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Tyrone showing a bit of pedigree today, was great to see. I was worried coming into this match, facing the current Ulster and All-Ireland Championships. Although Donegal ended up with 13 men, I did feel Tyrone were in control of the game. A good mixture of old and new players getting on the score sheet - 8 different players.

Niall Mogan - 0-03
Mark Donnelly 0-01
Sean Cavanagh 0-02
Peter Harte 0-02
Ronan McNamee 0-01
Joe McMahan 0-01
Stephen O'Neill 1-02
Ryan McKenna 0-01

A great penalty save by Morgan, but the carry on afterwards wasn't needed. Murphy was unfortunate to get off, but it was technically a yellow card. The ref should have used a bit of common sense here. Donegal didn't really have much of a scoring threat after this.

Donegal also were denied a clear penalty too, in the second half.

All and all, Tyrone were the better team and another two points on the board is great to have.

There's no such thing as common sense in the rule book. The referee was totally correct in his application of the 2 yellow cards for Murphy. He isn't under any obligation to keep 15 players on the field. He is there to apply the rules and if the players don't comply then they reap the consequences.

No, the referee was entirely wrong in the first yellow card given to Michael Murphy when he was unable to distinguish between a dangerous tackle around the neck, and a light hand on the shoulder.

Murphys challenge on Matthew Donnelly was a free kick, but not a yellow card in a month of Sundays. Similar challenges went unpunished with card during the remainder of the game.

It came quite early in the game, at a time when the ref was trying to stamp his authority on by carding minor incidents. But was most assuredly the wrong call. And the referee's failure to consistently card such incidents for the remainder of the game was frustrating.

And to think that the FRC are considering giving the clowns in the middle even more powers and maybe a black card to add to all the rest! The mind boggles.

Murphy can have no complaint about the second yellow though. It was reckless to go sliding in like that.

I have to say I was mightily amused by the pantomimesque booing from the Tyrone wans in the stand as Murphy made the long walk.

Almost as amusing as the great guttural roar they gave the Tyrone team at half time.

Steady on chaps, it's only the league.

The problem wasn't necessarily what Kiernan said, rather how he said it. He's fond of having a pop at Gaelic games because he's one of that breed of Irish people who craves international validation and acclaim, and thinks that anything we do amongst ourselves is inherently unworthy. Some kind of post colonial inferiority complex.

But his underlying point has some merit – and it would serve the GAA well to examine whether teams are training cleverly and making most of the time (of the players) and the resources (money and expertise) that is being poured into it. At club level as well as county level.

Quantity doesn't mean quality.

I recall Pat Flanagan, who came in to train the Kerry footballers 8-10 years ago, making a not dissimilar point to Kiernan. He said that considering the time they were investing in training, he couldn't believe the poor physical conditioning of the Kerry footballers. He reckoned it was going to take him a couple of years to improve that.

Now, one only has to look at teams like Donegal, Laois, Dublin, Tyrone, Kerry, Cork, Kildare et al to see the benefits of 'smarter training' in the intervening years.

But I would guess that several county squads, and the vast majority of club teams, have people in charge that know little about getting teams into peak physical condition. It's not that they're not putting in the hours, it's that they're not doing it in a coherent, focussed way.

[I wanted one (not including water carriers) but I didn't get my own way," he admitted.]

This is a quote from our President re the reduction in team management inside the wire:

The original plan was to reduce it to seven, but O'Neill wanted just three (a maor foirne and two water carriers) with everyone else back in the 'designated area.' "I wanted one (not including water carriers) but I didn't get my own way," he admitted.

I didn't get my own way!

He sounds like a spoilt 3 year old.

Agree entirely with the sentiments in this thread about crusading presidents.

Like them or not, 3 recent presidents have left a legacy: Peter Quinn, Sean McCague and Sean Kelly.

The rest are instantly forgettable - although not for want of trying on their own behalf.

Liam O'Neill is just the latest President without a cause.

[perhaps rising to twice during the summer]

The train collectively once a week during the league, perhaps rising to twice during the summer, and twice at weekends when they have no matches. Double sessions on a Saturday are commonplace.

Thanks, didn't realise this. Interesting, so they don't do much on the weekday nights collectively?

Last summer, during the championship, they usually trained twice a week (sometimes only once). Maybe a double session on Saturday, and again a session on a Sunday. They weren't playing much club football! There was at least three 'training camps' too where they went away to 3-5 days.

They did work on personal gym programmes too, usually in groups of 4 and 5. Lot of work done on so-called prehabilitation too (i.e. exercises aimed at minimising exposure to injuries).

Quality above quantity was the name of the game.

The reason the player grants were introduced in the first place was to provide a degree of parity between GAA players and professionals who get substantial tax breaks on their sports-related earnings for any 10-year period of their career.

Both of these schemes strike me as hare-brained, and a reflection of the Celtic Tiger induced lunacy that the country got caught up in.

Interestingly, despite the recession, I have heard no talk at all about revisiting tax breaks for golfers, jockeys, rugby players, soccer players, athletes, boxers etc. I have never seen an estimate of what this costs the Exchequer, although they probably don't know yet as it can be claimed retrospectively. So, for example, Padraig Harrington or Brian O'Driscoll or Ruby Walsh can seek to have it applied to earnings from any ten year period of his career. (I've often wondered where wee Rory McIlroy is domiciled for tax purposes?)

