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What are you saying? The gaaboards have a west brit problem?

That they are so close together

The Man Utd thread has 3613 pages
The Liverpool thread has 3619 pages

Derry are definitely going to Division 2 (what a journey it has been since they came up!). Who will join them? I think Tyrone might stay up, like last year on the last day.

Fine facilities in Ruislip. Well done to all over there keeping her lit.

A win is a win. Although at times it looked fanciful.

Promotion is out of reach but we can still challenge in the final 2 games. Away v Carlow and home v Wexford.

Longford are within 2 points of Limerick who are in the second promotion place. Anything is possible in the League on the last day.

If Armagh and Tyrone BOTH draw/lose in the final game next weekend, which team will be relegated.

AFAIK if 2 are on the same points, it's head to head. If 3 it's points difference.

It's better to find out the leaks and rectify them now rather than just before the next RWC. It's no harm losing this championship.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2025/0313/1501977-irelands-tryline-woes-part-of-a-frustrating-trend/With 13 tries from 39 entries to the opposition 22, Ireland's 33% return for tries in that zone is the second lowest in the competition, with only this Saturday's opponents Italy (27%), scoring fewer tries per 22 entry.

Similarly, they rank second highest for turnovers conceded per 22 entry, losing the ball on 43% of the times they have got into that area, with only Scotland (52%) conceding more.

https://www.ft.com/content/873d5289-637e-4819-9fa1-bf4c105ddb03

The US and its G7 partners have warned Moscow they could expand sanctions and use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, as Donald Trump seeks to win over Vladimir Putin to his ceasefire proposal.

They have the size and the skill, at the start it looked more like they bullied teams in some areas of the pitch and their marquee players did their bit, but skill is up and down through that squad and you only have to appreciate how good they are..

They aint going nowhere yet and will take a knockout performance to see them put out 

They'll certainly be about come the divvying out of the cups in both Munster and the AI although Cork do seem to have their number in the last few exchanges.

I'll stick my head out and say we'll be looking at Cork-Limerick Munster final and a Cork-Limerick AI final?

Cork need a Munster final win more than Limerick but the money would be on Limerick in an AI final.

I still have my reservations about Cork, but Clare have slipped back a bit, O'Donnell a huge loss and KK look to be disorganised.

Tipp will do well to come out of Munster.

Galway, Wex, Dublin would be the also rans at the minute.

Leinster could be won by Galway. Agree on Tipp in Munster. Clare, Limerick and Cork look more likely.

https://time.com/7209901/donald-trump-executive-actions-project-2025/

Kerry v Armagh  Armagh
Dublin v Galway. Galway
Down v Westmeath. Down
Laois v Clare. Clare
Carlow v Longford. Carlow
Wexford v Tipperary. Wexford
Waterford v London. London

SUNDAY

Derry v Mayo. Derry
Donegal v Tyrone. Donegal
Cork v Louth. Cork
Roscommon v Cavan. Roscommon
Meath v Monaghan. Monaghan
Leitrim v Fermanagh. Fermanagh
Offaly v Kildare. Kildare
Antrim v Sligo. Antrim
Wicklow v Limerick. Wicklow

Great to see Comer amongst the subs

    https://www.ft.com/content/4a09e73d-069f-42c1-bc4c-1d8537c0f00c
Trump's incoherent economic agenda
The White House's mishmash of radical policies is sapping confidence in America

    It now appears that neither a slowing economy nor plunging stock prices are enough to deter US President Donald Trump from his radical economic agenda. Beyond promising to buy a Tesla to prop up the beleaguered stock of Elon Musk's enterprise, he is in fact doubling down. Asked about the economic and market turbulence, the self-proclaimed "tariff man" argues that a "period of transition" may be necessary as his administration brings "wealth back to America". It is "a detox period" according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The cleanse has, so far, raised the spectre of stagflation, wiped $5tn off the S&P 500, and undermined the nation's standing with global investors.

The short-term pain might be easier to digest if the means — and the ends — were intelligible. Indeed, if the overarching goal is to, however vaguely, "Make America Great Again", then the hotchpotch of economic measures that Trump has so far offered lacks any coherent theory of change to get there.

