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Actually just watched the clip of Micheal Martin re the IRA. Not only did he suggest that the conflict was started by the IRA, but that people should be "careful" about suggesting there were two sides in the conflict. He prefaced all that grossly cruelly insensitive tripe by criticising SF for "rewriting history". The absolute f**king neck of him.

The man who stood in the leaders debate last week and said we should be considering "both sides" in a genocide in Gaza, now effectively says there was only one side to blame for the conflict in the north.

The man is a disgusting f**king snake.

You'd be better off ranting on X, you'd get more traction.

Ranting? I lived through the conflict and had enough people closely associated to me directly impacted by it. Forgive me if I find the would-be Taoiseach attempts to portray those people as non-existent to be absolutely despicable.

It's funny, the Free Stater attitude. It's always OK to talk about the north, right up until the point where the experience of the nationalist community is mentioned. Only then are you dismissed and accused of ranting.

Well said. Amazing the ignorance and lack of knowledge as to what actually went on in the North by people living on the same small island. The west Brit Dublin establishment (with the help of the Brits) did some PR job in fairness.

Clann E lost the game in the build up. You can go to Miami anytime, However, you might only get one chance to play for your club in an Ulster final.
Watched the game back and agree that TK's tackling was consistently poor and he got the line for an accumulation of persistent fouls. He can have no complaints.
No doubting the Canavans talent but Apple is definitely not falling far from the tree regarding the diving and feigning.
Intriguing final ahead of us. Kilcoo are in serious shape physically and don't think there's another club team in Ireland with their pace and power.
However, I think they might ne a little undercooked by way of whom they've played thus far. Walked through Down without a glove laid on them (when are Burren going to man up?) and then struggled with crosserlough and a very poorly drilled Scotstown. Errigal have been spluttering through Tyrone and now ulster, surviving on the scoring prowess of the 3 Canavans. A massive prize at stake as the winners will be hard to stop in All Ireland series given what's left in the competition. Hobsons choice but kilcoo to shade it!

...and a good post to return with in fairness! (Although I would have some sympathy with the Armagh posters with regards to the diving and theatrics of the canavans - outstanding footballers but definitely an asterisk there for me personally with the con act)

Is Gavin McGilly new to Galbally or was he there last year?
Be interested to see how Barry Dillon does in Ardboe... Hes been around a few setups with some success but Ardboe always seems a bit of a shitshow.
Very surprised Beragh same management back - big bill for almost relegated. Surely someone in the Beragh club could do better?

Barry will do very well with Ardboe. He's a top coach with good experience at the highest level.

Gavin is going into year two,paddy tally was assisting last year along with several Galbally club men and ex players,will be hoping to build on a very positive first year in the post.

I'm hearing Tommy mc Guigan and John mc conville are helping barry out with the ardboe seniors

This rumour that paddy tally was assisting needs to addressed as well. Paddy recommended mcgilly and scullion for the job but he had no involvement in the management. He originally was supposed to but was offered big money to coach a hurling team in Antrim which in fairness I could blame him for.

Could or couldn't blame him for?

[anyone that does not knows nothing]

They couldn't piss off onto the Tyrone thread, they missed!

The amount of tyrone managers you lot have had you may as well call this the Tyrone thread 

With the lack of esteem some Tyrone posters seem to have for their past AI winning managers Harte, Logan and Dooher it might be no surprise that some Tyrone ones choose to come to Derry.

Lets be honest Tyrone has some strange individuals. Should be statue erected of Mickey Harte and the stand in Omagh named after him.  Without him Tyrone could still be stuck on zero Senior All Irelands won, even the last All Ireland won it was done the team/panel that Mickey built.

You might be better to sit this one out, the abuse All Ireland captain and ultimatly manager McGeeney took in Armagh. Even a plane to tow a banner hired to abuse him 

Is it a fair comparison to compare a manager who took a county with zero all Ireland's in their history to three in first 6 years management to a manager who didn't win a game in Ulster in first four years and still hasn't delivered an Ulster title? As another poster said there should be a statue of Mickey Harte in Omagh.  Mcgeeney took alot of criticism and justifiably  at times but deserves alot of credit given Armagh's underage record during his tenure to manage a winning all Ireland team. Regardless of what happens from now he will be an Armagh legend and held in high esteem I would expect and anyone that does not knows nothing about football.

