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Any good tidbits or interesting records out there?

I'll start - Jimmy Murray is the only man to captain his county in five senior football All-Ireland finals.

Hopefully a swansong game for the Hyde.

This should be interesting.

Words are not needed, but many will be spoken.

Former Connacht and Ireland full-back Gavin Duffy in training with Mayo

Former Connacht and Ireland star Gavin Duffy has started training with the Mayo senior footballers and, according to former Mayo star David Brady, he has been impressing.

Brady told Off The Ball on Newstalk this evening that Duffy, who failed to win a contract with Connacht for next season, took part in his first session with James Horan's men last night.

"I think [James Horan] has made a master move by bringing in Gavin Duffy, the ex-Irish international rugby player and long-time Connacht player into the Mayo panel. At the age of 32 or 33, I think it's a great move," Brady said.

"Someone said to me that he didn't just fit in, he stood out.

"Look at the experience he has and I think it will only add to the Mayo setup."

Duffy played a huge role in Mayo's path to a All-Ireland minor final in Croke Park in 1999, where they were beaten by a Benny Coulter inspired Down team.

Lining out at midfield during that campaign, Duffy gained a reputation as brilliant fielder of the ball which must of helped him when he embarked on a successful career at full-back in rugby union.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/former-connacht-and-ireland-fullback-gavin-duffy-in-training-with-mayo-30275640.html

Glad to see Mayo have another big, strong lad who is good at jumping up and catching balls.

He does look a bit old, though:

At least we don't have to stew for too long.

[Roscommon]

Now that we've got a place at the dance we can start salivating at three games that could all be mini-classics:

Roscommon vs. Tipp/Cork

Dublin vs. Cavan/Donegal

Both to be played on the 19th of April at TBD Park, County N/A.

The odds from Paddy Power, just for shits and giggles:

Dublin 6/5 FAVOURITES
Roscommon 5/2
Cavan 6/1
Cork 15/2
Tipp 9/1
Donegal 14/1

Over 100 appearances for his county, and would have featured in many more were it not for Brigids' AI runs. Not many players of any hue can lay claim to his level of service, and through some lean years at that. 2010 would be the obvious highlight of his IC career, finally winning a Connacht medal after many years as a starter.

One of my favourite Roscommon players of his generation, great attitude and an even better man.

Thanks for the memories, Mango.

A ghost ship full of cannibalistic rats may be headed towards Irish shorelines. The unmanned 1,600-tonne MV Lyubov Orlova has been drifting in the Atlantic with no crew or tracking beacon for nearly a year.

Originally a cruise-liner designed to take holidaymakers on tours around the Arctic, the Russian-registered cruise ship was cut adrift while being towed from Canada in February 2013.

The 40-year-old cruise liner, which was built in the former Yugoslavia and named after a 1930s Russian actress, was accidentally lost en route to the Dominican Republic after the tow line between the ship and an American-owned tug broke. According to reports, 50km/h winds prevented the crew from reconnecting the ships, and the Orlova was left to drift out into the ocean.

The Irish Coast Guard claims Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has "not been sufficiently advised" of the full consequences of reorganisation proposals.

Coastguards, satellite providers and a team of Dutch salvage hunters have spent the last 12 months trying to track down the ship. Maritime law dictates that if you discover a derelict vessel, you are entitled to claim ownership and the owner must pay a release fee. However, despite their best efforts, neither satellite technology nor scuba-diving adventurers have been able to track down the 100-metre long cruise liner, which boasts a restaurant and a gym.

The Irish Coast Guard has been leading the search for the Orlova since it went adrift last year. "We haven't seen it," said Chris Reynolds, Director of the Irish Coast Guard. "We spent a couple of months using satellite radar technology to look at the areas it might be but we couldn't find the Orlova."

However, recent winter storms may have driven the ship towards Irish and UK shores. Some reports suggest the rats may be left with nothing to eat but each other.

However, Mr Reynolds has said large numbers of rats on a derelict ship is quite normal. "It was empty for a year in Newfoundland, so it wouldn't be at all unusual for there to be lots of rats," he said. "You get rats in all vessels and there's ways of dealing with them."

