with-hard-hitting-statement-aimed-at-gaa-and-rte/a483613199.html

That's it, two very different business models, one with minimal risk to the gaa, they sell the package and get the money and it's up to the broadcaster to make it work. This option be it with sky or tv3 had the added bonus of being available to a much larger audience and therefore being much more impactful in terms of promotion.

The option chosen on the other hand has transferred the risk to the gaa. It appears that this was their preferred option, despite the impact this was always like to have on potential viewership. Presumably a strong business case was made, let's hope the rte guys who drew up the business plan for toy show the musical weren't behind this plan too!

In time the numbers will be revealed and a decision to continue or not will be made. They were certainly very reticent to release anything to the joc last year, has there been any releases on viewership or subscriptions since??

Even if a profit over and above what would have been made by simply selling the package has been made, they will have to decide if the decline in audience and games promotion is worth this additional revenue.

I'm surprised that so many on here appear to be backing jarlath on this one - let's hope none of you are accessing this service illegally

My god there are some crying hoors in the GAA who want everything for free, I surely hope they are over represented on this board or the organisation is truely in trouble.

Crying about the price of tickets to games, and the price of diesel to get to games, and how much a feed costs, and having to get a ticket for the wains, and not getting to see every game on FTA tv, and the game they just saw was lateral shite, and the forward mark, and the studio analysis, and negative managers, and people coming to the door selling tickets for their club, and the amount of money the GAA has, and the lack of money the GAA gives our club, ad nauseum ad nauseum ad nauseum.

And then thinking they are great GAA men when they've not ever wore a shirt or even washed a shirt.

I would say the vast majority of posters on here are not even GAA members.

Keyser, in my experience a good auld moan and gripe is the common language of humanity. I've spent plenty of time abroad and worked with many nationalities and the average gaa fan or poster on this board is no different to the majority everywhere else (well west coast USA with their unwavering positivity might be the exception).
And as for your comment on posters probably not being members, I suspect the vast majority of us are pretty involved with gaa at some level. We are the diehards or we wouldn't be on here in the first place. Not that many people find discussions on the kickout strategies of Armagh all that interesting you know....

No need to be tarnishing a mans business ffs!

If he's not great at being a pundit, that's grand, but lots of lads behind the computer putting a mans and his families business down is out of order

I didn't see the comments, but cavanagh's firm is doing very well by the looks of it with 4 or 5 offices now open and about 50 staff including many qualified professionals - so I doubt the comments on here would have too much impact on its future. Fair play to him.

Don't see much wrong with cavanagh's comments in that the gaa has huge cash reserves and is undoubtedly cherry picking attractive games to try and drive subscriptions to gaago.
I recall this being denied by rte/gaa last year, but seriously....

Interesting to hear burns now state that he wants gaago to be a major revenue generator for the association, it'd be great to know how the numbers are looking in that regard?
What was the revenue generated for 2023 like, was there a profit generated?
Only when we see the first few years of numbers will we know if this is a failed vanity project, which has caused tremendous harm to the goodwill of gaa and promotion of our games or a crucial revenue generating stream that's here to stay.
I know which scenario my money is on anyway!!

I do think there's a market for a gaa streaming service, but it should be for games that won't be shown on TV otherwise and it should include the various club championships which are currently on a myriad of different platforms.

Genuinely starting to feel sorry for Brolly. GAA people who once valued his opinion now laugh at him, not with him and no-one believes a word he says.

This is true. The only reason he's still in the media at all now seems to be to laugh at him. I don't know anyone who would actually pay any heed to him apart from an eye roll. T'is a sorry state and he's even managed to turn his own against him. Pity, he was entertaining once.

He speaks well on a wide range of non GAA topics on the Free State, some very enjoyable episodes

I haven't listened as I gave up paying heed to him years ago when I heard him tell blatant lies to illustrate a point about an underage team that I had close connections with, I'd say by now most of us have similar stories!
But, he is a good talker and if you aren't familiar with a topic to the extent you are on gaa, then he might make sense, to people informed on those topics, he's probably as full of the same shite that he is when talking about football!!

Any word on Padraig McGrogan's injury?

I heard that it is a cruciate ligament injury. If that's true he's gone for the season.

When did he do that?
Huge loss for us but hopefully he makes a full recovery.
Really need Mckinless's injuries to be cleared up.

Agree big loss for us, I think his early withdrawal in the semi v Kerry last year was a factor in ultimately losing that game. Not sure Mickey was his biggest fan though, seems to have been pulled to shore pretty sharpish these last few games.

Wishing him the best of luck with the rehab and return.

Why do they do the draw for this before the provincial finals?

