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Loftus Cheek made a big difference when he came on. Maguire was their best player imo. Great finish from Harry.

They're fouling us in the box.

It's too warm.

They fall over too easily.

Key points from bbc commentary.

Ha noted that as well. At least sterling has gone he is absolute garbage in an england shirt

In fairness, the ref + VAR have ridden them. We'd be whinging too.

Great to hear them crying over the Kane 'penalty'

You can hardly blame them, it was a clear foul.

And another one. So much for VAR.

Some of Curry's 3s, the one over Love in particular, were insane.

That was a ludicrous shot and yet not that surprising because it was him.

Trileacman - excellent post and I'd agree with most of it. Certainly, some of the complaints about how the team was run do sound like the typical "my son is the centre of the universe, why can't you see that?" stuff, that happen in all clubs in all sports.

The accusation was very maliciously worded though and I don't think the "driver" was being pissy about the wording of the apology. He'd specifically said that he didn't want the club to foot the bill for Howley's carry on, but Howley made it sound like it had.

I think you're right about Ryan refusing to comment because this had arisen through the confidential helpline and as wobbler said,  the link to top brass exists only exists because the complaints procedure leads to them, which is a good thing.

I feel a bit taken in by the way the article was written and having read some of the posts here, think that aside from Howley, the other GAA officials involved, did nothing wrong here.

I think it's a good argument Hound. Maybe the cheque isn't as suspicious as it appeared and it could well be genuine that Ryan felt he couldn't comment publicly on the case. I don't think the article even mentioned what Garwyn Ireland are. As you said, it might not have cost the GAA a penny(though insurance companies always make you pay in the end).

[2. GAABoard usual suspects upset at Kimmage rather than the issue at hand.]

1. Kimmage writes article.

2. GAABoard usual suspects upset at Kimmage rather than the issue at hand.

3. Every else stares on blankly as the usual car crash thread happens.

You're making as much sense as usual. One poster criticised Kimmage. 5 or 6 posters praised him for bringing this to light.

An officiating shambles but gripping, heroic stuff again. You'd have to feel sympathy for Waterford.

Tipp are taking on Meath '91 levels of near death escapism.

Very sporting interviews from Padraig O Mahony and Derek Mcgrath afterwards.

I thought it was another nothing article from Kimmage about a dispute at club level between two men. Is every coach who was ever ran out of a club to get a full page spread on their grievances in the sindo? "I said, he said" that's all I see in that article.

It would be very easy to take the taxi drivers word at face value but like any situation I'm sure there's two sides to this story. The problem with Kimmage's writing is that conjecture is often presented as fact.

€20k cheques being issued from strange business names. Questionable behaviour at best by a club chairman. I think he is dead right on this one

Doesn't seem to be online yet. Is it O'Dwyers, Balbriggan?

Yes.

He offered the other side a chance to contradict any of the accusations levelled at them. They didn't.
Improper use of GAA funds by the association's leading figures, if proven, is not a "nothing" matter.

 Can't post a link as I haven't found it online but anyone read this today? Unlike the Athenry article where he named and shamed volunteers over minor/disputed incidents, I'd say fair play to him on this one. It seems to have uncovered improper use of GAA funds by top officials, breach of confidentiality on a purportedly anonymous helpline and a very malicious allegation against a coach by the club chairman, whose apology came across as very begrudging.

I imagine we'll see a series of these kind of articles from Kimmage as he becomes a watchdog for disgruntled GAA club members everywhere.

The new system is superb. Needs some tweaking wrt rest weeks and relegation/promotion but it's everything you could want. That Cork v Limerick game was phenomenal entertainment.

Took at least ten games to get that game. Is far too many games.

Of the five games in Munster so far, Clare v Waterford has been the only real disappointment.

Tipp v Cork and this evening's game were superb.

Dublin v Kilkenny and Wexford v Dublin were both thrillers in Leinster.

This format should have been introduced years ago.

Each game, particularly in Munster, actually feels like there's more at stake compared to the games played under the 2002-2017 format.  With regular hurling as the weeks go by, the games have been better too.

The GAA needed more of these games to capture public attention. It's just a pity the amount of televised games hasn't increased with the format change.

Excellent post Sid

Players have been crying out for this for years. The week off needs tweaking as it's unfair that one team gets a break halfway through and others play 4 weeks in a row(maybe spread the games over 6 or 7 weeks instead of 5), but I heard Damien Hayes and Wooly saying this is what you'd dream of as a player and they'd give anything to be back playing in it.

I agree that the games mean more now than they did under the back door system which was shite.

Attendances are up, brilliant games of hurling on TV every week. Have the posters who are complaining even been watching the games or are you annoyed football fans? I don't understand how someone who enjoys watching high stakes hurling between the top teams every week could complain.

It's unfortunate that Dublin didn't get over the line in one of their 2 games to date as that would have opened things up more in Leinster, but it's been very competitive and the 2 Dublin games were very exciting. It's a great pity too that Waterford have been decimated by injuries and a suspension and lost so many great players but they'd have been screwed under the old system too. At least now, they can give their younger players the experience of 3 more games at the highest level.

Inter county players have a real season now instead of the old shite of playing once every 4 or 5 weeks and only playing maybe 2 meaningful games all summer. Anyway none of us are IC players so let's see what the players and GPA have to say about it later in the year.

The new system is superb. Needs some tweaking wrt rest weeks and relegation/promotion but it's everything you could want. That Cork v Limerick game was phenomenal entertainment.

Euthanasia next? John Halligan thinks so.

Anyone who is in favour of abortion being legalised would have to be in favour of euthanasia too, unless their notion of choice is very warped(I'm in favour of both).

[arriors would of won in 5 had Iggy and CP3 being fit all through]

Warriors would of won in 5 had Iggy and CP3 being fit all through, you do realise we beat Houston twice with CP3 playing.. However without Iggy, CP3 would of made a difference, definitely would of been closer late on so we did get a bit of luck with his injury. Hard luck to Houston.

Cant see anything other than GSW win in the finals, East conference looked weaker than the West. Boston did unreal without Irving. Massive respect for LeBron though, one of the greatest sports people of all time. Hope its more relaxing than he last couple of matches. Home court advantage = GSW in 5.

Not sure if they'd have done it in 5 but hard to argue they wouldn't have won with Iggy given they were leading 2-1 and had just won by 40 points in the game where he got the injury. They were never as vulnerable as they were without him though and it was there for the taking for the Rockets.

Hard to know what to make of the injury reports and if they are true, there's no guarantee he'll be back. The Love injury reports are also unclear but he looked fine attending game 7 and my uneducated guess is that we'll see him in game 1.