Mr Reynolds believes that strong hurricane-force weather may have actually sunk the ship. "Our model says that if it is still there it will turn up somewhere around Achill Island," said Mr Reynolds, "but really it could turn up anywhere between Iceland and Portugal. "

"The biggest risk is something hitting it at speed in the dark," he added. The Irish Coast Guard has called off the search but says it will remain "vigilant".

The missing sea liner has developed quite a following over the last year with a blog and Twitter account dedicated to the search for the Orlova. @LyubovOrlovaNL tweeted on Thursday night: "Is okay now, rats have found lettuce to eat. But having rats that live for full year in empty boat without freezing still leetle problem."

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/rat-infested-russian-ghost-ship-drifts-towards-irish-coast-1.1666881

Qué?

Just to be serious for the briefest moment:

Last year a man from Gorthaganny, Liam Elwood, died aged 38 as a result of a workplace accident when he was bringing home materials after helping with the Olympics and the Special Olympics in London. Liam was in every sense of the word a pillar of the community, not just in Gorthaganny but in Lisacul, Loughglynn, Ballagh, Castlerea and elsewhere. He was heavily involved in fundraising for the Mayo-Roscommon Hospice. He was key to setting up the group water scheme in Gorthaganny. Ming and himself were the key people in developing the snooker club in Castlerea. Anyone who ever went into Coney Island, his parents' pub in Gorthaganny that he essentially ran, will probably know who I'm talking about instantly. It's the only pub for miles and serves much more as the heart of the community than a business and that's exactly how Liam ran it.

He was also heavily involved with the GAA, in particular his club Eire Óg in Loughglynn - any Roscommon posters might remember there was a minute's silence before last year's county final for him - and he was instrumental in fundraising for the Dermot Earley Memorial that now rests outside Dermot's homeplace in Gorthaganny. Indeed only Dermot's death effected the community in anything close to as profound a way as Liam's has - his first anniversary mass was a couple weeks ago and the church was literally overflowing with people wanting to show their appreciation for Liam and all he did for the community. More than anything he was an incredibly personable man who went out of his way to help people in all manner of ways, be they small or large.

Anyways, Calor are staging their inaugural Calor Community Champion Award and Liam is one of the 32 nominees who have reached the public voting stage. The way it works is that the four nominees with the most votes (and two others selected by the judging panel) go ahead to the final round of selection and it's from that group that the winner is chosen. The judging panel includes Síle Seoige and Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh.

The prize is a bursary of €7500 to a charity of the winner's choice (in Liam's case, the Mayo-Roscommon Hospice would be the likely recipient) and a personal prize of €1500, which in the case of Liam would go to the Gorthaganny development committee (which Liam was a member of) or to the Mayo-Roscommon Hospice. The exact details, for obvious reasons, haven't been worked out.

The goal is to get Liam enough votes so that he makes the top four - he's currently third - and after that it's out of our hands. You can vote every day until November 8th but if you could vote just once it'd be greatly appreciated. You'll have to have a Facebook account to vote but voting is anonymous. Thank you.

PC link: https://www.facebook.com/calorireland/app_306230512794109

Mobile link: https://www.facebook.com/calorireland/app_306230512794109?ref=ts

Proof, if anyone needed it, of who the best county in Ireland is:

Survey says: Roscommon fans most dedicated in the country
Friday, August 23rd, 2013 at 2:40 pm.

   
92% of Roscommon fans surveyed in Ulster Bank GAA Best Fan poll would cut their summer holiday short to watch their team play in an All-Ireland Final!

GAA fans sacrifice holidays, money and looks for All-Ireland success!

