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Watched the toy show on the rte player on sat night as we'd the transfer test on Sat am.
It's the first time in years we watched the whole thing. It felt like it was about the children and the toys again.
Kielty has a much better persona and approach to this, he really was excellent. The children had a chance to talk without any condescending remarks from the presenter who just wanted attention on himself.
Still had the obligatory amount of cheese, which is actually great.

Unfortunately I didnt get to see the Trillick v Scotstown match but by all accounts it was a very good game.
I had a feeling Trillick would win it and had the potential to win Ulster under the radar, but not to be.

Glen probably deserved to win the first SF, that point at the end to win it was worth it alone.
I still think they are not playing as well as last year, but perhaps that will come yet. Glass has been underwhelming, but that's not to say he's playing badly, just doesn't seem to be hitting the same highs as last year.
I dont think that was a penalty tbh, and had it not been given Glen probably ran out comfortable enough winners. Hurson had a reasonably good game, though I though he was a little harsh on Glen in general, but for me he got the penalty wrong.

Glen and Scotstown will be an interesting game. Glen perhaps slight favourites, but not much between them. Scotstown keeper play could be the difference in the two teams.

How long would a retender take?

Depends on whether the design has changed. They could issue tender documents with a qualification document along with it instead of getting a short list first - that might save 6 weeks. For a project that size you'd need at least 6-8 weeks to price it. Same again to assess it and award it.

Add in a couple of weeks for downtime over christmas too. 4-6 months maybe before it can be awarded I'd guess.

Panorama last night about the missing children in Ukraine.
Seems to be a concerted effort by Russia at the highest level to "re-locate" children from Ukraine into Russia. Difficult to understand the motive behind that.

Also some of the propaganda on Russian media about the Ukrainian state selling children's organs into Europe was just bonkers.

Really heart-breaking stuff in general....albeit a completely 1 sided view of the story, however, it's difficult to see any justification for any of what was covered.

https://ulster.gaa.ie/2023/11/ulster-gaa-statement-on-casement-park-project/

Heron Bros not proceeding as contractor 

Sounds like it has to go out to procurement again given the new costs and passage of time.
Herons might still get the contract but will probably have to re-tender.
Probably a delay that they hadn't anticipated.

Senior
Trillick (Tyrone) v Scotstown (Monaghan) - Trillick by 3 (I personally think Trillick are dark horses for Ulster having seen them first hand in Tyrone)
Glen (Derry) v Glenties (Donegal) - Glen by 6

Intermediate
Ballyhaise (Cavan) v Glenullin (Derry) - Glenullin by 2
Liatroim (Down) v St Patricks (Armagh) - Cullyhanna by 3

Junior
Blackhill (Monaghan) v Arva (Cavan) - Blackhill by 2

God help those wee children and the extended family.
Absolutely devastating.

[would have given Dublin a tougher game in the final]

So it's Monaghan to beat Derry in 2024 AI Final?
Would be great to have a Final without Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone or the crowd to the West of us.

Would be brilliant if that was the AI Final pairing.....with Derry winning though 

Most people in Derry are realistic and most are happy that we can compete with the top teams again. No-one expects to win the AI, but its fantastic to at least be in the conversation with a chance.
We've one AI in our history, so success for me is being able to compete at the top end consistently and if we win Sam that would be the cherry on top. Would love my kids to get that experience and I think Derry as a county would get some lift if they did win it, but at the end of it all if we don't win it doesn't take away the enjoyment and the hope.
I feel Derry could have won last year, should have beat Kerry and would have given Dublin a tougher game in the final. But it was still a great year for us, and this year hopefully will be too.

Kerry was level 1-13 each with 73 minutes played in this years All-Ireland final i don't think Derry would have given much tougher than that.

That was with Clifford not firing.
It's all ifs and buts I know, but I think if Derry had been playing Dublin, we'd have put them under more pressure than Kerry did. Only an opinion and last season has been and gone. I'd be happy if we got a chance to test ourselves against Kerry/Dublin again at that stage of the championship.

So it's Monaghan to beat Derry in 2024 AI Final?
Would be great to have a Final without Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone or the crowd to the West of us.

Would be brilliant if that was the AI Final pairing.....with Derry winning though 

Most people in Derry are realistic and most are happy that we can compete with the top teams again. No-one expects to win the AI, but its fantastic to at least be in the conversation with a chance.
We've one AI in our history, so success for me is being able to compete at the top end consistently and if we win Sam that would be the cherry on top. Would love my kids to get that experience and I think Derry as a county would get some lift if they did win it, but at the end of it all if we don't win it doesn't take away the enjoyment and the hope.
I feel Derry could have won last year, should have beat Kerry and would have given Dublin a tougher game in the final. But it was still a great year for us, and this year hopefully will be too.

Monaghan & Derry weren't far away in their semis this year. They have to believe they can beat them next time.

