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the brother's a qualified actuary and failed one of them, only exam he ever failed in his life. you beat me to it Joe about the A-Levels, suspect that commment must have been tongue firmly in cheek. For the accountancy exams sure don't you have months off work before hand for study leave? I have two three hour exams two hours apart on Saturday for the CFA

Duddy has replaced long time trainer Harry Keitt with Don Turner apparently. Team beleived Keitt had brought him as far as he could.

Doesn't surprise me really as Duddy doesn't seem to have come on much at all in the last 18 months. Like Declan I don't think he is world class yet and to be honest I have my doubts whether he can reach world class although hopefully he will. Did anyone hear is it confirmed who his enxt opponent is against? With a change in trainer I don't imagine it will be an immediate step up in class and will probably be another treading water fight against someone with a decent chin but who won't be able to hurt him

He would be near the top of my list as well can't understand it. Nearly fell off my stool the other day when I saw he was 27. Armagh will have at least one useless half forward for a few years yet.

As I stated on the Meath v Dublin thread, will never understand how Paul Casey gets his game. They may not have won anything but for a footballer of his (lack of) calibre he's done awful well

lads which McGourty is likely to be starting. to be honest don't even know which of them are playing this year. is Andy McLean not involved this year?

Always amazes me that Casey continues to be selected. Great athlete but a useless footballer. Half backs need to contribute going forward these days and he can barely kick never mind pass. He must do some stuff at club level because I've never rated him. Would most of you Dubs have him on the team?

In relation to abuse from crowds at a GAA match certainly the worst I can remember was Cork v Offally in the '99 semi-final. God awful day but a fantastic match as I recall. The weather didn't take away from the day at all but the abuse the Cork boys on the Hill gave Johnny Dooley for a full 70 minutes was totally uncalled for and certainly left me a bit disillusioned. Not talking about a few drunks, virtually all of them. Haven't cheered for Cork in a game since.

Haven't been on the Hill for a Dublin game in a long time, I hope there isn't the same problem on a persistent basis

poor game, byt the sounds of things I missed the best part at the very start. Tony Carmody and Griffin are huge losses to that Clare team, awful decision making and some brutal wides from their forwards (Barry Nugent played well enough), if it wasn't for the fact all the forwards defended well it could have been much worse indeed. Not sure any of those forwards would make it on the Kilkenny, Cork or Waterford teams - a very sad sate of affairs.

Not sure what to make of Cork, I suspect they played to the level of the opposition. Waterford won't be quaking in their boots however. Cronin would need to learn to put the paw up, as the guy in the pub next to me said, every bloody high ball he had the hurl up knocking it down. Would be skeptical of that half forward line with him so young and Murphy never really impressing me that much.

O'Rourke shouldn't have reacted but I wonder what McIvor said. Managers are just as responsible as the players on the pitch and I'd hope that action would be taken against the manager as well if it was proven that he did say something. A push wasn't much, it's not the end of the world but he should be disciplined as an example.

Due to living in London I haven't seen any league football but when I saw Armagh's first fifteen I was very surprised at all the pessimism floating around, and fully expected them to win (that said I'm still amazed that Paddy Mckeever gets his game, as he contributed very little any time I have watched Armagh over the last number of years - maybe I'm missing something). They were the better team today and I don't see anyone looking forward to playing them.

Surprised no thread on this game, have Bottlethrower and homeofhurling left the board? Always interesting to read their views.

Anyway, the yesterday's Irish Times has this down as 3.30pm throw in, but RTE's website says it's 2.00pm. I assume RTE is right but want to confirm so I don't waste an hour and a half watching football...thanks

Kessler is more than worthy of a fight with Calzaghe don't kid yourself. Calzaghe best wins are probably still Eubank and Lacy (who hadn't beaten anyone -that said I didn't expect it to be so one sided). Kessler has absolutely destroyed Markus Beyer and Mundine who are both good boxers (mundine having improved significantly over last couple years, although Beyer was definitely getting on). Think is unfair of Joe to always be spouting on about no one good enough to face him - he wants people to step up in wieght but has been unwilling to do it himself. Let him fight the winner of Hopkins-Wright (I see that Winky wants to move down to 160lbs again after this fight but am sure that given the right money he would fight Calzaghe - Calzaghe shouldn't price himself out of this because despite Winky not being PPV material he defintely has fought the higher quality of opposition)

saw the fights this morning and thought Spinks did just enough to win it - very skilled performance from him, and as GWB said, their respective reactions at the end of the fight said it all. A draw wouldn't have been an unfair result.

Miranda-Pavlik was great stuff altogether. Had read report saying Miranda looked weight drained before I watched the fight and right enough he seemed pretty knackered from the word go with little of his usual power in most of his punches. That said he did land some heavy blows and Pavlik absorbed it fairly easily.

On last nights performance I'd take Calzaghe to beat Taylor handily which I certainly wouldn't have done before

Taylor won last night by a controversial split decision in what was apparently a brutally boring fight to watch, in which he barely threw any punches and Manny Steward his trainer was giving him an earful in the corner after each round for his apparent lack of effort. Camp Calzaghe will only be encouraged by this and judging by the reports Taylor might be pvervaluing himself significantly at $6mn.

On the undercard Kelly Pavlik knocked out Edison Miranda in seven and is apparently next in line to fight Taylor so not sure when Calzaghe will get his fight if at all. Personally I hope he fights Kessler

Duddy won again last night beating some 37 year old on points after dropping him in the first round. Can't find a decent report on the fight

Taylor vs Spinks this weekend and Miranda vs Pavlik. This is second time in a row Taylor is fighting someone who isn't a true middleweight and he should have an easy enough night given the size and power differential despite Spinka being a skilled boxer. He couldn't punch at welterweight so I give him zero chance of being able to hurt Taylor. Taylor should stop him and should probably stop him in 5-7 rounds as Spinks and will isn't anything like Ouma's who talk some beating but just wouldn't give up. Wouldn't altogether surprise me if it was over in three though.

Don't know anything about MIranda's opponent but this Miranda himself has serious power and is an all out slugger. Could be an interesting one if you're man is half decent.

what the hell was anybody doing looking up Ger Canning?