               

84% of fans across the country would cut holiday short to return home to attend a final.
Two-thirds of fans would not shave for the entire summer for their team to win...
Two in five fans (41%) would sacrifice a €5,000 winning lottery ticket...
Joe Brolly emerges as TV pundit most fans would like to sit beside at All-Ireland final...
It seems GAA fans today would sacrifice almost everything to see their county win an All-Ireland title. A survey this week from Ulster Bank, the official sponsor of the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship, revealed that most fans would give up their holidays, pass up the opportunity to win the lottery and somewhat alarmingly both male and female fans said they would stop shaving if it meant their county could bring home a coveted All Ireland title.
Over 2,000 fans were surveyed and a whopping 84% admitted they would cut short a summer holiday to come home and watch their county play in an All-Ireland final at Croke Park. Roscommon fans polled even higher with 92% claiming they would come home early to watch a final.
Despite tough economic times, two in five (41%) claimed they would give-up a €5,000 winning lottery ticket if it meant their team would win the All-Ireland. Interestingly, Mayo fans polled much higher when asked this question with two thirds (64%) saying that winning an All-Ireland Football title is worth much more than the €5,000 prize. Not so though for the fans of Kerry, with 70% saying they would prefer the money.
The personal sacrifices that fans would make even extended to grooming.  Two-thirds (66%) revealed they would not shave for the entire summer if it meant their county would win the All-Ireland. The survey revealed that it wasn't just the men who would be prepared to go all hairy, the women too were equally committed to not shaving their legs if it meant their county triumphed in the Final. Most ardent non-shavers were Laois (100%) and Waterford (92%).
Joe Brolly emerged as the GAA television pundit that most fans would choose to sit beside at an All-Ireland final, with one in five of the 2,000 fans surveyed choosing the controversial Derry man. It appears most people would enjoy the controversial views of pundits to keep them entertained during the final as Kerry GAA legend Pat Spillane also not shy about expressing his opinions came second in the poll with almost 13%. The popular 'Sunday Game' host Des Cahill was the third most popular pick receiving 12% of the votes, just ahead of Marty Morrissey who received 9% of the votes. After an impressive first season in the hot seat after hanging up his hurl, Donal Og Cusack's strong analytic skills have been recognised as the Cork man finished sixth in the poll with 8%.
The 2,044 fans surveyed, covering all 32 counties, are clearly a dedicated bunch as 84% 'always' or 'mostly' watch their county's championship matches. Over 80% of the sample said that over half of their immediate family currently owns a county jersey with 30% stating that their entire family owns a county jersey.
The sample also proved themselves to be a knowledgeable group with 75% claiming they can name at least three-quarters of their county's staring fifteen players, while over half (56%) said they could name all fifteen!
Commenting on the Best GAA Fan survey, Ulster Bank GAA ambassador and Cork GAA legend, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín said; "It is great to see a survey focus on the fans and highlight their dedication and passion for Gaelic Games and the results are fantastic. It has been a great summer so far"
The final aspect of the survey looked at the area of rituals with three quarters categorising themselves as 'superstitious supporters' by following a particular pre-match ritual on the day their county plays a championship match. 30% said they always wear the same item of clothing on match-day – their lucky jersey. 18% meet at the same pre-match landmark on game-day.
Where you sit doesn't seem to matter as long as you get a ticket with just 7% saying they always watch a game in the same seat. 15% of people always watch the match with the same group of people.  Superstition doesn't seem to extend to eating habits with just 7% of fans stating they eat a particular match-day meal, of those that do however, unlike the athletes, the fan's most popular pre-match meal is a full Irish fry-up!

http://www.shannonside.ie/sport/survey-says-roscommon-fans-most-dedicated-in-the-country/

No longer just for cool people.

With smartphones and tablets infecting every corner of life almost everyone has access to some sort of games playing device, right?

So what are people playing? As a time-waster New Star Soccer on iOS is one of my favourites, it's a 2D soccer game where you play as one player and matches sim through to the points where you can do something to effect the play so they only take about 30 seconds to a minute to complete. You're building up your player's stats like an RPG, basically it's like a cross between Sensible Soccer and Championship Manager.

In terms of PC games I've always been a Civilization fan and have been playing the new expansion for Civilization V recently and it's as good as ever, the hex-based map and one unit per-tile limit they introduced in Civ V really changed the dynamic of the game for the better.

