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f**king bloodbath... bookies cleaning up as per usual!

Three favourites winning out of six races so far so not really a blood bath?

What a depressing pile of dung. Suits the Scottish Spurs.

A scottish colleague of mine had arranged to have that played at his own funeral service. Heart breaking.

Best anthem in football.
Unreal rendition in 2016 when they beat the Huns at Hampden.

Managers and coaches exploiting the rules to not lose rather than trying to win was the problem.
Definitely not the skill level of the players. It's so much higher now than it was 20 years ago.
Twenty years ago it was a novelty if a player could use both feet competently. Now it's the norm.

Most good sporting event have contests between opposing players all over the playing arena. It's why people enjoy watching it. In a Gaelic football match at present there are a few high catches from the longer kickouts, a few long range points and that's about it really. A few moments of entertainment inside an hr and ten minutes of...well....nothing really. The most boring sport in the world? Probably

It may not be the game for you...

Under the new rules there's been more scores, more contests, more physicality, more turnovers and a new phenomenon in several games whereby a 10point plus lead had been hauled back. The only boring bit that I've seen was the lateral fist passing across the arc that I think could be sorted by a complete ban on passing to the keeper.
I watched Derry/donegal Armagh/dublin, Galway Tyrone and Kerry mayo; all entertaining and contested right to the finish. Some people are very hard to please.

The game has been in serious decline since 2011 when mcguinness was appointed Donegal manager and achieved success with his system in 2012. As with anything that's successful, plagiarism followed as rival managers tried to emulate it in other counties. McGuinness technically wasn't doing anything illegal or wrong, he simply exploited the rules of the game to suit his style of play. Unfortunately, this trickled down to club football, even as far down as u8s with some clubs.
We continued to go to games because we were invested in it, almost bound by it as our fathers and to their fathers had been before us. For most, the spectacle on show simply wasn't entertaining or in any way enjoyable (apart from the final 5 mins in most games). Something had to change and that is why Jim and co were appointed. Their remit was to simply make the game exciting and enjoyable again.The key change required was limiting the blanket, hence the 3 up rule. Not perfect but not sure what else would have worked better?
Tap and go definitely speeds up the play, a good initiative in my opinion.
Kick out arc encourages contests again and I do think there has been more high fielding on show this year so far. 2 point rule is good but not for a free.
Handing the ball back is too difficult to enforce. Would be happy enough if the player just had to place the ball on the ground after a free was awarded.
50m advance for dissent is too punitive, 30 is plenty although I would concede that the 50 m advance has seriously reduced the verbals.
One man throw in - gimmicky, adds nothing. Everyone will have their own interpretation and opinion but I really do think what we've seen so far has achieved the original objective, ie, to make the game a better spectacle.

Gavin Devlin on the smallerfish very complimentary of the performance by Derry today. Reckons they'll be a force in the championship.

The manner of some of these defeats is hard to take but when the dust settles there is a lot of positives to take from that performance. Rogers class again, McGrogan excellent on his first start. Half back line looked formidable again. McEvoy far better out of full back. Lachlan Murray looks electric. Defensively we did much better than recent games. Kickouts had a bit of variety this time. Lynch looked good back one bad kickout at the end.

When the game was in the melting pot we just couldnt win a ball. Some of that is bad luck too. Ricochets not falling your way.

They just need a win to help confidence. Hopefully they get that in the last 2 games.

Agree with most of this, but "bad luck" only accounts for so much. We certainly played our best football of the year yesterday and as McGrogan and Loughlin regain fitness that should improve.
Dan Higgins looked decent too and added some much needed physicality around that middle third.
Murray was excellent, we just need him to be consistent. McGuigan probably didn't have his best day from open play, but was unreal from the dead ball. Bradley is getting better with each game so that's a real positive.
Lynch definitely made us more comfortable at the back, made one excellent save and kickouts were accurate, bar one near the end. Came out the field and acted as that pivot, but didnt try to break tackles. Still more effective than McNicholl was imo.
On winning the breaks, I think we need to work on that more on the training ground. Rarely does breaking ball just fall randomly, they are usually broken into certain areas where we should be ready to collect. I think we're not quite there yet on that tactic. This is why I wouldn't want to say it's all bad luck - more we haven't had the same time to prepare as other.

