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Come on Kerry, what's keeping you?? I'm very seriously waiting on the call KILLARNEY or NOWHERE.

Kildare would have done it by now, and every player and supporter would be behind it to the core.

Give me one reason why it shouldnt go to Killarney....and if the Dubs go there and win it then fair play to them, they will be deserving champs. As it stands Croke Pk is arguably worth 2 or 3 points of a start to them.

Yours sincerely,

Integrity in sport.

Killarney or Nowhere for the replay lol

The Hogan Stand is a fantastic discussion board, so it is.

Spike I share your hurt, but trying to be rational about the matter, I base my support on deserving a draw at least against Derry and Leitrim (the two teams who went up) and also an exceptionally good performance against Louth who were level at top of division three. But yes...2019 was overall disappointing for various reasons. The loss of four big players from the year before didnt help, all players I'd have expected to start and make a difference.

The stay away supporters wont appreciate how Paddy Mc Aleer was progressing, or 2018 POY Peter Healey, or Conor Murray who is one of the best in the county atm. Kristian Healey and Mark Sweeney (Dublin club player of the year with St Judes) were missing for personal reasons, and all 5 above have the physique and technical ability to be in or around our first 15. Marty Johnston was out hurt too for a long time. So if you can work with that, this is largely what I'm basing my support for Lenny for another term. Regarding physique, the POY last year was the diminutive Patrick Mc Cormack.

Lenny does need to look at things now with the benefit of two years at the helm, and should be shrewd enough to know that it needs some tweaks to inject fresh impetus and reinvigorate both the squad and the supporters. As Gold rightly states, the scene has gone a bit flat in recent years, and the missing supporters are waiting on something exciting to draw them back again.

If anyone had asked me 2 years ago that after two years of failure to get out of division 4, that I'd support a third year for the same manager (no matter who he was) I'd have said not a chance. But sometimes there's a need to step back and take a wider view of things and not jump to irrational decisions. Or as Hardstation rightly says, why advocate change just for changes sake.

I base my support for another term on two main factors. One, we were very unlucky against Derry where we had a good point disallowed, and robbed blind in Carrick On Shannon by a carnapicious wee Sligo ref who played to the large home support. I say robbed blind because in 40 years I never saw decisions like B Judge (some name) made that day. We were highly competitive in both games and lost both by one point. In effect our league as good as over, and we had a horrific championship draw with Tyrone to contend with.

At this stage Lenny is ten times wider about the players he can depend on, the new type of players that would come in and either make a difference or strengthen proper competition for match selection. He will know what needs freshened up and what the priorities are to eke out 10% or 20% improvement across the board that should give us a real chance of finally getting out of division four. If that means tweaking his ground rules to facilitate one or two additions during the campaign, then maybe that needs to be taken into consideration.

If we are still having this same discussion in 10 months, then I'd find it much harder to support a fourth term, but I hope and expect Lenny gets ratified for another year and be confident that being the case, there will be a noticeable improvement on the first two.

Our groundsmen will be chuffed to hear that DR.

Moneyglass looked comfortable throughout and will take a bit of beating alright, but there are still one or two clubs who will give them a run for their money. Keelan Molloy is a joy to watch in full flight, but he's lost to the small ball so we will only see the odd glimpse here and there of his ability. Def a county senior panellist if he ever thought about a change of scenery for a year...lol.

If the games I saw Tir Na Nog looked in decent shape too, moved well, and can't be completely discounted. Portglenone made hard work of dispatching gutsy St Brigids, we can thank our keeper Ryan O Neill for a few saves that allowed us just a bit of breathing space throughout.

Anyone standing out that Lenny should be looking for next year?

Toby 47.... your post reminiscing about that particular encounter against Derry nineteen years ago always touches a raw nerve with me. Casement Park in full flow, thousands of Antrim supporters full vocal and Saffron everywhere, and our boys forcing the much vaunted Oak Leaf onto the ropes. Derry were probably a top six team then, NFL div one winners in that era. Kevin Madden's point with his left foot, practically on the goal line....what a score. A timely reminder what pure pride passion endeavour and team spirit can deliver. Like the day our hurlers beat Offaly in 89, two days of a lifetime.

