Topics

OK lads & ladies, time to leave the cracker of the game that was Down vs Tyrone in the weekend that was in it, and just in case To whom it may concern casts any more devastating aspersions on those lads that give so much for the County on that particular thread (entitled to your opinion absolutely, but not to slate on a public forum -- the game itself is only the tip of the iceberg of the time and effort).

'Tis well in advance, but I actually think that that defeat to Down could be a blessing in disguise -- takes us out of the Ulster dogfight and gives time for the injuries and bruises (and bruised egos) to heal.

Thought Fuzzman's post captured it well (in that thread), and just to repeat it:

In recent years Tyrone have often been on the right side of these epic games and the verdict has always been how they will drive on from this and progress

When we won the AI in 2005 the media suddenly we're all praising Tyrone's training methods, underage culture, Club Tyrone etc etc.
None of that would have been mentioned had Kerry got a 3rd goal near the end and won the match

Likewise on Sat night we came very close to STEALING this game but for once we came out on the wrong side of this exciting game
Yeah maybe Down aren't world beaters but for a 1st round match they certainly battled harder than any other team I've saw this year.

Maybe the Tyrone managment do have the stance now of purposely not being TOO fit this time of the year and to try to compensate for the easier runs other teams have to the 1/4 finals such as Kerry, Cork or Dublin.

After the game I too took part in the doom & Gloom outlook that we're a spent force and not a shadow of 2003 or 2005 with hunger, intensity and a great forward line being our main attributes.

So what's the pluses and negatives?

-ves
MF still a huge problem and currently our HF & HB line isn't compensating for this
Forward line is missing a Star forward and I hate to admit it but Sean is wasted in FF and needs to be running facing the goals not with his back to it.
MH seems to have become too loyal to some of his old servants too often and is slow to change them. Is this just stubborness or can't he see it?
Hub looks past it
Dooher was poor Sat but think he's more to give. Not fully fit yet.

+ves
Joey and Justin are two great footballers if they can stay fit
We've some good defenders waiting to break thru
Brian & Tommy McGuigan, Mugsy, McGinley,
I think IF we had a fit team
I would have

Lucky Dip Keeper
PJ
Joey
McCaul/Swift/Carlin/McGee
Ricey
Gormley
Jordan
Cavanagh
Justy
Dooher
B.McGuigan
Mulgrew
Mugsy
Tommy
McGinley

With Penrose, McCullagh. Mellon who played great on Sat all waiting to come in there is a descent enuf team there to get to the 1/4 finals and who knows with a run of matches maybe the final as long as they don't meet Kerry.

People talk about a lot of miles on the clock but with the exception of Holmes & Dooher & maybe Hub who else would U say you would drop from the team. Ricey? No!!

I think we were all hurt by Sat night with Down being so DOWN played for months or years now but I think if you look over the years and teams who went on to win AI's, how often did you leave the 1st round match to hear someone say

"Not much odd's who they meet next, they won't go too far"


Wouldn't disagree too much with that.

[atrociously]

Sorry folks, if someone has broached this subject in the recent past before...

But the gaaboard is atrociously slow, and well nigh impossible to connect to at times; and it ain't the posters' connections.

Anything being looked at here Admins? Send me a PM if necessary (apart from f**k off and mind your own business  ), but your MySQL server* is seriously overloaded, totally unable to deal with the web traffic, and scalable it most certainly ain't. I'll be happy to help, or call on those who will. Thanks.

*Edit: On reflection, it's most likely to be the webserver, and nothing to do with the database as such, but something's seriously throttled.

[1]

Time to look forward, and suddenly (as sudden as the equalising Kildare goal) Salthill on the 2nd March is a massive game for Tyrone.