Hard to make head or tail of that but I'll try. You think Tyrone people would abuse our first All Ireland winning captain Peter Canavan as McGeeney was treated?.. and a plane hired to trail a message across the sky about him.
Was a golden era of Tyrone players... Canavan, Cavanagh, Dooher, Gormley 'the block', Mugsy, McGuigan.. brilliant players and Harte did a good job too. Probly should have stepped aside in 2010 tho...
Not sure there'll be any statues...

Here would yous Armagh and Tyrone wans fcuk off our Derry thread with your sad arguments about who shit on their all-ireland winning managers the most.

Load of f**king amateurs. We sacked our only AI winning manager after one defeat the following year. Stabbed in the back a la Julius Caesar by his coach and selectors. [allegedly]

Right there, post of the year! 👏👏

If Cargin want to go further than first round exits in ulster every year then they have to change their approach. Way too defensively minded and only interested in containment instead of creating enough chances to actually win the game.
Errigal won pulling up because they scored 15 times and had maybe another 10-12 wides. Cargin score 8, only a few from play and less than 5 wides. That will never be good enough at that level. Handling was atrocious as well.

Newbridge were unlucky there - I felt they were very unfortunate on some of the ref's decisions.
Still some year for them.

I actually thought the opposite. Thought clann eireann had to work harder for their frees.
Better team won on the day.

is meenagh not with down?

I heard he left, could be wrong... I think he should at the very least be considered for the Derry Manager role. He should have been asked to interview / been offered the job after RG left if MOR declared himself out of the running.

Massive difference between being a good coach (which meenagh undoubtedly is) and being a good manager of people. Two completely different skill sets which people confuse a lot, especially in relation to Gaelic football management.

For any game to survive it needs to be attractive to the neutral as a spectacle. Gaelic football has trundled along for the past 10 years as people are invested due to family, parish and county loyalty. That has been waning year on year and I think it's right that the rules are adapted to try to make it more entertaining. I get it they coaches are in the business of winning and will interpret the rules as they see fit to gain maximum benefit for their team, but if the product on show is generally dross, people will vote with their feet or simple switch over to something else.
I'm old enough to remember the pass back to the keeper in soccer and how it was exploited. look how that simple rule change revolutionised that game. Same with shot clock in basketball. Not all of the proposed changes will work, but that is the purpose of sandbox games. To test. And I think the committee have an opportunity next November to tweak anything that they see fit after a full national league and championship campaign. I watch a lot of football because I grew up with it and played the game. It's in my DNA but it definitely needs the current review in my opinion.

I don't envy the position the wider Derry Executive committee find themselves in, albeit, that its primarily of their own making. From a strictly footballing perspective, it looks like a no brainer to reappoint RG and it would appear that a majority of players would endorse his return. And it very much looked like Derry were leaning that way when we had the choreographed statement from his solicitor, claiming that he had no case to answer and the way was clear for RG to re-enter county management. That would appear to have been scuppered by the subsequent statement from our Chairman, closing the door on any possible return. There is now some dispute as to how united a statement that was but if Derry do go ahead and appoint RG, then you would think the natural step for our Chairman, would be to distance himself from than decision and resign.
It's definitely not straight forward either way. Appoint him and take the flac and split the county, or, appoint a journeyman or 6th choice candidate and risk returning to mediocrity. Players have very short careers and opportunities to really achieve something. Naturally, they will have tunnel vision on this. The county board have a wider responsibility to the Gaels of Derry and the reputation of Brand Derry.
As I said, I don't envy them.

