Messages

It's odd isn't it?

Every single last person involved in sport knows that protracted knockout competitions are a steaming pile of dung until the element of jeopardy arrives.

And yet all around Ireland, all around the world, we keep introducing and extending these formats.

Other sports can at least use professionalism and a need for paying spectators as their excuse.

We cannot.

Well considering 85% approx of money generated filters down to the clubs, we all win?

Where's that figure coming from?

HQ is clearly contributing to player injury insurance. And it pays for the IT infrastructure (Foireann).

But I did a 5 year stretch as a treasurer until recently. And i don't actually recall a direct benefit coming from HQ during that time.

Was I filling in the wrong forms?

Jarlath Burns interview the other day he said 83cent/penny of every pound/euro the gaa make goes back to clubs. No idea if thats accurate or where the money is seen!

I don't want group games at all but if you have then you need to prelim qf so that teams that lose their first 2 games have something to play for.

There is a lot of back and forth re Dublin who I think we should all admit would dominate any province. They are dominating the All-Ireland long enough so it's fair to say their depth would manage Ulster too.

But, that doesn't excuse Kildare and Meath especially. They should be up and around Div 1 or solid Div 2. I know lads are saying when we are waiting to be hammered in Leinster it breeds a bad vibe, but the league is something different and Kildare were annihilated by Cork and Derry last year. That is not excuseable.

There will be a reset and some fresh blood on the pitch and on the line next year, but the Dubs are going nowhere!

It does create a bad vibe. And you can't just switch that on or off for league football.

When people argued that Dublin benefitted from financial advantages 5 years back we were told that it was a once in a life time team. That we should laud them while they are here. How does that argument stack up now?

Are they that far ahead? A Monaghan team on its last legs ran then close last year, a Kerry team thats good but nothing special ran them close in the final with their main man having an off day. Derry drew with them in the league final.  Outside the old guard they are a very good but not unbelievable side.

Score are scores. Can hardly be criticised for being fouled and having a top free taker.

Derry going with the same team as the league final.

No real surprise didn't think they'd risk McKinless from the start and he's a great impact sub.

No Murphy on the bench??

Can changes be made to the 26? Harte normally names his subs in alphabetical order. Doherty is out of place & Murphy would fit in at 25 alphabetically.

Yeah I think you name 4 lads in reserve who don't appear on programme but can come in last minute.

Get Comer starting and that Galway team will give anyone a game!

Could very easily have been a red for the Atalanta man there for handball. Salah miss was criminal for a player of his quality.

Doku should have started instead of Grealish; so predictable, always cuts back inside and takes the pace off the attack. BTW this is the same Rudiger who couldn't get a place in Lampard's Chelsea team

Thought Carvajal did brilliantly on Doku in fairness.

Keane right about Haaland

A stopped clock is right twice in the day. He also said Liverpool would win the League!

They might yet. I fancy Chelsea to beat City this weekend in the cup and trigger a pep implosion. 2 points behind with 18 to play for. It's still on.

League still very much on, depends how they all bounce back after exiting Europe, Liverpool likely gone too unless they can get a miracle.

See Gough ref for Saturday, was he not off the pace abit on the original ref fitness test or was that Coldrick.? Didn't think he kept up well in the Roscommon game in the league, and that wasn't a high paced game.

Yup, he was one of inter country refs from a panel of 42 who failed fitness tests earlier in the year.

Hopefully he's stayed off the pork pies since then!

They have made an awful balls of the underage county stuff.

Appears to be inconvenience for the powers to be. And HQ and have a desire for U19 grade.

What was wrong with u18 and u21 anyway?

Next to nothing. Páraic Duffy pushed for nearly a decade to scrap them before eventually getting his way before stepping down as Director General.

U17 to U20 would usually be a bigger jump than 18-21 i think?

Keane right about Haaland

We need to see more of this. Indeed it needs the full backing of VFI and another supplier ready to step in.