Would like to see, in Salthill:

1. Packie: our best shot-stopper, but needs to get the head-staggers sorted with the kickouts, though in fairness he needs options to kick towards, which weren't there on Saturday evening

2. PJ Quinn: still on the learning curve, but improving with each game

3. Justy: promising introduction

4. Swift: more of the same

5. Carlin: no offence to Davy

6. Gormley: nuff said

7. Philly: ditto

8. Seán C: ditto

9. Hughes: limited options here, and he does better where he has a fielder alongside, will give necessary physical support to Seán C

10. Enda: player of the year, so far

11. Mulgrew: class, just needs to keep at it for the 70

12. Tommy Mc Guigan: from the sublime to the ridiculous at times, but if he could only stay on message for anything like the 70

13. Mc Cullagh: worked hardest and most effectively in Tralee, sharp looking

14. Mulligan: perhaps a folorn hope...

15. Gormley: worth another try, a big ask for first full county competitive game back to be against an All-Ireland winning defence

Galway going steadily at the minute (Galway folk agree?), but maybe just the game we need.

A Chairde,
The Irish Government sees fit to finance an organisation that is openly discriminatory and sectarian to a not inconsiderable degree, yet it will stand by and watch as a newspaper in the native tongue goes to the wall. Foras na Gaeilge (Development of Gaeilge), the 32 county Government body whose putative function it is to develop the language, has proven to be anything but (development-oriented), unfortunately.

Cast a vote here le do thóil:

Lá Nua Online Petition

Go raibh míle maith agat.

With the competitive pre-NFL games now finished for Tyrone, any ideas on a team for this game on the 2nd February?

My stab:

1. J Devine
2. PJ Quinn
3. C Mc Carron
4. M Swift
5. D Carlin
6. C Gormley
7. P Jordan
8. C Holmes
9. S Cavanagh
10. E Mc Ginley
11. R Mulgrew
12. C Cavanagh
13. A Mc Carron
14. T Mc Guigan
15. S (Snowy) O'Neill

MH won't want to take too many chances in this game, but will want to blood as many as is 'safely' possible.

Putting this up early just to make sure that the game (on Saturday 16th Feb) is being played in Fitzgerald Stadium, so that appropriate arrangements can be made, if any of the Kerry folk could enlighten me please. Go raibh maith agat.

Oh! And of course we'll whip their asses 

OK lads/lassies, can we vitriolic jealous f**kers who frequent this board, give a reflection on how the GPA sits with us, giving all a voice: for, against, and apathetic. Just so that Dessie can get a little less wound up about it all 

Just to get a handle on the volume of sentiments (as expressed elsewhere on the board).

The only absolutely fair way for All-Ireland winners to be determined, IMHO, is for every team who reach the same stage in a competition to have played an identical number of games (replays excluded). Whether that be eight groups of four (league based leading to 4 quarter-final pairings), or four groups of eight (league based leading to 2 semi-final pairings), or whatever, can be thrashed out, but the rubicon must be crossed in the first instance and the Provincials must be ditched as an integral part of the All-Ireland.

That's not to say, however, that the Provincials themselves would be ditched -- they would retain a status as competitions in their own right, to be run over a suitable period of the season, perhaps at the expense of the current NFL set-up.

[GAA announce major new investment]

Good!...

GAA announce major new investment


Saturday, August 18, 2007

GAA Central Council today announced a major new three-year investment project to the tune of some €38million which will benefit the Association at grassroots level.

A major part of the investment will be realised from revenue generated from rugby and soccer internationals being played at Croke Park. This will be added to the GAA's ongoing investment in coaching, games development, infrastructure and player welfare.

The investment was approved by Central Council after it was proposed by the Management Committee and will include €8.5million for County Boards, specifically for club associated development projects.

As a result the intention is to build between 10 and 15 floodlit synthetic and all-weather pitches to regulation GAA scale at centres throughout the country. This will enhance and supplement facilities for clubs, colleges and counties plus support special urban initiatives and new hurling development initiatives.

There will also be special investment in the overseas sector, Gaeltacht areas and affiliated units.

GAA President Nickey Brennan, stressed this was a one-off investment additional to funding made available on an annual basis from the GAA's traditional income sources.

