Messages

Pick a starting 15 from
Cullen or Cluxton
ODriscoll or McMahon
Doherty or OCarroll
Kelleher or Cooper
Drumm or McCarthy
Moran or OSullivan
O'Neill or McCaffrey
Mullins or Fenton
McCauley or Brogan
OToole or Flynn
Hanahoe or MacMenamon
Hickey or Kilkenny
McCarthy or Connolly
Keaveney or Rock
Doyle or Brogan

Tony McTeague and Willy Bryan
Rudi VanDerKerkoff Paul Breitner
Ali Fraser Foreman and Norton (Cooney)
Daley Thompson Steve Ovett
Jockey Wilson and Bobby George
George O'Connor and Joe McKenna
Terry Griffiths and Ray Reardon
Paul Mariner and Charlie George and Alan Clarke
Matt Connor.

Forgot Nastase Borg Connors McEnroe Gueralaitas Pecci
Wade Barker Navratilova Evert Stove

I agree. There is a consistent absence of logic and consistency across the gaa. But to be fair it probably applies to most things in Ireland.

If you apply the logic of head to head for 2 teams why not for 3 or more. If head to head doesnt give a result then move on to the next deciding factor. Points difference. Or els start with points difference and stick with that until it doesnt give a result  then move to the next decider. But mix n match is not logical or consistent. Like many things in the GAA. From refereeing to fixture management.

That was poor by Tipp today, and while you can't legislate for Niall O'Meara, Bubbles, Seamie Callanan and Noel McGrath all having stinkers from play, the same old failings were there to see. In a strong position, looking physically stronger, but lost any semblance of fight in the forwards as soon as the fat went on the fire. It's actually annoying watching it at this stage. Michael Ryan has a big job on this summer to try and smash that glass ceiling. We all know they have the hurlers, but if you don't fight and win your own ball, you might as well be outside with the rest of us, looking at it.

As for Offaly, embarrassing is the word.

AZ. Time to stop being embsrrassed. Offaly are nowhere near the top 10 in hurling and havent been for a long time now. And sadly there doesnt seem to be any evidence of any change coming. I am old enough to remember before 1980. 

As they do in many areas like discipline fixtures and structures the GAA cant help but fupp things up. Having made the decision to go with head to head as the deciding factor whem teams finish level on points they then screw it up by changing back to score difference. Offaly beat both Clare and Longford so are clearly the best of the three teams on 8 points on the basis of head to heads. End of.

For me Niall is huge threat as a scoring threat not so much as a playmaker but thatz the role he has been given in the games ive seen this year. Think Guilfoyle will be a bigger problem for KE at 11. If Niall S and Conor Mc can perform its on.

A waste of time.
No amount of tinkering with competition structures will improve the standard of the waterford or carlow or any other county football team. Equality should mean equality of opportunity and nothing else.
The weaker counties should use the league graded to develop their strength and the championship should remain the one shot the glory that it has always been. Hard work at all leveks within a county will bring improvement not competition structures. The fixture schedule is a much bigger issue but its not media sexy enough at this time of year.

Rte graphic still calls it the back door.
Look at thd GAA website fixtures. Five tabs. L M U and C championships and one for All Ireland.
The reality is the structure has changed and no one in the media has picked up on it.
Provincials ard now jus stand alone comps that determind cedeing fof when you enter the All Ireland.
The structure is good except for Ulster who else screw it up bh not cedeing their championship. So now you have the stupid situation of Tyrone being in the first round of the All Ireland with 3rd and 4th division teams.
They just need to sort out the fixtures scheduling now. The world has changed by stealth.

Thanks for the pointers. Travelling 3 hrs to bring daughter and her friends to her 1st concert so leaving early is not an option. Parking a little away from the arena car park sounds good.

Bringing my daughter and her friends to a concert in the odyssey at the end of the month. Whats the story with parking?

I want to see a fast paced physical game where kicking has primacy. Not that there is necessarily more kicking than hand passing but that kicking the ball still has a major effect on the game. There doesn't have to be a lot of scores in a game for it to be good but I don't think most people enjoy watching a probing type of game where players pass the parcel across the field and have runners try to break the defensive line. I want to see a game where James O'Donoghue or Jamie Clarke can play in the full forward line and have the ball kicked into them. I don't want a game where they have to play in their own half back or half forward line and primarily hand pass the ball to their team mates.

Yes

If you are up agin a very domininant high fielder you can bring you mfs to th edge of your 45 n bring yiur hf back inside your own 45 and still have all the rootin for breaking ball you like.

I think it's a very good suggestion, however, he didn't address the issue of a keeper who can't kick it 45m or when weather conditions dictate that it's impossible for anyone to kick it 45m. Any solution has to be robust enough to survive all eventualities and I'm not sure this one does. Although I'd be very slow to agree to any rule changes I think we do need to consider something like this that can change the direction football is going.

I remember one time giving away a 45 (50) direct from a kickout when playing against a gale of a wind.
The principle is sound but like you say rules have to be robust.

[Jim McGuinness]

Jim McGuinness & JJ Delaney have joined the team

does his level best to ruin the sport, then join's Murdoch's Sky trying to promote the thing. Good man Jim !

Sky are not trying to promote GAA. They are trying to market a product offering to their customers. Theres an interesting piece on the front page of the sports section of the sindo today. A guy called Steve Smith Head of Production at Sky Sports talking about Skys GAA coverage.
What struck me when reading was that the debate about professionalism in the GAA is long over.  Now its a question of when and how.
The GAA have sold our games as a commercial product with commercial value on yhe open market. To create a product with commercial value requires the acquisition of resources. These resources also command a commercial value. It will not happen quickly but more like glacial flow or the shifting of tectonic plates. At some point there will have to be an earthquake and we will all realise the ground has shifted beneath our feet.