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/dublin-pub-takes-stand-against-29004882

(Why do so many "news" websites have to destroy the user experience with an advert every scroll? Yes I clicked on that article because it interested me. No, I refuse to stay on that site and see if there's anything else interesting to read)

I thought you couldn't penalise customers for paying by card now? the article doesn't clearly explain their "cash discount scheme"
The Chinese we go to used to charge 50p to pay by card, now since that rule came in they only accept cash

Rules could be different in the South? Either way easy way round it would be to say you are rewarding people for using cash rather than penalising them for card. E.g. advertise something for £5.50 but give a  50p discount for cash etc.

It's an EU directive under PSD2.

I'm not sure that easy way round it would pass much muster. No pun intended. It would at the very least need to be a % discount rather than a fixed fee per transaction one

Think  might have quoted wrong 

You are right though, if it was challeged it could easily be interpreted as passing on a fixed surcharge.

Could it? Is it illegal to offer a cash discount? (Providing you are declaring the income obviously)

[Really in a match we didn't lose]

Really in a match we didn't lose we shouldn't worry about a soccer penalty shoot out because of the GAA imposing it to free up Croke park for handy money, strange logic.

Yeah yous did.
Worse than that, it's a match you should have won and had every chance of winning, but bottled it.
Derry in the week leading up to the final had an unprecedented level of upheaval and that was evident in their performance. Yet Armagh couldn't win.
We had Brendan Rogers on a black card at the end of normal time and the and most of the first part of extra time. Yet Armagh couldn't win.
Yous were a point up towards the end of extra time and Rian O'Neill gave away a stupid needless free giving Derry the opportunity to draw level - and they took it. All Armagh had to do was keep their discipline and they probably win. But they didn't.
Armagh were given yet another chance to win in penalties - but bottled it again.

How many chances to yous need to be given to win a game before you stop moaning about not losing?
It was a losing performance from Armagh all day when they should absolutely have won. And you're complaining about penalties? If it went to a replay we'd have won again too. 

Maybe that's strange logic too!    

So, silliness aside, I'm looking forward to the game against Donegal with equal measures of excitement and fear - proper championship game. I really hope we get an opportunity to contest another Ulster final - we haven't played Down in a final for along time   

I don't agree with the narrative that Armagh should have won. We led that game the whole way through normal time, we were 2 points up on more than one occasion in the last 10 minutes of normal time. I remember Brendan Rogers fisted an easy one wide that would have put us 3 up in normal time with not long left and it would have been game over. Armagh were chasing us the whole game, had their chances to win it too in the end but from the position we were in we should have closed that game out in normal time.

I never felt at any stage in that game we would win. Even in extra time when we were leading I never felt we would win

We definitely should have won, but I'm sure we're both supporting Armagh long enough to very rarely feel as though we will win during a close game! 

[Really in a match we didn't lose]

Really in a match we didn't lose we shouldn't worry about a soccer penalty shoot out because of the GAA imposing it to free up Croke park for handy money, strange logic.

Yeah yous did.
Worse than that, it's a match you should have won and had every chance of winning, but bottled it.
Derry in the week leading up to the final had an unprecedented level of upheaval and that was evident in their performance. Yet Armagh couldn't win.
We had Brendan Rogers on a black card at the end of normal time and the and most of the first part of extra time. Yet Armagh couldn't win.
Yous were a point up towards the end of extra time and Rian O'Neill gave away a stupid needless free giving Derry the opportunity to draw level - and they took it. All Armagh had to do was keep their discipline and they probably win. But they didn't.
Armagh were given yet another chance to win in penalties - but bottled it again.

How many chances to yous need to be given to win a game before you stop moaning about not losing?
It was a losing performance from Armagh all day when they should absolutely have won. And you're complaining about penalties? If it went to a replay we'd have won again too. 

Maybe that's strange logic too!    

So, silliness aside, I'm looking forward to the game against Donegal with equal measures of excitement and fear - proper championship game. I really hope we get an opportunity to contest another Ulster final - we haven't played Down in a final for along time   

Was that free the one where McGuigan took a bite out of him or was that a different incident?