Ardmore have got their act together at underage, with over 120 children training from nursery to U-16.
Also, a lot of parents from non-gaelic backgrounds are now getting involved in the running of the club.
We have a strong committee in place who are improving all areas of the club.
The senior team is not in a great position, due to lack of numbers, ageing squad and some of the younger players not having played much underage football (lack of experience).
We only have one small primary school in our parish, and some locals take their kids to schools in the Waterside and they play with neighbouring clubs.
I'd say we will suffer for another year or two, but hopefully we will be competitive in the not too distant future.

Great to hear this about the new blood coming through.

Derry should have camped on MoR's doorstep last September but stupidly held out due to misplaced loyalty to Gallagher. The eventual approach was shambolic and amateurish. Man at the helm is out of his depth. We deserve better.

Eh? M O'Rourke, before now had been asked 5 odd times to manage Derry. He didn't want the job. These things happen unfortunately. How does a 'shambolic and amatuerish' approach look like BTW? Man at the helm has seen underage success, 2 x Anglo Celts, a Div 1 and a load of Croke Pk games. You're a hard man to please 

Ok. Let me break it down for you. Last September , before the knee jerk appointment of Harte, Our CEO's words to MOR were '....if things don't work out with Gallagher, would you be interested in taking the job?'
Basically letting him know he's not their first choice. If that's not shambolic and amateurish then I don't know what is.

Well if it's quotes, that must have been the conversation verbatim. Wonder how the other 4 approaches to MOR went?
Explain the how Harte was 'kneejerk'...? He was the 5th or 6th man asked and it was player driven in the end, and all involved were happy with the appointment at the time. Horan, Gavin, McGuinness all contacted during this kneejerk episode. Who would you have went for?
MOR didn't want the Derry job, you can wash our dirty laundry in public all you want, but, when it boils down, he just wasn't interested in it

Those 3 men may well have been contacted but it's not credible to count them as realistic candidates. Whole country knows Gavin has no interest or desire in managing anyone after Dublin. Horan, from a logistical perspective is also a non starter.
Donegal repeatedly returned to MCGuinness (players as well) until they landed the man they wanted.
The Harte appointment was knee jerk because after the shambolic approach to Malachy, there was no other credible candidate. The whole debacle can be traced back to Derry's misguided faith that they could reinstate Gallagher. Tried to argue that there had been nothing proven and it was trial by social media. Didn't read the room and took no cognisance of the sentiment out there with the clubs and fans. Haters appointment was wrong on so many levels. My point is, O'rourke was the perfect fit to appease the players and fans. The approach by Derry should have reflected that and at the very least, made him feel that he was our first choice. Unfortunately, it was doomed once that opening line was uttered.

Derry should have camped on MoR's doorstep last September but stupidly held out due to misplaced loyalty to Gallagher. The eventual approach was shambolic and amateurish. Man at the helm is out of his depth. We deserve better.

Eh? M O'Rourke, before now had been asked 5 odd times to manage Derry. He didn't want the job. These things happen unfortunately. How does a 'shambolic and amatuerish' approach look like BTW? Man at the helm has seen underage success, 2 x Anglo Celts, a Div 1 and a load of Croke Pk games. You're a hard man to please 

Ok. Let me break it down for you. Last September , before the knee jerk appointment of Harte, Our CEO's words to MOR were '....if things don't work out with Gallagher, would you be interested in taking the job?'
Basically letting him know he's not their first choice. If that's not shambolic and amateurish then I don't know what is.

Derry should have camped on MoR's doorstep last September but stupidly held out due to misplaced loyalty to Gallagher. The eventual approach was shambolic and amateurish. Man at the helm is out of his depth. We deserve better.

Looks to be the fault of Derry CB and no one else. Presumably MOR would be close enough with Glass and the rest and would have been easy enough to coax into the Derry job.

Nobody really knows what's going on. I've heard O'Rourke was approached by Tyrone around Easter for next season and said if the lads stepped down he would take the job. At that stage Derry were National League Champions and looked like Mickey was flying in which case it's just all a case of bad timing.

The truth might come out at some stage but my understanding is Derry CB have ruled out Gallagher and are nowhere with a new appointment!

That's an accurate summary of what happened screenexile.