Messages

If I remember right, he persisted  all of last yr and got a run out against Dublin R5, dont remember him been used of the bench. Now saying he started bck in 2022, u thought he been used off the bench past 2yrs. Is Murphy injured , I haven't seen him on the 26 recently either.Donegal and Armagh are fit to hold on to and carry big panels. Our panel been bare minimum since 2020 and gets thinned out every year  with a no. of drop outs. Nobody actually seemed to know who the panel actually is, unless they involved up at Owenbeg.

I know he's been around the panel and also there may be injuries involved. It'd be disappointing to think he has missed out on the big opportunity which has opened up if he was fully fit.

Shea Downey left because he wasn't being given a look in. Baffling when you see a few of the players being used with no size nor power.

He hasn't been on the panels named for the last 3 games which means he left after just 2 games of the league. That doesn't show much in the way of resilience so we're undoubtedly better off without him. Tomas McCormack has been one of the standout players in the league for Armagh this year at the age of 25. He made his debut in the first league game. This is his third year on the armagh squad and he has had to wait until now to make his debut. If downey had shown that kind of persistence he would definitely be getting game time now with the injury crisis that Derry are faced with.

I agree with you however that's a result of modern coaching I'm afraid. I know of club managers instructing their players Not catch the ball but to "smash" it .If The oppositions 6ft 5 midfielder is able to drive his fist through the ball then he is surely able to catch it instead?

Absolutely no idea what you're watching because I've seen loads of high fielding in the league so far and loads of contests.

I went to this game with low expectations and came away knowing this was a real team performance. We didnt won but we have only won 1 of our last 11 games and that was against Westmeath. 

We need to get two good performances from our next 2 league games against Mayo and Armagh. We hope that Rogers and McEvoy recover from their injuries and are fit in time for the Championship.

Not likely that we can retain Div 1 status but that is not particularly important.

We need to build a sequence of wins under our belt and another couple of players from our Under 20's ...  Sargent, Young and T Rogers are two that come to mind.

Over all yesterday's performance was a step in the right direction.

We're down now more than likely so the priority now is to manage the injured players so that they're ready for championship. We've done well in most games for at least 55 minutes so it's our fitness and squad which has been lacking so far. Hopefully McEvoy, Rogers and cluckie can get themselves in position to contribute v Donegal in Ballybofey and games beyone that. This will leave a hole for the next 2 games but will give other players some game time and help develop the squad which badly needs some depth. Subs like Mark Doherty and declan cassidy have had some game time but a couple of full games could really benefit them going forward.

Personally team I would go with.

                Lynch
        Bradley, McEvoy, P Mc Grogan
          CD ,  Mc Faul, CMc Grogan/Cassidy
              Glass, Rogers
        Ethan,  Loughlin,  Paul Cass
        Toner,  Mc Guigan,  Murray

Couple lads there obviously only coming back to full fitness but long term and with no McKinless I think we need someone who organises middle if that defence along with giving Rogers more freedom.
Niall Loughlin will work his heart out in CHF with Murphy, Jody Mc D, Baker subs that are capable of doing a job. Anton tohill to full forward when needed towards end of any game has potential to change tactics.

Shall we just call the team South Derry from now on? 😃

We already call them that

I wonder why 3 or 4 different managers with the last 3 being outsiders still haven't found this talent thats hiding in North Derry?

Why has the Derry SFC championship only been won 3 times in 35 years by North Derry clubs 2 of which were by Dungiven.

Is that directly linked to talent availablity?

For want of  better word, north Derry is almost a 'wastleland' in football terms. I'm not using that word in a derogatory way.  The culture just isn't there. There's plenty of clubs there who are doing great work and have great facilities etc. Great people but the culture just isn't there went compared with south Derry.

That's in comparsion to south Derry where the gaa culture is rampant.  Maybe that's to do with it being a big nationalist area and the GAA is embedded in everything they do, between clubs and schools etc.  Historically that's the way it's always been. So in a way, it's a traditional thing also.

Derry City is a huge untapped area for the gaa. Again, great people putting in huge work against the grain.

If Derry could get a few real good players from north Derry, it'd be some boost. I don't know north Derry players well enough to comment. 

I think your are right - there isnt the players there at the moment. But here, what would you give for a McKeever, Sean Marty or a Mark Lynch at the moment? (I was going to say Brolly but then I caught myself on  )

I'd take Brolly and paddy bradley over the other 3 any day. We badly need a few scoring forwards and those 2 were as good as any we've had. Lockhart and mckeever would be useful though in defence if we had them.

Personally team I would go with.

                 Lynch
        Bradley, McEvoy, P Mc Grogan
          CD ,  Mc Faul, CMc Grogan/Cassidy
              Glass, Rogers
        Ethan,  Loughlin,  Paul Cass
         Toner,   Mc Guigan,   Murray

Couple lads there obviously only coming back to full fitness but long term and with no McKinless I think we need someone who organises middle if that defence along with giving Rogers more freedom.
Niall Loughlin will work his heart out in CHF with Murphy, Jody Mc D, Baker subs that are capable of doing a job. Anton tohill to full forward when needed towards end of any game has potential to change tactics.

Shall we just call the team South Derry from now on? 😃

Have you anyone to suggest that I have missed? Perhaps from North Derry.

Think Gilmore would start if fit. Is McNicholl an option in the half forward line if the experiment as keeper has ended? Looks useful outfield but I haven't seen enough of him with glenullin.

