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Your theories are based on big counties awakening. You don't give two shites about small counties or their players. It's about time people realised that there's good footballers and hurlers in every county. Anything else is the Marty Squad and his ridiculous platitudes

How? And is it fair, year on year, to ask small counties to essentially play for nothing? If there was nobody watching, I'd rather anyone who wanted to play a sport had a chance of getting somewhere. This system is so badly designed that it negates that possibility. If I'm a good young soccer player, I can progress. Not in the GAA.

I think the key to what happens after this is Sugrue. There are good young players in the county, and the sooner he has contact with them the better. I don't see it as an end of an era, because we've known many days like this recently. Meath deserved to win today because they were sharper, but they weren't 11 points better than us and I don't think I'm being delusional by saying that. We have serious structural flaws under pressure but so do Meath, and there's no denying we opened them up. They would be foolish to walk away from this thinking they have it sussed, because we actually outplayed them for long periods. But importantly, they had a method and a steeliness that we lack. All is not lost by a long chalk, and we should try and look at the positives. Young Murphy at last looked like he belonged out there and that's what it's all about. There was plenty to take away from today

So many structures and solutions and every one of them ignoring what by now should be blatantly obvious. County boundaries are conceptually a great way of dividing players into teams, but it doesn't work. It would be great to live in a world where every team has a chance, but that's just dreaming. The GAA has to find a way of making its sport inclusive. It needs to provide a platform for the hurler in Leitrim to play at the highest level. Otherwise, it might as well say we have nothing for you, and we go on as we're going, blowing smoke up the big counties holes

Gaelic Football has two USPs over soccer: 1. it's a more manly pursuit, 2. its one-life-one-club ethos creates a sense of place.

If you genuinely believe that the GAA could grow in strength through the destruction of its second USP, then I'd question your sanity.

Attendances at county level suggest the USP is not what you think it is. And I'm speaking about that level only

So many structures and solutions and every one of them ignoring what by now should be blatantly obvious. County boundaries are conceptually a great way of dividing players into teams, but it doesn't work. It would be great to live in a world where every team has a chance, but that's just dreaming. The GAA has to find a way of making its sport inclusive. It needs to provide a platform for the hurler in Leitrim to play at the highest level. Otherwise, it might as well say we have nothing for you, and we go on as we're going, blowing smoke up the big counties holes

If you read what I said, you'll see that I said it's nobody's fault. I don't blame him at all. It's just a fact of life.

Disappointing. Our deficiencies laid bare once again. I feel so sorry for those lads who are used as square pegs in round holes, because it's days like these that find you out. The best corner back in Laois last year was Saunders of Portlaoise. I know he's not involved with the 20s, but any selection after him in that position is a lesser option. It's not really anyone's fault, but this is a lot of our problem.

We probably don't deserve to be 5 points down but Meath are just that bit sharper. We miss the organisation that Begley brings and are still at sixes and sevens when run at. We're getting better at holding on to the ball, but finding an end product can be a long drawn out process. They just look that bit cuter than us

I personally have no desire to do Dublin down. They're a great team. But i know they have a lot of advantages that other teams can't compete with. I think we need 8 professional teams and let Dublin be one of them. Inter County has never worked. Small counties are irrelevant and can never win anything

I think Mickey does be saying the auld Rosary when Plan B is being discussed. McCann has always been a bit hot. He lost his cool and he'll get punished. It happens. Admittedly, the GAA probably don't deal with this stuff as well as they should. But no surprise there. Good Donegal performance. Michael Murphy an absolute pleasure to watch playing the game

Kildare 14/1 to beat Dublin today. The Dublin team would need to take to the pitch mouldy drunk for Kildare to have a squeak. Those odds would probably be bigger if it was anyone else in Leinster. I'm not aware of similar odds in any sport with two teams on the pitch. This is not sport any more and people have better things to be doing than forking out good money to watch their county being humiliated.

After today, and even before it, we will talk about tiers and other solutions. Truth is, inter county is a flawed concept. Dublin are professional or semi professional, call it what you like. I read yesterday that some of them are getting 6k for guest appearances. And good luck to them. But you can't compete with that. Not what it has become. Forget what it was, because that was a different time and place. We're in a different place altogether now, and the gap is being widened by the trappings of success. We're getting towards a county not being able to field a team. If you're a Wicklow player this morning, do you go back for more next year? The GAA are trading on blind loyalty, and I hate them for that.

There are some good footballers/hurlers in Wicklow, Leitrim and every other county in Ireland. It's a sad day when there is no vehicle to allow you to play at the highest level of whatever sport you participate in. Inter county is restrictive and full of inequality and unfairness.

That was some team performance. Those lads worked their asses off for the jersey today. I have to be honest and say I didn't expect much heading over. I should have had more faith. This man Sugrue is a cute hoor. He let them win the battles and all the time the plot to win the war was being worked on. Some of their star men were nullified today. And just to make it sweeter, we had plenty to contend with injury wise. I have so much respect for Heslin and Martin because they deserve it. They are good enough to play in the best of teams. But it was nicer watching them hit brick wall after brick wall and Dillon throwing himself at everything that looked threatening. I love what these lads are doing for the jersey and fair play to everyone involved.

For last nights matches, Dublin were 1/100 with bookmakers. The handicap was 6 goals, which they covered easily. They are by far the most skewed odds you will see on a bookmakers website. I have tried hard but I'm unable to think of a sporting equivalent, in an organised tournament situation, where the odds would be so extreme. This is not even sport any more, and the GAA should be f**king ashamed

I think there comes a point in any sport where you are doing harm to yourself if you continue to play in a match you cannot win. We have gone well passed that point with some of these matches. If it was a club game, there'd by no time wasted in some places offering a walkover.

Tiered football will finally bury the lesser counties. What's going on now is shambolic. There's your choices. Stick or twist. There is no solution in reality. I personally think county boundaries are an archaic way of setting up teams. Too many imbalances to overcome

In many ways, I agree with you PRO. As a system, it makes a lot of sense and allows the average club player to plan ahead, pick up the pace for Championship and importantly, have down time too. I'm all for that, particularly when we're talking about amateurs. But the world has moved on. Most counties, in fact a lot of clubs, allow very little down time. It is not uncommon for some clubs to prepare similarly to county set ups. So we're either progressive enough to have found the perfect system for the GAA as a whole, or we're stuck in a time warp thinking we have it sussed. Take your pick, but the current system is not doing us many favours