"The decision is consistent with the commitment given that any associated finance that would accrue from the rugby and soccer games at the stadium would be invested at grassroots level," he said.

Croke Park opened its gates to soccer and rugby while Lansdowne Road currently undergoes a €350m redevelopment project.

Throughout the year GAA Headquarter will attract more than two million sports and music fans as it hosts two Ireland rugby internationals, four Republic of Ireland soccer matches and four music concerts on top of its usual 25 days of GAA games.

The GAA lifted its century-old Rule 42 ban on soccer and rugby being played on its turf two years ago.

Brennan said this was a hugely significant initiative for the Association at local level and he anticipated the proposal would receive Government support.

The process of implementation will now proceed through consultation and discussion with Provincial Councils and County Committees.

Starting this to let the Tyrone v Monaghan thread drop, in deference to the sensibilities of the Monaghan folk -- they may not appreciate the continual reminders  , and I'll change the thread title when the draw's made on the 29th.

Most like to meet: Meath
Least like to meet: Louth

[Stop doing the CBI's bidding, and we could be fossil fuel free in 20 years]

Scary stuff, in today's Guardian, given that NASA aren't generally seen to be the 'greenest' of organisations. Prepare for the Irish archipelago of Errigal, Carrantuohill, Slieve Donard, Lugnaquilla, etc....


Stop doing the CBI's bidding, and we could be fossil fuel free in 20 years


Prospects for renewable power are promising. But it means nothing if the public interest is drowned by corporate power

George Monbiot
Tuesday July 3, 2007
The Guardian

Reading a scientific paper on the train this weekend, I found, to my amazement, that my hands were shaking. This has never happened to me before, but nor have I ever read anything like it. Published by a team led by James Hansen at Nasa, it suggests that the grim reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change could be absurdly optimistic.

The IPCC predicts that sea levels could rise by as much as 59cm this century. Hansen's paper argues that the slow melting of ice sheets the panel expects doesn't fit the data. The geological record suggests that ice at the poles does not melt in a gradual and linear fashion, but flips suddenly from one state to another. When temperatures increased to between two and three degrees above today's level 3.5 million years ago, sea levels rose not by 59cm but by 25 metres. The ice responded immediately to changes in temperature.

Article continues
We now have a pretty good idea of why ice sheets collapse. The buttresses that prevent them from sliding into the sea break up; meltwater trickles down to their base causing them suddenly to slip; and pools of water form on the surface, making the ice darker so that it absorbs more heat. These processes are already taking place in Greenland and west Antarctica.

Rather than taking thousands of years to melt, as the IPCC predicts, Hansen and his team find it "implausible" that the expected warming before 2100 "would permit a west Antarctic ice sheet of present size to survive even for a century". As well as drowning most of the world's centres of population, a sudden disintegration could lead to much higher rises in global temperature, because less ice means less heat reflected back into space. The new paper suggests that the temperature could therefore be twice as sensitive to rising greenhouse gases than the IPCC assumes. "Civilisation developed," Hansen writes, "during a period of unusual climate stability, the Holocene, now almost 12,000 years in duration. That period is about to end."

I looked up from the paper, almost expecting to see crowds stampeding through the streets. I saw people chatting outside a riverside pub. The other passengers on the train snoozed over their newspapers or played on their mobile phones. Unaware of the causes of our good fortune, blissfully detached from their likely termination, we drift into catastrophe.

Or we are led there. A good source tells me that the British government is well aware that its target for cutting carbon emissions - 60% by 2050 - is too little too late, but that it will go no further for one reason: it fears losing the support of the Confederation of British Industry. Why this body is allowed to keep holding a gun to our heads has never been explained, but Gordon Brown has just appointed Digby Jones, its former director-general, as a minister in the department responsible for energy policy. I don't remember voting for him. There could be no clearer signal that the public interest is being drowned by corporate power.

