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Well sure its hardly worth arguing about Cuchulainn or Ring, it's all ancient history of little relevance to the present day, like a successful Down football team.

The foremost exponent of hurling in history, at least until "26 County" Carey came along, was an Armagh man.

Interesting that you Down folk were so happy with the interview, he said the population of Ireland was 3.5 or 4 million, which suggested that he was talking about the 26 counties only. Why exclude the 6 counties, is is that hurling is less popular there?

Belly Tele article (editted)

Ronan Clarke, the newly -crowned Ulster Footballer of the Year, could now find himself sidelined for up to 12 months.

But suddenly his immediate future is shrouded in doubt, although a full medical assessment of the damage to his knee is expected to be provided shortly.

It is understood that Clarke had undergone an exploratory examination recently but it was felt that rather more damage had been sustained by his knee than was through at first.

He will now undergo an initial recovery period but would appear to face a lengthy rehabilitation process in terms of getting back to full fitness.

His possible protracted absence will not just be a major blow to the orchard county, the dominant force in Ulster football for the past decade, but will also be a big setback to his club Pearse Og who have regained their Division One status in the All-County league and are currently settling into their magnificent new playing complex at Ballycrummy just outside Armagh city.


http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/gaa/article2073828.ece

there is far too much harping on this board

Any ideas who the " major musical act " will be

Philomena Begley and Brush in a duet to balance things up.

Given all that he has been through, there is a question over the extent to which Toal will be able to play at the top level again. It is not desirable to push things too far too soon. However it would have been better for Joe to have consulted the man and to have said that if things go well with the club football that he might be considered for the county again.

Ball Hopper, Hound will explain his own system, but it was based on diminishing weights over a 5 year period.

The big question then becomes...who has time to figure all this out for 2006?  and 2005?  and 2004?

Hound, above, has already done this and a very good job it was. Hound's ranking reflects past performance, Brehony seems to be predicting the 2007 season, yet they are quite similar. The question for the front runners is whether Kerry are quite as good after some retirements, and whether Tyrone will get back the likes of McGuigan and whether they can really cope with the retirement of their deity.

Armaghniac - TG4 didn't cover that game - that day Nov 26th, they did the Ladies Club Final, the Leinster Hurling Club Final and the Connacht Football Final. We only have deferred rights to the AIB Club Championships, so if TG4 don't cover it, we can't show it during the week. If they had, we would have put it out, no bother.

Easytiger. Is this a question of cameras or rights? If you have the deferred rights to the AIB Club Championships can you not cover any game in that competition whether or not TG4 choose to show it live? If you are not allowed, it is a case of the GAA shooting itself in the foot (again) as I can't see why you shouldn't be allowed show deferred coverage of such a game. If you had the rights, then it is a pity a few cameras could not have been organised for this, especially as the wasters in the the Northern stations should have had cameras there.

The Ulster finals of that year against armagh, Canavan wasnt involved in PLAY

Indeed. I don't suppose the fact that Tyrone didn't win those games sheds any light on how they perform without their God.
Tyrone are a good team without Canavan, there isn't much clear evidence that they are No 1 though. 

gee, I wonder who that rule would be aimed at ?

It would be aimed at Cork, good to see Mike that you are so worried about them, or are you expecting Kerry to lose a lot of provincial finals! If a team wins the provincial final and then go on to win their next game then this wouldn't apply.

17th is awfully high for county Down

If you get a reputation for early rising, you can stay in bed until noon......

No doubt Cork are in favour of this, they are in a provincial final 95% of the time. This year in Ulster only one of Donegal, Armagh, Fermanagh and Tyrone can reach the provincial final, although these have all as well or better than Cork in recent years. Only two of these teams could play in a quarter final.

Could someone think of scheme where provincial winners could get back in, but in a format where they had to have won 4 games to reach the semis.