There is a big difference between staying in contention to 65 mins and winning

True. But if its in the melting pot at that stage anything can happen. Lucky goal, a penalty, a red card etc

Most times the team with experience grinds out the win.

Monaghan have experience, won ulster relatively recently...been in the latter stages of the AI and have a group of players that have been around a long time. The age of their experienced players might be their downfall though as they rely heavily on the older lads.

Derry have a good age profile, have loads of experienced players in terms of club series from Slaughtneil and Glen. Plenty of players now who have won all-ireland minors too and who have played in the latter stages of the AI whilst also winning back to back ulsters. The only experience lacking is winning an AI. But I take your point, in an AI final the team who have been there and done it before will always have an edge.

[Eamon Burns scored a great Point agaibst Down in 1991]

Going bck a bit, Eamon Burns scored a great Point agaibst Down in 1991, and, Damian O Reilly point in 1992 against Donegal all these years later stood out.

@ The Athletic Grounds, the two dummies. Superb score

https://youtu.be/fUelK6iVL7s

3.26 in

Some score.
To be fair, you could pick out half a dozen scores out of that game and the '94 game.
Derry and Down had some spread of talent between them in the early 90s and those games between them always stand out in my mind.

Cork's  second goal v Derry in 1993

The pass by   Don Davis and  finish by John O'Driscoll  was  sublime

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B1jj5FWMTg8&pp=ygUgSm9obiBv4oCZZHJpc2NvbGwgMTk5MyBnb2FsIGNvcms%3D

To be fair, that pass in was inch perfect. Took out about 3 derry defenders.

The Maurice Fitz sideline was just awesome.

The Johnny McGurk point in the 93 semi against the dubs to but Derry into an AIF also sticks out in the memory.

That point by Eamon Burns against Down in 91 was class, he was on fire that day.

Enda Gormley point in the AIF 93 after Niall Cahalane hit him a slap. Gormley went straight to Cahalane after scoring to let him know that it was for him. To be honest, Cahalane did Derry a favour that day as Gormley was class after the slap.

Ciaran McDonald....any number of long range, off the outside of the boot scores.

Impossible to pick the best score ever as all have different context for different people, but those are a few I remember.

What are the parallels between this Donegal squad and the Donegal squad of 2011 when Jim first took over.

Were Rory Kavanagh, Neil Gallagher, the Mcgees, Karl Lacey, Mcfadden etc. highly rated and underperforming or did Jim just transform these players.

Obviously Murphy would have been talked about massively as a 'wonderkid' to use the soccer term, after getting Donegal to U21 Final and his performance against Cork I think it was.

When I look at this current Donegal squad if they have everyone available I'd argue they have as much if not more talent than the squad of 2011, more depth anyway. Which is why I have hopes that Donegal has similar scope for improvement with this squad as the one in 2011.

But would love to hear peoples thoughts on this?

Karl Lacey already had two All Stars and only Keith Higgins would have come close to him as a corner back. Ironically, McGuinness transformed him into a play-making centre back.

The likes of Cassidy, Kavanagh, the McGees and McFadden all had great ability, but the commitment, team game plan and the resulting consistency just wasn't there.

I'm very skeptical that we have the same ceiling with the current squad.

Lacey was a generational talent. The likes of Murphy come on the scene even less frequently. Those two alone are probably among the three greatest ever players ever to come out of the county. There's no one there now to even approach their level.

I'd have great hopes for Oisin Gallen, who has the size, ball-winning and shooting ability to be a top intercounty forward, provided he can finally avoid these injuries that have continually held him back. Any maybe McGuinness will get the likes of Michael Langan and Ciaran Thompson playing to a consistent level where we can be confident they'll put their size, skill and shooting to use every game and leave the inconsistency behind. Brendan McCole looks very promising at full back, but he has a way to go yet to match Neil McGee. And are the supporting cast up to the levels of the likes of Mark McHugh, Frank Mc Glynn, Leo McLoone and Anthony Thompson? I don't know...

McBrearty will be interesting to watch in terms of what McGuinness does with him. Ryan McHugh too. 

Still a lot of quality in that current Donegal forward line though. Mcbrearty, Gallen, Brennan, Langan, Thompson, O'Donnell, Mogan.

Big men round the middle in Mcgee, McFadden, McGonggle.

Likes of Ryan Mchugh, Eoghan Ban, McMenamin, McFadden Ferry in defence theres plenty of options there.

I presume theres no persuading Murphy and McNiallis back?

I honestly think Donegal are not too far away in Ulster.
They improved massively under O'Rourke and Bradley last year. With McGuinness in there now, I'd expect them to progress more.
They are physically very big and have a some excellent players. McBrearty is passed his best but still can find scores. Keep Gallen fit, that's a potent enough forward line.
I'd expect Donegal to become much better defensively than in recent times too.
A real hum-dinger of a first round game with Derry v Donegal (Harte v McGuinness).
It could well be the pick of the first round games up and down the country.

Have you a link to the other thread?

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=32245.45