The government's energy programme, partly as a result, is characterised by a complete absence of vision. You can see this most clearly when you examine its plans for renewables. The EU has set a target for 20% of all energy in the member states to come from renewable sources by 2020. This in itself is pathetic. But the government refuses to adopt it: instead it proposes that 20% of our electricity (just part of our total energy use) should come from renewable power by that date. Even this is not a target, just an "aspiration", and we are on course to miss it. Worse still, the government has no idea what happens after that. Last week I asked whether it had commissioned any research to discover how much more electricity we could generate from renewable sources. It has not.

It's a critical question, whose answer - if its results were applied globally - could determine whether or not the planetary "albedo flip" that Hansen predicts takes place. There has been remarkably little investigation of this issue. Until recently I guessed that the maximum contribution from renewables would be something like 50%: beyond that point the difficulties of storing electricity and balancing the grid could become overwhelming. But three papers now suggest that we could go much further.

Last year, the German government published a study of the effects of linking the electricity networks of all the countries in Europe and connecting them to north Africa and Iceland with high-voltage direct-current cables. This would open up a much greater variety of renewable power sources. Every country in the network would then be able to rely on stable and predictable supplies from elsewhere: hydroelectricity in Scandanavia and the Alps, geothermal energy in Iceland and vast solar thermal farms in the Sahara. By spreading the demand across a much wider network, it suggests that 80% of Europe's electricity could be produced from renewable power without any greater risk of blackouts or flickers.

At about the same time, Mark Barrett, of University College London, published a preliminary study looking mainly at ways of altering the pattern of demand for electricity to match the variable supply from wind and waves and tidal power. At about twice the current price, he found that we might be able to produce as much as 95% of our electricity from renewable sources without causing interruptions in the power supply.

Now a new study by the Centre for Alternative Technology takes this even further. It is due to be published next week, but I have been allowed a preview. It is remarkable in two respects: it suggests that by 2027 we could produce 100% of our electricity without the use of fossil fuels or nuclear power, and that we could do so while almost tripling its supply: our heating systems (using electricity to drive heat pumps) and our transport systems could be mostly powered by it.

It relies on a great expansion of electricity storage: building new hydroelectric reservoirs into which water can be pumped when electricity is abundant, constructing giant vanadium flow batteries and linking electric cars up to the grid when they are parked, using their batteries to meet fluctuations in demand. It contains some optimistic technical assumptions, but also a very pessimistic one: that the UK relies entirely on its own energy supplies. If the German proposal were to be combined with these ideas, we could begin to see how we might reliably move towards a world without fossil fuels.

If Hansen is correct, to avert the meltdown that brings the Holocene to an end we require a sort of political "albedo flip". The government must immediately commission studies to discover how much of our energy could be produced without fossil fuels, set that as its target and then turn the economy round to meet it. But a power shift like this cannot take place without a power shift of another kind: we need a government which fears planetary meltdown more than it fears the CBI.

[Moran, Dooher win monthly awards]

From the Irish Times, and good of Colm Mc Fadden to throw Dooher the vote  Say nothing to magickingdom about Dessie referring to the Donegal-Tyrone clash as "most significant to date in the football championship"... he'll have a seizure!


Moran, Dooher win monthly awards


Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Limerick hurler Ollie Moran and Tyrone football star Brian Dooher have won the Opel Gaelic Player of the Month Awards for June.

Moran's battling performances typified Limerick's never-say-die attitude during their epic three-game saga with Tipperary in the Munster championship.

"There's no denying that Limerick would not have got over the threshold if it weren't for the tremendous contribution of Ollie Moran," Hurling Committee chairman and former Cork manager Donal O'Grady said.

"On the first day, he was a clear man of the match winner after hitting five points from play and making the terrific catch which set up Pat Tobin for the equalising goal.

"When Limerick needed leaders, he was also to the fore during the closing stages of the first replay, and fittingly, he popped up to bag one of the key points at the end of extra-time in the second replay."

Dooher secured the vote of his peers having impressed throughout Tyrone's impressive march to the Ulster football final where they meet Monaghan. 

GPA chairman Dessie Farrelly paid tribute to Dooher and said Tyrone's convincing result over a resurgent Donegal was the "most significant to date in the football championship".

