Messages

It's all very flat. I see one rugby pod talking how this series captured the imagination.

It's so dead at the matches and it feels like a few DARE I SAY IT...friendlies.

Surely that's just rugby generally?
Great to play but a largely boring sport to watch.
Long periods of set piece, kick tennis, tackle / recycle, etc. then small bursts of activity when someone slips a tackle.

Wholesale rule changes i say...

Campese did a great radio interview during the week.  He said he knows a lot of players from his era who don't watch rugby anymore.  He said once it turned professional they pulled in the Rugby League defence coaches and it was never the same since.  The days of a tap and go try from under your posts are long gone.

Shocking bit of micro managing there from VAR to rule out that Southampton goal.  Took them nearly five minutes and eventually they found a fault.

Any word on what Ian Og is up to these days, been very quiet.

Trying to follow Arlene's footsteps:

https://x.com/gbnews/status/1861689166511153624?s=46&t=upCstAqzkTQY5JtOIziaYg

He's probably also touting himself as a friend of Trump and hoping it leads to something.

The slide for Manchester City continues, letting a 3 goal lead slip and only drawing at home with Feyenoord.  No excuse for Liverpool not to beat Manchester City on Sunday and to win comfortably.

Elsewhere Arsenal took full advantage of a Sporting team that lost their manager.

This Champions League format is a slow aul burn.

Are Sinn Fein taking their pay home now, North and South?  It was a silly policy in my opinion.

[I don't think Errigal have enough of a dog in them to beat Kilcoo]

Jeez Armagh wans whinging, who would have thought it

This thread inspired me to break a decade long hiatus from the board because I had forgotten just how much Armagh ones on the internet can whinge! Hadn't heard much out of them for years to the point that I was cheering for them lately 

It was a good game of football and I think Kelly's second yellow was soft, but he was walking a tight rope with a few fouls and there's always a likelihood that might happen. There wasn't much between the teams but Ruairi Canavan's quality meant Errigal probably deserved it on balance. A performance like that in bad conditions is special and I'm glad we get to see him again in the final.

That said, I don't think Errigal have enough of a dog in them to beat Kilcoo, in what will probably be a hateful game.

I don't think they're short in that department.

Small margins.  Clann Eireann looked cert for a goal, but Niall Kelly got back on the line and cleared his lines. Great defending.

Petition Call a General Election I would like there to be another General Election.  I believe the current Labour Government have gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead up to the last election.

Only started a couple of days and there's 1.6 Million signatures

It's strange how this has grown legs and yet they were lied to about Brexit and none of them would dare mention it.

The GAA put the cart before the horse massively.
1. They arrogantly thought the residents would be swept aside and Sinn Fein would fix any problems.
2. They were out of their depth professionally and had no answer when the health and safety issues were raised.
3. They don't seem to understand political leverage.  Only this week they are talking big about "seeing the colour" of the British governments money.  In what world will an untrustworthy British government who have just wheeled out a crushing Budget, do any favours or be pressured by the GAA?

It's just been amateur hour from the start unfortunately.  It needs taken out of the hands of Ulster GAA, get on with it by cutting the cloth according to whatever money is in the kitty, and give it back to Antrim GAA.

Labour have looked at this through accounting glasses and have not allowed for the connection we have with the land. If HMRC came looking inheritance tax of me I would do time before I would sell one sq.ft of it to give it to them.
My father took over this ground from his father which was all covered in scrub and rushes. My father spent his 30's & 40's getting it into the shape it is in today and there is not a hope in hell I will be letting it go
People need to understand a lot of us in the beef & sheep sector work full time jobs as well and we pay our taxes like everyone else. We pay PAYEE, we pay our rates we keep the local economy going by buying local for the running of the farm. We hire contractors to cut our silage and pay them what they are owed.
Its bloody hard work and in my own case I have 4 young children and a wife to look after. You cant make someone farm it has to be in you to do it. I fatten 50 cattle a year and have 50 sheep lambing at the end of February and let me tell you I might as well have a couple of hundred with the work & time it takes. Why do I do it? I do it because it gives me a sense of purpose, when you see a field of new born lambs running about in spring time there is nothing like it. When you get all the silage in an all is ready for the winter its something you can say to yourself "that was a job well done".
I am a small farmer in Tyrone who enjoys farming and in all my years farming I can say that if I break even at the end of the financial year I am happy (there have been plenty of losses).
The small bit of ground that makes up our farm will never make me a living but I hope it will give the same rollercoaster ride it gives me to whichever of my kids decide to take it on and I can only do my bit for as long as I'm still breathing.

