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My god there are some crying hoors in the GAA who want everything for free, I surely hope they are over represented on this board or the organisation is truely in trouble.

Crying about the price of tickets to games, and the price of diesel to get to games, and how much a feed costs, and having to get a ticket for the wains, and not getting to see every game on FTA tv, and the game they just saw was lateral shite, and the forward mark, and the studio analysis, and negative managers, and people coming to the door selling tickets for their club, and the amount of money the GAA has, and the lack of money the GAA gives our club, ad nauseum ad nauseum ad nauseum.

And then thinking they are great GAA men when they've not ever wore a shirt or even washed a shirt.

I would say the vast majority of posters on here are not even GAA members.

Keyser, in my experience a good auld moan and gripe is the common language of humanity. I've spent plenty of time abroad and worked with many nationalities and the average gaa fan or poster on this board is no different to the majority everywhere else (well west coast USA with their unwavering positivity might be the exception).
And as for your comment on posters probably not being members, I suspect the vast majority of us are pretty involved with gaa at some level. We are the diehards or we wouldn't be on here in the first place. Not that many people find discussions on the kickout strategies of Armagh all that interesting you know....

There certainly are diehards on here but a majority, definitely not.

There was a thread on ticket selling on here recently.

Not only was there just one poster, of the many who contributed to the thread, who had actually gone out to sell tickets, but there were quite a few who were complaining about being asked to buy a ticket by clubs coming to their door, and there were even a few calling for it to be banned.

Like what sort of GAA person would begrudge being ASKED to voluntarily contribute a few quid to the GAA, by a person who is giving up their time to travel around the country to raise funds for their local club. The people selling the tickets are diehards, people whinging about it on Gaaboard are blowhards.

So no I don't agree that a majority are GAA diehards, their diehardness extends to going to county matches and complaining their hole off on GAA board about stuff they probably know very little about.

And yes that would indeed include Armagh kickout strategies

You seem to have a very narrow agenda.

I've:

- played football for 35 years.
- coached and selected at teams from under-8 to senior, including the past 8 years unbroken.
- spent over 15 years on our club committee, including 5 as treasurer.
- served as our county board rep for a couple of years and on a county board subcommittee for a year.
- acted as a team liaison for our county minors for two years.

And my sincere opinion is that if a club from say County Derry cannot find the funds within their own parish, community, town, county to build whatever it they think they need, then they've no business asking people from say County Down to put their hands in their pockets and pay for it.

Am I not GAA enough to be entitled to this opinion?

Spurs had a great season and they're only 6 pts, 2 wins better than a bad United side. If United by some miracle  win the Cup, Ten Hag has had a better season than the Farewell Flopp. The main issue with that team is being constantly over run in the middle. 1 correct purchase could be worth an extra 10 points next season, but it's not too often utd get it right in the transfer market this last 10 years or so.

Spurs had a great [ start to ] the season.

No Johnny. There's been various motions by clubs over the year at convention along those lines, but to the best of my knowledge, none have succeeded.

I do wonder when I see such motions. While I get the gist of what they're trying to achieve, those clubs who currently have multiple referees, do they have an active policy of encouraging and fostering referees, or are they just lucky?

There's a significant chunk of our small pool of referees approaching (and past) retirement age.

I'm a realist (I hope) and I'd be properly worried about our county's ability to run a full schedule of fixtures in the next 3-5 years.

And I'd be even more worried about such a situation might be resolved with short term measures (e.g no referees for u14, no u16 grade at all, alternate weekends for ACFL 1 and 2, and so on). Really, because there is no solution.

I've refereed a dozen or so u12 (go) games the past year. Even at that level, the culture - by roughly half the clubs involved - towards referees from players, managers and spectators is revolting. And i would firmly believe that the "roughly half" becomes "roughly  three quarters" by minor level and "just about everyone" by senior.

Do our next generations a favour. Actually just give them a chance to play football. If you're involved with a team, at any grade, develop a policy that referee abuse will not be tolerated.

Hate City. Billion pound or so worth of subs. Cheats.

Really not a fan of the "elderly person with no broadband" argument. This demographic got through 80% of their lives with knockout championships and minimal tv coverage. They're not losing out on something if they never really had it. And even if they did have it, their parents didn't, so why should they? It's a futile, nonsense attempt to tug on heartstrings, most commonly chorused by stay at home supporters who like to watch soccer and whatever is on YouTube at the same time.