Personally team I would go with.

                 Lynch
        Bradley, McEvoy, P Mc Grogan
          CD ,  Mc Faul, CMc Grogan/Cassidy
              Glass, Rogers
        Ethan,  Loughlin,  Paul Cass
         Toner,   Mc Guigan,   Murray

Couple lads there obviously only coming back to full fitness but long term and with no McKinless I think we need someone who organises middle if that defence along with giving Rogers more freedom.
Niall Loughlin will work his heart out in CHF with Murphy, Jody Mc D, Baker subs that are capable of doing a job. Anton tohill to full forward when needed towards end of any game has potential to change tactics.

+1 for that

Good enough team but will mcfaul be fit for the next game? He's only played 1 and 3/4 games so far so he must be carrying an injury. Not sure about loughlin at chf as he's only back after a long injury. He could do a job inside though as he's a good finisher.

Under the old rules Dublin and Derry would have been 7 and 8 points down. Derry would have won the game and Dublin would have drawn.

Two pointers proving a big difference and will they be kept for the championship after this trial run?

I think 2 pointers from play should be kept but I'd get rid of them for frees etc. Will probably be a few minor tweaks prior to the championship but it's a positive narrative around football at the moment so don't expect a whole pile to change really.  Championship will be the real acid test though. 

I think you have to keep them from frees as well to disincentivise fouling around the 4 arc.
No way you should be able to bring one out to the 40m arc for a technical
Infringement like the 3v3 file example though. That's way too severe 

Agreed.

Read last week that Derry had 7 debutants in the first 2 games. Is that up to 9 now with Bradley and Mcmonagle getting game time. Hopefully that'll mean a stronger squad long term but also hopefully we get some of our injured players back soon.

We were pretty lucky to get the draw in the end after that second half disappearing act.
Mind you I thought from the tv camera angle that Derry's 9th point was clearly wide.
And Walsh had one waved wide that looked over at 14-11.
Saying all that though we didn't deserve to win

Toner had one for Derry that looked clearly over also so balanced out the murray one which was given.

Poor first half and everyone was doom and gloom. Great character shown in the second half and murray led the comeback. We probably needed a win though as it's gonna take at least 6 points to stay up. Galway are always tough though and they seem to be the form team regarding 2 pointers, they scored another 4 tonight after scoring 7 the last day. Even if we get relegated we are developing a bit of squad depth with some of the subs doing well.

Someone once told me that I should be worried that one day there will be a "man" in the same toilets as my daughter at school. By "man" he meant transgender woman.

Transgender people are less than 1% of the population (they're 0.008% of NCAA athletes). I've made it to the age of 50 and only managed to meet two transgender people in my entire life. The chances of my daughter being in the same school as a transgender person are somewhat remote. The chances of her using a toilet at the same time as said transgender person are even more remote. The chances of something bad happening as a result are probably smaller than the odds of her winning the Powerball lottery.

Here is what we're expected to believe with all the "bathroom bills" that the culture-war-stoking Rethuglicans and Anti-Woke Warriors are pushing:

A person decides to have life-changing, irreversible surgery, even though it will subject them to a lifetime of abuse, harassment, discrimination, possible violence, and a non-zero chance of being murdered.

They do it because it will enable them to go into a female lavatory, peek under the door, and get sexually aroused by the site of someone going for a slash.

This is what we're expected to believe. This despite the fact that when transgender people do use public or shared lavatories, they are the ones who are far more likely to be assaulted because of the bigotry and hatred being stirred up towards them by the conservatives. This despite the fact there is no evidence that transgender protections increase safety risks. But then conservatives stopped caring about evidence years ago, long before the WMDs business.

This is a completely manufactured moral panic, dreamed up by the conservatives to distract you from the ransacking of the economy by a handful of rich people and to distract you from the immiseration of ordinary working people. It's a complete non-issue that's being used to crowd out any discussion of the real issues that we should be outraged about.

Remember the CRT controversy a few years ago? It quickly fell flat when the truth managed to break through the propaganda that CRT was not taught in schools but was a specialist topic in a few universities. DEI has become the new bogeyman, with transgender people scapegoated as a convenient "other" that's too small to stick up for itself.

Anybody who falls for this scam by buying into the outrage may think they're being edgy, but they're really being laughed at by the oligarchs who are robbing the place blind.

Brilliant post. It's a hugely overblown issue which far right populist politicians have used for their advantage.

I think the bench is very important. Especially these days.

There's a few lads, without naming people, on the bench this past 4 or 5 years and they haven't pushed on.  Seem, to a certain extent, to be happy to sit on the bench and be part of the panel.

I don't know what goes on at training this past few years but I'd want to see lads really busting themselves and really trying to nail down a place.

Probably a good few counties have these players having the trappings of a county player.

We were brilliant under RG but he played the same 15 or 16 players every game for a few seasons. Now when we have several injuries and a retirement we're having to blood newbie's. That is necessary and will pay off in the longer term but we're going to be less consistent for a while.

Anybody know what the story is with Niall Loughlin??

Heard he had a double hernia, back sometime around March.

Derry keeper needs investigating for match-fixing.

Get lynch back asap

Lynch is a great keeper but you couldn't really blame the lad today, all the goals were walked into the net. Derry not strong enough in defence or the bench. Much improved display today though.