I'm not sure why Labour is doing this as the rich business men buying up land will not be affected by this as they have the best advisors helping them avoid the tax owed but the small man will pay.
They need to roll this back or there will be trouble, not so much over here because we are a divided community but England could be in trouble.

Rant over

That's a good insight, fair play.  But do you really not make a turn at it?  The farmers I know tell me prices are good at the moment?

Prices are better than what they were, but input prices have rocketed this last couple of years and on top of that you get a bad summer this year when the grass growth slowed which means having to feed more meal to the cattle as the quality of the grass wasn't great. The weather is completely out of our control so its unfortunate it had to happen this year when prices are better and we have no idea where they will be next year as a flood of beef from Brazil or where ever could decimate prices as the brits are hell bent on taking in imported meat to keep a lid on food prices.

Well I wish you well, we all need good food.  And at the end of the day in my simple head that's why farmers as small businesses should be treated a wee bit differently.  The obvious compromise to my mind is to exempt active farmers. 

Labour have looked at this through accounting glasses and have not allowed for the connection we have with the land. If HMRC came looking inheritance tax of me I would do time before I would sell one sq.ft of it to give it to them.
My father took over this ground from his father which was all covered in scrub and rushes. My father spent his 30's & 40's getting it into the shape it is in today and there is not a hope in hell I will be letting it go
People need to understand a lot of us in the beef & sheep sector work full time jobs as well and we pay our taxes like everyone else. We pay PAYEE, we pay our rates we keep the local economy going by buying local for the running of the farm. We hire contractors to cut our silage and pay them what they are owed.
Its bloody hard work and in my own case I have 4 young children and a wife to look after. You cant make someone farm it has to be in you to do it. I fatten 50 cattle a year and have 50 sheep lambing at the end of February and let me tell you I might as well have a couple of hundred with the work & time it takes. Why do I do it? I do it because it gives me a sense of purpose, when you see a field of new born lambs running about in spring time there is nothing like it. When you get all the silage in an all is ready for the winter its something you can say to yourself "that was a job well done".
I am a small farmer in Tyrone who enjoys farming and in all my years farming I can say that if I break even at the end of the financial year I am happy (there have been plenty of losses).
The small bit of ground that makes up our farm will never make me a living but I hope it will give the same rollercoaster ride it gives me to whichever of my kids decide to take it on and I can only do my bit for as long as I'm still breathing.

I'm not sure why Labour is doing this as the rich business men buying up land will not be affected by this as they have the best advisors helping them avoid the tax owed but the small man will pay.
They need to roll this back or there will be trouble, not so much over here because we are a divided community but England could be in trouble.

Rant over

That's a good insight, fair play.  But do you really not make a turn at it?  The farmers I know tell me prices are good at the moment?

A lot of talk about farmers earning low incomes.  I wonder to what extent do they operate with cash, and to what extent do they spend big on machinery, jeeps etc rather than give it to the tax man.  Equals low income on paper, but are they actually doing alright?

If Labour had an ounce, they'd have known this would rile the farmers massively. They were arrogant and out of touch on this topic. By that logic it will take them a while to realise this is the wrong hill to die on.
Clarkson is also an arrogant p***k and while he draws attention, it was getting that anyway.

Great stuff. Rogers and many more were magnificent, but McManus was MotM to say the least.

Joe Kennedy's last official engagement in Belfast.  Thank god.  The licking round him was sickening, and I've yet to see a job created.