I'll always say that GAA Go went about things arse faced. Had they done the Netflix / Now TV route and made the software easy to use and access first, then more secure later, it would now only be a year or two from being a staple purchase that just floats out of almost every bank account in Ireland every month.

But they've invested all their tech time to date in making it difficult to steal. Which means they're picking up customers only because they're forced into it, rather than because they're curious. Which is not the right way to start up, and is the fundamental driver of the current angst.

"Besides not liking Sean what did he say that's incorrect?"

First of all I'm completely biased here and i know it. Cavanagh is quite probably the worst pundit in history. His lack of research is appalling, on a par with Spillane and Brolly, but he's just no loquacious enough to cover it up. He has an odd sense of humour. And his sense of place - I.e. talking about grassroots - always seems based on what he reads on Twitter rather than what's happening in an actual club.

So what did he say that's incorrect? From my perspective he's taking swipes and he doesn't have the foggiest what it is he's swiping at. He's just throwing out irrelevances. Joining in on conversation that he doesn't care much about, and accidentally taking it off on a new angle that nobody needs.

Not honestly sure I could pick 3 Nirvana songs I like without using the Unplugged album.

Loved Nevermind when it first came out, but Nirvana are just a little too raw, too intense for a soft old chap like me.

I do think  your music tastes  change as you  get older.  I was a big U2 fan but I  struggled to name   a top 3 for them.

No doubt. I'd have similar feelings about Led Zep and the Doors, who soundtracked my mid teen years. Love listening to Metallica's intros but can no longer take Hetfield's voice.

I find myself now pulling towards Neil Diamond and Kris Kristofferson. My younger self would hate me lol.

[It stops players from taking a man on]

If there's a silver-lining to yesterday's performance it's that Armagh put on an exhibition on why the attacking mark should be ditched. Such a stupid rule.

Odd take. I think the attacking mark works. I also don't know why you would get rid of it because 2 Armagh players didn't have a shot.

Why does it work? It stops players from taking a man on and the art of 1 v 1 defending in many instances. I think the general concensus would be that the majority would like to see a player take his man on as that is what gets punters off their seats, not someone being able to take a free shot at goal or worse slow down the attack then kick it back. 

It does not stop that, you can still take a man on and many teams do. It does stop a man catching a long ball in and getting swamped by 3 defenders and getting turned over.

You might well be the only person in Ireland who's in favour of the forward mark.

Not honestly sure I could pick 3 Nirvana songs I like without using the Unplugged album.

Loved Nevermind when it first came out, but Nirvana are just a little too raw, too intense for a soft old chap like me.

It's not lazy analysis Tonto.

Armagh sat back deeper and counter attacked with fewer numbers after going 4 ahead.

Armagh took the easy point ahead of the clear goal opportunity.

Armagh refused two kickable marks in preference for clock killing.

Armagh were 2 ahead in extra time and then went into hiding. Witness Donegal's last or second last point were most Armagh players drifted across to the left-half back position - with no attempt  to make contact - and left the other half open. 

Armagh have better players than Donegal, more experienced players than Donegal and better conditioned players than Donegal. But a fear of losing strangled them once again.

Looking for other reasons for them not winning is wrong.

I don't agree APM.

The first half was enjoyable and maybe the the best exhibition of long distance shooting I've seen.

But it was more-or-less a contact free half of football, with as good as no contested kickouts

It takes more than long range shooting to perk me up. Each to their own.

A few things after  watching all that:

Football as a spectacle is  pathetic.

Penalties need to go

I think McGeeney has taken Armagh as far as he  can. I expect change  there

Would those first two thoughts not be in competition with each other? 

One thing we don't need is more games of football.

Another thing we don't need is teams that do not push for a win, are rewarded with a replay.

Spurs have had one penalty in 36 games so this scenario is borderline implausible

Neither of teams deserve to win.

The very least thing anyone should do sport is try to win.

Neither team tried to win that game.

Sport ruining c***ts, one and all.

That's a bizarre take. Both teams knackered.

Sorry to tell you fella, but if you think there's any glory gained from what happened in the last 10 mins of normal time, or in part of extra time, then you're institutionalised.

Sorry to tell you fella,  if you didn't think that was a high quality exciting game of football maybe you should consider a different pastime

It was a good game for 50-55 mins.

Then it became unnecessarily tactical turgid nonsense, with two team who both deserved to lose because neither tried to win.