A much improved performance all around to be fair but it is disappointing not being able to close these games out.
We're are in that difficult position of a new manager coming in late so we are behind on preparation, a flood of injuries to too many key players, a sea change in the rules, and just as injured players are returning we lose more to injury.
Losing Rogers and McEvoy were the turning points yesterday - even after conceding a goal we always looked capable of scoring and with those two on the pitch so we had a chance. It will be devastating if we lose them for a prolonged period of time.
I'm guessing Toner was injured, so that left us yesterday with all of these starting players not on the field in the final quarter: McFaul, McEvoy, Rogers, McKinless, Clucky, McGrogan and Loughlin. Then we are missing Murphy (injured?) and Gilmore from the bench too.  I think it's doubtful that we'll get all these players (definitely McKinless) back for the first championship game and fully fit so we're going to struggle to make a major impact this year.
But, if we're clever about it and don't rush men back we could be well set up for next season again with those squad players getting some exposure this season. I'm as impatient as the next man, but from a positive POV, a week ago people were talking about Donegal as being #1 contender for AI honours this year, and we just went toe-to-toe and could have won it. So we are moving in the right direction I feel.

Someone mentioned game management, I'm not sure you can manage a game out now unless you are 12+ up, as a 10 mins purple patch can result in really heavy scoring now and wind direction is crucial it seems.
One of the most disappointing parts of the game now as a result of the new rules is that tactics seem to have gone. The only tactic is attack.
I like the solo-and-go rule, and the hooter has long since been overdue...but the rest of these rules have brought nothing in my opinion. Perhaps the handing the ball over rule in some variation would be good, but as it stands its too black and white.
We still have the slow build up play in many games, with sideways passing around the 40m arc. Stopping the Keeper going up will make that static play worse, but will remove the element of unfairness when the 3v3 rule is in place. For me, a largely failed experiment, but I get the feeling giving the profile of the FRC and some of the sycophantic rhetoric around how good the rules are by some in the media and RTE in particular, we'll be retaining all of them in some manner.

My tg4 feed was glitching a lot yesterday so I may have missed this, but I honestly can only recall Dan Higgins being on the ball once or possibly twice in the entire game so can't see how you thought he was decent?

And would strongly disagree re the new rules being a failed experiment....just ask yourself if what you've seen so far in the 5 league games was better than the league games last year.
Apart from the league final last year v Dublin, it's night and day from a spectator's perspective.

Land of Hope and Dreams
Tunnel of Love
Racing in the street

The deposed fuball was horizontal- lashings of handpassing
The new fuball is designed to be vertical - fast counterattack, high fielding, 2 pointers.

The new 'fuball' is  pissing around the arc. It's like  inside the arc is a flow of lava , and you'll melt if you go over the  arc line.

Keep the tap and go. Scrap the rest , they're all nonsense

A ban on passing to the keeper anywhere on the pitch would sort the lateral hand passing across the arc

No it won't. Teams are content to sit off the man and defend the arc, only really applying pressure when someone looks like shooting. Attacking team still has loads of room to move the ball over and back unimpeded.

Stopping the 12 v 11 nonsense on the edge of the arc would definitely be helped if the keeper can't participate in the piggy in the middle game. A further tweak, whereby, once you enter the arc you can't come back out again, I think would fully eradicate it.

The deposed fuball was horizontal- lashings of handpassing
The new fuball is designed to be vertical - fast counterattack, high fielding, 2 pointers.

The new 'fuball' is  pissing around the arc. It's like  inside the arc is a flow of lava , and you'll melt if you go over the  arc line.