Dooher was unable to attend today's awards presentation due to work commitments but said he was "very honoured to be recognised by fellow players, something very special for any footballer."

[Local Junior B Hurling Team]

 

Local Junior B Hurling Team

Junior B hurlin (ya cant bate it)

Goalie - must have 'great goalmouth presence'.... which is secret code for being fat enough to have his own gravitational pull. Always in the 40-50 age bracket, this is a gent that will almost convince you that he played minor for the county in goal, even though the last time he got his knees dirty diving was at a ceili in 1965 when his version of the Hucklebuck went out of control, with numerous casualties.

Right corner back - the quiet man of the line-up he seems to escape the jokes in the dressing-room just because no-one has ever seen him angry and are afraid of hidden depths. Unmarried farmer with severe emotional baggage. Contact with a woman consists of the handshake at mass on a Sunday morning.

Full back - First started playing gaelic some time in the Pleistocene Epoch. Nicknamed Sledge like "yer man outta U2". Will get a nose-bleed if he passes beyond his own 50 yard line. Utterly, utterly useless and yet is a great hit with the fans. Quite likes the smell of blood.

Left corner back - Has all the gaelic skills of a piece of cheese and yet has been known to disappear up corner-forward's arses for days on end. An absolute cast-iron guarantee to be made mark the other team's young and absurdly fast superstar in the making.

Right half back - just out of minor, this boyo is sadly not going to get anywhere near the senior team... and yet hasn't missed a training session since early 1989. Selection is basically the manager's way of proving that he "doesn't give a damn who you are, if you're not down training we're not going to give you a game".

Centre back - disgruntled former senior player, tried to remove senior manager at agm and now has about as much chance of playing senior as he does of playing Hamlet in the Globe. Hasn't been junior training all year and is still absolutely guaranteed his spot on the team.

Left half back - county u-16 star, great white hope for the entire club. About 5 foot 4, he is still told to get under the puckouts and 'take the game to the opposition'... secret code for don't pass it to anyone unless your life is in serious danger.

Midfielder - chronic alcoholic who last scored a point in the late 70s and yet reckons he is justified in having a go for a point from anywhere inside the opposition's half. Well-liked character because he always gets his round in at the post-match season.

Midfielder - the full back's older brother, who sports a rather strange looking bandage on his knee - probably hiding teeth marks or something. Prone to making strange guttural noises every time he strains himself. Eats five dinners a day and is a prime suspect for a coronary.

Right half forward - quietly-spoken business-man who hails from the village. Drives a flash motor. Lads who live in the pub in the town don't know what to make of him "but he was an awful annoying young fella in school".

Centre forward - third of the set of brothers that includes the full back and midfielder. Is the target of all the brother's clearances... ALL of them. Probably the local A.I. man or something... by the way that's not A.I. in the Steven Spielberg meaning of the word.

Left half forward - utterly, utterly useless 25 year old who by some fluke of nature happens to be a deadly accurate free-taker. Tries to avoid open play altogether as he is far too important to the team to get injured. Is basically the team's only source of points.

Right corner forward - happily married man who hasn't played hurlin since he was 12 but has suddenly decided to take up the game again. Natural talent (like his genitalia) completely and utterly over shadowed by his beer belly. Guaranteed to bag a goal or two and gain for himself some ridiculous nickname like "Schillaci" or something.

Full forward - hasn't scored since the end of the war but is captain of the team and an all-out nut case. The line commonly quoted to excuse his complete inability to find the target is "he's a good man to bust up the play."

Left corner forward - managers 12 year old son brought on for the second half to avoid getting a fine for not fielding a team and somehow scores a point

Hardy is correct to air this issue, it'll be upon us as a fait accompli before we know it, having sleepwalked the whole way in.