Take Trump's central plan to rebuild 25th president William McKinley's tariff wall around America. The idea is to urge foreign companies to set up factories in the country, spur a renaissance in manufacturing jobs, and use revenues from import duties to slash taxes. These aims are antithetical: if more production did shift to the US, tariff revenues would suffer. Then there's Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Curbing bureaucratic excess is worthwhile. But Doge has been undermining its own efforts. It recently sacked a team responsible for using technology to streamline public services. A plan to cut the Internal Revenue Service's staff by as much as half would also weaken tax collection.

Next, Trump wants the US shale sector to "drill, baby, drill". But his team has also indicated a desire to see crude prices fall to support consumers, perhaps to $50 a barrel or lower. That would be uneconomical for US producers. US energy secretary Chris Wright added this week that higher oil production could come through innovation. If so, fomenting economic uncertainty, including through on-and-off tariffs, is no way to encourage it or the broader manufacturing boom the administration seeks. Trump's national strategic reserve of Bitcoin — an inherently volatile asset, with a lack of obvious utility — is another befuddlement.

Finally, there's the rumoured effort to weaken the dollar — perhaps in a so-called "Mar-a-Lago accord" — to help turn America into an industrial export powerhouse. A global deal would probably be a non-starter when key trade partners are peeved by Trump's tariff threats. Nor does everyone in the administration seem to be on the same page. Bessent recently insisted that the Treasury's strong dollar policy remained intact.

What can investors and companies deduce from all this? One is that assuming this administration will operate coherently is a gross oversight. Some even wonder if the chaos is part of a deliberate grand plan to restructure America's economy and its place in the global system. Either way, the end result is a loss of economic confidence. Now even the promise of tax cuts and deregulation is losing its allure amid the unpredictability.

Trump may continue to paint a weakening economy and falling markets as part of a disruptive yet necessary shift for America's greater good. But the longer his methods remain inscrutable, while heaping costs on to households, businesses and investors, the harder that sell will become. Indeed, rather than trading pain today for a brighter tomorrow, it seems increasingly as though America is swapping its long-established model for an amorphous and far-fetched notion of a future one.

It will be Derry,Tyrone on their way to Division two unless we get some mad finish In the remaining two rounds of games

Rounds 6 and 7 are known for mad results.
Nothing is sure until the final whistle in round 7.

[KK - possibly worst KK I've seen in my lifetime.]

Strange weekend at the top table with none of the games being massively competitive.
Think Sheedy hit the nail on the head last night, too close to championship and trying to do it as a balancing act while trying to prep isn't working for the spectacle.

For what its worth IMO:
Limerick - looked back to somewhere close to their fluent best, KH getting injured could be a big blow.
Galway - I didnt think they were as bad as they looked, had some decent play and missed a load of chances and if you want to build a team then Gavin Lee would be a good place to start.
Cork - looked so sharp with massive motivation from the final last year, so will be challenging very strongly this year.
KK - possibly worst KK I've seen in my lifetime.
Tipp - progressing but think they will be found out when push comes to shove in the championship, but on upward trajectory.
Clare - hard to know where they are at, not sure they pack enough punch up front without SO'D. Conlon at 6 would be a concern going forward in terms of pace.

This is so true, but aside from that they have a serious group of forwards, enough to trouble most teams.

TJ aside as I think he's done at this level, the brain will only get you so far now, but they've Eoin Cody, Adrian Mullen, John Donnelly and Mossy Keoghan in there.

I don't think they have a bad defence in Lawlor, the Blanchfields, Mikey Carey, Butler etc, it's just that their hurling is aimless and so haphazard that they play short only for to puck the ball down on top of a lad outnumbered in their forwards and cough up possession so easily.
They will rely heavily on certain individuals doing wondrous things whereas Limerick can be down some star players and the next lad in will know his job and do it to the desired level.

They'll get out of Leinster as the standard there is lower than in Munster, but at present you'd say Tipp, Limerick and Cork are well ahead of them with Clare about the same unless they can find a kick in the next few weeks.
You'd still never write the hoors off, but that was poor enough stuff yesterday again.

What's striking about Limerick is their accuracy.

They are accurate because they are so well drilled in what is expected from them in numerous scenarios and any deviation won't be tolerated.

It still sticks in my mind Kiely going buck daft at Aaron Guillane who had the audacity to try put a sideline over the bar in the dying seconds of the 2023 AI final with the win already in the bag.
That is deemed a waste of possession in Limerick.

It's the training alright. When you see it live it's amazing.