Keep the tap and go. Scrap the rest , they're all nonsense

A ban on passing to the keeper anywhere on the pitch would sort the lateral hand passing across the arc

Gaelic football has always been very strong in that 10 mile radius around Maghera. Big factors are the proximity to each other and the rivalry and jealousy that that creates. Throw in great Gaelic football nurseries and then tradition and culture. A six year old in Bellaghy or Glen has the same arms and legs as one in Glack or Magilligan but for the reasons above, they have more chance of getting to the top if their in a south Derry club.
Obviously Dungiven and Glenullin are outliers and Steelstown are developing well as a club in the city.
And Sean Mcgoldrick in Coleraine showed what can be done if you have the numbers and quality coaching. He was just a freak of nature though, a one man phenomenon. Money....paid coaches and divisional teams in senior championship might be a good start.

I feel sorry for Dublin fans tonight.  That first half in Armagh must have been painful to watch.  The problem was simply kick outs.  I've seen too many games in which one team can't get the ball.  The punishment for being scored on is too harsh.

Now it's the second half and it's clear that it will be all Dublin.  Being an Armagh fan, I spared myself the torture and turned the tv off.  And this is on a calm night!  When your team is playing against the wind...don't bother tuning in!

Amazing what a mess they can make of a game that looked pretty good to me last year.  Beware progressives who feel they've a right undo 130 years of tradition.

Have you been living under a rock for the past 10 years??
The product on show now is a massive improvement on what we had been watching previously.
Some tweaks still required but it's great entertainment now which is what it's really all about.

Its a crazy set up:

In no particular order

Get the link between the Westlink and the M2 at Nelson street done
Get the road sorted out in Tyrone
Get Casement built in some fashion
Improve waiting times in hospitals (its horrendous)
Housing
and so on, stop talking about talking and start doing, is it any wonder the place is where its at

Its a crazy set up:

In no particular order

Get the link between the Westlink and the M2 at Nelson street done
Get the road sorted out in Tyrone
Get Casement built in some fashion
Improve waiting times in hospitals (its horrendous)
Housing
and so on, stop talking about talking and start doing, is it any wonder the place is where its at

Get the Algae in Lough Neagh sorted as well. A start would be to cancel Edwin poots crazy limit of 15% max fine for farmers who are repeat offenders.
Big boy politics needed here now but neither DUP or SF are prepared to do it as they are not popular and perceived as potential vote losing.
Same with water charges. We should all pay for our water here. Massive under investment over the decades is now coming back to bite us all with no housing allowed in most towns due to the sewerage system being at capacity.
50% of new cars purchased here are DLA...if that doesn't sum up how dysfunctional this place is then I don't know what is. A serious look under the bonnet there is required.
A nominal £2 charge for a prescription would also eliminate unnecessary doctor and a&e visits.
But again, none of these would be introduced as there would be too much of a backlash. We want everything for nothing in this place.

Irwin's bread- bought a loaf a few years back wholes right through the middle of it, sent me a cheque for the price of the loaf after I had complained no contact bar receiving the cheque and continually asking for pictures of the loaf

 
Yes, Irwin's bread, and nothing to do with the quality of the loaf!!
Ferried bread to the Drumcree front line back in the day. Never forget.

https://x.com/Doiregaa/status/1886131417089818863?t=Y9tgDnvRg27IFZrtAj3KiQ&s=19

The best 'post 93' player to have played for Derry

That's a big statement.
I rate him very highly but think he is still a good bit behind Paddy Bradley , Enda Muldoon and fergal Doherty. Has time on his side though and definitely heading in that direction

He's achieved more than all of them in a Derry jersey. Definitely is a difficult call between him and Paddy Bradley though.

He's definitely won more as a Derry player than the 3 that I named but that doesn't necessarily equate to being a better player (yet).

https://x.com/Doiregaa/status/1886131417089818863?t=Y9tgDnvRg27IFZrtAj3KiQ&s=19

The best 'post 93' player to have played for Derry

That's a big statement.
I rate him very highly but think he is still a good bit behind Paddy Bradley , Enda Muldoon and fergal Doherty. Has time on his side though and definitely heading in that direction