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A lot of times what O'Neill did might not have been spotted and he got away with it. But there is tv footage backing up that the linesman is right. It also show's the stuff about O'Neill being pinned down and not protected to be made up as well.

Let's be honest Oisin and Geezer have made eejits of themselves on this one. If there wasn't tv coverage they might have got away with the lies but given there was they just look silly.

If Armagh win, a Westmeath win would see them through.

I enjoyed the first half and thought Tyrone played decent football with some great scores from McCurry canavan Hampsey and Donnelly. Disappointing second half, would have liked to have seen us push on more. Also pity ruairi canavan didn't nail his scores to get him going. Darragh stood up when it mattered.

Tyrone teams in past have improved as championship in past have improved with games and hopefully that's case this year. Few boys including McCurry were out on their feet with ten to go yesterday. I still worry about our sub bench.

Thought mattie mckernan McCurry and canavan impressive overall. O'Neill after lot of criticism was fairly solid.

Although it's a group game I think this could be a season defining game for Tyrone. It's hard to see us recovering from a fifth championship loss in a row to mount any kind of serious challenge. It would be a very poor reflection in all involved given our standing if we did.

A win on the other hand could get a bit of momentum going and there's probably no one out there unbeatable at minute if they did get act together. Hoping to see a better shape to the half forward line and maybe this is the night to let ruairi canavan in from the start at full forward. Could bring Darragh out deeper if he is fit.

I think we are on a sticky wicket here, go full pelt and get beat and there's another pick me up required for Galway. I'm honestly not sure we'd be any worse off by tanking both games and concentrating on the preliminary QF. It's not going to happen tho but the 'professional' approach would be to play the percentages and do just that. It'll be clearer after this weekend I suppose, we could be vying for top spot or anxiously watching Westmeath's last game, Westmeath not being whipping boys could certainly complicate things.

I dont think we can afford to tank any game. Say Tyrone give us a trimming this weekend and WM pull off a shock result against Galway, we would be in bother going in to the final game

If Tyrone gave Armagh a trimming this weekend and knew Galway were beating Armagh well on the last day they could afford to lose narrowly to Westmeath and still come second whilst knocking Armagh out.

I think we are on a sticky wicket here, go full pelt and get beat and there's another pick me up required for Galway. I'm honestly not sure we'd be any worse off by tanking both games and concentrating on the preliminary QF. It's not going to happen tho but the 'professional' approach would be to play the percentages and do just that. It'll be clearer after this weekend I suppose, we could be vying for top spot or anxiously watching Westmeath's last game, Westmeath not being whipping boys could certainly complicate things.

Sounds like a ridiculous idea. If Armagh win one of the two games they'll finish second in the group. That will give them a home tie and avoid Kerry and Dublin/Roscommon in the preliminary quarter finals. If they win both games they'd be straight into the quarter final.

Lose both and they will at best come third in the group (could even go out if Westmeath beat Tyrone). That will mean an away tie to Kerry or Dublin/Roscommon or Derry/Monaghan.

There's 3 weeks from the Tyrone game to the preliminary quarter finals.

Seems like a pointless exercise picking quarter finalists when we don't yet know the draw. But either way its a hell of a lot of matches to play in order to reduce from 16 down to 8 teams and which will be largely predictable in any case.

They play 38 games in English premier league and in most seasons you could predict 3 out of the top 4 and 2 out of the bottom 3 at the start of the year.

3/4 games for each team to get from 16 to 8 isn't exactly a hell of a lot of games. I'd have more issue with the overall format - they need to link the league and championship and put provincials on earlier in the year.

Have they brought in new players to replace these guys or will they?
Why do we seem to have this problem more than any other county?

Not easy to sit on the bench, train flat out for 6 weeks and then see the same team picked week after week.

I honestly think all those players who have left this year and in recent seasons would remain on the panel if those not involved in the 21 man match day player panel were allowed to play club football to keep their match sharpness up between county fixtures. Some other counties allow it so it must be a decision that is left up to each individual county

Munroe got on v Monaghan and made the panel for Galway game and still left.

If I was a county manager taking over next year I'd be meeting the county board looking changes. It has to effect the quality of panel so many players leaving once the club season starts. The options that I see are:

1) Do the starred fixtures ahead of the ulster championship. If you commit to the panel at that point which is early April then you can't play starred games after that date (given the starred fixtures are meant to be based on number of county players it could be argued that this is fair).
2) Delay the start of the club season until late June (it might involve some double fixtures over the summer to get games played and a seperate pre season club comp in May/June).
3) Trial allowing the sub keeper and players not in a match day 26 on Thursday night being allowed to play in that weekend club games.

You could do any of those options and players still huff when not on and clear off to America to play but it should definitely reduce players leaving. We are becoming a joke compared to other counties in this regard. Questions have to be asked of management as well.

There was some strange decisions in open play but wouldn't have said he was overly biased against Tyrone. But I do think he's quick with the cards for Tyrone - that Morgan black card was a joke. I don't think Burke's was a red personally but if you are making a case about protecting players then neck tackles are extremely dangerous.

Getting into whinge territory now, only reason Tyrone lost was the ref.