It's a good question.  Some teams might now be thinking a loss wouldn't be the end of the world, so it takes the edge off things.

I'd imagine the draw is made in advance for logistical reasons, it allows teams to prepare by knowing when they are first out etc, couldn't leave it until the provincials are over as some teams will be out 6 days later.

It's a whole load of games to whittle the number of teams down from 16 to 12. And when the draw is made you will be able to predict the 4 teams who will be eliminated with a fair degree of certainty. The main interest will centre around which teams top their groups. 

That's true, because after last year, we all now realise what an advantage finishing top appears to be.

I said last year, if additional jeopardy is needed, we could have the four group winners and the best 2nd place team all progress directly to the quarters. The third place team with the worst record would be eliminated - that should mean little or no dead rubbers.

I'd also tweak it by giving the provincial winners and the 4 top league places (who weren't provincial winners) two home games and get rid of the neutral ground game - this would provide better incentives for provincial winners and league placings. It would also boost attendances as the neutral games last year were very poorly attended iirc.

But this scheme basically advantages Dublin and Kerry, if they didn't have enough advantages.

It did cross my mind, maybe we could just give 2 home games to the highest league finishers?
Still, I like the idea of only 3 third place teams progressing, it happens in the tailteann to facilitate New York, but equally would work by just putting 5 straight into the qualifiers.

Tailteann cup draw

Group 1  Kildare  Leitrim  Longford  Waterford

Group 2  Sligo Antrim Wexford Tipperary

Group 3 Fermanagh Laois Wicklow Carlow

Group 4 Down Offaly Limerick London

10 All Irelands in Group 4!!

9 all Irelands in group 2!!

It's a whole load of games to whittle the number of teams down from 16 to 12. And when the draw is made you will be able to predict the 4 teams who will be eliminated with a fair degree of certainty. The main interest will centre around which teams top their groups. 

That's true, because after last year, we all now realise what an advantage finishing top appears to be.

I said last year, if additional jeopardy is needed, we could have the four group winners and the best 2nd place team all progress directly to the quarters. The third place team with the worst record would be eliminated - that should mean little or no dead rubbers.

I'd also tweak it by giving the provincial winners and the 4 top league places (who weren't provincial winners) two home games and get rid of the neutral ground game - this would provide better incentives for provincial winners and league placings. It would also boost attendances as the neutral games last year were very poorly attended iirc.

Good idea that why not toss for a home venue in Semi Finals?!

On a related note, is the first time Celtic park has been used as a venue for a non-Derry championship game? I can't recall any other occasion anyway.

I dont think Mickey Harte will be too upset that Derry are out of the Ulster. They have the medals from the last 2 years in their pockets. Its all about SAM for them now. They get a nice 4 week break to get themselves ready. I would not be writing them off at all.

From a Derry perspective I don't think its a massive deal to give up an Ulster title if it means that they can regroup and prepare for a tilt at Sam Maguire. But Mickey Harte will definitely be disappointed on a personal level, after all he is there not for any great love of Derry but for personal achievement, the financial package and his legacy. They will be the team that every provincial winner will want to avoid in the group stages.

As for the Glass debate, watching the match on the TV doesn't actually do him justice in terms of performance. His positional play is second to none and he does a lot of off the ball work that is not the most glamorous to watch but is highly effective for his team. Plus he can play football when needed to as well. He is definitely not a moments player as someone suggested earlier, in fact anything but.     

Agree with that, the defensive work he does, covering ground and space is immense, a total team player, he does whatever he thinks will help the team achieve the results. Regularly sacrifices his own game for the good of the game.
Rodgers is an excellent footballer too, but brings something entirely different.
All that said, I'm sure both will admit, Saturday was neither's finest hour!

I dont think Mickey Harte will be too upset that Derry are out of the Ulster. They have the medals from the last 2 years in their pockets. Its all about SAM for them now. They get a nice 4 week break to get themselves ready. I would not be writing them off at all.

Will they definitely be playing in 4 weeks or could it be 5?

I believe they will be in Pot 3 so first game will be away to the Provincial winners in their group.
if its the Connacht or Munster winner then its the 18th-19th May ( so 4 weeks)
otherwise 25 May (so 5 weeks)

2nd Game on 1st or 2nd June
3rd Game on 15th or 16th June

So Kerry/Dublin/ or Mayo Galway.

If they get either Kerry or Dublin and get a similar 6 or 7 point defeat there will be major questions asked.

They'll want to be getting Mayo or Galway and start off with a signature win.

They could also end up with a trip to ballybofey (Omagh, Armagh or Newry), that might be the preference.
Second game at home to Clare and final game v meath in clones.
Presume draw will be made on Monday?