Messages

1

Tyrone / Re: Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

« on: Today at 03:49:45 PM »

The reason play-offs were introduced into the club football leagues were to compensate clubs playing games without their county reps, particularly important in a county like Tyrone where the tradition is that league placement determines championship status - although they do sit somewhat awkwardly in how the club season has been structured in recent years where they're played as an after-championship set of games where competing teams can be waiting a number of weeks depending how clubs involved in respective play-offs fair in their respective championships and thus I can see why quite a few people would like to see them got rid off. The two issues I'd have is that doing so penalises smaller clubs have miss having players in the league due to county commitments (the "starred" game system is a very imperfect solution) as well as increasing the potential amount of dead rubbers in the latter part of the season, especially in Division 3. As an example, the promotion play-off system is keeping our (Fintona) boys interested in playing in the league competitively, without it the latter half of our fixtures this year - at least - would be glorified challenge games.

As I said a wee while back, even if Divisions 1 & 2 stick to 16 teams each next year, at least have some sense to divide Division 3 into A & B leagues either next year or in 2024 so that most Junior football teams will have something to compete for during most of the league. And while I'm at it, have 3 automatic promotion/relegation places between Division 1&2 too at least. Otherwise it's perfectly possible for an Intermediate team to lose only two games during the county season next year (1 league, 1 championship) and not end up being promoted.

2

General discussion / Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

« on: August 09, 2022, 10:48:45 PM »

It's a "chippy" in SE Antrim, if Sammy Wilson is anything to go by. 

3

General discussion / Re: Bargain hunting, 2022 style...

« on: August 09, 2022, 08:41:29 PM »

* Lebara (uses Vodafone UK network) - All offers are rolling 30-day contract offers that can be cancelled any time. 5G where available, roaming included in EU. 4G & WiFi calling now included, though reports suggest a few teething problems.

* 12GB data a month with unlimited calls & texts, usually £6.90 pm reduced to £1.40 pm for the first six months. Hurry as the offer ends on Thursday (via Hot UK Deals)

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lebara-12gb-5g-ps140-for-6-months-followed-by-ps690-3969890

Just to update the above, Lebara have extended the above offer now until 1st September and have dropped the price to £1.35 pm for the first six months! I took the offer at £1.40 pm for the first six months, I feel ripped off! 

Second update - Lebara are taking the piss now, they've cut it down to £0.01 per month for the first six months! I woz ripped off! If you have a dual sim phone & your main network isn't Vodafone UK (or a virtual network that uses them) then it's worth getting the sim if only to have backup coverage/try them out for a few months.

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lebara-12gb-5g-data-unlimited-min-text100-international-min-eu-roaming-now-01p-for-six-months-ps690-after-at-lebara-3978870

4

General discussion / Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

« on: August 09, 2022, 02:26:16 PM »

Cockteasers.

No, not the nightclub variety - it's a name I give to people that make posts on social media, message boards or forums like this that either only contain a hyperlink to another website, or post the link with added text that gives no context whatsoever as to what the link is about.

Most SM & modern forums will automatically parse links from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. so that the relevant post or video will appear within the post, but on forums like this that don't do it, then why should I click on the link in question without telling me what it is about, or leads to?

In a few cases, I'm fairly sure some cocktease links are being posted as part of an agenda to to try and entice visitors to visit a website in question and get them to view various pages/articles for the purpose of pursuing political agendas and/or adding website hits for PR purposes.

It's simple. If you're posting on a website like this one that doesn't parse links to show external posts/tweets/videos etc. then for linking to an article on a news website it's not exactly difficult to at least copy & paste the headline along with the link, would be even better to also add the first couple or so paragraphs as well (not the whole article - copyright and all that). YouTube video? Facebook post? Tweet? Give us an indication as to what it's about. Because if you can't be arsed doing any of that, then not only are you a cocktease, you're a lazy one as well.

Don't be a f**king cocktease. 

5

Tyrone / Re: Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

« on: August 09, 2022, 01:52:30 PM »

Just on your final point re reserves fixtures. Only 3 games left for reserves in D1&2, no reason their league didn’t start a month earlier and finish it off, thus allowing the Fridays as you mentioned

I guess if the clubs involved agreed they could have the senior game on the Friday evening with the corresponding reserve game played at some point on the following Saturday or Sunday, especially if the reserve game is a dead rubber? As it is this Friday night sees the SRFC & IRFC semi-finals and the JRFC quarter finals.

6

Tyrone / Re: Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

« on: August 09, 2022, 01:25:03 PM »

Slippery slope. Over time this will give soccer clubs all the power, the GAA clubs need to make a firm stance early.

If there's a slippery slope argument, then it was locally lost long ago. There's long been a due deference within GAA circles to get games that have been fixed changed to accommodate various matters beyond the general control of a club involved. OTOH in Junior soccer (Fermanagh & Western League, anyway) there is a much more rigid culture in sticking to fixture lists - it's rare for a club to get a fixture changed unless it is (a) made well in advance i.e. several weeks, or (b) due to weather conditions or bereavement postponing a game. Outside of that it's pretty much the case that your league game is down for 2.00 or 2.30 on a Saturday afternoon and if you can't gather up 11 players for it, then tough. You could argue that the GAA in Tyrone should adopt a similar stance, but it's highly unlikely to benefit them in the long run especially if you look at how Junior soccer clubs often fair themselves when they're often missing out on players at the beginning and end of their season because several of them give preference to Gaelic football (the defunct Ballygawley FC springs to mind). Also, compared to Gaelic football which is a summer sport and thus can have games usually easily enough moved to an alternative evening with sufficient daylight available, local junior soccer rarely has much headway to getting games played outside of Saturday mornings or afternoons on grounds that rarely have playable floodlights and where many are also council owned.