I don't trust the GPA's motives, and it would appear that that's an almost universal consensus – the suspicions are that it really is after pay-for-play, and for the elite few only.  As AZOffaly said, whether the proposed payments are actual reimbursements for monies disbursed in the pursuit of county duties (with receipts to prove it), or an allowance/grant to cover all potential expenses (non-receipted), is a critical distinction; if it's the former then that's fine, but the latter is the first step to professionalism for it will already be de facto professionalism.

And if it is de facto professionalism, we are all faced with a choice: are we prepared to cut our best county players loose in order to protect the amateur ethos of the organisation? Or would we be prepared to let pay-for-play/play-for-work permeate the whole organisation, as it surely would? 

Personally, I would let our best county players go in order to protect the very valuable amateur ethos of the GAA.  And were this to happen across the whole country, what we could well end up with would be a 'GPA All-Ireland' (just as there is a GPA Team of the Year), which would comprise only a subset of the current All-Ireland counties – only those counties with a critical mass of players good enough would be eligible.   The players in this elite would still play with their clubs, but it would be play-for-nothing, gratis, and that's why it would seem to work, at least initially.

But it should be resisted at all costs – the GAA can survive without this elite, but it will not survive professionalism, IMHO.

[Club]

Have started this one to complement the Tyrone Club Football and Hurling thread 

So, we need a point from the Mayo game to guarantee Division One survival -- any word on any of the injuries from last night's game against Kerry?

[Unavailable]

After a welcome result in Limerick, if not as welcome a peformance, time to look forward to Saturday night a chairde (not that I'm the official thread-starter, just eager!  )


Unavailable
C Mc Ginley
Seán Cavanagh
Brian Mc Guigan
M Magee

The team to start (wishful)

                                                                       P Mc Connell

R Mc Menamin                                                   Joe Mc Mahon                                                  D Carlin

D Harte                                                            C Gormley (if fit)                                            Justin Mc Mahon                                                   

                                             Raymond Mulgrew                                   Kevin Hughes

B Dooher (capt)                                                 O Mulligan                                                        Ryan Mellon

O'Neill                                                               Paul Rouse                                                        Niall Gormley

Subs                          

J Curran
E Mc Ginley
C Mc Cullagh
P Jordan
D Mc Caul
M Penrose
C Cavanagh
T Mc Guigan
C Mc Carron
P Donnelly
Kelvin Hughes


Good few ifs and buts in that selection, i.e., will Mulligan be back on terms, will Mulgrew be over his flu, will Jordan be fit for the bench, etc. 

Don't know if this question has been asked before here folks, but trying to get a handle on what the feeling is on Saturday evening games?  Personally, I could do without them – they might be OK for the home fans, but they're a pain in the butt for travellers where the Saturday evening in a new or different place that you might be trying to acquaint yourself with is more or less spoken for. 

Not totally enamoured with the home games under lights either, nothing to beat the Sunday game, though I would accept that the players may prefer it, and that's an important consideration.  Sláinte.

[Unavailable]

Time to look forward a chairde, and leave the immediate past behind (rather conveniently  ).  My wish list of a team against Limerick on the 25th March:

Unavailable
Joe Mc Mahon
C Mc Ginley
Philip Jordan
Seán Cavanagh
Brian Mc Guigan


The team to start (wishful)

                                                                     P Mc Connell

R Mc Menamin                                                   D Mc Caul                                                    M Magee (if fit)

D Harte                                                            C Gormley                                                    D Carlin

                                             Kelvin Hughes                                   Kevin Hughes

B Dooher                                                         Mulligan                                                        Cavlan

C Mc Carron (Omagh)                                         O'Neill                                                       E Mc Ginley

Subs                          

C Cavanagh
P Rouse             
Justin Mc Mahon
C Mc Cullagh
T Mc Guigan
P Donnelly

Sin é é! 

                 

After a dogged and determined (and well deserved) win for Donegal today against the Dubs, and a tame performance from ourselves in our capitulation against Cork last night, the stage is now set for the Omagh showdown in two weeks -- Donegal looking for Mc Kenna Cup revenge, and ourselves looking to rebound emphatically. 

Should be an interesting tie!