That's the Div 1 league as good as over with Cargin winners after the most competitive league in memory. Top four positions sorted for next years cship seeding too...the scene is set now for a memorable championship. Can South West consolidate its position as the new power base, or can Galls Johnnies or LD....or indeed improving Rossa put a spanner in those works? Should be an interesting couple of months.

Stephen Mc Menamin held Mattie Donnelly and David Clifford to two points between them. For this alone a nomination is deserved.

From The Bunker......the case I make has nothing at all to do with whether or not they are good enough or whether or not they aspire to playing in Croke Park. What I'm saying is....the turnaround timescale is ridiculously short to facilitate any meaningful aspect of players mental or physical recovery.

This shouldn't be difficult to understand, and anyone who doesn't share that view I would argue has zero comprehension of how knackered the winners of next Saturday nights contest will be, especially if the game is a cliffhanger as most neutrals expect.

Croke Park my arse. If youse go up there and get a trimming by 20 points with a tired team full of injuries trust me, you'll not be long seeing the imbalance I'm talking about. It's madness frankly!!

Whichever team emerges from this will have a ridiculously short turnaround time before they are thrown back out again, in all probability physically and mentally knackered, to take on a Dublin team in their own back yard who haven't had to break sweat this year. That's one huge imbalance and regardless of how this came to pass, stands out as the biggest singular failure of the Super 8 experiment. As a neutral I'm really looking forward to this game, but can't see the victors being remotely well placed to do justice the following week.

Halfquarter hits the nail on the head 100%. Whoever decided that a turnaround time of 6 days is sufficient for players in the modern game should hold their head in shame. They obviously have no idea what it takes to mentally or physically prepare a team. This 6 day turnaround is singularly the biggest flaw in the structure of the "super 8's" and hands Dublin yet another massive psychological advantage...on top of home advantage and all the others.

Twoweeksornothing!

Otherwise it will be like going in like lambs to the slaughter.

Good to see our allocation of tickets for Saturdays big game against Kildare has sold out. Our players and management have put in a hard shift throughout the year and deserve nothing less than some proper support for 70 minutes on Saturday.

On our very best form we have a good chance of remaining in the competition come Monday mornings draw. We are under no pressure whatsoever, outside the panel very few expect anything but a drubbing, as is reflected in the bookies odds. But we are on a mini high after the Louth performance and Kildare are exactly the opposite after shipping a hefty defeat to the Dubs.....plus we have home advantage. All in all I fully expect us to be competitive throughout and won't be surprised in the least if we cause the biggest upset for quite a while.

Our under 20s looked very good at times yesterday too, drawing with Cavan and finishing their league campaign unbeaten after three. Obvious progress in this sector, with half a dozen players or more marking themselves out for senior activity in the near future. Well done to Hugh and backroom team, this set up has been impressive and the panel has responded. Question.....how many McRory cup medalists are on this panel from either St Marys Mfelt (2017) or St Ronan's (2018).

Agree wholeheartedly with you Brendan. The vast majority of the football people in the county have turned their back on these lads and support even from within some of their own clubs is lukewarm to say the least. Football is mostly about pride and yesterday this group stood tall when all around were castigating them. Yesterday they did it for themselves and that's what made this victory all the sweeter.

Louth were 1/4 in the book, and finished joint top of division three, narrowly missing promotion to division two on score difference. They were at home. They were six points up after twelve minutes.
That's the mountain our men faced down, in a glorious spell turned six down to nine up in a thirty minute spell of total dominance.

We talk of the players missing, the greats from Cargin or St Galls (and they were) but I've seen them too,  on good days and bad, and don't recall them producing anything quite as memorable as yesterday.

It's only one win, that's all, nothing else. But some highly valuable pride has been restored and for that alone it would be good if the football people in the county get behind them next day out wherever that may be.