Also it's not just players involved with soccer that can throw a spanner into the works. Players from my own club past & present have also been involved in rugby, golf, snooker and even badminton etc. which have interfered with gathering players up for playing games or training.

Friday night ACFL games have proved popular in the county over the past three seasons but IMO if it's to continue then the reserve leagues/games will ultimately have to be split off to be played at another time, as is the case in the majority of counties in Ulster. If we were to play the remaining ACFL games as standalone fixtures without a corresponding reserve tie beforehand, we could easily keep them to running on Friday evenings until the end of the league at the start of September with throw-in's between 7.00-7.30.

7

Tyrone / Re: Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

« on: August 08, 2022, 10:53:45 PM »

Four Sundays in the year isn’t too much to ask. Fridays are good at the start but with light fading becomes a rushing match to fit them in. I’d say Sundays suit more people than Saturdays. Lot of boys work on Saturday evenings and there’s a lot (particularly reserves) who play soccer on a Saturday.

The GAA should not be accomodating soccer when scheduling games.

All well in theory, but if you put players into a position where they have to choose between the two and in the end a significant amount decide to go with playing soccer over Gaelic football then it's likely some teams will fail to field, depriving game time not only of their own players that are willing to play but also their opponents. Communication between all involved is needed.

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General discussion / Re: Bargain hunting, 2022 style...

« on: August 08, 2022, 03:22:17 PM »

How much is, on average, everybodys phone bill every month?

€7.99

48.ie customer?

There's plenty of great value mobile network deals in the Republic for people using lots of data especially compared to the UK, though less in the way for those whom don't use much data but make plenty of calls and/or texts.

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Tyrone / Re: Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

« on: August 07, 2022, 04:22:11 PM »

Big problem with the Friday night fixtures in Tyrone is that realistically for double-header games there is only a limited period in the year where this can be accommodated on a weekday evening, and even in Tyrone the fixtures planners are pushing it by scheduling the senior game only 75 mins after the planned start of the reserve game. In other Ulster counties where they have their senior adult league games on Friday nights, reserve games are played as a separate competition on another day of the week. At the moment if it is a clear sunny day you can get away with a 6.30/7.45 Friday evening game, but if its grey & raining it quickly dawns on you how dull conditions are.

If the GAA are going to commit themselves to the current split season model in the future, then I think there needs to be a discussion in the county as to how to plan club games & competitions in the long term - minor club football this season was adversely affected by having such a long break this year due to the progress of the county side, only resuming in a period with many players still taking school exams and the height of the holiday period with little prior notice, for example.

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Tyrone / Re: Tyrone County Football and Hurling

« on: August 07, 2022, 12:55:36 AM »

Congrats to the county senior camogs, won the Nancy Murray Cup by one point after scoring a goal with the second last stroke of the game. (Video in the twitter link below).

https://twitter.com/OfficialCamogie/status/1555950827197587456

11

General discussion / Re: Bargain hunting, 2022 style...

« on: August 06, 2022, 10:35:10 PM »

* Lebara (uses Vodafone UK network) - All offers are rolling 30-day contract offers that can be cancelled any time. 5G where available, roaming included in EU. 4G & WiFi calling now included, though reports suggest a few teething problems.

* 12GB data a month with unlimited calls & texts, usually £6.90 pm reduced to £1.40 pm for the first six months. Hurry as the offer ends on Thursday (via Hot UK Deals)

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lebara-12gb-5g-ps140-for-6-months-followed-by-ps690-3969890

Just to update the above, Lebara have extended the above offer now until 1st September and have dropped the price to £1.35 pm for the first six months! I took the offer at £1.40 pm for the first six months, I feel ripped off! 

12

General discussion / Re: Commonwealth Games

« on: August 05, 2022, 09:50:32 PM »

Thars in France . They aren't in the commonwealth

Coincidentally, they have something similar called Jeux de la Francophonie and is open to participants from countries/members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.

As the Republic of Ireland is an observer member of the OIF, it can in theory send competitors to these games, the next one being held next year in Congo.

13

Tyrone / Re: Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

« on: August 03, 2022, 06:13:55 PM »

By the looks of how their going you will beat Derrytresk

Game's been switched to tomorrow night (senior only) but hasn't been updated on the county site yet, if anyone in that part of the county fancies killing an evening! 

14

Tyrone / Re: Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

« on: August 03, 2022, 05:48:22 PM »

Two years ago I callled Fintona the worst serious team in the county, ie a non thirds team.

Two years ago we arguably were, even allowing for the upheaval for the pandemic of the time. No wins out of seven league games and a whimpering exit in the JFC.
Last season in a 15 team league IMO the main aim was to finish in the top ten - we finished 9th so it was small progress.
This season with 18 teams and with four teams down from intermediate playing among us, finishing in the top half would have been my pre-season aim. If we beat Derrytresk we've definitely done this and hopefully we'll keep enough of our form going for a top six finish. As for the JFC, we'll see what happens but it's between Strabane, Stewartstown & Aghaloo IMO whom are just a cut above everyone else.
As for next season, I'd expect Conor McGillion to be in the county U20 football panel so there might be an effect on the club league depending how things go. We'll also be able to add Tiernan Donnelly & Tom Papgav to the squad as they're now in their last year at U17.

15

Tyrone / Re: Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

« on: August 03, 2022, 05:32:20 PM »

Must say that Stephen O'Neill was playing against us in the reserve league last Friday night and from this performance he could certainly be useful IMO still as an effective sub for the Clan na nGael seniors if they aren't already doing that. Even at 41 he's still got a deft touch with the ball, scored a couple of nice dead ball points against us.