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Potentially visiting with a gang for the relegation decider that will be Throne Kerry in Omagh on April 7th! Where would be the best place to stay in Omagh? Cheap kind of hotel would be what's required.

Would it be worth staying there on the Friday night or would be as well to head out in Belfast on the Friday and then Omagh on the Saturday night?

Let's have a heated debate.

All teams in Division One bar Down are All Ireland contenders?

I do not think Mayo ( not enough marquee forwards) Cork ( set up gone stale, no competition for places) or Kildare ( missing a certain something) will win the All Ireland but can't rule them completely out either.

So in my head it's

Kerry, Donegal, Dublin and Tyrone as Top Grade Contenders

And Mayo, Cork and Kildare as Possible Winners But Would Be Surprised

Monaghan, Armagh and Laois likeliest to cause upset by upsetting one of the above.

FAO anyone who is in to the ould sports science side of thing ( like geeks like me!)

The blogs on the below website I find interesting. Thousands of them there so you'll never get bored!

http://www.drbriffa.com

What became of Davy Harte ? Was a fixture for a couple of years with Throne and a damn good player too, but haven't heard trace of him in last couple of years.

Sincerely,
A curious Kerryman

Greetings folks,

Find myself in an internet cafe in south America. How can I watch live?

Thanks in advance

Would like to start a thread discussing alternatives to the current structure of the All Ireland Senior Football Championship.

The championship as it stands has the momentum of a freight train. A stationary freight train, that is.

So many anomalies

- Gaps of 3-5 weeks between matches. What other sport would allow such gaps between matches at the 'business end ' of the season?
- A pre- season that lasts much longer than the competitive season. I would argue that the months of January- May are all pre-season as the McKenna/O'Byrne Cup etc and the League are all preparation gearing towards championship.  The majority of counties are out by August so it's effectively a two month competitive season
- Provincial structure giving certain counties an unfair advantage. Certain provinces competitive - Ulster, Leinster , others less so - Munster, Connacht . Too many mismatches
- Club game on hold during summer months because of unpredictability of fixtures
- Difficulty in marketing games as a result of so little action to market.

My proposal

Upper Tier

6 groups of 4 from the top 24 teams.

Each team to play other teams from group on a home and away basis. Six games for each team therefore.

Lower Tier

Two groups of four. Play each other twice on a home and away basis as above

Qualification

Top team in each of the six groups in the Upper tier qualifies automatically for quarter finals. Second team in each group in Upper tier, along with top team in each group in the Lower Tier qualifies to play two rounds of play-off matches to take up two remaining places in quarter finals. Quarter finals then proceed per current All Ireland series to final.

Two worst teams in the Upper Tier on league points get relegated and replaced by the top team in each group in the Lower Tier.

Start the championship earlier - mid April. Set in stone six dates for the group matches, say every two weekends from the second weekend in April to complete around the end of June.

Play the provincial championships as stand alone competitions in March and April.

Scrap the league and O'Byrne/McKenna Cups etc. and the whole notion of a five month pre-season lead in. If Premier league teams can have a three week pre-season to get ready why do inter county teams need a five month pre-season?

The system guarantees six championship games and at least three home championship games for each county but does away with the provincial structure within the championship. Don't think you can turn the championship into a modern competition along the lines of the Heineken Cup while still retaining the provincial championship.

Obviously there isn't a snowballs chance in hell of something as radical as this going through Congress but the time has come to give the fans and players what they want - more competitive matches in the All Ireland championship!

Is that too much to ask?

Read this in one of his columns :

The four provincial champions would play off in a traditional semi-final style with the two winners qualifying for the semi-finals proper and the two losers having the chance to be drawn against the two best Qualifiers. This one departure ticks all the necessary boxes insofar as it affords the winners a place in the semi-finals where their provincial titles would have traditionally taken them, and allows the two other champions that precious second chance. At the same time, this adds a much higher degree of difficulty to delivering the ultimate success through the back door and would undoubtedly heighten the intensity in the provincial series.




Interesting, but lets say the four provincial winners for arguments sake were: Kerry, Dublin, Galway, Tyrone

and semi finals were

Kerry v Galway
Dublin v Tyrone

and Kerry and Tyrone won through,

then you would have

Dublin v Qualifier 1
Galway v Qualifier 2

And if Dublin and Galway managed to beat them, would you simply repeat the semi-finals, about 3 weeks after the first semi-finals?

It's along the right lines though, in terms of giving provincial winners a second chance and probably reducing the gap between the provincial final and the next game.

Hey folks, a lot of Northern posters on this board I believe, thinking of buying a car in the North to take down to Dublin think there is better value to be had even including VRT anyone know of any good Volkswagen/ Mazda dealers

Thanks

Lads,

What is the exact breakdown of the GPA grant?

Found it strange that Mike Frank was never introduced the last day and wasnt even warming up at any stage. Feel sorry for him, he's been unlucky to be dropped for a few high profile games over the last couple of years. Wouldn't have dropped him for the last days game but as it turned out Sheehan did well, would hope he will get a run in the final.