Cue the gaslight brigade.  Galway were just about worthy winners and even without the red card, I think they would have got over the line. But we have to call out poor decisions and lazy reporting.

I would have the red card as a major factor, the main reason Tyrone lost was that crazy "tackle". Galway were not going well Saturday and were distinctly unimpressive in general. Had Tyrone kept 15 on the pitch they could have easily got at least a draw if not better from the game.
You can take a running jump with your "gaslight brigade" drivel though, I don't appreciate any of the connotations, wherever you are trying to go with it.

I have been on this platform for over 20 years and whilst I respect differing views, reading some of the stuff over the last few pages the tenor of the posts was distantly veering into "Gough rode us sideways and gave the opposition everything" side of things. I've no issue with complaints about the referee (and certainly not Gough) but the tone of the posts was the Gough was brutal hard on Tyrone to the point where it decided the game or that past dealings with Gough meant that Tyrone were at some disadvantage that Galway didn't have to deal with. There is no debate on the red. The black for Morgan is one thing and was harsh undoubtedly in light of what goes on in every match, but trying to bring some form of a false equivalence with Ian Burke's tackle to the Burns red, or to the couple of first half incidents while Galway were on the attack that were hardly frees at all, not to mind allegedly black cards, is laughable. Some of the pointed Tyrone 2nd half frees, which as Manning18 has rightly pointed out, were frees that were soft as f**k. The Daly one in particular was a joke of the highest order. The clearest black card offence of the day happened to Tierney directly in front of Gough and he did nothing.

You can complain about Gough all ye want but when someone calls out what sounds like whinging as whinging, don't be coming with out with this "gaslight" bullshit.

If we are talking about protecting players is that tackle of Burke's not a borderline red too? The tv cameras were far away but at game it was a dangerous heavy tackle around the neck. I thought something was brought out a few years ago to try and cut these type of challenges out.

[where's your f'ing card now ref as could be heard in the stand is setting a pretty low threshold for black cards]

On the game at 7-3 down and reduced to 13 it looked like a hammering on the cards. To be fair Tyrone dug in and out in a spirited performance after that. I never like to take too much from defeats but they got enough out of it to have something to build on. Thought mattie Donnelly put in a huge yet. Worries are the half forward line, Darragh canavan clearly carrying an injury and boys walking away from the panel on championship week leading to the comical situation of a county team having no sub keeper.

I don't think burns meant what happened but enough in it to justify the red, though a similar one was ignored in Killarney. If you are going down the route of protecting players were the rules not changed so that close lines such as Ian Burkes can now be a red card by the letter of the law too?

Sending off Morgan for shouting where's your f'ing card now ref as could be heard in the stand is setting a pretty low threshold for black cards. This also led to a hop ball. When the Galway boys did it after burns tackle the free stood and gough waved them away. Similarly when there was Galway descent for a Tyrone free in the second half he simply moved the ball up.

You dont believe that those choice of words plus his antics running and jumping to the referee wouldnt count as 'To remonstrate in an aggressive manner to match officials'?

The way the rules are written by the letter of the law he could have given a black card. But if you are going to give them that easily then there'll be lot more handed out this year. He wasn't anywhere near the referee so it wasn't exactly intimidating. And as I say if you are going down the route of the letter of the law then Galway could have had a black for running at him shouting after burns hit  and burkes tackle given new found interpretation of rules to protect players from high tackles could have been a red.

On the game at 7-3 down and reduced to 13 it looked like a hammering on the cards. To be fair Tyrone dug in and out in a spirited performance after that. I never like to take too much from defeats but they got enough out of it to have something to build on. Thought mattie Donnelly put in a huge yet. Worries are the half forward line, Darragh canavan clearly carrying an injury and boys walking away from the panel on championship week leading to the comical situation of a county team having no sub keeper.

I don't think burns meant what happened but enough in it to justify the red, though a similar one was ignored in Killarney. If you are going down the route of protecting players were the rules not changed so that close lines such as Ian Burkes can now be a red card by the letter of the law too?

Sending off Morgan for shouting where's your f'ing card now ref as could be heard in the stand is setting a pretty low threshold for black cards. This also led to a hop ball. When the Galway boys did it after burns tackle the free stood and gough waved them away. Similarly when there was Galway descent for a Tyrone free in the second half he simply moved the ball up.

Any pubs in Salthill have GaaGo? Pucan in town the only place I know that has it for sure

Rob Finnerty's oul fella will surely have it set up.

Whoever's organizing has put all tickets as general admission, meaning actual normal football fans who'd like to watch another big game beforehand are probably screwed for a seat in the stand.

This somewhat new practice of GAA fans heading into games 90 mins + before throw in is odd behavior at best and a scourge at worst. Toddlers/pensioners etc aside

I assume there is no where near the ground and any chance will be in Salthill itself of getting the Mayo Kerry game?

No chance of getting enough coverage at the ground to stream it you'd imagine. Annoying that with unreserved seating you have to be in so early with a game like that on before hand. What sort of crowd would you expect on Saturday? 10-12,000 kinda thing?

Hoping the break has did Tyrone good and they've regrouped and worked on putting the defence together. I don't think we're as far of it as some people think but will be a big ask going to Galway and turning them over.

When was this meant to have been? Any reports on who played etc?