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Last 3/4 years, Armagh , Galway , mixed in with Derry have been very decent sides but you are kidding yourself if you believe them sides have been the same quality of say , Dublin , Donegal , Kerry and Mayo of the last period say 13-18/19 ish type thing,I'm not talking honours either ,quality of 15/16&17 finals ahead of anything I've seen of late . Quality has been so average dubs snatched one with a team of OAP s . There has been a serious lot of hyperbole especially where Galway are concerned, if that were Mayo we'd be labelled everything from bottlers to chokers .

Is manning about ? Long drive home lad

4/6 Galway, my god that is generous odds for a team that needs a win against a team that have the top spot guaranteed no matter if they lose by 100 points

Kerry v Meath , should be a routine victory for the kingdom .

Roscommon v Cork , hard to call this one , cork were very good in Munster clash v Kerry but seemed to have been drained by it . Rossies have potential but don't seem to reach it , ros forwards clique on the day should be enough to see them over the line .

Dubs v Derry ... Dubs if Con is back

Galway v Armagh .. Galway

Louth to beat Clare , Clare seem to have issues with playing for 70 mins


Monaghan to beat Down

Donegal to beat Mayo by whatever they feel like , teams operating at different levels this year unfortunately

Tyrone to hammer Cavan .

Kerry to win the all Ireland and we will all wonder why we labelled it anybody's all Ireland , no team to get within 5 points of them from the knockout stage till they lift Sam in a few weeks time .

If there's one thing you have to hand to Galway it's the confidence they bring and respect they have from all n sundry whilst doing absolutely nothing .  Scrapped by a very average (general feeling not mine ) mayo team in Connacht final
Beaten by the beaten docket of the dubs (again the general feeling )

Scrapped a draw against again not a fancied Derry team .
All this on top of bottling an all Ireland final last year (bottling it , is losing a final when odds on to win it )

Jaysus Larryin89, you've entered "two bald men fighting over a comb" territory there.

Absolutely nothing surer than Larryin is a balding 36 year old anyway. The belly poking far out over the blue bootcut jeans, typing furiously into the Motorola at lunch before he tucks into the packed ham sandwich. You have to love the confidence of an old foundation English student in tackling an online forum with such vigour.

Dear me ! Only seeing this now . Brilliant . Very accurate description too . Although I find your derogatory tone in regards to boot cut jeans very hurtful as i look rather dashing in them and the advice I took on board at the time of purchase was they are all the rage again "back in " baby .

If there's one thing you have to hand to Galway it's the confidence they bring and respect they have from all n sundry whilst doing absolutely nothing .  Scrapped by a very average (general feeling not mine ) mayo team in Connacht final
Beaten by the beaten docket of the dubs (again the general feeling )

Scrapped a draw against again not a fancied Derry team .
All this on top of bottling an all Ireland final last year (bottling it , is losing a final when odds on to win it )

Yet they still strut their stuff as if they've won 3 in a row , it's admirable if nothing else . Media never stop fawning over them , it's quite incredible the amount of superlatives have been used to describe each and every Galway player .

It's an awful shame the dubs didn't have their shooting boots on the last day and Con missing was massive too cause Armagh would be all out next day if they needed a result . Find it hard to believe Armagh would be foolish enough to go all out to win a dead rubber now the way it's panned out
. Galway win in that one , Dubs / Derry hard to call .

Donegal and Tyrone victories in our group will see our bucks bow out for the year im afraid . Mayo won't cope with the counter attack speed of Donegal , they'll cut us right open down the centre for 3-18 id guess (4 two pointers ) . Murphy will have a tussle with mcbrien, Murphy will complain to man in black and mcbrien will then receive a red card . Its Murphy's rules out there his receding hairline brings an aura of authority like an old school inspector.

Tyrone were lethargic against Mayo , that one week turnaround is an awful hindrance , they'll easily account for Cavan .

Around a 3.5 hour drive from North Doengal to Roscommon. That's some tour compared to the majority of Mayoites

Where is the alternative for those in north Donegal ?

Achill to Roscommon is over two hrs

Blacksod to Roscommon is near 2 1/2 hrs

Mayo isn't just ballagh and ballyhaunis ya know

When will they announce r3 venues ?

Cavan 1948
Donegal 2012
Tyrone 2021

Runners up
: mayo mayo mayo

Segregation is frowned upon when suggested but personally think for big games it makes perfect sense and would create a better atmosphere. All Ireland final day used to be one got the hill the other the canal end and it worked just fine and looked a better spectacle in the context of colour etc

I really hope the wee county win this today. 

Hopefully Cork can take some inspiration from Meath beating Dublin and their own performance against Kerry and get the finger out. It probably wouldnt take a huge pile given the talent in the county to get them to that level.

As long as Leinster continues on it's trajectory we'd have 4 competitive provinces.

Connacht is relatively competitive down the years albeit Galway going for 4iar but it's pretty pointless with the structure the way it is , Shur there's no advantage in fact this draw has proved it's actually a disadvantage to win Connacht. Forget provincial, forget the league too imo , play one competition within the season , two groups of eight seeded draw and top two play in semi final . All other formats are flawed and lopsided , could you even play a home and away fixture in such a scenario or would that be too many games .

During the league there were glimpses of what I thought was steady improvement for what we might bring to championship (2nd half Armagh, most of the Kerry game ) but I'm afraid it's just been wishful thinking , two games in and we've shown nothing to resemble a plan/tactic to match Galway . It is with hope rather than expectation one will travel to this one with and a niggling fear it could be a thumping , we simply don't have the quality Galway do at the moment . Only hope is we can develop some of our exciting 20s players in the next window of players coming through , 2027 we could have a team to compete again .

In saying all that it's a poor mayo man that won't raise his game at the sight of the maroon jersey in castlebar giving it all their notions of grandeur.

Galway looking very comfortable so far , very good side , ourselves and ros look a level below tbh .

On a side note has Joyce got a free pass to shout and roar at officials constantly?

Right call re hooter