I had nearly forgotten about these tax breaks until I heard Eddie O'Sullivan and a few others talking on Newstalk about Johnny Sexton's move to France. Apparently he's young enough to return in 3 years time and still earn the full tax break available for professional sports people.

Nice work if you can get it.

McGuinness wouldn't say 'the job or Donegal'.

Lots of myths about Donegal training.

The train collectively once a week during the league, perhaps rising to twice during the summer, and twice at weekends when they have no matches. Double sessions on a Saturday are commonplace.

They also do their own gym work, 3-4 times a week, all year round.

When they have 3-5 day training camps (like the one in Kildare last year) players are expected to attend. Where necessary, they arrange cover at their work and that cover is paid for from county GAA resources.

No doubt it's a heavy enough training burden, but it can be fitted in around employment - even if one were a solicitor or a doctor.

Kiernan isn't altogether wrong.

Far too much emphasis on the sacrifices made by intercounty players who get their expenses, gear, food and now these grants. And that's not to mention the certain status that comes from the high profile of the games.

Many club athletes in other sports (not just athletics) put longer hours into their sport than intercounty players, without the fringe benefits GAA players enjoy.

Non-GAA athletes correctly view their participation in sport as a hobby.

The GPA created an environment where players were encouraged to view their efforts as work for which they should be compensated and a sense of perspective was lost.

(I don't mind watching athletics on the TV, and Jerry Kiernan mightn't agree, but there isn't a whole lot to a sport where men run round and round a track.)

I had a whole piece written and then thought better of it.

Long story short: Anthony Molloy's photograph accompanied a court report about a fatal road traffic collision. Molloy was a witness to the collision, and he is unhappy at the juxtaposition of the photo and the story.

And he might have a point. It's a little odd that a witness would be photographed alongside a court report where he wasn't on trial.

Downings beat Moville by 0-10 to 0-5 in todays Donegal JFC final.

Donegal's Junior final is on this Sunday between Moville (2009 Junior Champions) and Downings.

The Intermediate final is at the semi final stages, with Termon playing Aodh Ruadh on one side, and Naomh Colmcille (2010 Junior Champions) v Buncrana/Carn in the other one.

Yerra, I'd have thought the Tipperary must have had a few notable individual performances in winning 3 Qualifier matches.

No harm to Longford, but they get 2 nominations and none for the likes of Tipp.

Mustn't be many Tipp journos on the selection committee...

Longford didn't beat teams of the calibre that Tipp did.

But you're right AZ, it will all come down to the semi-finalists.

It's just bizarre to see so many Leinster counties get nominations.

The real curiousity with the nominees is that 6 Leinster counties have nominees.

I know they play some class of Leinster championship that one team has dominated for ten years and won one All Ireland, but nominations for players from the likes of Meath and Wexford and Longford, while there are none from Limerick or Tipperary or Clare or Galway or Leitrim suggests the Leinster-bias continues unabated.

6 Leinster counties have nominees
3 Ulster
2 Munster
1 Connacht.

I wouldn't like to see the bill for preparing the Donegal team this season!

Huge expense was went to with a large number of support staff (backroom team), as well as training camps etc.

When you win, it's great. But there's a big bill about to land on the doormat shortly.

[exclusion zone for penalties]

Me and the lads around me also noticed how often Cork were collecting possession inside the small semi circle outside the box.
I thought the rule was that for kickouts after a score you had to be outside that circle to receive the ball. Is that wrong?

I don't think so. I think the sole purpose of that box is the exclusion zone for penalties. I think if you are 13 metres away from the kickout, you are good to go. Mind you, if they are inside a semi circle that starts on the 20, for a kickout in the middle of the 13, they'd be getting close enough to that distance if they were much inside the radius of the semi circle.

I've often wondered about that exclusion zone thing.

The semi circle is 13m in radius, but the centre point it radiates from is the middle of the 20m line - ie the location of the penalty spot in hurley.

Given that the football penalty spot (or line) is 11m out, shouldn't there be a different exclusion zone, centred on that spot, for football? Or are officials worried that groundsmen wouldn't be able to draw two semi circles?

At a rough calcuation, the football penalty exclusion zone keeps players 22m from the penalty spot, whereas the rule only calls for players to be 13m away.

Hurlers on the other hand are just 13m away.

I happened to watch a bit of this match again and noticed at about 71 mins Kerrigan firstly grabbed the Donegal No. 18 around the neck/shoulder to drag him down. Not content with that he then pushed his head forward as if in some act of revenge or to hurt him. I just that if that was in a match in the league the CCCC would be intervening afterwards. Do they be on holidays every July and August. I've No grudge with Kerrigan but thought it could have been a nasty injury

Also known as the Diarmud Connolly provision: yerra we wouldnt want a man to miss the All Ireland final.

AKA if you're going to reward play acting and feigning injury be sure you correctly send the person off.

To be fair, Dublin have a long history of seeking to overturn suspensions?

Remember Tommy 'Tom' Carr in 1993?