Then there's the big budget action games and this year has had two stellar ones, Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us. The former set in a 1910s American exceptionalism city in the sky (literally) and the later set twenty years after a fungal outbreak that has pretty much destroyed civilization. The Last of Us really stands out in how it gives weight to movement and combat (you're not some superman walking turret for a change) but both games have strong characters and interesting stories. There seems to have been a lot of progress made in the last few years in moving stories in games on from the stereotypical guff that was the norm for so long.

Anyways, I guess I'm just looking for a starting point - what games stand out for people, now or in the past?

It's time to play for all the marbles.

Roscommon vs. Kildare
Mayo vs. Westmeath
Kerry vs. Tyrone
Monaghan vs. Tipp

All to be played August bank holiday weekend.

Ok, so we know there's some real journalistic gems floating about so why not aggregate them for future reference, especially since many of these same journos seem to have it in for us poor old internet forum goers?

It should be said there's some wonderful journos out there, and even some of those have been prone to odd lapse; it's only to be expected in a system that requires endless churn.

Sometimes papers get tricky and don't upload their choicest cuts to their websites. No worries, these camera yokes are magical devices.

Anyways, the first entry into the hall of fame is perhaps the all-time leader in this category - Roy Curtis. Featured in the Sunday World (14/07/13), before the Dublin v. Meath Leinster final, any more fluffing of the Dub cubs by Roy and he'd be covered in ejaculate:

Given the weather that's in it I've tuned up the Syf-mobile and I'm hitting off for Achill Islam (Island?) on Saturday.

First time to venture so obscenely deep into enemy territory but I figure the Sun should make the locals agreeable enough.

Anyways - where are peoples' favourite locations for a day trip?

Roscommon hurling captain Cathal Kelly doing what all Rossies dream of doing to Connacht Council presidente Frank Burke:



(Copyright 2013, The Syf Cam)

F**k this draw anyways. 125 years of championship for us and not a sight of a red hand and now three years running.

Oh, and lads, none of that sandwiches in the car craic this year. We need the money.

[Format]

This Wikipedia article deserves its own thread:

"The System"[1] is the term commonly used to describe the style of play pioneered in Gaelic football by the Donegal senior football team during the 2010s. It is regarded as having caused a revolution in the sport, with establishment counties unable to comprehend it or work out how to deal with it.[2] The System has been used to great effect during the managerial reign of Jim McGuinness, with Donegal smothering traditionally stronger counties to win two Ulster Senior Football Championships and one All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in the space of two years.
Donegal's winning of the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship is considered "one of the great GAA managerial coups" in history.[2] Prior to this Donegal had had little success in the Championship since 1992. Now they are the "FC Barcelona of Gaelic football"—with Mark McHugh cast as the Lionel Messi of the team.[3][4] Further comparisons have been made between McGuinness and Oakland Athletics baseball selector Billy Beane's "Moneyball" tactics, both of which turned traditional also-rans into regular winners by exploiting little-noticed advantages in their respective sports.[citation needed] Admirers of "The System" from other sports include Europe's 2014 Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley and the soccer manager Neil Lennon.[5]
Malachy Clerkin, writing in The Irish Times on 27 December 2012, described Donegal as "the alpha, the omega and everything in between [...] just a sheer joy to watch".
Donegal didn't just dominate football in winning this year's All-Ireland. They reimagined it. They took a game that had been listing for a few years and made it a thrilling experience. In so doing, they interrupted the decision-making cycle of every team they met. Each game Donegal suited up for this summer was played on their terms, not the opposition's. When you consider the opposition – Cavan, Derry, Tyrone, Down, Kerry, Cork and Mayo – you can't but marvel at the achievement.[6]


Format

An early incarnation of "The System" saw Donegal overpower Kildare in the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in Jim McGuinness's first season in charge.
The format of "The System" has provoked much debate among Gaelic football analysts. Former Derry footballer and RTÉ analyst Joe Brolly, after watching Donegal overpower his county's team in the 2012 Ulster Senior Football Championship, wrote a column prophesying an All-Ireland win for Donegal due to the team being, he concluded, "virtually unbeatable". He was proven correct when Donegal retained the Ulster Senior Football Championship they had won the previous year before going on to win the Sam Maguire Cup for the first time in twenty years. Brolly proposed at the time that Donegal were capable of swallowing entire teams into a vacuum. Keith Duggan—writing in The Irish Times after the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final—contested this notion, instead proposing that teams encountering Donegal had fallen apart due to their own weaknesses and that Donegal had merely exploited this. However, Duggan acknowledged that Donegal had "expanded the possibilities" of Gaelic football.[2]
Under "The System", players whose careers were thought to be behind them have been revived. Players such as Ryan Bradley and Anthony Thompson have emerged as if from nowhere. The top teams in Gaelic football—Tyrone, Kerry and Cork, who had dominated the sport over the previous decade—have been made to appear merely ordinary, and have been swatted aside with relative ease.
Traditional Gaelic football formations are rendered redundant under The System. A corner-back such as Frank McGlynn—who had never scored a point in his Championship career before scoring 1-4 in 2012—has been turned into ruthless attacking players, while corner-forwards—the traditional scorers—contribute to the team's overall defensive efforts.[7]


Notable successes

The System has been used successfully by Donegal to win the 2011 Ulster Senior Football Championship, the 2012 Ulster Senior Football Championship and the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. Donegal's comprehensive defeat of Kerry in their 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship quarter-final meeting was described by the national media as "the most seismic result in [Kerry] since the 1987 Munster final replay defeat to Cork".[8]
Ahead of the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final against Cork, nobody outside the county gave Donegal a chance, and Cork went into the game as heavy favourites to win the title itself—even though this was only the semi-final. Donegal deployed The System to devour the heavily-fancied Cork team and progressed to their first title decider since 1992.[9] Tyrone's three-time All-Ireland winning manager Mickey Harte, attempting to analyse the game for the BBC, expressed his shock: "To be honest, I could not see that coming. Donegal annihilated Cork, there is no other word for it."[10]
Donegal then unleashed The System on Mayo in the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, rendering them motionless with two early goals and keeping them scoreless for the first sixteen minutes of the match. The first goal occurred in the third minute of the game when Donegal captain Michael Murphy lashed the ball into the net, having collected a high ball delivered by Karl Lacey. Championship Matters named it "Goal of the Championship".[11] In the eleventh minute Patrick McBrearty's attempt at scoring a point came crashing off the Mayo post. Mayo's Kevin Keane fumbled, dropping the ball into the path of Colm McFadden who promptly slotted it into the back of the net for a second Donegal goal.[12] McFadden, who scored a total of 1–03 for Donegal in the first half alone, was soon through on goal again only for Mayo goalkeeper David Clarke to block the strike.[13][14]

Views of opponents

Cork's Donncha O'Connor said of Donegal, "Every fella knows what the next fella's going to do. It's probably a bit dangerous if you're concentrating on what Donegal do, but it's just that they have a system. Whether they're up or down, they stick to it."[15]


Criticisms

Pat Spillane famously branded Donegal's style of play "Shi'ite football".[16] He also criticised Jim McGuinness during the early development of The System—"There are people who go to the Hague for war crimes – I tell you this, some of the coaches nowadays should be up for crimes against Gaelic football".[9] Less than a year before McGuinness led his team to All-Ireland success, Vincent Hogan branded him "a leader of sheep" in a famous newspaper article.[17][18]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_System_(Gaelic_football)

Best thing on Wikipedia. Have at it, lads

With all the talk by Grimley about sticking to not having a sweeper and Galway's defensive nativity naivety yesterday it seems like a good opportunity to bring up the question. Blanket defence, forwards tracking back, single or dual sweepers, it all comes from the same basic philosophy.

Do people think there is another way to be successful? Is it brave or stupid to try a different tact? Is the way the game is being played at the top level the tactical end-point of the sport?

Sup lads. Go easy on us.